Just another CarleSpawn weblog

Today we skype video chatted with Grandma Tam and Grandpa Mark. While Ezri was disappointed she could not hand her grandparents a hat for them to try on, she did enjoy seeing them and clearly she gets much more out of interacting in video chat than she would out of a phone call. She pointed at her nose and the grandparents pointed at their noses. She clapped and they clapped. They were like putty in her hands or on her viewscreen, I suppose. The grandparents were also shown “tick tock” a game we learned from our friend Charles. Eric was inspired to video this instance of tick tock.

Lately, when Ezri is not quite certain about what is going on or what is being asked of her, she makes a face her father and I affectionately call “stink face.” Here is Ezri’s stink face caught on camera.

Ezri in the Hamill Family Play Zoo. This is the area where kids can pretend to be zoo vets. She is using a ball syringe on the nose of an armadillo. She also wanted to use it on her own nose, but I convinced her the armadillo was a better idea.

We spent quite awhile playing with a photo booth that would put an animal border around your photo. It had buttons to push and a curtain to play peek-a-boo. I even decided to give in and buy a photo after 20 minutes of playing in the photo booth. The photo isn’t great (a low pixel photo of Ezri and I with a lion border) but the photo booth play time was worth it. Ezri liked it when the booth talked to us and the buttons made noises which made it worth having fed the machine money.

This is her happily sitting on the booth bench.

Behind the Play Zoo, there is a sandbox. This was Ezri’s first time in a sandbox which she really enjoyed. The sand was a bit damp from the rain, shoveling it and crushing it were no less fun for its dampness.

The sandbox is surrounded by lilacs which smelled great and were a good bonus.

Two things that excited Ezri very much this zoo visit were this dustpan & hand broom:

and these goslings:

Grapes on a stick = awesome

Empty stick = not so cool

Though how mature Ezri is in her eating habits is questionable.

Yesterday:
Duck feeding. Last week she thought duck food might be a snack for her. This week she knows how to drop it off the bridge for the ducks.

Swine viewing:

Bench sharing with Charlotte:

Last week’s visit with the gang:

Sure, all those photos are of the back of kids’ heads, but aren’t they cute anyway?

This morning Ezri climbed up onto a chair at the table at breakfast time. I think she is ready to be out of the high chair and eat right at the table. She did a great job using a plate at the table this morning for her banana and bagel breakfast.

The Baby Goes Beep by Rebecca O’Connell with pictures by Ken Wilson-Max.
Onomatopoeia is big right now developmentally speaking. We visited Cosley Zoo. Ezri saw a cow and said, “moo! moo!” When she falls she says “boom.” She likes it when I imitate the sound of the wind chimes – “ting-a-ling.” Ezri likes to hear “bring-bring” for the phone and “hisssssss” for her snake puppet. This love of sounds made the book The Baby Goes Beep perfect for her. It’s text is very simple and rhythmically repetitious. “The baby goes Yum. The baby goes Yum Yum. The baby goes Yum Yum Yum Yum.” The illustrations show scenes taking the reader through baby’s day from riding in the car with “beep” to bedtime with “shh.” The repeated sentences make reading this feel like chanting and it’s hard not to develop a strong cadence. I can tell this book is successful because she will listen repeatedly and I am happy to reread it for her.

Build it up!

Knock it down.

Lola meet Ezri.

Ezri shows Lola the wonders of an empty cup she has rescued from the recycle bin.

Ezri pulls out all the stops for visiting friends.