Golden Pig Tales

Ezra likes to pretend to drive things. He likes to sit in the driver seat of the car. He likes to steer the wheels on the playground equipment that look like steering wheels. Yesterday, we let Ezra ride one of those motorized things they have in malls. We were at the Fubonn shopping center, wasting time inside the air conditioning since it was super hot outside. We let Ezra sit on the mechanized bulldozer and the airplane. We got change, and Ezra got to pilot the airplane. He had such a good time he didn’t want it to stop, but 50 cents doesn’t get you very far these days.

Unlike getting Ezra to go to sleep for the night, naps are events Ezra initiates like today he did today. Ezra walked up to me, grabbed my hand, said, ,,Daddy, night-night,” and we walked upstairs to his room where he fell asleep with no fuss, no tears, no calling for mom.

I could smell it. A smell from the past. I could see it as I peeled off the diaper. A pile of mushy poop that had the hue blue berries spread the scent reminding me of last blue berry season. It took eight wipes to clean the big circle of blue berry poop from Ezra. I still have the fumes of the blue berry poop in my nose. At least, I know it’s blue berry season again.

Ezra has went from fussing and screaming for binky to giving the binky to -v- or me when we leaving his room where the binky now remains.

He does need to go up to his room on occasion to have a binky break. He does talk about his binky, but he no longer gets lost in a binky fit.

It feels that the addiction to binky is waning. Of course, the real challenge and tension will be when we take away his binky from his room, from him.

The easiest way to get Ezra to change his diaper or put on shorts or take off shorts or shirt, socks, shoes without fuss is for me ask Ezra if I could change or put on his article of clothing with the article of clothing in hand. He will then grab the article of clothing and say, ,,No, mama do it.” Ezra will then allow -v- to change or put on the article of clothing, and he won’t fuss.

This has been a fail proof method that works even when -v- has tried to put or change an article of clothing and gets a fussy reaction from Ezra. All I need to do is take the article of clothing from -v- and say, ,,Ezra can I put on your shirt?” Then Ezra will take the cloth of article from me and say, ,,NO, Mama do it,” and then give the article of clothing to -v- and let her change or put it on without fuss.

I don’t know why this is. -v- and I suspect it could be what seems to be some competition between he and I for -v-.

Ezra’s toys are spread through the main living area, which is also the main walking area for it leads to the door outside, the kitchen and the stairs going up. The toys are blocks and wheeled objects. The blocks hurt more than the wheeled objects when stepping on them, but the wheeled objects can cause a slip. Or the wheeled objects will move to a new location changing the dynamic of the mess. I have tried to pick up the toys, but they return to the same area with in seconds if Ezra is awake. If Ezra is asleep, I usually don’t want to pick up toys during that time because I need to relax.

-v- I trying to convince me to leave the toys be for now. I think I will for there will be years to show him to cleanup, which he does on occasion.

The pulling of the pacifier from Ezra’s mouth may have let flow a flood of words for now Ezra is talking more. He talks about cars and how he feels. He asks more questions of What’s This. He queries about my sprained ankle. He plays I See You and other games that require talking. He counts and names things. He is beginning to talk to himself or things that are not living like cars. He is talking and talking and talking more each day, which is great. So great I want to write about it a lot because it is fun to begin to talk with him. It is fun to be able to ask him what he wants. He may not always understand to replay with talk and his words are not always sweet and loving like when he says LOUD, ,,NO, DADDY,” but he can talk.

Sometimes I have to use my stern mother voice and tell Ezra that he shouldn’t do things, such as throw bowls from the table to the floor during dinner.  Or throw blocks at me. Or sit on the car. This reprimand tends to make Ezra upset. If he doesn’t start crying because of it, he will look at me with pleading little eyes, and reach out to stroke my arm or back or whatever he can reach, and say “nice, mama, nice!” I guess he feels like I’m not being nice at the time I’m telling him he can’t do things in a serious voice. Even though it’s kind of cute, I must suppress the urge to smile when he does this, so he knows I am being serious. 

,,Binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, BINKY, BINKY, BINKY, BINKY, BINKY, BINKY, BINKY! BINKY! GIVE ME MY BINKY!!!” said Ezra many times tonight.

