Golden Pig Tales

Ezra will now tell us when he just went pee in his diaper. He will talk to us really slow while he is pooping, and he will tell us he is pooping when we ask. And he has a new potty he got for Christmas that he has decorated with stickers, and he has sat on once, but still hasn’t pooped or peed in the potty. There is also the fact he will poop and pee in the potty at Preschool, but never at home because we suspect the potty at Preschool is his size and flushes. So…Maybe Ezra will be peeing and pooping in the potty at home some time during 2010?

I asked Ezra today if he wanted to go upstairs so we could change his diaper, and he looked at me with a blank stare. Then he shook his head back and forth. And then…..he said no! And then no no no!After the shock of hearing Ezra say “no”, we went upstairs and changed his diaper anyway. I mean, come on, it was totally a rhetorical question!  

Tonight we tried giving Ezra a bath in the tub and not just his mini-tub. If -v- and I were believers in omens, we would have read the fact Ezra had a poop in his diaper before the bath that then smeared on -v-’s pants as an omen of the fussiness to come.

Pretty much immediately he was adverse to the idea of getting into the tub even though the water wasn’t that deep. After a few minutes of him refusing to get in we pulled out his mini-tube and began to fill it with water. He was more than happy to stand in his mini-tub and play with the water as it came out of the spout. During the water filling stage Ezra lifted up the knob on the tub spout thereby making the shower head spray water on -v- and Ezra. This freaked Ezra out, and by this time all hope was lost for a full bath, so we hurried and cleaned him as best we could and got him dry and in is pajamas. Maybe next bath time we will be more successful with bathing Ezra in the big tub, or maybe his is not ready.

I was changing the diaper of a fussy Ezra, who had a HUGE poop that filled his diaper and stuck to his skin. I pulled off his diaper and blindly moved it to the top of the diaper pale. Immediately my attention was focused on the fact Ezra then had his hands covered in poop, and his hands were moving toward his mouth. I grabbed his hand and a wipe. I wiped his hands, then held them as I tried to wipe his butt as he moved there and there spreading his poop over the changing station. His fussy levels went from a seven to a ten. He wanted his hands to be free, but I wanted to sanitize them after I finished cleaning his butt and cleaning the station. Then my foot slipped.

My foot was smearing Ezra’s poop over the rug and my sock (thankfully I chose not to take my socks off earlier) because during the hurry to put aside the diaper to catch and clean Ezra’s hands the poop of the diaper fell on the floor, and I was spreading it around.

At this point, I called down to Valerie for help. After the laughter calmed to the state of her being able to function, she helped me clean up the mess.

Ezra’s poop smells like blueberries. At first I thought the smell was bad because Amoxicillin creates a strong and pungent smell like mulch. The smell made me hold my breath. But after -v- told me the smell was just blueberries from the blueberries Ezra has been eating, I have since thought the smell good because I smell through mulch like poop smell and do smell the sweat smell of blueberry poop.

He climbed his first stairs today, and I can still only think of the poop. He came home from the doctor’s appointment with a clean bill of health (no ear infection), and I can still only think of the poop. He was fussing all morning making the day of working at home difficult, and I can still only thing of the poop.

The poop filled the diaper and the back of the onesie. He needed a cleaning with wipes then needed a bath. Then I needed to clean up the diaper changing area and then sterilize the pacifier that had been stepped on by a poop foot.

Ezra is busy making new sounds this week! He’s starting to be able to make the basic sounds of d, g, and m. Today he was saying things like “guh-guh-duh-muh?” and guh-guh guh-guh guh-guh, duh duh duh duh ssssttttttssss!!!!! (that last one is sort of a spitting hissing sound that he’s also learned recently).   It seems likely that he’ll soon be able to say muh-muh or duh-duh, and maybe Kalab and I will think he’s talking about us, even though he will more likely just be practicing these new sounds like he does every day.

And Kalab wanted me to write about Ezra’s poo roll-ups. Every once in a while, Ezra’s poop is sort of dry and flattened to his diaper, and it reminds me of fruit roll-ups, except, well, made of poo.  When it’s in the fuzzibunz, and I go to knock some of the poo into the toilet, this sort of poo even peels off the diaper much like the fruit roll-up would peel off the cellophane wrapper. Ezra had a poo roll-up today, but this time it stuck to his bun instead of the diaper, so I had to use a wipe to unpeel it. ewwwww.

