Golden Pig Tales

It continues to bring awe and wonder watching Ezra walk around. Even if for a few steps or ten, seeing him go from a crawl position to a squat position to a stand position then to walk around is full of awe and joy. It’s weird, too. It was only three and half months ago he had to crawl to a stand and about four month ago he was beginning to crawl. Now he doesn’t even need the help of a vertical surface stand. And he doesn’t like crawling as much as walking. All he needs is a horizontal surface and a bit of focus and next thing I see he is standing with a smile and looking for the place to walk. IT’S AMAZING!

I got Ezra a new sippy cup a couple of weeks ago at Fred Meyer’s. Except it’s more of a slurpy cup, because it involves a straw. And it’s not really a cup, for it’s shaped like a juice box. For a while, Ezra couldn’t figure out how to work it, so I had to squeeze it so that it might move the water into Ezra’s mouth without sucking on the straw part, just so Ezra got the idea that the thing I was handing him was full of water that he could drink. So it is his new slurpy-squeezy-cup-box.
Ezra seems lately to have gotten the idea, and then some. He can now take huge slurps out of the slurpy-squeezy-cup-box, and then send little rivulets of water out his mouth and down his chin and onto his clothes or the rug. But at least he is drinking some water out of it - which is important in the hot weather. I was also impressed because it didn’t seem like it would spill or leak and get water every where like the other sippy cups we’ve tried. But then….Ezra discovered that he can do something really cool with the slurpy-squeezy-cup-box. If he takes the cup-box and lays it on its side on the floor, and then leans on the cup-box with some of his weight, a jet of water squirts out about 12″! And then it will do it again each time he leans on it, until you can get over to him and pry it out of his hands. Ezra finds this hilarious - especially when some of the water hits mom in the face! So all in all, Ezra is getting a lot of pleasure/use from his Squeezy-Slurpy-Squirty-Cup-Box.

For the past week Ezra has pretty much slept through the night. For the past couple of days the issue has been getting him to sleep for his fussiness level near bed time has exceeded the bounds of my sonus tolerance of screaming. In fact, last night was the first night since he was born that I actually hoped Ezra would shut-up (in a moment of helplessness, confusion and pain deep in my ear). I was holding him and trying to calm him from his crazed state of screaming and flapping around and felt pain in my ear. It took a few minutes of walking around and talking calm and then strapping him into the Ergo-baby to walk around for many minutes to get him to calm then to sleep. Then his sleep was like the sleep of the past nights: through the night with an occasional cry or shout that would settle back to sleep.

This unto itself was not cause for alarm. We seen tooth number eight coming through and we attributed some of the fussiness to that at first, but the we seen him rubbing the side of his head against the ground and we seen him pulling at his hear. -v- and I seen this and assumed Ezra had yet another ear infection. So, -v- took Ezra to his doctor, and the doctor found no ear infection. Rather she found swollen gums around the molar area meaning molar teething is.

I am happy that he doesn’t have an ear infection, but I am hoping that the molars will push through the gums before ten days which is the time it takes for amoxicillin to take care of an ear infection. I am not getting my hopes up that the molars will be pushed through, and Ezra will be beyond the pain of the molar teething, because molars are big, but for the sake of Ezra and the pain of molars pushing through gums and for the sake of my hearing I hope the molars are set sooner rather than later.

Hooray! Hooray! It’s Ezra’s Birthday today!

Hooray! Hooray! It’s Ezra’s Birthday today!

Hooray! Hooray! It’s Ezra’s Birthday today!

Hooray! Hooray! It’s Ezra’s Birthday today!

Hooray! Hooray! It’s Ezra’s Birthday today!

Hooray! Hooray! It’s Ezra’s Birthday today!

Hooray! Hooray! It’s Ezra’s Birthday today!

Hooray! Hooray! It’s Ezra’s Birthday today!

Hooray! Hooray! It’s Ezra’s Birthday today!

Hooray! Hooray! It’s Ezra’s Birthday today!

Hooray! Hooray! It’s Ezra’s Birthday today!

Ezra has added a new smile to his repertoire of facial expressions. This new and different smile just showed up in the last couple of days, and seems to be reserved for things that make him really excited and happy (such as walking with the walker).  He scrunches up his nose a little, and squints his eyes, and smiles real big. It’s so cute! Hopefully I will be able to capture this expression on my camera, as it would take nearly 1000 words to describe how cute it is.

We bought Ezra a used baby walker to help Ezra walk around the house without the need to be supporting himself with a wall or door or a piece of furniture or the need to have full balance control all the time.

The baby walker is a vintage plastic Fisher Price Baby Walker. It looks like a right angle triangle on four plastic wheels topped with a single handle for both hands. On the front of the walker is a mirror next to turning circle with holes around the outside that looks like a rotary phone dial. Above the mirror and rotating circle are flat colored panels that spin. Below the mirror and rotating circle are colored cylinders that spin on a rod.

The toys on the front he likes, but the biggest show of pleasure and joy he expresses is when he is walking around the house with the help of the baby walker. His mouth is open wide with a smile letting loose short bursts of laughter.

Ezra’s independence from crawling is coming close to reality. Every day his wobbly walk becomes a little more sure footed. He still looks like a drunk trying to make it home, but unlike a drunk his falls to the floor are a controlled plop to the butt or a loving lunge for -v- or me. Ezra can also walk, stand and walk again, which is quiet a feat for it means he can control his walking motion.

Seeing Ezra walk is still something that brings me wonder and joy. And judging from the smile and the sounds of joy he makes when he walk, I think walking fills Ezra with joy, too.

Ezra is doing pretty well with the walking - able to take several steps on his own to get from point A to at least part of the way to point B.  At daycare, the kids who are walking or almost walking are the “Wobblers”.  The daycare ladies all shorten this to “Wobs” and today I talked with the daycare ladies who told me that Ezra would be a Wob soon! He spent his afternoons there this week, and will likely soon make the transition to being there all day. The daycare ladies also told me that they think Ezra’s started walking early to spend time with Norah - who is a little older and more mature, and a total Wob.

During Sunday, -v- turned Ezra’s Big Boy Car Seat 180 degrees, so now Ezra is facing forward as we drive. This act was performed now that Ezra has exceeded the weight limit and maturity recommended by the car seat creator before we parents were to turn the car seat facing the rear windshield to a car seat facing the front windshield.

I noticed this morning on the way to work that Ezra was look around a bit more than he did when he was facing back, but to be honest now that he is facing forward he had devoted most of his attention to staring at mom, who was driving.

The next phase of Ezra and the car seat is the booster seat. Then after that I have to begin competing with Ezra for ‘Shot-Gun’ when I am not driving. Then comes the age of 16 and he becomes a teenage driver, who believes he knows everything.