Butter Ball

Flashback to 3 years ago. We had gone over at my sister Christie's house for dinner one Sunday evening. Afterwards, we were hanging out down in the basement when someone noticed that Josh, who was about Eddie's age at the time, had gone missing. Christie went upstairs and found him on the kitchen counter eating a stick of butter that he had skewered on a knife like a popsicle. That was the day we taught him to say the word "obese."

Flash forward to earlier this afternoon at the grocery store. We frequently give Eddie various items from our cart for him to play with as a way to keep him entertained while we are shopping. I had given him the bread, but he was squashing it, so Kristen swapped him for a seemingly harmless box of butter sticks. We soon got distracted with the rest of our shopping. A few minutes had passed when Kristen noticed Eddie and exclaimed "he's eating the butter!"

Yup, he had gnawed his way through the outer box, the paper wrapping, and well into the creamy center of one of the butter sticks. I guess we need to start working on the word "obese."

Eddie's Therapy

Today Eddie had another session of physical therapy. Since his last session, Eddie has been getting even more mobile. He is getting really good at balancing next to things and climbing onto (and into) things. We spent today's session learning some new tricks to teach Eddie to shift his weight while standing so that he can learn to move his feet forward instead of just side-to-side. Eddie is also just starting to have enough confidence to hold our hands and walk a few steps. He is making great progress and Julie thinks he could start taking steps on his own pretty soon.

Eddie is also learning lots of new words. The newest ones this week are paper, Josh (in honor of his cousin), yogurt, ah ah (which is the sound his stuffed monkey makes), boo, and bee (thanks to one of his favorite books, Harvey Happy Bee).

Here he is showing off his muscles yesterday:

Word Up

It seems that in the last couple of weeks, Eddie's vocabulary has grown immensely. He jabbers and babbles a lot, and we're starting to pick out more words. They are not necessarily the most useful words, but I suppose they're better than nothing.

Choo

Thanks to the toy train that we gave Ed for his birthday, he just started saying, "choo!" when he activates its lights and sounds.

Elbow

For some reason, Eddie thinks that elbows are hilarious. When we're desperate for entertainment, all we need to do is stick out an elbow and he'll say "bobo."

Hippo

I'll admit, this word sounds a lot like elbow. Identifying it is all about context. Eddie learned this word from one of his favorite books Hippos Go Berserk. Look for details on this book in an upcoming post.

Uh-oh

He only says "uh-oh" when I say it first, which I only do when he drops things or falls down. So I end up saying it a lot.

Vroom

Eddie just recently became interested in the 10 different toy cars he got for Christmas. Whenever he rolls them around, I say "vroom, vroom" and now he has started saying it too. His version is more of a hum, though.

Cracker

For a while there, it seemed that Eddie's primary form of sustenance was graham crackers. He has been eating a lot of them the past couple of months, so I suppose it was inevitable that he would learn to say "cracker." It sounds more like "ca ca" when he says it, but I know what he means.

Eddie

This is my new favorite word in Eddie's vocabulary. Dave identified it just this afternoon. Whenever Eddie is getting into something he shouldn't, I always say "Eddie" in a very specific tone of voice. Now Eddie says "dee dee" back in the exact same tone. It's very cute.

Eddie's Therapy

Today Eddie had physical therapy. In the past two weeks, Eddie learned two really big things: cruising the furniture and going down the stairs. So, obviously, Julie was impressed. We had some more good news when Julie saw Eddie's stylish high-top shoes and declared that we'll try shoes without inserts for a month and see if he improves. Since I'm not too thrilled about having to spend $50 to buy inserts, plus however much baby shoes cost to get new shoes to fit the inserts, I am okay with waiting on them.

Julie thinks we'll have a full-fledged toddler on our hands soon. I watched as she got Eddie to walk around the toy box and switch to the table and then to the couch. Then I watched as she handed him his cup and he let go of the table with both hands to drink. He can stand with very little support now, he just doesn't have much confidence. He also spent some time walking behind his toy bin and Julie pulled it around the living room.

So, the next two weeks will be spent in encouraging Eddie to let go of things when he's standing. Plus, we'll be tricking him into walking without realizing that's what he's doing. And whenever you see him, he'll probably be wearing shoes.

Wash Me!

