Some videos

Okay, one more post. Here are some videos that I've taken lately. They're nothing too interesting if you're not family probably. I think my favorites are the last two. Enjoy.

Ezra & daddy playing drums from Lesley Montandon on Vimeo.

Puzzle from Lesley Montandon on Vimeo.

Happy boy from Lesley Montandon on Vimeo.

Ezra and the hat from Lesley Montandon on Vimeo.

Lately

I've been meaning to take pictures of Ezra in Bible class pretty much since he started at 4 months, but just remembered the other day to bring the camera. He LOVES Bible class. I teach his class on Wednesday nights and he gets excited when any of the little flowers/clouds/fish/etc. pass in front of him (they learn about creation in Bible class).
Last weekend we visited Tyler to see Chad's family before we left for the summer. Ezra had a hard time during the traveling. On our way to Tyler we stopped at Erin's house to take a little break and feed Ezra. We had given him a full bottle in the car, and when we got to Erin's house we gave him a couple containers of food. During the second container, he started gagging and threw up everywhere. By the time we got him and everything else cleaned up, he was crying pretty hard, and he felt hot, so we took his temp which was around 101. There wasn't much we could do except just keep going on to Tyler, and we got there without much more excitement. Anyway, we could just tell he didn't feel great that weekend, and I guess in a moment of weakness I let him try a popsicle at gramme's house, which of course he loved.
Sorry, this post is really random. That was pretty much the only picture I took in Tyler. Sorry.

Ezra has been really cracking us up lately. I know it's one of those things where we think he's hilarious and it's really not that funny, but it's my blog so I get to share. He likes to mimic high-pitched noises and singing. So we do a lot of high-pitched singing around here these days. He has perfected his army crawl, pretty much using his left elbow and left foot only, with his stomach dragging the floor, and I'm not sure he'll ever learn to crawl for real because he is so proficient at this. The last couple mornings we have walked in to him sitting up in his crib. Last night when I was about to go to bed, I turned on the video monitor just to peek at him and he was awake, sitting up in his crib, just looking around in the dark room in complete silence. It just struck me as really funny. We're enjoying watching his little personality unfold. He is a super happy baby and is in a good mood about 90% of the time, but he also has quite a little temper if he doesn't get his way. He has also started to really prefer me and Chad, and he will get upset if one or both of us is not in view or if we hand him off to someone else. I know a lot of moms kind of like if their kid gets upset when someone else is holding them, but it's not fun for me at all. I want Ezra to be a friendly baby. :)

I guess that's about it. We are leaving in 5 days so this will probably be my last blog post for a while. Who knows how much things will have changed in 2 1/2 months?

Two recipes

I have been meaning to post this first recipe for a while. I had this crustless quiche at a brunch a couple months ago, and it was delicious. And this is coming from someone who has had an aversion to eggs ever since the summer of 2001 when I was a cook at Blue Haven. Something about that smell at 6 in the morning having to scramble 36 dozen eggs for 250 people just gave me the dry heaves. Anyway, I think I have finally gotten over my egg thing, and only 9 years later. Try this quiche! You won't be disappointed! I also took it to our ladies' Bible class brunch a few weeks ago and it was all eaten up by the end, and a few people asked for the recipe.

Garden vegetable crustless quiche I like this recipe because it is pretty much foolproof. Instead of using the egg substitute, I just use 9 eggs. Most of the time I don't have the right cheeses so I'll just put in whatever I have. Once I completely left out the cottage cheese and it was still good. Just use whatever veggies you want.

Sour cream jam muffins I just made this next recipe today. These muffins are delicious. The recipe makes about 8-9 regular sized muffins. Also, all I had on hand was fat free sour cream and it was just fine. Yummy!

Here are some pictures from the past few days. Just like every baby, Ezra loves remotes, cell phones, keys, etc. We gave him his own remote without batteries and he seems to like it okay.

A couple days ago Ezra started getting allergies pretty bad. It runs in the family. I felt so sorry for him...he has been sneezing a lot, has red and watery eyes, and his nose runs...a LOT. I bet you guys have really been wondering where the pictures of this season's garden are and how it's doing. It's great, thanks for asking! This year we planted basil, chives, dill, flat leaf parsley, a couple different kinds of peppers, spring mix lettuce, spinach, radishes, broccoli (pests got it), bok choy (pests got it), cucumbers, strawberries, rosemary. Last year we planted a honeysuckle plant that is blooming beautifully right now and smells so good. Basically all the herbs are doing well and we had a nice salad last night with the lettuce that's springing up. We have a couple strawberries popping up...but I think the birds and/or squirrels might get to those before they get ripe.

