August Already

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):

ATTACK!




Takes a break for the cam:


Back to GET DADDY!

the pee-pee dance

Did you ever see that Malcolm in the Middle where we learn the pee-pee song? It's one of the few episodes I have seen, but it has served me well as of late. I can't tell you how many times I have had to sing "pee-pee in the pott-TAY! pee-pee in the pott-TAY!". And I have to dance while I sing it..it is kind of like a potty training -slash- line dancing type thing.

It works though...

I tried to take a picture..

A couple of days ago, I decided that I was going to turn Ezekiel's closet into book shelves. The doors of his closet (big, heavy farm doors) were never hung after they did the painting here, so I figured that I wouldn't hang them either. It makes his room look bigger with the doors off of the closet. So, I pulled the doors out of his closet, and I stuck them behind his bedroom door thinking that I would get around to moving them out to the garage once Marty could help me out (they are really, really heavy).
I built this sump pump cover (about 4 feet tall and 2 feet wide) thing and I put that in Ezekiel's room...just until I could get it down stairs.
Well.....yesterday, Ezekiel had a huge tantrum, ran into his room and slammed his door. The closet doors behind his bedroom doors acted as sort of dominoes and crashed down on top of him - burying him. The second door was actually caught by my sump pump thing and it slowed down the fall a little. Ezekiel of course started screaming (I was in the livingroom - already running toward the crash). I had to push through his bedroom door to get him and then pull the doors off of him. Without thinking of possible injuries, I just grabbed him and pulled him into my arms and then took off running to the kitchen. I looked for injuries - his arm was bruised up and his little legs were turning purple but I didn't see anything terrible. Then I noticed that he was holding his head and sobbing. So I move his hands and one of the doors must have come down directly on his face. Starting above his temple, right down to below his mouth, there was a perfect edge of the door print forming. I called my mother (she was right around the corner) and asked her to get here as fast as she could. Then I called Pediatrics Associates and told them what was going on..they told me to get him into the ER. So, I called Marty at work, told him what was going on and to meet us at ST Mary's. We got to the ER and they had to do facial x-rays and what not (and I had to keep explaining how it happened, when it happened, etc). There was some concern because his eyes didn't seem to be dialated right but then he was deemed OK! The nurses and the doctor kept saying "he is a tough little boy!" and "I cannot believe that didn't fracture anything, or do any damage other than cosmetic damage". So we took him home, he got some Tylenol and we had to wake him up every 4 hours to check his eyes and his motor skills, but other than that, he is the same old little guy (Just with massive brusing down the left hand side of his head)..
I tell ya, it hurts when your baby gets hurt...but it really stings when they get hurt from your own stupidity. I tried to snap a picture of the little guy's face but they wouldn't show his bruising. I did take these pictures tonight just to prove that the spunky monkey is still spunky.

It's been a long time...

It was pointed out to me that I'm not keeping up with the blogs. I actually decided to do a post because I am super proud of Ezekiel. Tonight, he had to go pee, so he went and got his potty-adapter for the big potty. I put him on the pot and he held his own penis down and pee-peed three times! He is becoming so aware of his body and what it does. It is just amazing to watch his wheels spinning while he figures things out.

I'm a little low on pictures and videos. We have been having a pretty full summer already. I have been babysitting Emily so Ezekiel has had a play friend this summer. There are also three little kids that my landlord babysits (Kalie - 4 years, Lainie - 20 months, and Owen - 17 months) that we spend a lot of time with. It is so neat to see Lainie, Owen, and Ezekiel play together. Ezekiel is right in the middle at 18 months, but he bosses the other kids around. You can really tell that we are a touchy, feely family with the hugs and kisses and tickling because he tries to interact with them like that but it doesn't always work out for the best. He does this game thing that he made up (I'm not sure if I have mentioned it before) .. it is "Belly Rubbing". You have to lift up your shirt (or he lifts it up for you) and he lifts up his shirt and he rubs his belly with your belly. It is kind of difficult for him to understand why the other kids don't understand his game and want to rub bellies all day with him.

His best friends are still all the dogs that come visit him though. He loves them. Here he is trying to talk reason to the dogs. He's not allowed to rough-house so neither should they...


Walking away....


Total frustration with those dogs. (Can't you just hear the "grrrrrrrr"?)


