OMSI, Childrens Museum, Friends!

Here's Rachel and Ez at the OMSI (Science museum) working with the gravitational table. I'd write more about that but I'm typing with one hand.

They put on a fantastic puppet show about how some species of animals care for the elderly.

He really was having fun...

It was a fun, full morning leaving Rachel pooped.

Ezra was pretty low key in the sandbox too.

We got our energy back that night when we went out to eat with Nikkie and Gabe and Koali at La Bonita Taquieria that night. Ezra can now say Nikkie!

Here's Gabe, whose name still proves too difficult.

A couple days later we were headed for some more fun with neighbor Roo Roo. We went out to the Childrens' Museum, which we'd never been to before.

There was an ambulance that Ezra could drive!

This dig pit was a little weird. The material underfoot is actually recycled tires. It smelled really really strong, and I felt like there must be some level of toxicity.

Here's our new kitten, who still doesn't have a name. Optional names: Poblano, Hopla, Congi, Ts'ao Ts'ao, Lassie, what do you think?

Where Ezra gets his Adorableness

Busy Bees

We have been running all over the place these days, and I've even been taking pictures of our adventures! In the above photo Ezra is preparing some Christmas gifts.

Here he showcases his secret weapon for Christmas gifts this year (hand prints!)

Last night we headed out to our first Christmas event, it featured: a showcase of Christmas trees, a teddy bear hospital, face painting (he held SO still for his snow man), and SANTA! In the above shot he hangs out with Crystal and his bear, who he named Back.

Here's a close up shot of Back. We adopted Back from the teddy bear hospital, where Back then had a cast put on his arm, a tetanus shot administered to his butt, a cap from the OR, and a newborn size diaper.

There was also a performance of middle school kids who were actually really good. Ezra liked their jazzy rendition of Frosty the Snowman. He said, "more, more" and clapped Back's hands together after each song.

Here's the big moment! Ezra got really comfortable with Santa this year, and was talking talking talking his head off about choo choos, hats, and his new bear. Santa was looking fantastic with his mustache curled up at the ends and his lovely cloak. I had to pry Ezra away from him.

On to the last class of gymnastics!

Ezra really pulled out all the stops with his tye dye outfit today. It was gray, foggy, and cold when we woke up so we decided to bring in a little light.

Paired with the ribbon wand he is ready for the folk festival! Or a rave...

And finally here's Maya, Ruby, and Ezra, the dangle berries of class.

Ezra's Home Away from Home

These photos were taken at Ezra's day care. He loves it there and we are so thankful to have found such a loving, fun, and full of toys kinda place! He's the coolest dude on the block on the tricycle I must say.

This is the living room, complete with a slide! Yeah, we don't have a slide in our living room at home. On the wall you see the lovely art work of Ezra and his friends. I can't remember which pumpkin was his...

Here he hangs out with Isabella, whose name was one of the first he learned. Unfortunately since this photo was taken she transferred to another day care closer to her house. He still talks about Bella.

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This one was from last summer, an eternity ago. Here he rides around in the wagon with Ella, who is one of his favorites. What a little cherub.

Molly and Joe Visit

As I mentioned in the last post, we had some grand visitors this past weekend and photos should trickle in over the next week. Here is the first trickle! The above shot was captured just before turning into Champoeg State Park, the sheep and the pumpkins at dusk. Ezra still talks about these Baa Baas. Too bad they wouldn't let us get close to them. The sheep were scared and there was an electric fence to boot.

Now we're in the cabin. We were cooking up a feast! Ezra was kicking back with a beer. This one's a little fuzzy but the Mama/Ezra shots are so rare I had to post it!

So rare here's another one... I think I'm cutting some cheese for Ezra to eat. He was much more interested in eating straight cheese than waiting for the pasta dish to be finished.

Beer's getting warm kid!

Cheese. Spatula. Rustic Cabin.

The Crew! From the left we have Jason, Joe and Molly. In the foreground we have the massive amounts of pasta, half of which ended up going to waste cause we just cooked way too much.

Joe's post dinner magic trick.

Like I said, hopefully there will be more photos soon of our Thanksgiving weekend, in the mean time I have three finals coming up to study for.... boo hoo.

Thankful

I'm running a little late for Thanksgiving, but I am certainly thankful for these two little guys. They LOVE to play "night night", where they retrieve blankets and pillows and lay on the floor and say "nigh nigh" over and over again. Ezra's becoming quite the bookworm! He wears me out before bed sometimes with 9-10 books he gets lined up. Luckily we're going to the homeland for Christmas and the relatives can take some turns reading about Spot the dog and Maisy the mouse.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving, and I regret taking absolutely no photos! Some other people did and they said that they would email me them, so the Thanksgiving post will have to trickle in over the next few weeks. We went over to Jason's house, the same place we celebrated Thanksgiving last year. It was a potluck and we brought oyster stuffing and corn bread stuffing, which were both delicious. Other food highlights included: a smoke house turkey, mushroom gravy, fresh baked bread, brussel sprouts, and my personal favorite sake coconuts to drink. They didn't tell us there was sake in the coconuts at first and we were all just amazed at how delicious the coconut milk was. Then it came out, and we all were getting a little buzzy.

