15 months Ezra

So we are jumping from first birthday to 15 month update. I would love to say I have lots of amazing pictures but I don't. Hopefully soon we will get some current shots of the little guy. For now just a few iphone pictures. So technically he is 15 1/2 months but we'll just go with what's going on now. He chats like crazy now. Not all is actual words but it's a jumble of different syllables and he really intends to tell us something! He loves to growl, roar, and make car sounds. He is repeating a lot of words. He says dog, dada, mama, hey, this, shoe, ball, bird, book and please on his own. There are a couple others I think I've heard but I'm not sure of.  Ezra is growing so fast. I think he weighs around 23 lbs give or take. He is getting tpo big for 18 month rompers and moving into 18-24 month pants. He still has lots of rolls and a belly which I love. His hair is crazy. It has grown a ton and the humidity combined with waviness makes for big hair.     He is a pretty good eater starting to try more and more each day. His new favorites are watermelon and kale. I never thought I would get him to eat a vegetable and then he go and loves a thing like kale. His favorite foods include hummus, grilled cheese, and most recently yogurt. I finally convinced him that ice cream is awesome and it's worth letting mama feed it to you. Usually he only wants to feed himself and if he can't he'll do without. But, he gave in and loves it! He has been wanting to eat with a spoon and fork with messy results. He loves to drink out of a cup and pretty much grabs for whatever I have. He doesn't get that toddlers can't have coffee. Ezra is learning his body parts. He also is observing how things function such as putting his shoes on if he wants to go outside, trying to put a hat on. Cute, smart things like that. He loves to dance and clap and recently started singing. It is the sweetest sound and he also replicates Emerson's Ariel impersonation. Ha! So some days I have both of them singing in unison. As far as toys Ezra pretty much plays with either a ball or a car. Or he will make whatever toy he has act as a ball or car. We got him little t-ball set and he is really good at it! We think he has remarkable hand-eye coordination for a little guy. He of course loves to do whatever his sister is doing. Which always makes him seem older than he is. He even gets on the tricycle! Perfecting climbing skills he now climbs on the couch too. He is such a joyful guy to be around. I would describe him as sweet, funny, cheerful, and pretty mellow. Unless heaven forbid you don't give him some food he wants, or hold him when he wants, or change his diaper. But, I guess we are little picky about food and hugs sometimes.

Happy Birthday Ezra Bean! Please don't grow up any faster. It makes my heart ache just a bit. 

Love, Mom. 

Ezra's First Birthday

 It's about time for first birthday pictures don't you think? We'll celebrate him turning 15 months today with a look back at his party! We had decided awhile back to have his party at Pullen Park. We thought it would be perfect with the train and carousel.  But, with my procrastination in reserving the shelter we had to shuffle around several dates before finally getting a Sunday 3pm shelter. Not ideal for a napping baby boy but it worked out ok. Although it seemed as everyone else in Raleigh was at Pullen Park as well. Talk about busy! I was determined to have a stress free party but of course got frazzled. Full of ideas thanks to pinterest I had planned a bright colorful chevron theme. His adorable one year onesie was my inspiration. I love it!

I found this chevron cake and was in love. I was going to make it rainbow tiered inside but in reality I had no time or skill to complete that cake. So I settled on just doing the banner. Which was relatively quick. But, thanks to some serious wind it didn't get the attention it deserved. For the snacks we had plenty of fresh fruit, rainbow goldfish, variety of tea sandwiches, and I made cheesecake stuffed strawberries thanks to pinterest. 

But, instead of a graham cracker topping I put on blueberry in each. They were super yummy. Luckily for me there were plenty left over to enjoy. For cupcakes I made a variety of kinds. One package of trader joes vanilla, a batch from scratch vanilla, from scratch chocolate, and banana from scratch. I had been reading about the effects of dyes on children so I wanted to do natural dyes for the frosting. I ending up making a blueberry frosting which tasted great but really was a light purple. Oops! For the other ones I wanted an orange color and I read that turmeric is the perfect way to achieve that. After I made I didn't think it tasted right. So I used the blueberry cheesecake icing for most of the cupcakes. A couple weeks later I realized why they tasted a little off. I hadn't used turmeric like I thought but taco bell seasoning that was unlabeled in a ziplock. So if you had a weird cupcake I'm sorry! All I could do was laugh. I made Ezra a banana cupcake since he loved banana bread. But, when his big moment came he would have nothing to do with it. Instead he ate my chocolate cupcake! We ending up not getting a single family shot, and I don't think I'm in any pictures except the back of my head. Oh well. That's how it goes.  I hope everyone enjoyed themselves. Next year I think we will go simple like Emerson's second birthday. Parties are a lot of work!

Say Cheese

 Do you notice something here?

Something about this cute little face?

We have a cheeser on our hands!

The "cheese" face from the side. Excuse the wild hair.

Not only does he do this anytime I get out a camera but he says, "cheese!" Here is a more natural look than the nose scrunching.