some new photos

of Ezra at 14 months :) The first is Ezra with an apple, followed by Ezra in the hat I knit for him. Unfortunately I did not take any good photographs when we were visiting Charleston, but I hope to have some from our Thanksgiving visit! I also want to get a new family portrait and pictures with both sides of the extended family :)

14 months

Okay, so I never did post those photos I said I'd post. Oops.

Anyway, Ezra is 14 months old now. I have some photos from today at the park that I'll post. Having a toddler is so much fun! Every day he learns new things. His language is really starting to develop, with lots of conversational babbling and some words here and there. A typical walk includes him signing bird, tree, car (and car, and car, and car...), pointing out stop signs while saying either "stoh!" or "dah!", making funny inhaling noises that apparently mean squirrel, pointing at everything from flowers to bicycles, saying "tuh!" for truck, etc. A favorite pastime is taking off and putting back on lids and covers to anything. The other day Baruch held a plastic water bottle while Ezra took off the lid and put it carefully back on over and over and over. He really has a long attention span. He still says "dahn!" to mean boom, with variations such as "dihn!" and "dahn-eee". It also seems to mean, "wow, that's cool!". He sort of adapts the word to suit his purposes. One very cool thing he's done is made up his own noise for a motorcycle: he had seen motorcycles outside, and one of his picture books has a picture of one, and at some point he looked at the picture and started making a motorcycle noise that he thought of himself. That was extraordinary to me, because not only did he connect the real thing to the picture, he also independently and creatively thought of a way to replicate the sound! Ezra gives me lots of hugs and kisses, and runs to either DH or me when he's hurt or scared. He's started saying "abba" and "mama" much more appropriately. And his receptive language is extraordinary. He can easily follow simple requests ("please put this pile of white laundry in this laundry basket" or "you want to read? go get your Baby Beluga book")

Physically, he's running all over the place, and becoming a lot more precise in all his movements (like with the bottle cap I mentioned above). He can color with crayons a bit, but he's more interested in eating them. His hair is getting long. He hates us to wash it, too, which makes things difficult (hates, as in screams and cries and holds his head over the side of the tub so all the water goes on the floor). He also dislikes (okay, hates) getting his diaper changed, or getting dressed (undressed is a different matter; in fact, he can almost undress himself already, and would love to be naked all the time). Even though he's very attached and sometimes even "clingy" in certain environments, he has a STRONG independent streak. He insists we let him walk outside, rather than carrying or wearing him, and I think he dislikes diaper changes so much because he hates his movements to be restricted (he feels helpless, I guess). He seems to be mystified by other children, but he likes being in small groups, or in places with lots of people who are all engaged in their own activities (like the park). He gets overwhelmed at story time, though, where there are a large number of children and caregivers in one small room.

Okay, so I'll stop before I write a novel. I'll add more later if I forgot anything particularly important. Here are photos of my little tree hugger (erm, kisser?):

an update

Toddlers are fun! I am loving every day with Ezra, and I really think this is an amazing age. He plays with toys like a toddler, often choosing to push cars and trucks around the room, or "help" me by bringing me things (he spent about 20 minutes bringing me all of the potatoes, one by one, the other day), or take things out of the cabinets and figure them out. He likes to put blocks in the back of his dump truck and push it around everywhere. Sometimes he even makes motor sounds to go with his trucks and cars. We've been going for short walks outside, with Ezra walking, and he stops to look at everything from flowers to bees (he loves bees! he says a bee says "tssss") to trees and shadows (he waves to his shadow), birds, cars, really anything and everything. He picks up signs very quickly, his newest being "tree"; he also signs all of the old ones (milk, more, all done, food), bird, car, and some others. I need to learn new signs to teach him, because he can easily pick a new one up after seeing it a few times. He also uses them in interesting ways; for example, he hates when Baruch puts water on his head during his bath (I usually have to just get in the bath with him, if I'm bathing him!), and he looks at him plaintively and signs "all done?" with this questioning look. Baruch says he thinks he's trying to communicate the equivalent of, "will you stop, please?" Another cute thing Ezra has just started doing is hugging his doll. He also likes to hug a stuffed giraffe. He'll carry the doll around the apartment with him, hugging it and patting it on the back.

There's really too much to say to get it all down here. Basically, Ezra is adorable and amazing, and I can't even begin to fathom how much I love him. I will come back and post some photos later.

some photos

I had trouble getting photos. He won't stand (or sit) still. Plus I don't really have a good background or good lighting. It was a cloudy day, but threatening rain, so I couldn't really think of any good outdoor spots (although the light was good). Oh well. Here's what I did get:

he walks, he talks

but he's not full of chalk...

