Ezra: 5 years

It is birthday season here, and Ezra recently turned five, so forgive me for another in-depth look at my sweetie boy.

• Ezra is a thinker.  He is very much his father's son, and I can already see the engineer brain in him.  He loves reading books and learning new things.  He loves asking questions, and consulting the "ok Google" function on my phone.  He is a knowledge sponge; he has this insatiable need to know, and processes information with remarkable efficiency.  I can almost see the neat rows of boxes in his brain; I can imagine him filing away tidbits in carefully organized compartments for later recall.  Ezra also has a memory like a steel trap.  On a number of occasions he has said, "But Mom, don't you remember when..." and he will recall with great accuracy some random comment I made about this or that several months earlier.  Yea, that is my Ezra boy.  
• Ezra loves the truth.  Almost as much as he needs to know facts, he needs to know the reality of things.  The classic example is our heart-to-heart conversation last Christmas--when he was just four--about the reality of Santa Claus.  He had some disconcertingly intelligent questions about his modus operandi, and came to the conclusion after examining the facts, that Santa Claus was in fact, not real.  Often when we read a book or watch a movie, he will ask, "Did that really happen?"  "Is that really true?"  He asked that question after watching the animated movie Anastasia recently.  In basic terms, we discussed the real story of the Romanov family, the Bolshevik police, the Russian Revolution, and Communism.  He was fascinated.
• Ezra is confident in his interests.  At his five-year well check, the pediatrician asked him a number of questions.  Among them she asked, "Do you have friends at school?"  He immediately responded, "No I don't need friends, I like to do what I like by myself."  She was quite surprised, and said that most children at this age crave friends, and assume that everyone likes them.  Nearly all his school peers and church associates are enamored with super heroes and sports; Ezra hardly gives those genres a second glance.  He is the budding scientist, and continues to be fascinated with all things animal.  One of his favorite pastimes is studying the animal encyclopedia.  
• Ezra has serious focus.  Ezra can sit for an hour or more engrossed in a stack of books.  He will studiously fill whole notebooks of letters and drawings in a day.  And, when he is in the mood, he is neat, tidy, and organized; his bed and box of things is a favorite area to fix up and set right.  Today, for example, he filled a pint Mason jar with numbers written on miniature sticky notes.  He explained that the numbers represented money saved for the temple in China.  He was saving it up to give to the bishop so China could have its own temple, "And a church building too," he added, if there was enough left over.
• Ezra struggles with new or challenging tasks.  Ezra tends to shut down when things get too hard.  He has done that since he was a baby.  I think it is a control issue.  He likes to feel confident, and capable, and anything new or challenging tends to unravel him.  He is not driven by competition.  He will not dive into a new activity if he senses it is not safe or doable.  He is not a dare devil.  Better safe than sorry is how he likes to operate.  Maren tends to try new things before him.    
• Ezra is growing into the big brother role.  Recently, I saw a touching example of Ezra being the protecting older brother.  We went to a park, Ezra and Maren were having a lovely time playing together, and then two boys maybe seven and four showed up, and proceeded to claim all park property as their own, refuse access to various play structures, and yell, chase, and generally bully Ezra and Maren.  I was impressed with Ezra's calm reasoning.  From a distance I could hear him addressing the boys, "I think playing together is more fun than fighting.  I choose to walk away," and then he carefully led Maren away, who was cradled under his arm.  At another tense moment, Ezra rescued Maren and hugged her tightly, and said, "This is my best sister, and you can't scare her."  Yesterday while I was in the shower, Ezra took initiative and cleared the breakfast dishes, wiped the table, tidied the living room, and stacked all the library books.  Later, he gave me a little tour of his work, and said matter-of-factly, "Mommy, you can't do all the jobs anymore, I need to do them.  You have a big belly."  Cute boy!               

  

  His b'day request: pumpkin muffins with whipped cream & chocolate bunnies 

Maren: 3 years old

Maren turned three in August, and her birthday is a great time to record some thoughts about her.

