Sunday, December 26, 2010

It's Christmas. Christmas in Maine.

Okay, so it was Christmas in Maine. I've been slacking quite a bit since we've been here...but since we're leaving tomorrow evening, I figured now would be as good a time as any to update a little...

Getting here was a bit of an adventure - though we should have expected it, considering most every trip we take is elongated due to travel mishaps. We ended up getting stuck in Chicago overnight on our way here. It's always nice to find out your connecting flight has been cancelled when you arrive in your connecting city ;-) After waiting in an insanely long line at United's customer service counter, we booked a 6am to Boston instead of waiting 2 days to fly into Portland like we'd originally planned. Eh. The night spent in O'Hare was not nearly as bad as we had feared it would be and 6am came pretty quickly. We did manage to get very familiar with terminal C during our midnight/early morning walks...

With that bump behind us, we headed to Dad's house to settle in. Not long after, we got hit with a monster of a blizzard...it was freakin' awesome. I think it totaled up to just over a foot of snow. We were pretty happy.

Ezra got to meet just about everyone in the family, save for a few cousins here and there. He seemed to really enjoy being passed around to snuggle and drool on everyone ;-) He also got to meet the other new addition to the family - Ellie. I'm super excited that they're so close in age and I'm holding out hope that they'll be pen-pals like me and Ash were growing up.

I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I'd intended, but here's a couple that I did manage to take...

Easy-E turned 3 months the day after we arrived...


This 3-month shot just makes me giggle...

Dad and a very sleepy Ez.

Ez was pooped after Christmas Eve at Gram's house


Glorious snow!


I'll try to finish the trip pictures tomorrow. It's getting late and I'm sure Dad doesn't want to do too many more laps with Ez around the house ;-)

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'

Ezra rolled over for the first time last night!  He's been thisclose for weeks now, sometimes getting up on his side, but then falling back down again.  And he didn't really care once he did it either.  I was all prepared for the 5-second-delay-cry that I'd been warned about...but nothing.

I was going to take a picture to document the occasion, but he was naked from the waist down, so I decided against it.  Actually, I did snap a bare-butt picture but I'd hate for some crazy to stumble upon it on here, so private it will stay.  I imagine Ez will thank me one day for this act of discretion.

In other awesome news, Little Man had a visit with Vickii today...and he weighs 10lbs 7.5oz!  She's pleased with his gains and said that as long as we keep up the pace, we're in the clear.  Good news, kids.  Good news indeed.

Here's a shot of Mr. Man in his brand new, supa-cool stroller - courtesy of his Grandma Becky.  He may not look too thrilled, but I can assure you that he enjoys taking Brodie for walks in it.  Plus, it was helpful on the couple of days last week when it was in the 80's here.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE wearing him in the Moby.  It's just nice to have the option to not have sweat pouring down my shirt just from walking around the block ;-)



And here's Ezra just before I had to wake him up to run to Vickii's office today.  He passed out while eating and took a little catnap in his magic chair.  Notice the bib.  I didn't know that breastfed babies ever got much use out of bibs, but damn.  This kid has begun an all-out drooling/spit-up assault on us and his clothing.


Here's his best, "You're not seriously going to start taking pictures of me again, are you?" face.



Help, I'm being attacked by a trunk monkey!


Nevermind, me and monkey are buddies...


And here's a bonus shot of the boy. Take note of just how high I got his pants today. Poor guy's got Grandpa pants ;-)


And finally, here's a short video of Easy-E. It's nothing super exciting (just super cute!) - just a little cooing and smiling for the family that hasn't met him yet...

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

One week from today, we'll be on our way to Maine.  A cross-country flight with a 3 month old.  It's much less the actual flight and moreso the trying to remember to pack each and every little thing that we need.  No matter what, I always forget to pack something for us.  The stakes are higher with Mini-Man in tow.  Cross your fingers for us :-)
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I managed to forget to snap a photo of Ez with Vickii for many, many weeks. As in, I meant to get one on the morning he was born, but didn't get around to remembering until he was about 8 weeks old. Too bad I finally remembered right around the time Ez decided to begin his Oh-my-god-what's-happening? cry whenever we were at her office.  I feel like I have to re-emphasize that there is no reason for his outbursts.  No fluorescent lights, no cold tables, no scary people poking him.  Just a super-nice, insanely relaxing person checking his weight and snuggling him.  I'm seriously stumped.

Check out Mr. Frowny-face with our awesome midwife.  His bottom lip began a full-on, pathetic quiver just about the same time the camera came out.  Good timing, Ez.


