Bippity Boppity Boo

It always seems to be windy in our neck of the woods. I think this is because the community is so new, thus there are no full grown trees to slow the wind down.

Aching for some sunshine without getting blown away, we invited ourselves up to Christie's neighborhood on Saturday afternoon.

We went to the "Princess Park," which features great old school playground fixtures like this pumpkin carriage.

Bouncing is one of Eddie's new favorite pastimes. On a related not, having to change a dirty diaper after said bouncing is not nearly as enjoyable.

Eddie and Kyle had all sorts of fun making a two man train down the slide.

Wild Things

After spending Sunday evening hunting eggs with the Barton cousins, we got to enjoy more cousin fun on Monday. Thanks to Spring Break, all the cousins got to go to the zoo together. The past few times we have gone, it has been just Eddie and I, so going with such a large group was quite the change. Luckily, it was supposed to snow that day, so the zoo was not crowded. Unfortunately, it was cold and hailed on us a bit. It was still fun despite the weather.

At first, Eddie was not interested in being at the zoo. We pulled into the parking lot and he immediately started saying "no! no!" As if the zoo is a torturous experience or something. After getting in the gates, Christie and I wrestled Eddie into his stroller, amidst flying shoes and agonizing screams. Once he was in, he got over it. But he was not interested in any of the animals until after we ate, which means he missed out on half off the zoo. His loss, I suppose. We stopped off at the rhino statue to get a photo of all the kids together.


I think it turned out surprisingly well, all things considered. Especially if you see the group photo from the previous day.

Eddie's hands-down favorite part is the small animal building (a.k.a. the reptile house). This is mainly because he gets out of the stroller and it is warm and enclosed. It is also because he can actually see some of the animals up close. Here are Eddie and Sarah, checking out a turtle:


Of course we had to stop off at the carousel. Eddie's mommy is too cheap to let him ride it, mostly because I think he would scream the whole time. Instead, Eddie and Kyle hung out on the sidelines:

Bubbles

Eddie loves bubbles. On Tuesday before the recent snowstorm hit, Eddie and I enjoyed an afternoon outside, letting the ridiculous wind blow bubbles for us.

Eddie refused to let me hold the wand, even to show him the proper technique. I tried to get him to hold the wand straight out so the wind would make bubbles, but he just wanted to keep dunking the wand, then waving it frantically, then dunking it again. Luckily, it was windy enough that we still managed to see some bubbles. Occasionally, he would hold it up to his mouth to try to blow bubbles, but would just end up licking the wand and saying "Yummy."

It is virtually impossible to get a photo of Ed with a smile these days, but I managed it by saying, "oogily boogily" just before snapping the shot.

Man vs. Guy

Today we profile two of Eddie's favorite toys, whom he has dubbed "Man" and "Guy." Check out their profiles and cast your vote to help determine which one is cooler.

Man

One of the manliest men around, Man is a construction worker. His well-groomed mustache perfectly compliments his lantern-shaped jaw. Thick, curly locks of chest hair billow out from under his collar. His oversized fists are ready to trade blows with any upstart stuffed animal or action figure that crosses his path.

On a recent walk, Eddie was holding Man when he started swinging his legs in a frenzied run and tripped. Man sacrificed his body to protect Eddie's hand from scrapes, but is so perfectly chiseled that he only suffered a small rip in his shirt pocket where his pectoral muscle flexed to break the fall.

Guy

Crew chief for a pair of successful race car drivers, Guy's large noggin indicates a superior intellect that is crucial in guiding his racers to victory. He sports a stylish ensemble that includes a striped racing jacket, yellow pants, and matching ball cap.

Eddie has been teething lately, and asked for Guy when he woke up crying in the middle of the night. Rumor has it that it was Guy who eventually coached Eddie back to sleep when even his parents had given up and shut their bedroom door to muffle the screaming.

Our Son, the Narcissist

In the post 3 Minutes With Eddie I described the work that went into putting Eddie's word video together, and pondered if it was all worth it. 3 months later the answer is clear.

Pretty much every night before bed Eddie demands to watch the various videos of himself on the blog, and that one is probably his favorite. He loves to repeat all the words along with the video, usually with the same vocal inflections (and whatever physical actions he was doing). By now he has watched it so many times that he can say many of the words just before they arrive because he has the order memorized.

Since I'm kinda warped I thought it would be amusing to make a video of Eddie watching the original video. Maybe in a few more months we'll do another video of him watching this video of him watching the original.

Ready for Spring

Eddie and I are officially ready for Spring. These last few days of warmth have been fabulous. We've taken trips to the park. Eddie loves to run down the hill and find things to throw down the storm drains. Oh, and he occasionally goes down the slide. It's also nice that when the weather is nice, all the neighbors come out and play on the lawn in front of our house. So Eddie got to play with the neighbor kids yesterday and draw with sidewalk chalk.

