Ezekiel went for his first real haircut. We made an appointment for right before his 2nd birthday party as he really needed his hair cleaned up. He was looking more like Farah Fawcett then Farah Fawcett looks like Farah Fawcett.
It was so super hard to make the decision to bring him. His hair was so pretty! I have to admit though, I was getting tired of people calling him a little girl.
Here he is pre-haircut.
And again, a little close-up on him and his Nuk.
Back shot:
And here's the process..he was promised chocolate by the beautician if he let her finish so he was a really awesome boy!
And the final outcome - we didn't go too short, just cleaned it up - people know he is a boy now (and his bangs aren't always quite that straight and flat..hehe)!
Ezekiel *finally* got to meet Grandaddy Jack, Angie, and Chase. It was awesome.
Monday night, Jack, Angie, and Chase came over to meet Ezekiel for the first time. I think the only one NOT nervous about the meeting was Ezekiel. We explained to him that we were having visitors and who they were and that we would really appreciate if he would be a good boy, but I think the only thing that he took away from the conversation was that someone was coming to see him special. (He loves to be special and the center of attention). When they got here, they had brought Ezekiel a Hippo mama and her baby Hippo stuffed animal. The funny thing about the hippos was they were the Natures HD toys - which is Ezekiel's new most favorite things and there was no possible way they could have known that when they picked the gift out! So the gift was a hit (as a matter of fact, he now sleeps with both of them every night. The bed is getting more crowded between Marty, Ezekiel, Boo-Boo Kitty, Baby Jaguar, Mama & Baby Hippo, and me).
Anyway - Ezekiel took an immediate attachment to Chase. I think he figured that they were buds. He harassed Chase endlessly but Chase was awesome with Ezekiel. Keeping him occupied and entertained. When they left Marty kept saying "I can't believe Chase is only 16; he is such an adult".
Ezekiel showed no shyness with them (which is pretty unusual with him). He kept running up to them and giving them quick hugs and then running off to go do something else. He couldn't decide what he wanted to get his sweaty-little-hands on more: Jack's cell phone, or Angie's camera. He finally decided to just alternate between the two.
When everyone was getting ready to leave, Ezekiel ran up to Jack, hugged his legs and said "love you!" and then ran away. I love child-love because it is so unconditional and honest.
I didn't get any pics the first night, which was really unfortunate. I really thought my cam was broken (apparently it just needed batteries).
Yesterday, we had Thanksgiving here!! It was so cool to have that many people for dinner and to hang out together. Marty and I cleaned out our livingroom and put the tables in there, so we all fit at one table. It was really great having that much family all here with us. We definitely missed the family that we couldn't be with this Thanksgiving but it was such a treat to do it this way.
Ezekiel LOVED Shamus. He was so amazed that there was a baby in the house. Since Ezekiel is still a baby himself (albeit a large baby) he didn't quite understand that he had to be extra gentle at all times with his hands and his huge feet, but you could tell that he was trying to be conscience of it. Sometimes, his excitement would just get the best of him.
Look, he brought his blankie and his cow!
Going in for the kiss:
Ezekiel also LOVED the chocolate pie. He must have had 6 pieces by the time dinner was over. He was my little chocolate man.
Eating it off the floor like a puppy:
What a fine pair of legs!!
Again, dinner was nice, the company was nice, everything was nice. I would do it again in a heartbeat.
Random shots of Thanksgiving (/sigh, my cam isn't the Nikon S550 that I wanted - *hint, hint Marty* but it will do)
I love this one:
We got to say goodbye to Jack and Chase today (we missed you Angie!). It was incredibly sad. When Jack was first saying goodbye, I think that Ezekiel kind of thought he was joking. He sort of waved and said "bye bye" and walked off. Then, I think it kicked in that this was a little more serious and long term. He got all serious and whispered "uh-oh buh-bye?" I told him that they were leaving and that they were going home and it might be a long time before we got to see them again. He hugged them again and he said to Jack "I love you". We brought him over to the window so he could wave goodbye and he kept saying "uh-oh, uh-oh bye-bye" then his eyes all welled up and he started crying and waving. It was so incredibly sad that he realized that he was saying goodbye for real and that he cared so much and that he was going to miss them.
