Straws and Dot Games

Phew! Back from a hot, hot trip to the Eastern Sierra Nevada to see some family. It was so great to see everyone and we should have pictures from it all soon. For now...we are home in the grand SF fog (highs of 70 degrees today) and having fun times. For instance, Ezra is learning to drink from a straw.
How fun it is to sip a yogurt and strawberry shake with a straw.


Apparently, there were moments of tartness.
But, he just kept going back for more.


And, Dear Po and Travis, here is a pick of E playing the dot game. It's still famously popular around here. For those of you who have never played the dot game, it consists of a lot pointing and pushing of the dots on the "dot couch" and saying "this one, this one, this one, this one." Or in E language, "deeta, deeta, deeta, deeta." Good times!

And, lastly, THANK YOU Grandma Pat for your birthday wishes. E loves his bear (his other Christmas bear went to Bishop with us) and thank you for the Australian update. Everyone looks great down under! XOXOXOXOX

Ralph's Damn World

Oh good god....we may be witnessing our first Ezra obsession, the songs from children's singer, Ralph Covert. He points to the little boom box we have in the kitchen and gives us a little grunt intoning the sound of a question, and we answer him....usually by succumbing to turning on Ralph's World for the millionth time THAT DAY.

We Moms are about to swim, swim, swim, swim, swim...to the bottom of the sea.

We give in usually because the look on his face is so gersh dern adorable and he dances when the Swim song comes on. It's so cute...and forgivable.

But, man, we need a new song or two.

2 Syllable Words, a Po Visit and 8 on the Fourth

It's true. Ezra is exploring the world of 2 syllable words. It all started with "teta", the word we use for milky. He would wake in the morning and say tetatetateta over and over again....you get the picture. Then he discovered the"guitar". It's adorable to listen to his new word, pronounced "deeetar" (strong emphasis on the 'eee's). He can also say "gentle" and "bubble", all of which sound little like "deetar" but we get it. He actually said bubble rather clearly last night in the bath. He is genius ya know.













E's Po came to visit from Hawaii over the July 4th weekend. We had much fun playing instruments and being a bunch of goof balls. E made a new friend, Travis, who taught him how to High Five and entertained him with juggling and good drumming techniques.

We had a little Parents' Group over the weekend as well where the babes got to run around naked in the back yard and splash in the wading pool. Naked time is E's favorite.
Then it was off to Napa for the Fourth of July. We missed the fireworks, but E got to see his Auntie Christina and his cool cousins. It was a very sweet day.


We Moms celebrated our 8 year anniversary on the 4th as well. #8 has been pretty dang cool.

First Pride

After walking the entire length of the Dyke March last night with Aunt Oona and Aunt Sarah (so glad to hook up with you two!), we managed to get up and make our way to the parade this morning.

Vamos de paseo en tren to the Pride Parade 2006. Ezra's first of many, I'm sure.

We didn't get to march this year, but we played in the Family Garden set up by Our Family Coalition. It was so crowded! So many families like us all having a proud day.
That's right!

E Meets Susy; Maia Gathering in the East Bay Sun….& a little shameless advertising….

Ezra met his dream girl, Susy Dorn, at our friend’s wedding on Sat. She sings E’s favorite songs in Spanish about fruits and colors and days of the week. We wish we would have caught the interaction between the two with a photo or two, but of course we forgot the camera along with the wedding gift on the kitchen table (oh, if mommy had a brain). You will have to imagine her smiling her bright smile and singing a little piece from Los Opuestos. E stared very intensely. Abierto….cerrado…..….la la la. I, Mommy, secretly sang every word.

There was more swimming for Ezra on Sunday at a lovely gathering with all the Moms and babes from our birth class at Maia Midwifery. It’s been really great to keep in touch with these families, some of which are expanding! Ezra played in the pool and ate a bunch of fruit with a fork. He really likes his utensils. Moms got a little too much sun and got to eat burgers, ice cream and cupcakes. A decadent day.



And now for the shameless advertising. I can’t say enough great things about Susy Dorn’s CD and DVD, Cantemos en Español. Whether your child already knows Spanish or not, her catchy songs combined with familiar melodies make them memorable and fun to sing. Right up there with Itsy, Bitty Spider. The DVD of Cantemos en Español has so much charm. It’s definitely a “homegrown” production that deserves notice. I feel better about supporting a local artist giving something to our community more so than a polished Disney production. You should check it out. 5% of the proceeds go to help Peruvian street children as well.

A Day and Night in Calistoga

We only had a day and a night to relax before Momma began tirelessly coordinating the Summer session for her school.....so after making a few dollars at our yard sale last weekend, we hopped in the car and off we went to Calistoga's Indian Springs.....

