Smart Cookie

He uses the mouse. He's vacuuming as I blog. He knows how to use the to the cd player and plays "I want to be 'elated'" by the Sippy Cups over and over again. He cracks his own eggs, kneads dough and even uses the big potty to poop....


He is....Smart Cookie!



He took this picture on our digital SLR. He hasn't quite mastered the giant lense, adjusting the settings for low light and looking through the viewer....so that's why our pose is leaning a bit. But, we are certian he will be taking master pieces before long.

Not Ready

Last weekend Ezra did something remarkable. I know, we are always saying he does remarkable things, and in fact, it's true. The boy does things worthy of remark just about all the time. He's three. They're like that.

But last weekend we spent the afternoon with his friend Argus, and they had their usual blast. Slides. Skate boards. Apples. Chasing. Jumping onto the couch in ways that make my neck twitch. So when Karen invited us to stay for dinner, we were absolutely game. And it was about then that Argus began his sleepover campaign. Not with Jackie and me, but with E. We were sure he wouldn't go for it, but some time after his third helping of orzo, Ezra said yes.

We let it pass because, well, Ezra still sleeps in our bed most of the night, so how on earth could he sleep in another bed at an entirely different house? With different parents? But he stuck with it. After at lest 20 "Are you sure?"s from us.

And so we left him there. In another house. AT NIGHT! We thought about going to a movie or something like that, but we assumed there'd be a call in an hour. And when we were finally able to lie down and had our phones turned up all the way and waited for the call, it never came. And I checked every hour until morning. We slept in no significant way.

At 7:30 Karen called to say E was still sleeping and to ask if we'd like to come for pancakes. So we did, and he was great, and we ate pancakes on the most surreal of mornings. What on earth was he thinking not needing us? What about the attachment parenting? Does this mean it worked? But which book tells us how to detach?

Our Giving Trees

The giant pine in our backyard was removed last week. The lean was too great to fix and little too dangerous for our arborist. So down it came....only 14 years old.

Of course, Momma had a grand idea and took E to the hardware store to procure a new hammer, some nails and some goggles. E was going to hammer some nails into the stump of the tree.

He's been hammering for days now. He's had friends come over and hammer. He hammers in the morning, and yes, he hammers in the evening. He is, after all, a "worker man."
Worker Man takes breaks after much vigorous hammering. I have never seen him so calm. Ezra and the word calm are not necessarily synonymous.
In fact, after all the pent up hammering energy is released, he's down right giddy. He was thinking of ice cream here.
We have also been initiating our Orange Blossom tree with lots of little feet climbing on its trunk....
....and swinging on its branches.