Weekend Recap: Family Get Together

We spent our Saturday at Joe's cousin's birthday party, where Ezzy had his first real play date with someone close to him in age. His cousin Kaitlyn is only four months older than him, and she just happened to own a giant red ball (Ezzy's favorite toy), so they had something to bond over. Ezzy has been around babies before, but he wasn't really mobile, or he was too young to be interactive. Also, he has a bit of a track record of bursting into tears at the sight of another baby. He actually did that to Kaitlyn when he first met her, but once the ball came out he decided she wasn't so bad after all. 

I absolutely love those pictures of the two of them with the giant ball. In a few of them, it looks like Kaitlyn is caressing Ezzy's face, but I'm pretty sure she's actually warning him to back off her ball. Also, that picture of him trying to escape from his Great Aunt Connie's arms is pretty classic. That was toward the end of the night and nothing was going to make him happy at that point.

When we all sang Happy Birthday to David we got a little glimpse into how Ezzy's going to react at his own party - which is not well. He was freaking out and crying at all the loud singing. Joe had to take him outside to comfort him. So much for the adorable photo ops I had been imagining...

All in all, despite a few tears from Ezzy, we had a great time catching up with the family, and showing off how big Ezzy's gotten since the last time they saw him (when he was a tiny little four month old!).

The rest of our weekend was pretty mellow. We went to Target for a baby gate, got home, realized it didn't fit in our door frame, so we made a second trip to Target to return it and get the better/more expensive gate. The cashier at Target said it was the third time that day someone had returned the same gate. So take it from us and skip the cheap one, it'll just waste time in the long run! We haven't gotten around to actually putting up the new gate yet. 

So that's our weekend, how was yours??

Coffee Date Friday: Early Mornings, Spring Cleaning, & Childproofing

If we were meeting up for coffee today, I'd say make it two cups, because this momma was up every two hours last night and then up for good at dawn. Anyone who knows me knows that early mornings are not my finest hour. But I've actually gotten three loads of laundry done, plus I cleaned out the trunk of my car, did 45 minutes of yoga, had a lovely lunch date at Panera Bread with my lil man, and I've gotten a good start on spring cleaning. So maybe there's something to that "early bird gets the worm" thing after all... Who knew? 

Anyway, if there's any face worth waking up for, it's this one:

Ezzy was such a little ham at Panera Bread. We sat on the patio, so we could watch the cars (of course) and he was just cracking himself up for no particular reason at all. He was completely content for more than an hour to just sit in his high chair, eating blueberries and a quesadilla while swiveling his around head to look at every car, truck, and bus that passed by. After he was done eating I gave him an empty plastic cup and that completely rocked his world. He was slobbering all over it and screaming at it and waving it wildly in the air. A young lady sitting next to us came over to comment on how cute Ezzy is, and said that he's so well-behaved he makes her want to have kids. I had to agree, I'm one lucky mom - Ezzy makes parenthood pretty easy (even taking into account the up at dawn thing). 

Can I just take a moment to say that life is completely different with a crawler? Before if I set Ezzy down somewhere, I knew exactly where he'd be when I came back. Today I took the trash outside and was gone for under a minute. I came back to an eerily quiet house with no sign of a baby. I tracked him down to the kitchen - which is of course the one room of the house that I really want him to stay out of. So now I've got this fancy childproof gate in place:

So you know what Joe and I will be up to this weekend: child proofing! Oh, and baby birthday party planning. I can't believe he'll be one is just over a month! Joe has been scouting venues, while I've been looking at cakes on Pinterest. Because cake is the most important part of any party, as far as I'm concerned. All I really care about as far as his party is concerned are getting some good photos of him smashing cake into his face. The kind of photos I can bring out one day to show to his future girlfriend. (Yes, I will be that kind of mom!)

So that's life over here, what's new and exciting with you?

Life Lately: Random Cuteness

I love Ezzy's clumsy little crawl. This video was taken over the weekend while we were in San Diego, and he's already gotten faster and more coordinated since then. That means there's going to be a lot of frantic baby proofing going on over here this week!




I mentioned in this week's Little Things post that Ezzy LOVES his new ball, so we got a video of him in action. Little soccer pro in the making? Lately he'll come crawling up to me and tug on my leg, and as soon as I help him stand up he swivels his head around to find his ball and he'll try to take off walking toward it, dragging me along behind him. I just love that boy so much.

It's the Little Things: From Baby to Active Little Boy

This week has been an interesting one. Ezzy's mobility has snowballed from tentative, cautious crawler to full-blown cruising all over the house. I officially can't take my eyes off of his for a minute or he'll be in another room. Pair that with some no-nap afternoons, and he's definitely keeping me on my toes. 

One of the things that Joe and I keep marveling at is how Ezzy has morphed into such an opinionated little person. He has definite preferences about how he wants to spend his time. One of his favorite activities is to play with the window blinds next to our bed. He's been fascinated by them since he was little, but now he's strong enough to pull himself up using the window ledge and then he'll bat at the blinds and giggle and look at me to make sure I find it all as amusing as he does. I'm not gonna lie, this is how we spend most mornings, because it gives me an extra few moments to lie in bed and reminisce about the days that he used to get up at 8:00, instead of before 7:00, which has become his new norm. Also, when he falls backward, it gives me a few minutes of snuggle time, and I gotta take advantage of those moments while I can!

I love every moment of snuggles I can get with this guy!