Eddie loves to climb. Since he feels he has mastered the stairs, he has recently decided to move on to other obstacles. Luckily, his legs are still short enough to prevent him from climbing onto anything big. The other night, Eddie was playing in his bedroom by himself. I came in to check on him and this is what I found:

He climbed right into his laundry basket (perhaps it was a subtle hint that he needs to be washed). So we waited to see what he would do next, since I was fairly confident that he would not be able to pull himself to standing inside the basket. Sure enough, he tried and over he went:

He wasn't too upset about it. In fact, as soon as I extracted him from the basket and set it upright, he began climbing right back in:

Happy Feet

As I've mentioned before, Eddie doesn't stand flat on his feet. I decided I should take a photo of his feet so that we will be able to see improvement over the next few months. Here is how he stands now:


He rolls them in and back, so he stands mostly on the insides of his heels. It's pretty gross, I think, because it almost looks like he is standing on his ankle bones. In an effort to improve this, Eddie's therapist is having us put shoes on him when we practice standing by the table. Lucky for us, my aunt and uncle gave us some cute camouflage high-tops before Eddie was born and they just happen to fit him right now. I'm hoping that having the extra support around his ankles in addition to having his feet forced into a flat surface will help him learn to put weight on the outsides of his feet. If he improves enough in the next week of doing this, perhaps we won't have to buy $50 inserts for his shoes.

This week Eddie just started walking along the furniture, so he spends a lot more time on his feet than he used to. Here he is looking extra cute in his new shirt and his shoes:

It's Raining Ed!

It has been raining every single day out at our house this week. Yesterday, we had a giant hailstorm that helped flood several of our neighbors' basements. We have never been more thankful to be basement-less. Today, it was only sprinkling off and on, so I felt it was safe to go to the grocery store. Eddie and I went to Harmon's. By the time we checked out and were heading to the car, it was pouring! I was parking in the first spot on the row, one row down from the door, but by the time we ran to the car, we were both drenched. Eddie laughed the whole way. He thought it was great. He laughed the whole way home, too.

Here he is after we got home from grocery shopping, very wet:

Here he is watching the rain:

In other news, Eddie had physical therapy yesterday. As predicted, Julie was very impressed by Eddie's stair climbing and that he is now pulling to stand pretty much everywhere. We do still have to work on strengthening his hips, though. Because his hips aren't very strong, he uses his chin to help him climb stairs. And his feet don't seem to be getting any better, so in two weeks, he gets to be fitted for some shoe inserts. That means he'll have to start wearing shoes, something which we are not too excited about. So over the next couple of weeks, I'll be checking the shoe racks to see if I can find some fashionable, comfortable, supportive, affordable baby shoes that are easy to get on and off. Wish me luck!

In the 'Zone

It is sometimes daunting to prepare meals for a 1-year old. Since everything is so new to him, we never know what he is going to like (plus, his parents were both notoriously picky eaters growing up). So sometimes he scarfs his food right down, but other times it ends up as ant bait all over the floor.



As we were making ourselves calzones for dinner on Sunday evening, Kristen began pondering what to feed Eddie. Well, why not his first calzone? So I made him his very own mini version, filled modestly with mozzarella, ricotta, and sauce.

I think he liked it.

Farmer Ed

Today, Eddie and I went to Thanksgiving Point Farm Country. Since one of Eddie's first recognizable words was "moo" and he seems to think that cows in books are pretty funny, I was interested to see if he would recognize a real cow. We tried to get a photo with the fake one first.

Eddie was afraid of it. He wouldn't sit on it. He wouldn't look at it. He poked it in the nose and cried. So far, so good.

Next, we went outside to see the real animals. The fun thing about the farm is that you can get up close to the animals and even feed some of them. We found a particularly friendly cow being fed by a swarm of children. Soon, the kids moved on, so I moved Eddie up closer to see what he would think of the cow. As I fiddled with my camera to get a photo, the cow ran out of corn to eat and went scavenging. It's not the best angle, but in this photo, the cow is actually licking Eddie's feet.

Eddie didn't mind too much, he just tried to push the cow away, which is when his hand ended up inside the cow's mouth. That's when I intervened.

Next, we moved on to the pony ride. Since a pony ride comes free with your admission, and I didn't have to pay to get in since I have a Tracy Aviary membership, I didn't waste any money on this... luckily. I chose the smallest pony for Eddie so that it would be easier for me to hold onto him. I set him on it as he desperately clung to me. Then, the ponies started walking.

Eddie was not impressed. We made it around twice before I gave in and scooped him off. Then, he watched in trepidation as his cousins finished the ride.

The Stair Master

That's right, folks... Eddie learned to climb stairs. I suppose I should be happy about this since it is what we have been working on with the physical therapist. Yesterday when Eddie climbed up for the first time by himself, I realized that I was more happy helping him climb the stairs. Now I can't leave him in the living room unattended for more than 5 seconds. The biggest problem is that he has not yet learned how to climb back down. This problem leaves him with one of the following choices:

1. Stay on the landing forever.
   
2. Attempt to climb the big staircase.
   
3. Teeter on the very edge with a smile as mommy freaks out.
   
4. Fall down.
   
5. Learn how to climb down backwards.

He generally opts for choice #3. We're working on that.

Here is Eddie in action:

First, he stands up next to the stair and prepares for the climb.

Next, he gets on top of the first step and tries to decide what to do next. Sometimes he likes to stop and look around before continuing.

Then, he climbs the second step.

Finally, he achieves victory with a smile.