Today's Happy Moments

 I had a couple especially happy moments with each of my kids today that I wanted to jot down.

Darcy - I had been running around trying to get the house all cleaned up during Ezra's nap before Drew got home. At one point I walked into the kitchen to work on some dishes and said something about the house still being a mess. After I had been in there for a few minutes Darcy said, "Mom! Now look at the house!" I stepped out and looked in the living room and she had cleaned it all up! I seriously almost cried. It kind of chokes me up thinking about it now. I am constantly amazed at how thoughtful this girl is! She doesn't miss anything. She saw I was a little anxious, and she came to my rescue! Man I love her. I danced her around the room and told her a million times how happy it made me that she had done that service for me, and she was beaming from ear to ear. We were both so proud of her. :)

Ezra - I had really started getting into cooking right before we found out Ezra had all these allergies. I have been in kind of a cooking slump since there are so many ingredients I can't use anymore. I am constantly searching for something a little more exciting or different and delicious to make for our family and have it be safe for him. It is rare to find somethings we love. I found this recipe on Pinterest for Spaghetti with Sauteed Chicken and Grape Tomatoes (that I adapted with rice noodles) and decided to make it tonight. We ended up loving it! The thing that made it extra exciting was that Ezra eventually picked up his plate and licked it clean! Again, I almost cried. (Ok maybe I'm a little quick to cry.) Feeding this boy is just so much of my life that having him react like this makes me soo happy.

Valentine's Day

 We had a really fabulous Valentine's Day (and beyond) this year. I felt a little bit like a slacker with my kids' Valentine's this year, but when Darcy saw her's she said, "This is like Christmas!" so I guess it was alright. :) We spent most of our time working on Valentine's for our extended family members. We made heart-shaped rice krispy treats on a stick dipped in chocolate. It was a little trickier than I expected because the rice krispies started to implode when they were dipped, but it was still worth it. Darcy was so excited to take Valentine's to people and I hope she always loves to give like this!

Drew and I had a night and a day getaway to go snowboarding together. We had never left our kids for more than a few hours before, and it was soo hard for me to leave my kids behind when we left my parents' house. I shed a few tears when we were driving away. Ezra was awake for about four hours in the middle of the night with Emily and my mom...but other than that it was perfectly fine. :) Yikes!

Drew and I had so much fun together at Bluewood. It was such a beautiful day! We went snowboarding together a lot in high school, in college, and a little before we had kids, but it had been five years since I had last gone. I was so nervous, and couldn't remember how to do some things, like which foot I left in, and how to smoothly get on the lift, but once I was actually snowboarding it mostly all came back to me. It was really so fun to do this together again. We also had lots of great conversation. We tend to get lost or cut off in the middle of conversations a lot with our kids, and it was nice to finish our sentences. :)

I love Valentine's Day more and more every year.

  

 Darcy enjoying her Valentine. She couldn't handle having any of us wait to look in our mailboxes. She was just too excited!

 Ezra checking out his Valentine.

 Drew and I ready to hit the slopes.

 Me jumping. (My only trick)

 Drew jumping. (Not his only trick)

 Me jumping again.

 Drew on a box.

Fun on the lift

18 Months!

 Ezra is 18 months. It is so shocking to me that he is now old enough to go to nursery. He is such a sweet, fun little guy and I am so happy I get to be his mama.

Some things we want to remember about Ezra at 18 months:

- 24.6 lbs. (31st percentile) He keeps creeping up in percentile which makes me feel good. 31 inches.

- He sleeps from 7:30 at night to around 7 in the morning. (Although this morning he slept until 8 which is absolutely unheard of for him!Yay!) He takes a 2-2 1/2 hr. nap around noon.

- He is repeating everything these days. He says mama, dada, Darcy, Em, Ash, Nick, Grandma, Grandpa, uh-oh, ball, football, and a lot more I can't think of. He knows the animal sounds for a horse, cow, gorilla, monkey, dog, and cat, and possibly some other I can't think of again.

- He loves baths. He also loves to throw whatever he can find into a bathtub with water in it. Darcy always has to watch out when he's out and she's in because you never know what he might throw in at you. I have had to rescue shoes, a book (luckily I caught the book before it hit the water), sippy cups, lots of different toys, etc.

- He is a speedy little one. He loves to run and is pretty darn fast. He loves to throw a football, but so far he doesn't really move his arms to catch it if you throw it back to him most of the time, which cracks me up.

- He still loves climbing on and jumping off of things.

- He loves to play with Darcy, but has a little more of an opinion these days. He won't always do exactly what she wants him to, which is hard for her to understand.

- We have been taking him to a naturepath just in case they can somehow help with his allergies. She just gave us a huge new list of foods he is allergic to, but I have been doing some research and talking to a different doctor, and besides the foods we already knew he was allergic to I have been ignoring her about this new list for the most part. I hope I am not being stupid, but I am kind of going with my gut on this one. He is a happy growing boy, and I don't see all those foods she listed affecting him like milk and wheat do. I also just can't bear to take away that many more options from his diet that he seems to love. We'll see I guess.

- He is such a crazy, funny dancer. He can really groove if he's in the right mood. The other day at my parents' house Darcy was showing everyone her arabesque she has been working on at her dance class. Ezra walked in and had to join her. He was walking around the room holding on to different things and lifting his leg straight behind him. He has done it around our house a few times since. Funny boy.

- I often wonder if there is any other baby in the whole world that resists as much as he does at getting his clothes or diaper changed. He is unbelievable!! Every time I realize he needs his diaper changed my heart sinks, and I have to really pump myself up to go get the job done.

 

 That face! Gets me every time. 

That drool on his shirt. Not so much.

That bruise on his forehead. Dang, not again.

 

Darcy took this one. Cuteness.