Golden Pig Tales

-v- went to the store for food near Ezra’s bedtime, so I was the lone parent to put Ezra to bed. The process began with Ezra looking out the window crying and saying, ,,Mommy, mommy, mommy.” After about five minutes of crying and starring out the window he calmed his crying, so he could hear me offer to read The Big Book of Trucks with him to which he replied with a, ”Yes.” So, we went to his room, and I opened The Big Book of Trucks then named and pointed to each truck or other vehicles on each page as he turned the pages until he closed the book and said, ”Bye, bye.” Then I began to ask him which set of pajamas he wanted to wear. He couldn’t decide on a top and he was refusing to left me take off his milk covered shirt, so things got fussy for a few seconds when I took off his milk covered shirt and put on his bulldog pajama tops. He was fussy until he saw the hollow cube with shapes cutout on all six sides. He wanted to push the shaped blocks into the hollow cube. We did this for about fifteen minutes while listening to Johnny Cash. Then he started to close his eyes and sway his head, so I put him the crib, turned off the lights and sat in the dark until he settled. Before I left the room, he said, ”night night, daddy.”

Ezra is talking when that binky is not sucked to his face. His talk is single words and gesticulation but it is talking, and the talking is making being a parent so much easier for he can tell us he wants applesauce and that there is a choo-choo passing past if we couldn’t hear the horn in the distance.

He is able to understand more than he can speak which makes parenting a whole lot easier because he can at least say yes or no if he wants a type of food or if he wants to perform some task like go outside or read a book or not eat something he doesn’t want. Of course, he is still trying to understand some words we speak as we are still trying to understand some of the words he speaks.

One of the words he continues to say is mow-tow-tow which is Ezra for Motorcycle, which is a new favorite motorized vehicle. And no matter how many times I say motorcycle after he says mow-tow-tow he still says mow-tow-tow, but that is okay because he is still young and learning and still at times has a binky sucked to his face making words difficult to practice.

If there is a fruit in the house, Ezra will eat it. It can be fresh, previously frozen, canned, dried, freeze dried, dehydrated, or just dropped behind the couch and discovered 2 weeks later (well, maybe I made that last one up, because I’ve never seen him eat anything but cheerios he’s found behind the couch). Ezra likes bananas, oranges, kiwi, grapes, strawberries, blueberries, grapefruit, lemons, limes, raspberries, blackberries, mulberries, peaches, nectarines, pears, cherries, plums, pomegranate, jackfruit, rambutan, papaya, mango, mangosteen, pineapple, and he will eat an apple, but usually only if it’s been sauced. He also really likes tomoatoes, peas, beans, and olives, which are also technically fruits. I bet Ezra would even eat durian, which is known for being the stinkiest fruit on earth.  I will let you know when I discover a fruit that Ezra does not like.

According to the Doctor, Ezra has no hint or symptom of having croup, so playcare needlessly quarantined Ezra.

Ezra was in good spirits today. He and I had a few hours of alone together time as -v- was out. It was good fun because I was parent number 1. When he wanted to be picked-up, he reached for me. When wanted some one to read him a book, he gave it to me. When he wanted to run around the house, he ran with me. All this fun with a non-croup infected Ezra.

-v- had to pickup Ezra from playcare early today after he was suspected of being the virus vector of giving croup to some infant at playcare because Ezra coughed a few times during the morning. This is something that has never happened before because typically only a fever was reason to get him quarantined, which is understandable, but what I find not understandable is that I have observed many times the whole playcare flock of kids creating a cough symphony, and the fact is that the many colds and coughs I have had in the past year I can point to playcare as the origin of the cold or cough. And now Ezra can’t return until the doctor gives the OK because some infant caught croup. …Before I write fuck more times than needed, I leave the words be…

Ezra’s addicted to bubble baths. He had another tonight to feed his addiction. This addiction has been since his first bath in the tub and not that baby tub. Now he can’t get enough of bubble baths. He talks about wanting what he calls, ,,Bubble,” during the mornings, during the noontime and always at night. ,,Bubble, bubble,” he says more than a few times a day. Now it has become a ritual, which isn’t too bad because it is makes him happy and clean.

Ezra is getting bigger! It seems like he is bigger today than yesterday. Kalab and I both seemed to think so, so it must be true. Pretty soon, Ezra will be 6 feet tall.

We had so much fun hanging out with Ezra this weekend! It makes me sad that it’s Sunday and we will be spending the day at work, rather than going to the park, reading books, playing with toys and walking along the streets to look for taxis, busses, u-hauls and motorcycles. That sounds like way more fun than work : (

Ezra also proved his spanish vocabulary is growing! He wants mas mango, mas sesame street, and mas play time. He’s so cute when he says it : )

I can’t believe one little kid could be this much fun!

-v- finally got Ezra’s motorcycle shirt off him this morning with not too much fuss. He had been wearing the shirt since Thursday night. It is a shirt that is part of a pajamas set that he fussed to keep on during Friday morning. We let him keep it on because we had no desire to let that fuss spread into other acts like putting on his pants, socks, shoes and coat, so the shirt with the motorcycles remained on for the day. Then at night, as I was putting him to sleep, I took the shirt off to put on a another shirt on for bed time, but Ezra was having none of that. He went crazy fussy. It being so close to sleep time I made a deal with him. If he let me change his pants and diaper and if he would calm down then I would put the shirt on. It worked. He calmed and remain calmed as I put on his pajama bottoms and a new diaper and put him to bed.

