Eddie's newest playmate

I've been dying to make this post for a while now. Eddie is getting a permanent playmate--we are expecting a sibling to arrive the first week of April. We're excited, but still in shock.

Eddie and his new sibling will be about 25 months apart. We haven't decided wether we'll find out the gender, but are leaning towards being surprised. I'm feeling fine, aside from being thoroughly exhausted -- Eddie still isn't a champion sleeper and round about 3pm every day, I just want to lay down. Some days Eddie lets me rest, while he plays quietly. Other days, he tries to lift my head and ultimately shoulders up, or tries pulling the pillows out from under me.

I'm craving anything that is suggested to me--including a lot of chocolate and sugar. This pregnancy is completely different than the first in that regard.

We'll tell Eddie when I really start showing, but Den took this picture when we were in Santa Barbara, claiming that I looked pregnant. There is a little bulge, and I think I look like I'm a little fat around the middle, but I'm only around 9 weeks in this photo, so I think it's Den's excitment in seeing things--or it could be all the chocolate and sugar I'm inhaling. Now I'm about 13 weeks and my waist size is about the same as Den's.

New nanny

Our new nanny started this week. Her name is Ellen. So far so good. Eddie really likes her, she seems good with him and we checked her out as thoroughly as we could without physically visiting the places she used to live and talking to her neighbors. Although I could argue that when it comes to your kids, that level of scruitny is prefectly reasonable. I'll try and remember to take a photo of her and post.

Ed's got another cold--only been 3 weeks since his last. Poor kid. However, he slept from 8pm til 7am--straight. I sure won the sleep lottery last night (Den was out of town). Haven't taken much in the way of photos. Maybe I'll give Ellen our point and shoot and tell her to snap a couple.

With the nanny and nursery school, I'm really starting to feel human again. Like I don't have to decide between doing the laundry or getting my real job work done. In talking with a friend, she summed it perfectly--I was having to make minute calculations in my head about nearly every activity-related decision I made. She had been there too. How nice to have moved on.

Not the greatest photo, but I thought I'd at least put it up there.

Playdate with Eddie's Buddy Eli

Eli's mom is out of the country--FAR out of the country for 2.5 weeks. So this post is kind of so she can see how the playdate went. Of course the pictures are completely out of order...
While Eli goes to full time childcare, I know all too well how difficult even a couple days can be. So...we invited Eli and his dad for dinner on Friday and then on Saturday, took Eli for the morning so his daddy could get a break. [for snack time, we spread out an old sheet on the back porch and gave them a mixture of crackers and cereals--they did really well].

The playtime went well and we'd happily do it again. Our neighbors with older kids tell us it gets even better/easier when they get just a bit older.

I bought this rocking chair at Target a month or so ago. I like it, but Den loves it. You can adjust the recline in multiple ways, which is what Ed likes to do--he folds the chair up and down and around. Eli actually got in and started rocking himself. He was pretty content here for a while. Don't think Ed caught on to its true purpose, even with Eli rocking.

This picture below illustrates where the fun began during snack time. Eddie was making a lot of headway with what he deemed the 'good' parts of his snack, so he siddled up to Eli and began to take those same 'good' parts from his snack. Guess I should have given them one bowl afterall. Eli was pretty calm about it, after initially registering angst.


I just like this picture from above. Not sure if you can see how much more Eddie ate initially, but I think Eli won in quantity. He took a while longer, but insisted on finishing every piece, and we weren't going to stand in his way.
We played with chalk outside ever so briefly--until Ed starting throwing the chalk in the bushes. Eli is carrying around a toy portable phone--we didn't dare take it away and learned that phones are to Eli like balls are to Eddie--cracked us up.
Even Den took a spin on the tricycle. Eddie always asks for it to be taken out, but almost never does anything with it. We brought out a couple more toys that are traditionally indoor toys--just to keep the peace--and it seemed to work. They mainly alternated between this airplance and the lawnmower.

19 month update

We had broccoli with cheese sauce tonight for dinner. Eddie, like most kids, really likes his dipping sauces. We completely missed when this was happening, but I looked over to see his face covered in cheese. I don't think the photos do it justice, but the bottom one is after he wiped some of it away. His eyelashes were yellow--he looked like Tammy Faye with yellow mascara.

