Two Things

Two things that make me happy...
Sunny days that were made for line-drying and sunning diapers

 and a napping Ezra

I'd like to add that Easy-E is currently welcoming his first two teeth!  My kid, the overachiever, decided that if one tooth is good, two is even better.  I'm so proud of him - he doesn't seem bothered by the new additions to his cute little mouth, beyond a few seconds of fussiness here and there.  Clove oil and lots of snuggles & snacks help ;-)

6 Months!

6 months.  1/2 a year.

Really?  It's simply unbelievable that Ezra is already 6 months old.  I'm seriously having a hard time comprehending this.

So, what's so great about Ezra these days?  Well, I'll tell ya...

He's got the best laugh.  Really.  It's beyond cute and he'll break it out for just about anything.
He's so happy and unnaturally easy going.
He sits up all by himself.
He is starting the process of learning to crawl.  <----OhMaGod.
He loves bathtime.  With a passion.
He's got 2 teeth coming in and is taking it like a champ.  You'd never know he had these brand new chompers if he didn't bite you.
He makes me melt into a giant puddle of goo every day.  
He's really good at snuggling.
He absolutely loves to jump.  Pretty sure it's his favorite thing right now.
He's so ticklish on his back and sides.  Instant laughter.
He wakes up every single morning smiling.
He's intrigued by dogs.
He attracts people everywhere he goes.  It's insane how we can't go anywhere without people needing to talk to him and be near him.
He loves playing with his Dad.
He makes me fall in love with him a million times a day.
He's beyond amazing and I tell him every day.


Here's some pictures we snapped of him.  Full disclosure -- they were taken at 6 months + 1 week.  I packed his 6-month sticker for his onesie in a bag that I decided to leave at home at the last minute.  I really kind of hate myself for this, since I've been really good about taking all of his monthly pictures on the correct day so far.  Just for fun, the one at the end was taken on this real 6 month birthday.  He does look bigger after just one week, doesn't he?!

Unpacking

Unpacking is the worst.

On the bright side, my mother is awesome and washed all Ezra's diapers and all of our clothes the morning we left.  That makes life SO much easier.  Now if only she could fly here to help me put every little thing away ;-)
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The dogs seemed moderately pleased to see me and Ez last night.  I think they were just as excited to see Jordan, so maybe they didn't even realize we were gone.  You know, aside from the near constant (loving) assault from Easy-E and the long, leisurely walks around the neighborhood.

I've come to the conclusion that Ezra was meant to travel.  The kid is amazing on flights, makes friends with everyone around him, sleeps, plays & eats like a champ.  Seriously, women come up to us in the bathroom after the flight to tell me that until they saw him, they had no idea he was even there & how great of a traveller he is.

My kid is made of awesome.

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Here's some pictures I took while we were in MD that I haven't shared yet.  Editing on my own computer is about 93% easier.  I <3 mac.

Ez has been chewing on everything...including my camera cord.

Here's my boy, all cozied up for another shopping trip with Grandma!

Here's a cute picture of my very good friends, Adam & Lorianne, little girl.  She was just too cute - so rambunctious, snuggly & smiley.

And these are just a few of the pictures I took while cruising around Southern Maryland.  You know, growing up, I didn't think much of the old, sometimes very run-down barns throughout the county.  Now, I find them incredibly charming.

Bedtime

Being on the east coast, I decided to take advantage of the time difference.  I've maintained the beginning of the bedtime routine at about 7pm.  Granted, he's not asleep until 1am most nights, but he's at least getting up around 9:30. 

I'm hoping this keeps up when we get back home...I'd much rather be enjoying some Ezra-in-the-morning-time rather than Ezra-at-2am-time. 

Here's a few shots from bedtime a couple nights ago...

He looks rather defiant here, huh?

But defiance doesn't get you too far once you fall over.

Then it was happy-screaming-time.

Check out those rosy cheeks!  They go perfectly with the TWO bottom teeth that have poked their way through those poor little gums of his :) 

In all seriousness, this kid is taking teething like a champ.  He has an occasional 3-second squeal at random times during the night, but he doesn't even fully wake up for it & he's back to snoozin' away.  So, if you're keeping score, it's Ezra 1, Teeth 0.

That's my boy.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Maryland is rainy.

I managed to forget that little bit of information when packing for this impromptu little trip.  Flip-flops in March?  Yeah, only in SoCal apparently.

It is nice to see rain and not be worried that half of your city is going to end up flipping out on the freeway because of it. 