So sad one moment:


"Ha Ha Ha Ha" just one moment later.... /sigh, he's tough to understand sometimes :)


The neighbors put out a little kiddie pool for Owen the other day. Ezekiel walked over to it when he saw it, bent over and fell in head first. It would have been funny (he was fully dressed) but he couldn't get his head back out of the water so it really scared him. We talked to him about it and the next day, Marty took him back out to play in the pool again. We didn't want him to be scared completely of the water, just respectful. At first, he wouldn't even look at the pool, he just kept crying and crying. With lots of reasoning and hand holding, Marty was able to help him get over the fear.





I love this one...look at the fine physique:


Here he is with his friend Ollie (the landlord's dog...he is 18 years old!)


And with Bridget (or Henry as Marty insists on calling her). She is a beautiful little cardigan corgie. We wish she could come live with us.


Thinking about sharing his snacks with the dogs:


NOPE! Running from them!


The football pose:


Trying to get a picture with Grammy and Emily. Ezekiel doesn't like to be held down or stop moving for anything:


PASSED OUT! After Emily leaves for the day, Ezekiel tends to just pass right out.


Our garden is doing AWESOME. We have a bumper crop of radishes. We aren't really huge fans of radishes...but hey, they are fresh! Ezekiel loves the idea of eating out of the ground. I will pick him a radish and clean it off in the hose outside, so he can carry it around and eat it. He takes little nibbles and says "MMM, MMM, MM!" then he secretly spits it back out.

Just picked today:


Nice and clean and ready to eat:


Our asparagus and lettuce is crazy too. We have asparagus about every other night with dinner and Marty just picked a HUGE supermarket bag of lettuce (different kinds) today.

I had some extra seeds that got left out during a thunderstorm. They decided they wanted to sprout....

So I planted them all crazy like in the garden. It will be interesting if they come up and give us veggies/fruit.

We have some incredible turkey vultures, wild turkeys, hawks and eagles. This one kept swooping my head today:




Sally - landlord - said they tend to come out after the fields have been hayed because little animals tend to get killed.


Welp, I'm off....hopefully, more blogs will be coming :) Happy Father's Day to all the daddys out there!!!

So Much Going On

I haven't had time to post a blog lately - there is just so much going on. Really, we aren't even completely unpacked yet. The plan was to finish unpacking LAST weekend, but we put in the part of the garden instead. Our asparagus garden is already in full action. We just have to make it out early enough some morning to harvest it.

Marty is working in Portland at Fairpoint now. He LOVES his job. Loves, loves, loves it. He says that everyone is so happy and content and friendly he keeps feeling like he is being punked. It's a long drive, but it is also a 43% pay increase. Happy + more money? And in Maine? Incredible.

So I don't have many new pictures. I took some today even though Ezekiel is incredibly under the weather. We had Emily with us today and that was really nice. They decided it would be fun to go for a little drive in "the" Jeep:


Country driving:




Showing off and being wild:


Are you impressed Mommy?


Ezekiel has discovered our Lazy Susan Cupboard...we couldn't find him the other night.....it has been renamed the Silly Susan Cupboard.


OK, it is bragging rights time. Ezekiel now sings and hums Twinkle Twinkle Little Star perfectly. He does his ABCs and he counts to 3 with much grandeur! Oh, he also sings "Epona's Song" (points for those of you that recognize that one) and "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap".

He finds his belly button (and yours...usually in public places), his feet (or his stinkies as he likes to refer to them), his nose, and his ear (only the right one). He shakes hands when you say "nice to meet you!", he "CHEERS!" with his glass (and then slams it down and says 'ahhhhhh') and he beat-boxes his tummy just like Daddy taught him.

New Info

The computer is going to be "broken down" in the new hour or so, so I figured I'd jump on and post this info.

Our land lines are being shut down - at least until we get settled in a bit and we have time to make a phone call to find out who the local provider is out there. Same with our internet. We do both still have our cell phones though..so that will be the best way to reach us.

Things are moving really fast with Marty's new job! He wasn't supposed to start until the 12th, but he got an email last night saying "please report to work on the 5th so he ran into his current job and let them know that he wouldn't be finishing off his two week notice.

Our new address is:

Matthews
791-1 Bald Hill Road
New Gloucester, ME 04260

OK, signing off for a bit!