He sure liked it tho. We had pork with shake and bake and he ate a bunch of that. Speaking of, he is starting to eat a lot more meat than he used to. We actually bought him tofu, hoping he'd like that because he just wouldn't eat much meat. Lately tho', sloppy joe sandwiches and baked chicken are all deemed edible, much to our delight.

I keep wanting to say it's Ed's 22 month update, but it's just 19. How he jumped from 18 to 22 in my mind...

People comment on how well he eats with utensils and what a 'neat' eater he is. I like to credit Den for that :)

Ed seems to be enjoying nursery school, where he has learned to dance and play with other kids. He has taken up a new toy (not to replace balls, but rather supplement)--socks. He loves to haul his socks that he pulls off the changing table all over, up the stairs and down the stairs. It's pretty funny, but I don't mind. He also likes to put things away, especially my shoes--much to dad's delight. He puts them in the closet, on the shelf we have for shoes.

Ed's getting pretty good at drinking out of a regular cup, but no reason to chance that with anything but water in the highchair, with a bib. Our new nanny starts on Monday and both Den and I are ecstactic.

20, 21, and 22

Uncle K's birthday is the 20th, his sister (me) has her birthday the next day on the 21st and then Ed has his birthday (albeit in a different month) on the 22nd. Here Ed is posing with the birthday girl. I even bought myself a cake. I think I've had too much sugar today though between the box of whoppers (malted milk balls) Den bought me and all the other sugary stuff, I think cake will have to wait till tmr. Boy that's indication you are old--when you don't feel the compeling need to have your birthday cake right away.

Ed is really into making animal sounds these days. He does a lion, a cow and a dog and then ocassionally a cat. It's pretty funny that everytime he sees a dog, he says "woof woof".

We can't get him to say 'hello'. Everything is 'bye bye'. His 19 month update is tomorrow, so I guess I don't want to blow too much.

This One?

Ed and I were out drawing with his chaulk yesterday. Chaulk sure has seen some improvements since I was a kid. They are these huge pieces in a multitude of colors. He'll draw a couple lines and squiggles, but it's more for the experience at this point. When he does decide to draw with abandon, he will be fully equipped, as you can see from the stack.

When we picked Ed up from nursery school on Friday, Den wondered aloud how they get the kids to fall asleep on these mats reminiscent of my kindergarten nap map. So today I asked. The teacher said that they lay them down and pat/rub their backs. She then quickly followed this by commenting that Ed doesn't like his back rubbed, or to be touched, but he does want someone nearby.

This made me laugh as I realized, for one of the first times, that what we do with him, even as an infant has impacts later on. As you may recall from posts a year ago, we couldn't do cry it out (CIO) with Ed, so we did gradual extinction, which basically was allowing him to fall alseep with us next to him, with him basically laying on our arm. Over time, this changed to us just sitting in the room, to the point now where we just set him down. It kind of cracks me up that now he doesn't want his back rubbed, but then also makes me wonder what else has happened to him these first 18/19 months that will manifest itself later (hopefully not in therapy sessions).

Picasso? Michelangelo? Pollack?

This is Eddie's first piece of offical "nursery school" artwork. They had us trace his hands and feet in advance--now we're curious what they will do with the feet. These are the hands of his classmates--Eddie's hand is the first one to the left of the string.

Aside from holding still long enough to trace his hand, Eddie's contribution was all the colorful dots you see--the red, blue, and yellow. They make special markers where the tips are circles or dots rather than pointed. Suits his style of coloring very well.

I forgot to send him in with a bib, so I got a nice note asking if I could do so next time, so I've made myself a checklist of what to pack each time--I'd feel horrible if I forgot something major like a diaper. The teacher seems to really like him. Says he is very observant and sweet. I can't remember what else she said, but that he was a great kid basically. That he plays well, both alone and with other kids--whew, what a relief. At least we're starting out on the right foot.

Den took the afternoon of and we walked down to pick him up, was glad Den got to see where to take him and pick him up--it's a bit of a labyrinth. I really like that it's just a class of 8 with 3 teachers and that he seems to do okay. I'd love to be able to watch him while there. They did post pictures from the first day of school--he was in almost every one. I'll be completely satisified when I see him smiling in one, that will mean he's comfortable and adjusted--or that someone tickled him right before they snapped the photo.

Watermelon

I didn't get any pictures of Ed today--he was being a real pistol. So, here's a flashback from when he was about 6 weeks old. The picture cracks Den and me up every time we look at it. Sometimes it amazes me how much of his personality was evident even back then, only we didn't realize it.

