Friends to Gualala

We spent the last weekend of March up in Gualala--so sort of a last "hurrah" vacation-wise before my teaching duties started for spring quarter.  I lined up my intern to work 3 of the 5 days I would be out of town so I didn't miss out on any instrument time.  There were a few goals of this weekend: let Eddie spent some time with his Grammy and Papa, take a tour of the daycare in Point Arena that Eddie might go to when we move, attend the playgroup in Gualala so I could meet some other parents and kids, and have some friends come up for a visit.

Eddie, the dogs, and I headed up to Gualala on Wednesday evening, arriving in plenty of time to walk downtown to get pizza and ice cream at the store before Papa and Dave got out of their meeting.  I should have taken Waddo up to the park for a bit because it ended up raining the rest of the trip and we never did go. 

Thursday, while Dave was at work, Eddie and I played outside in the rain and then spent a good deal of time painting pictures up at Grammy's house.  

My real Taters

My painted (and rather flat) Taters

Eddie helped Grammy wash the lunch dishes

We got to eat lunch with John and Dave, too. I phoned the daycare center to find out if we could visit and we scheduled a tour at 3pm that day, which was great since it gave us something to do (and as an added bonus, Dave came along).  

South Coast Daycare

Eddie was just as interested in the puddle outside as he was in the toys inside. 

Eddie seemed to fit right in to the daycare setting.  In fact, we could have left and he wouldn't have noticed.  He went straight to the car/train area and began playing.  Dave and I got some information from the place and Dave caught up with the director, who was Dave's daycare/preschool teacher when he was a tot!  We couldn't believe how much cheaper childcare is up on the coast--it's about half the cost of his current care, meaning that maybe we can afford to have a second child after all!  There is a proper preschool (pre-K) program nearer to the public school and I still need to look into that, too.  The facilities are super close together so I'm hoping that we can enroll him in both for the year before he starts kindergarten so he can get to know some new friends.

When we got back to the ridge, we played outside in the fog and rain with the puppy pies.  John and Peggy's puppy is CRAZY--she's obsessed with Ruby, who doesn't like having an annoying puppy jump all over her and nip at her.  Dave claims that the puppy is calm and sweet when there are no other dogs around.  I guess I'll just have to trust that he's telling the truth because I've never seen anything but craziness.

We stayed at the Coast House, which was nice since we weren't in Peggy's space the whole time.  The only downside was the inconvenience of having to bring a bunch of stuff from her house since it is definitely incomplete (we needed various cooking implements and ingredients plus bedding).  

That house was slated to be rented out to some Thai restauranteurs within a week, so we made good use of the 5 bedrooms by inviting 4 couples to visit (the Porters, the Nugers, the Levie-Whitneys, and the Miracle-Hackels).  Normally Eddie gets his own room, but this time Auntie and Uncle used "his" room...so we put a twin mattress inside one of the giant closets in our room and closed the sliding doors and...ta da!  We had a sleeping nook for Wadamus.  The door had to swing out quite a bit for this to work, but work it did!  He liked his little room.  

I forgot to bring a blanket down from Grammy's house for him
so he had to use a spare mattress pad instead.

Friday morning we slept in and then had breakfast out with Dave at our favorite cafe, Trink's.   Then Dave went to work while Eddie and I bought some books at the Four-Eyed Frog before going to Action Network for a playgroup.  We met a few other parents with kids about Eddie's age--some locals and a Sea Rancher (lots of people have weekend/vacation homes at SR but live elsewhere).  Everyone was really nice and the playgroup was awesome--free and they provided snacks for the kiddos!

That afternoon, Robby and Tina arrived with their dog, Susy.  We took them up to the airport to meet Peggy and to exercise the dogs along the runway.  It was so foggy up there, though, that I doubt they could really tell we were on a runway since the visibility was like 50 feet.  Susy went running through a ditch of water over and over and over again, with most of the other dogs following right behind her.  So all 4 doggies got a bath before we headed back down to the coast house.  That night, before anyone else arrived, we made Thai curry and noodles for dinner.  Late that night everyone else arrived.

Saturday morning after a French toast breakfast, half the group headed up to Point Arena to tour the light house while the rest of us read/relaxed/napped/cooked/cleaned up the house.  After the light house, the Nuger-Levie-Whitney crew went downtown for brisket, gelato, and then coffee.  They came back happy and in a bit of a food coma.

