Update: We made it through the night with only one brief interruption. Edward cried at about 2:45 a.m. and I went in hoping to help him find his pacifier and settle back down. (Yes, he still uses one, but only in bed!) He stood up and was clinging to me so I picked him up and cuddled a few minutes before trying to set him back in the bed. He squeezed his arms around my neck and tried climbing back up my torso with his feet, all while crying. So I lay next to him in his bed until he fell back asleep--about half an hour. I tried to leave sooner, but he popped his head up to object. Luckily that cry brought John so I could request a blanket. You can see from the picture that we didn't bother with blankets for this bed. Edward just kicks them off, so I figured, what's the point? At 3 a.m. I discovered the point.

He slept in until about 7:15 this morning (usual wake up is about 6:30.) He did this the last two mornings in his crib though, so I can't fully attribute it to the new comfy confines. Perhaps it's the fact that we're not up and around getting ready for work. Whatever the case, we'll welcome the extra bed time!

So far so good. Edward has been asleep for about an hour now in his new bed, which John and Grandpa spent the better part of the afternoon getting ready for him. This was a major project because it involved moving all the furniture in both bedrooms so that Ed is now occupying our former room and vice versa. This was necessary because we couldn't fit furniture for two kids into the former Ed room. The new bed had been in storage since Grandma and Grandpa moved this summer. The mattress and box spring are new, but the bed itself dates back to John's childhood (and we all know how long ago THAT was!)

Ed spent the late morning and afternoon with Grandma, including nap time (we knew he would not be a good assistant in the moving project!) Grandpa was home by the time he woke up so they got some good play time as well. When I brought him home before dinner, he was intrigued by the new configuration. He asked to climb up and get down from the bed several times. We encouraged this as we would like him to believe he can't get out of it on his own. With the side rail, there's little chance of him falling, but he could climb off the end if he wanted to. If this becomes a problem, we may move the bookcase to the foot of the bed. We'll see. For now, we'd just be happy if he slept through the night. We don't have a back-up if he decides not to, as we disassembled the crib and stored it under his new bed. We'll put it back together in time for the new baby, obviously, but we thought it might confuse him to see it in the room but not sleep in it.

We already found out that "quiet play" in the room is a bad sign. We let him wander in and out a bit after dinner and got a bit suspicious when we didn't hear much activity. Then we heard "moon!" and thought he'd found one of his books, but when John went to check, he found Ed pulling dirty diapers out of the garbage to inspect the cartoon character drawings, which did indeed include a moon. Luckily diapers in this garbage are only wet (the others are taken outside immediately) and are always taped closed before disposal. Still, it's evidence of the havoc possible in mere minutes at the hands of a two-year-old.

Yesterday we celebrated Thanksgiving with a delicious meal prepared by John's mom. Ed wolfed it down and demanded more. The rest of us attempted to be a bit more genteel, but still moved slowly with full bellies afterward. A good time to be wearing stretchy elastic maternity pants! Lots to be thankful for this year, but at the top of the list are good health and Grandma and Grandpa moving to town.

Earlier in the day, Edward ventured into the snow and found it much more enjoyable than he did last year. We only had enough to cover the grass, but he was very interested in exploring, once he figured out that he could actually walk in his boots. He stumbled around inside like he had concrete blocks on his feet when we first put them on. But after holding Dad's hand down the walk, he discovered his "snow legs" and was soon running through the yard. We may have some trouble with chapped lips this winter if he keeps running around with his tongue hanging out. You can see this in the video also. He already knows how to say "tissue" for a runny nose (though the request usually comes after he's wiped his hand and arm across his face) so "chapstick" may be on the horizon.

On the subject of vocabulary, I neglected to mention that toward the end of the football season, we successfully taught Edward one of my favorite Hawkeye cheers. It's very simple--sort of a phonetic cheer in which the group chants "I-O-Wuh!" Maybe you have to hear it to appreciate it. We haven't captured it on video. But he will respond with a resounding "WUH" when prompted with "I-O" and also occasionally starts it himself with an "I" waiting for us to respond "O" before his "WUH!" In more useful vocabulary developments, he also now announces "find it!" when he locates an object (or person, in the case of hide-and seek) he has been looking for, and he uses a questioning tone to say "happen," as in "what happened?" when seeking an explanation for some deviation from the expected (usually a mess he created, but has forgotten in the minutes he turned his back to focus on another short-attention span task.)

Just a quick post to share a couple of photos and some video. Edward helped us with some leaf raking and bagging yesterday, and it was a study in contrasts with where he was a year ago. Then, we had him in his exersaucer outside (on a much warmer day, as you can tell from how bundled he was this time), watching us with little comment. Yesterday, he was actively helping, running around to pick up sticks and grab handfuls of leaves to put in the yard waste bag.

He also took the opportunity to go into the pile, though he needed a little help to fully immerse himself. I went inside to get the camera and came out to find him on his back. Mary said he decided to flop back into the leaves, and seemed pretty comfortable in that position. All in all, he had a lot of fun, as did we in watching him.

