Golden Pig Tales

Today was the first day I drove Ezra to pre-school all by myself like the big boy parent I am. Aside from less traffic, it seems easier to take Ezra to pre-school because he quickly gets involved with his friends or trying to help the teacher.

We listened to Bobby Brown during the drive. Ezra even said he liked  my car as much as mom’s car now that he can see over the front passanger seat.

During the past when I was with -v- to drop off Ezra, Ezra didn’t hug me. He hugged only -v-. He hugged me goodbye today. Then began to talk with the teacher.

After Ezra saw the firefighters clean their fire engines and fire trucks in How’d They Build That: Fire Trucks, he asked why the fire fighters cleaned their fire engine. -v- and me replied they needed to keep their fire fighting engines and trucks clean, so machines and switches don’t jam and stop working because dirt is everywhere thus prevent the firefighters from helping people.

So for the past few nights Ezra has been using a couple of wet wipes to clean his fire truck bed before bed time for the next time we go save people.

It’s pretty fun to see and talk with him about his fire station while he cleans the fire truck.

,,Zero,” is the answer Ezra gives sometimes to reinforce when he says, ”No.” For example, I ask, ,,Are you hungry?” ,,No,” says Ezra. Then I say, ,,Are you sure you’re not hungry?” He’ll some times reply, ,,No. Zero!”

I have not tried to stop him from using 0 to define no because having written many software progams that use 0 for no I reason Ezra is correct and just beginning a fad for humans.

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!

We are going to the state fair tomorrow! Ezra is wondering if we will see a goseneck trailer like in his book about the big trucks at the state fair. I am hoping there will be corndogs.

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.

While once not long ago, Ezra didn’t like driving in my car. But yesterday, Ezra asked me to see what it would look like if I removed the head rest of the front passanger’s seat. I did once we got home. And today, Ezra got to see through the front windshield from his seat in the back as if he was in the front seat, which pleased Ezra so much that he now only likes mommy’s car better because she has better music, so now I will need to see if I can find blank cassette tapes to record some sounds for Ezra during our few drives during the week.

I had some how hurt my neck months ago and now need to do stretches and exercises to keep the neck feeling good. I also have a lap table, so my neck posture is good while sitting and interfacing with a laptop. These things are things Ezra reminds me almost daily. The few times during the past weeks when I didn’t have the lap table for the laptop while sitting Ezra brought me the lap table and wanted me to use it. And I did. And it helped. And Ezra asks me if my neck hurts or about my stretching and the stretching book every few days, so Ezra reminds dad of what dad needs to do, so his dad’s neck doesn’t hurt.

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.

Morning began early with Ezra knocking one LEGO building and we creating another while talking. Then we watched How They Build That: Firetrucks, paused They Build That: Firetrucks to make waffles hot off the iron then finish watching How They Build That: Firetrucks while we ate waffles. We played with LEGOs and went to his room to build a railroad track and listen to Queen’s We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions then the rest of Best of Queen. Ezra wanted to build a big track. And I convinced Ezra we needed to clean his room and vacuum to have room to build a big track, so we cleaned his room and vacuumed and woke -v-. Then we all built a train track. We played. We cleaned kitty litter because Ezra was excited to clean up the cats’ poops because he can now that he is 3. There were a few fussy moments that become sad and quiet. Then we came together to play games. We even put Ezra’s toys that were all over the house in containers and organized the containers in is room while pretending the containers were vegetable boxes to be delivering to houses from his firetruck. We built a fort and ate a lunch.

Ezra’s got big boy poop as I was just reminded as I seen Ezra’s Big Boy Poop in his toilet. He did tell us earlier that he was going poop, but we forgot about the poop as we were lost in talk and or too focused on hearing the sound of Ezra turning on the faucet to wash hands after the Big Boy Poop.

…Life is better now that Ezra is pooping in the potty.

I cleaned my car out this weekend in hope to make Ezra’s drive from preschool a bit more comfortable because he has been complaining about the smell, the dust and the trash throughout the car now that I am driving him home from preschool.

He said he likes my car better now that it is cleaner, but he didn’t like the cassette tapes on the floor below his seat. He called these trash and helped me pick-up the cassette tapes and put them in a plastic bin once we arrived home today.

He also doesn’t like the car for the fact he can’t reach the button to move up or down his window which is a privilege he gets when driving in mom’s car because he can reach the button to move the window up or down and because he hasn’t abused the privilege.

He did say he likes my car now that it is clean and less smelly, but he also said he still likes mom’s car much more.

I now have a plan to let him decorate his area of my car. I will call it our car, too, because he is in it as much as I am in it.

Ezra’s LEGO creations have gotten bigger since getting a few more blocks for his b-day.

Today’s creation is a tower created by both -v- and Ezra. The tower is nearly as tall as me with a ladder on top. A LEGO tractor and semi-tractor are attached around the middle of the tall building. I am a little worried it will not survive an earth quake.

I am sure by tomorrow the the tower will be rubble then become another building.

Yes, Ezra still has the binky. He does use it less than he used it before he was three. No longer can he just have it in his room. He can only have it when he sleeps at night. It was a compromise that is preventing chaos and sleeplessness. I am not sure what to do beyond continually talking to him about it, and then one day soon taking it from him and listen to hours of him crying himself to sleep for his, ,,BINKY!” But I think that is what needs to be done. I am willing to do it, but may need a few days rest after he has kicked the binky habit and gone binky sober.

Ezra got invitwed to a pool party today for a preschool friend’s birthday. This is the first time that Ezra has been in the water since our trip to the coast and he was really excited! It was a super hot day so it was nice to be at the pool. Ezra had a lot of fun playing with his friends and splashing in the water. He didn’t even mind when he got his face in the water and manged to avoid drinking pool water like he did all the time last summer when we had swim lessons. Fun!

It has been almost a week since Ezra B-Day trip to the coast, and I still have the few songs in my head that Ezra wanted to hear over and over while we drove the coast to three beaches, the Tillamook Cheese Factory and the OSU Aquarium.

Ezra loved the beaches. He loved the sand and the cold water and waves of the coast. There are many pictures of me and Grandma O and Ezra in the ocean. There are pictures of Ezra wanting to eat the sand. The only way to get Ezra to leave the beach was to challenge him in a race, so he could accidentally fall in the sand and play for a few minutes. On the beach I forgot about the songs we heard over and over.

We listened to many songs, but Fire Truck by Ivan Ulz, The Carrot Seed by Ivan Ulz and some reggae song on a sampler CD were songs Ezra wanted to play over and over and over and over and over while we drove the coast. We all sang along during a few listening. It was a good time. I am almost rested from the trip.