Wordless Wednesday - Stuck inside

Backyard Bliss

Edison and I just finished enjoying a warm sunny evening in the backyard with Albert. Edison has never been able to play in the grass until the past couple of weeks. Last summer he was a newborn.... with no interest in grass, obviously. Then, we endured what seemed like an endlessly long and extremely rainy winter and spring. So, finally it feels so nice to just sit outside and enjoy the warmth and fresh air.

I wish I had the video camera on him the first time he felt grass. He didn't seem too impressed with the green prickly stuff. Once he got used to it, he's really started to enjoy playing with it. He pulls a handful out and examines it up close. Then he tries to eat it, at which point I stop him and continue to try to drill into his head our "not in your mouth" motto. And of course, Albert (who spends most of his time outside), loves the company!

A few days ago I bought Edison his first pair of real shoes. I want to spend lots of time outside so it was time for him to have some quality outdoorsy type foot-wear that are going to take good care of his developing little feet. Up until now he's usually barefoot, or wearing the soft leather-bottomed Robeez shoes... so the real shoes are going to take a bit of getting used to. The first time I put them on him he didn't seem to want to move anywhere. Today was the first time he wore them outside and he's slowly getting used to manouvering with them on.

Going in for a handful 

Examining it 

Trying to eat it 

Sporting his cool new shoes! 

Playing with his shovels 

Albert, being oh so social 

Monday's Musings - 10 Months!

Edison turned 10 months old last week. I'm really feeling it now as we inch closer and closer to the big number O-N-E. It seems crazy that almost a year has gone by! It also seems crazy that summer is almost here and, as excited as I am about enjoying the warm weather this summer, every time I think about summer I think about how when it's over, I'll have to return to work.... which I'm not very excited about, yet.

Edison is motoring around the house on his little hands and knees. When he wants to get somewhere, he crawls at super speedy speeds. Our main floor is mainly hard wood, so you can always hear his hands thumping across the floor.... it's pretty cute. He is also very fast at pulling himself up on any object and still continues to walk around the house quite a lot, holding onto furniture, walls, people....basically anything he can get ahold of. A couple of days ago I bought him his first pair of real walking shoes... in anticipation for the summer when he'll be learning how to walk and will be outside a lot. It's pretty exciting!

The teething saga continues. He got his first 4 teeth (2 top and 2 bottom) within a two week period. It was an exhausting two weeks...especially as the bottom ones came in as he doesn't seem to handle the bottom teeth as well as the top ones. Then, as I had hoped, we got a little break from the teething. It was nice to have a happy baby again, and to get a bit more sleep at night. That lasted a couple weeks and then last week it started up all over again. The books say the signs of teething are usually things like a lot of drooling, rashes on the cheeks, maybe a low-grade fever. Edison has never had any of those things as a result of teething. The first thing he does that tips me off is he pulls at his ears. As soon as I see him doing that, I know a tooth is on the way. That's usually when I start fishing around in his mouth, trying to feel where the new tooth is going to surface. In the past week, he has had another top and bottom tooth cut through. He now has 3 top and 3 bottom teeth. 6 sharp little chompers! I can feel that two more are on their way (which will make 4 top and bottom teeth) and then hopefully we will get another break from the teething for a while.

I registered Edison and I for a free program in Maple Ridge called Mother Goose, and we've been going to that on Monday nights. It's a program designed for moms and babies made up of songs, movement, and finger play (like the Itsy Bitsy Spider, etc). Edison is having lots of fun with the music and he really enjoys watching all the other kids. He has started to clap within the last couple of weeks and it's pretty cute. He only does it in short little spurts, so I've yet to get it on video. He definitely responds to music; when he hears it he does this little wiggly dance and claps his hands, it's really adorable.

He uses his hands really well and really likes to examine textures with his fingers. He is also very good at feeding himself finger foods now. In fact, we aren't giving him purees as much anymore because he's able to eat whatever we're eating...as long as it's cut up into small chunks. He is a total carnivore and loooves eating chunks of meat.

This month Edison also learned how to go up stairs by himself (which prompted the purchase of another baby gate) and he also figured out how to drink out of a straw. He's becoming such a big boy!

I haven't taken a ton of pictures of his 10 month-old self yet, but here are a few. I took them on my phone, so they aren't the greatest quality.

Watching his Daddy skateboard 

Trying out the skateboard for himself 

My sleeping angel

Beach Babe

Jonathan and I decided to take advantage of the beautiful, warm weather today and hit the beach with Edison. We headed down to White Rock and basked in the much needed sun for a couple of hours before Jonathan headed off to work. 

This was Edison's first encounter with sand and the ocean and (although a little grumpy from teething) he had tons of fun. He wasn't quite sure what to make of it at first.... he just took it all in. Once he got his hands into the sand, he really enjoyed squishing it around with his fingers. He also ate a few mouthfuls... and I learned that it's pretty much impossible to get sand out of a baby's mouth. After a while, he was ready to explore and spent a lot of time crawling around, playing with the sand and also some shells that he found. We had to really watch him because he likes to put everything in his mouth.... including the sea shells. We are trying to teach him "not in your mouth" (only on the things he really shouldn't be putting in his mouth), but so far he's not really catching on. 

Here is Mr. Edison chewing on a straw, while waiting in the car to get going. If you enlarge the photo on the right, you can see his top teeth starting to show!

We stopped at the railroad tracks on our way down to the beach to take a few pictures:

Finally we made it down to the beach to play. Edison is able to balance on his own for quite a while now. When Jonathan first put him down, he stood there for quite a while....we think that he didn't really want to sit down on this weird substance called sand.

Hmmm.... this sand doesn't taste very good 

Ahhh, the feel of sand between the fingers 

Jonathan, building his super awesome sand castle 

Not so sure about the beach anymore... 

Look out! Edison is on the move...

 Playing with the shells

What's this wet stuff?

Warm wading pools... the perfect place to rinse off

We had such a fun day, we are excited for more nice weather and future trips to the beach.... that's for sure!

Wordless Wednesday - Enjoying the View

Monday's Musings - Memorize!

I feel like I'm always trying to memorize moments.... trying to slow time down. Memorize, memorize, memorize. He will only be a baby for such a short time... and there are moments and things that I never want to forget.

The sound of little crawling hands thumping across the floor
Gently curled sleeping baby fingers
Soft baby skin
Big beautiful brown eyes
His face, as he tastes something for the first time
Belly laughs
Baby babble
Little arms, wanting picked up
Wiping tear-filled eyelashes
Unquenchable curiosity

Splish Splash, He Was Taking a Bath

Edison is really starting to enjoy bath time now that he's in the big bathtub with some fun toys. 

For his first few months of life we were bathing him in an infant tub in the kitchen sink. He always hated it and screamed through the whole thing. It was always a race to quickly wash him up and get him out before we lost our hearing due to his wailing. 

3 weeks old

After a while we gave up on the sink bath and I started taking him in the bathtub with me. Every time we got into the water, he would cling on to me for dear life. Jonathan also showered with him a few times but that was always hit and miss on whether or not he would like it. 

3 months old

Over the past couple of months, he's been bathing solo in the tub. He didn't love it at first but I was able to distract him with toys long enough to get the job done. Now he really enjoys bath time. He's able to sit up on his own in the water now and has fun splashing around and playing with (aka, chewing on) his bath toys.