Golden Pig Tales

Whether the park or the pub or the work, the school talk is a topic I find myself talking about with any other parent for any other parent seems just as wanting to talk out the frustration of schooling and their child. The talk stresses. The talk is annoying. But the talk goes on and on and will continue for years. It’s like -v- said yesterday after I had yet another conversation with a parent about schooling and kids and looked vexed. ,,It’s just the next thing to stress about. You don’t have to stress over changing diapers and cloths any more.” Which is true, and I am happy I don’t have to change Ezra’s stinky and sticky diapers anymore, but some days, like when talking with another parent about school, it would be nice to work with an issue that can be fixed with a few wipes and a clean diaper.

Ezra said, ,,Thank you,” today after I got him some juice. -v- didn’t even need to remind Ezra to say, ”Thank you.” He just did. And he smiled, so it was better. It would had been even better if he didn’t  have his binky in his mouth.

Ezra has demonstrated again he can sing his ABCs without help or urging for him to sing his ABCs. YAY! …Next up: NUMBERS!

Whaus = Ezra’s Speak for, ,,What is this?” Or ,,What’s this?” Whaus is usually accompanied with a point of finger at an object or to his ear (to represents the object is a sound).

It was learned over time by Ezra saying, ,,What’s this?” with a binky in his mouth.

Every time whaus is said, I say, ,,What is this?” Or at least I try. Ezra can say Whaus for many object before I can say, ”What is this?” making me feel it is more important to clearly define all the object he is curious about than use time to help unlearn a non-standard word.

Ezra is awesome and I love him more than just about anything. The past few days, however, Ezra has been super mom-clingy and moody. Ever since we went back to daycare after our extended holiday/snowday “staycation”, Ezra has seemed to revert to being a superfan of mom and only mom. He gets upset when dad is the one who walks in his room in the morning. He is upset when I am not the one to soothe him when he takes a tumble. He gives me a scowl and furrowed brow when I say bye bye at playcare in the mornings. He screams and cries when he does not get his way in the realm of toys or food or diaper changing. I am hoping that this is a short-lived phase, but think it could be the start of the terrible twos?

Ezra climbed the stairs to go play in his room, which doesn’t happen often. I believe that he climbed the stairs to play in his room because his room was clutter free, and he wanted his room’s floor cluttered like the floor of the main living area and the dinning area cluttered with an alphabet drum, plastic shopping cart, purple striped truck with smiley face on grill, shape blocks, plastic bowls, a lunch box, a cotton banana, cotton blocks, books big and small, Ezra’s Packer Cheese Head, a toy hard hat, a scarf, two pair of Ezra’s shoes, pages of a free news paper, tissue box, the red white blue four wheeled walker, pillows, plastic bins, rings of a cone, the cone with base and cone detached, crayons, a small cotton giraffe, the cars with smiling faces that roll forward when pushed back, a wooden train attached to yarn (the toy Ezra likes watching me pull around and make noise), a plastic lid to something, a small cotton animal head attached to a wrist band, more books, a pink ball and a small baking sheet.

Ezra started a new daycare on Monday, and today was the end of his first week there. Overall, I think he liked it. Or at least, all I can do is hope he liked it and hope that we made a good decision to switch.  (It makes me feel a little guilty to say it, but the impetus for the switch was initially financial. When we went up to 4 days/week, KC charged us for full time, which was a ridonkulous amount of money. But then I started looking at other places and thinking about the different things Ezra could experience that would be fun for him and help him learn and grow into a good person, things that he might not necessarily get at the KC place just because of the way those places are set up and run. So after a lot of looking around, I found a small bilingual daycare sort of near our house, which had a smaller class size, more staff stability, and it was significantly cheaper. And bilingual!)

Ezra  has cried each morning when I drop him off, but that was the case at the KC too. When I come to get him in the afternoon, he has been very happy to see me, but that was also the case before. He has smiled and waved at the teachers when we are leaving, but he was starting to do that before as well. The teachers say he is a great kid and very active and playful and they are happy he is there with them…but that’s the same as before too. His naps are a bit erratic, but that is true unless he’s at home the whole day. So the only things that really seem to have changed are the new faces and places where Ezra spends his days. Well, that and the language thing.

I installed the levers that screw on to cabinet doors and hook on the cabinet frame. Now the doors to trash bin under sink and the door to cleaning liquids and powers under sink have a lever that will hook the cabinet frame and hold the door and require too much coordination and strength for Ezra to press open to unhook lever and open door.

The EZ-O Corral increased sized on Saturday, and Ezra seems to be liking the new area. This means the entire main floor sans the Red Room and Mud Room are open for Ezra play.

