Yesterday Eric said "I run", and today he used "I" in front of another word which I now can't remember. Greg is at dinner with his team tonight (quarterly meeting/event) so I picked up Eric. He babbled much of the way home, commenting on all the buses we saw on the way -- we even followed a school bus for a few miles, and a fire truck too! He ate a good dinner -- 2 fish sticks, 1 chicken finger, 3/4c veggies (broccoli, carrots, zucchini, yellow squash), and 1/4c kidney beans, and then shared my mushroom risotto which he declared "mmm nom nom!". Then, not wanting to run around the house after a toddler and knowing that he'd been sunscreened several days since his last bath, he got a bath. He was fascinated by the Russian nesting dolls pictured in one of the articles I was reading, and I had to distract him by blowing bubbles in the bath water. He'll put his face in the water, but doesn't seem to understand blowing, even up in the air (though I know he CAN blow, so I'm not sure what the disconnect is). He called the octopus toy "puss", which is new. He's also picked up a few new words that I can't remember now -- he imitates quite a lot now.

Later after I rinsed him off by pouring water on him from a cup, he filled the cup and tried pouring water over his head, but only succeeded in pouring water on his tummy and/or face, which he seemed to enjoy anyway. Then it was dry off, lotion up, diaper, pajamas (squirmy baby), vitamin, tiny bit of play time, brush teeth (with a new flavor of toothpaste), bedroom, put away clothes, book (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, after some debate), prayer, mirror play, prayer, bed. I think he's finally beginning to understand that the boy he sees in the mirror is actually himself. I wonder if this has anything to do with his beginning to master pronouns, or if it's just coincidental.

I'm also continually amazed at how well he goes to bed. I guess a consistent routine helps, but he never requires any attention after we put him down, unless he's in unfamiliar surroundings. This morning he got up early (6:20), but we'd gotten him to bed late (8:15) last night. Normally he sleeps until about 6:45/7a. I'm hoping that this is mostly training (certainly we could have trained him to be a poor sleeper), and that we'll be as successful with our next kid.