Weekend Antics

It feels like there haven't been nearly as many updates and/or photos of Eddie in recent months, at least comparatively speaking. But like most two-year olds, he continues to entertain (and aggravate) us on a regular basis. And he was on a serious roll this weekend.

Sitting on the end table with his own personal zoo.

Falling off the "chouch," currently one of his favorite activities.

Watching Music and the Spoken Word in a rather unusual ensemble.

Playing outside, before haircut.

Modeling his new Batman towel from Uncle Jason, after haircut.

Eddie's Sentences

Eddie has started to say some really hilarious things. All of the sudden he is using complete sentences, and it cracks me up because it makes him sound so much older. Here are my favorite sentences/phrases he just started using in the past couple of weeks:

"Later alligator."
Except when Eddie says it, it sounds like "Later elevator."

"Guess what? I found a snack!"
This is referring, of course, to his beloved fruit snacks. He is always overjoyed when he finds a stray snack in his car seat... no matter how old and chewy it might be.

"Not quite yet."
Eddie has started telling us this when we want him to do something he does not want to do... like go to bed or get dressed. It's a pretty clever way to keep us from arguing since he's not really saying "no," just saying, "not quite yet."

"I want it back!"
I guess this isn't really one of my favorites, but this is the phrase we are hearing most often. Since Eddie already thinks everything belongs to him, he is not happy when things are taken away from him... and he makes his feelings known.

"This is a [fill in the blank]."
Eddie likes to tell me what things are. For example, "this is a red car" or "this is a blue snack." I am glad he keeps me so well informed.

"I'm not scared."
For a while, Eddie has been saying things are "scary," though I'm not sure he knows what that means. Today he told me something was scary, then he said, "I'm not scared." If nothing else, I'm glad he's finally learning how to use first-person pronouns.

Sick Again

Eddie is sick yet again this week. He woke up Monday morning and obviously had an eye infection, so I took him in to get eye drops prescribed. While at the doctor's office, we also discovered that he has strep. Eddie was definitely not happy about having his throat swabbed! But afterwards, he got a sucker and cheered right up. So, not only did we get eye drops, but we also got oral antibiotics to give him. He is obviously feeling a lot better already.

The problem with Eddie and medicine is that he doesn't like to take it. Since Monday, we have only gotten him to take his medicine once without a fuss. All the other times involved force-feeding it to him while he spit as much out as possible. I'm hoping he'll still get better despite the inconsistent amounts he has been swallowing. This morning, however, we had a breakthrough: I mixed the medicine in with his milk. I was afraid he'd be able to taste it and refuse to drink the milk, but he didn't notice at all. He drank most of his milk and probably got almost a full dose of medicine. And all this without any tears (from either of us). Of course, the same cannot be said about the eye drops. He is getting better about them, but they still require all his limbs to be restrained while we put them in amidst his writhing screams.

The good news is that after today, he will have three weeks out of daycare since our provider is having a baby next week. That means he will be at home only being exposed to one other kid's germs. I am excited, thinking this might mean at least 3 weeks of illness-free Eddie.

Here is a photo of Eddie sleeping this morning. I went in to wake him up and thought he was too cute.

First Trip to the Movies

Eddie has been watching Woody and Buzz (Toy Story 1 & 2) a lot lately, so Kristen and I had been pondering if we should take him to see Toy Story 3. Having never taken him to the theater before, we weren't quite sure what to expect. We kinda figured it would either be too "noisy" and scare him, or he wouldn't want to sit still for 2 hours, or he would be totally mesmerized by it. It turned out to be a combination of all three.

Since Kristen was working, I volunteered to accompany him solo to a Friday matinee. The showing started right at lunch time, so I packed him a peanut butter sandwich, goldfish crackers and a big bottle of water, plus three emergency bags of fruit snacks and some lemonade. I put a few cloaking diapers at the top of his bag to get around the "no outside food or drink" policy, but they didn't even bother to check.

As the previews started Eddie was clearly overwhelmed. I had to hold him in my lap, and he would alternate burying his head in my chest and peaking at the screen. With rapid fire images and surround sound assaulting him from every angle, he asked me if I could turn the "big TV" off. Once the actual movie started he stayed on my lap, but settled down at the welcome sight of Woody and Buzz. He watched intently between bites of sandwich and goldfish, and after about 45 minutes he let me put him in his own seat.

However, once we got past the hour mark he started to get antsy. He wouldn't stay in his seat, and didn't want me to hold him on my lap. I eventually took him down to the hallway where you enter the theater and let him run around a little bit. After a few minutes I remembered the emergency supply of fruit snacks and lemonade and was able to convince him to return to his seat.

This final snack reserve nearly got us to the end of the movie, but just as it was reaching the finale, Eddie once again refused to sit still. So we adjourned to the hallway to watch the last few minutes. Quite out of character, he hasn't really said much about it since then, so I'm not sure if he enjoyed the experience or not.