Good news!! We are expecting another baby. I know, we wait 6 years to have the first one, and now they're just popping out right and left. Mike and I have always wanted to have kids that were close in age and Ezra is such a good baby that it encouraged us to have another. No doubt we will both be very busy the first several years, but we are excited and hopeful that they will have a very close bond.

We found out about a week and half ago. I really have no symptoms, but it had been a month and a half since I stopped breast feeding and I hadn't had my monthly visit so I just thought "what the heck". Since they determine the due date by the first day of your last menstrual cycle, they had to use the measurements from the baby to determine the due date. They said it's pretty accurate and determined that I was about 5 1/2 weeks along. I'm due on June 15th, but we're hoping for a June 14th baby in order to make about 4 or 5 funny coincidences. As long as he/she isn't late like Ezra!

Mike's hoping for a girl this time around, but I'm really fine with either. We have lots of clothes for a boy and I could dress them in matching outfits. :) But a girl would be fun too.

Anyway, that's the news. Oh, and we're in Houston until December 12th.

The stairs at my house are dangerous. Mike and I have fallen more than once, but never with this result. That's not to say that mine is the worst injury that's come from falling down the stairs. My mother-in-law did break her foot by falling down the stairs during her visit to our house. I am choosing to say that this bruise is on my lower back. I was carrying Ezra (he was fine), so in an attempt not to break my son, our combined weight hit the stairs at this point. Mike rushed to our rescue when he heard the crash. Ezra was crying, but he was just scared (me too!).

I decided to take a picture of Ezra to put on here, so it wouldn't just be pictures of my "lower back". Here is Ezra with his new best friend. His pacifier. He has grown a strong dependence on his pacifier in the last week or so. He hardly ever took it until I stopped breastfeeding a a month and a half ago. Then we were giving it to him only when he was going to sleep. Now he wants it almost all the time. Ugh. I think he's teething, so hopefully it's just a phase. Oh well, there are worse things that having a kid who likes his pacifier.

Ezra is 8 months old (yesterday). I am a day behind, because we've had a rough couple of days. He got his some shots on Wednesday, and like before he ran a fever. It lasted longer than it has before, but at least it was mostly just in the evenings. A couple of evenings his temp was around 102 even with the medicine. It was kinda scary because he was pretty lethargic, but he did seem to have an appetite so we just kept feeding him water with a little juice, and fruits. Poor guy. I was worried, but he didn't die so I guess his little body could handle it. Tonight seems to be the first night since Wednesday, that it looks like he will be ok. Yea!
We have this changing table in the living room, and his toys and books are on the bottom shelf. He supposed to take the toys off the shelf, but sometimes, he likes to join them ON the shelf. Silly. He learned that he shouldn't take a nose dive off the shelf to get out. Now he usually can either back out or put one leg down at a time.
These yellow flowers grow on the side of the corn fields. Our town was having a "festa" (to celebrate what we're not quite sure, but Italians don't really need too much of a reason to have a party), so we walked through town and bought some local honey and enjoyed the atmosphere before walking down to the main road to take our picture with the flowers. It felt like a characteristically "fall" evening and was very enjoyable.

First are some pictures of Ezra's first attempt at eating spaghetti. If he were a true Italian baby, we would have probably introduced spaghetti shortly after birth. ;) He loves spaghetti. He loves most things, but isn't wild about baby food. He wants to eat with his hands. We are happy that Ezra's eating habits are the one area where he does NOT take after his Dad.



We had our first snow last week. It was rainy and cold for about 3 days. We didn't get any at our house of course, but we were pleasantly surprised that it did snow on the mountain about 20 min away. It didn't stay for long though. It's been about a week, and there's not much left.







Mike was baptised last Sunday at church. He accepted the Lord many years ago at youth camp, but had never been baptised. So we rejoiced on Sunday as Mike took a little dip. Ezra was kept a close eye on him.

Last is a picture of Ezra with Dino and Neva. They are my neighbors sister and brother-in-law and they come over every summer from Fort Wayne, Indiana to stay for a couple of months. Last summer, I had practically just found out I was pregnant. They enjoyed getting to see the "new" baby.