Ezra, just one of the dudes at my Birthday Party

It's getting on old news, but it was my 27th birthday last Friday! Woop woop. I have more shots of the occasion, but I am not at all in the mood to upload, post, arrange, title, etc. If you haven't heard, it's been a hot week in Portland. Above 100 every day! Luckily, I am taking summer classes and therefor am inside air conditioned buildings (basements more specifically) all day. Ezra has been touring cool spots with his day care chums. Today they went to some crazy jungle gym land that was indoors and air conditioned. I guess it cost ten bucks to get in, but whatever. This heat is impossible. When we get home in the evenings we don't even stop at the house, we keep right on going to the park. There's a water fountain jobby there that you can play in, and it's the only way tolerable to pass the hours from 5 til 8. Yesterday we went to the mall and had Taco Time and watched the ice skaters. Today we went over to Cayce and Maya's house (they have the much coveted A/C). The biggest problem I face is cooking/eating. The kitchen is the hottest place in our house, so not that I want to be going out to eat all the time, but it is just not an option to turn on a stove in that hot box and you can only eat so many tuna fish sandwiches.

Right now it's almost midnight here and it's about 85 in the house still. Criminy. Take me to the beach!

No, no, there's no time for that. I am absolutely swamped with school work: a 10 page paper, a four page paper, a book to read, other readings to read, working, baby, oh my gosh what have I gotten myself into. I am really looking forward to mid-August.

Ok, time to crawl to bed and not get under the blankets. Hope you're staying cool, daddy-o.

Ah Parenthood

It has been quite a week.
I started my new batch of classes on Monday, and on Tuesday spent the day and night in the hospital. Poor little Pumpkin had a fairly common condition called intussusception. You can certainly google it to get a better idea, but basically it is a telescoping of the intestines where one part goes inside another part, causing the flow of important bodily fluids to stop. He had a seriously painful fit on Monday night, and I actually called 911 but they didn't think it was an emergency (they hypothosized that it was bad gas or teething, the kid had been writhing around for an hour). It's hard to know what to do, so I decided to let him sleep and take him in the next morning if it still seemed like something was wrong. He didn't sleep that night much, and at 6 am I took him to the emergency room. They did an ultra sound and an x-ray and found his intestines to be the problem. He was given two anemas (will he hate me for reporting this when he's 12?), which worked to straighten things out. If it had not worked, he would have had to have surgery. We spent the night so they could keep him under observation, because it can happen again and usually does relatively soon after the procedure. Luckily it did not happen again (knock on wood), and we were discharged the next morning leaving me enough time to get to my classes on time.
It was a pretty tough time all around. While we were in the hospital he had an IV in his arm and I had to chase him around with the wheeled pole. He couldn't use one of his hands which frustrated him greatly.
So now whenever he cries I think it's come back, and he's getting more spoiled because of it. I want to know if he's crying out of pain so I give him whatever it is that he wants much more quickly than I would have before. O'well. I'm just thankful to have my Bunny Boy safe and healthy. That was scary.
Oh and one last note about this, there is no known cause beyond rapidly growing intestines for this condition, which I find a little frustrating. It would be easier if there was something I could actively do to prevent this from happening again. But I can't. Besides pray and visualize healthy intestines manifesting in his gut.

On a lighter note, he's back to his old self! Here's some pictures and videos of the charmer.

Ezra and Usiah fell asleep on the way to the river last weekend (pre hospital).

Ezra woke up and found a new hat!

Ezra and Tom at the Washougal River. We had a great day.

Here's Ezra and Maya. To find out what they are doing exactly you will have to watch the video found below...

Veeeedeos

None of these videos are super good (no blueberry hilarity) but overall give an idea of the folk festival vibe.

In the first Ezra tries to dance with the cute little blond, but she needs a milk break so my video of him dancing is cut short.



In the second, Ezra blows bubbles with Grandma. Some show casing of sign language, and his new skill of blowing his very own bubbles!

This was taken during the Iron & Wine concert, which Ezra clearly enjoyed with the help of Grandma.

In this last one Ezra is really enjoying putting the stick between his toes. So cute!

We Love Canada

Sorry so long since the last post! We have been out of the country, namely, Canada! More specifically, the Winnipeg Folk Festival, the best music festival ever. Highlights included: Iron and Wine, Arlo Guthrie, Neko Case, Okerville River, Oumou Sangare, Bellowhead, and many others. Ezra had a great time, dancing and playing, the only trouble was finding time for a nap amounst all the fun.

In the above shot we see Ezra toughing out a quick rain shower during the evening concert of the first night. The band playing was called The Punch Brothers (an excellent group!) and they were well worth braving the elements. When the rain stopped we were treated to the following double rainbow:

Very magical. What follows is a collection of shots over the four day festival. Enjoy!

He is an artist! This photo was taken in the children's area, an extensive land of oodles of crafts, arts, people on stilts, hoolahoops, balls, parachutes, inflatable animals, and live music. I have a feeling I will be spending an increasing amount of time here in the upcoming years...

He is a ceramisist as well.

Making bubbles with Grandma wearing his adorable aviator hat. (I think aviator, Grandma thought Menonite.)

With Grandma and Auntie having too much fun during the evening concert on the second night.

Contemplative in his stripey pirate pants. What a little Yogi!

He had been eyeing the other kids with wings, so on Saturday Grandma helped him fashion these little flutterers.

The cutest butterfly ever.

He loves his Uncle Ben. He loves his hat, his apples, and his lap.

