Eddie's own Roller Coaster!

Dad put this toy together tonight and of course, we had to let Eddie play with it. It was a lot of work to build it. Unfortunately, it was sunset and pretty dark outside. But it was worth letting him try it a few times instead of waiting an extra day. It was finally delivered on Monday (4 days ago)  after waiting for it since early July! Here is a short clip of Eddie on his very own roller coaster!

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Counting and jumping off steps (and a butterfly)

This afternoon, Eddie was in a terrible mood, asking me for things like chocolate cake, which I don't have on hand. I made him a peanut butter sandwich and sweetened the peanut butter with cocoa and honey. He ate it up and wanted...no, scratch that, DEMANDED more "chocolate cake!" I told him he had to eat something else and that's when he had a fit.

I knew he was just bored, so I got up and took him and Zero out to a nearby enclosed/gated garden. Eddie's mood changed as soon as we walked out of the house. We walked around the garden for about an hour, very slowly.
Here are some clips of us before we were accidentally locked in the garden.

Here we are admiring a butterfly. You can hear Eddie say
"Beauuuutiful butterfly!"
"Hi Butterfly 2" (meaning it has 2 wings) he made that up right then.
You can't see the butterfly, so I moved in closer to scare it away and then we could see it on camera.
When it flies away, Eddie says "Bye bye butterfly, I'll see you!"


Here is Eddie counting steps:




and then....jumping off the steps (be still my heart)


On our way out of the enclosed garden, I noticed the only entry/exit door was locked. So, I went around to the empty parking lot and flagged down a man that happened to be walking by. He was kind enough to notify the people who work there, who luckily were still there. They went back there to open the door for me and assured me it wasn't locked in the first place. I accepted their point and told them I probably didn't pull on the door hard enough. They stayed behind and shortly after the door closed on them, I heard them banging on the door. They locked themselves out. They told me, next time I need to be aware that they close and lock that door at 5 pm, but hope we enjoyed ourselves and hope we come back :) LOL!
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Eddie is 2 and a half (or 30 months) today

Last night, Eddie asked me (in clear words and for the first time) "What's this?" He was inquiring about a  little, red, fabric refresher, spray bottle we keep by the bed. I told him we used it to make the bed smell nice. I sprayed it on the bed and asked him to sniff it. His little nostrils flared as he leaned in the take several sniffs. Then, he said "mmmmm!" I laughed and called dad over to tell him about the moment. It was so funny. I know this is the begining of many "What's this?" events, but for now, it was a truly heart-warming one.

Currently, Eddie is impressed by everything grandpa does. Here is a video of grandpa throwing a hula hoop so that it rotates and returns. Eddie was so impressed, for the first time in a while, he wanted to take the hula hoop home with him.


When I dropped him off that morning, Eddie saw that grandpa was home (he noticed his car was parked outside) and he anxiously got out of his car seat, walked right into the house, looking for grandpa. (BTW: Eddie knows which car belongs to who-Grandma's car, the neighbor's car, his aunts car, our car etc)

He continues to try to be as independent as possible. Trying to buckle him in is a bit of a challenge for us adults, because he wants to do it himself. To quote him "I can do it!" as he gives you a stern look.

Sometimes we will catch him saying long sentences. Like the other day, his cousin approached with an ice cream and he literally said: "I want to share ice cream with Sofia Jaime" the other day, grandma heard him say "Payasito, porque no te quieres meter en tu casa?" (Little clown, why don't you want to go in your house?)
Although, Eddie doesn't speak in sentences like these, it's a real treat to
hear him suddenly splurt out a few words in a row like this.

Eddie continues to try to challenge us on almost everything we ask him to do or not to do. I have to remind myself and dad not to give up and to be aware of when a challenge is happening. It's easy to look into his cute face and want to give in. But we all understand we are raising a man, not a baby. Most of Eddie's life, he will be a man and we want him to be a good one.

About the smarty pants in Eddie: Eddie loves to name colors and colored objects. Every morning, as we drive to grandma's, he says "Red truck, black car, white car, otro (other) white car" as he sees the cars pass us by or the ones already ahead of us.

He is now counting objects and can count up to 20 objects, with some errors here and there. But he understands the concept. Sometimes he likes to pretend he is counting. Like, the other day, he saw a spinning fan and pretended to count the blades though he could not see them, as they were spinning too fast.
He is currently learning the concept of 2 digit numbers beyond 20. He doesn't have it quite yet, but he understands it.

He can show me every number from 1-10 on his fingers!

He knows his own age and can say his name when asked what his name is (either in English or in Spanish) "Eddie Jaime" he says.

