Golden Pig Tales

It’s official. Ezra is an abstract expressionist. Pollock, Kooning, Kline, Guston are mere painters compared to Ezra’s chaotic and emotion filled prints he produced today. The five paintings he created were complete in a under ten minutes. Even the way he signalled to -v- and I that he was done with his creative space screamed artist because of his face of frustration and tension and the stare he gave -v- and I until a blank page was place before him was enough for me to know he is an artist. And when he was done he nearly had a fussy fit until we wiped the finger paints from his hands. He even stomped away with disgust with his own creations.

It’s the weekend, which means more time with Ezra!!!!!!!! yay! I am excited to have Ezra around all day for two days! I only wish that I had been able to stay home with him today but unfortunately I had to be at work. Boo! I think we are going to try some fingerpainting with Ezra tomorrow. Hopefully we can keep his fingers on the paper and not let him dash about the house with painty fingers decorating all the furniture, rugs, and cats!Yay! 

Y is the letter Ezra points at on the fridge more than any other magnet letter. It is also the letter he seems to say better than the other letters of the alphabet.

This discovery was made the other day while I was in the kitchen preparing dinner. It caught be me by surprise when he said, ,,Y,” and sort of made me tense because I thought he had began he Why Stage. A stage I have heard happens some time after the age of two. A stage that is a frame of time when the child asks the parents, ,,Why? Why? Why?…” It made me tense because I just don’t know if I am ready to try to answer an endless amount of questions.

For some crazy reason, it seems, when Ezra eats hot dogs he has a span of time after when he gets crazy. And I mean crazy by running around talking and playing and generally trying to practice to become a stuntman. This is behavior -v- and I have witnessed and noted during the past months and monitored closely during the past weeks. This behavior and our belief hot dogs juices Ezra to excitement was proved again tonight after I fed him a hot dog for dinner. As usual, he ate all the hot dog then he began running around, wanting to fall backward on the couch without concern of if he will land on the couch. He ran here and there. He chased the cats around. …Of course, this behavior isn’t too far from Ezra’s normal behavior. It just feels that after eating a hot dog he is a little more excited or juiced to take the playing to the next level.

We went to pizza for my birthday dinner tonight. I had told Ezra in the morning and again after I picked him up from playcare that we were going to go have pizza for dinner. Ezra’s response would go something like this: Ezra: “Pee-ah?” Me: “yep, we’re gonna have pizza!” Ezra: “Pee-ah! Pee-ah pee-ah pee-ah pee-ah!” So I guess either Ezra likes pizza, or he at least likes the word. We didn’t get out the door until a little after 6, so I was sort of worried that we would have another Taco House night. In the car on the way over, Ezra was excited to see all the cars and BUSSES! So many busses. We got to pizza place and Ezra was a little unhappy that we had to leave behind the street with all the BUSSES! But once we got into the pizza place, Ezra was super well-behaved. We sat at a booth and Ezra enjoyed some apple juice and breadstick before the pizza arrived. Then Ezra munched on a piece of pizza and finishing his apple juice. It was very pleasant! I was very happy to have a happy boy with me at dinner - what a nice birthday present : )

The snot is flowing. The cough is hacking. The night will be filled with sleeplessness. …Another cold for Ezra. Another cold for the family.

When I was a kid, I liked stuffed animals. There were many that I liked, but there are only two that remain with me to this day. Both are teddy bears. One is name Ted 2 and the other is named Ted 3. Ted 2 is the oldest and is nearly as old as I am. Ted 3 is about eight or nine years younger than me.

I hadn’t thought much of Ted 2 or Ted 3 over the years until a couple of weeks ago when -v- was carrying Ezra around, and Ezra seen Ted 2 and Ted 3 on top of the dresser. He seemed interested in them, but I resisted giving him either Ted 2 or Ted 3 until -v- teased me about not letting Ezra having Ted 2 or Ted 3 because I was TOO attached, so decided I would give Ezra Ted 3.

I chose Ted 3 because he is more soft and furry than Ted 2, and Ted 2 and I have a bond I am just not willing to let go. I gave Ezra Ted 3 by putting Ted 3 in his crib and waiting to see if Ezra and Ted 3 got along. I was hoping at best that he wouldn’t throw Ted 3 out or use him as a chew toy. And after I left Ted 3 in the crib I didn’t think much about Ted 3 until this week.

Today and few other times this week I arrived home or woke to Ezra clinging on to Ted 3 or using him as a pillow, which has brought smile to face. And while I don’t expect him to want to keep Ted 3 for a day or for a decade, I do enjoy seeing him walk around with a teddy bear that I use to hold and sleep upon.

Today Ezra showed off his increased skill at drinking from a cup without getting more water on him than in his mouth. It was a joyous occasion at the dinner table that inspired -v- and me to clap and say, ,,Yay,” after a couple of drinks. This provoked Ezra to drink more water from his cup and to clap and say,  ,,Yay,” when I drank from my cup.

Ezra has been going to bed early these past days and sleeping through the night. I am very happy he has been sleeping through the night, but  it kind of sucks he gets tired quickly after arriving home from playcare because we only get a couple of hours with him before he crashes for the night for sleep.

