-v- left for work a thing for near thirty-six hours.
Thirty-six hours of Ezra and me has been a joy. Ezra did go to playcare for twelve hours of the thirty-six, so one may write it was twenty-four hours of Ezra and me, but any parent would agree and know playcare is not their parent and caretaker and they call you, as they should, at the slightest hint of need of a parent.
This was the first time it was only Ezra and me for a full night and day. It was the first time of only me taking Ezra to playcare.
It was fun.
Driving to playcare with Ezra was fun. I had listened to talk radio when I had to dive a lot, but today and yesterday I listened to Ezra and me talk while driving to playcare. Ezra talks more after playcare than before. I talked when there was silence.
Seeing Ezra at playcare was good to see. I had not seen him at the new playcare place, so it was good because he was happy to see other little people and other little people were happy to see him. And when I left (even with -v- during the two days I went with her to know the way) he seems almost embarrassed that his parent were paying attention to him around other people just like a little person.
Being home alone with Ezra was good if not great. It felt good that I was Ezra’s number one parent. It felt good being the one tugged on leg when he wanted attention. It felt good being the one he lifted hands for when he wanted to be carried. It felt good for him to not be reaching for -v-. It felt good being the number one parent even if it is because I was home alone with Ezra.
I am leaving Ezra and Kalab at home and taking off for a brief work trip. They will be without mom for about 36 hours. Hopefully they will not set anything on fire or lose anything important, and will have some time for fun father-son bonding. Ezra and I had our bonding time today - his daycare was closed for Veteran’s Day (really? Veteran’s Day? I didn’t know people outside of government, or Veterans maybe, got that day off). We stayed home together and played and played and played. And read some books, ate a little, and then played and played some more. Kalab came home and looked around at all the stuff everywhere. I think he was a little shocked-and-awed by the amazingly small amount of floor space left uncovered by Ezra’s toys, books, about 30 pages of newspaper advertisements, and miscellaneous other things that Ezra wanted to play with today and I didn’t have the heart or energy to pick up after he was done playing because I was sort of proud of the fun we had today.
Ezra went with Kalab and I on a field trip Sunday morning to get his pumpkin for Halloween. We went out to the farmlands, to a place that has a big pumpkin patch, along with a animal barn, hay rides, and a corn maze. So much to do! Ezra got to run through the dirt and pumpkin strewn fields and find the greatest pumpkin out there:
A good time was had by all, even though we did not go on the hay ride, or through the corn maze.
Today Ezra and I were home alone, due to daycare being closed in “observance” of Columbus Day (like, huh?) and Ezra would go up to his pumpkin every hour or so and pat it, or try and sit on top of it. I can’t wait until next weekend when we get to the carving!
Ezra is 14 months old today! yay! yay! yay! This time last year I was in Wisconsin with Ezra, and starting to think about getting ready to go back to work.
To celebrate this day, Ezra and I stayed home. Well, we stayed home because Ezra woke up with a fever at about 4am this morning. The fever didn’t stick around and Ezra didn’t seem bothered by any teething pain, so we had a pretty fun day together. My favorite part was him sleeping until 8:30 this morning : ) We also had fun at the park, looking at dogs and cars. (Ezra LOVES dogs and cars more than anything right now.) Hopefully Ezra will wake up tomorrow and his first day after being 14 months old will start off with a smile.
Ezra pulled his own red wagon today after he rode in it. He began by pushing the red wagon with me steering, but then we showed him the handle and -v- showed him and helped him hold the handle until he moved her hand off the handle and pulled the red wagon.
-v- said Ezra pulling the red wagon was like seeing Shetland pony pulling a prairie wagon.
Some day Ezra will get to eat more blueberries. He was very happy to have a lot of them recently. They were in the big red colander on the counter. Ezra would point at the colander and make the noise he makes when he wants something. It’s sort of a grunt. The other day though, the colander was empty and hanging on the wall again. Ezra pointed at it and grunted, but I had to tell him that there were no more blueberries. He looked sad and blue.
Some day Ezra may be thankful to me for writing fewer blog entries. Kalab gets upset when I don’t write, but I bet Ezra will be happier when he’s a teenager that I didn’t write sometimes. He’ll look at me and point to the blog and grunt like all teenagers do, and I’ll know that he is happy I forgot to write about an embarrassing moment or two.
