one more

I can't help myself--he's too cute! (I do wonder when Blogger is going to tell me I've used up all my space, though...)

Ezra and his Abba

mmmm avocado

Ezra loved his first avocado! He actually ate more of it than I expected. Most of it, though, ended up all over him and his booster seat. He had so much fun playing with it (although, as you can see from the pictures, he took the task very seriously; afterwards in the bath he was super hyper, though!).

One Half

Today was Ezra's half birthday! I can't believe he's already six months old. An update on what he's been up to:

I forgot to mention that he spontaneously started using his first sign a few weeks ago: he lifts his arms to be picked up. I've been assured that this "counts" as a real sign ;) He started doing it from his high chair, and now he does it whenever he wants to be picked up. Another current interest is anything that is behind him. I suppose he's just discovered the concept of "behind." He always turns around to look behind his back, especially if Baruch or I are there. I described his game of peek-a-boo, but he also seems to have invented a new game of sorts: sometimes rather than playing peek-a-boo he just pulls whatever he can find over his face and then starts freaking out until we pull it off. But when we pull it off, he's smiling, not scared. It's sort of strange, but funny. He gets super hyper and squeals a lot, too. I think he just has a lot of energy! I have a feeling I'm going to be chasing after him a lot as soon as he's mobile.

We've all had a bad cold. Thankfully Ezra seems to be getting better, although he's still a bit stuffy. It's made nursing at night (lying down) difficult for him. He's been so cute; instead of nursing he tries to just nuzzle up to me, but he usually can't get back to sleep that way no matter how hard he tries, so he reluctantly latches on and nurses a little (really just lightly sucks a few times) and then he's back asleep. It must be difficult to nurse lying down with a stuffy nose.

Here are some photos from today (I'll post some more in another post, also):

Ezra's game

I wanted to write a quick post about Ezra's new favorite game. Whenever he's lying on his back he looks around for a cloth, and when he gets one (like a blanket, a flat diaper/burp cloth, etc.) he puts it over his face and then moves it down really quickly and laughs when we say peek-a-boo! Last night Baruch was delighted to play this game with him over and over. Baruch says that he'd seen Ezra doing this before, but never so blatantly playing on purpose. We think it's quite intelligent of him to learn this game ;)

He's also making weird noises. While I was posting he woke up from his nap and now as I finish he's sitting here making funny throat noises, almost like little growls. He also squeals and pretend coughs. I suppose he's testing out the range of his voice!

We also need to get a new tub for him. He figured out that if he reaches over and grabs the opposite side of his tub, he can pretty much pull himself to standing! It's funny but definitely not safe. He also likes to splash, and I think he's learned the word splash because when I say it he does it!

hooray for pinned prefolds!

Truth be told, the left side is wonky. This was my first day of pinning! I've gotten quite good at it now, though. I love pinning--it's so much better than Snappi-ing because there's nothing tight across his belly, I can fit infant prefolds on him well, and I can fit his nighttime diaper (a premium prefold with an infant trifolded inside) easily without tightness in the belly.

Funny Faces (am I teething?)

first snow (sort of)

"Mama, are you SURE it's snowing? I think I see some white stuff...isn't that called flurries? What are you getting so excited about? I don't get it..."

sippy cup!

Here are some pics from today. The first is captioned, "just readin' my book here!" The second two are: "well, I sort of get the concept!" Also known as, "too much plastic!!" I'm looking for safer sippy cups. My friend Anne let me know about one type called BornFree that I think they might sell at Whole Foods, so I'll check next time we're there. Also I want to get him a Klean Kanteen sippy, which is lightweight stainless steel with an Avent sippy spout, but he'll have to be a bit older because it doesn't have handles and the Avent spouts are harder to use.

I'm working on teaching Ezra how to use the sippy cup. He's never had a bottle, or really seen one, so it's a bit more difficult. I've been giving him little sips of water from my cup for a week or so now. Starting yesterday I put some water in the sippy and drank from it myself, then poured some into Ezra's mouth (I took out the valve), and then handed him the cup. I think he gets that he can drink if he puts his mouth on it, but learning to tip it back will be the challenge. Without the valve the water spills out easily, which is why I stripped him to his diaper for this game :) Of course, Ezra thinks it's much more fun to throw the sippy over the side of his chair, so we got a bit wet!