-v- and I believe the cause of sleep is a growth spirt for he isn’t sick nor does he have a fever, and he seems to have grown alot during these past weeks. Some of his pants we use to roll up now don’t need to be rolled. Things on the counters and table he once couldn’t reach he can now grab with little effort. He’s getting big. And he is growing up fast. I just hope that we get to spend more time with him before he grows up and moves out of the house.

We took Ezra to the zoo on Saturday morning. The sun was out, the sky was clear…it was a great day although a little cold. We got to the zoo early for zoo standards, but sort of late in the morning by Ezra standards. We saw brown bears, a cougar, some sheep and goats, polar bears, the elephant family, a wolf, an elk, a zebra, a giraffe, and a tiger - many of these are interesting, but not generally the animals Ezra is interested in when we look at his animal picture book. We walked past most of the exhibits, but most of the animals were still sleeping or weren’t very active either because it was too early or too cold. The funniest part about Ezra’s trip to the zoo was how generally uninterested Ezra was in the animals. His biggest fun during the trip was while we were near the elephants, and he found some steps to walk along and sticks to pick up. Everyone else was there to see the new baby elephant. Ezra was interested in watching the elephants for maybe 30 seconds. He was mad when we decided to leave the steps at the elephant exhibit after 10 minutes. He grew increasingly cranky as we continued our walk through the zoo, which seemed even harder to get out of while towing around a cranky tired toddler as the cold wind started blowing through the zoo.

We were at the zoo maybe an hour or 90 minutes. As we left the zoo, and the car warmed up, Ezra relaxed into his carseat and began to drift off asleep. Driving away, I noticed that the children’s museum has a Bob the builder exhibit. I think that’s where we should have taken Ezra.

Ezra likes the big metal spoon. He is now putting more food into his mouth from the big metal spoon. He wants to use the big metal spoon, and he has since he reached for it, and -v- gave him a big metal spoon, and he ate with the big metal spoon. He seems to like the big metal spoon because he can use the weight of the spoon to scoop deep into food and the size of the big metal spoon to scoop more food than he ever did scoop with the small plastic spoon, as he demonstrated with the big metal spoon this morning while eating rice-cereal-plain-yogurt-apple-sauce cereal and the Puffins with milk (there were drops of milk on the floor after the Puffins were ate).

-v- found and bought blue berries yesterday for Ezra. Now Ezra is once again addicted to blue berries. He can’t have enough. He doesn’t even like oranges or clementines this much. At least I don’t believe he does. An orange or a clementine will tame the blue berry fuss of Ezra after we don’t give him more blue berries, but after the orange or clementine is ate he will seek the last know loaction of the blue berry container and fuss for it.

Ezra likes to first bite a piece of rind; pull the rind from the clementine; then pull the rind piece from his mouth; and set rind on table or drop it on the floor. Once there is a large enough hole in the rind to push two thumbs into the clementine, he pushes two thumbs into the clementine and he tires to pull it apart. After finding the clementine doesn’t pull apart because of the rind, he then bites more rind from the clementine and tries after each bite to pull the Clementine apart. If it pulls apart then he will pull apart the clementine and pick the fruit from the rind and eat. …Then let the parents clean up the juice and rind.

Where’d it go? Where is it?

Kalab and I have been asking these questions with Ezra about various objects. It started a few days ago when Ezra put a piece of bread underneath a big salad scooper, and I said “Where’d the bread go”? Ezra lifted up the scooper, and I said “Yay! There’s the bread!” and laughed and clapped a little. Ezra put the scooper back over the bread. This time, Kalab said “Where is it? Where’s the bread?” and Ezra lifts up the scooper to again reveal the bread! Wow! Woah! This went on for quite a few minutes before Ezra got tired of it. The best part of the game is that after hiding something, Ezra lifts up his arms and has his hands up by his head to make sort of a shrug/I don’t know gesture. It’s really totally hilarious. So we’ve been promoting this game and Ezra has played along by hiding various items under various items. He will “hide” something for 10-20 minutes if you’d let him. Unfortunately for Ezra, mom and dad get bored of it before he really does. But he’s improving his hiding skills. In fact, he’s getting so good at it I think we might try to teach him the shell game next, so we can maybe make us a little money while we’re standing out on the street watching cars!

I pulled the red wagon with Ezra sitting inside on a long journey from the house to a garage for buses. Along the way we seen cars, buses, van, motorcycles, truck and buses. Lots of buses.

It was the buses that kept him awake for we began this journey near the time of his daily nap. As we neared the bus garage, he began to close his eyes and sway as he sat in the wagon. As we stood staring at the buses in the garage, he motioned that he wanted to be held. I picked him up and soon he began to become unsteady, close eyes and sway back and forth. We continued the journey home with Ezra in my arms and the red wagon rolling up a ruckus along the sidewalks. About half way home he laid his head on my shoulder and feel asleep. About this time, my back became sore, so I looked at the red wagon and then Ezra then the red wagon then I laid Ezra in the red wagon and pulled a sleeping Ezra slowly home to his bed for his daily nap.

When Ezra is being carried on hip and not wanting to be put down, his legs clamp kidney and side of stomach. His body tenses, and the more one pries Ezra from hip and stomach the more the thighs press against stomach.

This usually happens when we are outside, and he doesn’t want to walk all the way to the main street or the busy intersection to watch cars.

Fortunately, while watching cars, he doesn’t feel to need to be held as long as cars are passing allowing his thighs of steel to rest and my numb back sore form holding him to relax.