Golden Pig Tales

We are going to the state fair tomorrow! Ezra is wondering if we will see a goseneck trailer like in his book about the big trucks at the state fair. I am hoping there will be corndogs.

,,You didn’t wash your hands,” said Ezra to me a few minutes ago as I left the bathroom without washing my hands after peeing and leaving the bathroom for  the kitchen because the soap in the bathroom was empty.

I proudly said with smile, ,,Thank you for reminding me,” and then washed my hands in the kitchen before Ezra.

Ezra wanted to read Goodnight Moon to me for the book we read after brushing teeth. This was after -v- and he read the book Goodnight Moon before brushing his teeth. When he read to me, he read and lead the story. Whether because of repetitious reading of the book, repetitious reading of books or he sort of knows the words, Ezra read most of the book too me. Some sentences I had to begin, but he would end. Then he wanted to read another book to me. The book was No No Yes Yes. And Yes Yes, Ezra did read the book to me. He read the repetitious No No pages and Yes Yes pages while telling the story of the pictures.

Then Ezra read to -v- most of the fifty-five flaps of Snow Day! starring Barney Backhoe.

It’s a good thing that Kalab is back onboard the goldenpigtales wagon. Otherwise this would have been a boring month with no tales told. Thanks Kalab!

I have a new office downtown. Earlier this month, I took Ezra to mommy’s new office. I showed him my desk and the people who work with me, I showed him the chairs that you roll around on wheels, and I showed him the big balls we have to sit on sometimes. Then I wheeled him over in a chair to what ended up being his favorite part of mommy’s new office: the lollipop bowl. It was such a hit that now whenever we’re in the car heading in the direction of downtown, Ezra asks me when he can go back to my office. I am assuming because of the lollipops, but then again, I like it just because of what it is, so maybe he does too.

While -v- was away at the store today, Ezra and I had a Popsicle. It has been a reoccurring event with Ezra when he decides to not go to the store with -v-. He will usually wait a few minutes after -v- has left for the store to come ask me if we can have a Popsicle. In fact, I am pretty sure he remained  home from the store today because he wanted a Popsicle and not because he wanted to further bond with his father on Father’s Day, and he knew I would give him a Popsicle. I did. And we both had our Popsicles on the porch while he asked questions and commented on the people walking past, which was fun and made Father’s Day even more.

Ezra wanted me to read books last night while he was awake late after sleeping off sickness most the day. I read to him for an hour many books with big pages and hidden flaps. Today, I read Ezra thirteen books, one after another, giving -v- a break from reading to Ezra all day long.

Before I read him the thirteen books today, Ezra wanted to build a fort, so we built a fort. Ezra instructed, and I built. He used a smaller cushion for the roof and a larger cushion for the door of the fort than I would have. Ezra’s roof was shorter and didn’t cover all of the fort, but the roof allowed light to shine through a gap between the door and the roof into the fort. We put the door on the fort after Ezra collected thirteen books and put them inside the fort and stepped up into the fort. With the door on the fort, Ezra sat inside and flipped the pages of all thirteen books using the light between the gab in his cushions to stare at the pages of the books.

Since the last weekend from hell, we’ve made such great potty training progress that I feel like everything’s been better! Less stress over cleaning up pee = more fun for everyone. SO I think that this may in fact have been the best week ever…after we got past the incident on Monday where he peed on the floor at the kid gym and we didn’t have any extra pants so we had to carry him crying out to the car to go home. But since that day Ezra has done such a good job with using the potty. After Ezra’s first couple of poops as a baby, I never thought I could be as excited about a bowel movement as I was about the big one he put in his little potty today. It was like the most awesome thing ever. There were other things about this weekend that were fun (the camp-out in the living room, waffles, the park, the tadpole pond) but that poop made this the best weekend EVER!

All I needed to do was to ask about peeing every five minutes and talk to him about his potty and what kind of potty he would like every few minutes and rush him to the bath room twice when he said he needed to pee. I think the first attempt I made him too nervous as we rushed to the bathroom. The second time I convinced him to sit a few seconds longer on his potty and relax. Then I heard the sound of pee, and Ezra smiled. And I felt a great relief.

It was. We made and ate waffles. We played with LEGOs. Ezra ate more waffles. We trade names. For a few minutes, I was Ezra, and Ezra was Kalab. We played hide and go seek in the house. We played more LEGOs. He went brushed his teeth with little fuss.

As he was walking down the stairs after waking from sleep, Ezra paused to meet me and see me face to face as I stood on the floor. We stood there in the morning sunshine and stared at each other with smiles. Then ezra said. ,,I love your nose.” And it has been a great morning since.

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.

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.

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.

Ezra is at Grandma and Grandpa T’s with -v-, and he wanted to call me. He called and told me where he was then gave the phone to -v-. I believe it was the first time Ezra talked with me on the phone.