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!