Golden Pig Tales

Ezra lead Grandma O, -v- and me during a session of playing with cars. Ezra lead the way first as the LEGO firetruck then as the front loader after -v- didn’t want to play with the front-loader anymore for she wanted to be the monster truck Snakebite. -v- playing with Snakebite didn’t last long because she wanted to run over everyone else as Grandma O drove the safari truck, Ezra drove the LEGO  firetruck and I drove the tow truck around the dinning room table, so Ezra took Snakebite away from -v- and had her play with the LEGO firetruck. Ezra then parked Snakebite for the night and played the front loader as I continued to be the tow truck as we drove around and around the table.

So, Ezra has a daily, some times hourly, some times by the minute routine of cycling through a list of people and asking where they are. He will ask were his pre-school classmates are. He will ask: where’s Grandpa and Grandma T; where’s Grandma O; Where’s Grandpa and Grandma Oster. Then he will continue with Uncle Dylan and great uncles and great aunts then begin again a minutes later or a day later. There really is no order nor is there a given reason why he begins to ask where. We just answer knowing it is good to know he remembers family and friends. And he is learning his geography as we try to give him accurate guess of where these people could be.

Ezra and I made a picture frame decoration for daddy for his birthday today! I tried to get Ezra to sing happy birthday, but he wouldn’t. He did at least acknowledge that it was daddy’s birthday, which is more than he would actually do for himself.

Happy Birthday Daddy! We love you!

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.

,,Grandma do it,” was said by Ezra nearly as often as, ”Mom do it,” when I would try to change a diaper, pull Ezra from crib, read him a book during these past days. Grandma is gone. Now, -v- has no one else to help change a diaper or read him a book if she is around without Ezra fussing and saying loud, ,,MOM DO IT. NO, MOMMY DO IT.”

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.

Ezra attended his first ever da vinci days gathering this weekend. As Kalab said, this experience included the Daddies show on Friday night. It also included more music, ice cream, french fries, bouncy walks, mazes, balloons, walking, carrying, running, crying, almost losing a binky, an aborted trip to the wave science research center, bike-sculptures shaped like cats, slugs, tiki bars, and other weird things, a lot of fish art, and several trips to the new Corvallis transit bus that was on display at the entrance to da Vinci days. All this in just 2 days!

I think Ezra’s favorite part was where we sat on this new bus, and I sang many many different verses of “wheels on the bus”

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.  

Ezra is getting bigger! It seems like he is bigger today than yesterday. Kalab and I both seemed to think so, so it must be true. Pretty soon, Ezra will be 6 feet tall.

We had so much fun hanging out with Ezra this weekend! It makes me sad that it’s Sunday and we will be spending the day at work, rather than going to the park, reading books, playing with toys and walking along the streets to look for taxis, busses, u-hauls and motorcycles. That sounds like way more fun than work : (

Ezra also proved his spanish vocabulary is growing! He wants mas mango, mas sesame street, and mas play time. He’s so cute when he says it : )

I can’t believe one little kid could be this much fun!

It’s the weekend, which means more time with Ezra!!!!!!!! yay! I am excited to have Ezra around all day for two days! I only wish that I had been able to stay home with him today but unfortunately I had to be at work. Boo! I think we are going to try some fingerpainting with Ezra tomorrow. Hopefully we can keep his fingers on the paper and not let him dash about the house with painty fingers decorating all the furniture, rugs, and cats!Yay! 

On Friday, Ezra received a clean bill of health for his ear infection! This was good news for sure.

Kalab went to Vegas on Friday, leaving Ezra and I to make plans of our own for the weekend. I decided that it would be fun to go to C-town to visit grammie and grampie T. Me and Ezra zoomed down after dropping off dad at the aiport. We arrived less than 2 hours later, and Ezra proceeded to run and explore - this was the first time he’s been to visit as a super mobile walker. He had lots of fun playing with bamboo in the backyard, trying to figure out how to wield an imaginary light saber/fishing pole/javelin. We had yummy food, including more fresh strawberries and blueberries.

Getting ready to leave on Sunday, Ezra seemed a little extra tired. He ended up sleeping the whole way home, and was then a little fussy. We had dinner back in P-town with DJ and G, and then I took DJ to the airport and swapped him for Kalab. Ezra put up with the dinner and the trip to the airport, but wasn’t his normal self, and he probably just wanted to be at home. He was happy to see dad though!

Sunday night Ezra developed a cough, which may or may not have been the cause of the vomiting at about midnight followed by a fever. It was either that or the 1/2 pint of strawberries Ezra ate on Sunday. Or maybe it’s just some mystery virus. Ezra seemed OK Monday morning, but then I got called to come get him from daycare at about noon because he had a fever and had puked again. So Ezra and I came home and got to hang out with dad for the next 36 hours. Ezra was generally OK, but dad and I went through our own little set of maladies, including, I think, a case of food poisoning! 

Wednesday morning came and Ezra awoke in pretty good spirits, and went off to daycare with a spring in his step with dad and I sort of shuffling and limping along after him…I’m hoping that our rollercoaster of health has just about reached the end of the line!

Grandma O has been visiting with us for the last week. We had such good times with her. Grandma O, like many grandmas, likes to take photos. I just downloaded a shizzle of images off her memory card, and I had such a problem trying to pick which one was cutest. I think this one might be in my top 3 pics of Ezra so far, mostly because of the face (he’s got some like, Blue Steel face going on) but also, the onesie Grandma O found to put him in:

Ha Ha! It will be funny to show him this picture in the future, should he somehow grow up to be a raging neo-Con republican.

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.

Besides the fact Grandparents mean I love you when said or written to Ezra and the daycare says and writes We Love Ezra to be polite for getting paid, Grandparents have more fun with Ezra, and Ezra is happier and more excited after a day with grandparents.