Babies learn more...

I read an article in American Baby that said infants learn more in 3D. In other words, a baby learns more from watching their Mom, Dad and neighbors then they do from pictures or other learning aids. We love reading to Ezra and that will never stop, but the new goal is to get him more 3D stimulation...aka...MORE PEOPLE! =) Yesterday, Ezra and I went to brunch with the ladies from the ward. It was GREAT! Ezra would cry every time I put him over my shoulder because he couldn't see anyone anymore. As soon as I sat him in my lap to watch the kids running around and analyze the people talking, he would settle right down. Today we went to lunch at Stratford. It was fun to be surrounded by grown-ups but Ezra got WAY to overstimulated...we're going to have to do this in a slow progression. Before he got so mad I was able to take some pictures though....

Beautiful Allyson


Lovely Shefali


We came home and got settled enough to actually eat lunch (Ratatouille for me...mmmmm..Trader Joe's I love you!) Ezra ate a little better this time. We started mixing baby acidophilus into his bottles to help settle his stomach and see if that helps him eat better. The jury is still out on it, but he seemed a little more content. All in all it was a pretty crazy day. It was fun to see everyone though. =)

Secret friends

Last year, Talin and I brought home Owen as a Valentine's Day gift for our Emma girl. From day one, she was SOOOO excited to meet, wrestle, and generally be around him. Owen on the other hand has never been that enthused about her. She's the little sister who plays too rough and follows him around the house when all he really wants to do is have a deep intellectual chat with Talin about the softness of the blanket he's laying on. We're pretty sure, actually, that Owen thinks he is one of us....and to acknowledge, or worse yet, play with Emma, would be degrading. But....secretly...when he thinks no one is looking....

CAUGHT YOU RED HANDED OWEN!!

Facebook Fun

I know that some of you don't have a facebook account (Dad..Krissy...LISA!) so I wanted to share with you the latest game that's going around. It's called create your own band and album cover, here are the steps:

1 - Go to Wikipedia. Hit “random”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to Quotations Page and select "random quotations"
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote on the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use Photoshop, Paint, or similar to put it all together.

It's INSANE how well this works!

This one is Talin's


This one is mine


This is our friend Ivy's


This is our friend Erika's


Try it out.....even if you don't actually put them together in photoshop to make a finished product it's just fun to see what comes up.

Raaaar

Our cute friend Ivy gave Ezra a new hat last night. It's his Owen cat hat





We went to the doctor today because Ezra has decided that he would like to go back to the infant days of eating 2 ounces every 2 hours...instead of 4 ounces every four hours like most 2 month olds. Despite his recent regression, he still weighs 14 POUNDS! Wow! Has anyone else ever had a baby that decided to eat less instead of more?

Bebe Pod

Lately Ezra has been the king of trying to sit up. Whenever Tal or I angle him back on a pillow, he grunts and uses his crazy strong ab muscles to pull himself up into a sitting position...of course he's still too young to hold it so he either topples over to the side or slowly..slowly..sinks down to his toes. =) I've been looking at the Bumbo but the leg holes seem really pinchy...ouch...last night I found a Bebe Pod, which has bigger leg holes, at a great price so I snagged it! Ezra loves it-he still has a way to go before he can use it without Tal or I sitting right next to him to make sure that he doesn't fall over or lose control of his neck, but he gets so dang smiley whenever we put him in it.

Cousins

I was going through some older pictures today and I found some of Ezra's cousin Jonah. It makes me laugh how similar they look. They definitely look like their fathers but the Berg girls seem to have twin-er babies! Can you tell which is which? Love you Vincent family.

Look what I discovered!

Today I was taking pictures of Ezra and I realized that my camera can take video too!
Granted there's no sound...but his personality comes through anyway. My favorite are his kicky legs! He's so active with those things. =)

Tagged by Krissy

Five Things I Was Doing Five Years Ago:
1 - Freaking out about student teaching
2 - Working at Challenger
3 - Dating sweet Talin
4 - Living with my parents..Ack that was hard! Right Dad? =)
5 - Snuggling my Harold cat...I miss him so much!!

Five Things on Today's To-Do List
1 - Laundry
2 - Grocery shopping
3 - Give Ezra a bath
4 - Make sure Ezra gets enough tummy time
5 - Pull out old clothes and baby clothes to go to the DI.

