8 months

As always, this post comes a little late! Ezra is now almost 8 1/2 months! I may have unconsciously postponed writing this update, because our sweet and mellow baby temporarily disappeared. Haha, only kidding. But not really.

Ezra is learning to communicate! He knows how to yell, grunt, or scream to get attention. It is kind of funny, but he can clench his hands and jaw and shake/yell and turn red when he is really upset. He did this a lot of few weeks back, but I haven't seen it much lately. Soon after realizing he could express his emotions he got hit with a cold. And it's been a doozy. We all got it so I can sympathize with him. It kicked my hiney so I can only imagine what it felt to his little body. And unlike only lasting less than a week for the rest of our family, his is still lingering. Poor baby! And I've got to get a little sympathy myself... We had some nights he woke every hour! He also wanted to be held all.the.time. And did not want to be put down in his crib, or sleep in mom's bed. He wanted to be upright, head on my shoulder.

Ezra is also babbling and "repeating". He will copy us say "papa" "dada", and other noises. He has on occasion said "mama" in the right context, but it hasn't been consistent enough to report he is saying it. He still "sings" along to music, and has now added some sweet dance moves.  He really seems to go with the beat (here's hoping he somehow got some musical genes!). It is the cutest thing to see him bobbing along!

He hasn't wanted to eat much lately, a few bites every meal is about it. UNLESS it is "big people food". He constantly wants what we have in our hand, but it is scary because like his sister he has such a strong gag reflex. He gags/chokes/ throws up soooo easy! Slowly he seems to be tolerating chunkier food.

Ezra is a speeding bullet. This kid crawls FAST. And climbs FAST. I don't remember this as much with Aubri because she always wanted to be up trying to take walk there. Ezra just wants to get from one place to another as fast as he can. We catch him standing unassisted playing sometimes.

He and Aubri are starting to play together. Normally it is grabbing a toy at the same time, but yesterday he was following her everywhere driving her crazy (which drove mom crazy).  She loves making a block tower for him to knock over.

Ezra is really good at waving high and bye, lifting his hands for "touchdown", clapping, giving kisses, and happy with anyone holding him (as long as I'm out of sight). He is a love bug!

He has one tooth very visible, and as of yesterday the second bottom tooth has popped through! He's got some surprising good bites on our cheek, noses, and while nursing! Sharp little things!

So far our Christmas decorations are faring well with him, but it is a constant chase. He understands to not touch the tree, but that means he stops right before grabbing it to look around and see if anyone is going to stop him!

Ezra got his third hair cut recently. He did great until she grabbed his head to do the precision trimming. He freaked. But I got to say he looks cuter than ever!

I have LOTS of great pictures to upload but blogger is telling me that I've used my max storage capacity! Anyone know how to fix that???

She said WHAT??

I have so many fun pictures to blog, but I have so many funny saying from Aubri piling up that I had to get them down. This girl is too much! And she is getting even funnier now that she knows she is funny.   Without further ado, the latest installment of Aubri sayings from the past month or so...

While playing with  Ezra: "When brother looks at me he thinks, "What is that crazy girl doing?!"

 "Mom let's play pretend Starbucks. Would you like plain regular coffee or a caramel pumpkin coffee?" (FYI I have never had a caramel pumpkin but I love that she listens to us and knows the difference from boring ol' coffee and the spruced up version.)

We were headed out, and I planned on grabbing her shoes from the garage on the way out. "MOM STOP! We forgot an important thing! MY SHOES!"

Ok warning this is kinda gross...
   While wiping her bottom, after an uncharacteristically eh---sticky, BM. "Wow, that was kind of like a baby!" HUH??? My first thought was she has seen one to many birth videos (poor childbirth educator kid), but I asked what she meant. "It was like a baby because moms have to wipe their bottom a lot to get all the poop off!" HAHA...whew!

Interrupting her dad's football viewing time. "Dad can I watch Calliou?" nope. "Can I watch Super Why?" nope. Resigning herself to the situation, "Dad can I watch the Chargers?"

One of the first days after the time change, "Oh no mom! It's going to rain, it's getting very dark!"

On a walk she was collecting all sorts of random small treasures. I didn't particularly want the flower buds in the house for Ezra to eat. She kept asking, "Mom can I please keep the acorns?" No.  You have acorns.  No. Aubri they aren't real acorns! "Mom, can I please keep my pretend acorns?"

While on time out I was talking to her and lecturing about her next consequences. I told her if she didn't start listening she was going to be in trouble. With the biggest, most innocent eyes, "But I already AM in trouble mom."

