Go

Last week (February 22nd) Ezra took his first step. He didn't get very far, but he was determined. We were in the backyard and Eliza grabbed the red wagon that Ezra had been playing with. As it rolled away, without thinking he tried to walk and grab it back. He took one step and then attempted another before he started falling and I grabbed him before he hit the ground. :)

Also last week, Eliza wrote her first word independently. She writes all of our names without asking for help already. And often she writes words out (like "princesses only allowed") by herself, after asking us how to spell them. But this time, she handed me a picture that said "Go" next to it. I said, "hey, does this say 'go?'" and she smiled and said, "Yes. I remembered how to spell it after seeing it yesterday on my game on Daddy's phone."

Name that baby

I suppose their clothing gives it away (although both kids have worn those pants!). Do they look alike or not?

Attack of the Ezra

A cute sibling shot in the wagon.... and a look at Ezra on the attack... drooly, climbing, hair pulling and all. But with that toothy grin and those chubby thighs, who would try to escape? :)

More milestones

Ezra is still experimenting with different crawling styles. His latest is an army crawl involving sticking his butt in the air, sort of like an inch worm. He's also stood up on his own a few times, although he panics as soon as he realizes he's not holding on to something!

Valentines & Weekend

A cute shot of my little Valentines ready for school. Ezra wanted to dress up for his other Valentine, his teacher, Ms. Lorena. Eliza had a party at school with heart shaped pizzas they made themselves. They were actually pretty yummy! Tuesday night we had food delivered and ate dinner using our fancy red crystal plate, red roses and red tablecloth by candlelight. Eliza got a kick out of being fancy. Ezra wanted to know why he could barely see his food.

This weekend I feel like we finally struck the right balance between fun stuff and chores. Of course, I did very little cleaning, so we'll see if we have any food in the house or clean clothes to wear by next weekend! Saturday it was rainy, so we went bowling with some friends. Eliza remembered being there once before and immediately said, "I came here with Madelynn and Zac and Juju!" Now she's big enough to carry her own 8 pound bowling ball and bowl herself (with bumpers, of course). Granted, her ball travels about 2 miles per hour, but she's proud to be so independent. And I spent the whole time hoping she doesn't drop the ball on her foot (she didn't). Ezra slept through all of the bowling fun, which is probably for the best, since he doesn't sit still for long anymore.

Sunday was beautiful so we headed to the zoo. Ezra has been to the zoo once before (last fall with Papa and Grammy) but he's a lot more aware now. This was his first trip to the Austin Zoo. Eliza wanted to show him her "old friend", the talking bird. (See the Crazy Polly video to the left) Well, Polly is still there, but she just screeched a lot this time. I kept saying, "Hello!" and of course she said nothing back and I looked like the crazy one. Nonetheless, Ezra enjoyed her. Actually, he enjoyed all of the animals. Each time he spotted one, he gave this little chuckle: "Heh heh." He must have done this 50 times, but never more than one chuckle per animal. Tough crowd. Eliza was excited to see the lions. She remembered that last time she saw them (last Spring Break) one peed on the other. And I remembered that last Spring Break I could barely push her around in her stroller, I was so pregnant. Both kids fell asleep on the way home, a very rare occurrance indeed.

In other exciting weekend news, we watched an old school Muppets movie Saturday night. Eliza ate so much popcorn I had to cut her off. And we also had a tea party during Ezra's nap. We were out of Eliza's tea and she was quite amazed that I let her have regular tea. Scott was quite amazed that we expected him to drink tea out of her play tea cups that she leaves all over the house. Yeah, they probably weren't the cleanest but she was happy.

Jealousy

It's not just a Natalie Merchant song. With all the milestones Ezra is hitting lately, somebody is getting pretty tired of him getting so much attention. This face brought to you by, "I want to sit on your lap. Not him!"