He's still ridiculously cute though, huh?
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We're trying to figure out what's causing some redness on Mr. Man's bottom. Could be yeast. Could be typical diaper rash. It's not always the same from one day to the next and seems to have characteristics of both.  Yes, I've googled.  Masses of pictures of red butts later, I'm still not sure.

After a week of using Earth's Best diaper cream and about a million flushable liners (to protect the diapers), we're getting nowhere.  I wanted to give it a solid week with the liners, then treat his diapers to get rid of any yeast that might be hanging out.  Now we're onto coconut oil.  It's cloth diaper-friendly, so no need to be tearing through liners like they're going out of style, and is supposed to be good for both rashes.  So far, I can tell you that his (adorable) little butt smells like a freshly cracked coconut.
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Here's a few shots of the boy.  Disregard the giant diaper on him - I was keeping him loosely diapered and coverless all day to let his little butt breathe.  I'll add that this kid can pee.  Like, I needed to change him every 15 minutes.  And that's on top of him playing human fountain while I let him "air it out" for a couple minutes during each change.  What I'm trying to say is that his kidneys are fully-functional.

And yes, his hair is nuts.  No, there's really no good way (other than greasing it up) to get it to lay down.  Yes, I find it completely adorable :-)





Monday, December 13, 2010

I haven't got much to ramble on about today (you're welcome).

Blame it on Easy-E.

He decided that the middle of the night would be the perfect time to want, no, demand, play time.  Holy crap.  We managed to crawl in bed a little after 4am after being up all day and night.  And then somehow, Little Man didn't want or need more than a couple 10 minute food-induced catnaps today.  He's a machine.

Which means I'm dragging ass today.  So here's a few pictures...


He's happy because his hair is 76% less out of control today.

I just really love this one...

My kid is judging you.

Looks like someone forgot his pants...


I'm hoping to get the obligatory picture with Santa sometime this week.  Hopefully Ez won't have the same reaction to Santa that I always did...which generally included tears, wailing, and a horribly pathetic picture with me in a state of panic, Josh trying hard to make up for my tear-streaked frown with a big cheesy grin, and the poor, under-paid mall Santa looking like he really needed a drink.  Ahh, memories.

Wish us luck!

Monday, December 6, 2010

Oompah Loompahs and dogparks

My little Purple-People-Eater should be back to his regular skin tone soon. Last night was *hopefully* the last night of turning my sweet, normal-colored baby into an Oompah-Loompah. Despite the pretty shade of violet and the laughs it provokes from me and Jordan when Little Man flashes that royal purple-gummed grin, I'll be glad to have less mess to clean up after each technicolor drool/spit-up.



Tummy-time has been a little bit of a struggle lately. Easy-E has decided that he simply wants nothing to do with it unless he's on one of us. So, I tried putting a thin, folded-up blanket under his chest to help him out a bit...and it worked! Every day, the blanket gets a little thinner (thereby propping him up less) and he gets stronger and seems to enjoy it more again. He's so cute, thrashing his bobbly head around. Here's a shot of him once he was done and wanted to eat his hand.

His butt is so damn cute, I had to take a picture of it.


And that play yard that you keep seeing Ez laying on in various pictures? I'm not sure if it came from Ashley or Aunt Debbie, but Ezra loves it! Thanks again!

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Ezra took his first trip to the OB dogpark this afternoon. He wasn't too excited about it at first, as evidenced by the following sleepy-baby shot.



Even Brodie was tired and decided to take a rest.

After a little while he woke up and watched Brodie in action.


This was his reaction to the pomeranian humping the poodle.

Then he found his hand and began chewing.








Soon after, it was dinner#1 time. I won't show you a picture of that.


Oh, I made these, ridiculously good lemon-kale chips yesterday (and again tonight). They're seriously awesome. Make them and fall in love - you'll be happy you did.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

December Nights

We headed over to Balboa Park for their annual December Nights last evening. I should say that we headed toward Balboa Park. After sitting in traffic for 40 minutes on Park, we procured a spot, parked, and hoofed it about 3/4 of a mile. I chose to break out some shoes that have been hibernating all summer long. This proved to be a bad idea by the time we hit the zoo parking lot on our way to the festival. Holy crap, my feet were killing me. Bandaids, moleskin, and wool socks couldn't have saved my feet from what happened last night.

