Edi-TALKA-amus: One Year Later

On this day last year, I listed some of the new words Eddie could say.  Wow, has a lot changed.  He's a nonstop chatterbox these days.  Seriously, when he goes to bed at night I often find myself thinking, "Oh thank goodness, it's finally quiet."

If you recall, he's always been a chatterbox:

...only now he's speaking English instead of babbling.  

Like any child, we are often surprised by the things he says.  Sometimes it catches us off guard because we didn't know he understood a phrase, let alone the corresponding concept.  For example, while we were in Gualala the other weekend, Dave happened to turn off the bedroom light.  Eddie quickly noted, "Daddy turned off the power!"  Dave, Peggy, and I all exchanged looks.  Where he learned the word power and the (mostly) correct meaning is beyond me.  Cassie's perhaps?

Lately he's been catching on to the concept of time.  He'll say things like, "Mama, this one is for later, maybe tomorrow," when flipping through a stack of books to choose which one to read right then versus save for another time.  He also recognizes the difference between daylight and nighttime (namely that we eat breakfast in the morning and that he has to take a bath and go to bed at night).  Many mornings he'll tell me, "Mama I no want it to get dark. I want to go to the park. I no want to take bath at dark."  

We laugh our heads off sometimes just because we love hearing such a little person say something so adult like ("Gimme two minutes Mama!").  I'm trying REALLY hard to be clear when I say "gimme a such-and-such amount of time" before we do something.  Too many times I've caught myself saying, "Yes, I'll get you a snack in a second."  And then 10 minutes later I finally get around to preparing his snack.  So I've changed to, "give me a moment," which of course is exactly the type of catch phrase I would have teased my mom with as a kid. So I expect Eddie'll pick up on that soon, too.

Remember when you wanted to read the same book over and over and over again as a kid?  Yeah. That's super annoying once you're a parent.  Especially when it is a coloring book that you want to "read" and there are no words, just lame, uncolored pictures of stuff.  (I'm probably just lacking in patience and/or creativity when it comes to making up a "story" or even a lengthy description about whatever is on the page.)  Lucky for me, Eddie's chattery self has started reading to us.  I suggested it one night because I just couldn't stand to "read" the heavy equipment coloring book to him another time.  So I said, "How about you read it to Mama this time."  Genius!  We've actually established that all coloring books are to be read to Mama and Daddy instead of by us.  Thank heavens.  

All on his own, he's started reading other books to us, too.  I love, love, love it when he does because he takes it quite seriously.  If we're in his room before bedtime, he'll make me get off the stool to sit on the floor so that he can sit up on the stool to read to me.  (Roll reversal.)  And he's very emphatic that I point out various objects to him ("Now where's the shovel Mama?  You see it?  Yes, very good!").  The inflections in his voice melt my heart every. single. night.  

Yesterday he read me a book during breakfast:

I could never list all of the words he knows, says, and/or uses correctly.  Basically, if he were 2 feet taller and were potty trained, he'd be an adult.  It's RIDICULOUS how smart he is (or at least seems to me as his boasting Mama) and how freaking FAST he's growing.  Time flies when you're chasing a toddler.