Drumming
In an effort to not repeat everything from Caleb’s site I will not retell the whole story of how we got the drum in our house. In short Dustin just got his snare drum back and has started playing in worship at a friends church. The boys love having the drum here and love it when Dad pulls it out and lets them play on it. Ezra has not played a real drum before (unlike Caleb at his age). He get so excited when Dustin mentions it. It is so fun to watch him play. He goes to town on it. Soon I hope to have a video up so you can see how cute it all is. Anyway last Sunday Dustin played at the church and I took the boys to watch him practice. Ezra was very captivated by the whole thing. It was loud first of all and that was kinda fun for him. But then to see his dad up in front playing drums was really a cool thing to him. Our friend also played the bass that night and Ezra thought it was fantastic to see the guitar and the drums in the same place. He just sat on my lap and pointed as they played. He loved it!! It was the first time he had see Dustin play.
Bouncy House
As you know a few years ago we bought a bouncy house to help expend the energy out of Caleb during the long winters in Montana. Ezra now gets to partake in that fun as well. He has been quite timid with the big thing as the fan is very loud and as it blows up it looks a bit scary to see a huge loud thing growing in our living room. However in the last month he has discovered that it has a door and that he can get in and out as he pleases. So now he loves to play in it though as it is blowing up he likes to be in the safety of his bed where it is not so loud and he does not watch it blow up. I was finally able to get some pictures of the boys playing.
On another note, Ezra’s vocabulary is growing! It is so fun. Each day there are new words coming out. He often surprises me with the what he says and what he knows that I have not heard him say before. I am really loving that though he is not saying sentences, he is very good at getting me to understand what he is saying. For example he will say ‘Beebah’ and then after I have repeated it he will say ‘ooool’ (school in Ezra language). He is telling me that we are going to get Caleb from School. What a joy he is to have around. He also knows a good number of body parts and can tell you what they are or point to them. My favorite at the moment is eyebrows and elbows. He has just stopped them confused. They sound a bit similar so he would often point to his eyebrow when I asked him where his elbow was. He is learning animals and color names right now as well. He calls all colors purple. Not sure why since he can say some of the other colors but that is always his default. I am sure there are other facts about him but for now that will do.
Scrunchy Face
Ezra has started doing this face that I like to call his scrunchy face. it is so cute. Of course I say that about most things that my kids do. He is usually at the table when he does it and always shakes his head back and forth while doing the face. I had to share the pictures with everyone as I know you will love them too.
Forts!
IF you have already seen Caleb’s website then this is a bit of a repeat. However I wanted to share Ezra’s side of the fun too. We have made a few forts in the last few weeks at our house. Ezra has not had a lot of exposure to forts and thought this was great fun. The first time we made a fort on the couch he thought that was really awesome and loved that he could get in and out of it. I thought I would post a few pictures of how cute he is.
Fun With Spaghetti
Both the boys love noodles plain so the other day that is what we had for lunch. They were having so much fun that I had to capture some of it. They are just so cute!!
Little Mischief
Unfortunately I do not have a picture for this one so I will try to paint a mental picture for you. Two days ago Caleb and I had to go downstairs to switch the laundry. Ezra was upstairs during that time which was not unusual. As I am doing what needs to be done down stairs I am keeping my ears open to hear what Ezra might be up to. It was very quiet upstairs and I was a little suspicious of what he may be up to. However I figured there was nothing dangerous that he could get into so I finished what I was doing. A few minutes later I came back upstairs to find Ezra standing on a chair at the dining table. He looked up at me with the big smile of a new discovery and pride in what he had done. As I quickly surveyed the scene I noticed that there was something all over the table. I then quickly realized that he had gotten the salt shaker, taken the lid off and poured it all over the table, chair and floor around where he was standing. I of course got him down from the table and cleaned up the mess trying not to laugh the whole time.
Botanical Gardens
Ok these posts are really out of order, I am sorry for that. However it is all so cute that I have to share it. Shortly before Christmas we went to see the botanical gardens in Belleview (about 20 minutes from where we live). I have never been in the summer though I am sure it is beautiful. During the Christmas season they make the gardens out of christmas lights. So we went at night to see the lights. We had to get all bundled up to stay warm. It was a great experience. The kids loved it! Not only were there flowers out of lights but they also did animals. As we went in we got a check list of all the the animals that we had to look for. Ezra loved the whole thing, though at the end I let him get out of the stroller and walk a bit. He really liked getting close to the light and tried to smell the flowers. The boys looked so cute all bundled up that I wanted to share the story.
Painting
Ezra had his first experience painting the other day. We have not pulled out the paints in a long time so he has not even really seen it. So I gave him a water color page and a paint brush. He was not totally sure what to do with it but he had fun trying. It was really cute to watch him. I really just want to share pictures with everyone so I thought I would throw this in.
Me Too Mom!
The other day Caleb needed some discipline. Shortly after I was done with Caleb Ezra walked up to me with a spoon and turned around. He then went to his room for a time out. It was so funny that he was so into getting the some discipline that Caleb got. Another day Ezra was having some issues sharing. I asked him if he needed to go to his room for an attitude adjustment. he looked at me, said yes and walked to his room. Not that he always does that but I thought it was so cute! It is really hard to follow through with the discipline when he does something like that.
Christmas
Christmas around our house was fairly relaxed. Christmas eve we let the boys open one gift that was for both of them. It was a soccer set. It has a soft ball and a small net. Both boys loved it. Ezra has not had much practice kicking so his version is basically walking up and pushing it with his foot. It was very cute to watch. Christmas morning Ezra was excited to see the gift laying out and was excited but I am not sure if he really understood. He had fun opening his gifts. It was the first year that he realized what was going on. He loves having the Christmas tree lights on, going out to look at christmas lights, and the christmas music. It has been so fun to experience the season with him this year. As a fun christmas update, we went to look at christmas lights a couple weeks before christmas. We got the kids in their jammies, got blankets to cover them up in the car, got hot chocolate for everyone, and drove around to look at christmas lights. Everyone had a great time. Ezra really had a great time watching for them. Every time he would see lights (which in one neighborhood was every house) he would look out and say and enthusiastic ‘WOW!’
In other fun Ezra news, his vocabulary is growing every day! Each day there are words that he pulls out or repeats from hearing us say them. He is also saying phrases now as well. Like ‘come on’ and big truck (’gig guck’). Dustin and I were talking the other day about how he says certain words. Some of them are so funny. For example he can say open but he says it ‘abone’. Oatmeal is ‘omniom’. Raisins is ‘isies’. There are some words that are understandable to anyone, like block, book, two, eat, bye bye.... He is so fun to be around. He definitely knows how to get his point across, and let you know what he wants. He is also very good at letting us know if Caleb is doing something that he does not like. He does that quit often! I have to be careful to make sure I don’t place all the blame on Caleb. Most of the time Ezra is just more vocal. He is also very animated. The other day he looked at me while he was standing in the kitchen said, ‘un’ and pumped his arms back and forth like he was running. He of course was saying that he wanted to run but he had to do the motion with it.
