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.)