Golden Pig Tales

Ezra likes to hit the top of his new table while sitting on the table’s chair. The table and chairs are a cheap kids table we bought at Ikea now that Ezra’s love of the highchair appears to be fading because at times he fights with the highchair’s waist strap and pushes at the sides of the high chair and the tray of the highchair and the wooden strip separating the legs. We bought him a table for him to maybe use to serve him breakfast, lunch and dinner.

He did help assemble the table by tasting some of the long screws and unpacking the pieces from the box. …Ezra is very good at unpacking boxes and drawers and picking up screws when your attention is focused on assembling legs to a table top. …We assembled the table and chairs and then he sat on the chair then on the chair before the table. He sits on the chair though his feet do not touch the ground. He has yet to eat food while sitting at the table, but he did perform a couple of drum solos today while sitting before the table, so at the very least we have bought him a new instrument.

We were climbing stairs. We were halfway up the stairs, and he wanted to nurse and a nap and wanted to walk down the stairs. I helped him walk down the stairs then he walked to -v-.

He is now napping between two square pillows on floor between -v- and me.

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.

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.

I have been nursing Ezra less and less the last few weeks. Ezra won’t have much to do with a bottle anymore, either. Which means that whatever I pump for daycare goes right down the sink instead of in Ezra’s belly. This leads me to believe that he doesn’t really need as much of my milk anymore, and nursing is probably more of a comfort than a necessity. I’ve noticed that even on days when I am home with him, he nurses much less partially because he’s eating 3 solid meals plus snacks and and partially because he doesn’t have as much time for nursing if he’s going to also climb stairs, navigate his corral, play with Jigga, read books, take naps, help me with my computering, and climb up my legs.

So we’re moving in what seems to be a natural way toward weaning, I guess. This is probably good - I am hoping to avoid a situation where I am having to pry a 2 year-old’s hands off my boobs because he still wants to nurse whenever he feels like it, or a 3 year-old who carries around a bottle everywhere. But it is a painful change in two ways: a) I see that my relationship with Ezra will never be the same once he stops nursing and this make me sort of sad because I realize how quickly he’s going to grow up and stop needing me for anything; and b) my boobs are not quite sure how much milk to produce and when, and sometimes I’m a little over-full and that’s painful in its own way, but it’s led to a slight case of mastitis, which sort of feels like someone’s trying to pull small rocks out my nipples, which freaking hurts!

Ezra has learned how to wave! He waves one hand and also waves two hands; he waves hello and I think he also waves goodbye. He waves to the big piles of blocks and containers and toys that have been stacked up by mom or dad or grandma right before he knocks them down, sending blocks and toys and other things flying every which way. And then he waves some more! Waving and destroying towers of toys are things that make Ezra happy these days : )

Yesterday Ezra stood on his own! He stood on two feet, and did not use anything to prop himself up, and his hands weren’t grasping onto anything or anyone for support - in fact, he was clapping. It was super cute, and I wish I had a picture of this, but there was no time. The stand alone adventure lasted only a few seconds, before boom! down he went onto his bottom. He has been able to increase the number of times he has stood alone, but not the duration of the stand. I bet there will be more and longer standing next week, and then it’s only a matter of moving those legs…

I have been noticing -v- and I have been saying, ,,No,” more and more. He hits the window, we say no. He wants to teeth on our hands or shoulders. We say no. He wants to stand and chew on the side of the cat’s scratching post or play with the diaper waste basket, and we say no. He grabs for hair or glasses resting on face. We say no. He bites on the glass of drinking water and we say no.

I find it weird and a little disturbing that the word no is a word we use more and more often. It’s obvious that the need to say no and teach him that there are certain things he can not do for it is a necessary part of parenthood else he may break a window and cut self, or bite too many kids at daycare and hurt some one, or chew on the side of the diaper bucket and get shit or piss residue on face.

I do think of all the words we speak to him daily no is probably the second most word said to Ezra after the word Ezra. He recognizes and reacts to his name, so no isn’t the only work he understands. I have noticed he doesn’t hit the window as much nor bite on the drinking cup when drinking. I only hope no isn’t the only word we teach him, so I am trying to speak many other words besides no.

Ezra’s been up since 5:45 this morning. He has had a total of two naps that sum to an hour and a few minutes. It is 21:14, and Ezra is still fighting to remain awake even thought -v- and I are wanting for sleep, and though he has been to daycare, which usually tires him out, and though he has crawled around the house since arriving home, he is still awake. We want sleep. Sleep not just for Ezra but for us. Sleep so we can relax and wait for Ezra to wake, so we be rested and can follow Ezra  tomorrow as he crawls from the main living area, to the kitchen, up the stairs, to the dinning room table area and back again over and over and over and over…

If I could bottle the smell of today’s shit, I would label the bottle: Ezra’s First Really Stinky Shit.