But Ezra seemed to enjoy himself. He was awake for most of the walk to the park, so he got to look around at a lot of people. And darkness. By the time we finally made it to the excitement, he was out cold. But rest assured, the kid was toasty-warm in his wrap. I'm telling you...strap that kid on me and BAM! Instant fire-starter type heat.


(Yes, Wee-Man's mouth is purple again.)
The news reporters claimed that there were 325,000 people in attendance at this year's December Nights (over both nights). I can tell you that was probably a good estimate. Wow. The last time we saw anything close to that many people at the park was for the Earth Day fair. Jordan almost body checked a few people, which is to be expected. The guy gets pretty rageful around such large numbers of people. Especially when half of those people are aimlessly meandering through crowds. Oh, and the stroller-wielding people anger him even more. Precisely the reason why the zoo is usually off-limits to him on weekends. He's a bit of a liability - much like Lucy at the dogpark. It's just never a good idea.

Here's me and Ezra in front of some decorations by the kiddie-train. I think he'll be big enough to want to ride it next year ;-)



Shall we try that again with the flash?
And here's a couple random shots of the lights and the organ pavilion. These really don't do it justice...it looked much better in person. It was pretty awesome.






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If you made it through my ramblings, here's your reward -- extra pics of the boy.

He loves Lamby. I catch him 'talking' to it during diaper changes.


He really loves diaper changes. Well, once the dirty dipe is off, he's as happy as a clam. Really enjoys letting it all air out ;-)



And I finally gave Mini-Man a bath while Jordan was home...so I had some time to snap a few pics of the event. I know it's hard to tell from this picture, but he loves the bath. It's all kicks and giggles. For some reason, he looked at us like we were crazy when the camera came out...

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Great News!

The baby formerly known as Spork has some good news that he'd like to share with the world...



Yep. That's right, folks. Over the course of one week, Ezra gained 9.5 ounces. We started calling him the Milk Monster, so maybe that has something to do with it? Either way, I couldn't be happier. I mean, I broke out the crayons and made a sign for hell's sake. It's a pretty big win.

Well, I could be happier if he keeps it up. Keep those chubby-baby thoughts up...they're working :-)

For some reason, Ezra seems to only bring out the blood-curdling screams when we're at Vickii's office. He never gets a chance to scream (or cry) when we're at home...unless I'm just too slow to get him eating. But even then, it's no big deal - just a little cry. But dude can freakin wail when he's there! It's completely unwarranted, though. That place couldn't be more calming and he couldn't be with a nicer, more relaxing person. It's baffling. I'm curious to see what's going to happen once we get to Maine and he meets everyone. Hmmm...

So, back to his super-impressive chub-gaining...
We'd guessed that he would be putting up some pretty good numbers this week because he's starting to grow out of his newborn-sized prefold diapers. He'll still be wearing them for a couple weeks, but I've started putting the next size up into the rotation as well. He can also wear some of his footed sleeper/rompers that are 0-3 months. In fact, his feet are the perfect size for some of them (yes, I realize he gets the feet from me). I know it's irrational, but I'm getting a little sad about this. He's growing out of something - which means he's growing up :-( I suppose this had to happen at some point. I was just hoping it would be much, much later.

Yes, I'm getting emotional over diapers. Shut up.
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Wee-man is so happy and talkative these days...especially in the mornings. SO sweet. He's been making this adorable owl noise and cracks up if I do it back to him. At which point my knees go weak and I melt into a puddle of goo. This kid has some magical powers.

Here's a few shots of Ez from one of those goo-inducing times.



God, he's a cute kid.


Here's another one...apparently Ezra was not pleased that I left the flash on.

And while I'm at it, I might as well show you these - They're from at least a month ago.
Cuteness abounds.
Remember Pat from SNL? Not saying my kid looks like Pat, but the way he's posing totally makes me think of him. Or her. Whatever.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Sunday Fun-day!

Ezra took his first trip to the zoo today. He stayed awake until we got to the warthogs and meerkats, which means about 20 minutes. But at least he got a good nap out of it. And I had my very own personal space heater attached to me to keep me toasty. Check it out...


And here's what we saw as we made our way up Sun Bear Trail.
It's exactly what you think it is. That's love, folks.

Later, the same guys gave me a look that almost made me delete that last photo. Almost.


Easy-E decided to wake up when I took him out of his super-cozy cocoon of warmth. So naturally I documented the occasion.


Promotional shot for the Cutest Little Boy in the World contest. Let's be honest, he'd totally win.


Smiley Ezra.


And finally, Gangsta Ez.
Or sleepy Ezra, depending on how you look at it...and depending on what neighborhood we're driving through.