What a Big Boy!

I was recently accused of slacking off on Eddie's blog. Apparently I have not been providing new photos as often as a certain Grammy Andrews would like. I'll try to do a little better.

On Sundays, we generally just dress Eddie in whatever, since nobody really cares if babies are appropriately dressed for church or not. It's not like Eddie stays in class anyways. This past Sunday, however, I decided to finally try out one of the button-down shirts that Eddie had handed down from his cousins. I thought he looked so cute and grown up that I had to take some photos. Of course, by the time I got around to it, he had already spit up all over himself... hence the wet spots. Just imagine those aren't there. Also, I tried to pose him on our first stair, but after a couple of photos, he got so excited that he launched himself off onto his feet, scaring me to death. Luckily, I caught him before he face-planted and we got some photos on the floor by the stairs.

So without further ado, here is our boy dressed in his man clothes.

Pre-launch:

Post-launch:

Our Little Trooper

Eddie is finally getting over his recent bout of croup. The past week and a half, he's been a real trooper... but I can't say the same of myself. (Be sure to zoom in on this photo to see how bad our sick baby looks. He had dark circles under his eyes for days.)


Sick babies are no fun, especially at night. After one particularly bad night, where Dave and I began to liken Eddie to the "shrieking eels" from The Princess Bride, I decided I was impervious to his cries and that it was high time he learned to roll. So I put him on his tummy and let him stay there until he found his own solution. He ended up rolling over 4 times that day -- more than he had rolled in his entire life up to that point. Here's a photo of him mid-roll.


He has a problem coordinating both ends of his body -- so either the top half gets twisted around and his legs are stuck, or his legs are doing the right stuff, but his arms are in the wrong positions. It generally ends up with him writhing around on his face until I give in and sit him up.

I was very pleased that he rolled, and Dave was happy that he finally got to see the roll in person. Eddie was happy with himself as well, but has since decided that rolling is not for him and refuses to do it again. I guess we'll have to wait for another day when I have been desensitized by a night of screaming. Hopefully he learns to crawl before that happens again.

What the Croup?!

For the past couple of weeks, I've been a little bit sick. I was pleased when more than a week went by and Eddie had not caught it. Then, at 12:30 AM on Saturday morning, I heard a strange noise. You mothers out there will appreciate my super-sonic hearing when it comes to Eddie noises in the night. The slightest noise from him wakes me up, even though he's in his own room. Upon investigating the noise, I found that Eddie had a bit of a cough. I didn't think too much of it and we all went back to sleep. When we woke up that morning, the cough was much worse. He sounded horrible!

Of course this all had to happen on a Saturday, when we couldn't simply call the pediatrician for advice. I looked online to find that KidsCare at our clinic doesn't open until noon on Saturdays. I was a little concerned about taking him to the Instacare since I thought I was being a paranoid first-time mom. But, as Dave and I discussed our options and Ed attempted to hack up a lung, we decided to just take him in.

To the Instacare we went.

The doctor came in and asked a few questions. He seemed to be ruling things out until he heard Ed's cough. He immediately said, "yep, he has croup." I had no idea what that meant, but it sure sounds serious. The doctor explained that croup is just a viral infection (like influenza) that settles in the throat, which causes problems for people with very small throats. So it inflames the windpipe and the vocal chords, leading to a very characteristic, barking cough. So they gave him some steroids and had me hold the nebulizer in front of his face for ten minutes, then sent us home.

Since then, he's been slowly improving. Lucky for us, his nasty cough is now accompanied by an incredibly runny nose and a low fever. I guess that means his body is fighting off the infection. I hope it hurries. I also hope Eddie hurries and learns to blow his nose. It would save us both a lot of trauma wrestling with the bulb syringe.