A stinky shit that did smell different before I removed the diaper. In fact, both -v- and I smelled Ezra before the changing as we usually do trying to determine if he pooped, and we both weren’t sure if what we smelled was an Ezra shit. Most shit still smells like sour milk or a subtle mildew like smell. Not this stinky shit. A stinky shit that didn’t reveal its full fragrance until I peeled the diaper away.

I gagged. Then I went on a rant of: OH! MY. OH. THAT’S BAD. I tired to hold my breath, but that didn’t last. Even with the diaper off, and Ezra wiped down, the stink of shit remained. And I can’t hold my breath that long. He pooped out the diaper and on his back and then roll around while I was changing him only spreading the smell and making a bath a needed thing.

-v- helped clean up by cleaning off the diaper in the toilet filling the bathroom with the smell. A smell that is giving me shivers even now.

Gone are the days of spit-up always smelling like sour milk that is mildly repulsive and looks like cottage cheese at its worst. .

Here are the days of spit-up becoming puke. The puke smell is more repulsive for it smells like stomach acid, carrots, peas or various other vegetables partially digested and mixed in bile stew. The texture and color varies in shades and sizes depending on the meal making clean up require more scrubbing and some water.

I use to work the Money Job from home on Tuesdays with Ezra. I use to begin work early, so by the time he woke up I was ready to play with him and talk with him and be with him until he took his first nap. After his first nap the day was a mix of entertaining Ezra when he wanted attention and working while he didn’t want attention and working while he had his noon and afternoon nap.

I was also able to work the Money Job from home because Ezra wasn’t mobile like he is now. Before he could crawl Ezra was easy to monitor and entertain, but during the past months that has all slowly changed. Now when working from home there was more tension because I couldn’t give Ezra the attention he needed when he wanted attention nor could I watch him when he was focusing his attention on something other than me causing my mind to be pulled between working the Money Job and making sure Ezra didn’t hurt himself as he crawled here and there. It was like the tension levels of life increased tenfold.

So, Ezra began going to daycare today making his daycare days three out of seven days a week. It was a depressing and sad day for me for no longer will I have the fun and chaos of working with Ezra. And now this is one less day a week I will be with him from when he wakes and to when he goes to sleep. One less day a week until he grows up and moves out and won’t even be around to bright my entire day.

Now that Ezra has learned crawling to a stand, he is learning sitting from a stand. The act of sitting from a stand is an act that isn’t yet perfected. It’s a controlled fall upon his butt. His technique is improving.

At first, sitting from a stand was a direct fall from standing that was like a tree falling in the forest. This usually resulted in him falling flat and possibly causing pain he could only express with a quick whimper. Then he learned to control the fall from a stand to land on his butt. This technique has helped avoid any major trauma, but does have the occasional misfall that makes the journey to butt continue with the head to the floor. NOW, Ezra is beginning to bend his knees and lower his butt so butt hovers over the ground before he lets gravity take over and finish the process of going from standing position to a sitting position. This technique lessens the changes of any fall trauma and seems to be furthering his overall desire to stand and walk and sit.

Ezra is officially a category 2 Infant! He’s moving up in the ranks of daycare.
Today was Ezra’s first day as a full resident of the Infant 2 room. This is the room with the mobile, solid-eating babies. Now Ezra can crawl and pull up on things without having to worry about getting hung up or tripped up on all the little immobile baby bodies scattered across the floor of the Infant 1 room. Now Ezra can sit in a high chair next to other babies eating solid foods rather than sitting alone across the room in the high chair in Infant 1. He’s also been reunited with Even. Even and Ezra were often laying or sitting next to each other, playing with toys back in Infant 1, and Ezra seemed kind of sad when Even left because Even started crawling. Even doesn’t freak out when Ezra makes noize, and Even is just as grabby as Ezra. I think Even is Ezra’s first friend!

With the help of vertical surface or a small platform, Ezra can lift self from sitting position to crawling position to standing position. He uses his ever evolving crawling techniques to climb the side of a vertical surface, so he may stand.

Last night he want to crawl to stand a lot. In fact, he seemed to wanted to crawl to a stand all night, hours past bedtime. He was happiest when he was standing with arms braced against some surface helping to balance self.