These Shoes are Made for Walking

Not too much has been new this week.  We are getting back into our normal routine, which has been nice.  Eddie has been doing a lot more walking.  He seems to prefer walking over crawling, but he can't get back up if he falls down unless he is able to hold onto something.  He enjoys chasing Sammy, as well walking into the bathroom to unroll toilet paper or our bedroom to take tissue out of the Kleenex box.  As you can imagine, this makes it a lot of fun for Mama who gets to chase him all over the place.  I think that he enjoys practicing walking around more than anything.

We put his little walker away over the weekend (to make room for the baby shower) and he hasn't seemed to miss it.  I think we'll give it back to Grandma and Grandpa this weekend.

The funny thing about him doing all this walking is that he doesn't seem to care if something is in his way.  He will try and usually fail at walking over various objects (toys) that are on the floor.  Today I notice he got his foot stuck in a little gift bag.  It didn't slow him down, but he was getting frustrated with it on his foot.

So Behind!

I am so behind in blogging, I don't even know where to begin!  It's been a busy couple of weeks.  I knew that the end of the month would be a bit crazy, but I had no idea that I wouldn't be blogging!  It started last Sunday, well, really Saturday.  Uncas was heading out of town for work (to Orlando, poor guy) and so my parents were planning on coming to stay with Eddie and I for part of that time.  Due to weather in MN, they moved their travel plans up a day to come on Saturday night.  Uncas departed without any problems on Sunday morning, but a couple of hours after he left, the snow started.  It snowed and snowed and kept snowing all through Sunday and Monday!  Thank goodness my parents were here to help with the shoveling!  Actually - my mom pretty much did all the shoveling - both Uncas and I were so grateful!!! We were pretty much housebound for two for full days, which we weren't expecting, but it was fine.  Eddie loved playing with them.

Finally we got out on Tuesday to do shopping and we went out to dinner.  While my parents were here, I was busy getting ready to throw a baby shower for one of my close friends.  My mom helped me out a lot with the prep and took care of Eddie, so I could shop and bake.  Eddie and I LOVED having my parents here.  We were sad to see them go on Wednesday afternoon.

Uncas came home on Thursday night and was home all day on Friday.  That was huge because I was busy running around cleaning, baking and getting ready for the shower.  Saturday was a long day for us.  The shower started at 11, so we were all up early.  Of course it started snowing and snowed all day long!  But that didn't stop people from coming to the shower.  It was a big success and I think my friend was pleased with how everything turned out.

Literally an hour after the last guest left, Uncas and I had just sat down from cleaning up and Grandma Nimz showed up.  She was in the Cities for a workshop and agreed to spend the night and baby-sit, so we could actually go out.  So, we changed, picked a movie and off we went to see The King's Speech.  It was nice to get out, but we were home by 7 pm and in bed asleep by 9 pm.  Fortunately Grandma got up with Eddie on Sunday, so we could sleep in until 8 am!

Sunday was spent as a family-fun day.  We did no work around the house, but instead took Eddie to an indoor park and then out to lunch.  In the afternoon we just played at home.  It was so much fun!

I didn't take a lot of pictures over the past couple of weeks, but here are a few:

Mamas-to-be - Jess and Me

Jess, Nic and Me (all used to work at Musicland!)

Eddie at the indoor park

Eddie with Grandma Jo

Eddie finally holding his own sippy cup

Eddie and Grandpa

11 Months!

Wow - I can't believe there is only one month left until Eddie turns 1!  Although, at the same time, he is definitely growing like crazy.  Here are some highlights from the past month:

