So, I had the phone and I was sitting on the sofa, and Edwin takes the phone from me and starts playing with it.  I take the phone away from him and put it on the sofa with me and continue talking to Michael, who is in the kitchen.  I am probably saying things such as "he turned the toy on its side! Edwin, what's the point of that?" and all the balls go shooting all over the place.  "Edwin, it's over here..." or some such nonsense.  And then we get a knock at the door.  I figure it's Robyn and HP out for a walk, but they usually come to the other door.  Nope.  It's a police officer.  "Michael, it's a policeman!!!  I mean, a police woman!!!"  I open the door and she says, "What's going on?" and I was like, "what do you mean?" and she says, "You have an open 911 line" and I was like "I DO!??!?!!?" and I run to get the phone and it doesn't even *say* 911 on it.  It says "PP".   Whatever that means!!!  So, I say, "Hello?" and sure enough!  It's 911 on the other end.  "My son got ahold of the phone and I didn't realize it!  I'm sorry!  Ok.  There is an officer at my house, may I hang up now??"  And the rest is obvious.  I was soooo embarassed.  Edwin will never get near that phone again until he's 18 years old.  Ok, not really.  But until he's old enough to use it properly.  It's not going to sit on the sofa where he can grab it.  Seriously.  I never thought he'd be able to dial 911, what are the chances of *that* happening?!?!?!?

Although he's tippy, he's able to 'cruise' using one hand now, Michael notes.  Michael's walking around the house w/Edwin, holding him with the one hand.  How cute!  Edwin has been slowly learning to turn around in order to come down the stairs.  I was playing stairs-peekaboo with him yesterday and he went bam-bam-bam down the stairs.  He was unhurt but upset.  He didn't hit his head or anything of that sort.  I think it was because he had the sopranino case in his mouth while he was trying to climb.  Just got distracted. 

He can turn around to come down the stairs backwards, as of about half a week ago.  But, he needs prompting.  He did it a couple of times on Saturday without prompting and even learned to climb off the large bed at our friend's Grandma's where we stayed last weekend!  But he's forgotten already, because we have the railing.  It will come back shortly.  He'll soon figure out he can climb past the rail and slide down!  He leads with his right foot coming down the stairs.

Well, last weekend, Aunt Crissy visited us!  Edwin learned to crawl *down* the stairs!  Yippeee!!!  He's still getting the hang of it, but I'm so proud of him!  Yesterday, he went 5 hours without me while at daycare.  This is the first time being away from me for that long except when he's spent time with Daddy (upwards of 13 hours).  As if on cue, he's learned to whine.  It's really sad for us, but we realize he's becoming aware of his environment now.  We actually have to start disciplining him.  I feel confident with this new step, because Michael and I are in agreement about how to proceed.  It's a good thing I have Michael.  When we both come to the same conclusions at the same time, it's reassuring that we're doing the right thing.  When Edwin throws tantrums now, he is placed gently in his crib or pack-n-play.  When he calms down, we get him back out.  It's sad but also funny to watch.  It's hard to believe he's becoming so aware!

Last weekend, he turned one.  I was proud of him for how he reacted to the helium balloons.  He totally loved them!  Of course!  He learned that if he pulls on the string, the balloon bounces around.  Then, he learned to pull the string, hand over hand, until he could get the balloon.  The next day, he learned that if he is on the floor (rather than on the futon), he can just reach the string with one hand, but couldn't hand-over-hand while holding onto the futon. So, he learned that he could hold onto the string with one hand and gently sit.  Then, while sitting, he could hand-over-hand until he got the balloon.  I was so proud of him for figuring this out!!!