Golden Pig Tales

We are on another level of antibiotics for Ezra’s ear. He woke up on Wednesday complaining about an owie in his ear, so I got him in to see the doctor. She decided to switch to a different type of antibiotic, because she said that it was either a new infection or the old one didn’t get knocked out by the dose we started two weeks ago…so, it’s now looking very likely that Ezra will get a recommendation for another set of tubes. Those poor ears! He takes his medicine like a trooper….even the additional “medicine” that we’re giving him to help his tummy get the good bacteria back - straight acidophilus bacteria that tastes like weirdly pungent blueberry yogurt. Hopefully he will keep up the good attitude and this ear infection will go away!

Halloween was fun indeed. It all started with the party at the pre-school on Friday afternoon that Ezra invited me and GrammaO to attend with him. Ezra had his monkey suit partially on, but only for about 30 seconds. Then he noticed that C-dog didn’t have on his costume, so of course Ezra could not wear a costume. We played some games, did some crafts, and GrammaO and I watched as all the kids took turns taking bites out of cookies and then putting them back on the table. The big “hit” of the party was the ghost pinata. Everyone got to take a whack at it, and got some of the toys that spilled out once the older kids got to it. Ezra’s little princess friend happily shared her playdough stash with her friends, while C-dog hoarded all the kazoos to himself. On Saturday, we went to Corvallis for halloween evening. Ezra had a long long day, but managed to get the monkey suit fully on, and go out and trick or treat at a few houses near Grampa and Gramma T’s place. He looked adorable and I’ll have to try and get the pictures from GrammaO. Now we just have to figure out how to convince him that we don’t always get to eat so much candy.

lately, Ezra has indicated that some of his toys are crying. he doesn’t offer any reason for why they cry, just that they are indeed crying.  he then proceeds to bash the toys about like he usually does, so he doesn’t seem to be giving the crying toys any special treatment. I wish I knew why the toys were crying?

The days are getting shorter, which means less time to go to the park. During the summer, when Ezra would announce his desires to go to the park, we would go. Or we would wait and go after dinner. These days, whenever Ezra expresses those park wishes, I look out the window and see that it’s getting dark, and so I have to tell him that it’s too late to go to the park. Lately, he will also look out the window at night, or first thing in the morning, and see that it is dark and so he will tell me that it’s too late to go to the park. Fortunately, preschool has a huge playground in the backyard where, weather permitting, the kids all get to play at the end of the day. Equally fortunate is that the weather has been permitting. So now when we come home, we generally play with the trains and other inside toys before and after dinner, even though I am pretty sure he’d rather be out at the park.

I was a chaperone for Ezra’s preschool trip to the Pumpkin Patch on Friday. A lot of work! But super fun too. We got to see puppies, pigs, baby cows, chickens, goats and llamas. Each kid got to pick their own pumpkin. We all went on a hay ride with a real tractor pulling us along. We rode down a slide and the kids bounced and bounced in the bouncy house. And last but not least, the kids rode ponies! I didn’t think Ezra would ride one at first. He surprised me by not only wanting to ride the horse, but being very specific about which one he wanted to ride. He wanted to ride the WHITE pony. No other pony would do. Fortunately for us, the little girls in the group were willing to ride the other brown ponies, even though I’m pretty sure all the girls wanted the white pony as well. And fortunately for me, the white pony was very well mannered, and Ezra had a safe and fun ride, ending his (safe) and fun trip to the pumpkin patch!

Today was Ezra’s first day at playschool! Apparently the highlight of his day was the 2 times he and C-dog sat on the potties that flush. Or it could have been the 5 spiders sighted outside in the backyard, or playing in the backyard, or music class. Or maybe it was all of the above. When I came to pick him up, he was in the midst of playing and not ready to leave. After many minutes of playing with Ezra and C-dog, I was ready to go home, but Ezra was still having fun, so we played some more. When it was finally really time to go, Ezra was sad. To make him happy again, we went to Trader Joes and got a balloon (and some groceries!).

I was just informed today that Ezra will be transferring over to the preschool on Monday!!! When I found out, I sort of felt nervous, the way I did when it was the first day of school. But I don’t think Ezra will really be too nervous. He has to go to a new place, but all his friends are coming with him! I’ll have to remember to stop saying “playcare” and start saying “playschool”

We’re going to go on an airplane on Thursday to go to Wisconsin for a wedding. Ezra thus far is not really too excited about “going up in the air” again. I’m trying to talk with him about it as if it is a really really exciting fun thing, but it’s really hard to get worked up in a good way about something as unpleasant as today’s reality of (coach) air travel. Especially when Ezra didn’t really seem excited about looking out the window on our flights earlier this month, there’s not much left to talk up. Maybe I can bribe him with more matchbox cars….and m&ms or maybe suckers?

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!

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 : )

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 asked to sit on the potty tonight after I had put him in his crib to go to sleep. He sat down on the potty for about 20 seconds, then got up and wanted to put his diaper back on. So we did, and he went back to bed. Then about 5 minutes later, he wanted to sit on the potty again. This time, he sat on the potty for about 2 minutes, when all of a sudden, I heard the sounds of pee pee in the potty! We were both very excited and we turned on the big light in the room and I did a pee pee dance and Ezra got up and pointed to the pee pee in the potty and said “I did it!” I was sad that Kalab was not there to see it, but I did take pictures. The jubilation turned to tears after about 10 minutes though, when we had to figure out what he wanted to wear. And then there were more requests to sit on the potty with no results. So, now, while I am excited about Ezra going potty in the potty for the first time, I wonder if bed time is going to end up getting stretched out longer and longer, because now he could really have to go potty!

Sometimes Ezra likes to sing a little clean up song while he cleans up his toys, or helps to clean up some other mess that’s usually been made with his help. It goes like this: “clean up, clean up, everybody clean up! clean up clean up everybody clean up!” you can repeat those verses for as long as it takes to clean up the mess.  Tonight, the thought of cleaning up a mess sent Ezra off into temper tantrum land. No clean up song was sung, and we nearly ended the evening with tears and crying. Fortunately, another song helped end the night on a better note - a happy and lengthy version of “wheels on the bus” brought Ezra out of his tantrum and helped settle him down to go to sleep.

It started in the tubbie. I was playing with Ezra’s new shark bath toy and having the shark go through the water and end up nibbling on Ezra’s toes. During the approach I was making like the sound of the theme song for Jaws. I didn’t have it quite right, but it was close. Anyway, Ezra really likes this game and always makes me play for longer than I think is fun. But then tonight he asked for “mas donut” while we were playing the shark game, and I thought he wanted a donut. But no! He was refering to the sound I made in place of the Jaws theme music - duh-nuh……..duh-nuh….duh-nuh..duh-hun..duh-nah-nah! I guess maybe it does sound a lot like donut when I do it. I hope I’ve not lead Ezra to think that sharks like donuts. Although maybe they do?

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.