...And a Partridge in a Pear Tree-Part 1

Wow! This has been such an amazing holiday season for E and his Moms. We celebrated Hannukkah with friends, met the jolly fat man in red, flew East for Christmas, and South for the New year, and here we are at home, recovering and grateful for all of our loved ones and our many adventures. So much generosisty was extended to our family this year. We feel pretty lucky. E has definitely learned what presents are. Lots of little wrapped boxes arrived in his lap through out these past three weeks. He now says "present" farely clearly. And, there are still more gifts coming his way. We thought we would start our many planned posts of the holidays with Hannukkah. Forgive the inability to rhyme. We are a bit jet lagged. Happy New Year Everyone!

On the first night of Hannukkah, my buddies gave to me:
A Thomas engine car, a spinning top, a hebrew alphabet set and lots of latkes to eat.
On the second night of Hannukkah, my aunties gave to me:
A pair of grammy jammies (thanks Charlotte), one Christmas book, a harmonica and one flute to toot(Thanks Christina! And yes, I insist on playing it upside down).


On the third night of Hannukkah, my Mommies gave to me:
One butterfly clicker, a puppet jungle glove and train tracks with cars that go coo coo.

On the fourth night of Hannukkah, my mommies gave to me:
A new Ezra bag that will house my playground snacks, my SIGG water bottle and spare hats and an extra pair of shoes.

On the fifth night of Hannukkah my mommies gave to me:
Lots of kisses under the snowflakes and cranes (ickcakes and canes)and bowl of Tom Yum Kai to ease our icky colds.


On the sixth night of Hannukkah, my Po gave to me:
A set of wooden blocks, the dot game of my dreams, a sharky bath toy, earplugs for my mommies and some really tasty Hawaiian shortbread treats (Thanks Po!).


On the seventh night of Hannukkah, my mommies gave to me:
A strum, strum on the big, big guitar.

On the eighth night of Hannukkah, I gave to my mommies:
30 straight days of pooping in the potty!



And then we packed our bags and flew off to NYC.....to be continued.

Gearing Up For the Holidays

Our family continues to build onto our holiday traditions. We've maintained a few traditions from last year and have introduced a few more. We still have our green and orange stockings made from old sweaters. They are hanging up and have been accepting gifts all year 'round. Momma continues to push the boundries about when we actually give gifts. Apparently, this year we've introduced PRE-Hanukkah gifts. Gotta love her! Her ability to avoid traditional gift-giving Eves is uncanny and makes for lots of entertaining negotiation. We decided not to have a Christmas tree this year and have introduced snowflakes and oragami cranes to our holiday aesthetic. We went a little over the top and hung many snowflakes from the ceiling while E was napping last weekend. He loves them. And, calls them blohplaxk.....he's almost got it, right? ADDENDUM: The new pronunciation for snowflake is Ickcakes!

We will have a little Hannukah party on Friday, and E and his little friends will dance under the snowflakes (ickcakes)and eat latkes and light a candle and sing songs about, um, a winter wonderland clad with menorahs and dreidels and lit trees and giant, jolly, white-bearded men saying ho ho. Then we are off to NY and NC to see those that we love and miss and celebrate more cold winter nights together (the idea of cold may be a bit different than what we've been used to).

Oh yeah, latest interests that have developed for E are:
-moons, stars, and yes, snowflakes
-any form of guitar and drum and his new love, the harmonica
-taxis, trains, buses, garbage trucks
-bagels, bagels, bagels
-music by Justin Roberts
And, lately his favorite video is this one:


Happy snowflake and moon dreams, everyone.

Happy Teeth-Giving

The two-year molars are on their way. They are poking through and after this we are done with teething.....right? He's obviously pretty proud of the current 16.

He's been flashing this beautiful smile to complete strangers lately.

And, occassional expressions of boredom. Or, it could be exhaustion, but us Moms have come to terms that this boy never gets tired. It seems that, as of late, the only expression on our faces is a giant yawn.

A Birthday Wish

MinnoMinnoMinno

We are having so much fun with our 18 month old. What a great age. Every day E learns something new and we moms are regularly grabbing our sides, roaring with laughter.

I mean, really, who could take a t-shirt and watering can and make it so funny? He's checking himself out in the mirror.
And, there's nothing like a good song sung naked in the entry way.
And, we will never get tired of his obsession with trying to draw the moon.
















But our favorite new E song and dance is his love for this classic Sesame Street/Muppets skit, Manamana. He sings MinnoMinnoMinno and we sing the Do Dos. So cute, we can barely stand it.

