Dance Dance Revolution

My new mission is to get a quick video of Easy-E dancing.  It's so ridiculously adorable, but I'm not even sure Jordan has witnessed it yet.  He's only starting to stand on his own for a few seconds at a time now, so the dancing takes place as he's hanging on to something or, often, bent over at his toy basket.  Really more of a consistent-knee-bending-set-to-whatever-music -is-playing, but holy hell...is it cute :-)

Since I don't yet have video evidence of his newfound skill, here's some pictures from yesterday to hold you over -- 

Backwards baseball cap, hip t-shirt over a thermal, distressed jeans, my car keys -- he's one, going on seventeen :( 

This one is just here to show you how much he looks like a little boy these days.  The hair, the crotch-grabbing, the "I'm ignoring you, Mom" face...

Ezra, the Paletero.

Here's a video of Ez.  He likes to push around this toy and I swear, it looks like one of those ice cream carts that you see being pushed around at the park.

So, we call him Mr. Paletero.  He likes it :)

Mama!

That's right, folks...E-Z said his first (intentional, intelligible) word!  He's been babbling for months now, saying long strings of mamamamamamamas and dadadadadadadas and babababababas.  I feel like he's said a few things here & there but I'm never 100% sure that he means it...

But last night, he looked at me, put his arms out for me and said very clearly, "Mama!  Mama!"

And I promptly melted.

Earlier that same day, he also signed "dog" for the first time, also intentionally & intelligibly :)  He's highly proficient at signing "milk," and has his own bastardized version of "all done."  He also tries mimicking me when I sign "mama," but his thumb always goes straight to his mouth instead ;-)  He recognizes "diaper", "more", "water" and "food" as well, but doesn't sign them yet.

Here's a picture I snapped of him last night...while he should have been sleeping.  Notice all the toys around him and the general awake-ness.  Kid doesn't like to sleep during normal hours.

But he still said Mama ;-)

What happens when...

...Ez speed-crawls into the kitchen to play in the dog's water dish?  

He goes from this cute, dressed, very dry kid, playing with his toes 

...to this...

Consequences, people.  

Yes, his shirt was soaked.

Yes, he had too much fun splashing in the water.

Yes, he squealed when I picked him up & away from the wet mess.

Yes, he'll likely do it again tomorrow.

And yes.  I will laugh right along with him when he does it again :)

Ezra's 1st Birthday Party...Part Deux!

Finally, here's the rest of the pictures from Ez's birthday party last weekend -- 

Here's some party-goers enjoying a little grub...

I tried to come up with clever names for some of the food -

aaand another one...

One of Ezra's friends, looking adorable in her cowboy hat :)

Ezra doing a little present-opening.  It lasted through the opening of this one truck - which caused him to become completely fixated on it's wheels, thus making him oblivious to anything else in the world for the next 25 minutes.

I loved the way that Claire was inspecting his clothes while he continued to inspect his truck.

Sonny was my party-favor-wearing-MVP!

I imagine the conversation here to be this...
Gavin:  I think you're looking at a couple days worth of labor here, just for the brakes alone, buddy.
Ezra:  Hmmm, I don't know.  Maybe I'll take it next door for another opinion.  I don't think she's running that bad yet to warrant such an extensive overhaul...

All of the kids got in on the present-opening experience.  It was a baby-palooza.

Claire was helping Ezra use his brand new "laptop."

Ez made this face a lot.

Here it is again.  I think he was blowing spit bubbles.

He's such a happy boy.  He loved his birthday party SO much :)

Clearly, I was more excited about taking this picture...

It's Tickle-Me-Ezra!!

Farmer Sonny!

Ezra was in such a good mood, he even let Sebastian hold him for awhile.  Trust me when I tell you, this was definitely a picture-worthy moment.

Farmer Desmond!

Farmer Claire...with a mouth full of food ;-)

And finally, my sleepy boy.  He signed milk, so I fed him and he promptly fell asleep.  He had so much fun and was SUCH a good boy.  I'm so proud of my little 1-year old!