Golden Pig Tales

Ezra wanted to read Goodnight Moon to me for the book we read after brushing teeth. This was after -v- and he read the book Goodnight Moon before brushing his teeth. When he read to me, he read and lead the story. Whether because of repetitious reading of the book, repetitious reading of books or he sort of knows the words, Ezra read most of the book too me. Some sentences I had to begin, but he would end. Then he wanted to read another book to me. The book was No No Yes Yes. And Yes Yes, Ezra did read the book to me. He read the repetitious No No pages and Yes Yes pages while telling the story of the pictures.

Then Ezra read to -v- most of the fifty-five flaps of Snow Day! starring Barney Backhoe.

Ezra’s new favorite band is Queen. It started with him walking around the house saying, ,,We will. We will rock you. Sock you.” to the beat of Queen’s We Will Rock You. He must have picked it up from Pre-school. Where ever the words and chant came to Ezra, now that he has heard the song sung by Queen along with We Are The Champions, Ezra wants to hear the song often. It has even got him back into wanting to hear Johnny Cash after several listens to Queen.

While -v- was away at the store today, Ezra and I had a Popsicle. It has been a reoccurring event with Ezra when he decides to not go to the store with -v-. He will usually wait a few minutes after -v- has left for the store to come ask me if we can have a Popsicle. In fact, I am pretty sure he remained  home from the store today because he wanted a Popsicle and not because he wanted to further bond with his father on Father’s Day, and he knew I would give him a Popsicle. I did. And we both had our Popsicles on the porch while he asked questions and commented on the people walking past, which was fun and made Father’s Day even more.

We had such a nice day of sharing and loving and bagels with cream cheese yesterday for mother’s day! We had some guests over for breakfast and then had a nice time outside at the park. I got some beautiful cards and lots of hugs and kisses. It was a great mother’s day and it lasted up until Ezra decided that he’d maybe reached his maximum capacity of goodness, because he had a nice little tantrum in the car after our nice dinner out at the end of the day. But at least I got most of mother’s day free from the terrible twos!

There has been no fuss to change diapers for there have been no diapers. All poops and pees have been on the potty. The only time we needed diapers was when we were stuck in traffic, and Ezra needed to pee. All we had was the portable toilet seat that is Ezra’s size to fit over adult toilets and diapers, so -v- pulled off to the side of the road; made a toilet with the portable seat and diapers, and Ezra peed on the improvised toilet.

Since the last weekend from hell, we’ve made such great potty training progress that I feel like everything’s been better! Less stress over cleaning up pee = more fun for everyone. SO I think that this may in fact have been the best week ever…after we got past the incident on Monday where he peed on the floor at the kid gym and we didn’t have any extra pants so we had to carry him crying out to the car to go home. But since that day Ezra has done such a good job with using the potty. After Ezra’s first couple of poops as a baby, I never thought I could be as excited about a bowel movement as I was about the big one he put in his little potty today. It was like the most awesome thing ever. There were other things about this weekend that were fun (the camp-out in the living room, waffles, the park, the tadpole pond) but that poop made this the best weekend EVER!

All I needed to do was to ask about peeing every five minutes and talk to him about his potty and what kind of potty he would like every few minutes and rush him to the bath room twice when he said he needed to pee. I think the first attempt I made him too nervous as we rushed to the bathroom. The second time I convinced him to sit a few seconds longer on his potty and relax. Then I heard the sound of pee, and Ezra smiled. And I felt a great relief.

As he was walking down the stairs after waking from sleep, Ezra paused to meet me and see me face to face as I stood on the floor. We stood there in the morning sunshine and stared at each other with smiles. Then ezra said. ,,I love your nose.” And it has been a great morning since.

Ezra helped -v- pull weeds, plant tomatoes, cleanup his Play-Doh and vacuum (which he can do more or less on his own now and actually clean the floor). He was wanting and happy to help me take recycling to the recycle bin and he is now learning what goes in the trash bin and what goes in the recycling bin. He still wants to help unload the dishes and put cloths in both the washing machine and dryer. I am sure it won’t be too long until he is demanding an allowance. And when he does we will probably give him one because he is a good worker around the house.

YES! That is correct. A major show of growth and development occurred tonight after brushing teeth: Ezra spit out his toothpaste bubbles. Not all of the toothpaste bubbles were spit out, but some. This was exciting to all including Ezra because Ezra has been trying to spit toothpaste out of mouth like mom and dad since tooth brushing began.

After waking, eating, talking, reading, car riding, playing, fort building with Ezra all day long. After having built one chair fort for most his toys and many couch forts for Ezra, and after reading books, and after eating. After ABCs and counting. After watching Caillou as we sat on the couch and ate a heated frozen pizza, Ezra smiled and said, ,,I like you, dad.”

Saturday, I introduced Ezra to building forts with sofa and chair cushions. We built our first fort using a chair and its two cushions, four sofa pillows and a blanket. Sunday, we built more forts. Today, we built another fort before bedtime after telling him this during morning that couldn’t build a fort before pre-school because we didn’t have time.

We are perfected our structures though Ezra does have a tendency to find joy in taking down the forts to build a new one. I find the joy in building forts with Ezra.

The fire truck puzzle is now put in its box with no fuss from Ezra. Not because he does not prefer for the fire truck puzzle to remain solved on the floor’s middle, but rather it is because once the puzzle is in box he can solve the fire truck puzzle again and again and again…

I think he liked my ceaser salad dinner because he ate it. Ezra even said, ,,Thank you for dinner, daddy,” for the first time.

I haven’t seen Ezra since I dropped him off at daycare. He got a ride home with auntie kate and daddy because I had a holiday party to attend for work. This morning we drove by the train yard on our way to preschool and saw the big black engine! The big black engine that will be pulling the train tomorrow morning that Ezra will be riding on. “The big black engine?” he asked. “Puffing and chuffing?” “With the smoke up in the sky?” Yes! Tomorrow morning we are going to go ride the holiday express around the river front, and the big black engine will be pulling the train. So, maybe tonight he will be dreaming of trains!

Ezra woke with a smile today. He ate breakfast, had his diaper changed, got dressed and got ready to preschool without fuss. He got into the car to go to preschool fully dressed unlike yesterday or days before when he was missing shoes or a coat and even one day a shirt because he didn’t want to leave for preschool. But not today. And today when I got home he brought me an orange and peeled it. Then we talked. He had a bath and went to bed with no tears.