Learning to play rock, paper, scissors with Jose. After several explanations they give it a go. "Rock, paper, scissors. What do you got Aubri?"  "Uh....Crayons!"

She loves smashing snails. I usually don't mind but she was going after them in the mud. I asked her not to....and she did anyway. Time out. I told her she disobeyed and she wasn't supposed to do that.  With a big pout she said, "I was supposed to ask daddy. He lets me !" I said he sometimes does. "No he ALWAYS lets me smash snails."

Jose and Aubri bought me  flowers. The next day Jose asked, "Aubri do you like the tulips we bought mom?" "Two lips? Mom's? Everyone has two lips!"

I don't even remember what she told me, but I asked if she was making it up or pretending. "No! I'm real-ing!"

"F" words

As much as our little girl talks, she has had the hardest time with some pronunciation. Mainly "F's" . Almost every word that began with an F sound was changed to a "d" sound. Except for phone which has been "cone" since before she was a year old. No matter how much we practiced she couldn't get it. She can make an F sound but not to start a word. So practicing would sound something like, "FFFFFF- cone."

Last week I got her to start saying "FFF...own". Yesterday Jose told her to try really hard, take her time, and if she said PH-one she would get a piece of candy. And she did it! Now she is an "f-word" saying machine! All evening she was asking us to ask her to say another one, and even sent a text video to my dad showing him she can finally say "Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum" (he's been trying to get her to say it for months.)

You would think we are writing a Dr. Suess book the way we are talking around here....

"My friend Fiona farted four times..."

7 months

Time is flying faster than I can blog! Ezra is now 7 months (and 10 days, but who is counting??).  It seems like overnight--but really over the last week and a half--his crawling has taken off. He has sped up and is all.over.the.place. Last Friday he realized he could pull himself up (he's been standing when we help him) and did so in his crib when I left him almost asleep. I was seriously out of his room for 2 minutes (or however long it takes to wipe Aubri's bottom) and when I walked in and I nearly had a heart attack.  We hadn't lowered his mattress and the rail only came up slightly above his waist. Jose was home an hour later at lunch time and lowered that baby fast!

That same afternoon he discovered that he was a hot stuff. He starting pulling himself up on everything! In fact, crawling is for wimps. He crawls only as far as he needs to find the nearest place to stand up. It was funny because for a couple of days he didn't know what to do when he wanted to sit, but he has learned to bend his knees to kneel down.

My mommy brain probably forgot, but I don't remember having to watch Aubri this closely. Right now we have to be an arms length away from Ezra. He face plants all the time as he thinks he can walk and literally lets go and tries to reach for something else close by. We even saw him let go and stand unassisted for a few seconds yesterday. He puts everything in his mouth so I had to throw away a lot of Aubri's little toys (shhh, she has no idea.)

In the friendly race between siblings, Ezra has caught up to his sisters motor skills. Who knows, we may be on track to have another 8 1/2 month walker! His chatterbox sister set the bar pretty high saying a few words by the time she was 7 months, but this boy sure laughs so much more!

Ezra still does amazing trying new foods, but some days he only cares to eat a little. He tolerates being in his high chair well, and we've even had a few enjoyable restaurant trips.  Since he seems to like everything, it is hard to know what his favorite foods are.

Today his first tooth popped out! Bottom left has a tiny bit of white poking through! No sign of discomfort or fever either. Awesome!

Ok Ezra, I'm excited to see the boy you are becoming, but can you please not grow up so fast?? My "little baby" doesn't seem like a baby anymore!

Season Snapshots

I got an iPhone a few months back. I swore I would never get a smart phone, but I caved. I also promised I would still take pictures with my "real" camera we spent a fortune on, but sadly I pull out my phone more often. And no matter what everyone has told me, in my opinion the pictures aren't that great. But I got a lot of them.

So without further ado, here are some of our fall happenings captured on my phone....

Playing outside on the swings!

 No matter how hard I tried, Aubri would not agree to any Halloween costume but Cinderella. I thought  if she was going to be a princess, Belle would be more fitting with the brown hair.

 This is my second fall on Pinterest. It has changed my life. I've made so many yummy recipes already including this "apple salsa" (creative way of saying apply pie filling so you don't feel that bad eating it) and cinnamon sugar chips.

 Aubri has already been asking to make crafts. Here it is proudly displayed at Jose's work. I drew the tree trunk, but  the rest is Aubri. I am so impressed how fast kids grow up in a year! Last year we had leaves all over the place, but this year she can line them up and even drew purple and orange pumpkins on the ground.

 We've had about 3 days of chilly fall weather, and I busted out the Uggs for Ezra.

