We Moved...

...in real-life and here in the blogosphere.

Here is our new virtual home:

www.goteamrutger.blogspot.com

First Annual

Somewhere way back in August (the 11th to be precise), Miss Ezri committed her first act of rebellion against her parents. Against our wishes, she went ahead and turned 1. We begged, we pleaded, we tried to bribe her with cake, but she went ahead and did it anyway. To commerate the occasion, we threw a fancy shmancy, polka-dot themed soiree down at Grandma and PopPop's house. Even though she isn't talking much just yet, we know that Ezri thoroughly enjoyed herself. We had a great turn out of family and friends and Ezri received TONS of fabulous toys and clothes. The child is beyond spoiled.

It's hard to believe that just a year ago, Miss Ez was a wee 4lbs. 2oz. and just 17 inches long. As of her birthday, she was clocking in at a whopping 17lbs. 13oz. and 28 inches long. Granted, she's still a tiny thing compared to other kids her age but it is amazing to see what a steady diet of mama's milk, organic fruits and veggies and the occassional lick of ice cream can do to a kid. She is starting to try to say more and more but most of the time it's pretty much indecipherable. We do clearly hear her say, "Dax" to the dog, and she can say "Mama" and "Dada" but neither of those seem to be directed at anyone in particular. She has taken 2 steps in a row but seems content to get around on all fours. Ezri is becoming a bit wild, screeching and screaming at anything and everything and getting into all manner of precarious situations. Her favorite toys these days are her wooden stackables which she finds endlessly amusing as she slams them onto our wood floors. She loves to share the various odds and ends she finds on the floor with us and gets a huge kick out of feeding us her food. Even more enjoyable to her is holding out bits of food for Dax to eat, letting him lick said food, then sticking it in her own mouth. Our little lady is still nowhere near sleeping through the night which makes life interesting. Thank god for her still napping twice a day or we may have seriously considered finding a family of gypsies for her to live with.

Overall, Ezri is still Ezri - wild, independent, demanding, hilarious, contemplative, bubbly, attached and curious. We can still safely say that we are very pleased she chose to grace us with her presence. Here's to the many adventures to come in the next 12 months.









(Just because Dax is super-cute with his new 'do.)

Random Summer Fun

A small sampling of what we've been up to all summer...

Fancy new shoes for Uncle Brian's wedding.

Fourth of July festivities in downtown Sandusky.


First trip to the lake. Who knew smacking rocks could be so much fun?


Riding the rocket at Bill-bo and Momo's.



First ride on a Harley. Such a badass.

Cleaning up her toys. She is SO our daughter.

Is Anyone Still Reading This Blog?

I don't even remember when I last updated the blog - though I could just look at the date on the last post I suppose. At any rate, it's been a while. Ezri is now a whopping 10 months old. It's hard to believe but she will be hitting her 365-day-milestone in less than 2 months...crazy. She has a full-blown personality now and is showing definite signs of having inherited her parents' strong sense of independence. She crawls like a mad woman and pulls up on everything. While she does enjoy chewing on books at this point, she is showing far more interest in music - playing instruments, making beats, and singing along with her perpetually out-of-tune parents. We can also happily report that Ezri is a budding foodie - preferring humus, satueed portabellas and fresh avocados to the jars of puree we were sending to day care. So overall, Basically, Ezri is amazing and probably the best baby to have ever crawled the earth...just so you know. There are those screaming fits when she doesn't get her way and the on-going struggle to get her to sleep/wake up at decent hours, but still...best baby ever.

Speaking of day care, we have officially sprung Ezri from the daily grind of Infant Room B. It was sad to say good-bye to her fabulous teachers and her pint-sized friends - we'll miss Marco most of all - but it was time. Over the 7-odd months that I returned to work, it became glaringly apparent that having both of us working outside the home just wasn't...well...working. On a good day I was arriving 15 minutes late and on the bad days even the kids with the tardy slips were shaking their heads at me in dismay. Poor Ezri spent the first months of her life being trained to believe that waking up means a strange ritual of running through hallways and shouting obsenities while grooming onself.