More Cute Pics

We spent last Friday night and most of Saturday in Logan, visiting Dave's parents. We also made a quick visit to Eddie's great-grandma Jones who lives in an assisted living center there. For Christmas, Dave's uncle Chuck made a wooden toy train for Grandma Jones so that all the kids who come to visit her would have something to play with. Thanks to our good timing, Eddie was the first kid to play with (and suck on) the new toy train. Here are a couple of fun photos of the occasion:



This next photo is one I took this week because I thought it was so precious that Ed was snuggling with his daddy. He won't do that kind of stuff with me.


And finally, Eddie has discovered a new fun toy in our house -- the door stops. They're the kind that are like springs, so they make great noises when you bump them. My nephew Dax used to love them, so I figured that Eddie would discover them sooner or later. I'm sure as soon as he's mobile, he'll play with them all over the house. For now, the one in his room is the only one he knows about.

Eight Months Old

Yesterday was Eddie's 8 month birthday! In honor of this momentous occasion, here is an update on Ed:

Eddie's growth seems to be slowing down a bit. It is nice to not have to buy new pajamas every month. Even though he still hates being on his tummy, he has incredibly strong back muscles. He is still completely content to just sit and bounce. We are completely content having him immobile for as long as is possible (and healthy).


Eddie gets funnier every day. He has now learned that even when he can't see something or someone, it does still exist. It cracks me up to watch him lean over and peer around things to see me or when he drops a toy from his high chair then searches the kitchen floor to find it.

We've started giving him "finger foods" occasionally, just to see what he'll do with them. He loves crackers and cookies that he can hang onto and gum for awhile. He's not so keen on smaller things like cheerios because they make their way to his throat before he's softened them up... and he has a very well developed gag reflex. He loves cheese, too. We're anxiously awaiting his first tooth, which could be coming at any time. He is also learning how to use a sippy cup. He gets so excited about the cup when I hold it up there for him that he waves his arms around, kicks his legs, and laughs... which doesn't really work when he's supposed to be drinking from it. He can hold the cup on his own and knows to put it in his mouth, but hasn't learned to tip it yet.

He has learned a new fake cry which he uses every time he realizes we're not paying attention to him. He also loves to jabber and sometimes he'll even have little conversations with me, except we don't use real words. And in the past few weeks, he has started giving me kisses, which are very wet. Sometimes he is very persistent with them and ends up soaking down my whole face before I can peel him off.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

All you die-hard Eddie fans must be dying to know all about his first Christmas. Lucky for you, I got a digital camera for Christmas, so now I can take photos of Eddie whenever I want, which should make for more frequent updates. But since I'm so far behind, this post will be a combo of Christmas and New Year's. So, without further ado...

The Barton Party

The weekend before Christmas was spent with Dave's family. We gathered at Cheryl's house for dinner and presents. Eddie came attired in his festive Santa suit and had a great time. He got some great gifts from Grandma and Grandpa Barton and from his cousins as well. Here is Eddie Claus reading his new book -- a gift from Josh and Neil.


Christmas

For Christmas, we got to stay at our own house. Once again, Eddie came in his festive attire -- this time, snowman pajamas. He was a bit perplexed by the whole "opening presents" idea. He was happy to have paper to play with. With a little bit of help from his parents, he did eventually open all these packages.


Then he decided to show off all his new stuff, including a new hat. He got his first Batman action figure from his Daddy, a homemade Raggedy Andy from Grandma Andrews, and tons of books and clothes.


Uncle Jason gave Eddie this fabulous tiger. The tiger holds a basket, where you can deposit colorful balls. When the tiger's head moves, he yells things like, "You're Great!" or "YEAH!" and plays a song. Eddie loves it and often pulls it over on himself in all his excitement.


New Year's

For New Year's Eve, we spent the night in Syracuse with Marc, Hali, and Calvin. Calvin got a cool Cars armchair and Eddie loved it. It is the perfect height for him to sit in it and bounce. He only fell out of it once.

Eddie's Laughter Guide

We have been trying to capture Eddie laughing on video for some time now, but every time we pull out the video camera he suddenly stops and turns into a deer in headlights. Finally on Sunday night though, Kristen was able to get him going, and I stealthily manned the camera off to the side so he wouldn't notice me. As luck would have it, we managed to capture a good cross section of his laughter styles which we present now in this comprehensive guide.

