Daddy's Boy... Finally!

Nolan has been in this phase (for a long time now) of being a serious Momma's boy. He still had his moments of loving to wrestle Dad and all, but he always wanted to be with Mom. Ever since he received Legos for Christmas, there's been a complete turnaround. Nolan loves spending time with Dad, especially if they get to build their Legos. Justin puts Nolan to bed every night now since I'm busy feeding and getting Ezra ready, and that has really helped them bond as well. It's been nice that Nolan hasn't been whining and crying at me as much lately. I knew they were getting "tight" but the clincher was when Justin left for work and Nolan began screaming hysterically for a kiss from Dad. I had to let him run out and give Dad a kiss through the car window. Here are some happy Lego moments.

We've officially started on the basement. My Dad has been busy framing and I'm starting to think about coordinating colors for when we're ready for carpet/paint/tile, etc. We won't be installing them for quite a while, but we may buy them sooner than later so that we can get the contractor's discount. But anyway, Nolan is loving hanging out with Grandpa John and checking out all the tools. Lately Nolan wants everything explained to him, including the kitchen disposal, the washing machine agitator, the ice machine, the ball in the back of the toilet, and even the bones and "pipes" in his own body. Who knew there was so much to explain in one house? I get tired of explaining but Justin delights in it (half of his answers are made up anyway).
Ezra has never been the same since our long trip. He has had a fever for one full week. At one point it reached 102 so we took him to the doctor. They tested for a urinary tract infection because it's the only thing that wouldn't have been covered with the antibiotics he had 10 days ago. It was negative and they sent me home without any answers. He said it was too high of a fever to be teething, but that's the only thing I can think. He is getting his second tooth any day now. But I feel like my little Ezra is a different baby now. He is sad nearly all of the time and seems to cry out with pain often. He won't take a binky (at least I don't have to wean him later) for comfort and it breaks my heart to see him like this. It's also very hard to accomplish anything (or get enough sleep). I just hope he gets back to himself soon. Here's his sad, sweet little face. At least he finds some happiness in playing with Nolan.

The other night we were reading scriptures for about 5 minutes. When we said we were done, Nolan dove for the scriptures and did this for quite some time until we agreed to read more. I wish I had that hunger!

Last of all, here is Ezra eating his favorite food: oranges!

Disney Days (Trip Part #3)

After a fun barbecue at Grandpa Corey's house (where all four boys had a massive "dog pile"), we headed to Anaheim. By now we're feeling decent but Ezra had horrible nights at Disneyland. Nolan was so happy to be at another hotel. With all the bags on the luggage cart and heading to the elevator, Nolan grabbed the side of the cart for a ride and exclaimed, "I'm elevator boy!". While there, he also decided that he wanted to be read straight from the Book of Mormon. He seems very receptive...except he has asked for the Goldilocks and 3 Bears story in the scriptures. You won't find it there, buddy.

Here is Nolan's excited face after going on the Matterhorn, his first ride:

Below is a picture of Justin's Dad, his wife, and two of their boys, Brandon and Dylan. Dylan is 3 months younger than Nolan. "It's a Small World" was really fun because it was still done up holiday style. They mixed in Christmas songs, which was a nice break from the continual small world song.

We thought we'd go back to the hotel for naps, but the first day Nolan sacked out during a showing of "Great Moments with Abe Lincoln." We ended up staying for nearly four showings! I couldn't handle any more of Abe (it is great one time, though) so I left to get a snack. Nolan woke up pretty grumpy as it started the fourth time. Justin had to sneak out real fast! Nolan fell asleep the next day during the Aladdin show (it was awesome, by the way) and transferred to his stroller for a long nap. The last day we all napped at the hotel because it was the late parade and fireworks night.

Nolan was so happy to see Mickey. He walked straight up to him and grabbed his hand. I went to put my arm around him for the picture and nearly grabbed his bum. Awkward. Sorry, Mickey.

That swinging Ferris Wheel is really somethin'! What a rush. Nolan and I couldn't stop laughing and Ezra seemed a little disturbed.

