9 Months

Ezra is nine months old now and full of energy. We are loving this fun stage he is in right now.

Some things we want to remember about Ezra at nine months:

- 17 lbs. 4 oz. He isn't gaining weight in huge leaps and bounds, but he is steadily going up so I guess I should just be happy with that. 27 1/2 inches.

- We found out this past Tuesday that he is allergic to wheat, egg, milk, peanuts, and soy!!!! Yikes!! So I'm basically ready to give up on food altogether. There's nothing good left to eat. :) But honestly I'm happy to know what's going on. There is this amazing lady from church who's little boy had the same thing but has just outgrown his allergies (he's four now) so she gave me tons of recipes and even some of her alternative flours and helpful tips. I am so grateful. I have been feeling a little overwhelmed and I almost cried when she dropped all this stuff off. It is pretty likely he will outgrow these allergies so that is something to look forward to hopefully.

- When we can find something he can actually eat, he devours it.

- He is crawling! I LOVE crawling! I think it is the cutest thing. He is so happy to be able to get around on his own. He stays busy for really long stretches of time because he can go find lots of different things to entertain himself.

- He is pulling himself up on everything and loving that too.

- He waves and claps. He will clap on and on and on. We love it.  He also bounces to music.

- He loves to throw his binky or his burp cloth down on the ground when we are holding him over and over. He thinks he is being so funny. He loves to get a reaction. He also likes to yank my glasses off and throw them on the floor (not as cool).

- He goes to bed around 7:30 and wakes up between 6 and 6:30.

- He usually takes two naps. The first is 2 1/2 hours. The second is 1 1/2 hours.

- He wakes up happy in the morning and after his naps fairly regularly! Who knew that was possible? It's so fun to hear him up there talking and playing in his bed. Then he is SO happy to see us when we get him. It is divine!

- He loves the water.

- I asked Drew if there was anything else and he said, "He's just the cutest baby in the world." So there you have it. (I guess everyone probably feels that way about their babies.) :)

 I love this picture. We have another water baby on our hands! This was last weekend playing at Grandma and Grandpa Christensen's.

 Look at those blue eyes! They kill me. Also notice the bruise on his forehead. He's getting bonks and bruises on his head all the time these days. He likes to explore which gets him in trouble sometimes.

 He has started climbing the stairs and it makes him so happy.

 When we go up to play with Darcy's kitchen Ezra spends the whole time with her play food in his mouth. I guess with all his allergies this is the next best thing. I wish I could have a donut too bud!

Happy Moments

I love how much my mom is willing to do to make Darcy happy. She will go up the stairs twenty times, follow Darcy around looking at all the trash cans in our house, read books over and over and over, pretend whatever Darcy wants to pretend, let her make the cooking process take ten times longer, and even sit out in the rain. I am just sad I didn't get a picture of her with the pan over her head which was her original rain cover! :)

We had kind of a wild last couple weeks so we decided to just take it easy this past weekend, and it was so great to just spend a low key day together. We took a walk to the park and it was so fun. We let Darcy hold Ezra so they could go down the slide together.

Ezra's glasses just kill me. I love my boys.

Darcy loves going to the park. The other day she had her first under-dog and she loved it!

The other day I was tired and didn't want to go upstairs to get Darcy's jammies, so I asked her if she wanted to wear one of my shirts to bed. I told her that I used to wear my mom's shirts to bed and she thought it was so cool. She is really into wearing my shirts now.

Jumping picture in my shirt. :)

I did Darcy's hair in these really cute french braid pigtails the other day and she looked so cute! My mom was coming over and I told her she couldn't mess up her hair until my mom saw it. When my mom showed up, saw Darcy's hair and commented on it looking cute Darcy immediately put a shirt on her head and messed it up. So obedient! Haha.

Darcy decided to wear my boots today.

We were hanging out outside today and Darcy was having fun scooting around on Drew's skateboard.