Five Things I Would Do with a Million Dollars
1 - Pay off Talin's student loans
2 - Buy a house with a yard and a pool...maybe some palm trees...
3 - Set up a college account for Ezra
4 - Buy all of the animals from the city's worst shelters and pay for them to live at Best Friend's sanctuary for the rest of their lives...or until they're adopted
5 - Buy a huge plot of land in Heber for my parents and sisters to live on with room for a vacation house for us. =)

Five Places I've Lived
1 - West Jordan, UT
2 - Provo, UT
3 - Oakland, CA
4 - San Mateo, CA
5 - and...that's it..hmm guess I hate moving. =)

Five Jobs I've Held
1 - 1-800-Contacts customer service
2 - Verizon Wireless customer service
3 - Office Manager at a chiropractic clinic
4 - After school program supervisor
5 - Teacher

Five Things I Want in Five Years
1 - I'm copying Krissy on this one...healthy baby, healthy husband, and healthy me! =)
2 - Less contention and stress
3 - A little sister for Ezra
4 - A house with a yard and maybe a dog for Talin
5 - Financial stability

Five People I Tag
1 - Talin...he never does these! =)
2 - Melissa...I always tag you poor friend!
3 - Christina
4 - Bethany
5 - Mary

Pommelo party and a two month old

A few people have asked me what a Pommelo is, so I thought I'd post a few pictures of the GIANTS we got on Saturday. They're basically a HUGE grapefruit...but without the bitterness of a grapefruit. They're incredibly sweet and crisp..but still very citrusy. =) Another one of our new discoveries at the market is celery root. It has the texture of a potato, but tastes like celery. I chop it up and put it in vegetable soup...mmmmmmm!

Our Ezra man is two months old today! That blows my mind! I'm still always a little shocked when I look at him...like "woah-you're totally that little person that used to live inside my belly!"
He is growing so fast! He can hold his neck up (although when he gets tired it gets wobbly..Talin says it looks like he's jiving...) He is SOOOO close to an actual laugh, I'm honestly just waiting for it! He recognizes our faces and voices and he always gives us a HUGE smile when he sees us. He can track things and stares at black,white, and red patterns. He loves to sing and be sung too. His favorite "action" song is head, shoulders, knees, and toes..he stretches his long legs all the way out so that Tal and I can really grab his knees and by the time we get to the "eyes, ears, mouth and nose" part, he scrunches his shoulders up to his neck and opens his mouth in a wide smile. He's only getting up to eat twice at night (technically the last bottle is at 6 am which really isn't night time anymore..but we both go back to sleep after that so...) He still isn't the biggest fan of tummy time, but looking at himself in the big mirror while he does it seems to help.
Yep-almost two months ago..almost exactly to the hour...Ezra came flying into our world and we are so grateful! =)

Best Valentine's Day EVER!

Our family had so much fun yesterday! We started with a trip to the farmer's market (our Saturday standard) to get TONS of vegetables and fruit. We branched out and bought some Pommelos this time. =) Then we went home and made/decorated cookies for some of our friends and neighbors. After a quick nap for Ezra, we went around delivering the Valentine goodies. Ezra was GREAT in his car seat..only a few tears.

Then we came home and opened Valentine gifts! How fun! Talin gave me the yummiest lip gloss from Sephora and a bag of chocolate covered cinnamon gummi bears. I gave him a Fraggle Rock dvd to go with his growing collection of Muppet Videos. Ezra got a new polka dot lion (to match his polka dot elephant) and a package filled with goodies from his Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Allie Wadsworth.

Once the present opening was through we got a little silly with the camera. Ezra is so dang funny! He looks RIGHT into the camera almost every time. We got some really great home videos too-I wish we could post those-but we're still working all that out.
Grandma and Grandpa Berg wanted to send us on a special "Valentine date" but Tal and I are still anxious about leaving the baby with others sooo....they called and ordered a pizza for us and sent us an i-tunes certificate to buy our two favorite movies. SO SWEET! I've got to say...for a day all about celebrating love...our home couldn't have been happier. =) HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY EVERYONE!!!

