After Ezra climbed the stairs this morning, Ezra decided he wanted to climb down the stairs. Unlike the one or two other times Ezra has had any interest in going down the stairs, this time Ezra lead the descent from stair to stair with his legs and not his head. He slipped and lowered each leg one by one until they were pairs of feet resting on a stair. Then he slid legs over the stair to the stair below and continued the process until he was on the floor.
I don’t know what provoked his sudden desire to climb down the stairs after climbing up the stairs, but given is increasing weight and my aging back I am very happy to see he is improving his mobility skills to include going down the stairs then I won’t need to pick him up and carry him down.
It continues to bring awe and wonder watching Ezra walk around. Even if for a few steps or ten, seeing him go from a crawl position to a squat position to a stand position then to walk around is full of awe and joy. It’s weird, too. It was only three and half months ago he had to crawl to a stand and about four month ago he was beginning to crawl. Now he doesn’t even need the help of a vertical surface stand. And he doesn’t like crawling as much as walking. All he needs is a horizontal surface and a bit of focus and next thing I see he is standing with a smile and looking for the place to walk. IT’S AMAZING!
Yesterday Ezra stood on his own! He stood on two feet, and did not use anything to prop himself up, and his hands weren’t grasping onto anything or anyone for support - in fact, he was clapping. It was super cute, and I wish I had a picture of this, but there was no time. The stand alone adventure lasted only a few seconds, before boom! down he went onto his bottom. He has been able to increase the number of times he has stood alone, but not the duration of the stand. I bet there will be more and longer standing next week, and then it’s only a matter of moving those legs…
If I could bottle the smell of today’s shit, I would label the bottle: Ezra’s First Really Stinky Shit.
A stinky shit that did smell different before I removed the diaper. In fact, both -v- and I smelled Ezra before the changing as we usually do trying to determine if he pooped, and we both weren’t sure if what we smelled was an Ezra shit. Most shit still smells like sour milk or a subtle mildew like smell. Not this stinky shit. A stinky shit that didn’t reveal its full fragrance until I peeled the diaper away.
I gagged. Then I went on a rant of: OH! MY. OH. THAT’S BAD. I tired to hold my breath, but that didn’t last. Even with the diaper off, and Ezra wiped down, the stink of shit remained. And I can’t hold my breath that long. He pooped out the diaper and on his back and then roll around while I was changing him only spreading the smell and making a bath a needed thing.
-v- helped clean up by cleaning off the diaper in the toilet filling the bathroom with the smell. A smell that is giving me shivers even now.
Stair Master Ezra earned the title today after successfully climbing the stairs from one level to the next. Yes, I was following him the entire way, but I didn’t force or guide his path. He just wanted to climb some stairs and did without falling or slipping or pausing or with the help of his dad. When he reached the top, he let out a squeal and crawled way searching the next challenge to over come.
…Now it is time to install the gates before he wants to try to climb up or down the stairs without -v- or me there to make sure if he tumbles that he doesn’t become the Stair Victim.
He climbed his first stairs today, and I can still only think of the poop. He came home from the doctor’s appointment with a clean bill of health (no ear infection), and I can still only think of the poop. He was fussing all morning making the day of working at home difficult, and I can still only thing of the poop.
The poop filled the diaper and the back of the onesie. He needed a cleaning with wipes then needed a bath. Then I needed to clean up the diaper changing area and then sterilize the pacifier that had been stepped on by a poop foot.
-v- and I have been talking for months how Ezra will probably be able to easily maintain a flat top, a mowhawk, or some messy chatic emo kid hair do with his natural cow licks.
Ezra’s cow lick on the left side of his head twists counter clockwise. Ezra’s cow lick on the right side of his head twist clockwise. Both cow licks meet in the middle of the head and push hair to flow up and stick up on the back top half of head. Even as the hair grows longer the hair remains sticking up from the back of head sort of like peacock plume. But this plume fans forward and lays flat before the brow.
We have tried only water to tame Ezra’s crazy hair, but mere water will not tame Ezra’s hair. For now, we don’t mind is crazy hair. Hopefully, -v- and I will be able to help Ezra come to love and find ways to style his crazy hair.
Ezra and -v- are sleeping on the couch right now. Ezra’s back raises with each breath. He lay there still and calm.
It’s times like these that I wish Ezra would not grow up because he looks so much at peace and cute, but with life there is time and with time is growth. I suppose during times like this it is best to capture the moment any way one can.
Ezra has two more teeth that he’s been teething! It was quite a surprise when I first spied the two new teeth on Tuesday (or maybe Monday) while we were playing on the floor. He opened wide to laugh after I flipped him upside down, and I took the opportunity to look inside his mouth, thinking that at most I’d see a couple of swollen spots on his gums. But! Behold! There were two new whitecaps on either side of Ezra’s top two front teeth! So now he’s got six teeth that we can see. We’re going to have to start feeding him chunks of things like steak and apples and other grown-up foods so he can put all these teeth to good use!
Early this morning, Ezra was hanging-out on his blanket playing with some wooden blocks and a few books and some plastic chew toys. Then he seemed to be bored with the toys. So he laid on his side, lifted himself up on hands and knees. Then he began to crawl. He crawled across the blanket. He crawled to the floor. And he crawled to some power cords. It did take me awhile to calm my excitement caused by the crawling and realize he was playing with power cords. Once the excitement was under control, I told Ezra not to play the power cords and then set him on his blanket.
I realized now begins years of Ezra moving around and playing with things like power cords and me trying to not have Ezra play with things like power cords.
While Ezra has yet to perfect his crawling technique, he has perfected his technique from laying flat on his stomach to sitting upright. This is no small feat because it took him a time to learn to sit upright, and it took him a time to lift up his chest with his arms. AND it took him a time to roll over. All these techniques are used as he lifts his chest off the ground with arms, swings a leg around (like he is rolling over) and plants his bottom on the ground and lifts his torso upright with arms and chest. He has become so good at this sitting upright technique that he can move across the floor by laying on stomach and sitting upright, laying on the floor, sitting upright, laying on the floor, sitting upright, etc…
An amazing event occurred yesterday. I was making a video of EZ-O’s crazy tongue action and trying to get the state of his growing teeth on full motion video. Without expecting it, EZ-O, a blossoming beatbox artist,
used two of his natural tools to create a new sound. A sound that was a progression of skillz that came together to create a new skillz.
Second there was the skill of moving the tongue all crazy after the discovery of the tongue.
NOW, he has created and preformed an new skill and sound with these skillz:
This sound was a sound that was long in coming. It has been a sound that both -v- and I have helped him train by example to expand his beatbox performance. Now I can write and say to the world that a beatbox master he is becoming.