Napa Fun and Cosmic Graffiti Artists

After a great dance party at Pip Squeak a-go-go and checking out the great all-Dad-band, Timeouts, E was inspired and took his "deetar" to his Aunt Christina's house for a play date with Kobi and Cassidy.
Kobi pulls E and the guitar in the wagon.
Aunt Christina suggested the guitar may be his security blanket. We think she may be right.
He let go of the guitar long enough to play a game of "Bah." "Bah" is a game of fake falling....something E and his friends made up on their own.




It was great to see you all...let's do it again soon, and we promise not to bring quiche.

The week prior, we had the pleasure seeing our traveling lizard friends, Kellie, Greg and Zahra. We layed down three sheets of butcher paper in the kitchen and got out the crayons and let beautiful Zahra and E have at it.

It was great to see this beautiful family. We hope to see them again soon when they travel back through. E and Z get along famously.
Check out our graffiti a week later. Moons, planets and stars everywhere.

Happy Halloween

The part of The Tiger was played this year by Ezra .....grrrrrrrrrr
Did you know that tigers howl at the moon? Well, this one does.
Looking for tiger treats.....
Since E's not yet eating bags of sugary treats, he gets "treated" to doggy kisses from the neighbor dog, Pronto.
Tiger trails to you.....

The Sweet Sounds of Ezra's House

Momma gifted this drum to Ezra last Christmas. Look at our little guy here, just about 8 months old, singing a sweet song....something like, "ga ga."


Well, watch out people, the boy's got a different tune these days.


No commentary needed.













Happy Birthday to Po! This drum's for you.

Pumpkin Time of Year

This will be Ezra's second pumpkin. But, this is the first one he picked out himself. Saturday we set out for a foggy Half Moon Bay, enduring heavy traffic to enjoy a little Pumpkin Harvest Festival at Arcata Farms. We found that E is quite a particular kind of guy about his pumpkins, amongst other things.....
First off, we had to take in all the orange.
We went through mazes of corn stalks to get to this one....The One.
Ezra and his pumpkin go on a wagon ride.
No, wait! No sitting, I wanna push!
And, heck, give me the keys! I might as well drive too!

Over The River and Through the Woods...

To Grandmother's house we go....

Phew! 8+ hours both ways. Just E and Mommy. It was quite an adventure.

First, E was such a trooper. He would sit in the back reading his books (The Very Busy Spider, Trucks, Goodnight Gorilla) in between stops. Grandma lives on the other side of the Sierra Nevadas so we got to see some really beautiful sites on the way.

After treking through the mountains for 8 hours or so, traveling as high as 9000 feet, we made it to grandma's house all in one piece.

We had many adventures playing in the parks and in grandma's back yard.

We went to Laws Railroad Museum and rang the bell of Engine #9. He also got to sit in a little model car and pretend to drive it. Bells and steering wheels....a big, big deal.

We went for a hike up at South Lake where we were able to really hear an echo. We had a lot of fun screaming really loud to hear the echo bounce off the mountains. I am sure the black bears didn't appreciate it. All the way home when E would see mountain ranges he would yell, "echo." It was an amazing hike. All of the aspen trees were changing colors. It was gorgeous.

E got to play with his cousin Sierra. E was enamoured with her! She read books to him and chased him around the house until he fell asleep.




Although it was really hard at times missing Momma and all, we both had a great time creating our little rituals while away. For instance, Mommy would get coffee in the morning at Spellbinder Bookstore's little cafe, Black Sheep. We would sit and read books and E would run around the store greeting everyone that came in. "Hi!"

But, the highlight of the trip definitely was the utensil drawer at Grandma's house. For some reason, Grandma has about 15 spatulas. And, the day we left, I think each one of them were in different places inside and outside the house. Before collapsing into bed one night, there were three strategically placed on the bed. That was also the case for the cans of cat food. Grandma said there were a few cans of cat food hiding out in the rose garden. E likes to reorganize. The world according to E.



We are so happy to be home with Momma and Burton. Momma is refreshed from getting good sleep and time to herself. I think it took us about 5 minutes to wreck all of her hard work cleaning the house. Burton seemed adjusted and ready to deal with E chasing him around the house.

We celebrated yesterday by going to Crissy Field for probably one the last nice days of the year. It was perfect. So glad to have the family together again.

A Day Without E

Normally Jackie writes our posts, but on Tuesday she took E on a mammoth car trip to go visit grandma. So this week has been quiet for me.

