Saturday, April 30, 2011

A Jumping Lesson

I was on the phone with my mother yesterday while Ezra was jumping away in his Jumperoo.  She was a little unclear on what exactly this crazy contraption is.  Considering I'm her youngest, I suppose I can give her a pass on this one.  Sure, similar toys were available at the time, but everyone knows that the second (and ultimately last) child doesn't get new toys of their own.  Goodness, no.

So, Mom...this is a Jumperoo.  The Fisher Price Precious Planet Jumperoo, to be exact.  Oh, and Ezra.


To answer your question, Yes, it's like the Johnny Jumper that I had.  Except it's free-standing and doesn't require a doorway.  See the round base?  It was the 3 pillars that hold the jumper by springs.  Those are "make-Ezra-jump-and-squeal-with-laughter" springs.  

Here's an example of why they are so named:

He's mid-jump there.  You can tell by his hair ;-)


He's mid-squeal here.  You can tell by his mouth and flailing arms ;-)

And for the rest of you, who already knew what a Jumperoo looked like, here's a cute picture of the boy.  Just for funsies.


That smile.

Gah.  

Gets me every time.





Friday, April 29, 2011

Cowboy Up!

Guess whose favorite show is back on May 26th??

No, it's not Ezra.  It's me.  And it's So You Think You Can Dance.

Dude.  Best.Show.Ever.

I hope you're all ready.  I know I am.  I mean, Mary Murphy is back - which is good for two reasons: I like her & wanted her back AND Mia Michaels can go back to choreographing.  Plus, they may or may not be bringing Alex (the man tore his achilles during a rehearsal last season) back for another shot this season.  It's going to be awesome.
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Ez has started waking up a little earlier lately.  I had to wake his little butt up for the Great Cloth Diaper Change last weekend and since then, we've stayed at least an hour earlier than our old wake-up time.  Progress, people.  Progress.

Because of the earlier wake-up calls, he's been going to sleep a little earlier too.  Some nights he still wakes up for about an hour of serious play-time around 10pm, but other nights he's out after bathtime-and-coconut-oil-massage-time-followed-by-milk-and-snuggle-time and stays out.  So, we're getting there.
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I'm really wanting to make this chai concentrate.  I think I'll try remembering how badly I want to make it the next time I'm at the grocery store.  Or, better yet, shortly before I'm at the store...so I can not forget some super-important ingredient.  Sounds like a plan.
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Awhile back, Ezra scored a couple adorable outfits from my dear friend Jenna.  Ez is finally big enough to rock his holy-crap-it's-so-cute, pearl-snapped, plaid Wrangler onesie.  He's a cowboy, baby :)



Also, Ezra would like you all to know that he has tried - and very much enjoyed - peas.  I know, it's big news ;-)



Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Randoms

A couple weeks ago, we watched Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price.  If you have the chance to watch it, you must.

Eye-opening doesn't even begin to describe the film.  We've maintained a good distance from the store over the years but occasionally will succumb to the low, low, bargain-basement prices.

Not anymore.  It's sad and very, very scary how this mega-giant works to squeeze out small business, treat employees with as little respect as possible and ultimately suck the life out of every community it can get it's stores into.

Here's the trailer.

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Here's a couple pictures from bathtime a few days ago.  He was giving me some cute looks :)



And here he is playing with one of his music toys.  He loves it.  I, on the other hand, hear this thing when it's not even playing.  


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We're working on replacing the shed this week.  What this really means is that my house and backyard are littered with things from the old shed.  I decided that since a lot of those boxes are full of things we haven't seen, and therefore haven't needed, since we moved here 2 years ago...it's time to do a little purging.  We threw out or donated probably 1/4 of the stuff and the rest is still being reorganized.  I love purging.  I'll love it all even more once the new shed is up & built...and I have my house back ;-)


Sunday, April 24, 2011

Easter!

I finished dying and prettying up the eggs this morning.  I think they turned out awesome.  Sure, they took approximately 29 times longer than the prepackaged dyes, my kitchen temporarily qualified as a disaster area and Ezra would've been just as happy had I given him an empty box to play with...but hey, it was fun.  Seriously, it was a lot of fun seeing what colors you can get out of different veggies and spices.

And here's Ez outside with his eggs.  It only took about 25 seconds before my choice to not use artificial dyes was validated.  Ezra seemed to really enjoy mouthing the spinach and turmeric-dyed eggs the most :)





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Lately he's just been all-out refusing to smile for the camera, so I had to sneak-attack.  







Saturday, April 23, 2011

A Saturday of world records and natural dyes

He just turned 7 months and he's already helping set world records.

