Ezra Luke Secrest

2011 was a great year for Ezra. He got to play in snow in the dark at 7:30 am, turned three, potty trained in less than a week, learned how to ride his bike with no training wheels in 20 minutes, moving to a new house, making new friends, going on walks/rides with the family, having space to play outside (one of his favorite pass times), helped mommy paint the new house, helped take out the deck that was our back yard, used his first power tool, spending time with grandparents and cousins, got 6 stitches in his head, was spiderman for halloween (and many other days), found a love for super heroes, learned his ABC’s, camping with the family, roasting marshmallows, learning his numbers, can count almost to 20, had his first Dentist appointment, loves to read bible stories (David and Goliath is one of his fav’s) was a little frustrated playing in the snow at Mount Baker but loved that we went, christmas, of course, and staying up late on New Years to play games with the adults. That just about covers the highlights of the year. I would go into detail on all of them but right now that seems a bit overwhelming so in order to try to get back on track with keeping these updated I will leave it at this. Pictures will be coming soon.

Fall is so pretty here. I love all the colors! In the beginning of October my mother-in-law was visiting and wanted to see the leaves. So I took here to a street that had trees lining it. They were all dressed in fall colors. It was beautiful. They boys had a great time playing in the leaves. Ezra would pile them up and Caleb would throw them in the air. One of these days I will get pictures of our family in the fall colors but for now just the boys will have to do.

This was Ezra first camping trip. I was really unsure how he was going to do. He I much more my rough and tough boy than Caleb however he still does not like to get dirty. I was n’t sure how he would do sleeping either as we have guard rails on his bed to keep him from falling out and that was not available. So I had my concerns. However he exceeded all my expectations. He loves the entire trip. I should have known since we got to be outside the whole time and that is his favorite place to be. He had fun running around with the older boys (Caleb and Cousin Bryant), digging in the dirt, collecting sticks, throwing rocks, walking in the water at the river, and sleeping in a tent. That was pretty exciting to him! He loved the tent. He stayed under his covers all night, glow sticks worked as nightlight (better than I had expected), and he slept all through the night. I had bundled him and Caleb up to sleep so that I was sure they would be warm and they were. The other highlight of the trip was that my brother brought his kids bikes. Ezra rode one of the bikes almost the entire time we were at the campsite. He would get off for a few minutes to do something with the boys and then get back on.  One highlight for me that came out of the trip was the way he said hot chocolate. The first   morning we were there we got out of our tent and made hot chocolate, since that is what you do when you camp. Before breakfast you have hot chocolate and stand around the fire to get warm. Ezra starting calling it ‘hot schlocate’. It was so precious and to this day I love it. There are more pictures on Caleb site if you want to check it out.

In September we took a week in California with my family. It was a great trip. Ezra had such a good time at Nonnie and Papa’s house. He got to work in the wood shop with Papa and Caleb, he got to play in the sandbox (something we really need to get at home), he got to go to the beach, and he got to play with his cousins – the best part being that he got to ride their bikes.  One morning for breakfast Nonnie brought out special glasses for everyone, including the Ezra. It was like a little wine glass. He thought that was the best thing ever. He has asked many times since them for the same glass (again something I really should get at home). It is always fun to visit the grandparents.

On Caleb’s first day of first grade I think Ezra was just as excited as Caleb was. It was so fun to see him wanting to be just Caleb. Caleb of course had to have his back pack, so Ezra did too. I needed pictures of Caleb so Ezra wanted to be in them too. I took a picture of Caleb in his back pack, so Ezra wanted one too. It was so sweet. Ezra had a hard time the first week of school with Caleb gone all day. He was used to having his brother around to play with, argue with, fight with, and be his company. Now it was just him and mom. He adjusted and does fine now. Although after Christmas break he did much the same thing the first day. He really missed Caleb.  One day on the way to pick Caleb up I drove Caleb’s old preschool and explained to Ezra that he may go to school there when he gets older. Since them he has off and on talked about going to school and how excited he is about it. He can hardly wait to get into school like his brother (I can wait, I love the time at home with him right now).

Ezra takes after his dad in drumming. I am not sure if it will continue but for how he loves it.  He has a little drum that he got for his birthday that he loves to bang on. He like to say “I am a fasting drummer!” Once again I just had to share the cuteness that is my son.

We had the privilege of seeing The Blue Angels this year when they were in Seattle. It was so fun getting to watch the planes go so fast, and be so low. It was rainy that day so apparently they had to do their low flying show but we did not know the difference. It was amazing anyway. There were 6 planes all flying very close together, very low to the ground and doing awesome tricks. In preparation for going to see them I looked up some information on them. I found out that all the stuff they do in their show are things they are trained to do in combat. The only difference is how close they are together. I thought that was really interesting. Anyway Ezra loved to see the planes though they were a little loud and the first couple passes scared him. The noise actually came after the plane was almost all the way past. They go so fast the noise does not keep up with them. So we had to make sure we were watching or we would miss them by the time we heard them. We were able to find a place to see them that was right on the water. They fly over Lake Washington, so the whole show is over water. There were a lot of people in boats watching as well as lots of us on the shore. We had a great time and will most likely do it again. I hear they are here every year for Sea Fair.

