Golden Pig Tales

I stipulated if Ezra was to watch two Caillou that he would have to let me change his pull-up diaper for a pull-up diaper without a night’s of pee with no fuss. I stipulated that we would change his diaper before watching the two Caillou. He negotiated with a whinny, ,,Nnnnnnnnooooooooooo,” then stipulated. ”After Caillou.” I wasn’t in the mood to negotiate, agreed and wrote the verbal contract by saying, ,,After two Caillou we are going to change your diaper.” Ezra said, ,,Okay.” We watched two Caillou. As the last one ended, I said, ,,Let’s change your diaper.”

He said, ,,No. Not yet.” And he walked away.

As Ezra walked around, ate a waffle, played with a garbage truck, sat under the table then walked to the kitchen while I followed and talked about the fact he needed to complete his conditions of the contract.

Then -v- reminded me that I never stipulated when after Caillou that we needed to change Ezra’s diaper.

I stopped talking.

Ezra ate his cereal. He walked into the bathroom, closed the door, took off his pull-up diaper and sweats and let -v- help him with pulling up his diaper with no fuss.

Ezra wanted to wear his Monster Jam shirt today, and he wanted me to wear my Monster Jam shirt today. So I proudly wore my Monster Jam 2010 World Tour t-shirt to work, and Ezra wore his shirt to pre-school. Fortunately, my work dress code as software engineer is about as strict as Ezra’s at pre-school.

Ezra woke this morning after a night of coughing. One of the first things I heard him say as he lay in bed worn and sort of looking defeated was, ,,Uff da.” His Norwegian roots have grown beyond his blue eyes.

Ezra Tiger Clawed me after i picked him up from the mat at the playground gym to take him to the shoe area to put on shoes to go home long after the gym needed close. -v- got Tiger Clawed after a misunderrstanding of how Ezra was going to exit the car to go shopping. Only -v- had a scratch though I felt the pain, too.

Talking Ezra to sleep. Talking to sit on the potty. Talking Ezra that he can’t run and eat. Talking to Ezra how to butter toast. Talking with Ezra about books. Talking books to Ezra. Talking to Ezra about sleep. Talking with Ezra about what food he wants. Talking to Ezra that scissors are tools and not toys. Talking to Ezra about needing to change a poopy diaper. Talking with Ezra where the poop goes. Talking to and with Ezra is fun, but after a day of talking to and with Ezra its nice to not talk.

While we try to teach Ezra not to hit, and I feel we do good at teaching Ezra not to hit for he rarely swings to hit, Ezra does hit once during awhile. He has two main ways of hitting. There’s the wild swing of a floppy arm that is usually followed by him stepping away and saying, ,,NO!” Then there is his Tiger Claw.

The Tiger Claw is used rarely by Ezra and only on a kid and always because of a dispute over a toy he wants or doesn’t want to share. He’s pretty fast with the Tiger Claw and pretty effective at poking the kid’s eye then grabbing the kid’s face causing the kid to squint and miss their Tiger Claw.

Some time during the day Ezra must have heard the word stupid because as we were leaving the coffee shop for Ezra’s gym Ezra decided to say, ,,Stupid,” to the police officers that he was excited to see. He said, ”Stupid, stupid, stupid…” from the coffee shop and out the door while smiling and starring at the police officers. I only asked what was stupid and why. He didn’t answer, and then he stopped saying stupid until he fell to the ground while running around the gym. Of course, the use of stupid was short lived, and our confusion of what inspired for him to say stupid so many times was soon forgot when he started to say, ”I play bass guitar at the bar.”

Day was bright and warm enough to go out and excavate and haul dirt with the Tonka Metal Dump Truck and CAT Plastic Excavator.

Ezra found a road to haul the dirt. The road was a long drive for the dump truck from the dirt pit where the excavator dug up the dirt to a path near the porch, along the side of the house, between more plants only to end near the excavator.

For near an hour he dug and hauled dirt. Then we went inside once he was done hauling all the dirt then began to want take all of his toys outside and throw a fuss because he couldn’t take all his toy to his dirt pile.