It was really tough to see everyone go but it was so nice to have them all here. We will certainly miss them.
When we got home tonight, Ezekiel took me by the hand, brought me to the fridge and said "Piece." I asked him if he wanted a piece of pie. He proceeded to nod with not only his head, but his entire body. So I cut him a piece of pie, left the pie uncovered on the table, and went to get him a spoon. In that short time, he managed to grab a different spoon, climb on the table and take a perfect little spoonful for himself...right down to the crust:
I still don't have a working camera, so I don't have any updated pictures to put up of Ezekiel. It is really unfortunate, but what can you do?
Ezekiel has been having some rough times - actually, you know, I think Ezekiel has been having loads of fun and just is enjoying giving US a rough time. He is King of Tantrums lately. Really bad, really loud, really long ones. I have at least figured out where they are stemming from though. They are really coming for two reasons. The first is because he is getting all four of his two-year-old molars at the same time. I know the poor baby is in pain; he just wants to make sure that everyone in the neighborhood knows he is in pain. The other reason is because I sincerely believe that he is frustrated that he isn't able to do everything we do. He really thinks that he is a little man. We have always treated him as an equal, and now he is letting us know that he doesn't like it when he isn't treated like an equal. That is proving to be really tough. For example, last weekend I noticed that he was really watching people, then he would pull his Nuk (pacifier) out of his mouth and take a look at it and get this look like "where is everyone else's Nuk?" Well, he must have decided that he didn't want to be the only one with a Nuk because he gave it up cold turkey. Last Sunday while I was putting him to bed I asked him "do you want your Nuk?" and he said yes, he stuck it in his mouth, waited for a couple of minutes and said "noooo. no Nuk-Nuk for mama, no Nuk-Nuk for mine" and he spit it out and refuses to take one now. So now he has to learn how to self-comfort in a different way. It is really, really rough. Last night he woke up at 3am screaming (SCREAMING) and wouldn't go back to bed or calm down until 7:30 this morning. Another thing that he has noticed is that we don't wear diapers. So he doesn't want to wear his diaper to bed. Doesn't want to is putting it nicely - he refuses to wear his diaper to bed. So he pee-pees the bed and it is very frustrating, but we just wait until he is nice and passed out and then we diaper him. He is incredibly strong willed, which I believe will serve him well as an adult, but it is certainly difficult to spar with him.
This year, we didn't bring him trick-or-treating. We actually couldn't find a costume in his size in any of the local stores! It was awesome though, on Halloween day, we got a package from Jack and Angie and inside there was a Halloween shirt and some kitty-cat socks that light up. He wore the shirt all day and was our baby-pumpkin. And the socks? They are really starting to stink ... he has to wear them every day. He likes best when we go for rides at night and he kicks the passenger seat and lights them up.
He's doing quite a bit of talking lately. His favorite word is probably "Helf" which is "Help". He says "helf, helf" all the time. He says "Pee-ZAH" for pizza; "cookie" he says perfectly (we bought him a cookie at Tim Horton's once, so now every time we drive past there he says "Cookie??"). He says "cow", "moon" (Daddy and Ezekiel sneak out sometimes to look at the sky and Ezekiel comes back in all excited and tells me "Moon!! Sky!!!). He says "sheep", "zebra" or "dee-bra" (Marty read him this book that says that the zebra says 'neigh-HAY-HAY' so now Ezekiel tells us that his dee-bra says nay-hay-hay-nay). He still calls Marty 'Marty' when trying to get his attention, or when he is frustrated with him. Pretty much he says any word that you will say. He loves to copy (thusly, I'm still paying for the day when I exclaimed "CRAP" as now that is one of his favorite words). He can tell you "eye" while poking you in the eye...same for hair, forehead, nose (although that is more of a honk of the nose while he says "nos") mouth, teeth, ear, cheek, belly, nipple (he has nipple-eczema so I'd always say "let me put this cream on your nipple..now he knows nipple), toes, feet, legs, and hands. He knows his colors of brown, green, yellow, blue, orange, and red. His favorite books are still by Sandra Boynton (I can recite a few by heart). He loves Dora, Diego, and the Backyardigans. He hates his jacket. He manages to stay a healthy weight without eating (34 pounds!).
