We interrupt our regular programming...

...to bring you "breaking" news. Ezra broke his arm last week, and in true Ezra style it was a HUGE deal. I have said it before, but some kids have all the luck and Ezra is not one of them. I will finish off our Utah trip later, but lets back up for the full story.

While we were in Utah Ezra slept on a little kid air mattress, and in order to keep him in bed to go to sleep, I started the very bad habit of laying next to him on the floor. Needless to say after 5 weeks he has decided to be completely dependent on me for falling asleep. When we got back to Boston he started to wake up a lot in the night, and with sleeping somewhere different every other night (I can't wait to be done with Holyoke.) he often ended up in bed with me. I am normally VERY anti Ezra in my bed, but exhaustion drove me to such madness. After two literally sleepless nights in Holyoke I was determined to get Ezra back to sleeping on his own.

We got back from Holyoke at 11:30, played a little, had lunch and then were ready for the crying to begin. As soon as I mentioned the word nap Ezra started in with "Mommy's bed", but much to his dismay I insisted he sleep in "Ezra's bed". He was of course crying, but I was ready for five minutes of it before I went back in. Unfortunately, I think we made it about 2 minutes before I heard the thud. I went in to find Ezra on the floor. I was a bit surprised because I have never once seen even a hint of him trying to climb out. I decided that there would be no napping in the crib today until I could figure out a way to keep him from climbing out, so I gave in and took him to my bed. When I laid him down I went to hold his hand (something he likes me to do while he goes to sleep so he knows if I try to leave) and felt that his wrist was clearly deformed. I looked down and knew that we would be making a trip to the ER.

When we got to the ER they got us in to the triage nurse fairly quickly because Ezra's arm was visibly broken. They took his vitals and stuck me in a wheel chair with him on my lap and his arm on a pillow. While we waited to be seen by the doctor Ezra drifted off to sleep. When they wheeled us back the doctor checked Ezra's eyes and felt his arm, and he slept through all of it. She decided that was not a normal response, that he should have woke up crying. Because I had not seen him fall they felt they had to assume a head injury. They took him from me (which woke him and sent him into a screaming frenzy) laid him on a bed, and stuck a neck brace on him. He, of course, hated it and he spent the next 30 minutes or so fighting me and three other people trying to hold him down. They decided he needed to be transferred to Children's Hospital and called an ambulance. They kept calling him Houdini because despite four of us holding him down he managed to get the brace off of his arm three times. When the paramedics finally arrived it was even more mayhem trying to keep him still and get him strapped to a board to transport. Once we got him into the ambulance, and he could hold my hand he calmed down.

While we drove, with lights and sirens blaring, Ezra fell asleep again. I am sure he was exhausted. When we were getting close the paramedic checked his eyes and decided to wake him. He was lightly pinching the inside of his arm and he just kept sleeping. This freaked him out, so they rushed him in to the Children's ER announcing that they had an unresponsive toddler. This sent a ton of people into a flurry of activity. Once again, as soon as they went to move him he woke up screaming and fighting. They cut off his shirt, started an IV, put a much better brace on his arm, and switched for a smaller neck brace. They ordered a CT scan of his head and X-rays of his neck, elbow and wrist. They said they would likely keep him overnight for observation.

Poor little guy! Check out the messy IV and the pool of blood.

I won't bore you with the details of the next eight hours of our time in the ER other than to say that the radiology tech was less than gentle (but his wrist did look a lot more straight when she was done) and that everyone kept commenting on how sleepy he was. It turns out that he was just tired (like I had thought the whole time), and all his tests came back great, with the exception of the wrist, which was obviously broken. When they finally decided we could go home the doctor came in and said "How comfortable do you feel going home?". I'm sure it doesn't surprise anyone that I quickly replied "Super comfortable!". It was a long day! Allison picked us up about 10pm and took us back to our car which was still at Mt. Auburn Hospital (thanks again). The worst part was that Bob was in Holyoke so I was flying solo the whole time. I'm sure it all seemed a lot more scary for him from a distance, what with talk of a neurosurgeon and all. I was mostly starving and sick of people asking me if I was holding on okay. I hate crying, and it is the last thing Ezra needs to see with all that crazy stuff going on. I can stay calm and collected, but the more people ask, the more you feel like breaking down.

With the neck brace off and finally able to sit up a little he was much happier.

This picture pretty much sums up the day!

They had to send us home in a gown and blanket since they cut off his shirt.

He was just ready to go to bed by the time we got home.

It took Ezra a couple of days to adjust to the cast, but he is doing really well. We even went to the zoo the next morning. That will be another post though. I love when people ask him what happened to his arm he just points to it and says "broken" or "blue cast". He is such a trooper and needs to be with luck like his!

Utah- Week 2

We started off week two with a family birthday party. We have a lot of August birthdays, so Ezra was completely overwhelmed by all the people. He was super whiney the whole time, but we still had fun. Before the party really got going we did a little photo shoot though. Dayna had bought the boys matching shirts (they didn't have them in Zane's size) and since they are all the grandsons together for the first time we snapped away.

Zane was the only one I could get to smile or look at the camera.

Talya felt left out, so she joined in at the end. She was only slightly more cooperative though.

Some of the birthday folk. 

We are missing a few, and Keian's birthday was actually in July.