Our good friends Molly and Joe flew in from Chicago that night and stopped by Jason's for desert. The next day I had to work (a good thing!) so they hung out with Kate during the day and then when I got off from work we took the train downtown. We checked out Jason's super futuristic architecture school and then went out to eat at the Thai Peacock. I was tired at the end of this day, but it's always fun to show people around Portland.

The next day, Saturday, we took off to Champoeg (that's pronounced Sham-poo-ey, yes there are some REALLY strange pronunciations around here) State Park where I had reserved a cabin for the night. They bought tons of groceries and we cooked pasta dinner on the cook stove under the light of the moon. Ezra found the cabin to be very fun, and loves anytime that he can hang out with Jason. He was really liking to play with Molly too! We saw some sheep and he still talks about the baa baas. Everything is the sound it makes right now. There are buck bucks (chickens), baa baas (sheep), sssshweeem (airplanes), and bum bums (church bells).

He's so cute, and he's really coming along with the potty training. He went like 6 times today! Dang. I thought I had done something stupid by offering him a cookie everytime he went, but at this point it seems as though the satisfaction of the deed is fulfilling enough and he doesn't even want a cookie! More for Mama, great.

We came back on Sunday and had a relaxing day at home. It's the week before finals week so this week will not be relaxing, but the end is in sight! Winter break here I come.

The following videos are for the devoted Ezra fans only. There's not too much "action", but he's really into this little green haired doll that came with a defective school bus toy I procured from my work. Both videos show him putting the little green haired man "nigh nigh", using gold beads as a blanket. Both Ezra and Usiah love putting the little green haired man to bed. It's pretty freaking adorable.

Ok I guess the second video is too long for the Blogger. Boo hoo. For those that are willing to travel to another website, find it over here. You may need more! I understand. I always do.

More photos coming soon!

Gym Dandies!

Tis the second to the last day of Ezra's gym dandies class, so I crammed in the picture taking and video making. I must apologize for the blurry lens, I guess I need to clean it.

In the first series we see Ezra engaging in the activity of climbing the whale and jumping off. He did this several times, and was enjoying himself immensely. Here we go:

He thinks Why I could do that...

And he does.

Popular whale.

Leap!

Kaboom on the butt. This looked like it hurt but he kept doing it so it must have been OK.
Here's the whole sequence in video form to give you an even better idea of what was going on:

He ran over to spend some time rocking on his favorite dog rocker with Maya, who was not thrilled about the non rocking whale. The little girl you see in the background with the leotard on is the most serious child of the class. There were some pom poms out today and she grabbed two. Her mom snapped, "This isn't cheer leading class, this is gymnastics." I have been thinking about getting Ezra a leotard...

And the grand finale, the most exciting part of class every week (except for the stickers everyone gets at the end), the parachute!

And he did eventually go and sit in the middle.

Bath Babies

Ezra never wants to wear clothes. Nudie butt nudie butt nudie butt. And now that our house has heat his dreams can be realized. We had heat before but it was oil and very inefficient, so we didn't use it much. Now we have gas heat, and it even has a timer! So it's not 50 degrees in the house when we wake up, but rather a balmy 62. It's lovely. Last weekend we hardly left the house because it was just so cozy. Of course we went to gymnastics class on Saturday, and then we snuck in to an art class where we made some arts and crafts. I sent one of the creations off to Great Grandma today. She's gonna love it!

Sunday we read books in the morning and then took a walk to the park, regardless of the misty rain. We watched some teenage boys skateboard (and use expletives) and a bunch of crazy people play ultimate frisbee in the mud. Ezra loved it. Then we walked home and he took a 2 hour nap, during which I made banana bread, chicken salad, and any other task I could find to avoid my Chinese Literature homework. I do like that class I just have a hard time making myself do it.

Today we got a package in the mail from Grandpa Rak and Uncle Nate. They were so kind as to lend us a cell phone since mine is kaput. A wallet exchange size school photo was included of Uncle Nate, and Ezra held it closely to his chest in between looking at it deeply, saying "Yeah Uncle". He really likes his uncle. Good thing he gets to see him soon for Christmas! He even wanted to take the picture to bed with him. Sweetie pie.

Other big news: Ezra has successfully gone number one and number two in the potty twice, on his own accord. I have put him there and he has done it before, but this is the first time that he saddled up and did the deed. He is enjoying cookies and stickers as rewards, and we're making baby steps towards no more bulging diapers. Onward! The cookie reward system is working well, because they're designated for Ezra's potty training, it keeps me from eating them (until after he goes to bed). No seriously I haven't eaten so much as one.

Hope you are all having a good week. I keep thinking that this week is Thanksgiving, but it's not. Oh and one last thing: I got a 97 on my test in Native American History! Woop woop.