The new section of the EZ-O Corral did take some preparation. There was the removal of stacks of medical records, bill receipts, pamphlets, magazines, books. book covers, CD cases that were removed from the coffee table and the stand in what was the first area of the EZ-O Corral and moved to the floor of the new section to be put away some day when we had time, but Ezra has had all that time. This stuff was moved to the Red Room, and a gate was screwed to block the opening to the Red Room. The floor was cleaned. The outlets were plugged. The shelves were cleaned and arranged, so all that Ezra could reach was out of reach. The small bucket of pennies was moved along with the pens. The half height window curtains were raised half way to be out Ezra’s reach. The windows and trim was wiped of dust. The bookshelf and stands were dusted.

Once the new section of the EZ-O Corral was prepared, I opened up the corral by moving a chair with pillows under seat (so Ezra couldn’t crawl through) between wall and couch or kitchen counter and kitchen wall.

Ezra entered and inspected the area. Ezra found a loose piece of trim, access to wires and power strip, a weighting machine that is cheap and would probably break once Ezra threw it around enough.

I nailed the trim, angled the coffee table still between couch and wall to block off the wires and electrical strip. -v- put the weighing machine under the couch.

Ezra likes to roam the new area. He is finding food dropped from meals on the carpet floor allowing him to graze before -v- and I can clean up the dropped food.

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.

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.

-v- was telling me yesterday after returning from daycare details about daycare I have noticed too (now that she mentioned it): the other kids at daycare wear pants and shirts with socks and shoes while Ezra wears a baby body suit most of the time.

The baby body suit is the type of outfit babies wear when sleeping or lounging around the house. I equate it to a babies version of sweats and a sweater, but with 70’s body suit twist.

The baby body suit is one piece like a onesie but is thicker and has longer sleeves and leggings that have feet on the end, so Ezra can have warm feet and not wear socks. The one piece outfit also helps Ezra’s body heat to remain trapped and circulate through out the baby body suit for it is one piece of clothing. If Ezra needs a change of diaper, the baby body suit is easier to access than pants with socks with maybe a onesie underneath. The body suit is great for sleeping, and in my mind it is great for daycare too.

Until -v- mentioned that all the other kids are wearing ‘real’ cloths like button up shirts, pants, socks and shoes (even thought they don’t walk) at daycare, I didn’t care. After she mentioned the kids not wearing baby body suits my mind began to remember the same details I have noticed when dropping Ezra off in the mornings.

Most of the kids are older, but not by much, so now we feel Ezra shouldn’t be dressed in his baby body suits for daycare. Ezra needs to become part of the system like everyone else and the sooner he becomes adjusted to wearing shoes and socks and pants and shirts and not wearing the baby body suit then the sooner we can begin to show him how to dress for the system. I would hate for Ezra to want to wear body suits with feet on the legs and cute animals on his feet forever.

Does Ezra have resolutions for this new year, 2008? I asked him yesterday, and he didn’t have much to say, because he was chewing on the thumb and forefinger of his left fist. Maybe he wants to resolve to make a greater effort to stick his whole fist in his mouth. Or perhaps he would like to challenge himself to only one change of clothes per day. Perhaps he is hoping to try some new foods. Whatever he might be thinking about New Year’s Resolutions, I hope that one of his resolutions isn’t “become completely unphotogenic and boring so people will stop taking pictures of me” because that would be bad news for me and the grandmas.

If one of your resolutions was to look at more pictures of babies, or you were hoping for a 2007 retrospective of Ezra in pictures, you’re in luck! I just uploaded 100 pictures featuring Ezra (there’s maybe another 5 that feature him only indirectly) to Picasa:

http://picasaweb.google.com/valeriester/EzraSBest2007?authkey=-DX7KT03vcI

Check back every few months for more pictures - I might just get around to uploading with more frequency because lots of people keep asking to see more pictures. Maybe they don’t really mean it, but just in case…

Ezra woke, played, ate, played, napped, woke, ate, played, napped, woke, ate, played, napped, woke, ate, played, napped, woke, slept, woke, fussed, slept…

Like all us tools working or going to school during the Monday through Friday time cycle, we now have a new tool that will be joining us in our endless job of keeping the system working. Today Ezra experienced his first ‘Monday’. A ‘Monday’ that began at five in the morning because Ezra hasn’t adjusted to daylight savings time. A ‘Monday’ morning that had -v- and I running around to get Ezra ready for daycare. I got tense and snappy, but we made it to the car. Once we made it to the car, Ezra realized that this was not a normal day. I don’t know if it was because he finally realized that he was experiencing his first ‘Monday’, or if he just didn’t want to be in his car seat that early, but during the ride to daycare Ezra did begin to cry. We arrived at daycare and parted ways leaving Ezra to look and smile at another baby. (The other baby had a HUGE head that I also found some thing to look and smile and made me want to point and express that the kid has a HUGE head!) Later in the day, -v- picked Ezra up from the daycare center. According to -v-, Ezra was siting in a chair being cool and calm in a vibrating chair while the other two remaining babies were crying. Ezra arrived home and was soon fast asleep.

Having completed a week with daycare and a week with mommy and daddy working the Money Jobs, Ezra can now enjoy his first weekend. Little does Ezra know that he is now and forever going to live in a world of weekends.

In a few days, Ezra will experience his first Monday.