And my favorite..when Marty gets home from work, no matter what he is doing he drops it and runs top speed into Marty's arms and gives him the biggest hug and kiss ever. It makes it all awesomely wonderful.
The other morning I woke up to find Ezekiel fixing my hair with elastics and hair clips. He was saying "Mine baby, mine baby, mine pretty Mommy baby". It was the sweetest.
Well, MINE baby is sick today. He just seems under the weather with the whole runny nose, scratchy throat, fever, thing. He doesn't really get sick that often, so I think it hits him hard. He barely slept last night (neither did Mommy or Daddy) so that made today pretty rough. I brought him to my Mom's to hang out and relax today. He had some quiet fun coloring and chasing the dogs around. Then he decided he was mad and had a demi-tantrum and hit his head really hard on a gate. He ran to my mom for comfort and snuggled in on her lap. It was so sweet, I had to grab my mom's camera.
Lots has been going on lately - at least electronically. Ezekiel has been going through a destructive phase (although I believe we are at the end of it). We lost our XBox 360 to pure fury; our Wii to frustration as it would not play his DVDs; both of our cameras to a purse filled with strawberry-kiwi juice - along with my Cell phone; and our computer to a shaking-baby-temper-tantrum (we weren't doing the shaking, Baby Boy was shaking the computer). That was just the electronic stuff. He also took a permanent marker to my favorite sheet set (and his legs and hands) and got my mother and me kicked out of a store in Augusta. If this is pre-two, I'm not sure that I'm going to enjoy apres-two very much. He has a permanent address in the corner...that he very much enjoys. When he does something naughty (like color on the flat-screen t.v), and he sees me coming he does this little scream (like "oh no, I'm caught!) and RUNS to the corner.
Seriously, thank God the kid is cute. In an attempt to curb swearing, I say a lot of "holy cow" and "oh my goodness". Ezekiel has started saying "OH ME COW!" when he is excited or frustrated. He also is talking in spanish some. He says things like "Vomanos!" He has been practicing his jumping - he can, on occasion, get both feet off the floor at the same time.
Well, I'm off..I'm posting two of latest pics to my pictures (I'm not able to get them to upload right...) and pics are few and far between without a camera .. maybe next paycheck :)
Before Ezekiel was born, Nana Patty gave Marty Papa's old harmonica. Marty was so excited to be able to "one day teach his son how to play". Today, they were watching a show together that featured a harmonica. Marty went and got Papa's old harmonica and showed Ezekiel how it worked. Ezekiel fell in love. He is so excited about playing it, that it makes him embarrassed and he tries to hide to play it by himself. Here he is, within minutes of discovering that the harmonica will make sounds for him:
Here is another video. He was standing on a kitchen chair chatting to me through the bar. I just thought he looked so cute, so I got it on cam:
Ezekiel has a new cousin - Shamus Matthews (a new Matthews in the mix!). We got to go see them tonight - he is beautiful. We decided to post the pictures we took so that Granddaddy Jack could get a look at his newest grandson.
It's August already and I'm realizing that I never even did a post for July. It has been a busy summer! I babysit for my sister so Ezekiel and I often have Jacob and Emily along on our adventures. Jacob is 7 and Emily is 5, so it feels like Ezekiel is growing up so fast - he just wants to keep up with the older kids.
We didn't really do anything on the 4th of July. Marty had the day off, and we just all hung out together and relaxed. It was neat because our neighbors were gone, so we set up an outdoor table in an outdoor tent and Marty and I played cribbage while Ezekiel played all day.
The 7th of July was my 33rd birthday. We had a birthday/bbq party at our place the weekend following. I think Ezekiel enjoyed it more than I did. He loves to work the crowds. He is such a little social bug.
