Golden Pig Tales

For some reason, I feared the why stage of mental growth of Ezra. So far, the why stage has been good. It has helped me give reason to Ezra why washing hands is a good; why brushing teeth is needed; why we need to change muddy pants before he gets into his bed. With these three why questions, I have answered and received many times a reply of understanding and renewed willingness from Ezra to wash hands, brush teeth and change muddy pants before bed.

I have also had fun to begin to ask Ezra why with the latest most often why query from me being: Why don’t you want to poop in your toilets at home?

Ezra’s been a little heavy on the tantrums this last week. He has been getting a little more upset than usual over seemingly small things. I think it’s because we’ve had the binky in the bedroom only rule re-initated in the house. He doesn’t use it at all at preschool anymore, so I’m feeling like he is just having to work through some feelings rather than just binkify them away.

Ezra’s also using the potty at preschool pretty regularly. Wish he would do that at home. He talks about being a big boy and not wearing diapers, but when I ask him if he wants to sit on the potty and try he always says no. And when I ask him to tell me when he has to go, he says OK, but invariably he forgets and goes in his pullups. I am so done with diapering and pull ups - can’t wait until Ezra is too! But at least we might be successful in getting him to give up the binky!

He caught it from -v- last week. It returned yesterday. He’s been picking most his teams based upon the color of their jerseys. He did like one team because of a player with long hair.

The only team he has picked not because of the jersey color has been Duke because of -v- and her fanaticism. In fact, moments ago Ezra was walking about saying loud, ,,Duke, Duke, Duke…”

Ezra asked why today. During the past, it has been what. In fact, I think today was the first time he asked me why. He asked me why after I told him I was going to go play Futsal. Ezra asked, ,,Why?”

After Ezra couldn’t wear socks with trucks then fussed and calmed down, Ezra said to all, ,,I want dad to buckle me in.” Meaning he wanted me to help him get in his car seat, which is an act that is reserved for parent number one, which is -v-. Meaning he wanted to give me the honor to buckle him in because he was upset at -v- for not getting him socks with trucks. I was more than happy to help him because I do try, but he gets fussy if I help him, so I don’t help him.  It also made me happy knowing I could help him and -v-. I was thinking I could help him and -v-  by letting me buckle him in his seat now that he was going to let me because he was mad at -v-. Of course, by the time we got to the car he wanted -v- to help him with his seat and buckle.

I have written it before, and I will write it again: it’s difficult to be a parent when sick. It sucks to have nothing to offer but laying on the couch and drinking water, blowing nose and coughing for fun. It’s hard to answer questions when your voice is near gone. It’s impossible to get excited to play another game of Chase Around when you know your only going to catch a fit of coughing. It’s painful to know you can’t go enjoy a nice sunny day with the kid because darkness for sleep are all that are best for the body, so some day it may shine again.

Ezra helped -v- pull weeds, plant tomatoes, cleanup his Play-Doh and vacuum (which he can do more or less on his own now and actually clean the floor). He was wanting and happy to help me take recycling to the recycle bin and he is now learning what goes in the trash bin and what goes in the recycling bin. He still wants to help unload the dishes and put cloths in both the washing machine and dryer. I am sure it won’t be too long until he is demanding an allowance. And when he does we will probably give him one because he is a good worker around the house.

For various reasons, it appears I haven’t written anything on here for nearly a month. Yikes. It’s not because I love Ezra any less, but I think it’s because I have had to take care of two sick kids off and on over the last month! Ezra is mostly over his most recent cold, and Kalab is maybe going to get over his illness soon too. I hope. We just had a lovely visit with grandma O, Uncle Dylan and Aunt Summer. Ezra had lots to do the last week - showing off all his toys, having people read every book in his library, and going downtown on the bus and riding the city train as often as possible. But today it was back to pre-school. I had received a call from his teacher on Wednesday wondering when Ezra was coming back, because all his fridnds were missing him. I told this to Ezra, and his little face just lit up - he was so excited to hear about his friends and went to bed so quickly because he wanted to wake up the next morning to go to pre-school to play with them all and see his teacher. I think he had fun today, but I know he’s also looking forward to the next time grandma O can come and visit.

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.