Early Valentine's Day

Ezra and i finally got up the courage to go down to the school and say hello to the kids.....ok...technically it was just me who needed the courage boost...Ezra LOVES meeting new people! In the past week or so he has morphed into king social. He's always been cute and excited around new people, but lately when he hears a crowd or sees a new face, he lights up! I on the other hand have started seeing people as giant germ factories (see my previous post about the sweet Costco lady). I really wanted the kids to meet Ezra though, and we had a little Valentine gift to give them so my compromise was to take him down in the Moby Wrap. But, when we got out of the car ...he wanted NOTHING to do with the wrap!! He wanted to be facing out and seeing the world but he's just not quite there with his head control...SOOO I took off the wrap and he just hung out in my arms. He was so cute with the kids!! Smiley, cooey, dimply..he's SO close to laughing, but not quite!
Word of his arrival spread like wildfire and soon he was SURROUNDED by teachers and students all oooohhhhing and aaaaaahhhhing at his adorable face. I felt so privileged to be the one holding him. Eventually, he was overwhelmed and succumbed to a deeeeeeeeep sleep. I got to hang out in the staff room and talk to my friends while he slept. It was so fun to see everyone again and hear stories of what had been going on since I left. All in all I feel like it was a successful outing. He's not crying as much in his car seat (of course I have to play Claire de lune non-stop or the tears start again...I wonder if it's just Debussy that he finds comforting or if I could try other composers) I just hope he doesn't get sick...I know I can't protect him from it forever but this is a stage of parenting that I'm going to have to ease into. =)

Family Picture

Not professional quality (fuzzy baby head...) but this was the picture we took during family time last night. Look at Ezra LOVING the look of himself in the mirror! =)

Our Favorite Things

Ezra's favorite bath time song is "Favorite Things" from the sound of music. He loves to be swirled around in the water and smiles, even tries to sing along, when we sing this song.
I thought it might be fun to list a few of our family's favorite things. (in no particular order)

Ezra
1. Swinging off to sleep with a binki.
2. Talking and singing with Daddy in the early morning.
3. The super cooshy kitty blanket from Aunt Allie and Grandma Maridawn. Best tummy time blanket ever!
4. Drinking a warm bottle and marveling at the way light comes in through a window.
5. The polka dot ears on his blue elephant.

Emma
1. The radiator!
2. Kicking Owen around the house.
3. Laying on her back with her legs in the air.
4. Being brushed!
5. Sleeping all day.

Owen
1. Being as close to Talin as possible.
2. Eating out of the food bowl before Emma does.
3. Running around the house like a crazy man.
4. Eating EVERYTHING he finds!
5. Playing in the bathtub.

Daddy
1. Really good coke...especially Mexican coke.
2. Good design in ANY form.
3. New music.
4. Staying up late and playing World of Warcraft in the dark.
5. Seeing new movies..in the theater..the DAY they come out..with popcorn!

Mommy
1. Being as close to Talin as possible.
2. Soup, soup, soup!
3. Rainy days after a long time without clouds.
4. Snuggling brand new clean Ezra and smelling his chick fuzz hair.
5. The smell and sound of the ocean...and the way it crinkles my hair even when I've only been there for a few minutes.

Oh so fun!!

My AWESOME friend Dru invited Ezra and I to a free class at Gymboree today. It was so fun! We sat around a huge multicolored parachute and met new babies. During tummy time Ezra refused to look down into the giant mirror underneath him and instead spent his time gazing at all of the other infants in the room like "oh....my....gosh...I'm totally not the only small person in this giant world!!!" He was the youngest in the room but definiently not the smallest. =) He had so much fun...that.....well...see for yourself
That's right...HE FELL ASLEEP!! And not just asleep, FAST asleep...he was completely out. See that pile of toys behind him ..yeah those are all the different toys that he would have played with and learned new little rhymes while he and I giggled at each other. Oh I love my sleepy boy! I'm just so glad we didn't buy a membership..I think we'll wait until he's older!

After class Dru came back to the apartment to share new mommy stories. ( I love that girl!!) and while we were sitting on the couch a quiet knock came on the door...it was my building manager...with Owen in her arms...he'd been out roaming the halls for the ENTIRE HOUR that I had been gone!!!!! Oh man...guess i better brush up on my baby sitting skills...if I can't keep track on ONE cat how will I ever keep tabs on the babe. HA!

Yoda

On Friday, my friend Allyson came over to meet Ezra and play for a few hours. It was so much fun!! While we were sitting there talking, Allyson laughed and said "I just realized who Ezra reminds me of..YODA!" At first I was like "what?" but then he looked up at us and we all burst out laughing..he is totally Yoda!!

