Ezra Funnies

Ezra is about 4.5 years old, and I really like his age and stage.  He is bursting with ideas and scenarios, and new twists on the normal.  He seems very genuinely happy with life and content with his little world.  Everyday he comes up with a new version of his favorite theme: the life and times of sea creatures.

One day, four of Ezra's toughest creatures (horseshoe crab, polar bear, Ankylosaurus, and great white shark) were generals in an army battling against one horrible foe--Tyrannosaurus rex.  When I checked back later, the generals had amassed a battalion and they were all in formation in neat rows and blocks advancing toward the enemy aggressor.  

Marching into battle

Another day he built several aquarium tanks out of building blocks.  In the first aquarium he assembled all his sharks; the menu of the day was a good chunk of meat--the poor T-rex.  In the second aquarium he assembled all his whales (the non-carnivorous types) and they were gorging themselves on a several different types of vegetables from Maren's play food collection.

The vegetarian tank

This week the building blocks were put in many groups of short lines as life-boats after pirates capsized the dinosaur cruise ship.  Each little block life-boat held one or two dinosaurs, and each little life boat was being pushed along to shore by a friendly local whale.

Sometimes the train station is managed by aquatic life.  Other times the used car lot of Matchbox cars has been over-run by sharks eager to acquire a set of wheels.  Almost always there are towers, creatures, and a story to tell.  I love that he is so entertained by such simple things.

Ezra also loves art projects.  This love didn't just drop out of the sky; I love to create, and I make artistic projects available most every day.  He has definitely taken to that freedom of expression.  Sometimes, the first thing he says in the morning is, "Mom, I need to draw.  I need paper."  As you may have guessed, most often he is author and illustrator of his own sea creature adventure series.  "Mom, this narwhal got trapped in the fisherman's net and all these dots are the mice coming to save him."  Only on a very rare occasion does he draw people, and most often, his drawings don't really look like much to me, but they are so very real to him!  

My favorite Ezra drawing--a portrait of the beloved Bear!

Ezra loves trying to sound out words and group like letters.

He is also in love with letters, books, and pasta.  And speaking of pasta, here is a darling little Ezra conversation from last week:

I was making dinner, and Ezra discovered it was pasta.  He approached with a troubled look on his face, "Mom, I was thinking that I needed to learn some words, but now I can't."
"Oh, really?  Why is that?"
"Because pasta is too distracting!"

Last week Ezra came to me all distraught with a bundle of papers covered in neat little rows of chicken-scratch.

"Mom, I have a big problem.  I need someone to say the prayer at church, but the only one who said he would do it is Bear!"  (Dallin is executive secretary in the ward, and he has to find people to say prayers every Sunday for sacrament...it can sometimes be a difficult responsibility.)