Today I bought him some summer-time shoes and some sunglasses (because he is now obsessed with sunglasses, which he calls "gas"). Here he is, decked out:

Car Trip Conversations

I think Eddie might be one of those kids who doesn't ever want to stop talking. Sometimes it is really cute, but sometimes it can get a little... not cute. Just so you all know what I deal with every day, here is a sampling of our car conversation today on the way home from work:

Eddie: [screaming] DOWN DOWN DOWN DOWN DOWN DOWN DOWN!
Me: You can't get down until we get home.
Eddie: [crying] JUICE! JUICE!
Me: We don't have any juice. You can have water if you want.
Eddie: [throws water cup] JUICE!
Me: [attempting distraction] What do you want to have for lunch?
Eddie: PIZZA!
Me: Okay, we'll make pizza when we get home.
Eddie: [getting angry] PIZZA! PIZZA! PIZZA! PIZZA!
Me: [ignoring the screaming rage from the backseat]
Eddie: TEMPLE TEMPLE TEMPLE CHURCH TEMPLE TEMPLE TEMPLE!
Me: We'll see one. Just wait a minute.
Eddie: [sees a church] There it is!
Me: Yep.
Eddie: Yep.
[momentary silence]
Eddie: TEMPLE TEMPLE TEMPLE TEMPLE!
Me: We'll see another one. You just have to wait a minute.
Eddie: [rage building] TEMPLE TEMPLE TEMPLE TEMPLE!
Me: [turning up the music]
Eddie: [screaming over the music] TEMPLE TEMPLE TEMPLE! [sees the temple] There it is! Two temples!
Me: Yep.
Eddie: Yep.

As you can see, rides in the car are quite the treat these days. Thank goodness for portable DVD players and Finding Nemo or Dave might have driven us off a cliff on our recent trip to Cedar City.

Eddie's Favorite Flicks

Recently, Eddie has started to actually watch TV and movies. He will actually sit in his little chair with a bowl of goldfish crackers and watch TV for a solid 10 minutes at a time. He usually gets distracted for a while, but will come back to his seat occasionally to watch some more.

Like most kids, he likes to watch the same things over and over. Since I am also subjected to these shows, I generally disregard his opinion and choose something else to add a little variety to our lives. Still, every time we ask him what he wants to watch, his answer will invariably be one of these:

Batman

I don't think he has a favorite Batman show, and luckily we have a wide variety of Batman movies for him to watch. However, since I feel the need to preserve his innocence, he generally only gets to watch Batman: The Animated Series or Batman The Movie (starring Adam West). He loves to sing along to the Batman theme song.

Finding Nemo

I am not sure why Eddie loves Nemo more than any of the other Pixar movies. It sure wouldn't be my first choice. But, he loves it. Throughout the whole movie, he will say "Nemo, Nemo" if Nemo or Marlin (who looks just like Nemo) are not on screen. I try not to let him watch it more than once a week at the most because I get really tired of it.

Nightmare Before Christmas

Thanks to the Nightmare Before Christmas story book we got from the library a few months ago, Eddie has started to like the movie, too. He loves Santa and he loves Jack Skellington, so this movie is a favorite. Of course, Dave and I don't mind because we like it, too. Often when I open up our movie cabinet to find something besides Nemo to watch, Eddie will pull out "Jack" instead. His favorite part is when Jack falls into Christmas Town. He even recognizes the songs when we listen to them on the computer or in the car.

Curious George

This is the most recent addition to the list. For Christmas, Eddie received a DVD with episodes of the Curious George cartoon. We tried watching it once just after Christmas and Ed was not interested. I pulled the DVD out again, looking for something that wasn't a feature-length movie, and he loved it. Of course, we ended up watching enough of it to equal a feature-length movie because Eddie kept demanding more "monkey!"

There are a few other movies that Eddie pulls out of the cabinet, but we have not let him watch them yet. They are: Mission Impossible (he likes that "boy" on the cover), Master and Commander (apparently Russell Crowe looks like Daddy), and The Italian Job (apparently Charlize Theron looks like Momma -- hey, I'm not complaining).

Sarah Sue

Eddie's cousin Sarah is one of his favorite people. Lucky for him, he is one of her favorite people, too. They get to play every day while I am working. If we get to Sarah's house and she is nowhere to be found (as in, she hasn't woken up yet), Eddie often becomes frantic, yelling, "SARAH SUE!"

On Monday, Eddie got a special treat - Sarah came to our house! I didn't tell him she was coming and he was acting ready for his nap, but then Sarah Sue showed up and he was so happy, he ran around in circles and yelled a lot. Of course, after an hour or so, the novelty wore off and they fought over every toy.

But, they had fun playing on our bean bag.

It's Difficult to Be So Loved

Eddie is very attached to both me and Dave lately. I have several theories about this phenomenon:

1. Traumatized by his recent bout of the stomach flu, Eddie has realized how entirely dependent he is on us for survival.

2. Eddie is 21 months old and is experiencing a phase of separation anxiety.

3. Eddie has noticed how ridiculously awesome we both are and doesn't want to spend one waking moment away from either of us.

I tend to lean towards #3. Unfortunately, the results of this attachment have begun to wear on Dave and I. During the day, Eddie does pretty well without his daddy. He frequently points toward the back door and says, "Daddy? Work." And he is satisfied. But once Dave gets home, Eddie cannot allow him to escape again. I have several theories about this phenomenon:

1. Tired after a long day without napping (despite his mother's best efforts), Eddie seeks comfort in the arms of his Daddy... and demands that his Mommy be present at all times as well.

2. Tired after a long day of interacting with only Mommy, Eddie seeks sanity in the arms of his Daddy... and insists that his Mommy be present at all times as well.

3. Eddie has realized that his monopoly on our attention will eventually come to an end and has decided to milk this for all it's worth.

I tend to lean towards #3. Unfortunately, this can create some uncomfortable situations for the rest of us. It is getting to the point where we can't even take 2 minutes to use the bathroom without hearing Eddie's wails in the hallway. He also will not allow us to split up in public places, such as the grocery store. If we do, he will inevitably obsess, "Daddy? Daddy? Daddy?" or "Momma? Momma? Momma?" until we are reunited.

And here is a random picture of Eddie in a "hat," alone, ironically enough. If you're wondering, no, I don't ever wash his face.