"I'm stuck!"

Eddie loves boxes, so this time of year has been great for him. Not only do we have diaper boxes like always, but we have been getting a lot of packages since I'm doing all my Christmas shopping online. Eddie likes to fill the boxes with toys and carry them around. He likes to stand on the boxes, sit on the boxes, jump on the boxes, climb in the boxes, etc. Today, he wedged himself into this box and proudly declared, "Ine stuck!"

He paused long enough for a photo-op, then tipped over. Of course, at that point, he had to announce "I fall down!"

Eddie, the Con Artist

I always had good intentions to be one of those moms who doesn't cave into their kids unreasonable demands. I thought that with the proper combination of love and discipline, my kids would be little angels who would do whatever I asked.

Okay, so I was a little naive. Having never been around kids for extended periods, I did not realize the power such a little person can hold over the otherwise reasonable adults who raise them. Now I realize that successful parenting is not so much about finding the perfect combination of love and discipline that turns the kid into an angel and is more about surviving every day by choosing your battles.

Unfortunately, I think that lately, the toddler has been winning every battle. I have my excuses for my lax parenting, so I will lay them out for you:

1. I am rotund and achy and get very little sleep.
2. Eddie is a very stubborn child.
3. Eddie has been teething and/or sick for most of his life, so I feel bad when I put my foot down too often.
4. Eddie is a two year old and cannot be reasoned with.
5. Eddie is a master manipulator who knows exactly how to get his way.

It is Excuse #5 which I wish to discuss today. In just the last few days, I have started to notice how entirely Eddie is the master of this domain. I think we have been on a slippery slope for some time, but since we learned that his two-year molars are coming in, I have become even more lax than before, telling myself that he doesn't feel good and I shouldn't be too hard on him.

The reality is that Eddie knows my weak spots. Here are a few examples of how he messes with me and inevitably gets his way:

Scenario #1 Lunch

When we get home from work every morning, Eddie wants to "watch some-pin." I am okay with this because it gives me time to make lunch without being asked "what you doin?" eight thousand times. In former times, I would make said lunch, then turn off the TV while Eddie came into the kitchen, sat at the counter, and ate his lunch. Now when lunch is ready, I say "Eddie, do you want to come eat your lunch?" to which he immediately responds "No." When I press him, he says, "In living room?" Unfortunately, I have given into this request one too many times. Now if I say no, he bursts into tears and cannot be calmed until I bring him his lunch in the living room. Or, if I try to wait it out, thinking he will eventually get hungry and come into the kitchen, he will just not eat lunch.

Scenario #2 Lunch

The other trick Eddie likes to pull at lunch time (usually in conjunction with the one detailed above) is to be completely indecisive. I am happy to give him a choice on what he wants to eat as long as he follows through and eats what I make for him. Unfortunately, that is not usually how it works. I will say "Eddie, do you want toast with cheese for lunch?" For the sake of this scenario, we'll say he agrees. I go in the kitchen and make toast with cheese. After going through scenario #1, I bring his food into the living room and set it next to him on the couch. Then Eddie says "don't want cheesy toast any more." So I say "well what do you want?" I will suggest various things, which he will always reject. Finally, after the cheese on his toast has solidified into a greasy glob, he will request "sugar toast" (which is really cinnamon sugar toast, one of Ed's breakfast staples). Generally I try to restrict the sugar toast to a breakfast food, but if I refuse, he will then burst into tears, crying "want sugar toast! want sugar toast!" until I give in.

Scenario #3 Nap

After lunch, I attempt to convince Eddie that it is nap time. He has been pretty good about taking naps willingly and I can usually succeed in getting him up the stairs and into his bed. It is once he is in the bed that the tricks start. I tuck him in and walk to the door, at which point he says "Momma?" I turn and say "yes?" Then he says "Wanna say prayer?" I feel this is one request I ought to grant, so I come back in and try to get him to say a prayer. Of course now he refuses to say a prayer or listen to me say one. So I try again to leave and he again demands a prayer. Regardless of whether or not I say a prayer, he is always mad when I finally get frustrated and leave the room. At that point, he generally cries for 10 minutes, then switches to talking and singing for the next 50-75 minutes until I give in and go get him out of bed.

So here is my appeal to you: how do I turn the tables and regain control of our lives? Do I let Eddie go hungry if he refuses to do as I ask? Do I stop asking what he wants to eat and just make something else instead then insist that he eat it? Or do I continue to give in to his demands and end up with one of those 300 pound 3 year olds and we'll go on Dr. Phil so he can berate me for not feeding my child enough vegetables and letting him watch too much TV?

An Incident

This morning, as Eddie and Dave went "out-outside" to play, Eddie tripped on the porch and dove down our cement stairs. His face hit the edge of the bottom stair. Needless to say, he was a bit upset.


I took this photo hours later. It looked a lot worse right after it happened, with a big blue lump forming just above the scrape within minutes. The lump went down pretty quickly, but I imagine the scrape will last several days.

Big Boy Bed

As a way of easing the transition when Morsel is born, we decided to move Eddie out of the crib a few months early and get the nursery set up. Luckily for us, Eddie's cousin Zach was quickly outgrowing his race car toddler bed, so we were able to borrow it. We brought it home on Friday. Eddie enjoyed playing on it while it was in the car:

After we got home, Eddie wanted to watch a movie, which gave us approximately 1.5 hours of uninterrupted setup time. After some struggle, we managed to get the crib out of Eddie's room (without having to completely take it apart) and got his new bed set up. I tried to convince him to smile for the photo:

He's slept in it for two nights now and hasn't had any problems. Our problem is nap time. Friday, he got out and came downstairs while he was supposed to be napping, so Saturday, we just put him in the crib for his nap. Hopefully he will get used to it and will take naps in the bed because I am not ready for the naps to end.

Ed's Fashion Sense

Everyone wishes they had fashion sense like Ed's.

Generally, I would never let Eddie leave the house in such an ensemble. But on Friday, I was trying to get all his long pants washed for the weekend, so of course he had an "incident" in the pair he was wearing while all the others were in the wash. I pulled out these lovely yellow pants and he was so excited to wear them that he also demanded to wear his yellow shirt.

We ended up going out for dinner that evening and didn't bother changing his clothes first, so I'm sure we got plenty of weird looks from people. Dave and I couldn't stop cracking up every time we'd look at Ed strutting around Buster Burger looking like a banana.

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.