Oh, we had a fun time in Utah! There were snow, toys, and grand parents. And snow. The only thing that could have made it better would have been if we could have made a snowman with that snow. Ezra is a great traveler, and it was so easy to fly with him. It was also really great to have almost a week with family and no work. Today though was a rough transition back to school, tougher maybe for me than Ezra.
It’s a good thing that Kalab is back onboard the goldenpigtales wagon. Otherwise this would have been a boring month with no tales told. Thanks Kalab!
I have a new office downtown. Earlier this month, I took Ezra to mommy’s new office. I showed him my desk and the people who work with me, I showed him the chairs that you roll around on wheels, and I showed him the big balls we have to sit on sometimes. Then I wheeled him over in a chair to what ended up being his favorite part of mommy’s new office: the lollipop bowl. It was such a hit that now whenever we’re in the car heading in the direction of downtown, Ezra asks me when he can go back to my office. I am assuming because of the lollipops, but then again, I like it just because of what it is, so maybe he does too.
Since the last weekend from hell, we’ve made such great potty training progress that I feel like everything’s been better! Less stress over cleaning up pee = more fun for everyone. SO I think that this may in fact have been the best week ever…after we got past the incident on Monday where he peed on the floor at the kid gym and we didn’t have any extra pants so we had to carry him crying out to the car to go home. But since that day Ezra has done such a good job with using the potty. After Ezra’s first couple of poops as a baby, I never thought I could be as excited about a bowel movement as I was about the big one he put in his little potty today. It was like the most awesome thing ever. There were other things about this weekend that were fun (the camp-out in the living room, waffles, the park, the tadpole pond) but that poop made this the best weekend EVER!
For various reasons, it appears I haven’t written anything on here for nearly a month. Yikes. It’s not because I love Ezra any less, but I think it’s because I have had to take care of two sick kids off and on over the last month! Ezra is mostly over his most recent cold, and Kalab is maybe going to get over his illness soon too. I hope. We just had a lovely visit with grandma O, Uncle Dylan and Aunt Summer. Ezra had lots to do the last week - showing off all his toys, having people read every book in his library, and going downtown on the bus and riding the city train as often as possible. But today it was back to pre-school. I had received a call from his teacher on Wednesday wondering when Ezra was coming back, because all his fridnds were missing him. I told this to Ezra, and his little face just lit up - he was so excited to hear about his friends and went to bed so quickly because he wanted to wake up the next morning to go to pre-school to play with them all and see his teacher. I think he had fun today, but I know he’s also looking forward to the next time grandma O can come and visit.
We went to the zoo today for the first time in a while. We renewed our membership, because it was almost exactly a year ago that we went with Ezra for the first time to the zoo. And this trip was sort of similar to that first trip - a nice sunny February day, a big crowd of people, and Ezra one again more excited by the non-animal aspects of the zoo. He was a little bit more attentive to the elephants and monkeys than he was last time, but by the time we had seen a few animals Ezra was ready to go see the big black engine that sits across the parking lot from the zoo. That thing is magical to Ezra. I think one time last summer we went to the zoo but didn’t even end up going in the zoo because we spent all our time on the big black engine. Anyway, even though I have mixed feelings about zoos, they seem to capture Ezra’s attention, so I’m sure it will be zoo time again soon.
When Ezra is in a good mood, the whole house is in a good mood. When Ezra is cranky, we get cranky. I’m not sure that’s a good thing? Anyway, tonight was fun. Ezra even sat through all of Wall-E!
Me and Ezra had a New Years’ resolution to go to the gym. Well, actually, I have a resolution to go to the gym, and Ezra ended up getting a special gift enrollment at this new “playground gym” for christmas (thanks uncle dylan for the $!). So far we have been twice, and Ezra LOVEs it. His friends jojo and tony also go to the gym, so they get to run and jump and scream their little hearts out for an hour twice a week, more if we take advantage of the open gym times. THe place is fully padded, and it is awesome. Meanwhile, I am going to the gym which is not padded, and is not nearly as much fun as Ezra’s new gym.
Without much fuss, Ezra completed a three hour plane trip and a two hour drive. He still hates the take off and landing of the plane, but he did lookout the plane window a couple of times before he closed the window shade. And he still likes the comfort of -v-’s lap than that space and freedom of sitting in his own seat on the plane, which keeps him calm, but tests the will and sanity of -v-.