....where we stayed in the most adorable little detached cottage so E could exercise his new vocabulary at top volume.
We chose this place because of its 1920s beautiful, olympic sized, non-chlorinated, mineral pool. Even though the days were overcast, the pool rocked!
E loved the 102 degree water. Sporting his new swim trunks from Uncle Wayne and Uncle Frank, E made many new friends just by throwing his cute smile their way. People -- strange people -- would literally stop us on the street.
He's pretty darn cute. And, hilarious.
He laughed pretty hard when Mommy tried to fly a kite in little to no wind. So, we stuck to the pool, tether ball, ping pong and a poor, poor attempt at badminton, all of which E thought were pretty funny as well.

Sun Kissed

We couldn't resist taking pictures of E while he was sleeping.
I don't know if you can tell, but our sweet sleeping boy has the most beautiful tan hands you have ever seen. This, of course, means the rest of his body is lily white.


The many hours at the playground have resulted in this grand showing of his Mexican heritage. Today we wore short sleeves. With 30 SPF, of course.

More pigment!

Tennessee Valley Hike

We got up this morning and decided to take one of our favorite hikes and to ultimately show our little man the beach and waves and seashells and birds and butterflies and dragonflies....
We forgot about kites.
A lovely Mom with two sons was flying her easy-to-use and easy-to-lose $2.00 drug store kite and was so kind to let E fly it.

Definitely, the highlight of the day.
"The beach is way cool!" That's Bah Bah Bah Bah in E language.

41 Years, 36 Years and 13 months....

Hmmmm.....We are all feeling a little older these days.






XOXOXOX

Scrapes and Bruises

We always wondered when it would happen. His beautiful baby skin has been marred by bug bites, bruises and kitty scratches, but E had yet to experience his first scrape. Yesterday at his friend Linus's birthday party (Happy Birthday Linus!), he did a face plant onto the ground.

Sand covered his face, and an icky scrape ran from his eyebrow to the tip of his nose. Needless to say, he was not a happy little guy.
This morning at the playground a Dad asked *the* question when he saw E's nose, "Whose watch did that happen on?" Ugh! Mommy is still reeling with guilt.



On the other hand, E has forgotten about it and is having a great day with his Bellafone. He also flirted endlessly with the ladies at the cafe this morning. No silly scrape is going to stop him from being super cute.



psst...Tomorrow is Momma Jess's birthday.

Phone Pictures

I've been trying to clean out my phone of some old pictures because I am running out of room! But I couldn't just get rid of them, so here they are. The last few months of E. They are small and low res, but E none the less.

Jour de Mères

Happy Mothers' Day! What a great day for two Moms and Ezra. First off, E woke us up super early so we could be the first party to be seated at our favorite 10 seater breakfast place. Although he has been reading "Baby Make Me Breakfast," I don't think he felt quite confident to flip a couple of pancakes for us and left it up to Chloe's Cafe. Yum, yum! Thanks E!





Then after a much needed nap we headed out to the park and picked up a baguette and brie for the Moms and black beans and carrots for the boy. The temperature today was a sweltering 80 some odd degrees, which in SF is super hot. We pushed E up many SF hills to the most beautiful little spot to sit and eat our lunch and recuperate. E took one look at the baguette and it was love.


We've been resistant to giving him wheat, but it appears it has become the "forbidden fruit." He really would have made the French proud in how he was able to maneuver his bread and tear a little piece from the loaf with his 8 teeth. There was no distracting him from that loaf.








We did play with his new Gertie Ball and attempted to slide down the slides. He ended the day with a big poop in the grass. We cleaned it up, of course, unlike the time I saw a Mom in Paris poo her child on the sidewalk. If you think there is a lot of dog poop in Paris...you may think
again.



Au revoir pour le moment.

Broccoli and Minor Chords, Oh my!

Ezra is eating more solid food these days. His number one fave is still apples, but black beans and oranges are coming in a close second. He doesn't seem to have a taste for broccoli and usually brushes it off onto the floor. He got new dishes from his Aunt, Uncle and cousins in NYC for all his fancy new eating. We look forward to when he will actually use them as dishes and not musical instruments.

On a side note, we went to Enzo's Music Class today and E now stands up and does a little dance when music is played. But, we've noticed that he cowers when minor chords are used. Interesting little boy he is.

One Year Old Today

We rehashed the whole year while E played with his many toys from his Grandmas and friends.

It's hard to imagine it was just a year ago he was like this.

And, now he points,

chews,

shakes,

and is just a darn cute little boy. Lucky us.

In case you're wondering, he isn't potty trained yet. Soon....maybe...but, not yet.