Nice smiles, guys.

On the last night, looking a little worn out, but still trucking through to the finale.

A lovely sunset, and the festival comes to an end. We eagerly await the next!

I have a few videos as well, none that are real zingers, but I'll post them in the coming days. Hope you are all keeping cool! We've got another scorching lined up for tomorrow. Air conditioning here I come.

Happy Birthday, America

Ezra has turned into a zombie. This was taken shortly after he ate the neighbor's cat. No come on, he's eating a popsicle! It does look like a crime scene though, huh? We have been experiencing scorching 90 degree days as of late, so Ezra has developed a taste for frozen treats. He just doesn't eat them fast enough yet.


The above photos are Ezra showing off his hot pants at the softball game we attended on the Fourth of July. He was a darling ball boy, although he didn't like handing over the soft balls to the players. He loved watching the game, especially when someone hit the ball. He got very dirty, but had a lot of fun. He liked the fireworks too, although they made him jump when they popped. He would run over to me and grab my leg when this happened. So cute.


These photos I took about a week ago before we headed out on a bike ride. I can't remember where we went, probably the park. Oh wait! I remember. We went across town to the duck pond, a dirty mucky pool where ducks hang out. We brought some rice cakes to feed the ducks, but then when we got there a fence had been erected between us and the ducks and there were signs everywhere that said "Don't feed the ducks!" and "People food is bad for the ducks!" and the most grusome "If you feed the ducks they will die!" It was a little disappointing. But Ezra liked to just watch them swim around and squabble, and a blue heron swooped out and he REALLY liked that. He kept signing to me more, and I wish I could make things happen magically for his enjoyment, but it didn't work that day. So this picture also demonstrates how very safe we are these days, both wearing helmets! Ezra loves his, finally. At first he took it off every few blocks, and we would have to stop, fetch it from the middle of the road, and strap it back on his head. Now wants to put it on! It's amazing when these little changes happen. He also now likes riding in the car. Glory glory.

Hope y'all had a great weekend! I have a midterm tomorrow so now I must study with my green tea.

Noah Webster

Sorry about no updates, photos, or video as of late. There are two contributing factors: one, the batteries in the camera are dead. I'll go buy some more soon, I swear. Two, I don't think I have previously mentioned that I am taking summer classes. More specifically, super sped up intensified summer classes. Ten weeks of information in four! Today ended week two, and I have a midterm on Monday.

12 hours a week of each class, so doing the math that's a freaking 24 hours a week! Sure that doesn't sound so so bad, nothing like 40 hour work week, but then there's the homework. Ay carumba. It's kinda crazy.

BUT I will have 5 weeks off in August/September! My horoscope today said something about getting through the crappy stuff now, and if I stick it out my reward will come in August. So the stars are aligning for this business even! It also said that I would be smarter, funnier, happier, and even more beautiful if I can make it through.

Yes. I can.

The classes that I am currently taking are a linguistics class called History of the Enlish Language and a psychology class called Sensation and Perception. The linguistics class is very interesting and the time passes very quickly. I love learning about word origins! Something interesting I learned is that you know Webster? Growing up and still we are constantly consulting Webster about spellings, so I am very familiar. Anyways, I found out that he decided how a lot of words should be spelled. He was responsible for the -or endings rather than -our in such words as flavor, neighbor, and color. Hmm! Also he brought about the -er rather than the -re. Before Webster there was an extra k on such words as almanack, musick, and physick. Thank you Webster for getting rid of those k's!

A few areas of spelling reform in which Webster was not successful was lopping off the final -e of -ine, -ite, and -ive in final syllables. That's medicin, definit, fugitiv. Glad someone stopped him. The last thing I'll mention is the suggestion for language change made by Theodore Roosevelt: he and Andrew Carnagie wanted to simplify thorough to "thoro".

Can't blame them for trying.

Today we were also talking about how set spelling is a fairly new concept in English. For a long time people wrote different versions of the same word, depending on their accent and concept of their own phonology. Also, the language is constantly changing, so perhaps mispellings are simply the future of language! Some of you are cringing.

The other class is supposed to be a psychology class but is turning into more of a neuro science class. Very heavy stuff. I am learning a lot, for certain. Today I learned why the sky is blue! So when Ezra asks me I can explain about the short wave lengths and atmospheric particles. You know he's going to ask.

I am a little fuzzy minded right now, so I apologize for not giving more of what extremely interesting items I am learning in that class.

After these wrap up (in two weeks) I start two more four week intensive classes. Next up will be Historical European Novels, which I just ordered all the books for, and found that the instructor went ahead and made the book that he wrote a part of the syllabus. Hmmm, that just seems a little shady for some reason.

The other class is about Tibetan Buddhism. I think that class will be lovely.

You might be wondering, what the heck is her major? Liberal Arts. I can take whatever class I want! It's wonderful. And very helpful in maintaining a flexible schedule, being with the Bunny Boy after all.

He does love his child care. They had a 4th of July bbq today with all sorts of games and crafts. A pinata too.

What else was I going to say..

Oh yes, we are going to the Winnipeg Folk Festival this week! We leave a week from today. I will miss two days of class but I've cleared it so we're good. I am really really really looking forward to seeing family, friends, music, and camping. It's the first camping trip of 2009. Hopefully there will be more in the glory days of August and September!

I will buy batteries soon and you will see video and pictures of the precious boy. He said his first two syllable word yesterday: bubbles.

So smart. Like his mom. Ha.