He also has a new "game" of sorts, where he stands next to an appliance, such as the fridge or the dishwasher, and while in stocking feet, slides down until his butt hits the floor, at which point he says "Boom!" He did it the first time a week or so ago, and I added the "boom" when he hit. He liked that and incorporated it into the game. It also occasionally involves flopping onto the floor to look under the fridge (not something I'd recommend). This video captures it all well, and is also quite entertaining for the star himself, who has spent considerable time sitting on a parental lap, watching himself and laughing at "baby's" exploits. Yes, our son is quite simple, but the upside is that entertainment comes cheap.

In the last post I mentioned a linguistic connection between Edward and his Uncle P.J. I forgot to note a shared pattern with Uncle Joe. One of Ed's favorite books at the moment is Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks and Things That Go. A book full of vehicles, both real and fanciful (e.g. a pickle truck shaped like a pickle and a corn car shaped like an ear of corn)--what could be better? So much to explore on every page, he finds something new each time through it seems. One thing he identifies is the stop sign carried by a recurring character, a police fox named Officer Flossy, who is trying to get that reckless Dingo Dog to pull over to face numerous traffic violations. Every time he sees it he calls out "Stop!" Well, actually, he says "Fwop!" This is the connection to Uncle Joe, who also had trouble with consonant combos beginning with 's.' The one I can remember most from Joe is "fwelly" when something was particularly odorous. Edward also throws in "fwippers" (slippers), "fweeper" (street sweeper) and occasionally "foon" (spoon.)

We try to resist the urge to mimic his own sounds, so that he'll hear the correct version as we praise his identification of the object in question. But it's so funny to drive along and suddenly hear "FWOP!" from the back seat when he spots the red sign. The first time he did this, it took a few repetitions before I figured out that he'd made the connection between the picture in the book and the real thing outside. When I put it all together I was so excited I called out "Stop! That's right Ed, it's a stop sign!" Unfortunately, John was driving at the time and thought I'd seen something he didn't and was calling for him to stop.

My sore back is improving, though I'm still fighting through some pain. The worst is getting up from sleeping--perhaps that weak muscle is just a little too relaxed then. But I've been working on strengthening it with the leg lifts twice a day and finding time to ice it two or three times a day so we'll hope for continued improvement.

You wouldn't know it from this action photo, but Edward is still adjusting to the end of Daylight Savings Time over the weekend. He's been waking up earlier, napping longer, and refusing to eat dinner. I'm not sure how the eating thing relates to the time change, but it's all concurrent, so I'm trying to explain it away that way. Yesterday, despite napping until 4 p.m. he had trouble staying awake past 7 p.m. This morning we just ignored his 5 a.m. babbling and moaning until he stopped and stayed quiet until the time we actually had to get up--just before 6. We didn't know if he actually went back to sleep (we did) but at least he didn't demand our presence.

Maybe it's not the time change after all, but a period of withdrawal after being lavished with grandparental attention this weekend. My parents came Saturday afternoon and stayed until mid-morning Sunday and then John's were here for dinner Sunday (and of course some pre-dinner playtime.) Of course, Ed did not eat said dinner, so they got to witness his not so charming side. Ed is very close to saying "Gram"--it comes out more like "Bam." He has been saying PopPop since their last visit last month. John's parents are the standard Grandma and Grandpa, and Ed is close on Grandma, but says something closer to "Boppa" for Grandpa. This is amusing since my brother PJ made the same linguistic switch as a toddler, rechristening my dad's dad, who relished the role.

Lots of new vocabulary these days. One of the funniest is that he now says "you're welcome," or something approximating it, in addition to "thank you." But he doesn't know this is intended as a two-person exchange--he says both parts, handing over an object and saying "thankyouwelcome." He's also been practicing his ball skills as you can see in the video below. He's not bad with throwing, but catching is mostly by accident or extreme precision tossing on the part of his playmate. The end of the video is his version of "ring around the rosie." I didn't start shooting until he'd done this four or five times, so he's already pretty dizzy by the time we pick up the action.

In non-Ed news, I hope I'm on the road to good back health after a physical therapy session today. I've been having lots of back pain, especially after sitting or lying down for extended periods (i.e. sleeping). The first couple of steps out of bed are excruciating. My doctor, who is also pregnant, said she had the same symptoms and physical therapy worked wonders, so recommended that I try it. The therapist was able to isolate the troublesome muscle (gluteus media) and gave me a simple leg-lift exercise to do twice a day to strengthen it. He also said to ice it for 20 minutes at a time as often as possible (with at least an hour between ice treatments) to trigger blood flow that will help it heal. He said to expect results within a week, although full healing will take longer. It's such a relief that I don't have to resign myself to the pain for another eight or nine weeks!

Health update: I passed the three-hour version of the gestational diabetes test yesterday, which is very good news. I was pretty certain this would be the outcome, since the same thing happened last time. But a small part of me was worried about adding another complication--not to mention more shots! I came home and ate everything in sight (this was a fasting test--no food or water since midnight!) Then had a major sugar crash and took a two hour nap while Edward was sleeping.