I guess that's it. Thanks for reading.

Bluebonnets

While we were in Georgetown we managed to find a tiny little bluebonnet patch that was pretty much on its last legs, but since we don't really have bluebonnets in Lubbock I wanted to take advantage. As grabby as Ezra usually is when you put something in front of him, he is actually pretty timid when it's something new. So he just looked at the plants with curiosity, but he was too interested to really smile at the camera. Anyway, these are the shots I got. Wouldn't you know, as we were driving back today, I saw the most gorgeous fields of bluebonnets all over the side of the road. Oh well, better luck next year I guess.

Meeting Levi

We got to meet our newest nephew, Levi, this past weekend! Thursday night Chad got canceled at work so we were able to leave just as Ezra would have been going to sleep. He slept almost the entire way there and we were able to get there that night instead of having to drive all day the next day. Here are a few pictures we got of our sweet little nephew and some others too...
Look at all that dark brown hair!
Shawn and Levi having a talk.
A rare sight...Levi with his eyes open. :)Ezra thinks he's a big boy now that he's not the youngest grandson anymore. It really was cute watching him look at Levi. Elle and Ava were WONDERFUL keeping Ezra entertained and playing with him.
As usual, uncle Chad was a big hit.

Shenanigans

Ezra has started spinning around on his stomach break-dance style. Over the weekend, he started really pushing off with his legs to get things out of his reach. I think he will be full-out crawling very soon. See video below.
Ezra still loves his walker and likes to pull this chair over. When it gets caught on his walker he drags it all over the living room.

Almost crawling from Lesley Montandon on Vimeo.

Family photos

We had our pictures taken by a professional photographer for the first time since Ezra was born...actually, I guess for the first time since we got married. What can I say, I'm cheap. Brooke Ogilvie did a wonderful job in a very small amount of time before Ezra was ready to go home and go to bed. Enjoy!

9 months old!

Ezra is 9 months today! The past month has been a lot of fun. He is babbling a lot, smiling and laughing more than ever, and really just observing and learning about the world around him. In the last month Ezra got his top two teeth (not a super fun part of the month), so now he has four. This afternoon Ezra had his 9-month well check and he is 18 lbs. (12th percentile) and 28 inches (50th percentile). He is on the scrawny side so it makes me laugh when people ask how old he is and when I tell them they comment about how big he is...and yes, that happens quite often. Here are some other things I want to remember about our sweet baby at 9 months old:

-He eats about 4 times a day...4 bottles (5 or 6 ounces each), and then a meal of anywhere from 3-7 cubes of food mixed with oatmeal or applesauce. The first three meals are together (bottle and food at the same time), and then in the late afternoon I stagger it to where he eats something right after his last nap and then he gets a bottle before bed. His favorite foods are applesauce, sweet potatoes, and carrots. Butternut squash and blueberries are okay. He also likes yogurt and cheese. He threw up the last time I gave him peas, but I will try it again. He will also tolerate green beans. For snacking he likes puffs (apple cinnamon are his favorite), yogurt melts, and mum-mums which he can feed himself until he throws it on the ground. We introduced a cup a few months ago and are still working on that. At this point he is really more interested in turning the cup upside down and investigating the bottom of it. He is also pretty good about picking up puffs or whatever with his fingers, but he usually throws them on the floor instead of trying to feed himself.
-He sleeps from about 6:30/7 at night to 7 in the morning. He woke up a lot at night this month, but we are getting back into the sleeping through the night thing. Two nights ago he fell asleep at 6:15 and didn't wake up until 6:45 the next morning. He usually takes 3 naps a day, one in the morning, one in the early afternoon and then a little catnap in the late afternoon. He used to only sleep for an hour per nap, but his first two naps are getting longer (most of the time).
-His favorite toys are his walker and his jumper. He LOVES walking all around the house and has figured out how to navigate to get anywhere he wants to go. We have started to have to put away the trash can in the laundry room because he goes right to it. Thankfully he can't get in the bathroom because the door is too narrow. Otherwise he would be getting into everything just like he tries to do in the kitchen.
-He isn't crawling yet, but he spends a LOT of time on his tummy especially in his crib. Everytime we go in his room to get him he is on his tummy pushing up with his hands. He has figured out how to spin himself around while he's on his tummy and this usually gets him to whatever he wants to get if it is close enough to begin with. He also likes to push off with his little toes. Yesterday he started getting on his knees some, so I imagine by 10 months I'll be reporting that we have a mobile baby on our hands. In some ways I am looking forward to that and in other quite obvious ways I am definitely not.
-He has started to have more of an opinion and show his dislike for certain things. For example, he has never liked to be held, but now that he is so interested in everything he always wants down. Also, he used to really like being on the changing table, and now almost every diaper/outfit change ends up with him being in tears, probably because he doesn't want to just lay there. As soon as we put him on the changing table he starts reaching behind him for something to play with, and I've started just handing him the aquaphor or tylenol to play with so he'll stay still long enough for me to get his diaper changed without him flipping over. I have a feeling this is going to get worse before it gets better.
-He is really curious about everything around him. Already, even though he can't crawl, he is trying to grab at anything in reach. I've seen other parents hold their babies and be able to hold a church bulletin/magazine/other item with their baby just watching and sitting there nicely, but Ezra wants to grab it and play with it.
-These days he likes reading books and turning the pages himself. He does this really cute thing where when you turn the page, he leans his face way down to where it is touching the page, like he is really trying to look at it closely (or kiss whatever is on the page).
-He loves to scream when he is really happy and he is making more and more consonant noises. It's kind of funny because depending on where he is he will make a certain noise. On the changing table it's mostly "t" and "d" and in the high chair it's more "b". Weird.