This morning, Ezra and I participated in the Great Cloth Diaper Change.  We're talking, Guinness World Record here, people.  In honor of Earth Day, over 10,000 babies (with the help of their diaper-changers), in over 400 locations in 20 different countries had their tiny little tushies placed in a cloth diaper - simultaneously!  At the USD location, we had 34 babies counted toward the record :)

The host mentioned that in the time we would be changing our kids' diapers, 3000 disposables would be put into landfills...in San Diego.  Alone.  Wow.  Think about that the next time you pass the disposables at the grocery store.

Yay for cloth diapers and yay for world records!

Here's the only picture I managed to take while we were there.  It was immediately after the change.  As in, he didn't have his pants on yet ;-)  Sadly, I could've taken this photo anywhere, anytime.  You're just going to have to trust me on this one.




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I then spent some of my afternoon and evening dying eggs.  I couldn't see myself using the technicolor stuff that comes in nifty little packets (just add water & vinegar!).  Though I've used and loved that kind for as long as I can remember, I thought it was time to bring my philosophy on processed, ready-made goodies to this area.  While I do adore some of these things, I'm trying to make them less present in my life.

So, when I saw a link to this lovely blog on PW's Cooking page, I decided to try a few homemade dyes. With the guidance of that awesome post, some help from my good friend Google, and too many YouTube videos...I had my plan.

Beets, spinach, turmeric, red cabbage, and red onion skins with pomegranate tea.  Each mixed with a healthy dose of white vinegar.  You can imagine the strange and far-from-wonderful smells wafting through my place today.

I'll post pictures of them tomorrow.


Friday, April 22, 2011

7 Months!

Mini-Man is 7 months old today!!



He's been in a pretty good mood today, though you wouldn't know it from the pictures.  Not much for smiles when the camera is out today ;-)  Rest assured, the kid is happy.  He's had play time, nap time, chow time, naked time, naked play time, pull the dogs ears and tails time, more play time and even more chow time.  He's pleased.  Well, except here...

He pulled out the pissy-fussypants for a minute, but quickly returned to the normal, happy kid I've become accustomed to.

Here's some we took outside, since it's insanely beautiful today.  Really though, it's San Diego.  It's pretty much the land of awesome all the time.




That last one cracks me up.  Man, he's cute.

Let's recap what Easy-E has been up to this past month, shall we?

He's still becoming mobile.  Not yet crawling, but scooting and pulling himself around.  Lots of spinning in circles. And backwards scooting is fun.
He's got 2 front bottom teeth and they are alarmingly sharp.
He's got some great happy-screams.
Still a lover of bathtime.
He's tried bananas, apples, carrots, sweet potatoes and avocado.  His favorites?  Bananas and apples.
He's increasingly interested in musical things - be it actual musical toys or just banging on my pots & pans or making fart sounds.
Speaking of farts, he lets 'em rip every morning about 45 minutes before he wakes up.  It's how I know we're going to be getting up soon...kinda like an alarm clock, but cuter.  Still wakes up every single day smiling.
He's amazing.  Just amazing.  And so happy.
I adore him.




Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Hop on Pop

Here's a video of Jordan and Ez from the other day.  Ez was starting to get a little fussy & I was thisclose to  being done making dinner...so Jordan was charged with making the kid happy.  And he succeeded :)  Oh, and I'm going to try to not take video in the vertical anymore.  I keep forgetting that I can't flip it.  Forgive me.


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I made Pioneer Woman's Vegetable Lasagna 2 days ago.  It's awesome.  It's actually still awesome, as we are still eating leftovers today.

I know, it's just lasagna.  But for veggie lasagna, it's super-good.  Every other time I've made it (using other recipes...or no recipe at all, mostly), it's been really soupy/watery.  This one was perfect.  I could've actually used more sauce, that is, if my casserole dish could've handled it.  

To conclude - it's delicious & you should make it.  

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Boogers and Earth Day Fair!

I'll admit it.

I take immense pleasure in retrieving boogers from Ezra's tiny little nose.  Like, I seriously take it as a personal challenge and revel in the actual removal.  It's such a gratifying moment.  Sometimes I feel a little cheated if he sneezes one out.

Man.  I'm lame.