This summer we went to the zoo a few times. The first time this summer I took the stroller and had Ezra in it most of the time since I figured he was going to get tired and would not walk the whole time. However I was wrong. He wanted to be out of the stroller most of the day. So after that I decided that he could just walk and I would not take the stroller with us. It worked out really well.  I have a harness that I use for him when we travel and so I used that at the zoo to keep track of him. He had such a good time being able to run, walk, get close enough to see everything, and not be restrained.  He actually lasted longer than I thought he would. I think we were there for about 2 hours and he walked the whole time.  Ezra’s favorite thing is to see the monkeys. He loves the Siamangs, which is technically an ape. They are the ones that inflate their throats while making loud calls. He loves the noise and watching them swing in the trees. The main reason I am telling you all this is just because I got some really cute pictures on that day so I thought I would share the cuteness. These were taken at the end of our time there and Caleb was a bit tired. He looks like he is really unhappy but I promise he had a good time. Enjoy!

In July we took a family trip to Alabama and then on to Florida to unplug from our daily lives and spend some time with dear friends.  Our friends live in Alabama so we met up at their house and after a day or two drove to Florida. The flight there was a bit long but Ezra did so good. We took his car seat on the plane so that he was in something familiar. Ezra did help our trip start off with a bang. I am sure that when he is older he will hate that I shared this story but it is such a funny and classic story that I must.  We had left our house with plenty of time to get the airport and not have to rush.  When ever we travel we always stop at our friends work and give him our extra car key. He then gets our car from the airport and keeps for us while we are gone. So we are on our way to drop the key off when Ezra tells me that his tooshie hurts. I didn’t think anything of it as he has been saying that when ever he had to poop. (I know you are so excited to see where this story is going). So I told him that we would take care of it at our friends work as we were almost there. There was some grunting that followed and then nothing more was said. When we arrived to drop the key off I came around to get Ezra out of the car to change him. Well as I picked him up I noticed his shirt felt wet. I turned him around and asked Dustin if he had had a blow out. Yeah. He had. A big one. There was poop up the back of his shirt. So I thought ok no big deal we can change his clothes. I put him down to get the extra clothes and as he was sort of walking around I noticed there was poop in the back pocket of his pants. Our friend graciously offered to let me use the bathroom in his office building to get Ezra cleaned up which I took him up on. However before we could very far I noticed that it was dripping out of his pant legs as he walked. So I tried to clean him up as much as I could to get him inside and then literally ran holding him out in front of me into the building. He then got a little bath in the sink, where we used lots of paper towels to get him clean. Looking back it is super funny and we laugh about. On the day of it was super stressful since the extra time we had was quickly eaten up. We did manage to get to the airport and on plane in time even though I think we less than an hour to get our bags check and get on the plane.  After that things settled down a bit for the rest of the trip.
Ezra had lots of fun on the trip. Florida was really fun for all of us. Everyone of course like different things. For example Caleb loved the beach (see his site to read about it). Ezra on the other had was not so sure about the beach. He loved the idea of going and playing in the dry sand was good with him. However he would often look at me after he got in the water and say “all wet” with a disgusted look on his face. If it was no the all wet then it was “all dirty” because he was in the wet sand which stuck to him. My boys are not ones to like getting their hands dirty. So much of the time we were at the beach Ezra would sit in a chair under an umbrella eating animal crackers watching the rest of us play. He was quite content to just sit there. The last day were were at the beach our friends had gotten a new shovel. That did it for Ezra. He wanted to play with the shovel,  so the last day were at the beach he spent the time digging in the sand while he was standing in a shallow pool of water.  He was so enthralled that he barely paid attention to the rest of us. That was the most he had played at the beach all week.
His favorite part was the pool. Anytime we could go to the pool he was so excited. Our friends had floaty for their son that we were able to share. (There is a picture of it). Ezra loved swimming! Once he figured out the floaty, which did not take long, he was so happy to be in the water and did not want help from us. He was almost like a little fish. From then on that was all he wanted to do.
Both the boys had so much fun being in the rental house, playing with our friends 2 little boys, and swimming.

Ezra had his first fudgesicle this summer. The boys and I decided to make some fudgesicles this year instead of regular juice popsicles. They turned out really good. Both boys loved them. Ezra was a mess by the end of his. He ate it slow enough that it was melting all over him. I think we ended up putting it in a bowl before he finished. He had a good time with it though and it made some really cute pictures. 
The boys also discovered peanut butter goldfish sandwiches. Ezra especially enjoyed putting the fish on the sandwich. Caleb has been adding similar things to his sandwiches for a while, though this was the first time for goldfish. This was new ground for Ezra. He did not always eat the whole thing together. Sometimes he would eat the fish off one by one and then eat the sandwich. Snack with lunch! How exciting!