Summer is Ending

I fear that Ezekiel's summer hasn't been as great or as active as he would like. I'm so tired all the time; and I'm growing so fast that I have to take it easy a lot of the time. I tend to cramp after being outside for only 15 minutes, so our trips are usually short. He is SO active right now that I know being cooped up is difficult on him.

These pics are from our last trip to DEW Animal Kingdom (I know it seems like we are always going there - he just loves it SO much). He loves talking about all of the animals that he has seen there and playing "wild animal" at home..... as a matter of fact, he just told Marty "Baby Moose (his name for himself) has plans to buy a lion tomorrow"



Here he is feeding the piglets. Marty wanted to buy one (they were $50) and bring it home as a pet for Ezekiel!


He is still a little nervous around some of the animals. Oddly, especially the goats and sheep:




He did decide to give this guy a kiss right on the nose, though:


Here he is buying food to feed the Black Bears (he calls them "polar bears")


He's proud after feeding them:




Marty decided that he needed a little rest, so he sat on one of the benches. Ezekiel thought that was a fine idea so he plopped himself right into the dirty mud outside one of the enclosures!


Here he is looking up, up, up at the camels:


The other day, Ezekiel came running out to find me and Marty telling us "look at me, look at me! I did art!" So we follow him... where he points to the bathroom door. He tells us "look! a boat!" I had to take a picture of it as it really does look like a boat!


We bring him to one of the local schools so he can play on the playground. The equipment is geared for kids 5 and up, but he does a pretty good job on it! Marty and I are still Nervous Nancies about it though!




















Here he is being silly. He climbed into the bathtub to "take a rest"


We went shopping yesterday and Ezekiel found a red baseball cap that he wanted. He told me that it is his "Ash Hat" (of course, when he says it, it doesn't sound quite like 'Ash'...) Ash is the lead character of Pokemon. He is a HUGE Pokemon fan. He and Marty watch it faithfully every Saturday morning (I get to sleep late) and then he discusses the various Pokemon in detail and by name. He is quite funny about it.

Rain Rain Go AWAY!

We have a rain storm every day here! Actually, I think there was ONE day that it did not rain at all. It is really creating some cabin fever for Ezekiel. We are having these massive thunder storms that you just don't want to leave the house in. The other day we had one of the largest rainstorms I've ever seen. There wasn't any lightening so I asked Ezekiel if he wanted to go out and play. "Right now?" he says. I said "yeah, right now". He says "Ma, it's raining out. No play in the rain." I asked him if he at least wanted to give it a try and that I'd let him go out naked in the rain. That was all it took. He was all gung-ho and ready to go!

Here he is catching the rain and hollering about it:


Here is the massive rainbow (the first one he has every seen) that the rain created:


Here he is playing with the sump-pump hose. He calls it his fire-man hose:





Here he is just being silly in the rain:








I LOVE this one with his little chub:


Running through the field with the rainbow in the background:


Taking a breather:

A Mish Mash of a Month's Past

I have so much catching up to do on Ezekiel's site! My goodness! When I get extra time, I really, really need the time lately to just relax and sleep. I am pooped out!! This is really a mish-mash of dates from the last 4-5 weeks.

These first photos are from our first trip this year to D.E.W. Animal Kingdom. We hadn't been with Ezekiel since he was about 6 months old, so it was really exciting for him. When we first got there, we thought that we would put him in the stroller to be able to see everything. Yah, right!! He told us "no stroller" and refused to ride in it. He wanted to get up close and possible with as many of the animals as he could. He got licked by a huge deer (which is one of his most favorite stories to tell), he was petrified of the goats, and he loved the fact that he *finally* got to pet a live kangaroo (or kangaroon as he calls them). Here he is with Daddy getting ready to feed some of the animals. This was the llama and sheep section. He was a little nervous about them, but a real trooper (with Daddy's encouragement)!







He loved, loved, loved the bears! They have a tube set up so you can buy "bear food" and put it down the tube for them to eat. One of the bears stands at the end of the tube waiting for food. Ezekiel LOVED that! Here he is standing on the stump feeding the bears:






Here's Marty and E. at the end of our trip. You can tell that they are both pretty tired!


Ezekiel did his best to stay awake for the rest of the night, but he crawled in Marty's lap and ended up crashing (while holding a chinese meat stick!! haha):


Ezekiel went over to Grammy's the other day and stole one of her necklaces that the kids made her. He loves that thing now!
I think he might think it is candy...






Watching t.v. and zoning out:




Ezekiel LOVES his bike! He calls it his "Bicycle Helmet". He has finally mastered the pedals so he can go "fast, fast!"





This one..... I'm not really sure.....


Marty and I take Ezekiel on "special dates" to get ice cream. He gets his ice cream cone, we park the car and then he gets to come sit with us in the front seat to eat it. He always tells us that this makes him feel "really, really big-boy". He especially likes to rearrange the rear-view mirror so that he can watch his every ice cream bite. He loves himself.