Snow Day

Saturday was the first big snow storm of the winter... and it didn't really end up being all that big! But we took advantage of the blizzard-like morning and sent Eddie out to play in the snow. Eddie still does not own a coat, but we did borrow a fabulous blue fleece suit from one of Dave's sisters. It is almost too small, but it does keep him nice and warm, so I didn't feel bad about plunking him down in the snow for a photo-op.

Here is Eddie with his smiley Mama (that's me). I tried setting him down to sit in the snow, but he was like the kid off A Christmas Story -- his outfit was too bulky to allow him to sit, so he tipped over with his arms straight out, like this:

It was really windy and when snowflakes would blow into his face, he would make this face.

Eddie's first snow angel.

Eddie Claus

Dave's sister Cheryl found a baby-sized Santa suit somewhere a few years ago and it has been making the rounds in the Barton family ever since. Whichever baby happens to be appropriately sized during the holidays gets a chance to wear it. Since Eddie's cousin Trevor would probably bust it at the seams and his other cousin Sarah would drown in it, this year was Eddie's year. So, we dressed him up and took some photos in front of our Christmas tree. Here are a few of our favorites:

Eddie's big cheesy grin

Holding his favorite holiday decoration -- a sock reindeer

The "are you talking to me?" face

If you zoom in on these last two, you can see Ed's reflection in the ornament. Nice touch, Dave.

After that, he got sick of wearing the hat and tried to pull it off, but only succeeded it pulling it down over his face. Sorry... no photos of that.

Seven Months Old

Today is Ed's 7-month birthday! In honor of his birthday, Eddie got to have a flu shot!

Eddie seems to be getting friendlier every day. He likes to yell at other babies, but it's a nice yell, not a mean one. This morning while waiting outside the library for the doors to open, Ed was entertained by a little girl who ran around in circles just to make him laugh. My visiting teacher has twins that are just older than Eddie, so we hang out a lot. Eddie likes spending time with Stella and Luca... especially Stella because she is currently a bit more active and tries to steam-roller him. I'm hoping that hanging out with Stella will inspire Eddie to learn to roll.

That's right, Eddie still doesn't roll. He rolled over twice (once in the video that made the blog and once a couple of months later). He still hates tummy time and I think he could roll if he wanted to, but he doesn't even try. He just lays there and screams until I pick him up. He prefers to sit.


He is very good at sitting now. There is the occasional mishap. For instance, one day, Eddie was sitting on the floor just wearing a onesie. All his toys had gotten away from him, so he discovered his thigh. After squeezing it and looking at it for a minute, he decided it was time to put it in his mouth. So he bent in half and was concentrating so hard on getting his thigh in his mouth, that he tumbled right onto his face and ended up on his tummy. You can imagine his confusion, but not even he can resist those chunky thighs. He also enjoys using his feet to play with toys, even if his hands are available. This is usually how his toys get away from him because he just can't quite grip them as well with his toes.

He's now eating baby food three times a day. He seems to like all kinds of fruit and most of the veggies. He's not too sure about mangoes yet. I've even given him some pureed chicken, which he loved. That's what he had for Thanksgiving. It looks disgusting and smells disgusting, but I guess it tastes good (no, I didn't give it a try). I have tried giving him things that are a bit more solid, but they make him gag a lot.

One thing Eddie dislikes is the vitamin that I have to give him every day. At first, I tried mixing it in with his morning cereal, but then he stopped eating the cereal. So now I give it to him before he eats his breakfast. I use the full dropper, but I bet about half of it oozes back out of his mouth when he grimaces because of the nasty flavor. Then his breakfast helps to get the icky taste out of his mouth.

He is one funny kid who likes to yell and blow raspberries and contort his tongue. He says "mamama" and "dada," but I'm not sure if he means it.