Golden Pig Tales

We had a plan to help Ezra create/embellish/draw on valentines for all his classmates for Valentines Day junk at preschool tomorrow. The plan was going well, until Ezra saw all the Toy Story valentines unpacked from their box. Then we asked him which valentines he wanted to give to his friends, and he looked at us with a puzzled look. “But I thought these were all for me!!” he said, then he cried and pouted and argued until I convinced him that it wasn’t very valnetiney to be so greedy. Then, just about as suddenly as the panic about all the valentines started, it was over, and he was happily writing his friends’ names on the valentines, and even dipping into “his” pile of the extras so that the girls could have the valentines that he had designated for the girls. I guess we got him on the right track with the sharing thing….now we have to work on that gender stereotyping.

We are having a couple of Ezra’s preschool friends over for a playdate tomorrow. Ezra is excited. I am nervous!

It’s 2011 now. I was looking over some papers this weekend, cleaning off a desk. I found a stack of insurance and medical statements from 2008. Ezra sure did go to the doctor a lot that year. I’m sure glad we haven’t had another year like that with him. Here’s to a happy, healthy 2011 for Ezra and everyone else!

We had our first parent teacher conference with Ezra’s teacher on Thursday. Ezra apparently is smart, but I already knew that.

Ezra’s been waking up early, and going to be a little earlier. He has been crankier than usual. Maybe it’s because of daylight savings time. Maybe its because he’s 3.

Ezra now likes Toy Story. He likes it in the way that he used to like the Cars movie.  Specifically, he likes Toy Story 2, and his favorite character is Buzz. We were out shopping this weekend and Ezra spotted a Toy Story lunch box, and Toy Story thermos. I successfully shielded him from the Toy Story sandwich container, the Toy Story snack container, the Toy Story, etc. etc. These match his Toy Story t-shirt and Toy Story backpack.  I’m frankly surprised he didn’t want to be someone from Toy Story for Halloween.  Disney-Pixar sure is good at marketing their stuff.

As we rode to preschool a week ago to deliver his binky to the babies at playschool, we were listening to Queen’s “We will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions”…Ezra said “Champions don’t use binkies!” and so we sang those words along to the song. I’m feeling like singing those words again because we are the champions! It’s been a week without the binky and Ezra is sleeping tight in bed with his triumphantly returned car transporter.  No time for binkies because we are the champions, my friend!

Auntie kate and I took Ezra to the amusement park this weekend. Ezra had fun - it was kind of like the trip to the fair, only we went on some rides. Ezra was great and tried a lot of different rides, and even did a few of them by himself. Auntie kate and I even convinced him to try the kiddie coaster with us. It didn’t go over as well as the cars and/or motorcycles that go around and around in circles. He didn’t cry, but once the ride was over, he told me that he really wanted to get off. As we were heading out of the coaster area, he said “I didn’t like that ride. I don’t like the roller coaster.” Aferwards, he went on a few other rides (the cars, the train, and the motorcycles) and after each one of those he would tell me that he liked that ride, but that he didn’t like the roller coaster. At least he knows what he likes!

We went to the State Fair yesterday with Ezra and grandma and grandpa T. What fun! Ezra did all the fun fair things. He saw sheep, goats, pigs, horses, cows, lots of poop, a deer, a wallaby(!), more goats, chickens, ducks, geese, pheasants, smokey the bear, and some salmon and trout. He ate curly fries, a corn dog, an apple, a GIANT pickle, corn on the cob, and elephant ears.

We went through the midway (quickly) and watched some of the rides. He got a stuffed pig from his dad’s throwing skills. He sat on about 10 different tractors/farm machines.

And then he got cranky and threw some grass, so we knew it was time to go.

Fun at the fair!

It is a lesson I can best teach Ezra and did when Ezra asked for help to know how to stand and pee.

So I told him to take the seat off his toilet, and then told him to aim the pee into the big red bowl of his toilet.

I taught by example because I need to pee, and I stood and peed into the big toilet.

All the pee hit the bowls.

PS - This is Ezra’s mom. And  for the record, I was the first person that got Ezra to pee standing up.