As it was getting dark, the Bower-Miracle-Hackel crew took a walk down to the bluff in front of the Coast House.  That property isn't in the family anymore and there's a new house there, too.  But the owner wasn't there (you can see right inside the still unfurnished house) so we felt that it was probably okay to go down.  We could see two big storm systems headed right for us--right there on the bluff it seemed--big, dark thunderhead clouds coming from the north and from the south.  We went down on the sandstone cliffs a bit, until we could feel the wind pick up and then temperature suddenly drop.

We took some pictures and then scooted back up to the house.  And it was a good thing, too, because those storms really did collide right at our part of the coast.  The wind suddenly got crazy intense, it hailed and rained, and the lightening and thunder were only seconds apart.  Taters went outside to pee right as all this was starting and the wind was so forceful that he nearly fell over, standing there with one leg up.  Poor Rhubarb was inside shaking like crazy because she does not like thunder.  Jennifer had been telling me how much she loves thunder (as do I) and how she was looking forward to it.  She came out of the bathroom just as everyone was commenting on how loud the thunder had just been.  And guess what?  She missed it!  She must have flushed the toilet at the exact moment of the loud boom.  Haha, poor Auntie.

While it stormed outside, we got a fire going in the fireplace, opened some beer and wine, and started making dinner.  It was quite a feast: abalone, steel head, crab, browned rice gnocchis with creamy pesto sauce, salad and GF tiramisu that I'd made that afternoon (a birthday cake, of sorts, for Dave and me).  I wish I had an assembly line of helpers every time I fried abalone and fish--man, was it helpful!

Eddie helped Jeremy pound the abalone.

Flour/egg/flour, fry, drain. And Robby made the gnocchi's.

Susy and Taters manned the window, looking for deer.

Eddie and Papa watched us cook.

Eddie missed his nap that day so he caught some zzz's on Uncle's lap.
And by "missed" I mean "refused to take."

The whole crew!

The next morning we were going to have Eddie's typical breakfast: oatmeal and eggs.  But the Irish oats I brought, although unopened and not marked with a sell-by date, were rancid.  I cooked them anyway in case anyone didn't mind (some didn't) but most of us just ate eggs, chips, and salsa.  Then we packed and cleaned the house.  Everyone headed up to the airport so we could exercise the dogs and play on some heavy equipment. Each person got a turn on the mini excavator and a backhoe tractor.  Auntie and Uncle were lucky enough to get a turn WITH an Eddie on their laps!

Jeremy on the backhoe.

Tina--a construction manager by day--on the excavator.

These silly dogs were so tired and had bloodied paws from running on the
pavement so much but they still wanted Dave to play with them.

Brian--an amateur pilot--was super excited to see a plane land while we were up there.  He and Melissa had wanted to fly up there for the weekend, but obviously the weather was not cooperating (until Sunday, that is).  Next time, Brian!  

He and Melissa took off, and then the Porters did, too.  The rest of us played outside a bit more and then got some take-out lunch from Bones.  We ate it at the Coast House and then headed down to Annapolis to visit the winery.  

I've passed the winery sign for years and never took the time to visit.  I'm glad we did this time.  It's a bit out of the way, but was a nice outing on an otherwise normal trip home.  Our great aunt used to be the teacher at the Annapolis school a looooooooooong time ago and it was fun to see that community after hearing my mom talk about it for so long.  We passed the Star Cross Community, too, and I enjoyed reading about it online afterward (I might order some of their award wining olive oil).  The winery's tasting room was nice, especially with the doors open since it was a nice, clear day outside, letting Eddie do his thing while we did ours.  There's plenty of room for picnicking and playing lacrosse, bocce ball, and croquet (they provide all the equipment)...alternatively, there's plenty of room for a toddler to run around playing with all the balls and sporting implements.  

Me and Dave in the tasting room.

There was also a bucket of mud that Eddie found
to be quite amusing.

Dave had driven his work truck out to the winery so we said goodbye at the stop sign (Highway 1 and Annapolis Road). When I got home that night (at like 9pm), I told Dave that I can't drive away from him many more times before I cave in and just decide to stay.  It was a great 4-5 days with him!  I can't wait  until I don't have to drive away after a weekend up there...soon...but not soon enough...

Gualala on Dwellable

You Know Your Kid is Italian...

...when he requires a hair cut every month and wants to eat basil pesto on everything (here, including rice).

You also know he's growing when he eats as much as you do and also requires a second dinner after his hair cut and shower. I'm worried I'll wake up tomorrow to see that my baby has grown right into a MAN!