During the end of July, I have felt really worn out. I slowly started feeling worse until last Sunday I was vomiting, exhausted, and in some serious pain. I kept telling myself 'ok, if this gets worse, I'll go to the doctor'. It built..and built...until Thursday when I called my pcp. She told me to get my butt to the E.R. I went. Come to find out my gallbladder is plum full of stones. One of the stones had released and was stuck in one of my ducts. It was/is causing my liver to work improperly and not at all so it is sort of acting like a poison. On Friday, I had an emergency meeting with a surgeon (she is fabulous - Dr. O'Rourke) and we scheduled me in to have my gall bladder removed next Thursday :( I'm not at all happy, and I'm super stressed about how everything will work out (like Marty and work, etc) but I'll be glad to feel better and stop this terrible pain.
But back to Ezekiel. We have spent a few days at Gray Animal Farm. Marty got to go with us once. It was sort of cool - Marty got to see a fisher at Gray Animal Farm, and then when we got home, we were out for a walk and a PACK of fishers crossed maybe 15 feet in front of us! It was kind of scary.
Here's Ezekiel seeing the bears for the first time:
Looking down at the bears:
Ezekiel decides he wants to get down to the bears since they look so friendly:
hmmm, he thinks maybe they will come up to see him if he calls to them under the gate:
When we got him home, he was EXHAUSTED (and sweaty, and a little sun burned even though I applied 50+ three times!) He passed out in the chair:
Close up (notice the melted popsicle under his chin):
Jacob, Emily, Ezekiel, and I went back to Gray Animal Farm a few days later. E. was NOT in a good mood. Here they are with the black bear:
Trying to get them to pose:
There was a final really huge breakdown after it was time to leave the fish (he really likes to feed the fish). We had people turning to look at us and everything while he screamed and thrashed. Jacob very calmly just reached down, took Ezekiel's hand and said "I totally understand. I don't want to leave either, but it's time". Ezekiel just stopped crying. I snapped a pic of them holding hands :)
During my birthday party, I didn't have my camera going that much, so I snagged some pictures that my mother and Angie took to include.
Trying out the various seats available:
Favorite seat in the place:
Pretty sure of himself:
SPRAYED!
I think he gets his confidence from his Daddy..who is also quite sure of himself:
Matthews' congregate:
Pool time(before Daddy changed out the nasty water):
More pool time:
Sprayed again!
We have these kids' cars that drive the kids around. The kids were all driving them around during my birthday party and just having a blast. One of them - the Jeep - is a two seater. Ezekiel got into the passenger seat and let his cousin (Jenny's son) Darius drive him around. It was a hoot. Darius didn't know what he was doing, and Ezekiel just kept grabbing the wheel. They were giggling and having a blast. I gotta say though, by the end of things, Darius had that Jeep in control and was driving Ezekiel around like a Little Miss Daisy.
Here's E. and Darius. E. is a classic hillbilly, chewing on his grass:
Marty is an awesome dad. You'll notice how he is often featured in the birthday pics helping out with the kids. He is a natural. Seriously.
Here they are getting out of a jam. I love how the Littles are helping Marty push:
Ezekiel thinks he can move it himself:
Moving on from my birthday ....
Here are the three kids on the front porch. I really tried to snap a good picture...
HE LOOKS UP!
Ezekiel loves his Jacob. Jacob doesn't get to sit by himself while he is here:
The kids have discovered my closet in the livingroom. They like to use it as a "camp". Ezekiel just likes to be naked.
LE doesn't get to sit by himself anymore either.....
Playing outside:
awwww, feeling sorry for himself:
Wearing Grammy's sweet goggles:
By the firepit (where he is NOT supposed to be):
Ezekiel has discovered his love for coloring:
He already knew about his love of eating :)
Playing outside:
Ezekiel loves, loves, loves hanging out with his daddy on the weekends. Here he is with crazy bed head and his new t-shirt that Daddy picked out for him (Nintendo Mario shirt):
