Weekend Update

Eddie is doing really well at feeding himself. In this picture you can see him eating corn with a fork. It is hard for him to use the fork correctly on corn, so he utilizes it like a spoon. He dips the fork in the Tupperware, scoops corn onto it, and watches the corn intently as he brings it to his mouth. Then he eats it usually off the side of the fork. As he does so, he kind of wraps his lower lip around the fork. So cute! I am really proud of him.

Eddie has crazy hair! It seems to be a lot like Ben's. It is so soft. It gets long fast. When it first starts to get long, it curls around the ears and back of the neck. Really quickly, though, it loses the curl and is just long. You can't just brush it and have it be calm and in place. Not any old brush will do. He gets really bad bedhead. You can style it wild with hardly any effort, as you can see in the picture. I feel like I am already having to consider giving him a haircut. Only one of my friend's has had to worry about cutting her little boy's hair this young. I can't do it yet. I can't even cut his fingernails.

Eddie held his toy phone to his ear for the first time today. He used both hands to do so. He would also hold it up to Ben's ear. It was so cute. This is the best picture I have. He is starting to take the phone away from his ear, though.

Tonight Eddie was opening his pajama drawer. I said, "While you are in there, why don't you pick out some jam-jams for you to wear tonight?" He had turned and looked at me as I spoke. When I was done, he immediately turned back to the drawer, pulled out the top pair of pajamas, and started crawling towards me with a big smile on his face. I was shocked! The pair he had grabbed was rather warm. So I said, "No. That one is too warm. Try again." He let go of that pair, went back to the drawer, grabbed a lighter pajama bottom, and brought it to me with a big smile on his face." I praised him and said, "Now you need a shirt. Get the one that looks the same as this one." He went back to the drawer, grabbed an undershirt, and looked at me. I said, "No, get the one that looks the same as this." He grabbed a second undershirt. I realized that it didn't need to match the pajamas bottoms. I told him it was great, and he brought it to me! Can you believe it? Ben took a picture of him in the pajamas, just to document the first time he chose his own clothes.

This weekend we also worked at doing a better job of childproofing our home. Eddie loves playing with the tv, unplugging things, and pulling down lamps. We rearranged all of our furniture to better accommodate him. It looks dumb. His dresser is our new tv stand (the only thing tall enough for him to not be able to reach the tv). Our couch is in the corner covering some of the blinds, the bookshelf, and the lamp! Now we just need to move the computer into our bedroom, and our lives will be a lot easier and happier.

Ben and I began reading Harry Potter six this weekend. We are only 80 pages in, but I am enjoying it more than usual!

Oh, and we have a/c! It takes a lot longer to cool down than it used to, though.

Thanks for reading!

I'm hot.

Our home's air conditioning stopped working Tuesday around 5 p.m. I immediately called the office (apartment living). They said they would send someone "today". By 6:45 no one had showed. They close at 7, so I called again. The person who answered this time said she hadn't heard about our problem. She said the maintenance people had gone home, but if I called the emergency number they would come back and fix it tonight. I did that several times and left messages. Of course, I didn't hear a word from them. So we settled in for a long, hot night. Eddie had a hard time going to sleep and staying asleep. It was a very hard night. Ben and I both had headaches that lasted through the next day.

Wednesday morning the maintenance man showed at 9:45. It took him until 11 to fix the a/c. At 11 he said it would take two hours to cool down the house. Eddie and I went to playgroup. We came home to a cool house. Yeah! We were so happy! End of story right? Wrong!

Thursday morning by 8 a.m. the a/c was not working. I waited until 10 to make sure. Then I began calling the office. No one answered. I kept leaving messages. They finally called back at 12:30. Maybe that doesn't sound like a long time. When you are as hot as we were, it feels like an eternity. They said they would send someone right over.

Two hours later the maintenance man arrived. He tried a couple of things then left. I was putting Eddie to bed. Ben talked to him. Apparently the best communication didn't occur. Ben wasn't sure if he was coming back or not. So we waited.

By 4, we were so miserable I began calling the front office again. I spoke to people and left messages. No one ever showed. So we had another hot night. And we feel miserable this morning. It is 9:55. The office opens in five minutes, and I get to start calling AGAIN. I hate being mean. I hate having to do the same thing over and over again. I hate having to live like this. At least once a month this happens.

Here's to hoping it will be cool soon!

Boxcar Races

Yesterday Eddie had a lot of fun being pushed around the house in a box. When I would stop, he would tell me to go again by holding onto the sides and moving his upper body forward.


As soon as he got out, he got his stuffed giraffe and put him in the box. He proceeded to push his giraffe down the hall. Later I put his bear in the box. He wanted to get in, too. During their ride together, he gave bear a constant hug. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of that one. It was really cute and fun.