PSS - This is Ezra’s dad. And for the record, I searched Golden Pig Tales for you bragging about this, but couldn’t find the entry.

Ezra has mostly stopped napping. It’s sort of sad and less convenient,  but sort of fun at the same time. Sad because it’s yet another sign that he’s getting older. Less convenient because now there’s not a block of time where I can get some things done around the house in the afternoon, and fun because it means we can go out and do things all day and not really have to worry about getting back for a nap. There’s still the issue of having to deal with a cranky preschooler, but it kind of goes in waves. If you just let the cranky waves pass over you, a period of fun times and/or calm times happens in between. Ezra went to bed at about 6pm this evening. 6PM! I’m wondering what time this means he’ll wake up in the morning. 6am? earlier? THe lack of a nap lately has meant that he goes to bed earlier, but this is the earliest he’s gone to bed in a long long time. Then, also, the last few days he’s been woken up by something in the middle of the early morning hours (3am-ish) and come to see if he can crawl into bed with mom and dad.  Hopefully tonight he’ll just sleep on through until the real morning.

It’s a good thing that Kalab is back onboard the goldenpigtales wagon. Otherwise this would have been a boring month with no tales told. Thanks Kalab!

I have a new office downtown. Earlier this month, I took Ezra to mommy’s new office. I showed him my desk and the people who work with me, I showed him the chairs that you roll around on wheels, and I showed him the big balls we have to sit on sometimes. Then I wheeled him over in a chair to what ended up being his favorite part of mommy’s new office: the lollipop bowl. It was such a hit that now whenever we’re in the car heading in the direction of downtown, Ezra asks me when he can go back to my office. I am assuming because of the lollipops, but then again, I like it just because of what it is, so maybe he does too.

I can’t believe that Ezra is almost 3! In about a month he’ll have his 3rd birthday. We’re perhaps going to have a firetruck theme, based on Ezra’s interest in the fire truck cake making video on youtube, but he also likes the farm cake. He asked for a firetruck farm cake, which I think would be hard to combine, but maybe I’m just not thinking like a 3 year old. He knows that we want him to give up his binky when he turns 3, so in some ways I think he’s not as excited about his birthday. That sort of makes me feel bad, but I also feel like he needs to give up the binky for good. He’s only supposed to have it when he’s in bed getting ready for sleep, but lately he’s taken to going upstairs to “take a rest” which is code for “have my binky”. We’ll see…

Ezra, Kalab and I were in the car on the way home from a birthday party for one of our (adult) friends. Ezra was eating a vast amount of cheese puffs and in good spirits. At some point near home he starts saying something that sounds like “holy crapamole” and it turns out, that is exactly what he was saying. Kalab thinks he heard it from me. I am pretty sure at one point I have said “holy crap” in front of Ezra, but more than once I have said “holy guacamole” instead. The combination of the two was totally Ezra’s own creation, and one that I think I am now going to use more than once, because it sounds super funny.  But don’t tell him I said that.

PS - Happy Father’s Day to Kalab, who is a wonderful father and awesome husband to boot! Love you!

I broke a cardinal rule that Kalab had been trying to instill in Ezra: tools are not toys. I went with Ezra to the hardware store yesterday and they had these cute little tape measures in a bin and Ezra saw them and wanted one. I agreed, and so we came home with Ezra’s little tape measure. I thought he could keep it with his little box of toy tools and that would be that. But this morning, he wanted to take it to preschool. Actually, I think I was the one who suggested taking that, in lieu of the big stuffed 6 ft long dragon that he initial asked to take. So what happened at preschool was doubly my fault then. Ezra arrived at school and was happy to measure things with his teacher and I didn’t think there would be any problems. But when I arrived to pick Ezra up this afternoon, he had 2 bandaids on two fingers on his right hand, and one little cut mark on the other 2 unbandaged fingers. He had been measuring some things with his friends and let the tape measure loose and it sliced his fingers, sort of like a bad paper cut. :(  Which just goes to show that Kalab was right all along…tools are not toys.

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!