He wanted his binky tonight, but the last binky remains in his room and doesn’t leave because it is the last binky. So it was, ”Binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, binky, BINKY, BINKY, BINKY, BINKY, BINKY, BINKY, BINKY! BINKY! GIVE ME MY BINKY!!!” just about every other moment we were not in his room.

Food and making his imaginary farm were the few times he didn’t say binky when not in his room. When in his room, he got his binky, so his mouth was stuffed with a binky, so he couldn’t say, ”Binky.”

I have this animal matching memory game on my ipod that Ezra likes to play. There are maybe 25 different animals that show up on the board, and each makes a noise appropriate to that animal, more or less. Most of them sound right, although the koala makes a noise that seems much more aggressive than I would think a cute little koala would make. But then again, I’ve never heard a koala do anything but eat and sniff at my hand. Anyway, at first, Ezra really liked to see the monkey show up on the game board and it was fun to make monkey noises with him. The last couple of days he picked out a new favorite: the walrus. The walrus makes a noise like an abominable snowman. I’m hopeful that Ezra will move on to a new animal, because I don’t really like this walrus. Perhaps it just reminds me of that stupid song. 

Every color seems to Ezra to be yellow as yellow is the answer to the questions referring to a known object like ball, shirt, cat: What color is this? Yellow is usually the answer.

I suspect the answer is yellow because some of his favorite machines are constructions vehicles which are usually shades of yellow, and I - we - have probably said yellow more than other colors. He does sometimes say blue is blue and only for objects that are blue and not yellow.

He knows adjectives. He now knows the difference between mom and grand mom though they are the color yellow or maybe blue.

Ezra’s counting aloud in Spanish and only Spanish, but never in the right order. He counts while tossing rocks or looking at object and just starts saying some Spanish numbers he knows. He always seems to begin with Ocho. It could be his favorite number.

He is able to equate sums of specific object in English, but not Spanish and then apply the English sums to description like he did today when driving past two backhoes as he pointed out the car window and said, ,,Two backhoes, two backhoes, two backhoes…”

it’s been a rough few days but I think Ezra is now feeling almost like his old self. he’s still not eating a lot, but he’s back to his old tricks like not wanting to have his diaper changed and stuff like that, which he totally gave up on while he was sick. so it seems sort of safe to say that we made it through this illness relatively unscathed. yay! ezra went with me and gramma O today to go get new shoes. We went into the store and into the shoe aisle, and  I pulled out a pair of brown chucks that were 1 size up from the green ones he has now. I pulled off the green one on his right foot, and swapped it with the brown one. Ezra was totally stoked on the new shoes! he grabbed the right green shoe and threw it over his shoulder into the cart, and then asked to have the other green shoe off so that he could have the new brown shoes on…and as I looked at these new brown shoes, I thought ” hey, if he ever has diarrhea running down his leg and onto his shoe again (as he did this past weekend) it won’t be as noticeable on these brown shoes!” 

He’s woke once a night for nights. The diarrhea is more solid, but still diarrhea. He is more active and tiring. He was running around. He sleeps now. Soon, as I finish these words, we will all be sleeping.

I woke up to Ezra fussing really, really loud this morning. I found it was because -v- was trying to change Ezra’s diaper. This has been a sound I haven’t heard much during the past couple days for he didn’t fuss much when we had to clean up his diarrhea and change his diaper. The really, really loud fussing from Ezra woke me from sleep because of a diaper change, and at first I was grumpy about it, but then I realized that if he is fussing about his diaper then he is returning to health.

Ezra has been using -v- for a mommy pillow all day long. He’s puked a couple times at daycare. And -v- said few more times while he’s been home. I smelled the diarrhea diaper that -v- said was messy. -v- called the pediatrician, and the pediatrician described Ezra’s symptoms to -v- for there is a stomach virus going around. He has been drinking water and eating a few grapes from what -v- says. For the couple hours I have seen him, he looks better. He is now eating a fig bar and wanting to walk around. …He just walked around. He’s playing with a truck. The first time he did that today according to -v-. Pediatrician said the virus going around could last a couple of days. I’m sure this won’t be the last time he will puke and have diarrhea. It will never be as intense and the first time seeing Ezra vomit. Ezra’s looking better already. …And -v-’s looking tired.