I've used my fingers, suction bulbs, tweezers (only when he's sleeping & the boogies are right there), and the Nose Frida.  The bulb never worked.  Ever.  Tweezers + sleeping Ez feels like I'm playing that game, Operation.  He used to just have a slight distaste for the Frida.  Now, it's a full-on hatred.  He squirms, rolls, squeals his pissy-squeal.  It's a struggle.  But it is SO worth it.
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We went to the Earth Day Fair today in Balboa Park.  The weather was beautiful, parking was surprisingly easy, and the fair was great.  Lots of people.  Lots.  Thankfully, Jordan didn't turn into the Hulk and start body checking people.  I did get flat-tired...while Ez was on my back.  I didn't realize someone could walk that close to me when he's on my back.  Apparently I was wrong.

Here's me and Ez with some flowers and the organ pavilion in the background.

I have no idea what this had to do with Earth Day.  To be honest, I didn't really care enough to walk around to the front of the booth to find out.  It was on the edge of the kid's area...which we determined to be far too full of kids for us to enter ;-)  The way we saw it, we'll be in there next year, and every year after that.  This would likely be the last year that Ez would be too young to enjoy it.

We walked across to the rose gardens - which are amazing this time of year.

Jordan wasn't as quick as Ezra was -- Ez managed to wrangle himself a bit of rose to sample :)

He liked looking at the roses...and not at the camera.

The kid was intrigued.

And finally, here's me and the baby formally known as Spork at last year's Earth Day Fair - 

And this year...
(It was taken in the same spot but from a different angle.  Ez wouldn't take his eyes off the fountains and kids playing in the water - so this was the only way we could get his sweet little face!)










Friday, April 15, 2011

Chowdah

It was 3:30 and I had nothing planned for dinner.  Hell, I hadn't even given it a thought until just then.  Jordan had the car and I was not in the mood to hoof it 1.5 miles each way with Ez to the grocery store.

I went to TastyKitchen and the first Featured Recipe was this Santa Fe Corn Chowder.  I checked the ingredients and I had everything.  Right down to the giant bag of organic frozen sweet corn in my freezer.  Yeah, it was a good price at Costco.  Shut up.

So I made it.  It was about the fastest soup I've ever made.  And it was really great.  I used vegetable broth, obviously, and cayenne pepper instead of chili powder.  Remember when I said I had all the ingredients?  I forgot about that one.  Turned out awesome with the cayenne.  Do it.
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I mentioned at some point that we'd mostly settled on Grandma El's Diaper Cream as our (re: Ezra's) butt cream.  Then I found CJ's BUTTter.  I love this.  It has no petroleum in it, which is nasty stuff & I have a hard time understanding why it's even used anymore.  It's soft and smooth and awesome for his sensitive little tush.  I got him the unscented, obviously, but I'm thinking of getting myself one of the scented ones -- because they sound so great and I've been using this stuff on my own hands/elbows/etc.  So, if you're in the market for something like this, give it a shot.
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Here's Mister Man today.  He's been fighting sleep for the past few days, so this face on that I've come to see a lot.


But eventually, he succumbed to the power of milk & snuggles.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Apples & Ezras

Guess who likes apples??




Blended up with some of Ezra's favorite beverage, the kid seems to enjoy it!  He likes to guide the spoon to his mouth himself, which leads to a lot of apple all over him, in his hands, etc - but since this is really just for fun anyway, I'm all for him learning :)

He's also started to scoot backwards...on his belly.  Not quite the reverse-crawl, as he's still not up on his knees.  Just kind of a new way to get to something he wants.  It goes well with the belly-spin, which he's had mastered for awhile now.

Today he rolled and spun himself over to Brodie, who was sitting next to Jordan wagging his tail on the ground.  Ez wanted some of that awesomely furry tail, so he took his little tushy right over and had a ball trying to catch it as Brodie tried his hardest to wag it away from Ez.  Yeah, good luck with that.  One day, they'll be best friends.  Until then, I think it's Ez's mission in life to terrorize them with his gorilla-like grip ;-)  Oh, and laugh hysterically at them when they play.

Here's a couple pics of Mini-Man from the past couple days.

Frank, it was ON the cart-path.  Why don't you try reading the rules, shankapotomous.  (Remember that E*trade commercial with the baby and his investor-friend, Frank?  No?  Well here's the link so you know what I'm talking about.)


Here's evidence that Ez has the fastest hands in the west...


And once again, Happy-Scream-Time!


Then it was time to read eat a book.


And here he is after he fell over and had no desire to get up.  At least he was surrounded by a hundred of his most favorite toys.



And this is something that you may find gross.  I thought it was pretty cool, hence the pictures.


Up close, it's even cooler.