Ezra went for his first motorcycle ride around the yard with Grandpa. To say he loved it would be an understatement. Grandpa taught him how to honk the horn, so every time they turned right and the horn came within his reach he would honk it. I think this really helped Ezra warm up to my dad.

We also went camping later on that week. They are redoing a lot of the camping spots at Pine Valley, so we got stuck in the Equestrian Campground, which basically means sagebrush and cedar trees with no stream, instead of the nice and cool pine tree area. We still had fun though. Ezra was just happy to be outside all day. We played games, relaxed, and ate food, there was a little "hiking", but mostly games and food. It was a very transient camping group, with me and Ezra being the stable ones. We had 21 people and 2 dogs, but never everyone at once. We didn't mind though.

If you click on the picture it should get bigger and you can see the baby dear

poking his head up. The mama's rear is to the left.  

This concludes the wildlife portion of camping.

Ezra loved to play with the trailer rigging. I think he was trying to pull it here.

Check out my game face!

Ezra zonked while eating licorice. You can't really see it but he has a very messy face.

Thanks for the good times everybody!

Utah- Week 1

We were gone for so long that I have felt really behind in my posting, and didn't know the best way to go about doing it. So take it as it comes.

Ezra slept through most of both of our flights out, which was so nice! I didn't use any of the distractions that I brought except once during our layover. We got in early, and luckily my family was there early to get us. The week started out pretty uneventful, mostly me just trying to recover, and Ezra getting to know everyone.

Ezra loved playing with Jett and Keian. (Maybe not at first, but they learned.)

It is hard to say whether he loved them, or their dogs more. 

The dogs were definitely winning at first.

Ezra loved this airplane teeter totter. It was nice to have something for them all to play on.

That weekend we made a quick trip to the Salt Lake area. Josh wanted to check out UVU and I wanted to see some friends. Unfortunately most of them were out of town. I did get to see Cami before she had her baby though. Isn't she so cute pregnant?

Dayna and her boys wanted to tag along, so we rented a minivan and it was still an interesting process trying to get all of us and the car seats in. Let's just say that one person was uncomfortable at all times. We had a good time though. I think the boys really enjoyed the pool at the hotel. Sorry no pictures though.

While Josh and Mom checked out UVU we went to a park.

It was so hot that we mostly just let the boys play in this puddle.

The next morning we met Cory and Natalia at a train museum. It was nice to get to see Lilian for the first time and to have something for the boys to do.

This is part of the original train station. There used to be a ton of these benches for

people to wait on. I just thought it was a cool room for taking pictures.

The boys loved watching the train go around the tracks!

They also had a little old car section. I think I prefer the cars we have now.

Ezra loved all the old license plates because they had letters on them!

He is supposed to be giving Lilian a kiss here, but he was a little confused.

He is used to being on the receiving end and doesn't give kisses very well.

I'm not really sure why these horses were there (I didn't read the plaque),

but we sure enjoyed taking pictures by them.

Despite what others might say, Lilian likes me the best.

...and we're back! Kind of...

Ezra and I finally returned from our 5 week stay in Utah. We had a great time, but were so glad to get back to Bob. We have a ton to post about, but since I am stuck in Holyoke with Bob it may have to wait a bit longer. I just wanted to post a little update on Ezra for record keeping sake.

Ezra LOVES letters. He points them out everywhere. He recognizes every letter of the alphabet and is more than happy to tell you all of them. He can kind of sing the ABC's all on his own. I think a lot of people are really surprised that he knows ALL the letters, but he just really likes that kind of thing, so we have spent a lot of time learning them.He is not as good with his numbers. I think he only recognizes 3,5,8, and 9. But he can count from 1 to 10, although usually just 3-9. He also knows most shapes (circle, square, triangle, star, moon, oval, diamond, rectangle) and colors (red, blue, green, yellow, orange, pink, brown, black, purple and white). It has been really funny to see people when they realize he knows all of those things because they start to quiz him on everything. He doesn't mind one bit though.

Ezra also loves to sing. He can sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", "Ring Around the Rosies", "Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam" and "The Wheels on the Bus" all by himself. He also really enjoys singing "I Love to See the Temple", "Popcorn Popping", and "I'm so Glad When Daddy Comes Home". I know there are others that I', not thinking of but I think you get the point. One night he was awake in the middle of the night and I was laying by him to get him back to sleep (we are in Holyoke, so he doesn't have a crib, just a mattress on the floor) and he randomly started singing "I like to eat, eat, eat, apples and bananas". I couldn't help but laugh. He is such a funny boy. I will definitely get some video of him singing and put up soon.

Ezra is loving cars, trucks, and especially planes and trains. He really enjoyed having some cousins to play them with. He also loves to read books, and be read to. His recent favorites have been "Go Dog Go" and "Brown Bear, Brown Bear". I love it when he reads them to himself.

He has a ton of new words, so I won't even attempt to write them. Although one that he learned in Utah that I wasn't so excited about was "candy". he learned the word and the sign. He has started to put words together too. It is nice that he is getting better at expressing his needs. I'm glad he can sign too because some times I'm not understanding what he is saying so he will sign it. SO HELPFUL! Anyways, I wish you could all just spend some time with Ezra to see how well he is doing, but this will have to do for now.