In other news, I harvested our first watermelon. It was sweet and red with seeds. Last year we had one rot on the vine because we kept waiting for it to get larger and it never did. This one grew nicely and there appear to be 2-3 more growing. The white part of the rind was really thick on the inside, so I wonder if it couldn't have used a little more time.

Watermelon is one of Ed and my favorite foods, so it's a momentous ocassion to actually sucessfully grow a watermelon. Too bad most tomatos have already petered out.

First Day of Nursery School

Forgot about these pictures. Here's Den just before he left for Las Vegas. Ed was ultra giggly.
This is Ed on Monday. He does this thing lately where he will wake up from his nap, then when you go to pick up him, he falls asleep on your shoulder again. I put him down in the living room.

This is today. I just couldn't resist. Looked even cuter earlier in the nap --but this is plenty cute. He's been sleeping 2 hours. Yikes!

Oh--bad mama, I almost forgot. Today was Ed's first day of nursery school. He did fine. He didn't cry when I left, that I know of and the teacher said he really "opened up" in the afternoon and interacted with the other kids. I take that to mean that he was a bit overwhelmed the first couple hours and just kind of stood around, mouth agape.

I wasn't prepared for the guilt and self-doubt I experienced in dropping him off. He really is a fun kid. I worried about 18 months being too young to put him through such trauma. Then I came home and got so much done that I didn't really worry again :) When I went to pick him up, he was thoroughly engrossed with whatever he was playing with, and I had to get down right in front of him to get his attention. They are supposed to nap while there (it runs 10-2, which is a goofy time, if you ask me), but he and 3 other of the 8 kids didn't nap, so now he is napping. What a bonus for me in terms of getting stuff done.

18 month doctor apt

Welcome back if you haven't visited in a while--I made 5 posts about our trip to California.

Den left today on another trip--this time to Las Vegas. Originally, we were going to go on this one with the g'parents Wisc., but then we found out the average high is still 100 degrees and the Santa Barbara trip came up and looked far more appealing. I don't care what anyone says about dry heat, 100 degrees is hot.

Met a woman at the park today whose husband left yesterday for 2 weeks. She is from Japan and has no family in the area (course I'm in that boat too until either Wisc. or Ohio g'parents decide that spending quantity time with Ed is worth the investment in our crazy real estate market). But it makes it hard to have a pity party when Den has yet to leave me with Eddie for 2 weeks straight and at least makes it home for the weekends.


Ed likes the little balls that pop in this lawnmower as he pushes it. Was a little tough to push in the fresh cut grass, as you can see from the effort he's putting forth in the picture at top.

So I don't believe I ever reported on Ed's 18 month stats from our Doctor's appointment just before we left. There were no shots during this visit--yahoo! The doctor grilled us, and I do mean grilled about Eddie's development. The whole visit was focused on what he can and can not and does and does not do. Can he take off his clothes? Does he imitate our behaviors, by vaccuming, and trying to do chores? How many words does he say? Can he stack blocks? On and on. Apparently he's doing fine. Doc said he can pretty much eat anything now (with a couple exceptions). His stats:

His 19 inch diameter head is in the 85%
24 pounds in his birthday suit is 30%
32 2/8 inches long is 50%

People have been asking about the nanny situation. I've got Ed going down the street to our neighbor's nanny for the moment, but I think we may be close. We interviewed someone over the weekend who seems great, if not for this seeming to be underemployment. She just moved here from teaching high school English in FLA to be with her fiance who is attending grad school in the area. She is working selling timeshares (UGH) in the later afternoon/evenings and was looking for a way to spend time with kids during the morning. She worked in a daycare and didn't like it as much as when she nannied, so really wanted to nanny.

Then today, the nanny of one of Ed's friends that I had mentioned we were looking for a nanny, stopped by to say that a friend of a friend was looking for a gig because her current family was moving to FLA and was legal. Here is where I'm torn. The first nanny doesn't speak Spanish--in fact is about as far from an immigrant lifestyle as possible (well, I guess she's living the student life), plus we don't know how long she'd be around--she said at least 2 years. Eddie really liked her and we'll get a full background check on her. This other nanny, I don't know her 'friend' from adam, but the network is pretty good in that they tell you whom you should avoid (the nannies do--and in particular this one who I spoke with I do trust). However, it would be more difficult to run a background check, etc. Either way, I worry about my piece of mind with either nanny. If we got the Spanish speaker, she'd likely join the nanny network around here of the nannies who watch all of Ed's neighborhood friends, but not sure about the other one's ability to break into that.

