Sunday School Chairman

Since Kristen is usually off teaching primary, and Eddie is becoming increasingly mobile, I have become that guy in church. You know, the hapless fellow that is constantly trying to wrangle his child?

When looking for a seat in Sunday School, I always pick a spot close to a door. I usually keep Eddie on my lap so he can't escape, but will set him down if he gets particularly restless. Such was the case this past Sunday. I was sitting on the back row on the far right side of the Relief Society room next to the side door. The back row of chairs started with their backs against the wall in the center of the room, then gradually curved forward so there was some space behind me where Eddie could move around. I thought this was a good thing. I was wrong.

Instead of staying in the open area, Eddie immediately started crawling towards the middle of the room, and the row of chairs was now curving back toward the wall. I hesitated for a split second, and the space he was entering quickly became too narrow for me to go after him.

Now fully alert, I slipped out the side door and came around the hall to the back door to head him off. He had gotten himself wedged between the wall and the metal chair legs just short of the center aisle. He was just starting to raise his voice when I was able to come to his rescue. Luckily he didn't get stuck out of my reach, or he would have really caused a scene.

I have to say, I miss the early days when he didn't leave his car seat for the whole 3 hours. At least he is still too little to bait me into the old chase around the chapel in the middle of sacrament meeting routine.

The wheels are already turning, plotting how he will evade me next week.

Eddie's Therapy: Session 7

Yesterday, Eddie had another physical therapy session. He seems to have slowed down in recent weeks, not picking up new things quite as fast. He is pretty happy to just crawl around and destroy the house from his knees. However, we are still working on standing. He loves it when we stand him next to furniture, but he hasn't quite figured out how to get down. He is so used to me being right behind him that when he's done standing, he just pokes his bottom out in an attempt to sit down on something. Usually, there is nothing there and he ends up stuck hanging on with his hands with his bottom sticking out, wondering what he should do now.

Julie is having us work on climbing now. This exercise should help strengthen Eddie's hips so that he can be confident in his attempts to stand up. We're also still working on teaching him to get from his knees to his feet. Obviously this depends a lot on the aforementioned confidence. We're hoping that with more practice and increased strength, his weird foot placement will correct itself.


In other news, Eddie now has 6 teeth. As soon as the newest one comes in a little further, his smile won't be so lopsided. He has also discovered that he can bite. He tricks me into thinking he's leaning in for a kiss and then leaves teeth marks in my cheek. So I avoid kisses as much as possible these days.

Eddie's newest words include "bow wow," "meow," and I think I heard him say "cracker" today. We're currently working on teaching him "toes" and "nose." I am amazed at how fast he picks up new words and I am looking forward to the day when he can use these words to communicate and tell me what he wants.

He's Got the Look

Ever since Eddie was born, everyone has said that he looks just like me. When he was only a few weeks old I put together some shots comparing him with some of my baby photos. Kristen felt left out so she posted her own comparison a few months later. Now that Eddie has turned 1, we wanted to do another series, this time including some of each of us. So what does everyone think? Cast your vote now.

Dave vs. Eddie #1

Dave vs. Eddie #2

Kristen vs. Eddie #1

Kristen vs. Eddie #2

Eddie's Therapy: Session 6

Eddie had another physical therapy session yesterday. He is doing really well with standing up from an elevated surface (from sitting on a box next to the table), but still doesn't do it on his own. So our new exercise involves teaching him to get to "half-kneel" (which is kneeling on one knee with the other foot flat on the floor) and then to get him to pull himself to standing. Once he's there, we get to teach him how to get back down from standing. He doesn't like that part. Then, we get to teach him how to move along the furniture once he's standing up. He didn't like that exercise either.

I guess that means that within the next couple of months, he'll be "cruising" the furniture and those table bumpers will really come in handy, as will the word, "bonk."

Here he is standing by his crib, showing off his new Batman jammies.

On an unrelated note, Eddie and I went to the zoo last week. Eddie definitely noticed some of the animals this time (the giraffes and elephants for sure). However, he was more interested in the fences I held him up to while trying to get him to look at the animals.

Here he is sitting on a giant spider at the zoo playground.

What's the Word?

Over the past few weeks, we have started recognizing real words in the midst of Eddie's constant babbling. Here are Eddie's favorite words to say:

Ball

Eddie is getting pretty good at saying this word. It sounds more like "baw," but I know what he's trying to say. Often, he'll hold his ball up over his head with a big grin and say, "Ball." He'll even point to pictures of balls in his books.

Go

I didn't even try to teach him this word. He just picked it up. I have noticed lately that I say "are you ready to go?" and "do you want to go?" to Eddie a lot. That is probably where he got it.

Pup

Thanks to Eddie's favorite touchy-feely book "Puppies," and his furry friends Cobalt and Snots, Eddie knows a cute cartoon "pup" when he sees one. I'm not sure if he would recognize a real dog, though.