Okay, I think that's it. Sorry for the long post, but I am behind on the baby book so this is an easier way for me to go back and look at what he was doing when I need to fill it in later.

The weekend

Dad and Ginny came to visit this weekend and we had a good time. We got a couple good pictures that I wanted to share. Thanks for flying to Lubbock to see us.
A rare shot of me with my son instead of behind the camera taking the pictures.

Some recent pictures

Our new pet

Our new kitty...
Oops, he heard me. Going...Going...Gone.
We have a cat. This cat lives in our backyard. We did not buy this cat, or rescue it, or choose it. In fact, Chad doesn't like cats and is allergic to them. A while back a piece of fence broke off of our back gate, and I guess that is how the cat gets in our yard. I think he sleeps under our shed. It kind of grosses me out, and Chad and I were discussing ways to get rid of it, and then it occurred to me that I haven't seen a single mouse since this cat has been around. We used to catch them in traps in our garage, and I have caught more than one in our house (Nasty I know.) But I haven't seen a mouse dead or alive in a long time, maybe over a year, so I think we'll keep this cat around. We don't feed him and I know he stays in our backyard so he's got to be eating something and my guess is that it's mice. I guess I should go out and thank him. I've decided to name him Archie, since I love that name and Chad wouldn't let me name Ezra that. Blog readers, meet Archie. Archie, blog readers.

Some pictures

In case you can't tell what this is, he likes to chew the front of the swing (and shopping carts, and laundry, and anything else he can lean into)

Pictures from the week

Ezra got his first playing in the dirt experience when he went outside with Chad in the garden yesterday...needless to say, he liked it.Ezra has 4 teeth now...two on top and two on the bottom. In fact, since those two top teeth have come through, we have had our happy baby back until the next tooth decides to make its appearance I guess. We went ahead and got him a toothbrush because he HATED having his teeth/gums cleaned with a wet rag. He loves his new Elmo toothbrush.
I think I mentioned before that Ezra is now able to maneuver himself around the house in his walker...we have all hard floors so it's pretty easy to do. Lately, he has discovered cabinets, the kitchen trash can (and how to pull it so it will dump over), the dishwasher, plugs, his bookcase in his room (and how to pull the stuff off of it), etc. etc. The walker is my best friend (because it keeps him happy the longest) and my worst enemy (because he gets into so much mischief in it). This newfound freedom of his has given us a little taste of what he is going to be like when he is truly mobile...and we are scared. This is the same child that will contort his body as much as he possibly can to get to anything within reach when he is in a shopping cart, including the stuff in the cart behind him. He is so curious about everything around him.

Paul and Carolyn came to visit last weekend and brought Ezra this toy that sings the chicken dance and flaps its wings. He really likes it as you can see. At the last minute I decided to take it with us for our family pictures on Thursday in case Ezra needed a little extra coaxing to smile...and I am so glad I did because it worked. Although now, I am having nightmares about the chicken dance.Stay tuned...soon I will be able to point y'all in the direction of our photographer's blog for a sneak peek at our photo session. I am excited to see how our first "real" family pictures turned out.