Oh Happy Happy Birthday To You

Happy, happiest birthday to my boy.

Zeke, circa newborn,

4 months,

8 months,

a year,

a year and a half,

two,

and two and a half.

The time, it just flies. And I need to do a photoshoot with Zeke. With just Zeke. Because looking thru pictures for this collection I realized that I don't have any nice ones of just him after a while. Always there is Malachi by his side.

There are reasons, of course. Zeke's inherent shyness and Mal's love of the camera combined at the forefront of them.

Then of course there is that Zeke just adores his brother. All day at his party he just wanted to "play with baby". All day a bit overwhelmed and shy, even though he knows all these kids and it's his own back yard. But he wanted a party and planned it to a t- the balloon color, the snacks served, every detail. It was all very Zeke.

And now he is 3 now. With a big boy bike to prove it.

Conversation with Zeke

Zeke: I have a big stick.

Me: Yep.

Zeke: I could fight a bear, or a lion, or a shark...all kinds of animals.

Me: Uh-huh.

Zeke: I think I'm gonna fight a lion. And I'm gonna KILL him!

Me: What if it's a nice lion? Why don't you try to be friends.

Zeke: Because he's a bad guy! He's gonna 'tack the library and eat all the books!

Me: Maybe he just doesn't know what books are for. I think you should teach the

lion to read, so then he would read the books instead of eating them.

Zeke: I'm sorry mom, I'm gonna have to kill him.

---

Zeke: Wait, mom! Did you remember my elephant?

Me: What elephant?

Zeke: My pretend elephant.

Me: Oh...yeah...uh...its right here.

Zeke: Oh good.

---

Zeke: My butt is making music.

Conversations With Zeke

Collected over 6 or so days.

Josh, "Zeke get in the car right now."
Zeke, "Dada! Don't be rude to me!...Momma, Dada's being very rude."

Me, "God help me."
Zeke, "God helps me. He helps me when I'm stuck in the mud. He has a tow cable."


Me, "No, Zeke, we aren't having cookies for breakfast. You need to choose oatmeal, or eggs."
Zeke, "You are sooo mean, you are hurting my feelings!"

Josh, "Don't lick the plate, buddy."
Zeke, "But there is sugar all over it. I have to lick it!"


And my favorite of all...though it may more accurately be called conversations near Zeke:

Friend on the phone, "Do you have to call me back?"
Me, "No, Zeke is just being attacked by a bear."

The dangers of talking children

First, let me just say that I didn't go to Relevant. I'm not even sure that bloggers that barely reach 1,500 hits a month are allowed to go to blogging conferences. Although my friend Kim reminds me that anyone can go, it's just that not anyone can get away with being sponsored. You need more like 1,500 hits a day, I'm sure, to get someone else to pay for it. Which I'm obviously not generating, and for obvious reasons.

BUT I am duly jealous. It seems like it was totally rad. Like church camp for adults- and church camp are some of my best memories of my entire life.

If I ever become a famous blogger (snort) I will go to Relevant, and hear all my favorite bloggers speak and be totally inspired and become a way better person (wanna pay for me to go now, internets?). Also, If I met Ann Voscamp, I would scream like a 12 year old that just met Justin Bieber. Except I'm almost 25, so that would be embarrassing.

Anyways...Zeke is a full-fledged talker now. He even talks to OTHER PEOPLE. Which is amazing. But I'm discovering also sometimes embarrassing and guilt-inducing.

Lowlights from this week: Zeke crying, "I'm scared of momma." after I told him (in my very meanest voice) to walk away from me.

Zeke in the car, "Malachi, take a chill pill! You're making me crazy!"

Zeke, when he dropped something, "Oh Sh*t."

Yep, you read me right... oh sh*t. And it is totally me and not Josh who taught him that word. Grade-A parenting going on over here. I've been working on my former-sewer mouth for a while but not hard enough evidently. Zeke and I have both switched to the explicative "Oh snap", in case you were wondering.

But there were also highlights from this week: Zeke telling me, "Sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you."when he ran into my ankle with his dump truck. I was proud of him, and also of myself (which I needed after the sh*t incident). As I've said, it's very much more my habit to say "Oh don't whine, I didn't hurt you." and I've been trying to improve that. It's nice to know my efforts to be a better example are paying off.

Zeke, at church, "Nice to meet you."

And honestly, every single time he prays. He has learned that bedtime can be put off if he just keeps saying things he is thankful for (he doesnt like the part about helping him be a good boy who always listens to his mommy and daddy, its unclear how much of this is because of the content and how much is because it's usually the last part of the prayer) so his prayers can get very VERY long.

Im in the very fun position of wondering what he's going to say next.

A Small Scare

Today was our turn to pick up milk for our milk co-op (we take turns buying milk for the whole group). So this morning we headed to the "cow farm".

My thought, here, was to get a picture with Zeke in the front and a cow behind.

But before I could get the angle correct, he flipped around, and pointed. "Oh no!" he gasped.