I have to admit, going to bed and not waking up until Burton wanted to see his food at 4:30 was a bit of a treat. Turning on the lights to shower was another. But coming home to a quiet and somewhat dreary apartment that looked just as I'd left it that morning was sad. No food under the table. No sand on the floor. No boy running through the place screaming 'NA NEE' at the top of his lungs. Sad. Grandma gets all the good stuff.

This morning before I went to work, I put on his Justin Roberts CD -- I Chalk, Meltdown, Maybe the Monster -- and jumped up and down for a while as I looked at the earlier posts in this blog. Too many days without E.

el cerdito para pee pee en el potty

E's learning about trade these days. In his quest to become potty trained, for every pee pee in the potty we give him a sticker to put on the wall to mark his progress. But, sometimes the sticker does not end up on the wall.

We should have a wall filled with animales de la granja but we don't.

Farm animal stickers end up everywhere but, and ultimately in the mouth.

Hence the fate of el cerdito. Oink, oink.


E looks like the cat who ate the canary. Or, the piglet.









Potty training is on the up and up. Not perfect yet, but E looks us in the eye and signals when he has to go.....or when he is going....tee hee

What A Life This Boy Has

If we aren't at the playground building sand castles, swinging on the tire swing or sliding down the slides....we are......
Wrestling on the bed!
Playing dress-up with our new fancy hats from grandma Elizabeth!
Hanging out with Lily and playing the "big blue ball" game (very serious game...will discuss at another time)!
Having band practice with bandmate, Remy!
Or dancing....especially when Momma Jess plays the Deetar (aka ukulele)

So Much to Catch Up On....Man, We're Long Winded

Prepare yourself, we love to talk about our boy.

Well, it appears we are on the up and up over here. The Coxsackie virus did more traveling this year than we did. When E started feeling better we re-packed our bags and got the heck out of Dodge and went camping. Well, it was more like luxury camping at this great place called Costanoa. We got in on the "Full Moon Special" and enjoyed a few days exploring the tidepools and giving ourselves a little rest and relaxation. E met several wonderful older kids who took him under their wings and let him kick around their "offical" World Cup Soccer balls and chase them around the grounds. I think we developed lots of hope for our future. There are a lot of good little people populating this earth. Hopefully, they aren't populating the earth with Coxsackie as we write.


This place was just what we needed. We had a Swallow's nest outside our cabin, and E would watch it very intensely. By the time we were to leave, the baby swallows were poking their little heads out. The moon was a treat all nights. It was big and yellow and just amazing. Ezra saw lots of starfish and crabs at the tidepools. Of course, he preferred the rocks on the beach just above the Pigeon Point Lighthouse. We have a bag full of rocks that we'll turn into some form of holiday gift. Prepare yourselves.

We decided to go to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk on our way home, and I think we are still debating whether it was a good idea. It felt like way too much stimulation after being in our serene campground. Ezra loved the ride called Convoy. Yup, you guessed it, a ride that consisted of mini-semis that had Pepsi plastered on the sides. It went around a circle twice and there was a pretend steering wheel and horns to honk. After it ended he would repeatedly give us the ASL sign for "more." It was hard for him to understand that we had to get off and get in line again.


We hadn't been to the Boardwalk in a while and had forgotten they pipe in music throughout the park. At one point, The Pretenders "Don't Get Me Wrong" came on, and E stopped and danced. We couldn't resist stopping and dancing with him in the middle of the park. Heck, there is no pride when it comes to being a parent. We secretly hope that he will always be a free-spirit, dancing to every tune he hears anywhere and everywhere. We imagine it will be us Moms that will try to model this behavior, and Ezra will be yet another kid embarrassed of his crazy parents.

As we mentioned, Ezra is signing quite a bit. His Auntie Oona will be proud to know that he signs "all done," "thank you," "elephant" (sound effect included with that one), "shoes," and he is learning more each day. We think he will be able to sign "help" soon. And, yes, he is signing "more." The ulitmate usage of the "more" sign happened after Momma Jess finished playing a song on the ukulele, E then signed "more." Momma Jess feels she was paid the highest compliment ever. Our boy is pure sweetness.


Okay, one last tidbit about E. When we got back from camping, we didn't want the fun to end, so we went to the Discovery Museum and had such a great time, we are now members. This boy was *so* happy. There was this little exhibit of frogs where you pressed this button and bubbles came out of the frogs' mouths....and, good golly, it was like the most amazing thing ever. He kept running back, pushing the buttons, and yelling (We're not kidding about the yelling) BUBBOOOLES! He said "bubble" with such exuberance, we Moms were about to fall down laughing. This boy has passion. We only wish we had a sound bite of it. Here is a picture of him in mid-bubble.


We wish everyone a happy August. Bubbooools!