A sort of random act occured today when a friend (Joe) and I went to Broomfield (notice the irony in the name) and watched the 2010 US Olympic Curling Trials. The event also served as the US National Championships. We went for the morning and noon sessions, which were the end of the men’s round robin and the start of the women’s playoff – the finals are over the weekend.
Our obsession with curling began two games ago, and really got kicking during the Turino games in Italy. We heard that this event was coming to town about a year ago, and marked it on the calendar. It was fun to go and watch along with the 100 or so other fans…and to be able to get close and converse with the curlers, as well as to take it as a photography opportunity that doesn’t come around too often.
Anyhow, here are some pictures from today….along with a video if you have no idea what curling is (it’s about 30 seconds long, and I took it today).
Big news! Ezra is in the process of getting his first tooth. After days of being dis-invited into his mouth with our fingers, lots of poop, and a very runny nose (more on that in a minute); Ezra allowed one finger each into his mouth on a very short exploratory mission. The findings by the team were simple: something that feels very unlike a gum, sharper than his tongue, and located on the bottom just to the left of the center. Since nobody to date has seen this mysterious object in person (or been able to photograph it), it is a series of drawn conclusions that have lead us to this point. But I think that we are on solid ground.
The thing is that Ezra has been sick for the better part of two-three weeks. He has had a cough and runny nose that hasn’t gotten worse with time, but they never got any better. Sleep (for all of us) has been up and down….mostly down. So we came to the conclusion that Ezra had fought hard enough without a visit to the doctor’s, so he deserved to see if something medically could be accomplished.
We went to the office this morning and were able to see Dr. Sheehan (his normal Doc). After a pretty good examination, she came to the idea that Ezra has RSV…which is really common in kids his age, and is spreading like wildfire around the metro area. He most likely picked it up in daycare, but if all of the reading material is correct, he is on the downside of the sickness. Due to his good vitals, no fever, and great demeanor; there was no medicine issued, just instructions on what to watch for in case it gets worse before it gets better. His cough seems to be improving today, but the night will bring his biggest test.
Here are a couple of pictures from this evening (with my new camera…..ssshhhh….don’t tell anyone yet, more on that another time)….the one is of him gnawing on a teething biscuit.
Ever wonder what the recipie is for a burnt hot dog odor (sans the hot dog itself)? Well in case you were wondering it is really simple, here it is:
3 cups water. Bring water to boil in a Pampered Chef sauce pan. Intend on sterilizing pacifiers for your child, but don’t put them in the water. Go on hour+ walk with stove still on. Return to house and you will have desired odor.
Yea, almost had a fire department related problem. Luckily, we returned to the house in time and possibly saved the pan. We’ll have to see about that one. The odor has permeated every room….so even though it’s 15 outside, the front door is open, two windows are open, and three ceiling fans are on. It’s starting to go away, so hopefully we won’t freeze tonight.
Re-read that post title in the voice of a pirate. It’ll make more sense when you see the pictures.
We had great fun with the crowd at the ‘Lover’s Brunch’ at Gabe and Charlotte’s house. The Valentine’s Day fairy even showed up to give a special wish to Ezra. Okay, perhaps Jennifer was just looking for an excuse to dress up, but Ezra was fascinated with the pink hair. Tori brought everyone a small gift, and for Ezra she brought him a pirate eye patch. It is pretty funny.
Later that evening, the three of us went out for a really nice dinner at a local restaurant before retiring to the house/bedroom for the evening. We all layed in bed and watched Dan In Real Life before nodding off for the night.
It was my intent to remove the Obama ‘08 sticker that has adorned my car for more than a year just after the inauguration. I figured that was appropriate time to bask in the victory without being one of those people who are driving around with Gore, Kerry, or W stickers 8 years later. Well, every time that I was going to do it, I would be driving on the road and see someone with a Nobama sticker, or a McCain sticker, or a Palin sticker. Just between you and me (because doing something this silly is not worth while), it was great fun to speed up and pull in front of them on the interstate…..and drive there for a few miles, thus forcing them to stare at the Obama sticker for a while. Yea, I know….pretty immature…..but after the last bunch of years…..great fun. Alas, yesterday was the time. The sticker came off of the car. The rear window now seems a little naked – you have any suggestions?