Though it is not rolls and logs, Ezra now shits. The shit is thick enough to now need to scrape some of the shit off of the Fuzzi Bunz before they are put in to the wash. The shit has fibers and is like a thick wool blanket of poop that changes colors depending on what he ate. The loose poop that once coated the skin and took many wipes to clean off the skin is poop that is no longer. His eating solid food has evolved the poop. Now that poop is shit.

The solid foods and the Amoxicillin are doing things to Ezra’s poop that have me both in awe and disgust at the same time. The poop has been black spots today. I had to wipe and scrub to get the black spots off butt. After a little effort the butt was clean.

After I got him all clean during the morning diaper change, and I had his diaper on, I felt some thing on the finger. I thought it was an Ezra booger because it felt a booger. But thought, <How could it be a booger?> Then I looked at my hand and saw the booger was poop.

One-Poop-A-Day Ezra is filling diapers with what is evolving from poop to shit.

The sour-milk-with-cottage-cheese-dyed-yellow-brown poop is now delivered in the form of a thicker and stickier and darker single poop mass that forms a clump of poop.

The clump of poop I believe is another sign Ezra’s poop is becoming shit.

The faint poop smell that does exist still reminds me more of sour milk than shit.

Fuzzi Bunz are a brand of reusable diapers Ezra is using. A brand that I keep thinking of every time I change a diaper of Ezra with ease.

Ezra was using disposible diapers for the first couple of months of life, and still needs to use them when he is at daycare, but now we got some Fuzzi Bunz for Ezra when he is home.

Fuzzi Bunz are not inexpensive. Fuzzi Bunz do take about twice the amount the time to clean and ready as normal baby cloths. But Fuzzi Bunz are easy to apply and remove, and Fuzzi Bunz can be used over and over again. In fact, the Fuzzi Bunz we are now using for Ezra are being borrowed from a friend of -v-. We are now stocking up on Fuzzi Bunz for Ezra’s next diaper stage.

Fuzzi Bunz makes Ezra be a little more green beyond the color of his poop.

Ezra’s daily bowel movements have been decreasing in frequency, but increasing in amount. Instead of two to four a day there is only one. That one is big. Instead of a diaper with a little soupy like poop now there is a lot of stew like poop that doesn’t easily wipe off. These poops are like the Explosion experienced before, but more frequent and not as special because they are almost a daily occurrence.

Today’s was special because I was amazed at the amount of poop there was to clean and the thickness of it. After I took the diaper off it was like he was wearing a poop diaper. I wiped and wiped and wiped and wiped and still it didn’t come off. Usually one, maybe two, wipes would clean poop from skin. But not today. It took six wipes until Ezra had his poop diaper removed and be ready to wear another real diaper. I was amazed at the amount and consistency. I was so amazing the first thing I said what I seen it was, „Holy Shit!”

Today was another stage in the growth of Ezra. For the second time since his life began, Ezra has moved up a diaper size. After one too many poop bombs exploding everywhere, and after a few poop leaks during the past days when the diapers were unable to contain the mighty force and mass of Ezra poop, we decided it was time to move him up a size to contain the madness that occurs under the cover and protection of those diapers. No longer will my boy be wearing those new born or almost new born diapers. Not my son. No sir.

Ezra and I got back last night from our fun trip to Wisconsin. I had the best baby on the plane on the way there, and on the way back! He was so well behaved and calm - I was so proud of my baby! Here are a few thoughts on the trip:

In Wisconsin, everyone was excited to meet the baby Ezra, and he made sure to be on his best behaviour to impress them all. He met great aunts and uncles, second cousins, and a whole mess of other relatives and relatives of relatives. But the best part of the whole trip was Ezra meeting his great-grandpa T, who told me that Ezra is the first of his 5 great-grandchildren (all girls) that he’s gotten to hold. (This made me cry!) Is this not the happiest picture?

