Just another CarleSpawn weblog

She’s a climber.

Ezri really liked wearing goggles and playing with friends at the DuPage Children’s Museum about a week ago.

As a parent, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about firsts – first words, first steps, first time in a swing, first day at the zoo, first bite of an apple, first piggyback ride – so many firsts.

I’ve started to realize that parenthood also comes with lasts.
The last time she’ll nap in her carrier on my chest.
The last time I’ll puree her veggies.
The last time she’ll say “nani” to mean banana.
The last time I’ll be able to cradle her in my arms.
The last time she’ll try to put the cat’s tail in her mouth.
The last time she’ll stare mesmerized by the turning of the ceiling fan.
The last time I’ll be able to set things on a medium height shelf and think they’re safe.
The last time she’ll need my help to get down from the couch.

Ezri is full of firsts and lasts – but mostly she’s 18 months of awesome!
We celebrated her half-birthday with a dinner out at the Two Toots Grill where your sandwich comes carried by model train.
Ezri said, “Hi, train,” and “Bye, train,” many times.
She enjoyed it when the waiter blew the choo choo whistle. I like the egg salad sandwich.
Good times.

Ezri is 34 1/4 inches tall, 26 and a half lbs, and her head is 48 cm around.

After much stress about the shots she would get at her wellness checkup yesterday, it turned out there were no vaccinations scheduled. Whew! Here I was fearing tears, screaming and perhaps a repeat of the kicking the nurse in the face incident from last time. Instead, we have a 6 month reprieve until her 2 year old appointment.

There may be no red tomatoes this year, but it’s worth it to watch Ezri enjoy snagging the yellow and orange ones while she helps water the plants.

She also enjoying being the one behind the stroller these days.

This is a longer video of Ezri and I reading Time to Sleep, Sheep the Sheep! by Mo Willems.
She is really enjoying the Cat the Cat series by Willems. Also, look at how good she is at gently turning pages of a book. She is graduating from board books.

She has started to explore books more independently. She flips through and makes comments on what she sees or repeats phrases we’ve read. As her vocabulary explodes, she begins to ask for her favorites by name – even ones we haven’t read in weeks which blows my mind. Proof that if you read to your baby early, they are listening even when it doesn’t seem like it. Just this week we discovered she can say, “Knuffle Bunny” for the book of the same title and “Clifford” for Clifford the Big Red Dog by Bridwell. She was already asking for ‘Sally” for Silly Sally by Wood and “Fingers” for Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes and “Bubbles” for Bubbles, Bubbles (Sesame Street Beginnings) among others.

A surprise hit last week was the book Pajama Mamas by Kate Spohn which Ezri is reading in the photo above. Each spread has an illustration of a mama in her pajamas and then a flap opens to show her baby. One mama strums the guitar and the text reads “strum, strum, Mama.” The corresponding flap opens to an illustration of a sleepy baby that reads “hum, hum, baby.” Ezri’s favorite mama is the one that is “Kiss kiss mama” and the flap opens to “Bliss bliss baby.” Ezri will “read” these two pages saying “Kiss kiss mama” and “Buh-liss buh-liss baby.” It is the first time I’ve seen her reading a book passage exactly as written. She adds some kissing noises just as I do when I read the book. She has pointed out that the kissing mama is wearing glasses. I think because I wear glasses she thinks this is what mamas should do. The flaps are big which means Ezri can open them easily herself. She does forget to close them when she goes to the next page which can lead to a book that needs some arranging of its flaps after reading. I think the simple cadence and repetition of this book with its “something, something, mama” and “something, something, baby” is what captured Ezri’s attention. We will be renewing this library book a few more times so it can stay around the house.

A couple days ago, Ezri pointed at her iPod (grandma Liz’s old iPod) and said “iPod.” It was the first time we heard that word and she said it perfectly. Yesterday, as we headed towards the store she said, “Trade-o-Juice.” That’s right, Ezri, we are going to Trader Joe’s. Every day there are more and more words.