So, we made it here relatively unscathed.  Ez did have a bit of a freak out for about 2 minutes at the beginning of our cross-county journey.  I swear to you, every passenger within a 6 seat radius turned to stare as he was shrieking.  Thanks a lot, a-holes. 

No, but really, he had that minor outburst and that was it.  The two guys I was sandwiched between (yep, we missed family-boarding & got stuck in a middle seat) were awesome.  They played with him, talked to him, and one of them even offered to be my bodyguard should any of the other passengers get pissy (when Ez was freaking out).  Nice guy.  He had some grandbabies of his own and he was more than happy to help me entertain Ez when he woke up.

Oh, one of my bags (the one with all my clothes & Ez's diapers) went to Newark.  I got it 2 days later.  While Southwest customer service was pretty great, the local guys that I had to deal with to find my bags -- a little less than stellar.  Actually, they weren't that bad - just impossible to get ahold of.  And when you have 8 diapers, you need to get someone on the horn, you know? 

But hey, at least I didn't have to pay for my bags, right?  I'm looking at you, all other major airlines except for Southwest and JetBlue ;-)
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Guess who came over to visit?  That's right, kids.  Angela!

She even stuck around for bathtime & coconut oil massage time! 

And just for fun, here's Mango.  Notice that her eyes go in opposite directions.  The dog's not right.

And here's a quick shot of me and Ez the day after we got here. 

Happy St, Patrick's Day!

I almost forgot to share these!  I took them this afternoon when Mini-Man was starting to get a little tired - hence the distracted look & absence of smiles.  Even still, my little gingery leprechaun was adorable :)

Something tells me he was less than thrilled to be wearing Brodie's hat.

He really liked the grass.

A lot.

Then he started tipping over, so we went inside for a snack & a nap.

The end.

Call me crazy

(I'll preface this by saying that whatever we might experience here isn't even a drop in the bucket compared to the devastation our neighbors in Japan are experiencing.  Not even worthy of a comparison.)

I'm a chiropractor, I've been called worse ;-)

We turned on the news last night and heard about that lovely plume headed our way from the reactor in Japan.  It'll be over SoCal by Friday evening.  So, I booked a flight for me & Ez for Friday morning to DC/MD.

Go ahead, call me crazy.  I'm just not willing to let Easy-E be exposed, even if it's minor, if there's something I can do about it.  And thanks to my mother, a last-minute trip to MD is the thing we're doing about it.

Jordan & the dogs are all set to hunker down for a day while it's at it's worst.  They're also ready to drive eastward toward my brother's place, should something else happen.

I know some reports say that it'll be dispersed to nothing by the time it reaches the west coast.  Other reports are saying it'll be hanging out here for a couple days while dispersing over our beautiful city.  I'd rather err on the side of crazy caution and go ahead and get Ezra outta town for awhile.

So that's where that is.

In other news, I've got some pictures of Mini-Man from the past few days that are just itching to be shared :)

Bathtime Laughs

Here's a video we shot last night during bathtime.  Ezra was cracking up at Jordan...

Sunday Funday!

I have nothing new to say - so here's a bunch of pictures of our day at the zoo today.  

Yes, I went back to the zoo.  

On a weekend.  

A sunny, warm weekend.  

I'm pretty sure half of San Diego was there today.  

Holy.Crap.

Here's me and Ez, you know, hanging out with our friends - the giraffes.  

This guy was just walking around like he owned the place.  

Seriously.  This guy's arms are SO long.

As soon as he woke up, the thumb went directly into his mouth.  He's such a stinker :)

Nothing significant about the tree.  It was just pretty against such a gorgeous blue sky.

Ez was fascinated by the turtles!  This makes me (a fellow turtle lover) very, very happy :)

He's all, "Look, Ma!  Turtles!  Look at the turtles, Ma!  Look!"

This one was just too cute not to share...

And these were just really pretty.  They're not at the zoo, they're at my house.  I love San Diego.  

Dog Parks & Stolen Sandwiches

Today's venture out was to the dogpark.  Brodie did really well today, aside from the enthusiastic humping of a rather cute pitbull.  But really, that dog was getting it from all directions - can't really blame Bro for jumping in on the action ;-)

Ezra seems to really like it there, too.  He loves dogs.  Thinks they're hilarious.  This is good because it gives me a break from having to make fart noises and silly faces all day long.

Here's a shot of Jordan & Brodie playing ball.

Mister Man likes his sunglasses.  Thankfully.

Me & my little man.

Gah, this kid turns me to goo.

Here's my cutie back in the car.  He likes to talk and I caught him, mid - O.

This sign recently went back up at a nearby apartment building.  The worst part about it is that it was up for several months last year, then replaced with one that actually had correct spelling...and now it's back. Makes me giggle every time I see it.