So today we will participate in the celebration of Ezra’s first Valentine’s Day by going out to brunch with our ‘family dinner’ gang, then later heading out to dinner as just the three of us. Ezra got a head start on the partying at his day care on Thursday, as Peggy hosted a Valentine’s Day party for all of the kids. It sounds like it was a good time….for the other kids…..Ezra apparently slept through most of it. He did write everyone a Valentine’s card, and gave everyone a little piece of candy. Of course, he came home with a little brown bag full of cards and candy from the other kids. It’s a shame that he can’t eat that stuff yet, and someone will have to pick up the slack. Also, Peggy gave him a little gift of a sippy cup – which transitions well to the next paragraph.
A few days ago, we got Ezra his first drinking cup. He has been fascinated with whatever we have been eating/drinking for some time, but we were holding off on getting him anything until now. In the past, he has been able to drink out of our water bottles: he figured out how to bite the top of the straw and suck the water out (they are made by Camelback)….so we didn’t think that this would be too foreign for him. Turns out that we were right: he took to it very well…as long as we hold it up so water can come out. Since the bottle is metal, it’s a little heavier than the plastic ones, and he has a hard time of picking it up and holding it upside down…either that or he just doesn’t understand the principal yet. Regardless, he loves to hold it and bite/suck on the top. Oh, and he loves to throw it also.
Yup, that’s him standing on his own on the table. He has gotten really good at sitting on his knees and picking himself up to a standing position on nearly anything. He also is loving climbing stairs, and can do two or three on his own before forgetting what he was doing.
Sorry no posting the last couple of days….I have been at work. As a side note, right now I think that we are ambiguous towards our feelings for the 48 hour work schedule. For the first couple of weeks, I worked a lot on the weekends and therefore didn’t have much quality time with Ahna. But as the schedule moves, so do my days off, and for this entire month, I don’t work a single weekend day. I suppose that this is an upside to the schedule….but we haven’t really made up our minds on whether or not we like it more than the old schedule. I promised myself that I would give it 6 months before I formed any solid opinions.
On Monday Ezra and I headed back to the pool for some swimming fun. It was really neat to see him transfer some of what he is learning in the bathtub (splashing) to the pool, and for the first time he started making lots of waves with his arms. He was even moving his arms in unison attempting to move across the water. He has long been kicking when he gets in the pool, and now he was moving his arms in a motion that remotely resembles the butterfly stroke.
He has also been really enjoying going under the water features and getting dumped on by the water. We spent a lot of time on these past couple of trips in the ‘lazy river’ just walking the path, but aiming for the water spouts, etc. Whenever we get close to one, he attempts to leave my arms trying to get to them, and just before going under, he holds his breath and scrunches up his face. It’s awesome.
So I spent some time learning/figuring out how to lower the mattress in the crib to prevent him from being able to fall out….but within minutes of completing the task, we learned that it wasn’t going to work to our expectations. Upon being placed into the crib, he immediately stood up, and the new height only served as a better stability platform for him. ~sigh~ I suppose that it’s time to come to grips with the fact that there is a possibility that he could get out if he wants. I still think it’s a little while away, but the absolute safety of placing him somewhere with little concern seems to be gone. At this point, it appears that crawling has turned into a tool for him to move between places to stand.
Saturday evening marked the first time that Ahna and I had gone out together for the night since Ezra arrived. Sure, we had spent a few afternoons away for lunch or an errand or two…but never hit the town until the other night. I suppose that ‘hitting the town’ isn’t the right description…..it was the fire department’s 93rd annual awards banquet. We find that it’s always a fun time and we enjoy seeing and spending time with everyone.
On the drive to the pre-party, Ahna and I discovered that there was a large amount of excitement in anticipation for spending some time together, but that there was the expected large amount of nervous energy towards concern about how Ezra was going to do with my folks. The resulting feeling was like having drank 8 coffees before leaving the house. We promised ourselves that we would try to not worry about Ezra too much and focus on having fun….I mean, what was the worst thing that could happen? He would still be awake when we got home? Turns out it’s easier said than done.
Overall, I thought that we did a great job of paying attention to each other and not to our concern over Ezra. Of course there were moments. But those seemed fleeting as we reminded ourselves that my folks had our phone numbers as well. We did make an attempt or two to call and check in, but nobody answered their phones…and we didn’t get pushy about it in fear that it might wake Ezra up if we called the home number.
Turns out everything went fine. Ezra did great: he enjoyed his bath, ate some dinner, and went to sleep. Mom and Dad also did great – making sure that everything got done that needed to get done. We were gone for almost 5 hours when it was all said and done, and had a great time. Ahna and I have already begun making plans for the next time out.