The Spanish speaking would be good for Ed, but then the other one speaks French (she minored in college). The Spanish speaking likely has more experience with kids, the other one is pretty young and does have experience, but it's mostly high school and college babysitting. I'm sure either would be fine. Ugh. Happy to have a choice...hope to have a decision soon.

Daddy's Day Off

Den's original meeting was scheduled for Wed. - Fri. and as I mentioned, got rescheduled for Tue-Thurs. This left Friday as a free day. and we hit the SB zoo--which btw, is just wonderful. Very easy to cover in a morning/1/2 day and very well maintained--a far cry from what we are accustomed to at our zoo.

They even had a little train you could ride. I really like these trains. I'm sure they have to be around where we live, but I haven't heard of any.

This (if my text is properly aligned) is Eddie feeding a giraffe. He got 2 pieces of food for $3. I missed the first piece because I was trying to lean towards the fence to get a good angle and the giraffe thought my head and camera was food--I got a good lick. Eeewww!

Eddie didn't seem to have much of a reaction, he looks pretty blase' here. I took a whole bunch of rapid fire photos since I'd missed the first feeding. He just kind of stared at the animal.

Loved SB--can't wait to go back--for more of a vacation--this was kind of a working vacation--work when g'parents are willing to watch Ed.

Ed did great--really liked the hotel--Franciscan Inn. It was in a great location--10-15 min. walk to 'downtown', 1 block to the beach and we got a kitchenette suite, so we were able to separate (via an accordain door) the sleeping area from the living room. And, we were able to give Eddie the foods he is used to, most of the time in the room. I think he ate out maybe 3 times the whole trip. What a treat--and I'm tellin' you, the only way to travel with kids--it is worth the extra cash.

Strewn with Parks

SB's waterfront is strewn with parks. When Den called to say that for the third of three days, he'd be going until 6pm (at least the trip was worthwhile), we decided to visit a new park down the road. Roughly in the shape of a boat, it had some pretty unique features, most of which Ed was too young to appreciate.

There was this sort of house set up where none of the walls connected and there were little passeges like the one pictured to play in and around. Neat concept. Back when I was pregnant, I had lots to say about all the bathrooms I visited, now it seems I'm becoming a playground expert.

Santa Barbara--Tue. and Wed.

We had planned on 3 nights in LA and 4 in Santa Barbara (SB). However, den's meeting got changed to start a day earlier, so we headed up to SB Monday night, rather than Tues. morning. Took about 1.45 hours (even less time on the way back to LA).

These pictures are slightly out of order, but what else is new. There was a great tot park within a block of the hotel, right on the beach. Once Ed got the hang of the equipment, he was all over.

G'parents Wisc. arrived Tues. afternoon, right in time for Ed's nap. That afternoon we took SB's 25 cent electric bus up State Street and I got to do some shopping for Eddie. I couldn't tell who enjoyed the bus ride more--Ed or g'pa.

On Wed. we visited the Santa Barbara Mission, which is a fabulous must see. I had also visited one up in Monterey, that left a little to be desired comparatively. Ed played for a long time with these--figs? They stained his hands and clothes, but he had a good time. He also liked to pick up leaves and then he would separate the leaves from the figs and the ocassional other organic matter that came along.

I can't delete this extra photo of g'pa. Oh well.

Friends Who Are Like Family

Part of the reason I wanted to fly into LA and spend a couple days was to visit with family (brother and sister in law) and friends (my oldest friend moved last year to LA with her then fiance'). I have known Peggy since shortly after my parents moved the family from Florida to Ohio. We have remained close and in touch. I was sad to eventually lose touch with my Florida friends, but at 11 years old, shouldn't be too surprising.
Peg is a kindergarden teacher and she and her husband live literately 10 minutes from where we were staying at chez Meg/Uncle K.

As an indoor activity to escape the heat and really the smog, Peg suggested a museum in Pasedena called Kidspace. It's a small place, but has some neat kid activities, including a large indoor space for kids Eddie's age to frolic. He had a good time, and if we could have found this inflatable globe to purchase, he would have been the proud owner. In it's place Peg got him an inflatable globe with political boundaries instead of a satellite image, which he enjoyed while in Santa Barbara.