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Because I happened to take a picture of it before I devoured it, I'll share this little gem with you.

We've become hooked on the awesome sandwiches at one particular super-cute little sandwich shop near Jordan's office.  And though I'd love to be able to patronize this adorable shop daily (the owners are really sweet), it would put a hurtin on the wallet.  So we decided to make one of our favorites at home and I'm here to tell you, it turned out almost identical.  Aside from the difference in bread and the unfortunate oversight of forgetting avocado slices, I really couldn't tell the difference.  Plus, it's really pretty :)

Here's what this simple masterpiece is comprised of:

2 pieces of quality bread, toasted

1 thick slice of cheese (pepper jack or fontina both work really well)

3-4 Tbsp hummus

1/4 c. sprouts

1/4 red pepper, sliced

1/4 cucumber, sliced

1/4 red cabbage, thinly sliced

5-6 grape tomatoes, sliced in half

1/3-1/4 avocado, sliced

6-10 picked jalapeno slices

a small handful of baby spinach

Smash it all together and you've got yourself some good eats.  You're welcome.

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Oh, and we are officially on "First Tooth Watch, 2011!"  Ez has amped up the drooling & biting to go along with his shiny new white, swollen bump on his gum :) 

Sunny days are made for the zoo

Ez and I spent the afternoon at the zoo today.  The weather was absolutely perfect and we got to see a lot of the animals that are normally sleeping each and every time that we visit.  Well, I got to see them...Ezra fell asleep while we were checking out the elephants.  I was about to have someone get a picture of us when I realized he was already snoozing, so here's a shot of just the elephants instead.

Have no fear, I have other pictures of Ezra.  It's really a wonder my camera hasn't gone on strike yet.

I don't think I shared this one with the rest of the bunch it was taken with, but it's just too cute not to.  He looks like he just saw Santa, Mickey Mouse and Sofia Vergara all at once.  Plus, he's about to rip out two fistfulls of Jordan's hair...and that's funny, right?

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I like to take pictures of food.  Blame it on my love for Ree Drummond, aka, Pioneer Woman.

I absolutely love portabella (or portobello, if you prefer) burgers.  LOVE.  This intense love is mostly due to the usual gobful of feta cheese piled on top.  Because half of what I needed for these lovelies was on sale at Henry's, I decided to add them to the menu this past week.  SO happy I did.  Oh, and they were so good, we had 'em twice :)

Go ahead, be jealous.  

(That's not neon yellow cheese you see there, it's a roasted yellow bell pepper.  I mean, really.  Give me some credit.)

Jamaica anyone?

So apparently, finding a comparable place to where we've been living, closer to Jordan's work, just isn't that easy.  Sure, we've found A LOT of places.  Then we find out that the owner will only allow one dog or they don't have washer/dryer hookups or they have a single closet for the whole place.  All of those, by the way, are deal-breakers.  We got completely spoiled in Dallas with our big apartment, huge closets and (oh my, do I miss these...) garden tubs.  But then, we had to live in Texas.  So...yeah.

We're coming to terms with the idea of staying here for a little while longer.  I think we're going to have to rethink our storage situation, put up some more shelves, and generally move some stuff around.  I just can't believe I'm going to have to gear up for another summer in the hottest house ever.  Seriously, this place is unnervingly hot.  It'll be a warm 85 degrees outside -- then you walk inside my house and BAM! it's like 98 degrees.  For serious, yo.
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On a much happier note - we've had some incredible weather this week.  Ez and I have spent more time than usual outside, walking the dogs, walking to the grocery store, anything to be outside.  Ah, walking to the grocery store...this means walking by Laylah's, the Jamaican food place.  The whole block smells like Negril when they've got the doors open.  Makes me want to go back now.  So, on that note, I'll leave you with these photos from November '09...

A shot at Tensing Pen - the most beautiful resort.  Ever.  Unplugged, minimalistic, perfect.

Jordan enjoying a little street food at Leroy's.  A little scary, yes, but it was awesome.  These folks can cook.  

Me and Jordan jumping off the bridge at Tensing Pen. 30 feet gives you a long time to think about how much water is going to shoot up your nose when you hit the water ;-)  That will not stop you from doing it over and over again.  Promise.

Me and Jordan at Mayfield Falls.  The water was SO clean and clear.  And COLD.  Holy crap it was cold.  But beyond gorgeous.

A shot of the bridge from the water.

Ah, Jamaica. Can.not.wait.to.go.back.

Oh, and because I simply cannot not show off my handsome little man, here he is...