Ezra's 1st Birthday

For Ezra's first birthday we had some family over for some cake and ice cream and let him dive into his own cake (which is my favorite tradition ever). It was a cake safe for his allergies, so in my opinion is was a little less than stellar, but he still dug in and loved it. He is seriously such an adorable boy, and we can't get enough of him.

Some things we want to remember about Ezra at 1:

- 20 lbs. 6 oz. So happy he broke the 20 lb. mark although he is still only in the 15th percentile. He went from 5% to 15% so we are happy with the jump, and so was the doctor. My memory is failing me right now, but he was either just over 28 inches or just over 29 inches. I think 29. Hmm. 25th percentile. His head is way off the charts. So I guess that's why he always has bruises on his forehead. His head is just kind of heavy for his little body. Haha.

- He sleeps from 7:30 at night to around 6:30 in the morning. Pretty good if you ask me. Then a 1 1/2 hour nap in the morning and a 1 1/2 hour nap in the afternoon. Sometimes one of those naps is a little longer.

- He is a walker! He took his first steps a few weeks before his birthday and has been really determined to become an expert. He would walk up and down the hall and around in circles over and over. It seemed like he just wanted to practice. I love it when babies learn to walk. Too cute! (except for all the bruises that come with it)

- He says mama and dada, but we still don't know if he's putting those names to the faces. The other day I thought he was trying to say Darcy. He was looking right at her and saying da-y over and over.

- He is such a friendly baby. He loves everyone that gives him a little attention and will really ham it up for people.

- He is a climber. Yikes.

- He loves to push things around. We got him a wagon for his birthday and I thought he would love to have rides in it. Instead he likes to just push it all around. He likes to push the stoller, or the shopping cart, or a stool, or little chair, or anything that isn't attached that will slide across the floor.


- He loves cars. He makes the noise and drives them all around the room. I guess that is just another thing he gets to push around. He also loves to throw balls around. He especially loves to have us throw them back and forth with him.


- He loves to play in water but does not like to have it get on his head. He starts rubbing his eyes like crazy until his eyes get really red.

 

In his new church duds he got for his birthday. Oh man he looks too cute for me to handle!

  

 The party spread. The theme was blue balloons. I got it from Pinterest. 

 

The blue balloon allergy-safe smash cake.

 Darcy was not very patient with Ezra's present opening pace. She almost couldn't help getting in there and helping him. :)

 Ezra preferred pushing the present boxes around the room.

 Haley got these Seahawks slippers for Ezra. Cute!

Now for lots of pictures of Ezra eating his cake.

 Matthew looking fly in his party hat.

 Cousins! (No one wanted to be too close to Ezra looking like that!) :)

 I just thought this picture of Darcy was so cute.

 Ezra and Darcy getting a ride in the birthday wagon.

Please excuse the saggy diaper, but this is the only documentation I have of Ezra pushing his wagon around.

 Ezra holding his bottle with his teeth and pushing his car around the room.

Funny Girl

The last few evenings we have spent out time watching Drew play in his softball tournament (they got third). There was a man there sitting a little ways away from us with a skullet and the long back part of his hair was in a ponytail. Lovely right? Darcy turned to me and laughed and said, "Mom he has a ponytail. Haha. He forgot!" Implying that he forgot he was a boy and shouldn't have a ponytail. Luckily he didn't hear her and I just told her "That's ok." and she quickly moved on. I really wanted to laugh though.

She is saying all sorts of crazy things lately, and it always makes me nervous when we see someone who looks different than what she is used to. They are teaching moments for her, but I just don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, and to be honest I don't always feel like I know how to explain some things to her.

Darcy is 3!

 Darcy just had her 3rd birthday! We didn't mean for it to happen really, but we kind of ended up  having two parties for her. I have such a hard time figuring out how to include everyone we want to include. I'm pretty proud that I resisted having three parties for her! :) For her 1st and 2nd birthdays she still felt like a baby to me, but for some reason three seems so grown up to me. We love our girl!

Some things we want to remember about Darcy at 3:

- 3 ft 3 1/4 inches. That is the 97th percentile. I'm pretty sure she is taller than all the other kids in her nursery class. People usually guess she is older.

- She has SO much energy! It is so fun to see how fascinating day-to-day life is for her. She is soaking up all the information she can. We have started going to the library for story time and we bring home lots of books. She listens so intently to them and asks so many questions.

- She is deep into the "why?" phase. I guess we answered with "because" too many times because she has switched to asking "because why?" right off the bat. We are slowly getting used to having to have an explanation for everything that happens in our lives. 

