Ginger is having to get used to a baby in the house. We thought this was too cute and very telling of Ginger's inner feelings about Ezra. To me, it seems as if she is screaming, "Pay attention to me!! I can be a baby too...". :)

Ezra loves for Nanna to rock him to sleep in the recliner.

Here's Ezra sitting on Grandpa's belly. They are having loads of fun.

Last is a picture of our happy boy. So sweet!

Saturday was Ezra's first beach outing. At first I was sad that the gross Galveston beach would be his first experience, but I thought, "If it was good enough for Mike and I when we kids, it would be fine for Ezra." It was actually kind of nice because the water was already pretty warm, and the waves were small enough to be fun, but not dangerous. Ezra really had no opinion concerning the matter. He definitely wasn't sad or mad about being in the water, but I can't say that he was overly enjoying himself either. He tolerated it and gave no protest when we decided we were done. My friend Jennifer was kind enough to go with me to hang out and help with all his baby gear and so we laid on the beach, while he took a little nap in the shade. I didn't want to keep him in the sun for too long so we went back to the beach house shortly after that. Overall, I'd say his first beach experience was a resounding success.

We made it to Houston safe and sound. It was a long trip, but Ezra was an angel.

The picture on the left is Ezra sleeping in cradle that my Grandpa made. We need to get a piece of foam to cut for a mattress, because what we have in there is NOT the right size. It is pressed into the bottom and the sides of the cradle make it slope up, so when Ezra is in there we call it an "Ezra taco". He doesn't sleep in there overnight, but I put him in there for a nap and it didn't seem to bother him.

He hasn't rolled over yet, but he's trying really hard.

Here's Ezra with his very proud Nana. It's all we can do to make her go to school every day instead of staying home to play with the baby.

The picture on the right is Ezra hanging out with his PapPa (great-grandfather). They are already best buddies.

Ezra is 10 weeks (tomorrow). We went to the Dr this morning for a check up, and she said everything looks great. He weighs 12.65 lbs and is 23.2 inches long. We're still waiting for Ezra's passport and praying it comes this week. Mike continues to get ready for deployment and it is fast approaching.
This picture wasn't taken on Friday night (a couple of days before), but it goes well with the story below.
We had kind of an unfortunate situation on Friday night. I was told it was funny and to put it on the blog. I hope it doesn't make me seem like a horrible mother. :)
I went to a ladies fellowship on Friday night and left the men-folk at home (Mike and Ezra). I pumped to bottles to leave and was planning to be home by 9. At the fellowship after I had finished eating, I moved back into the living room to chat so that I could keep an eye on the clock. At 8:30 I started making my way toward the door to leave. About 5 minutes down the road, I get a call from Mike and hear Ezra screaming in the back ground. He says, "Are you coming home soon? I thought you were going to be home by 9." I asked if he was out of milk and he said Ezra wouldn't take the second bottle and had been crying since about 8. I said, "I might be a few minutes late, but I should be there around 9." He said, "It's after 9 right now!" To which I replied, "Ok! I'm on my way." I looked at the clock in the car and it read 9:47. As I sped toward home to feed my hungry and crying baby, I tried to imagine how this could've happened. There was no way I chatted that much on the way out. It then occurred to me that the clock I had been so diligent to keep an eye on, hadn't been sprung forward. The clock was on the wall high above the entertainment center and the lady hosting the party is about 6 mos. pregnant, with a deployed husband. So it's not like she could just shimmy up a ladder to change it.
I got home and fed Ezra. Contrary to what I thought, he survived. Once the situation was explained to Mike, he wasn't quite as mad. It's funny in hindsight, but that night when I had a long drive ahead of me and could hear my baby screaming on the phone, I guarantee you I wasn't laughing. I was praying I didn't get killed as I sped down dark country roads at about 120 km per hour (don't tell the Carabinieri).
I'm off to work out. Gotta get those last couple of lbs off and down to my pre-pregnancy weight before I come home. :)

The first picture is Ezra with his Easter dog. It's big enough that he's able to hold onto it a little and bring it to his mouth. He likes how soft it is and plays with the dog's ears. Although, I don't really think it's intentional.
We took the flower pictures after church Sunday. We had Ezra's baby dedication so we were in the picture mood. I guess I should re-phrase that to say I was in the picture mood. :) But, Mike and Ezra did cooperate for the most part. The picture of Ezra and me in front of the white flowers is actually in our neighbor's front yard.
Mike and Ezra with the pink and white tulips is in our yard. And the "family portrait" (minus Skyla) in front of the purple Irises is in our yard. We have quite the variety don't we? No thanks to me. All these beautiful flowers were already in our yard, and they survive and bloom every year with no help from me.
We go to the Dr. for Ezra's 2 month check up next Monday. He will actually be 10 weeks. So, I will report on weight and any other news next week.
A kind soul has graciously volunteered to keep Skyla for us while Ezra and I are in the States so hopefully we'll get Ezra's passport in the next couple of weeks and we'll be all set to arrive in the States the first week of May. Keep praying that it all works out like we hope it will!

Happy Easter! What a cute boy in his new Easter outfit?! There are many fields of yellow flowers on our drive from our house to the base. I made Mike pull over and trespass with me so we could snap this picture. If you click on the picture it should enlarge and you can see the snow on the mountain behind me. The picture with the red tulips was taken in our front yard.
Mike and Ezra decorated the Peeps that Ezra received in his Easter basket. We had to help Ezra eat them of course. At our church picnic, he participated in his first Easter egg hunt. (By "participated" I mean he slept and I picked up a couple eggs for him.) Maybe we'll have more involvement from him next year. :)

See, I told you he could smile bigger. He was a happy baby this morning and smiling all over the place. We almost got a laugh out of him. I thought these were just too precious and couldn't wait to post them.