• Walking - I would definitely say that we have a walker in the house.  He still prefers to crawl if he wants to get somewhere quickly, but he also really likes to stand and hold on to things to walk around.  Every day he is getting more confident and tries to walk further on his own without holding onto anything.  He likes to hold on to our hands, but this month he has graduated to just holding on to one of our hands.  I like to have him walk as much as possible to tire him out!  He also likes using his walker and is getting much better about steering around corners.
• Sleeping - It's always a topic for parents.  I am happy to say that for the most part, things are going well in this department.  We had some long nights when he had his ear infection, but he's back to normal.  He still goes to bed around 6 and usually wakes up around 5 am.  We change his diaper and on good days can get him to sleep until 7 am - yay!  Some mornings he'll just wake up at 6 and then he's up for the day.  He still takes two naps (which this Mama loves!)
• The dog - Poor Sammy!  Eddie still LOVES Sammy.  A lot!  He also loves Sammy's toys.  He tries to give Sammy his toys, but Sammy usually doesn't want much to do with that.  They still play and Sammy does like to chew his rawhide bones around Eddie, but Eddie likes to take them, taste them, and give them back to Sammy.  Sammy's pretty tolerant and will come hang out with us, but he doesn't like Eddie reaching for him.  One thing that Eddie does love is when Sammy licks his head.  Eddie just laughs and laughs!
• Communication - Eddie hasn't shown any interest in learning sign language.  I try, but he could care less.  He still won't clap his hands either, but he will hold to blocks or balls and bang them together, so I know that he has the capability to do so.  He has a good understanding of what we are saying now.  He knows what I mean when I say "diaper change", "upstairs", "night-night", "That toy is Sammy's, give Sammy the toy", "walker", "time to eat", "bottle", "water", "books" and the list goes on.  He definitely can let us know when he wants something - he's good at reaching out and making an "eehhh-eehh" sound.  Of course it doesn't help when I have no idea what exactly it is.  
• Playing - He's really starting to take an interest in his toys.  Many things that he received for Christmas, he is just now starting to figure out.   He still likes reading books.  He likes to take objects out of bags/containers, hand them to you or bang them together and then place them back into the bag or container.  He's into sharing and often will hand over toys to Uncas and I after he has inspected them.
• Food - He's still a fairly good eater, but lately he's starting to drop things on the floor on purpose.  Sometimes I think it's because he wants a clear highchair tray and other times I think it's because Sammy is hanging out below waiting for something.  He also prefers to eat what we are eating (if we are eating the same time as him).  When we go out to restaurants he is still fairly well behaved.  There are so many distractions to keep him occupied which really helps.  

It's still hard to take his monthly picture.  Thank goodness there is only more month left (I am stopping these monthly updates after 12 months).  Here are the ones I tried to capture yesterday.

Wordless Wednesday

Someone loves our new screen doors in this warmer weather!

Happy Valentine's Day 2011!

Eddie's first balloon!

Family lunch today!

I hope everyone is able to spend Valentine's Day with the people they love!  This morning we opened presents and cards.  Eddie and I met Uncas for lunch later in the day.  This afternoon while I was grocery shopping, I decided to get Eddie his first balloon.  I'm not really a balloon person, but I am a total sucker for putting a smile on Eddie's face!  He loved it a lot.  It also kept him entertained while I unloaded all the groceries.  Normally he likes to "help"! 

What We Have Been Doing

It's been a while, but we've been here.  Last week Eddie ended up getting sick :-(  He just had an ear infection and he is on the mend now.  I would say that finally today he completely seems like his normal self.  Sleeping at night has been challenging, sleeping during the day has also been challenging, so it was nice to get back to our routine.  Because he was sick, we missed his second swimming lesson, but that's ok. 

We are getting to that part of winter were you think its never going to end!  I'm going stir-crazy and so is the dog!  Eddie probably doesn't know any different, but he has to be getting bored of our living room!  I do try and get out of the house at least once a day, so that helps.  Today I finally went to the indoor park by our house.  I am kicking myself that it took me so long to check it out.  Kids under 1 year are free!  Of course the park is mainly geared towards kids ages 1-12, but we managed to find a little section that was perfect for Eddie.  He really enjoyed crawling and climbing around.  He even went down a slide (on my lap) for the first time.  It's super close to our house, so I have a feeling that I will be heading there a lot more often in the next month and 1/2.  Even after he is one, I think paying to go once in awhile will totally be worth it!

Here are some cute pictures of Eddie from the past week:

Reading Books

Hanging out in Sammy's bed

Playing with magnets on the fridge

20 Weeks!

This week I hit the 20 week mark with this pregnancy.  That means that technically I am half way through!  Although if this child is anything like its brother, it might take a little longer*.  I had Uncas take a 20 week picture last night.  I also pulled up my 20 week photo with Eddie.  I am definitely bigger this time around (and yes, I purposely wore the same shirt).  You will also note the tasty blizzard from DQ that I was holding in my hand last night.  It was a must have after my much needed hair cut!

20 Weeks - baby #2

20 Weeks baby #2

20 Weeks with Eddie

Overall I am feeling fine.  I think I have finally kicked the "morning" sickness, so that has been very nice.  I've had a little heartburn, but I was expecting it and so far it's been manageable with TUMS.  Nothing else very exciting to report.  I am just busy chasing Eddie around these days.  He's been walking more and more even though he still prefers to hold on to a hand or something else.  But he is getting more and more confident and often takes a few steps on his own.

Looking for money in Mama's wallet

Hiding in the kitchen cabinets

*Please save your comments that second babies tend to come sooner.  I was my mother's second child and I was 2 weeks late while my mom was only a week late with my brother.  I am fully prepared to go past 41 weeks again with this one.