Starting Daycare

Now that I have a new job, Eddie gets to go to daycare four afternoons a week. We found a nice in-home daycare in South Jordan that we are taking him to. Last week, Eddie and I visited twice, just to get to know the provider, Brooke, and to introduce Eddie to the other kids. Both times, he had a lot of fun playing with them, so I was hopeful that he would do okay when I actually left him there.

In preparation for this new adventure, we bought Eddie his own Toy Story backpack to keep his stuff in. Here he is all ready for his first day:


I took him into daycare yesterday and he was instantly clingy. He wouldn't let go of me, so when I had to leave, he had a breakdown and tried to climb up my legs. Luckily, Brooke took him off my hands to allow me to escape, even if it was a little disconcerting to leave him screaming my name. I imagined him spending the entire afternoon terrorizing the place and having Brooke tell us that she couldn't handle him. But, apparently he calmed down after a few minutes and did fine... even taking a nap, which I was sure he would not do. Hopefully this means that he will adjust well to the new arrangement. Now let's just hope that I'll adjust well to the new arrangement too!

Big Brother

We have been pondering how to approach the subject of our pregnancy with Eddie. So when I came upon our 2007 Christmas card while looking at his baby book with him the other day, I tried to seize the moment. I pointed to the ultrasound image and the box around Kristen's belly, and we had the following exchange:

Me: Did you know that you used to live in Momma's belly?
Eddie: Tree!
Me: Yeah, that's a tree. But you used to live in Momma's belly.
Eddie: Yeah, tree.

Clearly the concept is still a little above him. Picking a name for the fetus seems to have helped though. Now he will point to Kristen's belly and say "Morsel" (it sounds more like "muh-sow"). Of course he is also under the impression that I have a baby in my belly too. Silly boy, that's an entirely different kind of morsel.

Big Brother is watching you, Morsel.

Naptime Toys

Lately Eddie always wants to take random things to bed with him for his nap. Here are a few of the items he has slept with in recent weeks:

• Empty milk jug
• Sunglasses (on)
• Flashlight
• Sippy cups
• Cereal boxes
• Various toys

Yesterday, it was a rock. He found the rock on our walk home from church and didn't want to give it up, so I just let him take it to bed. When he got up hours later, he was playing normally when suddenly, he rubbed his nose and said "Rock. Nose." So I asked, "Did you put the rock in your nose?" and he replied, "Yeah. Bed." So I tried looking up there, but couldn't see anything, so I took that to mean that he put it in there at one point, but it was no longer in there.

A few minutes later he was rubbing his nose again, so I took another look. Sure enough, there was a rock in there. Luckily for us, it was small enough that it worked its own way down to where we could fish it out. Of course, as soon as I got it out and disposed of it, Eddie cried because he wanted his rock back.

Eddie's Phrases

Since it has been quite a while since I posted about Eddie's words, I think another installment is due. Eddie has now moved on from single words to phrases, some of which are quite amusing. He is getting into the stage where he will repeat weird things that we say, so we have to be careful what he hears. Here are some of our favorite Ed phrases:

Want one.

I suppose this stems from me asking Eddie if he "wants one" of something. So now whenever he wants something, he'll just say "want one!" Generally we try to ask what he wants so that he'll learn how to better express himself, but if he doesn't know the word for something, he'll just get angry and shout "WANT ONE! THIS ONE!" until we figure out what he wants.

See it!

Back before Eddie was so observant, we would point things out to him while driving. We would say "Eddie, there's a temple. Do you see it?" So now, Eddie notices things himself and always yells "TEMPLE! SEE IT! SEE IT!" until we acknowledge that we have also seen it.

So like. Um.

As mentioned in an earlier post, Eddie started saying "so like, um" when Dave and I were making fun of me one day in the car. At first it was just cute and funny. Now it is getting a little out of hand. Eddie will be playing and suddenly will shout "SO LIKE! UM!" I'm not sure how to discourage it, since there is no adequate replacement to teach him.

Blender noisy.

Eddie is very sensitive to noises. Anything that makes any sound at all is quickly dubbed "noisy." The blender and vacuum are the worst ones of all. He has a love/hate relationship with the blender, often asking to see it in the cupboard, but never wanting to be around when it comes out of the cupboard. He is always sure to tell us repeatedly (with a very serious look on his face), "blender... noisy."

Reach it!

I suppose all parents will be familiar with this situation -- Eddie drops all his toys while we're in the car, then demands that I get them for him. If I'm riding in the passenger seat, I can usually retrieve them. However, if it is just he and I, I have to tell him no, which infuriates him. So I tell him I can't reach it. Then he'll try to reach it and grunt and groan and say "REACH IT!" until something distracts him.

Geet down.

It seems like ever since Eddie started talking, we have been trying to get him to say "up." He can say the word. I think he knows what it means. But whenever he wants to be carried, he always says "GEET DOWN!"

My goodness!

Since Eddie's favorite cousin, Sarah Sue, has older brothers, she now says things like, "Oh geez!" Since I don't particularly like the word "geez," I have opted to teach Eddie to say "my goodness" instead. I love when he says it spontaneously after something happens.


Sharkbait, oo ha ha!

Eddie's favorite movie is Finding Nemo. He will repeat many of the lines from the movie, but his favorite is this one. He struggles with the "oo ha ha" part, so it usually comes out sound like, "shark bait ha!"

Yummy good.

We probably should stop encouraging this one, but it cracks us up every time. When Ed is eating something, he used to always say it was yummy. Then I started asking him if things were good. So now he says things are "yummy good." Now, he was started adding "licious" into the mix, so often things are "yummy good. licious."

Good job.

I believe in the power of positive reinforcement, so I generally try to tell Eddie "good job" when he does something that was hard for him or when he does what I ask. But now he tells me good job... and he tells himself good job. I'm not sure if I should be concerned about him ending up with some sort of complex.

Help you!

Apparently Ed needs help with pronouns. We have been working on getting him to stop calling people "it," but he doesn't know the word "me," yet either. So when he wants help with something, he always says "help you!" He also says "to you" when he wants us to read stories to him.

More Daddy please.

This is the newest phrase that Eddie started saying over the weekend. We have been trying to get him to say "please" for a long, long time, and now he suddenly will... but only in certain cases. Just to clarify, he's not asking for more Daddy... he's asking Daddy to get him more of something.