Golden Pig Tales

Today was the first day I drove Ezra to pre-school all by myself like the big boy parent I am. Aside from less traffic, it seems easier to take Ezra to pre-school because he quickly gets involved with his friends or trying to help the teacher.

We listened to Bobby Brown during the drive. Ezra even said he liked  my car as much as mom’s car now that he can see over the front passanger seat.

During the past when I was with -v- to drop off Ezra, Ezra didn’t hug me. He hugged only -v-. He hugged me goodbye today. Then began to talk with the teacher.

After Ezra saw the firefighters clean their fire engines and fire trucks in How’d They Build That: Fire Trucks, he asked why the fire fighters cleaned their fire engine. -v- and me replied they needed to keep their fire fighting engines and trucks clean, so machines and switches don’t jam and stop working because dirt is everywhere thus prevent the firefighters from helping people.

So for the past few nights Ezra has been using a couple of wet wipes to clean his fire truck bed before bed time for the next time we go save people.

It’s pretty fun to see and talk with him about his fire station while he cleans the fire truck.

,,Zero,” is the answer Ezra gives sometimes to reinforce when he says, ”No.” For example, I ask, ,,Are you hungry?” ,,No,” says Ezra. Then I say, ,,Are you sure you’re not hungry?” He’ll some times reply, ,,No. Zero!”

I have not tried to stop him from using 0 to define no because having written many software progams that use 0 for no I reason Ezra is correct and just beginning a fad for humans.

It is a lesson I can best teach Ezra and did when Ezra asked for help to know how to stand and pee.

So I told him to take the seat off his toilet, and then told him to aim the pee into the big red bowl of his toilet.

I taught by example because I need to pee, and I stood and peed into the big toilet.

All the pee hit the bowls.

PS - This is Ezra’s mom. And  for the record, I was the first person that got Ezra to pee standing up.

PSS - This is Ezra’s dad. And for the record, I searched Golden Pig Tales for you bragging about this, but couldn’t find the entry.

I had some how hurt my neck months ago and now need to do stretches and exercises to keep the neck feeling good. I also have a lap table, so my neck posture is good while sitting and interfacing with a laptop. These things are things Ezra reminds me almost daily. The few times during the past weeks when I didn’t have the lap table for the laptop while sitting Ezra brought me the lap table and wanted me to use it. And I did. And it helped. And Ezra asks me if my neck hurts or about my stretching and the stretching book every few days, so Ezra reminds dad of what dad needs to do, so his dad’s neck doesn’t hurt.

Morning began early with Ezra knocking one LEGO building and we creating another while talking. Then we watched How They Build That: Firetrucks, paused They Build That: Firetrucks to make waffles hot off the iron then finish watching How They Build That: Firetrucks while we ate waffles. We played with LEGOs and went to his room to build a railroad track and listen to Queen’s We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions then the rest of Best of Queen. Ezra wanted to build a big track. And I convinced Ezra we needed to clean his room and vacuum to have room to build a big track, so we cleaned his room and vacuumed and woke -v-. Then we all built a train track. We played. We cleaned kitty litter because Ezra was excited to clean up the cats’ poops because he can now that he is 3. There were a few fussy moments that become sad and quiet. Then we came together to play games. We even put Ezra’s toys that were all over the house in containers and organized the containers in is room while pretending the containers were vegetable boxes to be delivering to houses from his firetruck. We built a fort and ate a lunch.

It has been almost a week since Ezra B-Day trip to the coast, and I still have the few songs in my head that Ezra wanted to hear over and over while we drove the coast to three beaches, the Tillamook Cheese Factory and the OSU Aquarium.

Ezra loved the beaches. He loved the sand and the cold water and waves of the coast. There are many pictures of me and Grandma O and Ezra in the ocean. There are pictures of Ezra wanting to eat the sand. The only way to get Ezra to leave the beach was to challenge him in a race, so he could accidentally fall in the sand and play for a few minutes. On the beach I forgot about the songs we heard over and over.

We listened to many songs, but Fire Truck by Ivan Ulz, The Carrot Seed by Ivan Ulz and some reggae song on a sampler CD were songs Ezra wanted to play over and over and over and over and over while we drove the coast. We all sang along during a few listening. It was a good time. I am almost rested from the trip.

We went to a Beavers Baseball Game tonight, and Ezra experienced his first live baseball game.

It was an exciting game not only because he got to play a few kids games, but also because they were giving away free Beaver Webkinz. The Webkinz that may be washed before they are handled again because Ezra dropped two of the three Webkinz a few times on the concrete floors and bleachers as Ezra walked around and sat on the bench. It was also an exciting game because there was plenty of action on the field for Ezra to point out to -v- and ask her if she saw that.

Ezra seemed to have a pretty good time eating the fries and a pretzel that was HUGE compared to the pretzel he has had before. I think it was the talk of the snack food at the game all day that encouraged him to go. He remained mostly still in his seat or on -v-’s lap, but he still needs to learn the etiquette of controlling his feet to avoid accidentally kicking the people sitting on the seats below.

Ezra even watched some baseball until the bottom of the fourth when he became tired and wanted to go. And it was late, so we left with our Beaver Webkinz and possibly a new baseball fan.

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.

This morning Ezra pointed out to me that I need to vacuum the rugs because I didn’t yesterday. He picked-up a pieces of crumb to show me why I needed to vacuum the rug.

I told Ezra that I couldn’t vacuum because his toys were on the rugs, so Ezra got his garbage truck and made all the other toys garbage that we then loaded into his garbage truck for him to dump at another place thus clearing the rugs for me to vacuum.

Ezra’s new favorite band is Queen. It started with him walking around the house saying, ,,We will. We will rock you. Sock you.” to the beat of Queen’s We Will Rock You. He must have picked it up from Pre-school. Where ever the words and chant came to Ezra, now that he has heard the song sung by Queen along with We Are The Champions, Ezra wants to hear the song often. It has even got him back into wanting to hear Johnny Cash after several listens to Queen.

While leaving to go to Yoshida’s SAND IN THE CITY, Ezra insisted we take a bus for we were taking the car to help take his stroller along for the inevitably ride on the city train some where and the following walk back. Ezra likes the city train and the bus and after a time Ezra doesn’t like to walk. So we took the bus because Ezra insisted. Ezra played in sand. We took the city train to the Saturday Market and walked back to the bus stops because Ezra want to walk along the water front, so -v- carried Ezra. Ezra did walk a long way. And it was probably best we didn’t drive. I only wish I could have helped -v- carry Ezra, and that I had recorded his insisting words to take the bus for I would like to play it to him again when he is a teenager and will probably think the bus is lame.

Ezra and I were sitting on the porch having our treats. He was having a Popsicle, and I was having a whiskey (because we only had one Popsicle left, and I needed a whisky). Normally, there comes a point while we are having our Popsicles when Ezra will ask to try mine and we will try each other’s Popsicles. This happened to day, and Ezra said in his cute voice, ,,Can I try your whisky?”

I have to be honest that I did hesitate for an instant before saying, ,,No.”

When he asked, ,,Why?” I replied, ,,Because you have to be a dad to have this treat.”

We picked blue berries this morning. All of the blue berries -v- and I picked ending up in the buckets while Ezra’s bucket mysteriously remained emptied the entire time while blue berry stains manifested around his mouth. During on point, Ezra insisted on wanting to see my horde of blue berries only to show he likes to see with his mouth and hands as he grabbed a fist of blue berries and put them in his mouth.

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.