Our last evening at Disneyland was spend fighting huge crowds as we tried to see the Street Party "Parade" (not as good as the usual parade, but Nolan and me did do the conga line) and the fireworks. At one point we tried to go on rides instead of seeing fireworks, but lots of rides were closing during that time. That was pretty frustrating. We made ourselves feel better with a giant white chocolate rice krispie treat and a caramel apple. Nolan did love the fireworks so I'm glad that was our last Disneyland moment. We're already looking forward to going back another time when it's not so crowded. The next morning, we got ready for the day and then stopped at the beach. It was pretty cold but that didn't stop Nolan.

We spent the next few days in St. George with my mom while Justin went on a business trip to Florida. He relapsed with a sinus infection and Ezra's nights got progressively worse. When we got home I took him to the doctor where they started him on antibiotics. The rest is history! We're so glad to be home. We probably shouldn't plan a two-week trip right after the busy holidays ever again. Where's the vacation from the vacation? ;-)

Sunny San Diego (Trip Part #2)

Justin and I were still sick, and Ezra was not sleeping well, but things were looking up. The weather was so gorgeous! In fact, I started to get worried about the clothes I'd packed. I only brought one or two short sleeve shirts for each person for the entire week - and that's all we wanted to wear! (Not to worry... I would simply have to go shopping. Big bummer.)

On Sunday we took it easy at Nana's house. She took us out to eat and Nolan was a little terror. But there was this crazy old lady that kept coming up and talking to us. She wore a bunch of long silver chains of all sizes and while she was talking to Nolan he began playing with them. She said, "Do you know what those are? Chains. If you are bad then your mommy and daddy might tie you up with chains. That's what they do to the bad people in the prison." What the?! I couldn't believe I was hearing this. Later she came back again. She asked Nolan if he is a good boy. Then she turned to Ezra and said, "Are you a good boy?" We answered and said that he is very sweet. She said, "I don't think so. You might become a bad boy some day." Okay, someone needs a therapist. He's a baby, for pete's sake! Other than that, dinner was good.

On Monday we stopped by Justin's special place. He used to visit this beach side rock sometimes and the last good visit he had there was right after coming home from the mission. It's really beautiful. The pictures make it look a bit more dangerous than it really was. There's even a nude beach in the vacinity but it was just out of sight. Hmmm... disappointing. :-)

We headed over to the zoo that day as well. We met up with Grandpa Corey, Kathy, and their three boys (Justin's little brothers): Evan, Brandon, and Dylan. Nolan was happy to see them. The zoo is so nice. I would actually love to go without kids some day. The gardens are fantastic. Justin kept kicking himself that he had never brought his high school girlfriends there! Nolan was only moderately interested in the animals, but he did love riding the little skyferi tram thing that goes overhead. It made Justin and me happy to see Nolan running happily everywhere. Perhaps the long drive would prove worth it after all.

Our New Year (Trip Part #1)

After Christmas, we came home to a very messy house. We had left for Christmas earlier than planned and had to leave in a hurry. It took a lot of work to feel organized again. We did lots of cleaning on the morning of New Year's Eve. Around noon, as we were feeling like the house was finally clean, Justin said, "Let's pack up really fast and go to the cabin for New Year's!" Of course I couldn't turn that down. My family would be celebrating there but we hadn't planned to go because we were leaving for Disneyland in two days. It would mean some extra driving, but we decided to surprise my family. And they really were surprised to see us. We had some delicious food and a couple of relaxing days. Thanks to my family for feeding us when you didn't plan on us even coming.