-v-, Ezra and I share a houses with two cats, and Sassy in one of two cats. Sassy is an introverted cat. She likes to sit and look at things for a long time. She enjoys calm and quiet times. When there is loud sudden noise or lots of action toward her, she prefers to jog or run away and search for another place to have a calm and quiet time.
I really don’t think Ezra gets Sassy right now. Ezra wants to crawl fast and loud at Sassy and grab Sassy’s tail and tackle Sassy like he does Jigga, which is something we are teaching him not to do to Jigga all the time. Jigga, the other cat, doesn’t appear mind the rough play and grabbing of Ezra, and Jigga seems to sort of like it most of the time. Sassy, however, only likes soft pets and slow brushing when she wants to be petted and the laser light or a stick to chase when she wants to play, so I don’t know how long it will take for Ezra to be able to pet or play with Sassy.
I have been nursing Ezra less and less the last few weeks. Ezra won’t have much to do with a bottle anymore, either. Which means that whatever I pump for daycare goes right down the sink instead of in Ezra’s belly. This leads me to believe that he doesn’t really need as much of my milk anymore, and nursing is probably more of a comfort than a necessity. I’ve noticed that even on days when I am home with him, he nurses much less partially because he’s eating 3 solid meals plus snacks and and partially because he doesn’t have as much time for nursing if he’s going to also climb stairs, navigate his corral, play with Jigga, read books, take naps, help me with my computering, and climb up my legs.
So we’re moving in what seems to be a natural way toward weaning, I guess. This is probably good - I am hoping to avoid a situation where I am having to pry a 2 year-old’s hands off my boobs because he still wants to nurse whenever he feels like it, or a 3 year-old who carries around a bottle everywhere. But it is a painful change in two ways: a) I see that my relationship with Ezra will never be the same once he stops nursing and this make me sort of sad because I realize how quickly he’s going to grow up and stop needing me for anything; and b) my boobs are not quite sure how much milk to produce and when, and sometimes I’m a little over-full and that’s painful in its own way, but it’s led to a slight case of mastitis, which sort of feels like someone’s trying to pull small rocks out my nipples, which freaking hurts!
This is how Ezra shows his love for Jigga. Either that, or Ezra was trying to use Jigga as a step-stool to get up on the couch.
For the first 7 months of Ezra’s life, Jigga mostly sat and observed Ezra in his chair, or Ezra lying mostly motionless on the floor. Now they almost seem to play together. Once Ezra started crawling, he decided that the cats are the coolest things, and would crawl after them. This doesn’t bother Jigga at all - in fact, he now chases after Ezra to get more attention and/or give Ezra some headbutts. Ezra reciprocates by throwing himself on top of Jigga with a squeal and a laugh. So far, Jigga hasn’t reacted badly to this game - he just pulls himself out from under Ezra, and occasionally will come right back for more.
Trying to sit down and write a blog entry is hard when Ezra is always clinging to your arm, or even when he is holding onto your leg, because when you’re writing a blog entry, you are not entertaining Ezra, or you are prohibiting Ezra from entertaining himself by playing with the keyboard.
Lately Ezra has been very attached to me. When I’m in the room, he generally likes to be very close by. Most of the time I don’t mind this, because he’s adorable and I love him and find almost everything he does endearing. But there are times when I would like to, or need to, do other things aside from serve as Ezra’s personal jungle gym. Kalab can sometimes fill this role, but only while I am in the room or when I have magically disappeared from the room without Ezra seeing me go. If he sees me go away from him, Ezra puts on a good display of sobs and tears - even if I just go into the kitchen for a glass of water!
So, lately, when I get Ezra off to sleep, or he is playing with Kalab, I find I prefer to do things that do not involve reading or writing about Ezra or things babies do. Mom needs to think about non-mom things!!
Ezra had a pretty nice weekend. It was super sunny on Saturday, and sort of sunny Sunday. We did some outdoor activities - we looked around the the yard and looked at some plants. And by look, I mean Ezra grabbed at whatever was within reach and tried to get it in his mouth. We took a couple of walks in the stroller, and also went to Costco. Everywhere we went, Ezra got compliments on his crazy stand-up hair. Kalab made some pancakes Sunday morning, and Ezra got a few bites. We were practicing his food picking-up skills. He was able to grab the small pieces of pancake I placed on his tray and sort of shove them toward his mouth, but only a little bit would get in and the rest would fall to the floor in many smaller pieces. We are still awaiting the actual emergence of tooth #8. Ezra has continued symptoms of teething, but the tooth still remains unseen. Maybe it will come out during the week so Ezra can have a weekend free of teething.