To give you an idea of how ill I was feeling, I didn't even get a picture of me and Peg or anything. Her husband Derek, snapped this nice one of us though. I would be remiss if I didn't mention the little task Peg gave me. She loaned me a book, called the Fabulous Traveling Funeral of Annie G. Freeman. I was to read the book and then select the places I would send my friends on my traveling funeral and make a scrapbook spread illustrating them. She made a list of people and I was to send the book to the next person within a month. Hard not to love the idea--and I liked the thought of having an excuse to read a book that did not deal with toddler behavoir. This is not typically a book I would have selected, but I did manage to knock it out...now to select places that would give insight to my life and do the scrapbook pages.

Labor Day weekend in the City

We were slated to leave for LAX on a 10am flight on Sat. Sept. 2. Unfortunately, Den got the worst migrane I have ever seen him have--and the worst of his recent memory. He was up for most of the night, spending quantity time puking and showering, and writhing in misery. As of 7am, he still wanted to take the flight. When I got out of the shower to the sound of him puking while Eddie ate breakfast, I knew we wouldn't be on that flight. Long story short is that by noon he begin feeling better and so in a quick flurry of activity, we called Delta on the way to the airport (I had called earlier about our options), rebooked ourselves and got on a 2pm flight.

Uncle K and Meg allowed us to stay in their pied a terre, as they aren't there on the weekends. It's a cute 1 bedroom in a great location of LA. No a/c, but it did come with a parking spot and free wi-fi (well, free for us).

These pictures are from Griffith Park and the little train (there were 3 from which to chose scattered throughout the park). Eddie was grinning the whole time, although he didn't last long on Uncle K's lap before he wanted dad.


This is the next stop, Travel Town--what a haven for train lovers! Big trains you can climb all over --you can have a birthday party in one of the train cars.

Speaking of, that was almost the death of us. There were a couple parties going on, with requisite balloons and Eddie, who was feeling pretty ill with his bad cold just about melted down for want of a balloon. Thank goodness the gift store, a virtual shrine to Thomas the Tank Engine, sold balloons. Then I had to find some string to tie to the balloon from the person selling tickets for the miniature train rides and we were all set.
Eddie wanted that balloon so badly, he didn't want to wait for Uncle K to finish blowing it up!

Home at Last

We've been gone for a week--since the 2nd. Had planned to post from Santa Barbara, CA, our ultimate destination, but the internet connection was so bad, it was essentially like using dial-up and I couldn't get any pages to load. Woe is me. Anyway, so Dennis had a work trip in Santa Barbara (SB) and Ed and I decided to tag along. G'ma and G'pa Wisc. also decided to tag along, which was great.

We stopped in LA to see relatives and friends and aside from Ed and I coming down with horrendous colds, we managed to have a great time. We hope we didn't leave a cold behind with those we visited.

I'll post more (and pictures) hopefully tmr, but for now, have to tell about the non-stop flight on Alaskan airlines (via Delta) from LAX to home. We left SB at 9am to drive to LAX, arriving shortly before 11, to catch a 1pm flight. Good thing too because we needed the extra time to hoof it back 4 terminals from Delta to Alaskan because the Delta agent incorrectly told us to go to the Delta counter.

Fast forward to the flight--about 22 rows of coach class, single aisle. Most people know Ed likes to throw stuff, but this flight was out of control. He hit a sleeping man in the head sitting diagonal in front of him with his nearly empty sippy cup. Then a couple hours later, he managed to toss a plastic cup that had previously contained water to the guy diagonal in back of him. Basically he nailed the people in front of and in back of me. All the while, he was kicking the chair in front of him. Drove us crazy, to say nothing of what it must have done to the person whose chair was being kicked and people who were getting hit. We held his feet and tried all kinds of distraction, which only gets one so far.

The part that really sealed the deal was the end of the flight, when everyone was deplaning and a woman, who clearly had been several rows back commented on what a good baby Ed had been. I thanked her and remarked that she must not have been sitting close enough to get clocked by anything he threw. Almost on cue, he threw his bottle into the aisle, nearly nailing someone.

I love traveling, but really, Ed has reached that age where I think we need a slight break in the travel schedule--no traveling for at least a couple months, till we forget how hard it was. Now at 10pm, we arrive home, weary road warriors. Den gets to do it all over again on Monday.