Sweeping the Clouds Away

These pictures were taken last Sunday, when appropriately the sun came out and made us happy all day. We went to the park twice! What a cool mom. These are from the second trip, when we met Nikkie by the fountain to have a lovely picnic of crackers, cheese, meat, hummus, carrots and a fruit salad (California strawberries, pears, grapes, and clementines). It was pleasantly delightful.

Today was sunny again, although the past few days have been rainy rainy rainy. Ezra shouts "No more rain! No more wind! All done!" He is very much in the mood to have the world be his ideal, whether that be weather or eating popsicles.

Our house is getting emptier every day, and at this point there is no where to sit, so this 'standing up post' shan't be very long.

There is one thing I wanted to address however: I am realizing that I only eat crusts. Bread crusts, pizza crusts, left over crusts essentially. Before, I would make Ezra something and he wouldn't eat it all so I would just eat what he didn't eat, rather than making myself some and then eating double. I'm trying to work on the girlish figure you see. So I'm still doing this, but the little guy is eating more and more and more. Now it seems the crusts are all that's left.

If you are what you eat I think I'd better make a change, and fast.

More when I can sit down and really take my time.

Short People have found Reason to Live

As I said, there will soon be far fewer photos of Ezra and Usiah together, so I am really maximizing this week. Kate and I have been going through closets, cupboards and countless craft baskets and coming up with some fun filled things, such as the Happy New Year hats the boys were very fond of sporting. They were running around saying happy birthday happy birthday! There's not much that compares with hats, pantslessness, and a little buddy just your size.

Except for temporary tattoos that is. Just when I was going to make a little video Kate unearthed some dragon tattoos and in the following super short video you will see Ezra's excitement at this prospect:

I won't be seeing Usiah very much, so I took the opportunity to conduct a short interview with him (and his dinosaur) in the following clip. Ezra fans: you can hear him shouting near the beginning.

Changes...

Hey everybody! Sorry for being a posting loser lately. Our plate just keeps getting fuller. A couple of brief announcements: Kate and I are moving out of our house at the end of this month, so shots such as the above one are going to decrease in frequency. This is sad. The boys do get along every once in awhile, and for these glimpses it is a joy to watch them play. Until the pushing, screaming, and squabbling of course. They still call each other their best friend, but don't really act that way 89% if the time.

The other announcement that some of you already know is that we will be moving back to Minnesota at the beginning of April. I have decided to finish my degree online so that we can be closer to family. I really miss the unparalleled support of family. When I moved to Portland I had a deranged idea of how much my 20 something-childless friends would want to help me out with my darling boy. Here in the city we are all much too busy, and I need a slower pace. I also moved to Portland to have a social life, but you know what? I never see people! Maybe once a month, but really it's 99% me and Ez, rockin' it the two of us. It'd be nice to have a Grandma or Grandpa around. Heck, even an Uncle!

Anyways, there's a lot to do between now and then, what with packing, finals, and Ezra's birthday (we're going to the coast!), so I'll try to post but if I don't, I'm sure you'll understand.

Hope you had a good Valentines Day!

Hola Papa!?

Supposedly Ezra's father is going to look at the blog today. I know I said that the other day, but now he says that tomorrow, Saturday, he's going to. You know how it is, mañana mañana mañana. Siempre.

Si usted está aquí en este aspecto el Sr. Cristian, aquí está un video especial de un niño jugando con su papá en la piscina. Qué desgracia es la música. Pero que hermoso el niño.

Just Cuteness

Ezra got some accessories together this evening for an impromptu photo session. He donned his hat and my sparkly scarf. In the second picture he even managed to say cheeeese (can you tell?).

As you might have seen in the last post, Ezra is really into putting lots of stickers on his cheeks. He found two sheets of these smiley face stickers this evening and made himself quite content sticking them all on his face. Here are two videos documenting his process:

Not the most flattering shot, but it does capture how obsessed he is with almond butter. The apples were licked clean and left for further dipping.

Lastly, here's a little video of Ezra and the neighbor girl Ruby dancing to a bluegrass band. We went last weekend and had a great time. We danced, Ezra had ice cream, and I had a gin and tonic. Delightful.

Saludos a la familia en Guatemala. Espero que disfruten de ver las fotos y videos de el angelito. Suelo poner las nuevas fotos y videos de al menos una vez a la semana, así que vuelve pronto! Tenga cuidado, el amor mucho de nosotros.

(I think that Ezra's Guatemalan family might be viewing the blog for the first time, so I included a little welcome in Spanish for them.)

The Usual

He has found his belly button! As you've seen, he found his nipples ages ago. Sorry about not posting this week, it's been midterms so I have been kept quite busy. I am happy to report a 48 out of 50 in one class and a perfect 100% score in another! I haven't heard about the math midterm yet, and the beastly history of Chinese Art midterm is this Tuesday. So I'm not quite in the clear just yet.

It's Saturday so school is not the topic to be discussing. It is a balmy 50 degrees here in Portland, and it's not raining, so I might go so far as to say it's a lovely day. This past week it was raining horizontally, so by comparison it is fantastic weather. Ezra is taking a little nappy poo after going bonkers at the park this morning kicking the soccer ball. He was also quite absorbed rearranging the pine cones...

Last night we went to the local community center (I love community centers!) to watch the movie Up. It was the first time Ezra had been to see a movie, and I didn't know how long he'd last. We ended up getting through about a third of the movie before he sprang up and bolted to the gym (where there were 20 or so little kid cars, motorcycles, wagons, and balls tempting him). Not too bad. I did like what I saw of the film in the beginning, although we popped our heads in at the end to see what was going on and we saw a man with a gun attempting to shoot a lovable boyscout. Does this seem extreme to anyone else? A GUN? In a children's film? Not only a gun, but a gun firing at people, notably a child?!

I think a poison apple might be more appropriate. Putting someone to sleep eternally is a lot easier to stomach than cold blooded murder with a huge gun. Am I overly sensitive? Is it perfectly acceptable for there to be a man shooting a gun at a child in a childrens movie? Ok, I will stop, but seriously it's disturbing.

Back to happy news, Ezra got a new hat! I like to sing a little
Chinese song when he puts it on and he does a little Chinese dance. It's cute.

I used to give Ezra a sticker when he successfully used the potty, but now he just peels them off from the Potty Chart Sticker Board and puts them on his face. So I probably won't give him any more. We've moved on to yogurt covered pretzels. It had been chocolate chip cookie rewards but then he would just burrow out all the chocolate chips and make a big crumby mess. Oh to be done with diapers...

He loves to nestle in between the cushion and the chair. Here he a Big Bird share an embrace.

My apologies that the following video is horizontal. I don't know what I was thinking. It's just a random rascally Ezra short.

Another short, I just liked his smile at the end. Oh and a little background, he had been putting the elephant to sleep in the book. Nigh nigh Elephant, slam goes the book cover.

I hope you are all having a good weekend, and I'll try to get some more shots to post sooner than later. Hopefully I'll have more perfect scores to report too!