- She is starting to say funny things all the time. She has started using more grown up words like "acutally" and "luckily."  She says things like "she is my best friend in the whole wide world" and "this is the best ____ I've ever had". She is really into favorites and bests. She is starting to have real conversations with us and I love it so much.

- She loves play-doh and silly putty. She loves jumping on the trampoline. She loves swimming in her little pool. She loves playing dress-up. She loves singing and dancing. She loves having tea parties. She loves pretending. She loves ring around the rosie, motorboat, and other songs with actions (we do these songs for most of the time every single family home evening).

- She is such a good big sister. She generally is so willing and happy to help us with Ezra. She loves to play with him and they make each other laugh all the time. Of course sometimes she gets a little frustrated when he gets in the way of something she is playing with though.

- She has finally started going to nursery happily (most of the time and only in our ward). She is starting to be a little more willing to leave my side more and more all the time.

We had a swimming party at Drew's grandparents' house on Saturday. Darcy could hang out in the water like this all day.

 Darcy's second cousin Bronson came and was such a brave swimmer! He loved his party had so much he decided to swim with it on. :)

 Brayden came too and was such a fish. He had fun seeing how far he could jump to Drew off the diving board.

 I think this is such an adorable picture! This is Darcy's great-grandma and grandma Christensen.

 This was not the reaction we expected from the Happy Birthday song! After the song was over she stood there like a statue for a second and then burst into tears. It was so sad...but slightly funny. She has been having pretend birthday parties for months and singing Happy Birthday to us and having us sing Happy Birthday to her so I really expected her to love it. Man was I wrong.

 She eventually calmed down to blow out her candles. Her cupcakes were peach with peach cream cheese frosting. They were good, but not as good as I had hoped they would be. 

 Cone head family.

 Everyone was so generous. Here she is with her new dress-up dresses that she has been wearing ever since.

 On the morning of her birthday I decided to take her to the park for a photo shoot. I really wanted it to be fun for her, but I ended up getting frustrated and she ended up getting frustrated. Of course I am regretting it all now. I always do that. She is such a cutie!

 When we got home she found the party hats in a bag and decided to put them on display on the bench. Here she is saying "ta-da!"

 Of course we had to do her very favorite thing on her birthday! She loves playing in this little pool outside. Our neighbor Ari joined her which made it even better!

 The second party was at our house on her birthday night. My family had been out of town for the original party so they decided to come on real birthday. She had so much fun and was so giggly the whole time. She loves Ash so much and I thought this was such a cute picture of them laughing together.

 This was her reaction to the cheap little tea set I got her on a whim as I was walking out of the store. Of the things we got her, this has been the biggest hit.

 Once again everyone was so generous. This was the Rapunzel wig Emily chose for her. We had some good laughs watching different people try this on.

 Here she is playing with her new T-ball set. I love her genuine smile here!

 Blowing out her candles on her second birthday cake. This was a triple chocolate box cake with some chocolate cream cheese frosting that I made (I really love cream cheese). It was better than the other cake and required way less effort.

I know this is long already but here are her answers to a birthday questionnaire I found on Pinterest. These are the answers she gave not necessarily the answers I think are right.

How old are you?    3

What makes you happy?    Ezra! (what a cute answer!)

What is your favorite animal?    little pig

What is your favorite thing to eat?    gum

What is your least favorite thing to eat?    Trix

What is your favorite thing to do?    Play!

What is your favorite TV show?    Angelina Ballerina & Dora

What are you really good at?    playing and brushing my hair

What is your favorite movie?    Hop

What is your favorite color?    blue

What is your favorite song?    Twinkle Twinkle

Who is your best friend?    Averi...& Ari (our two neighbor girls who are 6 & 7)

What do you and your mom do together?    play

What do you and your dad do together?    make pizza

What is your favorite sport?    soccer

Where is your favorite place to go?    the store

What is your favorite book?    Fancy Nancy Tea for Two (she just got this for her birthday)

What do you want to be when you grow up?    fireman

Chinese Duds

A few weeks ago Drew's parents went to China and brought back some awesome clothes for Darcy and Ezra. The other day Darcy wanted to get dressed up in her dress so I decided to have a little photo shoot.

 Ezra is just starting to stand on his own and it took a lot of tries to get him to stay up for a picture. I thought it was so cute that they were looking at each other like this.

 

I had Darcy do some Kung Fu for some pictures. She's a natural!

 So cute in his garb! 

 Grandma Becky said she couldn't resist getting two outfits for Darcy. :) Oh the joys of being the only granddaughter!!