So now, we are enjoying the summer and me being a home full-time and working part-time. I've joined the family business and Ezri and I are travelling to Granmda and Pop-Pop's once a week so that I can work, and she can be doted on. So far it's a fabulous arrangement. Mr. Rutgerian still has his Depot duties but without having to wash bottles and fold diapers at 5am anymore, that's a cakewalk. When we're not on the road, we are all enjoying the freedom of being unscheduled and uncommitted. Strangely, it's made us more apt to get up and go do things. I suppose that's not entirely strange, as both Mr. Rutgerian and myself have always maintained a somewhat teenaged attitude of "Well I'm not going to do it just because you told me to." Setting our own pace has given us the illusion of being in control which - let's face it - we both enjoy. Oh, what will Miss Ezri be like as an adolescent...

Here are some recent photos. We'll also be adding more to the online album so be sure to click the photo link on the right.

BFFs!!!

Here is what happens when Ezri and Frida stop being polite and start getting real...

There's a Party in my Tummy! So Yummy...So Yummy!

And now, we interrupt this mass of baby cuteness to talk about something else for a change...

With Ezri starting to eat more and more solids, the questions has oft arose as to whether or not she will be partaking in animal flesh, as we have been vegetarians for the last several years. The answer is a resounding "No." Ezri will not be eating meat until she is of the age to make that choice on her own. The dairy thing we're still working out. As many of you know, we have gone back and forth between being vegetarians (no fish, chicken, beef or anything else that once breathed) and complete vegans (none of the meat PLUS nothing that is derived from an animal - milk, cheese, eggs, etc.). Our current set-up is that we buy only vegan from the grocery store. You would be hard pressed to find so much as a Kraft Single in our house. However, the reality is that we are, by our very nature, lazy people. So while we wouldn't dream of purchasing non-vegan food from the grocery store, we are more than willing to purchase it from Gino's Pizza, Taco Bell, or one of the many other fine dining establishments Toledo has to offer. It's a sickness really, but we are trying to clean up our act before Ezri starts eating foods that can't be slurped through a straw.

The natural follow-up question that comes after we're asked if Ezri will eat meat or dairy is usually, "Well what will she eat then?" Well, here is our typical bounty after a trip to the grocery. (One of us may have gotten a bit camera happy at some point, but it is excellent documentation as to why Ezri will one day suffer from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.)

Just plain lazy

Seeing as Stephanie hasn't had the time to update as much as she'd like to, I'm going to give everyone what they really want....photos

Check out our gallery and enjoy all the cuteness:
E to the Z

EDITED TO ADD: Yes, but guess who had to come in and correct SOMEONE ELSE'S spelling mistakes???? I'm just sayin'...

Sittin' Pretty

So for a while now, Ezri has been able to sit - as long as she was leaned completed forward and someone was there to catch when she fell after about 30 seconds.

Today, admidst the blizzard conditions and all of us taking ill, Ezri decided that she was through with being propped up. Today, Ezri decided to sit.*








*Due to the fact that Ezri is still in daycare full time**, it could very well be that she has known how to sit for months. They seem to employ a "Don't ask, don't tell" policy when it comes to such things.

**Ezri's full-time daycare status will be changing as of June 1st when I am will no longer be working outside of the home. More on that to come.

We Are Sick People...

At some point between me getting pregnant and today, I must have completely lost my mind. I have developed a sick and seemingly incurable addiction to...diapers.

Yes - those things we put on Ezri to catch her "business." People have no idea how many options are out there for the cloth-minded parent these days. There are literally HOURS to be wasted on the internet reading about, looking at, and chatting about diapers with other diaper-crazed parents.

My sickness reached its height this week when, after a month of obsessively checking my email for updates, our CUSTOM order of 35 diapers arrived. These diapers are handmade by a work-at-home-mom and are currently quite the craze in the cloth diapering world. On a whim, I emailed her a month ago to see if she would do a custom order of 35 diapers - she agreed. In anticipation of our tax return and with the blessing of my extremely understanding albeit skeptical husband, I went ahead with the order.

Flash forward to this Thursday when we arrived home to see giant box on our porch. I screamed, handed Ezri off to Zach and ripped into the box to find what is probably the greatest thing I've seen since Ezri came screaming into the world...









The really fabulous thing is that these are in fact one-size diapers, which means they should fit Ezri until she potty trains - there, that justifies it.

Okay. I feel better now. Admitting you have a problem is the first step...

Give Me An 'E'!

Mad props to Aunt Laurie for the super sweet t-shirt. It got rave reviews at Ezri's school today.