Window Watcher

The past few days Eddie has begun to spend some time each day looking out the window. He initiates it. Sometimes I look up to see him leaning against the glass, pointing to and talking about the grass and the cars. Sometimes he is kissing the window. Other times he is eating the blind cord. I don't know if this started because I was having him watch the rain out the window a lot last week. The blinds being closed never stops him from looking. He pulls them open, bending and even breaking them! My cute little window watcher!

Me? Me? Meme?

Tag. I'm it. Here are some random things about me.

1. If I ever go back to school, it will be to get a degree in Literature. Just for fun. I think I will need awhile, though, to want to do the school thing again.

2. My dream vacation is London, England. I cannot definitively explain it. It looks beautiful--the green spaces, rain, and classical architecture. What's not to love, besides the food and, maybe, the people?

3. I hope that one day I will take voice lessons. It sounds horrifying to sing for someone that will critique me. I really think if I could get over my fear, though, I could actually become a good singer.

4. The other day I put Eddie's medicine in brownie pieces in order to get him to take it. It worked. Kind of. It was really messy, and I don't know how much he actually got. Does this count as a random thing about me?

5. I went through a period that lasted for several months where I often dreamed about smoking. I would wake up thinking I wanted a cigarette. ME! Disgusting.

6. I am going through a phase where I am really sad to not have a sister (no offense, wonderful sisters-in-law!). This could be a blog in and of itself. Briefly, I think it started when our friend was here visiting. She often talked about how much she loves her sister, whom she lives by. It sounded neat, but I will never know! Sad.

7. I associate Sundays with baked potatoes. It began several years ago when Ben was sharing Felicity with me (he had watched the first season when it originally aired; I had never seen it). We got all the seasons from the library and watched them on Sundays while we ate baked potatoes. So I used to associate Sundays with baked potatoes and Felicity. We still eat baked potatoes almost every Sunday (mine with cheese, sour cream, bacon bits, and pickles! yum!!).

8. I like to sleep with the blankets all the way up to my chin. This was probably one of the things that was hardest for me to sacrifice during Eddie's first year of life (he wouldn't sleep if he was covered at all, and he slept with me).

There you have it, folks! You surprised?

A Rainy Day--and we went out to play!!

Summer is the rainy season in Georgia, and it rains a lot! Lately, Edison has taken to watching the rain fall. Yesterday, during a particularly big storm, I took him outside to watch. Tentatively, I had us step into the rainfall, to see how he would react. He loved it! He kept pointing at it, wanting us to go back. We got absolutely soaked!!



This picture was taken seconds before lightning hit right behind us. The thunder roared at exactly the same time. Ben screamed and ran inside without us! Eddie screamed and cried inconsolably for the next ten minutes. I don't want him to be scared of rain and thunderstorms in the future. I spent a lot of time talking him calmly through the rest of the thunder in our afternoon storm.

Walking and Talking

Edison took his first official steps on Sunday. He has inadvertently taken steps before (like when he lets go of holding onto the furniture yet keeps walking). He wasn't aware of it, though. We have tried to get him to walk back and forth between us. He would never do it without holding our hands. Then on Sunday he initiated walking back and forth between us. For the first few steps he would hold our hands. Then he would let go and walk on his own for the last three or four steps. He knew he was doing it and was so proud of himself. Yesterday he was sitting on my lap when he decided he wanted to walk by himself to his teddy bear. He took the necessary four steps and fell upon arrival. It upset him quite a bit, and he wouldn't walk anymore yesterday. First thing this morning, though, he was walking between Ben and me again. I know for some kids it is months from this point to officially walking on their own. I don't know how it will go for Eddie. I am actually kind of nervous because this opens up a whole new world that I am not sure how to prepare for.

On Saturday Eddie said his fifth word, fan. He says "an". He, like many young children, has been fascinated with fans for several months now. He always points out every fan he sees and hears and "talks" a great deal about it. Anyway, he pointed to the fan and said "an, an". I was excited but wasn't sure if he completely understood what he was doing. That evening we went to dinner at a restaurant that had many ceiling fans. During dinner he repeatedly pointed out every fan and yelled (not spoke) "an" about each one! Ben thinks he even said "fan" once, but I am not sure. He definitely knows what he is saying. So uh,oh, Dad, Mom, no, and fan are his words.

Eddie mimics every word we say, though. The cutest word he repeated yesterday was orange juice. He said "oran ju". He seemed to be practicing it later as he was trying to play with the computer. Over the last couple of days he has said such big words as cheese, butter, banana, and handle. This is such an exciting time!

Bye bye, Baby Eddie!

Hello, big guy! Eddie got his big boy carseat. So far it is fun to play with.


The box isn't bad, either!