Ezra went to brunch with me and Auntie Darling on Saturday. I had biscuits and gravy (mmmmm…gravy), and Ezra had pancakes! His first pancakes! Ok, so it was actually just 2/3 of a smallish pancake, but he ate it in little bits that I fed to him. He seemed to very much enjoy it.
After brunch, we went to a park and sat on a blanket in the shade - it was a hot day! This was the first for Ezra as well! Ezra crawled around on the blanket, but only to the edge of the blanket. He would reach out and touch the grass, rubbing his hand on it a little, but wouldn’t put his hand down on the ground. Maybe he was afraid of getting dirty - the ground was sort of muddy.
It was a big, fun, exciting day with Ezra. Then this morning I woke up and thought it was Monday, and I was running around trying to get Ezra ready, wondering why Kalab was sitting around being all lazy.
Two cats, Jigga and Sassy, live with -v-, Ezra and me.
Before Ezra began to crawl, contact with the Jigga And Sassy was minimal. Jigga would usually try to rub against Ezra to rub some fur off or mark him with scent. Sassy would sit by Ezra and appear to be watching over him. Now Ezra is crawling, Ezra and the cats are interacting more.
Sassy, who is friendly and loving, likes her personal space. Sassy and Ezra have interacted physically, but not much. Sassy sometimes gets freaked out when Ezra begins to crawl or fling his arms, and Sassy usually walks away.
Jigga, our alpha cat, and Ezra, however, have began to play with each other more and more. Ezra can and will crawl over to Jigga and begin to pull on Jigga’s hair in some deep petting way. Ezra will try to grab Jigga’s tail or butt. Ezra and Jigga will sometimes vie over a toy. And most of all Ezra and Jigga vie for -v-’s attention. It is this want for -v-’s attention that is probably the cause of most tension of their growing relationship.
So far both the cats have yet to strike out at Ezra as they do at each other. Ezra and the cats appear to be growing to live with each other.
Yesterday, Ezra, -v-, and I had an hour long sign class to further assist -v- and I to teach Ezra sign language to help communication with Ezra before he can speak. The class was a fun class and was helpful in showing technique and expectations. One of the most important signs learned was the sign for stop, which is holding the left hand open palm up and then bringing the right hand down upon the left hand like the right is copping the left hand.
The stop sign is an important sign and the one I have used often today. Often because Ezra’s seems to want to play with power cords. He wants to grab and pull and bite them. This is bad. During the past, it was easy to keep power cords away from Ezra because he was unable to move sans rolling around, which never got him far. But now he can crawl. And though he can’t crawl very far most of the time, he seems to get a lot of motivation to crawl when the crawling is for a power cord. So if -v- and I keep up the sign language, I am sure the sign for stop will be one of the first learned.
I have been showing and talking with Ezra about sign language this past week. It is something that is both educational for me and some way I can interact and bond with Ezra. So far, Ezra just stares at me or laughs or smiles when I make the hand gestures to associate the sign with an object like mom or dad or triangle or square. So far, I don’t think Ezra has all the coordination needed to make the forms to count numbers or form letters of the alphabet or signs for objects. However, I have hope some day (maybe months or years from now) he will able to sign for many things. Or maybe he will lose interest and the signing lessons will stop. That is up to him. For now, I do have some encouragement to continue to do the sign language lessons for he can make the sign for milk, which is the right hand starting in the C-formation and then clenching the hand like milking an utter of a cow. Ezra can do this sign just fine, but I don’t think he has yet made the connection between the sign itself and the object milk.
In Ezra’s case, more teeth does not mean eating more food. In fact, it’s sort of the opposite. He had a rough day with the teething, and went to bed before we could try feeding him again. Maybe tomorrow will bring less teething pain and more eating for Ezra.
Kalab got in on the action and fun of feeding Ezra yesterday. I wish I had taken video of it, but actually, it was pretty much the same as this video:
