Shoes and Ducks

Shoes have arguably become Zeke's favorite sight in the whole world. This little guy knows what shoes mean. When Zeke wants to go outside he will often bring me my flip flops and point at the door--too cute. Other days if he is doing something else I will pull out his shoes and the get his attention. The very second he catches site of the shoes his whole face lights up with a grin and laughter and he literally charges at me, plopping into my lap with his feet at the ready. the first week he wore shoes he hated them. Now he's made the connection. Shoes = Outside = my favorite thing to do. There are two things Zeke would probably do all day: play outside and eat blueberries. We spend probably two hours or more a day outside, which considering we live in Vegas heat, is a whole lot of time.

Here is several pictures of one of our latest outdoor adventures, another trip to the duck pond.

This duck seemed to have broken both of his wings and then they healed that way. We felt bad for the guy, but at least he seemed to be well fed. Zeke took care of that!

This is obviously not at the duck pond, and in fact it is several months old, but I just had to share it too because it makes me laugh.

I wonder what he was thinking at this moment

Finally, this is just a cute video of Zeke feeding the ducks.

Hey Good Lookin', Whatcha Got Cookin'?

The answer to that question, is anything Zeke can find. He is almost a daily chef of "Stone Soup" and this last week he decided to branch out to "Toy Soup." Mom provided the tupperware of water and he added all of the best ingredients. After adding a few he'd stop and stir it up.

Every chef knows that a good meal has lots of color and variety.

Taste Test.

Yep, its delish!




So every day before leaving for work Trustin picks up Zeke and says "Ok, Zeke, I've got an important assignment for you today: I need you to be the man-cub of the house and take care of Mama. Make her laugh lots."

Zeke follows his counsel incredibly well. I'm always laughing. And Zeke is definitely a cub of some sort. While he still can't say many words I think he's fluent in both Lionese and Dragonish. On Monday we went for a walk and he made me stop for several minutes so he could growl at a decorative frog outside someone's front door. I showed him how frogs hop and he squatted down and stood up just like a frog (well, a slow frog whose feet never leave the ground). I said "Ribbet" and Zeke said "Roar." Close enough.

So here's our little Dinosaur/Lion/Frog:

Life and the Zekester

Well it seems that since having Zeke, every moment is a moment we wish we had the camera handy. We miss so many great picture opportuties, but even with that, we have a lot of pictures that I wanted to share this week.

We went to a 51s baseball game with our good friends about two weeks ago, and so I had to include a picture of Zeke and his handsome Daddy.

This last weekend we had a ward pool party. (As you may guess, Zeke loved it...he's such a fish!)

Just chillin' in a boat in the kitchen with a monkey.

Zeke is in the market for a new hat.




This one got my vote. Adorable and provides protection from falling rocks.

Bubbles

Random position Zeke has taken to getting into several times a day. He thinks he's so funny when he does it; he's right!



With this face around, life is good! Trustin's new job is going well so far. Ups and downs like any job. The house hunt is still on, but we are hoping not for too much longer.

Our Little Monkey (and introducing his buddy who is a monkey too)

So I realize that almost everybody who reads this blog was there for his birthday, so I thought I had better show you some of the cuteness that you all weren't there for. These are just some random moments from this week.

First, despite what some may think from the mildness of the mess Zeke made while eating his birthday cake, Zeke is a disaster (or at least the kitchen becomes a disaster) when he eats.

Case and point!

No matter what he is eating Zeke always seems to reach a point when he decided that his tray simply is not clean enough. Thus he starts swishing his arms back and forth as fast as he can across his tray until he has managed to send all remaining food flying to the floor. Or, if he is feeling a bit more conservative about it, he will simply pick up pieces of food one by one and with a big smile at Mom, drops them very carefully over the edge of the tray.

This results in Mom scrubbing the floor at least 3 times a day.

This results in Zeke fully understanding the purpose of rags (or any items of clothing left on the floor.

Also this week, the term "mountain bike" has taken on a whole new meaning as Zeke discovered how to mountain climb right in the kitchen.

And finally, we wanted to intruduce everybody to Zeke's pal, Monkey. Zeke loves his little stuffed monkey so much. He doesn't always sleep with him, but he's so adorable when he does. We love going in to get Zeke in the morning or after a nap. He is almost always standing at the end of the crib bobbing up and down waiting for us, but once we're in the room he quickly bellyflops back down to cuddle his monkey. Sometimes he'll play in the crib for an extra half hour just tackleing monkey and laughing. When he sits up I ask him if he wants to get out and wabam! Faceplant into monkey again!

Happy Birthday Zeke!

Zekiel, Zekiel, quite uniquiel
how did you get so old?
With party time and birthday cake
and fountains without any mold.

Astonishingly poor poetry aside, Zeke had a wonderful birthday party. The best part was being with so much family. We didn't want to leave! Zeke made a killing on presents (we're still hiding some and just bringing them out one per day to keep the fun going; but boy they never end!) and just had the time of his life.



Cake was delish, but at first Zeke acted as though he might as well have been eating bread (which granted, is a favorite around here). Then he discovered the frosting which had fallen off and things got really tasty.



But for Zeke the highlight of the night was definately playing in the fountain. I think Zeke could play in that fountain every day; he LOVED it!

1 Year Old and Pizza!

Well we can hardly believe it, Zeke will be 1 on Tuesday. Only 6 days! Time has flown. He learns so much more every day and is constantly making us laugh. It is exciting to see how his personality is developing and how opinionated he is becoming. For example it has now become quite impossible to take him with me to get the mail because that requires walking past the swimming pool and Zeke cannot understand why we would ever pass the pool and not go swimming. He grabs my hand and vehemently drags me towards the pool. And occasionally when it is time to come inside he grabs the door frame and hold on for dear life because he wants to stay outside! What a cute crazy nut!


So we decided to save money and just take our own 1 year photos, especially because I wanted them taken outside anyways. We went to Sunset Park and Zeke was his usual curious self. He wasn't too into paying attention to the camera (actually strange for him, but can you blame him when there are new bushes to taste and duck to watch?).

In honor of Zeke being almost 1 year and the fear of allergies ebbing away (a bit of mom paranoia) we decided to let Zeke try pizza for the first time. He loved it.

We started out with small pieces. That lasted about two seconds before he grabbed the rest of his piece, finished it off and then...

he climbed right up onto the table...

"Are you gonna eat that?

Miracles at Naptime

Today, as on several other days in the past Zeke woke up from his nap before he was ready to wake up. He was crying in his crib and as I picked him up he instantly nuzzled his face into my armpit, which has long been his comfort spot, and fell right back asleep. As I sat in the rocking chair thinking about this I felt so blessed. While it is true that I encourage him to sleep on his own, in his own bed, there is something special about holding him. I thought about how despite being so tired he wouldn’t fall back asleep in his crib; but one second in Mommy’s arms was enough. What a beautiful relationship between parent and child. So full of comfort and love. I’m so grateful to be a Mommy.