Before his cut (arms spread out on his bike handlebars)

After his cut (back on his bike while Daddy gets a hair cut)

Dave adores that blue color on Eddie...he seriously commented on it like 3 times yesterday.  It really did make his smothering, melt-you-heart adorable/handsomeness exceed earthly proportions.  But he's pretty cute without a shirt on, too.  =)

Easter is for Gardening

Gardening on Easter is a tradition for my dad and I.  We're not always together when we're gardening (although many years were are, like here).  After our Bower picnic on Easter morning, we were all pretty tired. Eddie went down for a nap and then Dave and I snoozed with Taters for a bit on the couch.

When I woke up, I realized I still had time to work on the garden beds.  I started shoveling all the soil back into the beds that the chickens have spread around.  After a while Eddie woke up so then I could start up the tiller (his window is on the right of this picture so I can't use loud equipment when he's sleeping).

At first, the rototiller noise sort of scared Eddie, so he chose to watch me out our bedroom window.  But I think his desire to be involved trumped the noise because he did come out for a turn at the handles.

Eventually, all of us were outside tilling the garden beds.   A sprained ankle, missing pants, and an Easter dress are no hindrance to a Bower's desire to play in the soil.

It'll be nice when he's a little taller so he can operate the tiller himself.

The poor chickens did NOT like the sound of tiller so they huddled
into the safety of their pen. Once we were done, they were back out, finding
lots and lots of worms.

I emailed a picture of me rototilling to my dad and asked what gardening he did that day.  He replied back that he'd done a lot, including some work on his deer and bird resistant fruit tree orchard.

It's look quite nice!  And you can see my old Volvo wagon in the picture, too!

Easter 2012

This year, as in 2007, Easter was on Dave's birthday.  So it was a particularly special day for our family.  Eddie was 2 years, 7 months, 3 weeks, and 5 days old on Easter this year.

Dave's parents were in town for the weekend, to see Zennie (they missed her party two weeks ago) and to celebrate Dave's birthday and Easter with us.  We got to eat Chipotle burritos with them on Friday night and then they treated us to IHOP breakfast the next morning.  It was a great breakfast, although I did have to be "in charge" of Eddie the whole time.  Dave sprained his ankle the day before and wasn't able to entertain Eddie outside on the grass before our food came.  But overall, Eddie was a really good boy during the meal, even if he did spend a good deal of time crawling from one side of the booth to the other: parents vs. grandparents.

I brought his red potty with us to the restaurant and just put it in the bathroom when we arrived.  Eddie is scared of the "loud toilets" at restaurants so I knew there was no way he'd be able to go potty otherwise.  After we ate our food and were playing outside, I could tell he needed to poop, so I took him inside the bathroom.  Like always, it takes some convincing to sit down on the potty, but he did...and then he asked me to stand outside the stall.  He pooped in his little potty like a BIG BOY!  And of course, I  had to take a picture to commemorate his big achievement.

On Saturday evening we attended Cassie's annual egg hunt/potluck for her daycare and friends.  She filled and hid hundreds of plastic eggs with candy and trinkets inside.  Like last year, Eddie wanted to stop and eat all the candy in one egg before finding another one.  Dave and I helped him gather about 10 eggs total before he insisted on sitting down to munch on jelly beans.  The other kids, however, easily gathered about 50 eggs each.  I think Eddie must have eaten his weight in candy that afternoon!

I had to wake him up 10 minutes before the hunt began so he was a little
out of sorts when we got there. This was the best picture I could get of all the kids before the hunt began...Eddie, of course, being way off to the side.

I brought his potty chair to the park with us and actually got him to pee on it halfway through the festivities (I bribed him with the last remaining cake pop on the food table...which he didn't end up wanting to eat, so I got the treat instead!).

The next morning was Dave's big 30th birthday!  While he was showering I put his gift on the bathroom vanity so he'd find it.  It didn't take him long to realize what he got (a newegg.com gift card number).

Yep, at 30 you turn into an "old egg."

Dave's parents and my mom arrived at our house around 10:30am while I was busy making some picnic foods (pumpkin and fennel sausage pizzas, fruit salad, and Dave's birthday cake).

I'm getting tired of winter squash...but it blended nicely with the super sage-y and fennel-y pizza.

Then we headed to a new-to-us park, Playfields Park for a Easter egg hunt and birthday celebration with Mike, Bernie, and Zennie.  I brought some fancy toy-filled baskets for the cousins, made by my grade school friend, Lexi.  They loved all the special treats inside!