The problem was that we came down with colds while we were there. Suddenly I began dreading the long drive (we expected about 9 hours) to my Nana's house near San Diego. Saturday morning (Jan. 2) came and we got a pretty good start. We stopped in Hurricane for some cold medicine, and drove on to Las Vegas where we stopped for lunch. As we approached Jean (just outside of Vegas) it turned into bumper to bumper traffic. We were stopped more often than not. We had expected the traffic to be worse on Sunday and we had even checked several sources to see that we would be able to get through. I began getting really worried and then we approached a sign that read: Heavy traffic to California - expect long delays. Our sources had been dead wrong. In Jean, we turned around and I began to cry. Now people, I am not a cry baby. But we were feeling so crappy and I couldn't bear to think of taking some back highway that would take another 9 hours from where we were. It had already been over 5 hours! My kids are fairly good in the car but I can only subject them to so much time in a 5-point harness! And my back has never done well in a car for more than several hours. Soon I was weeping and I told Justin to call the travel company and find out what was refundable. I was so ready to go back to my mom's house, sleep off our colds, and go home. We could go to Disneyland in a month or two if we wanted.

Justin urged me to press on. He said, "We are not quitters" and "how would we break the news to Nolan that we're not going to Disneyland?" Oh, the whole thing was awful. I felt like screaming, "Yes, I can be a quitter! There are many things in my life that I have quit!" We did go on though. We turned around, went back through Vegas and took some back highway through Searchlight, Nevada. My low point was when we pulled off the highway, I nursed the baby on a small dirt road, and then peed in the bushes. I couldn't believe we were actually paying good money for this "vacation!"

The day wore on and we could only make it to Barstow via I-40. We had been in the car for about 10 hours with only two short breaks. I was glad for my borrowed book: One Tattered Angel. Thankfully we were able to book a nice room with a big jetted tub. Nolan loved staying there. He is too little to remember the last time we stayed in a hotel . He probably would have forgotten about Disneyland because he was so happy.

The next morning, we were just as sick but feeling a little refreshed. It was only another 3 hours to Nana's house. I'm just so glad we have our van. Nolan only watched one or two movies but it was good to know it was there. There was room for one of us to sit in the back if we needed. And Ezra was happy THE WHOLE TIME. What a big help!

It was good to make it to Nana's house. She had never met Ezra and I think she was surprised at how mischevious Nolan is. At one point, she said, "He has the devil in his eyes." I think that's a bit strong. Later she simply noted that he is like his Grandpa John (her son and my dad). Now that I can believe! Nana has been feeling lonely since Papa passed away over two years ago. I hope we were able to share some happiness while we were there (and not just germs!).

Oh Ez

Warning: this post is mainly for my records as a mom... you might not be interested in all of these feeding and sleeping details.
Ezra has the sweetest personality and is pretty much happy all of the time during the day (I'll get to nights later). However, he has managed to challenge us in other ways. When Nolan first started eating solids, he would open his mouth really wide and eat everything happily (except green beans). Ez has gotten us really frustrated. He never opens his mouth and even if we manage to shove a spoonful in, he tongue thrusts it right back out. He seems disgusted and gags on nearly all foods. The doctor gave us a syringe so that we could quickly squeeze some runny oatmeal into his mouth. Here is what it looks like:

We've since given up this method. Can you blame us? I think it's all sitting on his bib in that nasty blob. I actually gave up feeding him solids for a while but he kept waking up hungry at night. Some of this I have already discussed in previous posts. Well, while we were on our long trip, he decided that he would throw up all oatmeal. Over the past 2 weeks, he managed to throw up at approximately 2 a.m. after having oatmeal the night before. It was the only common factor and he wasn't sick because it was several days apart. It made me a little crazy, but we are now trying rice cereal with mixed fruit. He hates plain rice. I have a feeling this is what most babies are like... Nolan was an exception and still amazes us. One of his favorites is raw broccoli!

We all passed around a bad head cold while on our trip and it has taken about two weeks (and some antibiotics for Dad and Ezra) to get over it. Ez was having a hard time breathing at night and he was cutting a tooth. Now that he is eating better, gotten his first tooth through, and cleared up his sinus infection, he is beginning to sleep longer. I finally got 6 hours in a row for the first time in months. I felt so grateful. I love happy babies, especially when I feel well-rested.
So it feels great to be back from the cabin, San Diego, Disneyland, and St. George. We had some really great times, some really bad times, and we're glad to be home again (that's an understatement). I feel a little overwhelmed at the thought of blogging everything, so I'll be doing it in parts over the next few days. More to come!