Milk Man

Eddie's father is not the milk man. However, Eddie must have a connection with the milk man because he loves his product. He started drinking whole milk on Monday. I didn't know how it would go. I just gave him some cold in a sippy cup, as an experiment. He drank it all and wanted more. When given the option between his water cup and his milk cup, he chooses milk every time! He is my little milk man!

The problem is (and now I am going to rant, which wasn't the purpose of my post)that milk is expensive in Georgia. I don't know if they don't have cows here or what. When we moved here milk was $3.40. Once in awhile you could find it on sale at a gas station for $2.99. That never occurs anymore. There is this brand here that is in a golden-colored container (you can't even see the milk!) that has always been $4.79--for a gallon of milk! Well, now the normal milk is $3.99, and the golden milk is $5.79!!!! Going to the cheap grocery store (the place where you bag your own groceries; it is great--really it is!), you get to buy milk for $3.50. I guess the good news is whole milk and skim milk cost the same amount at all stores. I rant about this all the time to my friend that lives here. She moved here from Florida, and she is so happy because milk is so cheap here!!!!! What does milk cost where you live?

Birthday Boy

Eddie picked out this "hot purple" teddy bear himself. He saw it at the store when we were shopping for his birthday. He held it the whole time we were there, continuously burying his face in its belly and smiling in pure delight. How could we not get it for him?! The night before his birthday, after he was asleep, I put it in his booster seat for him to find the next morning. He was so happy to see it in his chair. Now every time he sees it, he crawls to it and lays on it. That is what he is doing in this picture. It is really sweet!


Throughout the day I put different presents out for him to discover and unwrap. He had just found this gift and was trying to figure out how to get into it.



He opened his blocks and stacked them. He has played with blocks before, but this is the first time he has tried to stack them himself!


Another first that happened to occur on his birthday was he pushed his car along the floor.


He liked the horse on his new book.


We didn't do his cake until last night. He was interested in the burning candle. As you can see, he got into the frosting right away!



At first he was hesitant to pick up his cupcake and eat. He kept pointing at it and at the frosting all over his fingers. Eventually he went for it, though. Ben got some great photos.


Really digging in!


And loving it!



And, in true Eddie fashion, his cake eating experience couldn't be complete if he didn't share it with his Mommy!

It was a great day!

Eddie's First Year

A year in pictures



July 28, 2006



August 13, 2006
post-Atlanta move-E's first smile caught on camera




September 30, 2006



Edison's first Halloween



early in November



early in December, first time in stroller




January 12, 2007-first time at park



February 6, 2007



March 23, 2007


April 5, 2007



May 26, 2007



June 2, 2007

Proof that he grew from a baby to a little boy. I still can't help but ask where my baby went. What an honor to have been a part of every minute of his life thus far. How I love him!

Eddie's First Birthday Cake

Since Eddie really likes teddy bears, I made him a a teddy bear cake. I wouldn't expect someone to want to spend money on it, but I am pretty pleased with how it turned out! It was really special to make my baby a birthday cake. I can't believe I have had him a whole year!!!

Eddie's First Fourth

Eddie enjoyed feeding himself watermelon at our ward picnic.


He really is lounging here (he is leaning back on one of his arms) while he is eating. He is watching a volleyball game. He loved that ball until it almost hit him! When it first started coming our way, he got so excited he started to clap. Then it got really close and he jumped. It was so funny!



We were nervous to "go to" the fireworks, not knowing how E would react to the sound. We planned to watch them from the car. As were driving to find a spot, they began. We pulled over in a parking lot, got out, and watched from there. The view was slightly obstructed, but we still got a really good show. Other people stopped and joined us. We were so close that the noise was really loud. It didn't seem to bother Eddie, though. He kept looking behind us to see what was back there (the noise was echoing). He was tired, so he didn't react much. He pointed when they were really glittery. He half smiled once. He danced to the noise a couple of times. It was really fun and will be a sweet memory.







Ready to go to bed!

Early Birthday Gifts

Eddie received his first birthday present on Saturday. It was an adorable knitted frog from Ben's school friends. I know I have mentioned how Eddie loves stuffed animals. When he pulled this one out of the bag, he immediately gave it a big hug! Usually he hugs them by bringing them to the crook of his neck with one hand. This one he envelops in a big hug with both arms. He even sleeps with it now. He will wrap one arm around it in bed. It is really sweet!


Yesterday he received a birthday package from my mom. His gift was wrapped in dog wrapping paper. He would point to a dog and say "af". He can bark! Isn't that cute?!?


He also loved the packing peanuts! Mmmm...yum, yum!!

One Tooth

Eddie is finally getting a tooth! If you look closely at his upper gum, you'll see his right tooth is coming in. They both are, actually, but the right one is a lot faster. I am so excited for him, although I am going to miss his gummy grin!