I went to use some bell peppers I'd stored in the fridge 2 days ago.  Turns out, I didn't properly seal the lid to the pyrex and some icy, spiky, awesome mold grew on them.  Seriously, it was really pretty - so I took a couple quick pics before I tossed them.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Watch This / Dogpark Day!

Because I like to have something on while Ez is napping & I'm folding laundry, etc, I have been known to seek out the help of Netflix.  I've recently come across some great stuff that, if you aren't already a fan, you ought to check out ASAP.  Like, now.

Parking Wars -- This one follows the Philadelphia Parking Authority's 3 main parts - Ticketing, Booting & Impound.  I know what you're thinking...The PPA?  What is is interesting about the PPA?  Well, for starters, it's hilarious.  Second, the people are awesome...Garfield and Sherry are my favorite.  And third, it makes you realize just how stupid and ignorant some people can be.

Glee -- I tried watching a bit of this show on/off since it started.  I just couldn't get into it.  Then I got bored and decided to start from Episode 1 and really give it a shot.  I'm so happy I did!  Great show, super cute, and the actors are perfect.  I've loved Jane Lynch for awhile now and even if you have a tough time getting into the musical aspect of the show, she's worth it.  Every scene with her in it is gold.

The Pyramid Code -- Excellent show.  Kind of documentary-style, it's all about the secrets and marvels of the Egyptian pyramids.  It's got some really cool info on just how crazy-advanced the ancient Egyptians really were.

Freakonomics -- Not a show, it's a movie, but still worth the quick discussion.  It's got a really interesting look at the world through the eyes of an economist.  Doesn't sound that great, I know, but trust me.  It's definitely worth your time.

Exit Through the Gift Shop -- Again, not a show, it's a documentary.  And it may or may not have been a hoax.  Taken at face value, originally, it was meant to follow some street artists and ultimately, the elusive Banksy.  Throughout the filming process, it became a documentary about the man behind the camera --Thierry Guetta, his obsession with video taping everything, and his overnight rise to fame as the new artist known as MBW (Mister Brainwash).  I think it was also nominated for an Academy Award, as well.  So there.  Check it out.
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I know that even my own mother just skimmed through that.  I'm not operating under any delusions here.

So, today we went to the OB dogpark again.  Brodie likes it there, there's benches, and a fence.  Done.

Here's some pictures we snapped...

Ezra really enjoyed chewing on his hoodie.

But he was all smiles when he saw Brodie playing with his doggie-friends.  Seriously.  Laughing, squealing...this kid loves dogs.

Here's Brodie, taking a rest.

Ezra liked posing for pictures under (and on) this awesomely shady tree.

Dad's hoodie strings were SUPER interesting, too.  And tasty.

After all that excitement, it was time for a nap on the drive home :)







Saturday, April 9, 2011

A Day at the Park

Jordan had a free Saturday - the first in a long while.  Unfortunately, it's unseasonably cool and the weatherman is threatening rain today.  Boo.  I was really hoping to hit the dog beach this weekend.  My fingers are crossed for more compliant weather tomorrow.  Brodie's paws are crossed, too ;-)
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We finally watched Avatar and Happy Feet this past week.  I know, I'm a tad late to the party.  We were only minorly interested in seeing Avatar when it was in theaters, with that glimmer of interest fading until the Netflix fairy delivered it to our door.  Turns out, it was quite good.  I liked it a lot more than I thought I would.  Made me want to watch I Am Legend for the 89th time.

Happy Feet was put off for so long because I'm a huge wuss.  I'd heard that some people got a bit teary-eyed, which means I'm liable to full-on ugly cry.  While some parts were pretty sad and managed to tug at those heartstrings, it was wasn't quite near Lion King/Bambi/Old Yeller - type sad.  Good movie.  Super cute (I mean, who doesn't love penguins??) and funny at times... I think I gave it 4/5 stars.
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We decided to hit the Japanese Friendship Gardens at Balboa Park today.  It turned out to be beautiful out, even if it was a tad windy.

Here's me and Ez making our way to the park.


The small koi pond.

The bonsai deck.


Some koi.  It seems they save the prettiest ones for the Friendship Gardens - they were gorgeous.

Some shots of the gardens




Here's Jordan and Ez, watching some of the street performers.  Our favorite armless guitar-playing guy was there today -- so awesome!



Me and Ezra in the Botanical Room, checking out the flowers.

Ez and Jordan had fun looking at the colors

Ez really liked this one a lot

He LOVED touching it -- it's got thousands of glass pieces/marbles on it - lots of neat things to feel :)


No, we didn't adopt the pretty little girl in the photo.  I was calling Ez's name to get him to look at me for the picture and she kept posing each time.