He smiles when we read to him, and yesterday he smiled when Skyla walked past his swing. It seems they are finally getting used to each other. After our walk, I laid Ezra on the couch while I let Skyla out of her kennel. I asked Skyla, "Where's the baby?" She went first to the stroller, then to the swing, and then heard him on the couch. She went over to sniff him to confirm that is was him and then ran back to me satisfied with her find.

This is a half smile. He can smile bigger, but it's kind of hard to catch on camera.
He's cooing more and more every day. It seems like he's getting more hair too.
I can't think of anything else worth noting--that's the problem with weekly updates. Sometimes not too much happens in a weeks time. I hope you enjoy the pictures at least...

I didn't blog on Tuesday when Ezra was officially 6 weeks, because we had a really crazy day. To top off the craziness, my wallet was "stolen". Stolen is in quotations because I enabled it to be stolen when I left it on the bumper of the car and drove off. All our cards have been canceled, so I think I was able to get away with just having the inconvenience of getting new cards, driver's licenses (US and Italian), and SS card instead of having our credit ruined by fraud. The error was a combination of having way too many things to put in the car (grocery bags, diaper bag, stroller, baby, etc) and operating off of about 3 1/2 hours sleep. Ezra picked the worst possible night to stay up until 3:30.
These pictures were taken on our walk today. The one with Ezra and the purple flowers was the last one I took and I think he was protesting me making him take a picture with so many flowers. He is a boy after all. :) The picture at the top with Mike and Ezra was taken when Mike got home today. It's always priority #1 when Mike gets home to make Ezra smile and talk (coo or gurgle) to him.

**I have my wallet back!! It stayed on my bumper until I got off base. Some kind-hearted Italian turned it in at the Carabinieri (Italian police) office. Since I canceled all my cards, that obviosly can't be undone, but at least I don't have to worry about getting another TX DL or SS card. Thank God!!**

We had an unexpected winter blast last night. Still no snow at our house, but we had some sleet and the snow came further down the mountain than it did all winter. The picture is taken from the front steps of our house. There's actually a chance for more snow this week. At least it gives Ezra a little more time to wear his cute warm outfits.

Ezra is 5 weeks old. We actually hit a 6 hour stretch of sleep a few nights ago. I think he takes after his Uncle Garrett in that he likes to stay up late and sleep in. I guess I don't care which way he does it, as long as we get an uninterrupted stretch some where in there.

We also had an appointment on Friday of last week and Ezra weighed in at almost 10 lbs.

In the picture on the right, it almost looks like he's smiling, but he's just stretching. We haven't really seen any true smiles yet, but we relish when we see him smile in his sleep. It's so cute.

The picture on the left is a close up of Ezra in his swing. I think he likes it, but doesn't want to stay in there for too long. If it's possible for him to be spoiled (which it isn't), he is. He constantly wants to be held, which is fine because his mother and father constantly want to hold him.

I put the last picture in because it looks like he's dancing. What a nut! :)

Ezra is 1 month old! There's not too much to report. The picture on the right is Ezra and I in a patch of violets in the back yard. The daffodil pictures are in my neighbor's yard. I also wanted to point out his cute sweater outfit. It's wool, and I accidentally dried it, so this was probably both the first and the last time he'll be able to wear it. Oops. The beautiful Tulip Tree is in my friend Andrea's yard. (Sorry Andrea--we had to trespass to get the picture. :) Isn't your tree gorgeous!) The Mickey out fit picture is for Nana.
Sleeping stretches at night are getting longer (even if they don't start until later...). He's really good at holding his head up and does so much of the time when I'm walking around and he's on my shoulder. He will even hold it up if we have him in a sitting position. We laugh, because it's really wobbly. Mike says it looks like he should have a soundtrack because it's as if his head is bobbing along to the beat of a song that no one can hear but him. Don't worry, we have a good bit of it on video so you too can laugh at him when you see it.

A couple of nights ago we have our first undisputed encounter with gypsies. The past couple of months some of the gas coupons we keep in our glove box had gone missing. (We buy gas coupons at a discounted price to offset the high cost of gas in Europe--it's still a little higher than the cost of gas in the States.) The first time, Mike and I blamed each other for misplacing them, or we thought that we had simply forgotten that we used them all. The second time it happened, it was a whole pack ($60) and we were both convinced they had been stolen out of our car. We keep them in the house now. Monday morning when Mike went to leave for work, our car door was open, the glove box was open, and a pack of gum that we had left in the car was completely eaten and laying on the seat. Annoying huh?

Well, I guess that's all the exciting stuff that's happened to us in the last week. :)

We went to the Dr. today for Ezra's "2-week" Well Baby check up today even though he's 3 weeks. He weighed 8 lbs. , 8 oz. So he's a growing boy. They checked hearing in his right ear because it had failed in the hospital right after he was born (not uncommon) and after several attempts he passed. But the Dr. said that everything looked great. He's beginning to get some baby acne. They're just little red bumps that come and go in about a day. Mike went back to work Monday and Ezra and I got through the day just fine. I was definitely ready to let Daddy do some holding and diapering by the time he got home though. Which he was willing to do--I think he missed us. :)
Ezra's sleep schedule is still pretty crazy. We haven't really managed to keep him from taking a very late afternoon nap, after which he likes to stay up until midnight or 1. Once he goes to sleep he'll sleep a good stretch with out waking up. During the day though, he eats like every hour or two.
Well, I guess that's about it from here for this week. I hope you enjoy the pictures.