 I took Aubri on a "nature walk" as we learned about Fall. She was suppossed to collect leaves, but instead picked a bunch of flowers and found a ball. We walked about half a mile in 45 minutes if that tells you anything about the pace she set. She discovered dirt clods and the entire walk way of our neighborhood has little dirt piles! We also made a stop to say hi to her friend Ella, and to watch a butterfly that she thought was playing with her. It was seriously one the neatest things ever, and I almost wondered if she was right! This big monarch butterfly would let her get really close then fly away, circle her head then land near her again. Over and over.

 Hoodies

 All things football. Doesn't get much better than Oreos.

 Monday Night Football/ Family Nights. It's been fun coming up with meals!

Add caption

 More art that Aubri has done. I don't know what other kids her age  do, but I'm so proud she is trying to color inside the lines with (almost) the correct colors.

 Little Mister is loving his new food! A lot of fall favorites like butternut squash.

 Family photos. Can't wait to share them all when we get our images back!

 A few little decorating projects.

 You can't really see, but the banner says Give Thanks. My  mantle has changed a little since this.

Arroyo Grande Harvest Festival was fun! Clearly Ezra enjoyed the festivities too.

 And finally my sunburn. Ouch! I didn't burn once in the summer, but this gorgeous sunny, fall weather  got me. I'm still peeling!

Pumpkin Season

Seasonally, there isn't much I like better than Fall and pumpkins (except Christmas and peppermint!).  We may not have lots of trees changing colors in our area, but fall is apparent! For one, our weather actually gets hotter in October. A lot of people seem to forget that and act surprised that it is in the 80's (one day almost 100!) in the fall. Not me. I have come to expect sweating more at the pumpkin patch than any summer day at the beach.

Also, it is clear it is fall with pumpkins everywhere. We've already hit up several pumpkin patches and have quite the collection of mini pumpkins in all shades of orange, yellow and white.  Aubri has no interest in getting big pumpkins but instead requests the little ones wherever we go.  At 50 cents a piece, I have no problem saying ok. She has fun lining them up and moving them around. I've told Jose it is like a game everyday to see where she has placed them (today there are at least 4 little ones on the porch).

I'm so behind on blogging. These pictures were actually from the last weekend of September on our first trip to Avila Barn pumpkin patch.  Here you go--a ton of pictures of my little punkins with pumpkins.

My 6 months old little guy

I meant to publish this weeks ago....

Ezra is 6 (and a half) months old. I can't believe he has already been in our family for half a year. It is cliche, but true, that it has flown by yet hard to remember life without him!

At his 6 month check up (9 days late) he weighed 17lbs 7 oz (44th percentile) and was 26.8 inches (55%).

He is getting to such a fun age! He is rolling around the house, and starting to slowly (and wobbly) crawl. He sits up perfect, and even can even go from sitting to crawling position smoothly.

He started solid food and aside from the first two attempts (darn yucky brown rice cereal), eats like  champ! He loves everything I've given him. Either he is just a great eater, or I'm a great cook! Bananas, sweet potatoes (his favorite), applesauce, mango,oatmeal, peas and butternut squash! My baby bullet is getting put to great use. I love that I have a kid who likes to eat! He has eaten more in 3 weeks than Aubri did in 3 months (maybe even longer).

He continues to be E-Z, easy going, easy to laugh, easy to feed.... The only thing that he has a hard time with is when he has a runny nose. I can't blame him! He has already had a couple of colds, and the first night is miserable (for him and me). He freaks out when he can't breathe easily and every time he sniffles it scares him. His happy disposition disappears some.

He is always cooing and babbling, and is so easy to make laugh! He has the cutest little chuckle. And he is sooo ticklish! He loves when Jose plays rough with him, and laughs when he gets "pushed around." Thankfully he is a good sport to Aubri's attacks. She has been trying to carry him, and I'm constantly turning around to her pulling him into her lap on the ground or tipping him over ("so he can try to crawl.")

For almost 2 months he plays peek a boo. If you say it he will cover his face with whatever is nearest and pull it down quickly. So cute! He also waves "Hi".

When he is tired he starts humming or "singing" like I like to call it, and wants to nuzzle in. He grips my arms, face or hair so tight and I refer to him as my little Koala. Usually the nuzzling is paired with slobbery kisses and face eating.

We love our boy! His personality  is already evident and it is so sweet.

Aubri says that darnest things

Papa recently started teaching Aubri the difference between possibly and probably. She now uses both regularly.

Last week when we had a loooong work day at the church, Aubri was going to spend the day with my parents and the evening with Jose's mom. Her response?
"Yeah! I get to be with both my grandma's today! Nana and Papa are probably going to get me ice cream from the ice cream man, and Grammy is probably taking me to McDonalds for ice cream!"


