Entries from December 2009 ↓

While we forgot our camera, luckily, Grandma Liz took photos.

The big box contained a radio flyer walking cart. As soon as it is assembled Ezri will be able to push it around in style.

She also really loves the thrift store xylophone. It is missing a note, but Ezri makes great noise with it.

Ribbon makes a great toy.

Ezri played a great game with Rachel (who is hard to see in this photo). Rachel would laugh and then Ezri would laugh. Rachel would clap and then Ezri would clap. Tongue out for Rachel. Tongue out for Ezri. All the while, they were clearly delighting each other.

Ezri, that dreidel is not in your mouth. I think you’re slipping.

Ezri celebrated her first Hanukkah with a party at the JCC in DeKalb. The evening was filled with latkes, friends, songs and fun. Ezri loved every minute. She especially loved her Grandma Liz’s homemade applesauce and playing with Rachel who is a year older. Ezri is fascinated by toddlers. She enjoyed listening to Koleynu sing some holiday favorites and tasted her first latke. While it was near her bedtime, she still had energy afterwards to show off her brand new stair climbing skills for Harvey and Liz.

Here she is playing with some big cushiony dreidels handcrafted by Liz.

The photo below shows how Ezri feels generally about posing with monkey-monkey lately. She is too busy moving to slow down for posed photos.

But, she does still love the monkey – especially his chewable button eyes. Don’t worry they are well attached and we don’t leave her unsupervised with monkey-monkey.

I had a great idea that I could wrap some holiday gifts and Ezri would love watching and the wrapping paper.  I didn’t get very far before I discovered that she loved ripping tissue paper into little pieces and unspooling ribbon the MOST. She’s also discovered the toilet paper in the bathroom. Let the good times roll, Ezri.  She did help out with holiday prep by taking an extra long nap.

This week Ezri and I went to Anderson’s Bookshop and gave a gift to their holiday Angel Tree. I’ve been giving to this book charity since I moved to Downers Grove in 2001.  We found a girl about Ezri’s age (8 mos. named Dorothy) and picked out a book present for her. She got a Very Hungry Caterpillar toy (because at 8 months you need something fuzzy and mouthable) and the board book of The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle. I picked out a teenager and got some paperbacks for her. I am hoping we can pick a child in need around Ezri’s age each year and eventually she will help me pick out the books to give.

In her own reading habits, Ezri is still all about fuzzy and textured books this week. A current favorite is Quack! Quack! Baby Touch and Feel from Priddy Books. It features textured barnyard animals and as a bonus some of the text on each page is also fuzzy. It’s like they created a fuzzy font just for Ezri.

She’s also become a big fan of pointing these days including pointing at books and things in books (especially the cats for some reason).

Here she is pointing.

The first snow fall with accumulation has come and while it is mostly melty at the moment, it was enough to transform Ezri into the Abominable Snow Baby.

Ezri does like real pea puree quite a bit. Pureed they are the color of that slime from the T.V. show You Can’t Do That on Television. When she gets pea moosh on her face she looks a little like she’s vomiting ectoplasm. Still, I am glad she likes peas.

Ezri has figured out how to unsnap her pants.  Clever, very, clever.

That’s right we did. As Ezri gets more mobile and fast, we needed a way to keep her out of the kitchen where there are certain baby hazards and cat food on the floor that might be tempting to try to eat.
Ezri and the cats are both certain that the baby gate is designed to piss them off, but the parent people couldn’t be happier.
How did we ever live without one? Oh, that’s right, Ezri didn’t always crawl.

Since I posted about Ezri and books earlier this week, I thought I’d let you know about her online reading habits. We check friends’ baby blogs and Ezri loves looking at photos of other babies. She thinks Charlotte, Eleanor, and Evelyn are all very exciting. I’ll admit she is self-centered enough to enjoy her own blog quite a bit too. She has also learned about keyboard banging in the past week or two. She used to just hit the spacebar, but now she’s all over the keyboard. It makes unusual windows and dialog boxes I haven’t seen before pop up.

I can’t help but mention one book.  We’ve been reading I Went Walking by  Sue Williams and illustrated with charm by Julie Vivas.  It is just the right length and has a great repetition.  Also, as you meet each animal on the walk the child takes, there is the opportunity to make animal noises.  Ezri is still very fond of the sound of “mooooo!”  The illustrations are big and the pages are not busy with a lot of detail giving it a clean look that is easier for Ezri to focus on.  It is a great early read aloud.  Highly recommend it to people reading to a baby or toddler.