Grandma taught him to say our names (parents) and grandparents names, if asked. He says Iris Jaime or Gerardo Jaime for his parents.

He also can sign almost all of the alphabet, something that he wanted to learn on his own.

Eddie recognizes the pledge of allegiance and will sometimes say some of the words when he sees an American flag.

Here is a small list of Eddie's current favorite songs:
Shapes song (circle, triangle rectangle, square)
ABC Sounds song (Apple Apple A-A-A)
What's the name of that song?
Slippery Fish (especially the burping part and then "pardon me!")
Small World


This is all I can update for now. I am sure I am missing tons of stuff. If Dad or grandma or anyone else who knows him, wants to contribute in a comment, that's awesome. If not, well this is what I have for now :)

Happenings with Eddie

Woah! I haven't blogged about Eddie lately. It's been almost a week. I don't even have many updated pictures. Recently, it's been kind of a roller coaster with him. He is just all over the place crazy, crazy!

Two weekends ago, he was (as usual) running and running and RUNNING, when he tripped, fell and landed his nose on a brick. It swole up so much, we thought it was broken. We took him to the Dr and turns out, the chances of him breaking his nose at this age is so slim. They told us to just put some ice on it and take him home. His nose healed up in less than a week.

Last week, he also caught a pretty bad cold/cough and was not breathing well at night. Gerardo put on the humidifier every night, we applied baby vapo rub on his chest and made him sleep almost upright on his back. His fever shot up to 102 at 3 am, about 2 nights in a row. So, dad and I stayed up trying to get it to come down. He is better now.

This weekend, I was home alone with him. Dad and uncle Isai went to take some items to be recycled. I was making Eddie some lunch in the kitchen, and on the phone, when I heard the front door open. I ran over to see Eddie standing there with the front door wide open. He saw me walking toward him, so he tried to either leave quickly or tried to get back in. In his hurry, he put his finger, in between the iron door and the door frame as the door closed. He wailed so loud, I thought he broke it. I took a look at it and it looks like it's just going to bruise. It's still a little bruised, but he is ok.

Yesterday, we went to a birthday party. It was a real challenge to keep him away from cupcakes. Since breakfast, I purposely avoided giving him processed sugar, because I didn't want to deal with tantrums at the birthday party. Processed sugar just really puts him in a terrible mood.
At the party, he kept asking for cupcakes. I ended up giving him half of a chocolate cupcake and scraped off about 90% of the icing (per tio Isai's suggestion.) After that, we gave him watermelon, which he  really enjoyed. He asked me for 2 more slices! Yesterday, went pretty well after tio Isai kept him busy on the playground and we avoided giving him processed sugar-A perfect recipe resulting in good behavior (for Eddie.)

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Sing like no one is listening

Eddie likes to sing outloud when he is happy. In this video, he is singing the ABC sounds song. The song says "Apple, Apple A A A" and then there is a line for each letter of the alphabet. In this video, he sings: "Necklace, Necklace N N N....Flower, Flower...F F F!!!!"



This a video from our walk to the park this weekend. Dad sleeps in, so I like to take Eddie out of the house to give dad some quiet time. Also, Eddie asks me to take him outside a lot, so you always see me blogging about us being outdoors together.

He is just growing up so fast!

Trying to enjoy every second.

Close your eyes

Eddie did this when he heard this song, so I wanted to record him.

First school field trip

All of these photos were taken with my cell phone camera.

Eddie's first school field trip was at this family theme park, called Adventure City. This is a random video slideshow I found online.

Dad and I took the day off to attend this field trip. Since Tio Isai is visiting, he came along too.

Although we arrived at 10 am when the park opened, the temperature was already very warm.

We were happy to see a water-misting tent area-very cooling!

When we arrived, the park was empty, except for Eddie's classmates and their parents. Because of that, we were able to let Eddie off the stroller and allow him to run ahead. He eventually checked in to the train that goes around the park. That was the first ride we got on.

Eddie even got on one of the roller coasters! He didn't like it at all. Dad got him on video. He was cringing and asking me to stop the ride.

There was a cute petting zoo, with baby animals in it. Just the right size for babies and toddlers to view and pet.

By the time it was noon, Eddie had been on nearly all the rides. We did take our time and even sat down to watch a live puppet show and have brunch.

Then, Eddie started to nod off. The class instructor invited us for cupcakes and a birthday get together, but we ended up going home. It was really very hot out there at 12 pm, even in the shade-The type of annoying heat that gives you headaches.

What a nice experience for us to have as a family.

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Head banging with Tio Isai

Eddie and tio (uncle) Isai head banging in the backseat of the car on our way home from a 4th of July family get together.