This morning Ezri pointed at the floor and said, “Vomit.” Sure enough, a cat had left a small present. Then Ezri said, “clean up.” So, we did that. This makes me think she has seen more cat vomit clean-up in 18 months than I think she has.

She is growing up so fast. Any day now, she will be asking me to let her drive. Don’t worry I won’t let her yet.

Ezri loves the new barn toy. Here she is pretending to nap on it.

She also likes carrying it around by its handle.

Here’s Ezri taking a break from trying to put on her shoes to sing the babies on the bus go “wah wah wah.” Note that her shoes are on the wrong feet. It is very important to her to be able to do things all by herself lately. I wish she had better motor skills and were actually capable of dressing herself. It can take a long time to get out of the house waiting for her to put on her shoes while she refuses all attempts at assistance with an emphatic “NO!”

What Pets Teach Us: Life’s Lessons Learned from our Best Friends by Willow Creek Press
This book features full color photos of various animals from pig to guinea pig coupled with statements like, “Smile! Someone is sure to smile back” or “home is the place that is safe and warm and cozy.” The text is simple and platitude filled, but talking about the photos is a lot of fun. I asked Ezri if the duck looked like it was smiling and she said, “quack, quack, smile.” Also, rabbits wearing sunglasses entrance Ezri. I think she knows animals don’t really do that and so she is trying to figure it out. We may check out some of the other titles in this series: What Horses Teach Us. . . and What Dogs Teach Us. . . I don’t think I’ll be tempted to buy these books for my personal library, but we did enjoy it.

The Cow Loves Cookies by Karma Wilson
This book tells us that horses eat hay, chickens eat chicken feed, geese eat corn, pigs eat slop, but the cow loves COOKIES. At the end of the story, the farmer brings cookies and the cow gives milk and the two share a snack. It has farm animals to let Ezri make many a farm animal noise. This book is great. It has a repeated pattern without repeating the exact wording over and over. This means it isn’t too boringly repetitious for the reader, but is perfectly predictable for the young child. It has both cows and cookies which Ezri likes to talk about. Ezri says, “coo-KEY” and “moooooo.” The illustrations by Marcellus Hall have farm animals’ faces filled with expression and the barnyard looking busy and fun. I have added this one to the personal library and shared it successfully with slightly older children (2 – 3 years) to learn it should be appreciated for a year or two.

Goodnight Goodnight, Sleepyhead by Ruth Krauss illustrated by Jane Dyer
This a great goodnight book for Ezri’s age (1.5 years). In the style of Goodnight Moon, the text of the book says goodnight to things – in this case each bodypart and then goodnight to each part of the bedroom. The text is very simple. Here is most of it: “Goodnight eyes, Goodnight nose, Goodnight fingers, Goodnight toes, Goodnight lips, Goodnight hair, Goodnight Goodnight everywhere, Goodnight windows, Goodnight doors, Goodnight walls, Goodnight floors, Goodnight chairs, Goodnight bed, Goodnight Goodnight Sleepyhead.” Each phrase gets a full page and often a two page spread. So, the reading of the book moves slowly and gently as a goodnight book should. The illustrator has highlighted a toy that the child is saying goodnight to for each body part – like a teddy bear’s nose, a stuffed lion’s hairy mane and doll’s fingers. The toys are then shown all tucked into bed. After each part of the room has been said goodnight to, the illustration shows a mama kissing her sleepyhead goodnight and a final illustration of the whole room sleeping.
This would be a good gift for a new parent. At our house, Eric is the one who does bedtime – so it is a little disappointing to me that there is no dad in the illustrations of this very nice bedtime book.

This watering can was big enough that Ezri needed some help operating it. She made Eric fill it with water “ah-GEN!” more times than I bothered to count and watered flowers, weeds, and lawn without discriminating. Lori was very nice about pointing out all the plants that might like water and helping Ezri tip the watering can.

I think a toddler sized watering can is on my must purchase list.