Salsa and Dancing from Ryan Valdez on Vimeo.

BATMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! from Ryan Valdez on Vimeo.

Somebody got a haircut...

Ezra enjoyed a relaxing afternoon as his barber, Aaron, trimmed him up. Afterwards, Ezra enjoyed his first lollipop ever. How many licks did it take him? Oh, about three before he chomped down on the whole thing.

Lots of pictures in this post. It might be one of the last times I take out my camera at our current house so I figure I better snap some shots of my sweet boy playing. I love to watch Ezra play. Sometimes when I go to pick him up from daycare I peek through the fence and watch him play for a minute or two on the playground. Brings such joy to my heart to see him happy. Anyway, we are set to close on our new house next week. We are excited! We'll be moving shortly after that. No offers yet on our current house but we feel that it will happen soon.

And so what does Ezra do when he discovers his Mommy standing on the table taking pictures of him from up above? Get up on the table of course! Bad example Mommy!

And sometimes he eats the guitar too. :0)

My sweet baby boy.

Ok, tell the truth....who taught my son to smile like this next shot? Nanna, was it you? Oh man. Cracks me up when he does this. I can just imagine all his school pictures will have this smile. It's like you can hear someone in the background saying "cheese." You should never, ever, ever say cheese. Trust me.

Got to love him!

Our house is on the market and priced to move. If anyone out there is interested or knows someone who is interested in moving to West Fort Worth, send them our way. The webpage for the listing is here.

More Chill Time with Ezra James from Ryan Valdez on Vimeo.

Our child has no fear. Actually, we were quite impressed with this. Talk about some upper body strength. For someone who is so soft he must have some muscle hiding in there somewhere. And yes, the cute little stool has been moved away.

Long time no post. Busy, busy, busy these days but going to try to catch up on a few things in our lives...

1. That first picture bring the biggest smile to my face every time I see it! We're pretty strict at our house about going outside with shoes. It was almost bedtime and we weren't planning to go outside. But what can you say when your 20 month old brings you his running shoes and keeps saying "out, out, out." Also, our cat has such patience with Ezra. I'm waiting for him to snap.

2. I'm living in bizarro world right now with 10 free days off of work. This whole swine flu thing is crazy. I personally think everyone is just a little bit overreacting but I will take an unexpected time off from work. Ezra's daycare is shut down too so we're getting some good time together.

3. Speaking of bizarro and the swine flu....yesterday I had the entire day to myself and that was really weird. Before we knew that school was canceled Nana had asked to watch Ezra for the day. She tries to do that once a week. So he still went to her house and I stayed home with no work and no baby.

4. Can't remember if I've posted this before but Ezra moved up into a new classroom at daycare last month. We really like where he is now and love his new teachers! Something else new in that classroom is no paci. We were kind of nervous about this but it wasn't a big deal at all. He's now paci free except for bedtime. :0)

5. Ezra is really into playing with legos these days. Thank you to Aunt Francie & Uncle Eric for this gift a few months ago.

6. We recently bought a family pass to the FW Zoo and go all the time now. It's great! I guess it's been about a month now and we've already gone probably five times. The zoo is so close to our house so it's so convenient. We usually go for about 45 minutes at a time which is perfect for us. Ezra's favorite animals -- flamingoes, mearcats, elephants.

7. We started doing time-outs with Ezra and they have been pretty effective. Why didn't we start these sooner! Ha! That 60 seconds that he's in timeout is hard for him (and for us to listen to) but we follow it up with a big hug and it usually puts an end to behavior that we don't like. Of course, we sometimes see it again later in the day but it's pretty good for ending it right then and getting Ezra focused again.

8. These days we're reading:

Logan - The Know it All: One Man's Humble Quest to be the Smartest Person in the World by A.J. Jacobs

Nell - The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

Ezra - No, David! by David Shannon, and Pete's a Pizza by William Steig

9. Logan's got another 100 mile race planned for the fall that he started training for last week. That of course makes me want to do something big. Not 100 mile big but maybe a marathon. We shall see. I'm always good when I have something to train for. Now that the weather has gotten warmer Ezra and I (and Logan and Ezra) have been doing lots of morning runs before school/work. Every day Logan and I trade off with Ezra while the other one goes to the gym. I've been able to get in two days a week of yoga and Logan works out with a trainer two days a week. On the other days we each run with Ezra. I take Ezra to daycare and then come home for a quick shower and head off to work. So for my daycare friends who see me in the morning looking oh so pretty and smelling oh so good -- so sorry! Ha! It makes for one healthy Mama though. :0)

10. We've got something really big in the works at our house! Stay tuned. It's very exciting!