They were so sweet with each other, sharing toys and candy.

My handsome little fella with a stick o' peeps.

Zennie and Eddie looked so cute in their dress up clothes!  Her dress was so pretty and Eddie, well, it was a nice change of pace to have him in a collared shirt and slacks, even if he was wearing gross old Crocs.  Normally he insists on choosing his clothes so choosing an "outfit" for him was nice.  I'm not sure how I managed to get him into it.  Knowing he'd hate it, I waited until the excitement of the egg hunt to clip on the little red necktie that a friend at work gave me.  He didn't even notice!  (GAH, SO CUTE!)

Everyone milling around, waiting to get things started.

Uncle Michael pushed them on a swings for a while.

We ate our picnic (pizza, spinach quiche, fruit salad) and then did the egg hunt.  Bernie stuffed lots of eggs for the cousins...full of stickers, necklaces, sticky frogs, plastic bugs, and freeze-dried strawberries.  Eddie ate his weight in those strawberries and loved all the trinkets.  

Bernie's little boy is due next month!

The little businessman found some eggs!

Bernie brought a felt basket for each of the kids.  Of course Eddie chose the
pink butterfly one, leaving Zennie with the froggie one.

Zennie seemed to like the stickers best and realized that if she snuggled up on Dave's lap he'd give her all of Eddie's stickers.  She lined them all up on Papa's shirt (he, in turn, stuck them on our hall closet door when he got back to the house...what adult thinks it's appropriate to put stickers on someone's door?!).

After a while we sang happy birthday to Dave and enjoyed some cake.  He wanted "chocolate with chocolate" cake this year (his usual, I think) so I made my first Bundt cake with a dark chocolate glaze and optional strawberry sauce.  It was dang good, even if I did use crappy Hershey's bars for the cake batter.

Happy birthday, handsome!

Eddie took his cake into the cute little house and ate by himself.

This was the first year in a looooooooooong time that I didn't prepare a proper Easter dinner (ham, etc.).  Instead, we had Indian food from the freezer and some collards steamed in OJ.  It was fine by me!

Mercer Caverns

*I didn't take any pictures on this outing so I'll be adding whatever appropriate photos I can borrow from my friends, as I get them.*

A few weeks ago my lab went on an outing to Mercer Caverns.  We carpooled from school, with spouses/kids/partners and potluck picnic in tow.  Edward and Jennifer also came, but in their own car directly from their house.  For us Davis folks, it was about a 2 hour drive.

We chose this cavern (as opposed to California or Moaning) because it was the most "real," in terms of being  rough-and-tumble.  Obviously, it is completely touristy, but the infrastructure inside the cavern must date from the 1950s or so.

Many of the stairs and walkways were super steep, steeper than I think regulatory agencies (or at least insurance companies) would probably allow for modern design.  The website didn't say anything about shoe requirements (open toe vs. closed) or age restrictions for entering the cavern (like, child must be old enough to walk on his/her own).

Our tour included about 15 of us UCD people, plus a 10 year old girl and her parents.  The tour guide was a an old African American cowboy sort and he was completely honest about not necessarily knowing all the scientific facts about how or why certain formations look the way they do (which we appreciated).

At our second stop inside the cavern, he instructed us to stop and look around at the stalagtites hanging from the ceiling.  Everyone was quiet, gazing around.  Out of no where, Eddie remarks, "Oh, penis!" and points to the phallic stalagtite hanging from the ceiling.  There was a quiet pause and then EVERYONE started laughing uncontrollably.  I mean, we all had tears running down our faces.  Eddie kept looking at me like, "What?  That's what it looks like, Mama."  So I reassured him that, yes, he was exactly right: that formation did look exactly like a penis and testicles hanging from the ceiling.  After a good 2 minutes, the crowd gathered its collective composure.  The tour guide said to Eddie, "Now son, we try to prevent the adults from saying things like that to protect the little ears of children like you...but now, well, I can't say nuthin' about it to YOU."

Oh man, so funny.

After that is where the real *fun* began (read: not so much for me).  The stair cases got SUPER STEEP and some were REALLY, dangerously slippery from dripping water.  As in, even if you weren't carrying a 35 pound kid in your arms and were wearing particularly grippy sneakers you might still slip.  We were all amazed that the guide didn't bat an eye when I picked Eddie up (my little man insisted that I carry him). I'm glad I was given the opportunity to decide for myself whether it was worth the risk to tour the cavern with Eddie--having age limitations on tours like this would be a shame since it'd limit such a cool educational experience for someone Eddie's age.

