My Little Man is Two!

As promised, here are some photos from our lovely weekend on the Oregon coast. Sunshine on the coast is rare, so we really got lucky. Not quite warm enough to go swimming (or take off your coat), but warm enough to hang out for a couple of hours without your limbs getting numb. We'll take it! Our friends Cayce and Justin took these shots of me and my guy prancing around in the surf.

It's hard to get him to look at the camera. Why look away from the glorious ocean?

Now he's looking and I look freaky. O'well.

Here's a video of Ezra approaching the ocean:

The sand feels so nice between your fingers (and in your mouth, he's still into eating sand...).

Kate and Usiah brought a really nifty kite to fly on the beach.

Ezra took a turn, and I did a lot of running down the beach to catch the kite after he let it go. He found this game highly amusing.

This is Ezra and Maya at the breakfast joint where we ate that morning. It was called the Pig n' Pancake, and there were these little stuffed pigs that were holding frying pans with bacon in them. You could buy the pig frying pig while you ate pig. It was darling.

Gabe and Koali got Ezra this really cool dump truck! It's made from recycled milk jugs. Amazing. Here Ezra and Maya fill 'er up with rocks in front of our yurt. You can see the port o potty in the background. Ezra was a little scared of it. Understandably.


On Sunday morning it was a little gray so we went into town to the free science museum. There were little model tide pools that had sea creatures that you could touch. Ezra did not want to touch them, but the option was there. In the above picture he is looking at what is in the below picture (a really flat fish that likes to be pet, the say).

He liked the clown fish a lot. So do I.

Here's a video of Ezra and Maya checking out the interactive elements:



Yes, Ezra did get a turn:



On the car ride home he fell asleep with this bag of white cheddar popcorn on his lap. When I tried to remove it he would wake up and sleep eat a kernel or two before closing his eyes again. He ate almost that entire bag of popcorn. Yes, not the best thing, but for a 3 hour car ride I just want him to be content and if that means a bag of white cheddar popcorn, so be it.

I snuck this while he was sleeping. It's his super cool sea horse tattoo that I put on his leg upside down so that he could look at it right side up.

In all that fun and excitement we never got around to lighting candles, singing happy birthday or eating cake (much to the disappointment of Usiah who kept asking "Birthday cake?"). Fortunately our good friend Roberta had a potluck that night so we brought over Ezra's tiramisu birthday cake and they helped us complete the birthday necessities, even putting on party hats. In the above shot Ezra sits with Grace, who was the real reason for the potluck. She's Roberta's sister who is visiting from Atlanta. Grace and I used to work together at the Tin Shed oh so long ago... She's a great gal.

Ezra had A LOT of fun.

Here's the candles, the cake, and the singing:

Here's a video of him making short work of the candles:

What a success! I am so thankful to all of the people who could join us to celebrate Ezra's second birthday. Also, those who could not make it, we really appreciated the phone calls (he got to listen to 3 people sing him happy birthday on speaker phone while he was in the bathtub), and birthday cards (and cookies!). What ever will we do next year... Chuck-E-Cheese?

Snippets

Ezra had Maya over the other night to watch some Classic Sesame Street, following a nice bubble bath. Notice their matching red pajamas. No he did not put the moves on.

Here Ezra delights in a mint cookie, as he often does since I started rewarding him for using the potty with mint cookies. When he gets a cookie he always insists that I have a cookie too. Little sweetie. Good thing I've started going to the gym this term.

And finally here's a little video of Ezra being funny in the bathroom earlier this evening.
I had never thought of using a toothbrush the way he does...

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 Buddies & Video Vault

Maya came over for dinner last night and then they had a bath. Ezra went through a few emotional roller coasters.

And here's some videos from long ago and recently. The first is Ezra playing with his new trains and stacking blocks that his grandma got for him.

Here's one from when we were in Guatemala, poolside. So warm, so tropical. It's raining here.

Ezra loves to feed Big Bird his breakfast. Here they share french toast.

And this is from this morning at gymnastics class. These dog is rocking.

Goof Ball

You just never know what this kid's going to do next! He's so handsome, even when he's upset that I won't let him play with cigarette butts. What a mean mama. In the above shot he sports his new stripey pants. So cute and comfortable! They remind me of a Johnny Depp style in Chocolate. He's certainly the best dressed baby on the block, if not the zip code.

Here's a video of the little tucker doing some random play with a ball and a plastic dish. Who really needs expensive toys. Pish posh.

Next up we see Ezra and Maya out on a dinner date. Avocado and tuna macaroni is on the menu, and the sparks are flying. I love how Maya just curiously watches Ezra's roller coaster of emotions. He will need to learn that you can't steal your girlfriend's food.

Ok, one more, for the grandparents, aunts and uncles. After dinner we took a stroll and Ezra and Maya discovered their mutual interest in geology.

First Kiss (on camera)

Maya came over this evening for a little while and we went to the park. Things got a little steamy, as you can see. He was trying to kiss her a lot after she gave in the first time, and had his arm around her in the stroller on the way home. I'm trying to make him a little gentleman about it, but he's a little frisky. Cuddly, I should say. Kissy and cuddly. Awww.