We went to the zoo today for the first time in a while. We renewed our membership, because it was almost exactly a year ago that we went with Ezra for the first time to the zoo. And this trip was sort of similar to that first trip - a nice sunny February day, a big crowd of people, and Ezra one again more excited by the non-animal aspects of the zoo. He was a little bit more attentive to the elephants and monkeys than he was last time, but by the time we had seen a few animals Ezra was ready to go see the big black engine that sits across the parking lot from the zoo. That thing is magical to Ezra. I think one time last summer we went to the zoo but didn’t even end up going in the zoo because we spent all our time on the big black engine. Anyway, even though I have mixed feelings about zoos, they seem to capture Ezra’s attention, so I’m sure it will be zoo time again soon.

So…Ezra is still liking the binky no matter how much we want the binky be gone. He asks for it as if it is a fix of something needed to sustain life. He has been better of being without it if he is not bored or stressed. He forgets that he thinks he needs it then stressed or bored and says, ,,I need to use my bink.” …The bink is the nickname of the binky. …The bink needs to go. We will be getting rid of it when he turns three as we tell him everyday. Then I can only hope it will be gone once and for all. He’s beginning to be able to speak with the bink all too well. Maybe he will be a ventriloquist?

Ezra’s enthusiasm for monster trucks and my desire to bond with Ezra persuaded me to buy tickets to Monster Jam featuring the legendary Grave Digger. -v- and I were skeptical the loud noise and  many people screaming and cheering would give Ezra joy because loud noise and many people screaming and cheering all at once isn’t Ezra’s joy. But Ezra REALLY likes monster trucks (and yes, so do I), so I got cheap tickets far from the arena floor. -v- got Ezra ear protection muffs to block nearly all sound.

We went. We sat down in the arena. The monster trucks were resting. People were many, but calm. Ezra, wearing his ear protection muffs, wanted to leave the arena before the show started. We went out of the arena then outside to a table where it was quiet. We bought him a 15 dollar cotton candy that came with a foam Grave Digger hat that Ezra wanted. Then -v- sat with Ezra as Ezra ran around and played with an older kid that didn’t like the loud noise while I got some video of the monster trucks crushing. Then we walked around the stadium and heard loud noises from quad races. We made sure Ezra wanted to go because we knew he would want to go back once we left for he was hesitant. We heard more sounds. Then Ezra wanted to go home, for sure, so we left, but not before we bought the large and small Monster Jam World Tour 2010 t-shirts that he and I wore when we got home. He asked about the monster trucks a few times, and he wanted to go back a couple hours later. Fortunately, I got some video.

Ezra likes this picture from a video that will soon be on youtube, so we can watch the monster trucks crush things and spin around on dirt from the calm of home.

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.

A couple of weeks ago, the Subaru started to get sick - so I told Ezra we might need to start looking for a new car. Ezra said he wanted a red car. Once the mechanic gave me the verdict of failing head gaskets, I knew it was probably time for a new car, so I told Ezra that the subaru was too sick to drive a lot, and that we would have to get a new car. “A red one?” he asked. “maybe,” I said.  But first we got to drive around in Grandpa and Grandma T’s camry. “I like this car,” Ezra said, “but it’s not red.” I told him that sometimes it’s hard to find the right car in the right color, but I think he was pretty convinced that the right color would be red.

And so we got a new car this weekend (it’s a black 2006 Nissan Murano). At first, Ezra was displeased when he saw the car I pointed to, because it wasn’t the red car he had requested, and it wasn’t  grandma T’s that we had been driving or a car like it. However, once he got  inside the new car, he started to like it, and I think he started to like it even more after his first ride in the car to the car store where they also had a whole box full of toys for him to play with while mom and dad filled out paperwork and waited for the car to be bought. It’s a bigger car than the subaru so he gets to sit up higher and see more, which I think he likes. It also has a arm rest cupholder tray that pulls down next to his carseat, and he’s started requesting 2 drinks to take with him for his car tray. I’m glad he decided to like the new car, because I really really like the new car : )

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.”

One day you’re liked because you help build forts then the next day you are not liked for some unknown reason. Tonight Ezra liked mom and the cats, but not dad. And for no apparent reason other than I was not mom or the cats because I was being a good dad as -v- said and offering to build forts, help him with puzzles or read him books, but nothing I could do could change Ezra’s mind. At one time, I was Bad To The Bone like the song that Grave Digger plays before he begins to do the freestyle over the stadium floor. But unlike Grave Digger, I was unable to please Ezra in anyway tonight, which didn’t make me feel bad to the bone, but was kind of sucky. He was tired, so I can understand. I reason that he was just preparing me for his teenage years.

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.