Crib!

After 8 months, our little boy finally has a crib! Tal and I were co-sleeping with the Ezra man for the first 6 months of his life, and then we couldn't find a crib that we both agreed on. Lucky for us, the family baby shower last month forced us to make a decision (the crib was the group gift). We finally found one we both liked by Baby Mod. Are you ready for a MILLION pictures??

p.s. It's like 95 today so Ezra is having a white trash day in only his diaper...don't judge us yous!!!

Talin,the master craftsman,took charge of assemblying the bits....
Ezra and I played Gymboree in the front room on his brand new matress......
Oh the mess....are you sure you're doing this right Talin?.....Trust me JEN!!
TA DA!!!! Notice the Owen cat in his supervisor role.....
Oh hi...want to get in and play?
Peek-a-boo....isn't that the saddest unicorn horn bruise? The learning to crawl has not been kind to Ezra's little head.Daddy Talin, you're AWESOME! He seriously set up the crib in 30 minutes flat!
That's right...I CAN STAND!
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this gift! We've been so blessed!!

The Academy of the Sciences

Lucky us! Ezra and I were invited to go to the California Academy of the Sciences with our good friends Bethany and Sophia.
We went SUPER early to beat the crowds and get into the rainforest dome before the line got too long.
Look at these beautiful butterlies...they just fly around and randomly land on people and things. SO CUTE!

Then we went downstairs to sit in a watery tunnel while fish floated around and above us...
Ezra really like this giant catfish...he kept bonking his head on the glass to try and get a better look.
Then we moved on to the aquarium...Where we got to see a diver collecting samples....
He waved at us...which made Ezra giggle...But then he was right back to some serious fishy watching.

After that, it was on to see the penguins...
but unfortunately the poor baby man was too sleepy by then...lucky for him Sophia's cool stroller fully reclined!
She was so nice to let him use it while she chilled in our blue stroller.

Thanks for inviting us you cute Sebra's

We had so much fun!

Reunion

For Ezra's 8 month birthday yesterday we went down to Santa Cruz to have a little reunion with our doula Rachel. It was so fun to finally get to meet her adorable children and husband. Ezra had so much fun playing with the "big" kids (he loves kids!!) and all of their cool toys (including a really funky inflatable pony called a Rody).


Then we took him out back to see the garden and meet the chickens. He L-O-V-E-D the chickens! I think he thought it was funny how they just kept clucking (they were super friendly too, they kept begging to be held and snuggled). To round out the night, we met up with some of Rachel's old friends (whom she thought we would really hit it off with, and she was right! )at a super yummy Mexican restaurant on the beach. Driving back through the dark, forested, mountains of Santa Cruz, Talin and I were talking about how blessed we have been. Rachel's presence at Ezra's birth (and her continued presence in our lives) has been such a blessing! Yay doulas...yay for Rachel =)


(Tal and I were having so much fun, we pretty much only took 5 pictures...I didn't even get any shots of the chickens! BOO!)

Brightly colored butcher paper, fancy borders, name tags....SIGH!

As most of you already know, I've decided to stay home with baby Ezra and not teach this year (it was the HARDEST decision of my life...filled with tears, prayers, and finally peace). When I realized that I wouldn't get to go to the teacher store to pick out cute things, or sit for hours in an empty room, decorating and planning (oh how I LOVE to plan!), I was almost reduced to tears again. Happily, my former coworkers and friends called me to come down and help them! How LUCKY am I!!! Here's a few shots of Ezra "helping" the Palo Alto team get ready for the 2009-2010 school year.

Who wouldn't love a furry, technicolor, stuffed monkey three times their size? Apparently not Ezra....note the frantic scrambling to get away! (these two have since made up and the sight of giant, freaky, monkey now makes Ezra burst into giggles and whole body jumping!)

Mr. Moral was giving out free rides on the curriculum cart. P.s. he has a hold of Ezra from behind...I SWEAR we were not just banking on my baby's incredible balance to keep him on that ride...although he does have some pretty incredible balance skills! =)


And of course, what visit to Palo Alto would be complete without a complete snuggle attack from "Tia" Shefali. So cute!

I just realized we don't have any pictures of Allyson and her beautiful room (the room we've been spending our time in). Guess I'll have to get those next week. Hooray for adventures!

Upcycling and yogurt

I've been looking at the stack of formula cans in the kitchen waiting to go out to the recycling bin and I realized...I could probably use those for something. I've been following a blog called Mod Podge Rocks, and It gave me an idea...

TA DA! baby toy storage bins!
One holds the many tiny finger puppets and little stuffed monsters...

another holds all of the hard toys like plastic ball, duckies, etc..

The last one is my favorite (because it's made out of paper I stole from my Mom's house) it holds the fun tubes of finger paints that Ezra delves into almost every day.

When we're done playing with what's inside we stuff it all in and close the lid...although the new game has become..pull it out...put it back...pull it out...put it back...so funny!

Today we decided to try yogurt. I haven't been able to stomach the stuff since I was in elementary school (not counting the drinkable ones I chugged when I was pregnant!) but Ezra....

LOVES IT! Stoneybrook farms makes an organic Yobaby yogurt that has pear and green bean puree on the bottom. How awesome is that? Soooo....even though the smell makes me dry heave...I guess I'll just plug my nose. =)

Ever have one of those bad hair days?

Ezra woke up with this "ducky" hair do. I couldn't help but takes tons of pictures...it made me laugh so hard!!

Balloon fun and other joys...

Last night Talin took Ezra to get pizza, and when they returned Ezra was proudly clutching a bright orange balloon. Talin said that the manager had handed Ezra the balloon and he hadn't let go of it since...
He refused to let go of it...

even in the bath! =)


Lately Ezra's been doing this silly little wounded soldier crawl. He LOVES to attempt to catch the cats. He gets SO excited when he does finally get them. =) Sorry there's no sound...I took this with the olympus.

And last...here's is Ezra's happy food dance...complete with clap! I should add that he was eating asparagus when this little dance came about. He looks so much like his cousin Jonah when he does this...I'm pretty sure that's where he learned it. =)

Friday lunchdate with the Daddy and the tongue!

On Friday we went up to the city to have lunch with Talin in Dolores Park. It was such a beautiful day, and Ezra was beyond happy to see his daddy in the middle of the day!


When we got home Ezra was SOOOO mad that Talin didn't come with! The only thing that calmed him down was sitting in his high chair, looking out the window, and waiting for him to come home! (when Tal did get home, Ezra saw him walking up the street and did a squealy little happy dance!)


On another note, Ezra has discovered that he can stick out his tongue! The best part about this discovery, is that once he sticks it out he LEAVES it out...until one of us laughs at him..and then he laughs back...such a funny boy!!