Dear Ezra (11 months.....and 3 weeks)

*This is why I take a September Break ya'll.  It just doesn't happen.  Takes some getting used to be being back at work and having no time to blog or do anything at all, really.  I'm teaching new classes this year so after the kids go to bed it's lots of work for me.  Although this letter is finished 3 weeks late, I wanted to still write/post it.  In 6 days, my baby will be 1!

Dear Ezra

It is less than 2 weeks ‘til your 1^st birthday.  I have been putting off this letter.  First we were on vacation and it was my LAST week to spend with the 2 of you before going back to work.   I was tired from a busy summer and just didn’t take the time.  Once we got home, you boys went back to school and I went back to work and it’s been a crazy 2 weeks that I haven’t got to spend much time with the 2 of you. It makes me sad but I know in just a few weeks both of you will adjust and you’ll be happy to be back with your friends at school.  Oh my God, in jus t 12 days you’ll be 1.  I’ll try to write this letter as you were at 11 months, I’m sure not much has changed in the last few weeks.

At 11 months, you still LOVE to laugh, mostly at your brother or when we’re pulling you back when you crawl away from us while we’re changing you.  Just in the last month, you have finally been able to start really playing with Gage…you guys love to play with your Fisher Price house, your dinosaur popper and ‘cook dinner’ together.  It’s an awesome thing, watching the two of you play.  You also LOVE your tunnel, much like Gage did, but we can hardly let the 2 of you play since you guys are so silly and so rough that someone’s bound to get hurt.  Speaking of, you love to roughhouse and it makes you happy when Daddy plays hard with you.  You still love to eat and haven’t found much (aside from fish sticks) you don’t really care for.  Some of your favorites are mac and cheese, pizza, and yogurt.  You still eat at least one pouch a day and you still enjoy them b/c you can feed them to yourself.  You still nurse 4x a day and nap twice.  You’ve become quite the good little napper  this summer and for that I am thankful.  I do need a break at some point.

You still haven’t started talking and I think the one word you can claim is ‘Daddy’.  I’m still not even sure you really mean it.  Some days you look right at him, point and say Daddy, other days the door opens around 5pm and you say ‘Daddy’, then some days you look at the cat and say ‘Daddy’ so who really knows.  You can make the sound ‘mama’ but don’t say it on any kind of consistent basis.  You do love your Mama though and cry almost every am I leave you at school.  You got spoiled spending time with me this summer and even have a little bit of ‘stanger danger’ that Gage never had.  You don’t like to be held by people that aren’t familiar to you.

You weigh right around 20 lbs and it seems you get heavier every day.  You wear all 12 month clothes and have an entire wardrobe for every season.  I wrote in your last letter that you didn’t care for the pool, but you learned to mostly like it (more so in the afternoon when there was some shade) and you loved the beach.  You loved playing with your big brother in the waves.  You are really a ‘no fear’ kinda kid.

Within the last month, we have gone to the beach twice, been to Gage’s swim class on multiple occasions, finished up your swim class (complete with blowing bubbles), been to the zoo and a birthday party and hung at the park.  Nothing too interesting, just the normal summer stuff.  At this point in my letter, I realize that it’s taken me over 3 weeks to write this letter to you.  For that, I apologize.  I just don’t have the time after work.  I want to spend the 2 hours with you guys every night and it always gets put on the back burner.  For that reason, Ezra, this letter is kinda lame, but it’s life right now and that’s the point of these letters.  I’ll stop writing now and in less than a week I’ll be reflecting on your 1^st year.  I love you my Ezra Bean.  You are truly a joy!

Love Momma