Another Zoo Trip

Yesterday, to celebrate our new-found freedom, Eddie and I joined his grandma, aunt, and cousins for a trip to the zoo. Eddie was unsure of whether or not he wanted to go, telling me earlier in the day, "Not go zoo right now," then later crying "Go zoo!" Luckily, I did not wait for him to make up his mind. We went regardless.

We got to the zoo just before noon and unfortunately, Eddie fell asleep in the car on the way there. This is always a bad thing if we are not on our way home to put him in bed. He does not wake up happy after sleeping in the car. Maybe you can see why:

We were a bit early, so we waited in the car and I let him sleep as long as possible. Then I had to wake him up and get him out. As I suspected, he was very unhappy, bordering on hysterical, when he learned we were actually at the zoo. We sat by the fountain out front to wait for everyone else, Eddie clinging desperately to me all the while. He perked up a little when I showed him all the money in the fountain (he talked about that for the rest of the day), and cheered up even more when his favorite cousin, Sarah, showed up a few minutes later. Eventually I convinced him to sit in the stroller and in we went.

Eddie enjoyed seeing the monkeys and the elephants. He didn't want to stop looking at the baby elephant, so we were there for a while. We ate lunch, then went to see the tigers and giraffes. Even though there were 5 tigers on display and a couple of them were up and moving around, Eddie was more interested in the giant ball floating in the tiger's pond. He happily sat on the tiger statue and said "giddy-up!" while I took his picture.

After seeing the orangutans, we took a ride on the carousel, but I couldn't convince Eddie to actually ride on one of the animals. Instead, we sat on the peacock bench. Eddie seemed to enjoy the ride, but when we got off, he told me he would not ride the elephant next time.

As always, Eddie's favorite part of the zoo was playing with the "black ball" before we left. Of course, I forgot to pack him a change of clothes, so I couldn't let him get too wet. Here you can see how excited he was to splash:

The Not-So-Super 8

Since we had plans to spend Saturday at my grandma's house in Huntington, the three of us sallied forth on Friday to Price and checked into the Super 8 for what we imagined to be a luxurious night. Little did we know that Eddie is terrified of 2-star hotels. The following is a truncated transcript of the rest of our stay:

7:30 PM Dave checks in. Eddie screams and cries after being placed on the lobby floor. He insists that he will not swim in the pool.

7:35 PM Kristen and Eddie enter Room 226, the scene of Eddie's worst nightmares, apparently. Eddie screams and cries and demands that we go to "Cavin's house" (aka the Barton family cabin).

7:40 PM Eddie is given a cookie to help him come to grips with the Super 8.

8:00 PM Despite Eddie's protests, we head to the pool. This is, after all, our main purpose for staying in the Super 8.

8:15 PM Eddie is terrified of the pool. Perhaps he can read the sign on the wall that says "A swimming pool is like a community bathtub. Do not drink the water."

8:25 PM The other pool patrons vacate the premises and Eddie begins to warm up to the pool.

8:45 PM We leave the pool despite Eddie's protests.

9:00 PM Spongebob saves us from going to bed at 9:00.

9:30 PM Lights out! Eddie is placed in his pack & play.

9:31 PM Screams of "DADDY HOLD YOU!" ring through the Super 8.

9:40 PM Eddie joins us in the king size bed.

9:42 PM Eddie joins me on my side of the king size bed.

9:43 PM "Hi Mama!"

9:44 PM "Big bed."

9:45 PM "My pillow."

9:46 PM "Hi Mama!"

9:47 PM "BATMAN! BATMAN!"

9:48 PM Me: "Eddie, shh. It's time to sleep."

9:49 PM Eddie grabs my nose. "HONK!"

9:50 PM "Hi Mama!"

.....

10:40 PM "Love oo. Love oo."

10:43 PM SILENCE

10:45 PM Eddie sounds like he's asleep. I am perched on the edge of the bed and can feel him against my back and my head. I don't dare move.

11:15 PM I can't stand it any more and have to turn over. I move my head. Eddie is startled and wraps his arm around my neck.

11:20 PM I give up and roll over and learn that Eddie is wrapped around my head. Now he's wrapped around my face.

11:25 PM Eddie sits up. "Lay down," I say. He lays down across the bed the wrong way.

11:26 PM I reposition Eddie, despite the fear that this will wake him up. It doesn't.

11:27 PM We all sleep... poorly.

.....

5:59 AM "Wake up?"

6:00 AM "Hi Mama!"

6:01 AM "Knuckles!" Eddie punches the back of my head.

6:02 AM Me: "OW! Go back to sleep."

