Ezri wore her hat for our whole visit to the arboretum today. This is a first. She loves to put hats on, but usually after a few minutes they are off and she is onto the next thing.
Today she actually complained when the hat came off.
Here we are playing peekaboo around a pillar.
Ezri loves bark mulch. It is so much fun to pile, shovel and move from place to place. She also loves puddles for splashing in. But, wait, what genius combined these two into the perfect Ezri plaything? It is a puddle full of bark mulch. We were here a long time (for Ezri this means about 15 minutes) moving the mulch around and splashing.
Here is the expression I got from Ezri when I mentioned there was a slide at the top of the walkway. She moves fast when there’s sliding to be had. We went down the slide many times.
They were handing out watering cans and letting the toddlers help water in the Creative Garden. Ezri enjoyed helping water the flowers and also her feet, her hat, and other toddlers.
We also took a photo with our favorite acorn tunnel.
Ezri visited the Museum of the Rockies twice.
They have a new play area for children 0 – 8 that is called Explore Yellowstone. It’s a good thing this was available since Ezri got her head caught in part of a display of a DaVinci machine model and had a small panic. She was not truly stuck, but needed to turn her head to get out and was, instead of turning her head, panicking. It was nice to have a more toddler proofed area to explore after the panic.
The Yellowstone Experience has a play foam river with colored blocks that Ezri enjoyed collecting and taking to her Grandpa Mark to have him build her a pyramid.
She also enjoyed decorating Mark.
The area had windsock-esque faux geysers that erupted from constructed landscapes. Ezri was uncertain about the honking noise of the geyser you pumped up with a pump like a bicycle pump. Here she is after an eruption.
Later she was fascinated by the geysers. Here she is watching Old Faithful with her dad.
After visiting the museum we played a game with Ezri where we’d say “geyser” and then raise our arms up in the air and make a rushing noise. Geyser is a new word for her this trip though she’ll have limited opportunities to use this vocab in Illinois.
Here’s the whole gang (minus me, the photographer).
This dinosaur skeleton model has no brain. If he did, he’d be thinking that Ezri looked like a good snacksize morsel.
We have just returned from a week in Montana visiting Ezri’s grandparents.
Yesterday was a big travel day.
Ezri made a friend at the Bozeman airport with whom she held toddler races to work out some preflight energy. They also played some peekaboo on the plane too, as he was in the row in front of us.
Above they confirm that they are the appropriate size to be carried on by their parents.
Ezri knows how to use a stepstool. She puts it under things that we don’t want her to have (like the keys up on their hooks) and then gets them. Way to use tools, Ezri.
She also thinks it’s a fun standing spot. It’s nice to be tall.
Eric brought home homemade cookies from Michele. They were in a bag on the floor. Ezri looked in the bag and I heard, “Cookie! Cookie!” This was my first knowledge of the bag or its contents. Nothing gets past Ezri. Her mother is less swift. In good parent fashion, I made her wait until after dinner, but Ezri is a newly hatched cookie monster. This recipe for chocolate chip cookies is the one that introduced her to cookies and they are favored over other cookies she has met. Thank you, Michele.
If you listen closely you can hear her say, “cookie.”
Ezri likes to try putting her clothes on herself.
Here she has put on her sunglasses.
Here she has put both legs into one hole of her undershorts.
Ezri has a toy that includes a number of two piece puzzles. One of these puzzles has a piece with an item (strawberry) which has a corresponding adjective puzzle piece (square of red). She has been able to look through the pieces for a specific piece for awhile now. If you ask her to find the cow piece, she will look through until she finds it and hold it up and say “moo.” Yesterday, she found the spotty piece with a spotted square on it. She held up the spotty piece and said, “dog.” The dog is a dalmatian and the piece she was holding matched the dog piece. This sounds small, but her parents are pretty darn impressed.
Brilliant statement by Ezri on a morning I was having trouble getting going:
“Mama sleepy coffee”
That’s practically a sentence.
Another good moment was when Eric was sleeping in and Ezri was ready to see him. She brought me the telephone I use to call Eric when he’s on his way home from the lab and said, “Dada soon.” translation: Call dad and make him come home. Oh, Ezri it is 8 in the morning and he is sleeping behind that closed door. I told her he was sleeping and she walked right over to the bedroom door and said, “door.” Translation: open this door so I may wake my sleeping father and have him play with me. I made her wait another 45 minutes. When we opened the door she walked to the foot of the bed and said “tickle.” Translation: Please put me up on the bed and tickle me.
Ezri is also expanding her repertoire of imaginative play. She likes to buckle her stuffed animals into her high chair and her stroller and her carseat. If there is no handy doll or animal, she will buckle in her sippy cup or send the cup down the slide. She feeds or gives drinks to toys, her parents, and photos of people or animals.
Yesterday, at Ezri’s request, we buckled in her stuffed weasel to the high chair. He then needed a bib. Ezri then brought some toy food and her sunglasses. Weasels apparently like fake carrots and need sunglasses while they eat.
Adam let Ezri have the driver’s seat. She particularly enjoyed being in the car all by herself and playing peek-a-boo with Adam through the windshield. The dashboard buttons were also a hot item.
Katie provided a comfy seat and proof that all the stylish young ladies are sporting bruised knees this season.
Ezri had a lot of fun entertaining good friends in the backyard. Her parents did too.
