Golden Pig Tales

While washing hands with him after tossing around the football outside, I noticed he no longer needs to use a step stool to use the bathroom sink.

After getting home today, Ezra went to his room to change his pants because they got a little wet.

I waited down stairs and did some cleaning while waiting to hear Ezra call for me to come and play with him to make LEGO things or look for a car or build a fort. I waited and waited and waited, but no call came. I heard him playing. I heard him talking to toys, but the call of me to come play that is a usual event throughout any day didn’t come. So, I did some more cleaning and some writing while waiting and waiting and waiting to hear Ezra call for me to come play with him, but it never happened. And I felt happy that he  didn’t need me to play. I felt good at being able to relax, but deep inside I also felt left out.

Ezra has learned how to tell the size of his cloths for now he wants to know if he is wearing T3 or T4 cloths. He prefers the T4 because big kids wear T4.

Today’s lie was his lie that he didn’t have a snack bar today when he did have a snack bar for lunch. He lied because he wanted another snack  bar for dinner. When we asked him what happened to his bar we gave him for lunch, Ezra first said two guys took it from him then he said his friend M took it at lunch. And then he said he didn’t get one in his lunch box. Then he said he wanted another bar.

Ezra complained of pain around the front of the thighs near the knees before bed, and -v- suggested it could be growing pains. After reading the U.S. Intranet and many websites with convincing enough advertisements and sponsors and the same explanation of two year old growing pains, I believe it is likely growing pains. …So, Ezra probably has growing pains and a growth spurt. This would also go with him eating a lot more than normal.

Growing pains are better than ear infection pains which Ezra hasn’t complained of. In fact, he took is last dose of antibiotics today. Though it was easy to give him his medicine for he took it like a big boy every time, it’s good he doesn’t have to take any more. Now hopefully the ear infection pain doesn’t return.

Ezra has a step stool for bathroom, kitchen, dinning room. During the past, Valerie and i would usually need to carry Ezra’s step stool around from the kitchen sink, the dishwasher, his table, to the chair at the big table, so he could wash hands, unload the dishwasher, let -v- or I sit, or climb to his chair at the big table.

Now he carries his own stool.

Now he carries his own stool to new places like a movable cart in kitchen for fruit or to the drawers for a spoon or the the counter tops for his binky or for the sink in bathroom, to unload the dishwasher, for a seat, to use to step to the big chair.

Now he can get to those places where I thought he wouldn’t be for a couple more months or years.

I was late getting home from  work, so I ate cold pizza alone until Ezra decided to eat, so he got his plate of pizza and sat down beside me on the floor. He pulled some topping off the pizza, ate the toppings then looked-up at me then stood and said, ,,Going to work,” and walked away. It was then I realized how he must feel when I leave him for work.

This evening, we gave Ezra his very first haircut. Or trim, as we told him, because I read somewhere that the word “cut” makes kids think it’s going to be painful. He was a willing participant because the event involved M&Ms. He looks different…still cute, but different. More like Dennis the Menace, less like little Mr. Mullet. I didn’t get a chance to take pictures, but Kalab caught it all on video. And I have a little lock of Ezra hair that I guess I will keep somewhere, just like millions of other moms have before me.

Ezra was sort of in a crankypants mood tonight before we went to bed. Well, sort of is actually an understatement. One of the things he refused to do before going to bed was put on a diaper. We settled for putting on a pair of his big boy underwear….the ones with cars on them. I am curious to see how this works. Will he make it through the night? Will he sit on the potty tomorrow morning? Will he just pee in the bed and wake up crying?

PS - yesterday Ezra picked up a bucket and filled it with various items, and announced he was going to grandma and grandpa’s house. He did this repeatedly throughout the evening. His trip to grandma and grandpa’s house involved a circle through the kitchen and dining room. Before he’d leave he’d give me a kiss and one time he even a “love you mom!” I wish I had a video camera to record the sweetness : )

Bike ride along the river to see boats began the weekend. A couple of trips to the park continued the weekend.

I showed Ezra how to make bridges with his new train set and became the go-to person to fix the train when the bridges fell.

Saturday passed and night came. We slept and woke. Eza was eating a snack at his table in the kitchen during the morning. I stepped on a Matchbox car on the kitchen floor and said, ,,Fuck.”

Then Ezra said, ,,Fuck.” Then he said a bunch of other words that was beyond comprehension as I remembered that I need to say, ,,Fudge sickles.”

The rest of the day was calm sans Ezra’s face plant into some cement that scraped his nose and forehead. I didn’t say fuck and neither did Ezra, but I was thinking it. The scrape on nose later caused Ezra pain when the nectarine juice spread over his nose. He didn’t get stung my the plums juice from the many many plums he ate before dinner tonight.

The day ended with trains and books and no more speaking of the word Fuck.

Size is now an attribute of objects that Ezra sees and wants to define especially if it is BIG. The Bus is a Big One. The fire truck is a Big One. The garbage truck is also is also a Big One. Usually he will point and say, ,,Bus,” or ”Fire truck,” then say, ”Big one.” Unless it was like tonight when this huge man sat down near us in the restaurant during dinner. All Ezra could do was point and say, ,,That’s a big one. Big one.”

Uf - more fun was had this weekend than any weekend in the history of the world!

OK, maybe not, but we had a great time with Ezra and our friends and family hanging out during the morning and on through the BBQ on Saturday afternoon. So many people to play with!  Today was a nice mellow Sunday with a little bike ride and some time at the park. Ezra is two!   But now we have to go back to work, which won’t be as fun as either Saturday or Sunday. Boo!

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 tells me to, ,,Wait,” at the top of the steep and carpetless stairs for him to descend. Then he steps to the stairs, looks back to make sure I am far from the top of the stairs. He waits to makes sure I won’t be following him then he steps down.

Each step makes me nervous. He lifts foot and slowly lowers foot to the next stair. He leans against the wall and leans back while slowly bending the knee. The foot hits the stair below and the other foot slips from under and steps to the stair below with butt hitting the stair above. Then he stands.

When he is standing at stair’s edge, I get the most nervous because sometimes he just stands and stares and looks around. And while he looks around, I look at him and say, ,,Be careful, Ezra.” Then he says, ,,NO, DADDY. Wait.” He takes another step and another then another until he is at the bottom and then I am no longer worried he will miss step and fall head-first from wooden stair to wooden stair to wooden stair. Then I realize Ezra is grown-up and if anything I am going to cause him to lose focus and fall down the stairs because I am calling out his name and saying to him every step, ,,Be careful, Ezra.”

-v- wrote an email reading that Ezra is the perfect kid except for him not wanting to change, wear, not wear pants and or diaper.

I agree. He’s great in every way, but it is a fucking pain to get Ezra to change his pants or diaper. Getting pants or diaper off is a complete battle itself. He whines and kicks, jiggles, squirms, moans, pushes, says, ,,No,” swats and fusses. And with the other battle putting on the pants, pajama bottoms, shorts or underwear, it some times feels like a war. Shirts nearly fly on and off like a jet over his body with no to little fight when compared with the pants.

He has this favorite pair of pajama bottoms with choo-choo trains on them that he always wants to wear even to playcare. And he loves them, so they’re easy to get on, but then getting them off for another pair of pants or pajamas is between a negotiation and a battle that feels to last for a morning. While I do have to let -v- from time to time be The One changing Ezra’s pants for she doesn’t battle with him, I am becoming more calm and focused. Instead of getting angry for battle, I am trying to just think of the trains and truck camouflage pants and shorts that I want to make Ezra, and that Ezra would always wear and would always be happy to change. I see the pants like a collage of trains or trucks or motor cycles…