• Maren loves to ride.  Maren got a three-wheeled scooter from her Grandma Denise as an early birthday present.  She loves her scooter like Ezra loves his bear, and that is really saying something.  Maren is off like a shot on her scooter as soon as the garage door opens.  She is her very happiest on her scooter.  Truly, the best part of her day is scooter riding.  She has absolutely no fear, flying here, there, and everywhere at lightening speed.  Maren has mastered the hip lean in order to turn, and looks like a real pro at parks.  She really turns heads: wavy blonde hair flying, princess helmet, often a big poofy skirt, pink clogs, and an Olympic smile as she whizzes up ramps, and through people, around obstacles, and back again to where I watch.  Again, and again she make loops, and comes back to me just long enough to say, "Mommy, this is the best fun ever!"  I love that she has found a true love, and can feel so free and happy in an activity.  Thank you Grandma!
• Maren is feisty.  It is her personality.  She is no push-over, and she doesn't have a passive, or even passive-aggressive response to anything.  If she has been slighted, she will make it known.  It is just a matter of course that my three-year old yells at me quite a bit in the course of a day.  I pick my battles carefully, because she is a fighter.    
• Maren is emotions-focused.  When Ezra and Maren get into a skiff, no matter the type of insult from her brother (pinch, push, bite, kick, mean words, stolen toy, etc.), Maren comes running with great sobs (because she is also quite theatrical), and exclaims, almost without exception, "Ezra hurt my feelings!"  I find this rather fascinating.  She has been using this expression for a good three months.  There may be pain involved, but it is always a feelings issue with her.  Her feelings have been damaged, and her emotional psyche is wounded.  I am intrigued that she has made that connection, and needs balm for injured feelings.  Ezra, as verbally adept as he is, just doesn't communicate about emotional injury.
• Maren is kind of dreamy, and lost-in-a cloud sometimes.  Schedule?  Time constraint?  Follow-through?  What?  Maren Marie, darling, darling girl that she is, has a really hard time with task completion.  "Maren, find your shoes," for example, can be a 20-minute endeavor because she forgets and/or gets distracted by more enticing activities.  Unless the task is directly related to going on a scooter ride, she has little motivation for things like "find clothes", "brush teeth", "clean room", etc.  Lately, her favorite things are princesses and ballerinas, and at times she spends hours doing mostly nothing with her princess things and singing to herself, very much absorbed in her own little world.                   
• Maren is very compassionate and tender.  Nearly every time I threw up during this current pregnancy, if Maren was in ear-shot, she would come running, rub my back, and bring me tissues.  "It's ok mommy, it's ok mommy," she would repeat again and again, staying with me until it was over.  At other random moments, at least once at day, Maren will come running and squeeze me in a tight hug and say with real conviction, "You're my best mommy ever!!"  Or "I just love you, you're my sweetie-heart."  
• Maren is strong.  Recently, at Ezra and Maren's well-child exams for their birthdays, they both needed a shot.  Ezra declared bravely, "I'll go first."  But, as soon as the needle came into view, however, he dissolved into violent sobs, and pleaded not to have to undergo such torture.  The nurse proceeded, Ezra howled and ranted.  Ezra was shaky, teary, and clingy for the next 30 minutes.  Maren, who was in the room to witness what her brother had just undergone, watched silently.  When it was her turn, she sat on my lap, squeezed my hand, and didn't make a peep.  Needle went in, not a whimper, not even a flinch.  In fact, the nurse paused, looked, and blinked mid-syringe in surprise.  Bandage was applied, and Maren, calm as ever, hopped off my lap, as if nothing whatsoever had happened, and then comforted Ezra in his pain.  She often gets up from scooter crashes without a sound and goes again.  When she does fall and skin a knee, she needs a kiss, a smile, a little squeeze, and then she is back to riding.
  

Well hello there...

After a three-month hiatus, I am getting back to the blogging.

My hiatus is due to a happy reason: I am pregnant with baby # 3 (!!!), which brings unhappy consequences on my normal life: nasty pregnancy nausea.  The good news is, at 18 weeks, I am feeling mostly normal, with the continued help of my nausea medication.

The saving grace of the summer was two awesome family reunions.  If it had not been for those two events, and a brief road-trip to Yellowstone/Grand Tetons, my family would have endured the most uneventful, lethargic summer of their lives.  (I was a blob in fetal position for three months, throwing up 3-4 times/day.)  As of about a week and a half ago, I started cooking dinner again, and eating it too!

So, without further ado, here are the highlights of our summer (it really was fantastic, all things considered!):

Family hike in Boulder--one of our most successful, and so beautiful.

Lazy afternoon in Jackson.  Met the locals.

The epitome of summer: homemade ice cream in Jackson park.

Awesome family photo with super awesome Tetons backdrop.

The children were amazing road-trippers!  Hip-hip-hooray!

Plenty of time to enjoy Grandma's new outdoor paradise.

Easy, shady waterfall hike in Utah, so nice!

Camping in Grandma's front yard!

Canyon hike with cousins, and Jared & Sarah (8+ mos. pregnant!)

Fun cousin time with Camryn and Judd.

The best possible cousin hangout: Grandma's Roslyn's hot tub.

Fourth of July: a perfectly wonderful 8 am-10 pm marathon day.

Water park day with cousins--super fun!

Water slide with mom, giggle, repeat!

Dallin was concertmaster at this beautiful outdoor venue...

...and the children frolicked in the grass

We went to the Fort Collins Temple open house as a family--twice!

New Start

This cute boy started preschool today.  He was definitely ready to go, and when it came time to say goodbye at drop-off time, Ezra sat at a table with three classmates he didn't know, and put on a brave face--no tears.  I made a quick exit!  His report when the day was done, "I'm in love with my new preschool Mom.  I want to go there forever."  Two thumbs up!