New booster seat!

Ezra got his booster seat today! As you can see from the pictures, he really likes it. I also put in a few pictures from earlier, before we got the booster seat, when he was playing with the plastic "bucket" I mentioned yesterday.

Yesterday I forgot to write about something else that Ezra has started doing. He's learned to splash in the tub, and he splashes almost all of the water out! The funny thing, though, is that he takes this task very seriously. He splashes and splashes with a very serious look on his face, then looks over at us and gives a little grin and then goes back to splashing. We're not really quite sure what to make of it!

Here are the photos:

what Ezra is learning

Ezra's new shtick seems to be cause and effect. Yesterday I gave him a plastic container, sort of like a small bucket, to play with, and sat him on a chair holding it. He kept throwing it on the floor to hear the lovely sound it made hitting the wood, which made him laugh. I picked it back up and gave it to him and he threw it right back down. It was so funny. Today he did something similar with his new wooden bead toy: he was sitting on the floor in front of it, and he kept pulling on the wires so it was tilted towards him and then letting go so it hit the floor and rattled with a bang. That also made him laugh, so he did it over and over. He was also shaking it back and forth and the beads were rattling. Then he tried to eat the wires ;)

It is so amazing to see his mind develop as we watch!

Oh, and he loves to pick things up and shake them up and down. It's cute when he gets a rattle because it's like the perfect image of a baby shaking a rattle.

Today we put him in the stroller at the table and he sat with us while we ate lunch (this is a great use for the stroller, since we don't actually use it outside :p). I gave him sips of water from my cup (or tried to; it mostly ends up down his chin) and I let him suck on my apple while I was eating it. We are going to get a booster seat very soon, and I know he'll love it!

cool new toy

Ezra got a great new toy from Ikea. He's a bit young for it, but he'll grow into it quickly. Here are some pictures (the hammer in the background is from building the chest of drawers we got for Ezra's clothes; soon I'll have to be a lot more careful about leaving things around!):

peek-a-boo!

Ezra decided to play peek-a-boo with me this morning! First he laid his head down facing away from me, then picked it up really quickly and looked at me. As soon as I caught on to what he was doing I said "peek-a-boo" every time he brought his head up, and he laughed. Unfortunately the camcorder was in the other room, but here are some pictures so you can get the idea:

5 months

Ezra is 5 months old. I have never met a baby with such a sense of humor! He laughs so much, and he's so much fun. He's incredibly social. As far as development, he sits very steadily on his own and is starting to pull up to sitting from a recline (like in his car seat or bouncy seat). He sort of creeps on the ground, and is frustrated that he can't crawl yet; I don't think it will be too long! He is obsessed with the food we are eating, and if it's within reach he grabs it out of our hands. He still has his tongue thrust, though, so he's not ready to eat solids quite yet. He manipulates toys fairly well and is starting to use his fingers rather than just his hands. He babbles a lot and says "Abba" fairly consistently, much to Baruch's delight (he actually says "ah-ba-ba-ba"). We think he says "hi" as well, but we're not as sure about that. And he also has an incredibly long attention span, and focuses on things very closely.

Baruch and I decided that Ezra was in pain from reflux, and while we were visiting my family in Charleston we got some gripe water to try. It's wonderful! Ezra loves it (it does taste very good), although it's a bit of a struggle to get it all swallowed (that tongue thrust again). We can usually tell if he's complaining because he's uncomfortable because he'll be spitting up or making burpy gulpy noises, and when we give him the gripe water he gets much happier. This is very exciting for us.

Sleep is not much better. In fact, in the past few days it's been much worse, but hopefully it's a short stage. This boy just does not like to sleep. My mother says that she hasn't met a baby who resisted sleep as much as Ezra since I was a baby. When he doesn't get enough sleep he is very unhappy. I tried to explain that to him, but he wouldn't listen :p Oh well, all stages pass in time. He is so delightful and wonderful, and also so challenging and high needs. I know we are amazingly blessed with this little boy.

recent photos, Jan 07

saving spot

Saving this spot for photos from Charleston