I now am on a mission to find a pair of little baby striped bib overalls for Ezra. Apparently I had a pair when I was like, 1 or 2, which my mom has stashed away somewhere.

Ezra might like to travel, but I think only when he’s on his meds. He was very easygoing and relaxed, even when we were dragging him halfway across the state and back three times a day. He had only one day where he was at all fussy, and that was the day we didn’t go anywhere! In order to ensure that the good times lasted the whole trip, I had to go to the pharmacy while I was there and get a refill of the baby Zantec, which ran out on Sunday. For future reference, check the amount of medicine you have for the baby a couple days before you leave and make sure you have enough to last the whole trip!

At the airport on the way back, we had another occurrence of the poo Explosion! I was carrying him through the terminal in the baby bjorn, and we got to the gate and I decided to change him before we would get on the plane. I went to the women’s restroom to use the diaper change station. I did not go in well-prepared for the Explosion that greeted me - he had poo up to his neck! So I tried to tidy him up a bit, but had to pack him up and go back to the gate to finish because he needed a change of clothes. So I get him clean, fix his diaper, change his clothes, and am very relieved, when what do you think might happen? Of course - more poo! So I had to change the diaper again. While there was no explosion of poo, it did rise up the back a little, necessitating more clean up. I think my previous hypothesis about the baby bjorn being behind (hee hee!) the poo explosion is still plausible, I also think that the poo explosions may be the result of Ezra being too big for his britches. It seems like he’s maybe grown out of the size 1 pampers…which sucks, because I have like, 150 of them left!

All in all, it was a great trip, but we did miss daddy : )

If only I had a picture…

I put Ezra in one of his onesies and a new fleece outfit that Auntie Kate got for him last week at Costco…it’s cold outside! Then I took Ezra for a walk in the Baby Bjorn. We went to the coffee shop, and then walked our usual route down around the school and back home. Once we got home, Ezra was still sleeping, so I did a few things around the house while he was still strapped in and I had my hands free. I took him out a while later and we played a little house tour and listened to some music.  By then a couple hours had passed, so I decided to change him before he needed to eat again (due to the remaining-upright-for-30-minutes-after-feeding rule). I unsnapped the fleece suit’s legs, and knew immediately that something was very wrong. The onesie was very wet and sort of sticky. It was a poo explosion! There was poo everywhere - on Ezra’s back underneath the onesie, on the back of the onesie, and soon after I took the diaper off, on Ezra’s socks as well.

And yet, the fleece suit remained remarkably dry on the outside, with absolutely no signs of the destructive poo explosion that had happened inside…

I have a theory that this explosion actually took place sometime while Ezra was strapped into the Baby Bjorn - I think that basically the poo had no where to go but up due to the way the baby sits all astraddle in there.

Ezra can be fussy. And there are many reason for him to be fussy. -v- and I have discovered Ezra’s Poopy Dance as one of these fussy states, so we can now relax and do what we can to make his poopy dance successful when he gets his groove on.

Ezra’s Poopy Dance usually begins with the kicking of his legs. Sometimes the leg kicks are synchronized and sometimes the kicks make him look like he is marching through air.

After the legs begin kicking his face usually becomes tense. His brow wrinkles. His nose flares. His lips close and bottom lip slips under upper lip. Then a slow moan escapes.

With feet kicking and face tense, the arms begin to swing a bit. Usually they fling up and hold like he his being held up by someone with a gun. Then his low moan becomes a groan. His face becomes bright red. Sometimes he cries out, but not for a long time. Only in a few short bursts to help free the poop.

Ezra’s Poopy Dance is not always successful, but when it is successful there is an instant calm that overcomes his body that makes even me feel relieved.

Of course, Ezra’s Poopy Dance in some ways is similar to other fussy states, but through observation -v- and I have discovered Ezra’s Poopy Dance.

We are not claiming this discovery will lead to a life as a skilled ballet dancer. (The poopy dance is more modern dance than ballet and we wouldn’t want to further pressure the child by making him take ballet classes instead of modern dance classes.) We are claiming that if you pay enough attention to your baby you will begin to listen and understand before the baby can speak. It does take time and sometimes a few calls to other parents or the pediatrician.