She also started saying "actually". "I'm going to be a princess for Halloween. Actually, I probably going to be a butterfly."

I overheard her and Jose talking the other morning. Jose told her "I'm so happy I have a little girl named Aubri." Without skipping a beat she said, "I'm so happy I have a big boy named daddy!" They both giggled.

She has been looking forward to a playdate with her friend Ella today. Jose told me when she woke up this morning as soon as he got to her room she said, "Dad hurry! It's daytime, I need to get ready! Ella is coming!" He told her it was still early (before 7 am) and Ella would come later. Aubri looked out the window and said, "Oh, it's just a little daytime, let's go downstairs and watch Calliou."

While pretending to read her Bible to herself, "Jesus came down and died on the cross, and God said hallelujah to him, and Jesus loves me." 

You may have seen me post these on Facebook:

Naptimes can be the most stressful times with Aubri. Thankful I can usually get a chuckle out of her stalling. Todays attempt...."Mom....Can you do me a favor? Can you make me a new bed on the floor, with my new tinkerbell blanket from Tia Emma on the floor, and my flower blanket on top of me, with my big sister bear, and a little cup of milk next to me please?" Next she is going to ask that I get the pea out from under her mattress I'm sure....

I thought Aubri was taking a nap but she just ran out of her room to tell me, "mom. If I be a good girl I have a plan. After my nap we can go to 'Babies toys r us' and we can buy me a present for my pretend birthday party. And we can invite alll my friends  and cousins and they can bring me presents too!" well really this plan all hinges on her taking a nap easily so it probably won't happen.

First Tuesday night at home in 9 weeks! Pulled out the cookbook and made Rachel ray "veggie p-schetti" supposedly a kid tested recipe. Served it to Aubri and she asked "what are these yucky vegetables called?"

Aubri says so many things every day that makes us laugh. Many I forget! I'm trying to write them down (blog them) so we can look back and laugh!

Jr. High room

Our Jr. High ministry, J-Walk, is close to Jose's and my heart because when we started serving in children's ministry these kids were in our class! We taught them as they came into 4th grade, and have been their teachers ever since. Every Wednesday (except for the last 60 days) Jose and I meet with them, and have grown really close to them.  Since we spend a lot of time with our Jr. highers I wanted this room to be special and cool for them. I found some fun ideas on Pinterest and tried to cram them all in one room. The end result is perfect, and we have had the most compliments on it.

There is a crazy amount of pictures in case anyone wants a step by step how-to. Or if you don't want to DIY then you can just pay me and I'll get my dad to go out there and do it for you. ;-)

 Sadly I have no before pictures!! So bummed. It was used as the prior churches board room (at least that is my guess). It was painted a minty green color and had a nice verse stenciled on the wall. Not horrible, but not 2012.

Our high school pastor, Micah, applied some smooth putty to one wall and sanded it down nice and smooth. Jose covered it up with some chalkboard paint.

 Ok here is the fun part.
1. First find a really handy man who will help you out. I choose my dad.

2.Ask him to install a corrugated tin wainscotting.

3.Measure out your wall and buy 2x4s to span the length of it. Nail them to the wall at the bottom and at the top height of where it will end. Sit back and watch as your Dad measures and levels and nails.

 4. Throw in a sleeping baby for kicks.

 5. Ask your senior pastor and his wife to climb up on ladders to take the really sharp tin tiles from the old church ceiling (recycle, reuse...)
6.Line up your tin tiles against the wall for placement purposes.
6. Realize every single one is a different height.
7. Panic

 8. Stop panicking because your dad can trim them

 9. Start nailing them into the top and bottom board, overlapping them slightly.

 10. Throw in a very tired, almost asleep, two year old to make things exciting and keep you on your toes.

 11. Finish applying the tin tiles across the length of your wall. Cap with a 4 inch ledge (we choose MDF finished board- I think- and spray painted it glossy black.)

 12. Where the pieces meet, cut at 45 degree angles, and nail together. Touch up paint for a more seamless look.

 13. Have your cool dad nail through the top ledge into the top 2x4. Voila!

 14. If you are really awesome, beg, steal, borrow, find and buy some great art!

 15. Finish the room with a pool table, a couch you inherited from another room, of course a chalk wall and chairs. And when the budget allows, install some really cool lighting.

For the most part the younger kids didn't say much about the decor of their classrooms, but the Jr. High kids told us they loved their room! They were begging for us to have youth group meet again. They were so excited I had already stocked the room with some candy and popcorn, and wasted no time making their mark on the wall! Looking forward to them making memories in this room!