Golden Pig Tales

I was giving Ezra a snack of string cheese today. Instead of giving him the whole piece of packaged string cheese I cut off the end thinking we could share. Deep inside I knew, as I was cutting the cheese, that it was a bad idea. It was a bad idea because I knew that Ezra at times hates having his food (and other things like crayons or sticks) cut, torn or broke part and earlier while walking to the park a stick he found broke in two and he became upset until I convinced him that he now had two sticks.

Ezra likes whole things. Or things he believes are whole. And no matter how much I tell him that two is more than one or that it’s still the same amount food (or stick), Ezra some times becomes lost in a dramatic display of tears and pouting because of the now unwhole thing.

One time -v- cut a peanut butter sandwich in half before him, so half of it could be saved for his lunch. Ezra lost all sense of reason and emotional control. He even tired squishing the two halves of sandwich back together with his two hands wet with tears.

Today it was a piece of cut string cheese. I gave him a new whole piece but he wanted the one I cut. He tried to press the two pieces together and glue it with his tears, but no matter the pressure they wouldn’t stick. I even tried to press the two pieces back to one but with no success.

The story ended with me giving him his binky and both of us wishing I had not cut the cheese.

I can tell when Ezra is growing because my arms and legs hurt more at the end of the day. My muscles are getting bigger as Ezra gets bigger. I wonder if the relationship between Ezra’s growth and the ginormous gunz I pack on each arm could be correlated by some fancy mathematical equation? hmmm…..if only I hadn’t slept through calculus so often.

Ezra is getting so big, he is able to crawl up on the couch, on chairs, and on the guest bed.  He is also able to walk up the stairs, one foot per step, just like a big kid, as long as I am holding his hand. We’ve had to bust out the 18 month old clothes and I think we’re about ready to go up a shoe size. I’m glad that throughout the ear infections, teething and such, Ezra’s still been eating enough to keep growing big and strong!

For the past days Ezra’s threshold of being trapped in the highchair has been dwindling. He’s been making his raised-arms-flapping-hands sign that means GET ME OUT OF THE HIGH CHAIR many times during a meal. And he’s also been climbing everything within reach: chairs, baby gates, beds, couches, stools and the highchair. And we have been using the booster seat when we eat, and he’s been eating from his table during other times.

Yesterday, while Ezra was climbing the high chair when both -v- and I had our backs turned for nearly a second, he saw an opportunity to climb the highchair and maybe reach the top before -v- and I could tell him not to climb the highchair because it could tip and fall on him. In stead of being able to tell him that the highchair could fall on him, the highchair fell on him. I freaked out. -v- comforted Ezra. Ezra was fine because the highchair is light.

Now the highchair is a thing of the past. I removed it from the kitchen, and his table is now in its place. In fact, this morning he was sitting in a chair at his table eating breakfast with no raised-arms-flapping-hands sign that means GET ME OUT OF THE HIGH CHAIR!

Here is a gratuitous shot of Ezra with cake on his face at his birthday party : )

Ezra loves bananas and cheese. Bananas and cheese make a food-playing Ezra drop a ball of unwanted food and reach, pinch and lift a chunk of banana or cheese into mouth. Banana or cheese are never foods that he will push to the edges of the high chair tray and never foods that he picks up and drops on the floor (an obvious way Ezra has for showing us he is bored with a type of food or full of food). The sight of a banana or a piece of cheese can cause him to raise and lower legs hanging from chair and incite him to slap the smeared-food-covered-high-chair tray with both hands and let out a baby shout.

Ezra had a pretty nice weekend. It was super sunny on Saturday, and sort of sunny Sunday. We did some outdoor activities - we looked around the the yard and looked at some plants. And by look, I mean Ezra grabbed at whatever was within reach and tried to get it in his mouth. We took a couple of walks in the stroller, and also went to Costco. Everywhere we went, Ezra got compliments on his crazy stand-up hair. Kalab made some pancakes Sunday morning, and Ezra got a few bites. We were practicing his food picking-up skills. He was able to grab the small pieces of pancake I placed on his tray and sort of shove them toward his mouth, but only a little bit would get in and the rest would fall to the floor in many smaller pieces. We are still awaiting the actual emergence of tooth #8. Ezra has continued symptoms of teething, but the tooth still remains unseen. Maybe it will come out during the week so Ezra can have a weekend free of teething.

Ezra went to brunch with me and Auntie Darling on Saturday. I had biscuits and gravy (mmmmm…gravy), and Ezra had pancakes! His first pancakes! Ok, so it was actually just 2/3 of a smallish pancake, but he ate it in little bits that I fed to him. He seemed to very much enjoy it.

After brunch, we went to a park and sat on a blanket in the shade - it was a hot day! This was the first for Ezra as well! Ezra crawled around on the blanket, but only to the edge of the blanket. He would reach out and touch the grass, rubbing his hand on it a little, but wouldn’t put his hand down on the ground. Maybe he was afraid of getting dirty - the ground was sort of muddy.

It was a big, fun, exciting day with Ezra. Then this morning I woke up and thought it was Monday, and I was running around trying to get Ezra ready, wondering why Kalab was sitting around being all lazy.

Ezra had his first Easter in Corvallis with Grandma and Grandpa T. Grandpa T was very excited to dye Easter Eggs with Ezra. And here’s what Ezra wanted to do with the eggs:

He’s still got to learn that you need to take the shell off first! We tried feeding him the yolk of that egg a little later for dinner, but he didn’t seem to enjoy it very much. On Easter morning, Ezra got some pictures taken with this old stuffed bunny that I also had my picture taken with on my first Easter. Somehow he seemed to know better than to chew on that old thing. Grandpa T got Ezra(’s parents) some Easter candy, which he seemed to enjoy (chewing on the wrappers of). Next year maybe we can try the whole hiding things for him to go find part of Easter. And maybe someday several years down the road, someone will try to explain to him the biblical story of Easter, which will seem very strange to him after all the years of eggs, rabbits, and candy.

Ezra had his first taste of banana today. It was sort of like a banana milk shake without the shake. He seemed to enjoy the mashed up banana mixed with breast milk more than the rice pudding mixed with breast milk because after spitting out one mouth full he’d reach for the bowl and spoon and was happy to let another serving to be shoveled into mouth.

He did appear to eat some of the banana, but most of the banana did ooze from mouth.