-v- got the motorcycle shirt off this morning, but not with out some fuss and not without a small protest by Ezra by him not allowing -v- to put on another shirt.

Ezra’s liking trains. He hopes to see one when we go on walks to look at cars, which he shows by pointing in the directions of the train tracks and says, ,,Choo-choo.” He says, ”Choo-choo” when he hears one in the distance. One of his favorite pairs of pajamas is the pair with trains on them. And he now likes to have his toy cars and trucks pushed one after another like a train.

Knowing his joy of trains, I decided to become Daddy Express today. It began with him finding a cardboard box big enough for him to sit in, which he did. Having a moment of inspiration, I went and got a cat-lease and some scissors. Then I poked a hole in the cardboard box, looped the leash from the hole to the top and held the end of the leash. I then pulled the box with Ezra inside and -v- behind the box. -v- and I said, ,,Choo-choo,” as we went around the house. The Daddy Express went on several trips from the kitchen to the living room to the dinning area with Ezra smiling.

Ezra went to the dentist today (I went along too). It’s been about 6 months since the infamous tooth avulsion incident. Ezra had to go to the dentist to make sure that his remaining teeth looked relatively normal. From my perspective (and probably Ezra’s) it was a bit of a waste of time, as the dentist we saw was about as engaging and informative as a lump of wet bread, and it was like pulling teeth to get him to talk to us. For a pediatric dentist, he did not have much of a way with kids.   I think the next time we need a dentist I will be looking elsewhere, as I don’t need to drive all the way out to Beaverton either!

Can’t have the good without the bad, and if yesterday was bad then today was good. -v- and I reason that the day helped to be less stressful and fussy (bad) for all because everyone had a good night of sleep, and Ezra didn’t slip and bite his lip. The sun came out, too, and we walked along the street and watched cars and stood at the intersection and watched cars. Ezra’s nap was at the normal time, and he had a play date. I got to show Ezra how to hammer. Ezra got a bubble bath which he really enjoys. He even brushed his own teeth before happily putting on his train pajamas and going to bed.

It could have been the first rain clouds in days. It could have been the cold walk through the rain to watch cars that didn’t last long because it was rainy and cold. It could have been his early and short nap. It could have been the fact early in the morning he bit is lip. It could have been my desire to not let him have his binky. It could have been because Ezra only wants -v- to carry him, but she can only carry him for so long. It could have been because it was beyond difficult when dressing him for bed. It could have been that by the end of the day we were all fussy and worn out and wanting quiet. Whatever it was it was one of those days.

Ezra again today shows his evolving relation with the binky as he now calls out for it when he needs a Binky Break. ,,Binky, binky, binky,” he says. Then he rubs his jaw and around his face. He sticks his fingers in his mouth like he did today.

I’ve been trying not to give into his pleas for the, ”Binky, binky, binky…” except at night before bed and in the morning, but today after -v- left for a quick trip to the store, and Ezra went crazy with tears and snot and face rubbing for more minutes than I could handle after trying to read him a book, show how much fun his toys are to play with, ran around to see if he wanted to play Crazy Fun Ball and tell him that -v- would be returning soon that mom would be back that she would return, but he wouldn’t stop crying and rubbing his face and crying, crying, crying…So I gave him his binky and the crying stopped and the world  was calm, and I sat down on the floor thinking how much I wish I had a binky to suck on.

Call ‘em Cheerios or Joe’s O’s. Whatever brand of cereal it is that is made from toasted whole grain oats shaped like an O, Ezra is in to them again.

He use to love the toasted whole grain oats then months ago he stopped wanting to eat them. He expanded to different types of grains and foods. His snack bag had cheddar bunnies, wheat crackers, multi grain crackers and graham crackers instead of a snack bag full of Cheerios. Months ago he would toss aside toasted whole grain oats like he was insulted then suddenly, one day last week, he pointed up at the box of stale Cheerios on top of the fridge until we selected the correct box, the Cheerios box. We thought he was mistaken, but he wanted some Cheerios, so we gave him some. Ever since then he’s been wanting some form of toasted whole grain oats shaped like an O in his snack bag and during morning snack. Fortunately, he’s a little more competent with grabbing and eating his food, so I am not finding trails of toasted whole grain oats shaped like an O all over the house.

Today I went on YouTube and watched some videos that I got as a result when I googled “toddler tantrum diaper change”, which I did because of the tantrum Ezra had this morning when we were trying to get him out of a dirty diaper and into his new one and the rest of his clothes for the day.  The videos I saw made me feel better-er than the other various posts I read about toddler temper tantrums, because I at least was able to see proof that other toddlers put up crazy flailing-on-the-floor-kicking-the-wall-crying fits for whatever reason a toddler might have for such things, and that some of those toddlers are even crazier tantrum throwers than Ezra. 

Ezra is learning the word ball and has been letting me know it by holding up mini-basketballs, mini-footballs (both round and egged-shaped), big rubber balls, metal chime balls and peas and saying, ,,Ball.” The peas he then dropped on to the floor like the other balls.