Another consistent favorite pastime is to watch cars driving by. So earlier this week we had a little mommy son coffee date at Starbucks and sat out on the patio watching the cars. I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but the proper way to watch cars is to bounce up and down each time one passes by. Which, on a busy street, is about every two seconds. So our car watching date was also an arm workout for me while I attempted to stabilize a jubilant bouncing boy on my lap. Killing two birds with one stone, I guess?

"No time to look at the camera, ma! There's cars driving by!"

How'd you get all the way over there??

Possibly the best toy investment we've made since the exersaucer is this new ball that Joe had an urge to buy at Target last week. It's not Ezzy's only toy ball, but it is by far his favorite. Sometimes we'll hold him up so he can chase after the ball and kick it. He'll practically run after it, kicking it from room to room with laser focus. And that boy has gotten fast at walking! Usually Joe or I tire out before he does. (Bending over to help him walk is not very back-friendly!) Once our backs give out, we'll sit Ezzy on the floor and roll or bounce the ball to him. He has gotten so good at catching the ball and bouncing or rolling it back to us. His aim is already better than mine. It's amazing to us that he's actually interacting and playing games with us now. Joe's already looking forward to when they can go to the park and play catch together. Last night Joe said he was even trying to dribble the ball, but I didn't witness that. And when we need a few minutes to use both of our hands (like right now as I'm writing this blog) we just set Ezzy on the floor with the ball and he'll bat it around and then crawl after it, which entertains him for awhile. Seriously, did I mention that ball is the best investment we've made lately??

I'm linking up with Ashley and Jess for this week's Little Things post.

What were your favorite little moments this week?

Weekend Recap Part 2: San Diego Getaway

After wandering around the zoo for a few hours (all walking - no sky tram this time!), we were starving. Joe found a really good vegan restaurant a few miles away called Evolution Fast Food, which just happened to be next door to the best dessert place in San Diego, Extraordinary Desserts. Joe isn't much of a dessert person, but even he had to admit the berry coffee cake he ordered was amazing. And the raspberry danish I got was hands down the best danish I've ever eaten. My mouth is watering just looking at these pictures. The waiter offered us a to-go box. As you can see, we didn't need one:

We spent Saturday evening wandering around the shops at Fashion Valley. I got myself a new shirt, since the one I was wearing was covered in orange baby food. Oh yeah, in case you were paying attention, I didn't stick to my 40 days of no shopping rule. I think I lasted about 15 days. Whoops. We also bought a honeysuckle scented candle at Anthropologie, which Joe says reminds him of when he first met me, because I used to wear Bath & Bodyworks Honeysuckle body spray. So sweet :)

For some reason, while we were in Anthropologie, Ezzy was cracking up for no reason at all. He was hysterical. It might have been delirium from not napping, but every time he made eye contact with me he'd start screaming and giggling uncontrollably. We got a video of it, although he toned it down a little for the camera. Along with the giraffes, and the yummy desserts, this was a top contender for my favorite moment of the trip. (See video here:)

On Sunday morning Ezzy woke up bright and early, before 7:00, so Joe took him on a walk of the hotel's gardens while I slept in. Love those boys sooo much!

Before we headed home, we wanted to stop by the beach. The weather was overcast and in the 60s, which I'm sure is warm for the east coasters reading this, but it wasn't exactly beach weather in our opinion. It was however perfect weather for a walk, so we walked along the bike path next to the beach, and then walked through the board walk. 

A hummingbird we saw on our walk. He was hovering right over our heads!

No trip to San Diego is complete without a stop at Ghirardelli. Again, Joe is not an ice cream person, and usually he'll take a few bites and let me finish the rest. Not with Ghirardelli though. We fight each other for the last bite when we eat there!

And now we've got one more mouth vying for our ice cream:

Much like at Anthropologie, Ezzy was in an over-the-top cheerful mood. He kept grabbing the chair next to him and screaming and then staring at the ceiling fans and chuckling to himself and then staring down anyone who wasn't paying attention to him and laughing hysterically. He's so crazy and full of energy. He cracks me up. 

As you can see, once again we had no leftovers:

Ezzy and Daddy doing the "lean"

A lil too short for a pat on the head...

Weekend Recap Part 1: San Diego Zoo!

We took a mini family vacation to San Diego, and, of course, we took so many photos while we were down there that this is going to be another two part post. 

First stop was the zoo, where we lucked out and managed to wander into the giraffe area during the one hour of the day that guests were allowed to feed them. Of course, after the great photo op of Ezzy staring in terror at the camel we fed at the LA fair last year, we had to get some photos of him feeding the giraffes. He didn't seem too scared this time, but he definitely wasn't taking his eyes off those giant giraffes with the super long tongues sniffing around his head. That was such a cool experience, and may be my favorite part of the whole trip. 

Speaking of the LA fair camel incident, we actually came face to face with a camel at the zoo, and this time Ezzy stared him down and let out a loud yell, flapping his arms at the camel, which I'm pretty sure means that Ezzy asserted his dominance and is now king of the camels. Now that he's a great big ten month old, he's not scared of anything anymore! 

Other highlights of the zoo for Ezzy included watching all the trams drive by, examining and then trying to eat the map, and, of course, people watching (aka - girl watching). He was a trooper and refused to nap at all while we were there. There was just too much going on and he wanted to take it all in.

Hope you had a great weekend too!