Bonk

I have suspected for a while that this would be among Eddie's first words. He hears it a lot... especially when I'm trying to get him into his car seat. Lucky for him, the car ceiling is padded.

Batman

I am happy to report that I am not the only person to have heard Eddie say "Batman." Just ask Eddie's aunt Cheryl and cousin Zach. He even knows who Batman is and can identify him without being asked.

No/Don't

I'm not sure which one he's trying to say, but it sounds like "doh." He doesn't really know what it means, though, so I guess I need to stop saying no to him so much.

Dada

I suppose this means that Dave is the favorite parent. Eddie can say "mama," he just chooses not to. He says "dada" all the time.

Happy Birthday!

Today, our boy turns 1 year old!

We held a birthday bash yesterday for family and close friends. Eddie must've known there was something to be excited for. He slept in until 9:00 yesterday morning (something that NEVER happens) and then refused to take a nap. Eddie's favorite part of the day was the balloons we got him. He happily played with those for more than an hour, even dragging them with him as he crawled from room to room.

By party time, he was a bit of a wreck. Luckily, once he got a little bit of chocolate cake in his system, he cheered up. I made a dump truck cake for him and, surprisingly enough, it turned out cute and delicious. Eddie likes cake, but seemed hesitant about horking it down like most kids do. Instead, he was content to let Dave feed it to him.

Another great highlight was all the gifts Eddie received. He got a wooden toy train from us, a truck that makes zany sounds, a Little People building set, two puzzles, an Artoo Potatoo, some clothes, and several books.

All in all, it was a good day.

Eddie's Therapy: Session 5

Since we missed one of our April therapy sessions, Julie came back yesterday for a make-up session. Since it had only been a week since she was here last, she didn't expect too much improvement. She was impressed once again by Eddie. Apparently once he is shown how to do a specific thing, he learns how to do it really quickly. Last week, we started standing him up next to furniture. In just a week, his hips have gotten so much stronger and because of that, he does a lot more kneeling than he used to. Kneeling is good because it is a step on the way to standing by himself.

Our new exercise this week is to get him from kneeling to standing. He will often crawl up to one of us and kneel next to us. So now, we just have to take his hands up over his head, shift his weight to one side, and he puts his foot on the floor. Then, we shift his weight the other way, and (ta-da!) he's standing. It makes him a little bit angry, but hopefully he'll come to like it as his muscles get used to the extra work.

With a little luck, he should be cruising the furniture in no time.

Nap Time

We have been working on weaning Eddie over the past week or so. That means I no longer nurse him before his naps. Here you can see the results of letting him get himself to sleep:

Just Being a Kid

Here are a few fun photos I've taken over the past week or so. Now that the weather is turning nice, we are spending lots of time outside. Eddie loves being outside, even if it is just going to get the mail. This last week, we got to go to the park twice -- once with Eddie's cousins and once with Eddie's friends Luca & Stella. I only took my camera the first day. Here is Eddie looking stylish in the park (I was happy to see his shirt turn blue and red, since it changes color in the sun... Normally, it's just black and white):


Now that Eddie is mobile, he gets into everything. But, I'm not complaining since we had ample time to prepare for it. Of course, once it really hit us that he could get around, we bought a gate. Here is Eddie trying to squeeze his face between the bars:


Eddie loves to explore. He especially loves to go over in the corner to his toy box and see what treasures he can find. However, it is not heavy enough to stay standing when he tries to use it to pull himself up, as you can see here:

At least he had Raggedy Andy there for moral support.

Eddie's Therapy: Session 4

We were enjoying a quiet evening at home last Friday night, playing a thrilling round of Trivial Pursuit, when we noticed Eddie. He was no longer where had set him down, but was shooting across the living room, making a break for the open movie cabinet. After a few moments of disbelief, we realized the horrible truth: Eddie had figured out how to crawl... forward. He's not very fast yet, but he gets where he wants to go, which is always where we don't want him to be. Dave put together the following clip that sums up our trepidation concerning this development. Make sure your sound is turned up.


Yesterday, we had Eddie's 4th physical therapy session. Julie is always impressed with Eddie's progress, but this time it was even better given his newfound mobility. After Eddie demonstrated his crawling technique for Julie, we got to work on the next step - standing. Our new exercise is to set something he wants up on the coffee table, then sit Ed on our knee with his feet flat on the floor. Then, when he reaches for the bait, he stands up on his legs. He did this several times while Julie was here. When I told Dave about the next thing Eddie will learn, he voiced my feelings when he said "AH!"

That's right... we're still not ready for it. But, it will happen whether we're ready or not. Once he starts standing up more, Eddie will probably have to get special inserts for his shoes to help him stand on his feet the right way. When he stands, he turns his toes out and rolls onto the insides of his feet. It looks really weird, and we don't want him to get in the habit of that.