We had a busy weekend keeping Edward entertained despite some persistent rain. After being cooped up inside all morning and through nap time on Saturday, John and Edward welcomed the opportunity to head outside for a bit of raking. The leaves and grass were wet, but they didn't seem to mind. Edward and John had different ideas about what "helping" entails, but they got some piles out for our first pick-up this week. (The city sends a truck with a vacuum attachment to pick up whatever you rake to the curb, but not in the street. If we're home when that happens, Ed may pass out from excitement.) Edward found the rake to be most useful when turned upside down so as to scoop leaves out of the pile. Luckily, John worked faster than Ed and managed to get him surrounded, which both found quite amusing.

Another funny moment came when Edward pulled the "Cubs 101" book from the shelf, where it had been in mourning for the last week. He brought it to me and flipped through for a while, identifying the balls, bat, shoes, hats, etc. But then he found the pages with the lyrics for "Take me out to the ballgame" and started "dancing" until I sang it for him. After one chorus, I turned the page to look at the other pictures, but he turned it back and demanded "more more!" After I sang it three times and John sang it twice, we called PopPop (who had provided the book in preparation for the post-season) so he could sing. Unfortunately he wasn't home Friday night and didn't get the message until this afternoon (and I'M the one in my family who gets made fun of for being low-tech?) by which time the moment had passed. I feared we'd have to go another five rounds if we put PopPop on speaker phone to share the song with Ed.

The rain thwarted our plans for a visit to the pumpkin patch on Saturday. We'll try again next week. In the meantime, Ed and I went to Grandma and Grandpa Kenyon's house on Saturday morning where there are lots of "pum-po"s. Also some ghosts and witches and other assorted seasonal decorations. Edward was even more in heaven than he usually is at their house. He learned that ghosts say "boo" and he got a new book with a Halloween theme so he can continue to live the "pum-po" dream even after the holiday has passed. He also likes it because it's a Corduroy book, which means it has two O's in the title. He loves to find O's in his books and elsewhere in the world. He can also identify B--plucking it from the assorted magnet letters on the side of the dishwasher. I don't think we've emphasized these over other letters, but for whatever reason, these are the first he can readily identify.

And speaking of favorite books, here are some snippets from "Dig Dig Digging," which is the first book we ever checked out from the library for Edward. We've been afraid that he might not be gentle enough for borrowed books. We've had to remind him to be careful with this one and have kept it out of his reach when it's not in use. He knows where it is though and will stand beneath it pointing and demanding "dig dig!" until we take it down and start reading. This happens three or four times each day and usually entails starting over from the beginning as soon as the last word is read. We decided to buy a copy when we realized what chaos might ensue if it left our house.

This is a bit on the long side (2 min.) and the opening segment is a bit dark, but I included it for the demonstration of his "jumping" and other gymnastic abilities and because he asks for "dig" at the very end. Yes, that is a package of diapers he is jumping from. What a daredevil.