Come to think of it...don't most babies look like Yoda...or is it that Yoda looks like a baby? Hahahaha..I think it's the little old man look. Although, Ezra's face is starting to fill out. He's losing the newborn puffiness and wrinkles of skin. =)

Quiet sunday realizations

I'm sitting here in a quiet house (the boys...Talin, Ezra AND Owen are taking a nap in the back room) looking out the window at the peaceful rainy day and petting my sweet Emma girl. It's one of those moments where I realize that I'm exactly where I want to be. For all of my whining about how hard it is to be a new mom and how much I miss Talin while he's at work...it's the understated times like this one that help me remember just how how truly blessed I am.

Couldn't have said it better

My friend Bethany and her cute daughter Sophia came over yesterday to play. While we were talking about what it's like to be a new mom, Bethany showed me a post on her blog that she wrote a few weeks after Sophia was born. I laughed so hard because it is totally how I would describe what Ezra and I are going through right now. Not only is it well written, it's freaking hilarious! I wanted to share with you guys what she said.....

Friday, March 14, 2008
prisoner or just a new mom?
Today I realized that if I have many things in common with a prisoner serving time in jail. In fact, if I were to describe my daily activities, a person probably wouldn't be able to tell if I was prisoner or just a new mom. I will explain:

I am confined daily to a small space (my apartment). There is a warden (Sophie) who watches over my every move. I am restricted in the activities that I am allowed to do. In fact I am only allowed to do 3 activities each day (feed Sophie, change Sophie's diaper, and hold Sophie). If I try to do anything other than those 3 activities, the warden yells and screams at me. Many days, I wear a uniform day and night (my pajamas)- the reason being that if I did something like change my clothes or brushed my teeth, I would be doing something other than one of the 3 acceptable activites and therefore the warden would yell at me again. I do not have control over my schedule- I am told when to wake up and when I am allowed to sleep by the warden. If I have shown good behavior, I am occasionally allowed recreational time outside. This time is short and is heavily monitored by the warden. At anytime if she thinks I have crossed the line, she lets me know my time is up and it's back to the jail cell again.

I've been told by many that it will only be like this for a short time. It's a nice thought, but I don't know that I believe them...I'm pretty sure I was issued a life sentence without opportunity for parole...
Posted by Bethany at 1:40 PM

Ezra doesn't mind so much what I do IN our little jail..he just never, never, never, wants to leave!! It's not that we don't love our wardens...it's just that it would be nice if they decided to let us out more often! =) Thanks Bethany for putting it so beautifully!

Back in business

The camera is back! I really should look into getting a new one though..the Olympus has served me well but I think it might be time to move on. Any suggestions?

p.s. Don't you love that Ezra just HAS to look out the window no matter which way I lay him down. He loves those windows! =) I think that may be why he hates his carseat so much...no window view!

Phone Videos

Ezra loves his daddy!



Learning to whistle.

Phone Pictures

Here are some pictures of Ezra that I've taken on my phone. (Hooray for cell phones with cameras in them!)

Hanging out with Owen...

Getting ready for church...

Watching the rain fall outside our window..

Helping me make the bed....

Update

It's been a while since we posted anything, so I thought I'd add a quick update. My camera is dead (again..I need to get a better battery or something!) so there aren't really any fun pictures to post. Ezra is getting bigger every day. His new favorite thing to do is push little spity bubble out of his mouth when we're talking to him. SO cute! He's doing a pretty good job of holding his head up (when he's not too tired) and his skinny little legs are actually getting pretty pudgy.
Talin's grandparents and mom came to visit this weekend. It was so great for Ezra to feel their love for him and hear their voices. We went to breakfast at Copenhagen, hung out a a SUPER fun candy store,played at the farmers market (yay for fresh oranges) and spent lots of quality time at the house.
I have my six week postpartum appointment this week (oh man...please say that I can get back to my regular life) and Ezra is gearing up for his two month appointment soon (ack! Shots!) Talin has eased back into work and is an INCREDIBLE daddy when he comes home. I am so proud of him. I know that not seeing his little boy all day is hard!
We're planning a visit to Utah in late March or early April to visit friends and family.
Owen and Emma are actually becoming better friends. WHOO HOO! I found them snuggled next to each other on the couch the other day. =)
Well..I think that's everything. Hopefully next time i'll have some pictures to add. =)