6:03 AM "NO! Lights on."

6:05 AM "Bonk head." Eddie headbutts me.

6:06 AM Me: "OW! Go back to sleep. It's still night time."

6:07 AM "Make day. Lights on."

.....

6:15 AM I give up. The lights are on and Spongebob saves us from an immediate breakfast.

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.

It's Eddie's

In true 2-year old fashion, Eddie has concluded that as long as something belongs to him, there are no restrictions. Of course in his mind, this means that anything and everything belongs to Eddie, as long as he says so. Here are a few examples of the outrageous things Eddie has claimed ownership of in the last few weeks:

Eddie's river.

This means he can dump as much water as he wants on the dry banks where we are sitting.

Eddie's temple.

He thinks he can hold it. Luckily he seems to understand what "too big" means and that generally satisfies him until the next time we drive by.

Eddie's couch.

He feels he can draw on it with a pen, dump entire cups of water on it, smash goldfish into its crevices, jump on it, and climb up onto the back of it in order to look in the mirror.

Eddie's cart.

Eddie's toy.

Eddie is not a fan of sharing. Luckily, according to Eddie's rules, he can just claim a toy as "Eddie's" and then he'll never have to share again. This includes toys that are not his by any normal societal standards.

Eddie's lake.

Unfortunately Daybreak does not agree that the lake is Eddie's and, therefore, still will not let him swim in it.

Eddie's Daddy.

Yes, this one is partially true. Dave is Eddie's Daddy, but he says it likes he owns Dave and can, therefore, climb up and sit on his head in the middle of sacrament meeting.

Eddie's Sarah Sue's house.

Sure, he visits nearly every day and acts like he owns the place, but to claim dual ownership is quite the advanced concept for a 2-year old brain, if you ask me.

"I hereby proclaim this post property of Eddie."

Holy Marathon, Batman!

Last month Eddie watched Batman: The Movie so many days in a row that he was starting to draw DiMaggio comparisons. Needless to say, Kristen and I were getting pretty tired of the United Underworld and their dehydrating hijinks.

Things finally changed when I got a Blu-ray player for my birthday, allowing us to watch all sorts of streaming online video services on our TV. I soon discovered every episode of the '60s Batman TV series on YouTube in six part increments, thus giving Batman: The Movie a much appreciated respite.

So, most evenings after I pick Eddie up from daycare, we tune in at the same bat-time to the same bat-channel for another episode. The video quality isn't the greatest, but he doesn't really care.

It's fun for me to recall certain moments from when I watched the show as a kid, such as Batman doing the batusi, or Robin catching a batarang with his teeth to avoid plummeting to his death. Eddie's favorite part is unquestionably singing along (and bouncing) during the opening credits, which I have captured in the following video.

Starting Daycare

Now that I have a new job, Eddie gets to go to daycare four afternoons a week. We found a nice in-home daycare in South Jordan that we are taking him to. Last week, Eddie and I visited twice, just to get to know the provider, Brooke, and to introduce Eddie to the other kids. Both times, he had a lot of fun playing with them, so I was hopeful that he would do okay when I actually left him there.

In preparation for this new adventure, we bought Eddie his own Toy Story backpack to keep his stuff in. Here he is all ready for his first day:


I took him into daycare yesterday and he was instantly clingy. He wouldn't let go of me, so when I had to leave, he had a breakdown and tried to climb up my legs. Luckily, Brooke took him off my hands to allow me to escape, even if it was a little disconcerting to leave him screaming my name. I imagined him spending the entire afternoon terrorizing the place and having Brooke tell us that she couldn't handle him. But, apparently he calmed down after a few minutes and did fine... even taking a nap, which I was sure he would not do. Hopefully this means that he will adjust well to the new arrangement. Now let's just hope that I'll adjust well to the new arrangement too!

Big Brother

We have been pondering how to approach the subject of our pregnancy with Eddie. So when I came upon our 2007 Christmas card while looking at his baby book with him the other day, I tried to seize the moment. I pointed to the ultrasound image and the box around Kristen's belly, and we had the following exchange:

Me: Did you know that you used to live in Momma's belly?
Eddie: Tree!
Me: Yeah, that's a tree. But you used to live in Momma's belly.
Eddie: Yeah, tree.

Clearly the concept is still a little above him. Picking a name for the fetus seems to have helped though. Now he will point to Kristen's belly and say "Morsel" (it sounds more like "muh-sow"). Of course he is also under the impression that I have a baby in my belly too. Silly boy, that's an entirely different kind of morsel.

Big Brother is watching you, Morsel.