"Gooses!"


Mortal enemies, my son and birds. Or, for that matter, my husband and birds.

By the way, see that dinosaur shirt Z is wearing? We have 2 such dinosaur shirts, both technically sleepwear, and yet Zeke insists on wearing one of them at. all. times. We are in a big dinosaur stage; he stomps like a dinosaur wherever he goes, my questions are as likely to receive an answer as a resounding "roar!", he scours the library for dinosaur books, and yes, he will only wear clothes that have dinosaurs on them.

Nice to Meet you, Son

Zeke- "What's your name?"

me- "I'm mommy, silly bean."

Zeke- "What's your OTHER name?"

me- "My name is Courtney."

Zeke- laughs "Courtney? That's cool. I'm Zekey."

Nice to meet you, son.

In a way, these days, it is beginning to feel like I'm meeting Ezekiel for the first time. His language has just exploded. And I mean exploded. Check out those full sentences people!! (And if he'd get up the guts to talk to strangers, I'm sure you would) Also, since when has he understood the concept of "other"?

For a kid who's language skills always rather concerned me, I can't help but feel like he's pulling ahead of the pack now. His enunciation can get atrocious, but his pronouns are getting really impressive. And his ideas, oh man the ideas in that kids head. Who knew?

Z- "I'm sad" sigh, "I'm soo sad."

me- "Oh no, why are you sad, Zekey?"

Z- "I just want to fly away."

me- "You want to fly away?"

Z- "Yeah. Like a bird."

me- "Can I fly away with you?"

Z- "Yeah." smiles, "We will go to our tree. We will eat eggs."

I'm not sure Zeke quite understands the relationship between birds and eggs, I'm also not quite sure that I'm ready to get into that. But still, I cant say that there is a single other person I'd rather just sit and chat with right now.

Conversations with Zeke

"Super Zeke!! Swim like a bird!" Running around with a cape.

"You fly like a bird, Zekey. Birds don't swim. Birds fly. Fish swim."

stops "Oh." laughs "Fly like a bird!!!"

"You fly like a bird?! Really?"

"Fly like TWO birds!!!" continues to run around.

Also I am SOOOO proud of him right now.

FIRST: He had gone 2 days now without ANY accidents as long as he is naked. Lol. If he's wearing a diaper he uses it and when we are out of the house and when he's asleep he's in a diaper, but we've been leaving him naked around the house and he doesn't have any accidents at all that way! Such a big boy. We're going to continue like this all summer and reassess in the Fall weather we want to move him to underwear.

SECOND and EVEN BETTER: We pray before dinner but not usually before other meals. Zeke now insists we pray before each meal AND snacks and this morning prayed by himself. "God, thankyou for.....DADA! Amen." I'm so proud of him.

Conversations with Zeke

Ezekiel only knows 3 words. There is "dada" which always means Josh. There is "mama" which roughly translates to "I want" (and usually it really IS mama that he wants but sometimes its not and its still the word he uses, lol). And then there is the newest and most exciting word which is "duck". "Duck" might actually mean "duck" too, but more likely it means "bath". This is our fault because all this time when we ask Zeke if he wants to take his nightly bath we ask him if he wants to "see his duck" or if its time to "play with his duck". Oops.

I've also been working on sign language with him. I figured he was ready when he started using body language. He reaches up when he wants to be picked up and he shakes his head "no" when he is finished eating, or really if you ask any question at all. But mostly its been to no avail. The words I do the most are "nurse" and "more". But I think Zeke figures he has his own way of communicating these needs. If he wants to nurse he just pulls at my shirt and headbuts me in the chest. If he wants more food he just keeps opening his mouth and waiting. Point taken.

Anyways, this wekeend we took another step forward in communicating with our baby. Or so we thought. You see, Zeke learned yet another word. "Bob". He says it ALL THE TIME. A conversation with Zeke the last 3 days generally goes like this:

Me- "Do you want more carrots?"

Zeke- "Bob."

Me- "Oh you are all finished?"

Zeke- "Bob."

Me- "Can you say something else Zeeker-bee? Can you say 'mama'"

Zeke- "Bob."

Me- "You can say 'mama'. Say 'mama' Zeke."

"Zeke- "Bob."

And he does it just like that too. No "bobobobob". Just once and really clear. "Bob." It was freaking us out. Who in the heck is Bob anyways? Where did he hear this word. Is he talking about Bob the Builder? He's never even seen that show! Or ANY show!

Then I remembered. You see, everyday Zeke and I read a few books. And one of his favorite books that gets the best response from him is 15 Animals by Sandra Boynton. He always will sit for that one, which isnt true of some other books. And sometimes he even laughs. But the name of 14 of the 15 animals? Bob. And while I do enjoy that book and its excellent ending twist, and while I am really happy that Zeke is actually paying attention while I read to him, this "Bob" things is really annoying. So I have hidden the book.

We can read "Bedtime Peekabo" for a while. He thinks its pretty funny as well.