Coming down the steps, I'd wrap my left arm completely around the hand rail and go very slowly.  Luckily my friend's boyfriend was in front of me and he went my pace so that if we did slip he'd be able to cushion Eddie's fall.  For the next few days post-tour, my thighs hurt when I went down the stairs at school--I think I was so tense with nervousness from the cavern tour that I worked my thigh muscles more than normal (and I take 3 flights of stairs like 10 times a day here at work).

Other parts of the tour were super narrow so I had to not only crouch down while holding Eddie, but also lean way over to the side to avoid touching any of the formations.  Lucky for me, on the way back up out of the cavern, Eddie insisted on climbing the (dry) stairs by himself.  It was slow, but easier on my arms.

The cavern was really fun to visit overall.  Despite the potential danger involved, I really enjoyed the rustic-ness of it.  As is done in all cave and cavern tours, the guide turned out all the lights to show us what real darkness is like.  We had to turn off all our camera and cell phone indicator lights so our eyes wouldn't have any light to focus on.  It was quite odd to be in complete darkness.  And of course, Eddie had to point out the obvious, "I can't seeeeeeeeeee!"

You can see me in the red coat on the steep stairs at the left.
Photo courtesy of James Dolen.

After the tour, we had a potluck picnic.  Yumi'd just had her birthday "sandwich" party the day before so she supplied all the left over bread and the rest of us brought deli salads and sandwich fillers (cheese, meat, random condiments, picked things of all kinds, etc.).  It was a delicious and fun outing!

I Guess We're Doing This?

Apparently, at daycare, Eddie will tell Cassie when he needs to pee, and then he'll gladly sit on the potty and pee.  At home, of course, he screams at me when I take off his diaper and suggest that he run around naked.  He loves being naked, usually, so this is odd.

Yesterday, when Cassie told me about his daytime pottying, I felt this urge to just go for it--to try potty training him.  But then I thought I'd give myself at little more time.  Really, other than effort (cleaning, reminding him to use the potty, etc.) my biggest fear/hang-up with potty training him is that I'll do it wrong.  That I'll somehow damage him. All parents have heard those horror stories of potty training gone wrong, where parents instill a sense of fear into their kids, sometimes causing a child to have "poop anxiety" and refuse to poop at all.  Sigh.  Hopefully I'm gentle, loving, and patient enough that I would never actually instill fear of any kind into any of my children, but this is a real worry of mine.

Last night he went around naked after we got home from a "new" park adventure.  And he didn't pee at all.  I put him into his fancy new Thomas underpants but he took them off at some point and I found them on the kitchen counter this morning.  Ewwwwwwwww, such a BOY thing to do.  He also woke up with a dry diaper (total coincidence and the first time that's ever happened).

This morning I made him go diaper-free (he was NOT pleased).  He was helping me make smoothies when he started to pee a little onto the stool he was sitting on.  I told him he should have told me he needed to pee so we could go into the bathroom first.  He said, "Oh, need to pee Mama!"  So off we went to the bathroom.  I ask him which potty he wanted to use (big toilet or his little potty chair) and he danced around while he decided.  Yes, he did the peepee dance!

He settled onto the little potty and peed for eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeever.  Yay!  And he didn't ask for an M & M treat, so I didn't offer him one.  I'm hoping to only reward with his beloved "chaw-chit" candies when he poops in the potty.  And although he has no idea what I'm talking about, I promised him we could go to Disneyland once he is accident-free for a whole month straight.  (We're going to take him anyway, but this gives me and Dave reason to actually pack up and go...to the magical kingdom, that is, not to go potty...we're already trained, you know.)

We had breakfast at the central park this morning (muffins and smoothies) and he got his diaper and shorts soaked from going down the wet slide.  So when I dropped him off at Cassie's house I removed his shorts and diaper since they were wet with rain water.  Cassie gave him the foam toilet seat insert to take home with us tonight...he was so happy!  He even took it into the art room to show all of his friends.  Haha.

So...what about at night?  Should I put him in diapers?  Or should I buy pull-ups so he knows they are different than diapers?  Help??

Eddie: 32 months

I can't believe Eddie is 32 months old.  Where has the time gone?  We've always called him, "Big Man" or "Mister Man" but now those nicknames seem real instead of just endearing things to call a small, cherubic baby boy.  

As I've said before, he is quite the chatterbox.  He'll talk to anyone willing (or not) to listen and he narrates his activities throughout the day.  On our daily bike commute, I hear him singing songs to himself at top volume.

