Weekend Update

After the four month mark Ezra did some noteworthy things. He smiles and laughs, and not just as a tickle reflex. Sometimes he just smiles in response to being smiled at. He opens his mouth like a little baby bird (sometimes) when you slowly move a binky toward his mouth. He got a tooth (12/1/15)! And he's started making one of my favorite ever faces (one that Evie used to make) where he sucks in just his lower lip. 

I've started feeding him baby oatmeal, mostly as a distraction during meals. He doesn't love it but puts up with just under a tablespoon one or two times a day. I'm having a hard time getting him to nurse in the day. Evie was on an eat every two hours schedule for quite a long time, and this kid can go long stretches without wanting to nurse (he gets angry if I try to nurse him when he doesn't want to). He should want to nurse around ten, but usually I can only get him to go a couple of minutes around ten or eleven and then he's done. I'm beginning to think it is because he's holding out for afternoon naptime, when we lay down together, he nurses, and we both nap. I don't blame him; it is delicious. I'm kind of loving snuggle sleeping with him. It just gets frustrating when he's fussy (probably hungry) and I'm soaked with milk but he still won't nurse. Le sigh. 

As for big sister Evie, she is just wonderful. Not that she's perfect all the time, but she's just good. She mostly listens and obeys (except when it comes to loving on Ezra, she won't leave the poor kid alone). She loves to sit and listen to stories, and often makes up her own. She's a pretty good eater, if you give her what she likes (most meat and fruit, broccoli, carrots, peas, any kind of dip). She sings all the time, and cracks us up when she sings silly and sometimes nonsense words to familiar songs. She goes to dance class and loves it. She really doesn't get into trouble. The main problem we have is the listening and obeying thing, and it would be unreasonable to expect anything else.

How about me? I'm doing pretty well.  Babies are wonderful and really hard. I'm thinking of writing a cookbook with all meals that can be made with one hand. I feel like a lot of my day has a crying soundtrack, simply because I can't hold the baby all of the time, which is what he would like. Car trips are especially bad, with only about 50% of them resulting in a sleeping baby. 

I've been doing a fair amount of baking as of late, and even ended up demonstrating a cake technique on local tv. I'm not eating dairy for Ezra, as he seems to have the same sensitivity that Evie did. This means I can't eat most of what I bake, but I've also been slowly shedding the weight I gained during pregnancy, which is a nice little bonus. I've also been shedding a lot of hair. Kind of an alarming amount, and let's not even talk about the skin on my stomach.

I'm in a book club. So far we've read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (my pick), Cinnamon and Gunpowder (loved it), and Lord Fenton's Folly (didn't love it). I was supposed to read Still Alice and The Martian, but the former was the month Ezra as born and the latter I couldn't get in time from the library. 

I'm still working with the Young Women at church- the 12 and 13 year olds, to be exact. They are so fun, silly, sweet, thoughtful... I love it. It's hard sometimes with my little family, but rewarding. 

My latest obsession is the original cast recording of Hamilon- a rock (more like hip hop- r&b) musical about Alexander Hamilton. It is incredible, and I nerd out about it daily (Jonathan Groff, voice of Cristoff is in it! The lead- Lin Manuel Miranda- wrote all the music! Leslie Odom Jr. from Smash is Aaron Burr! Lin Manuel Miranda is writing the music for the new Disney princess movie, and wrote the music for the cantina scene in the new Star Wars!). I could go on and on. Probably don't bring it up unless you want to hear all about it.

I'm also gearing up for my baby girl to turn three. I cannot believe she is that big. She is so beautiful and smart and funny, I'm just lucky to be her mother. And we're going to have a super fun Frozen birthday party that I'm really excited about. Stay tuned for pictures of that.