Yes, I know, I missed posting for Ezra's birthday. Alas! He did, indeed, have his birthday. We had a lovely party at Grandpa's, and he was given many wonderful gifts. He was not too happy when the cake was brought out, but we calmed him down and then he did eat some of it. And we even managed to get a few pictures of him with the cake in which he wasn't screaming! :)

The big news, though, is that we now (as of yesterday) have a toddler! Ezra had been taking some steps here and there for a while, but yesterday he turned around and walked across the room, and he's been at it ever since. He is just adorable, toddling (or teetering) from one thing to another with his hands held up for balance. He still loses balance and falls a lot, but even over the course of one day I think he's gotten more steady. I suppose it's time to buy him some shoes!

Anyway, I intended to post a blog update on Wednesday, and I had this whole thing written out, so I'm just going to post it now. Feel free to skip all the rest and just look at the photos; this is mostly for my own amusement. It's A Day in the Life of Ezra, the Wednesday version:

Wednesday was a typical non-eventful day for us (nothing particularly special planned), so I thought I'd record it for posterity's sake. Ezra woke up at about 6 and then hung out with Baruch while Baruch got ready to go to the hospital. Then Baruch left and I got up and showered while Ezra hung out in his exersaucer, and then we both got dressed and started the diaper laundry. The weather was quite nice, so we went out for a long walk. When we got home we finished the diaper laundry, and then it was time for Ezra's morning nap (about 9 a.m.). After his nap we got ready and then went to the library for story time, where we heard some stories read and sang a lot of songs. After story time Ezra played with other kids while I chatted with mothers. Ezra seems particularly fond of his "friend" Mordechai, who happens to be one of the few boys around his age who he interacts with regularly. Ezra also likes Sarah, Mordechai's twin sister, but interestingly enough he and Mordechai seem to pay particular attention to each other. Anyway, after the library we went home and Ezra had lunch (bread with hummus, some banana, and some raisins), and then he played with blocks and toys for a bit while I did dishes and then sat and read. He really likes to fill a basket full of blocks and then dump it out, and then fill his wagon with blocks, and then put blocks in the stroller basket, and then put blocks in the breakfront cabinet, and...well, you get the picture! Then he took his afternoon nap, which on a good day is from around 2 to around 4. After his nap we went to the playground, where he "played with" his "friends" Nechama and Talia (older girl twins...actually the same age as Mordechai and Sarah, they are two of three sets of twins born in the same week in our shul, 14 months ago!). At the playground, Ezra likes to go on the swing and to crawl around on the playground equipment. He used to like the slide but for some reason he doesn't anymore. We were at the playground for a while (it was hot, too!), and then we came home and played for a while until dinner time. Dinner was mixed veggies (Ezra particularly likes lima beans), bread, some lentils, and a whole peach! We drew dinner out a bit and then played some more, waiting for Baruch to get home, because Ezra loves to get bathed by his abba! So Baruch came home and bathed him and then we had some family time (Ezra likes to play around on the bed and come cuddle with us a bit off and on) and then Ezra went to sleep!

Whew, that was long!

Anyway, here are some photos from the birthday party. I have yet to get good walking photos, mainly because today was shabbos. But I will try tomorrow (I'm actually going to try a photo shoot with my favorite outfit of Ezra's, so I hope I get some good shots).

obligatory spaghetti photos

Of course every baby must have photos of his face covered with spaghetti sauce, so here they are :)







Oh, and y'all are all invited to Ezra's birthday party! It will be July 29th at Grandpa's farm. Time still to be determined (Ezra seems to have changed up his nap schedule, so we'll see if he keeps it up over the next few days and decide accordingly). We'll be having falafel, yummm! We'll be calling to invite everybody once we figure out the timing :)

photos from Charleston

Ezra and I had a spectacular trip to Charleston. Ezra is completely in love with Gideon the dog, chasing him all over the house and patting him and pointing and saying "doggy!" We went to the beach on the Fourth of July, and Ezra loved the ocean but disliked the sand (in fact, he wouldn't sit in the sand, and wouldn't touch my hand when it had sand on it). Ezra's Grandma and Granddaddy took us to the aquarium, also, and Ezra had a wonderful time pointing at all of the fish, watching the sharks, and seeing some cool birds. While we were there he really picked up on his language skills, and now says quite a few words, although most of them he doesn't say very often. He seems to have mostly given up on signing (with an exception being the sign for "more," which he signs a lot and also says, "mah! mah!") in favor of talking. His favorite word at the moment seems to be light ("ight!"); he points at all the lights in whatever room we are in, including the library. And one of his favorite things to do is get any phone (house or cell) and hold it up to his ear and babble. Sometimes he also holds things that aren't phones to his ear, too.

Here are some photos my father took while we were visiting (with the caveat that my father will probably work on them a lot before they are officially ready for viewing, but I wanted to get them up now!):