My friend Mariah once commented that parenting little kids is harder than parenting a needy newborn, in some ways, because they mentally wear you out more than physically wearing you out.  I completely agree.  Whereas before, I could just go about my usual business (shopping, cooking, computer work for school, gardening, etc.), albeit slower and more cumbersome-ly since I had to haul a child around in my arms...now I have to convince him  to go along with me.  I'm constantly explaining things to him, answering all the "why?" questions, and the like.  It really, really is exhausting sometimes.  My MIL thinks Eddie is more inquisitive and intelligent than other kids his age; sometimes I agree, but I also think she's just a doting Grammy who thinks the world of her grandkids.  She did raise four sons, one of whom was a very active, very intelligent boy.  Fortunately or unfortunately, she sees a lot of Uncle Michael in Eddie.  All I know is it means I'm gonna be a busy Mama finding activities/tasks to keep that mile-a-minute mind occupied.

Here are some notable things going on in Eddie's development:

• Circles: he has mastered the identification and drawing of circles (okay, they're a little wonky, but he's got the general shape down).  For the longest time he'd ask me to draw a triangle and then get upset when I didn't draw a circle.  Silly kid.

See how he kept the red inside the blue lines, there at the bottom?  Pretty impressive.

• "Let me show you somefing" is his newest phrase.  He says it all the time, both when he wants to show me something and when he wants to be pick him up so he can show something to me.  
• Monsters:  He's really into hiding and running from monsters.  From what I hear, he plays monsters with his friends Sethy and Isaac at school every day.  There are a few things you should know about Eddie's monsters: they are always blue, they always chase him, and sometimes they are "scary" and sometimes they just want to eat his imaginary cookies.
• Cooking: not only does he still insist on being very involved with whatever I'm cooking in the kitchen, but now he's able to entertain himself for quite a long time pretend-cooking.  He's nearly always making "chaw-chit" cake (chocolate cake) or cookies, which is fine by me!
• Poops in an empty room: I know we're getting close to trying cold-turkey potty training with him because he's suddenly become very private when he's about to poop.  He'll instruct anyone around him to "get out!" of the room so he can be alone.  That tells me he is definitely anticipating the urge to go and even has some control over when it happens since he does wait until we're gone to go.  We've had a package of big boy underpants waiting for him for a couple of months, but Dave and I have been waiting until he showed some interest or emotional development toward potty training.  All his gusto for using the potty last year is gone.  Now that warm weather is upon us, I think a cold turkey attempt, dealing with messes for a while, and "Donald Ducking it" (shirt but naked tush) is going to happen in the next couple of months.  
• Dishwasher: This kid loves anything having to do with water.  And that includes washing dishes.  At our house, I make sure to re-wash whatever he's washed and put into the drying rack because I know he's not actually "washing" things by my standards.  But at Grammy's house, his help is appreciated since she's washes the dishes by hand and then loads them into the dishwasher.  His level of "washing" is suitable to her since she'll just wash them again in the machine.  He did a whole sink full of lunch dishes when we were up there last weekend, handing her each one when he was done.  

• Sleeps on top bunk: He's had a bunk bed for a few months now and really likes it.  He started sleeping on the bottom bunk because we didn't have all the parts for the stairs (some pieces were broken and had to be shipped out to us again).  Once those stairs were installed, though, he started sleeping on top.  We chuckle that his sleeping head is next to the sticker that warns: "Never allow children younger than 6 years of age to sleep on the top bunk."  He is kept company all night by 4 blankets, two pillows, about a zillion books, his flip-flops, an outgrown stray Thomas boot (no idea where the mate is), and an assortment of train/car toys and stuffed animals.  He doesn't seem to play with these things before bed, only in the mornings when he wakes up long before I go in to get him. I remember sleeping with tons of stuffed animals in my bed as a kid, too, and usually had a book or two stuck under my pillow for easy-access reading before falling asleep.  Maybe he gets the bed-hoarding from me?
• Somersaults and other acrobatic endeavors: Eddie's at that age where he's discovering all the things he can do with his body beyond just running really, really fast (seriously, this kid is really fast...when he runs away from me at the store, I have to break into a jog to catch up to him).  Randomly throughout the day he'll stop what normal thing he's doing to do a somersault or a weird yoga-like move.  Dave reports that he can now do a somersault down the ramp at gymnastics, with just a little spotting.  

"Mama, look what I can do!"