We just got back from a long labor day weekend in utah doing hard labor in the dirt pits at grandpa’s and grandma’s house. Ezra was a tough pit boss. He made us dig and dig and dig to fill up buckets and wagons and wheelbarrows.
Despite all the dirty work, we had so much fun with the visit to grandpa and grandma’s house down in utah. It was sad to head back home today, knowing we were leaving them behind and heading home so that mom and dad could go back to work for much less cute bosses.
Ezra hasn’t really been happy about going to playcare after spending a fun week with Gramma O. Ohhhhh no. I’ve had to leave him crying, or in today’s case, screaming. Even the arrival of his friend Maya didn’t make him happy. So, I feel pretty bad about leaving him. This is not easy nor a very pleasant way to start the day. The last time he cried about staying at daycare was months and months ago when his favorite teacher wasn’t there in the morning. The daycare is a little more chaotic the last couple of weeks due to some reorganization they’re doing and renovations at the preschool house, so that might be contributing. Maybe tomorrow I will stay a little longer with him in the morning. Hopefully he’ll get back to having fun times and waving ‘bye to me as he goes off to play with his friends. sigh.
Uf - more fun was had this weekend than any weekend in the history of the world!
OK, maybe not, but we had a great time with Ezra and our friends and family hanging out during the morning and on through the BBQ on Saturday afternoon. So many people to play with! Today was a nice mellow Sunday with a little bike ride and some time at the park. Ezra is two! But now we have to go back to work, which won’t be as fun as either Saturday or Sunday. Boo!
Ezra’s birthday was awesome! We had fun at the park after eating the birthday doughnut
Then we opened some presents (super awesome monster truck from Grampa O and a great train set from dad)! Then we went to Oaks Park and rode the train, saw some boats, ate fair food, rode the carousel, went to dinner, came home, ate cake and ice cream, played with the great new presents, had a huuuuuuuuuge poop, and then read a new book and went to bed. What a great great birthday! And tomorrow will be full of more fun, friends, and food. yay!
Ezra is going to be 2 in two weeks! I’ve started talking with him about his birthday, and how Gramma O is going to come visit, and he’s going to have some cake. I think he kind of just equates birthdays with cake, rather than aging. Maybe we should all just look at birthdays that way. Anyway, he seems excited because he also knows that when Gramma O comes back again, we will go to the amusement park! He sees the amusement park every day we go to playcare, and I can tell he is just dying to find out what this place is all about. Hopefully the birthday will live up to his expectations, whatever those might be.
I bought Ezra an adidas track suit the other day at costco. It’s super stylin’ but we decided tonight that it gives Ezra a bit of a ‘tude. He got out of the car when we got home, and proceeded to throw a rock at the car. He threw something at me in the house. He got all snappy about his food. Maybe we can blame the track suit, or maybe he’s just testing boundaries and being a nearly two year old.
PS - I was impressed that Ezra slept through all the fireworks madness on Saturday night. I think it helped that it was super hot that day, and so we had all the fans on in his room creating a nice dull white noise that maybe drowned out the firework commotion. Too bad none of that helped daddy sleep through the noise!
I have this animal matching memory game on my ipod that Ezra likes to play. There are maybe 25 different animals that show up on the board, and each makes a noise appropriate to that animal, more or less. Most of them sound right, although the koala makes a noise that seems much more aggressive than I would think a cute little koala would make. But then again, I’ve never heard a koala do anything but eat and sniff at my hand. Anyway, at first, Ezra really liked to see the monkey show up on the game board and it was fun to make monkey noises with him. The last couple of days he picked out a new favorite: the walrus. The walrus makes a noise like an abominable snowman. I’m hopeful that Ezra will move on to a new animal, because I don’t really like this walrus. Perhaps it just reminds me of that stupid song.Â
We had a fun weekend with Ezra, which included multiple trips to multiple parks, and a trip to the Zoo. The zoo trip was intended to be a trip to the Children’s museum (which is right next to the zoo) to see the Bob the Builder exhibit. The first 20 minutes we were there, we investigated the train at the nearby forestry center. Then we walked to the museum. Ezra inspected the little front loader/bobcat that was parked outside. He had another fun 10 minutes of this, and we tried and tried to get him to go inside the museum, but he just had no interest. He did seem interested when we asked if he wanted to go see animals. So, we went to the zoo. This zoo visit was much better than the previous one, as it was a bit warmer and more animals were active. I think Ezra liked the sea lions the best, and we also got to see the baby elephant. The builder exhibit is at the museum for another couple months, so maybe we will try again some day. Â