This was just a cute picture of Ezra watching all of Darcy's action outside. This was right after I had put his feet in the sprinkler which was so exciting to him. He was squealing and kicking his legs like crazy.

8 Months (and a couple weeks)

I was a big slacker about getting this eight month post done. My computer has been having issues so I kept putting off messing with it to get this done.

Some things we want to remember about Ezra at 8 months:

- 17.4 lbs. He isn't making any huge leaps but he does seem to keep gaining weight steadily so I am pretty happy about that. I don't know his height, but Drew and I were both saying he looks really long to us. We will get a real measurement at his nine month appointment.

- Diagnosed with a milk allergy. This will possibly go away when he's 2-3. I am really hoping for that!

- He rolls all around and is now pushing himself up on his knees and then lunging. He seems very determined to get moving. I am so excited for the crawling stage!

- He is moving into taking two naps a day.

- He does lots of squealing and other fun baby noises.

- He is so easy to entertain. I love my sweet baby boy SO much!

Happy boy at the park.

We always have a few fun things to deal with with Ezra. This is a shot of his latest skin problem. I guess the fungus from his cradle cap moved to his face, so now we are getting to treat this once a day.

Diagnosis

We had Ezra tested and found out he is severely allergic to milk protein in cow's milk. I almost feel like I should be more freaked out, but really I am mostly happy to know what is going on with him. I am going to try cutting milk out of my diet for a couple weeks to see if that might also help with his eczema. I have been doing this for a few days and it is hard! Everything has milk in it. Luckily I am not a big milk drinker though so I guess it's better for this to happen to me instead of someone that loves milk.

There is a chance it will go away after a while and I am really hoping for that obviously. He won't even be able to eat milk chocolate and that's just wrong!! He will be re-tested in a year. How do I cook for him??????

The things that kills me about this is that it wasn't even any doctor that came up with the idea to test him. I was visiting teaching last week and I was telling my visiting teaching partner and a lady I visit teach about a few things that have happened with him lately. After his ER experience a few days later I tried to give him formula again, and he had almost the same reaction except he threw up so much I think he got it all out of his system and his breathing never got quite as bad. Then a couple weeks ago I was at my mom's feeding Darcy yogurt with one hand and Ezra some baby food with the other. My hands got confused and I accidentally gave Ezra some yogurt instead of the baby food. He immediately started to have a reaction. Luckily my mom had some benadryl and he recovered quickly. After I told them this they both told me it sounded so much like he was allergic and that I should have him tested. They also said that his eczema might have something to do with this allergy. It made so much sense to me and I couldn't believe that his doctor, the dermatologist, or ER doctor hadn't come up with this as an option!!

I don't know exactly what the numbers mean, but the doctor said that a 15 means you're allergic and Ezra was a 61. The doctor said that means he is severely allergic. Yikes. Seems pretty bad to me.

I have dealt with quite a few little health issues with Ezra since he was born. Torticollis, eczema, cradle cap, weight issues, and now this. I feel like I am treating him for something every second he's awake. It has made me think a lot about people who deal with things like this on a larger scale. My heart goes out to the people who have babies and kids with more serious issues. I hope my experiences with these things will make me more aware and more willing to help people who are really spending their lives dealing with major health problems.

Easter

Saturday morning my dad, Nick, and Brian came and helped Drew add to our cement slab in our back yard. What a fun way to kick off the Easter weekend! :) Because of that we didn't end up getting to Mattawa until around 3 o'clock. So then we rushed to dye our eggs and do a quick Easter egg hunt at my parents' house. There were TONS of eggs for just Darcy and Ashley to hunt. She kept going because of our urging, but really after about three eggs Darcy didn't really care anymore. She preferred jumping on the trampoline.

After five hours of sleep, thanks to Ezra, we got up and got ready for church the next morning in our Easter duds. After church we went to Royal to spend time with that side of Drew's family who we always have fun with. We had lots of delicious food and another Easter egg hunt!

Dying our eggs. This picture cracks me up because I don't think any of us knew that we were all making the same face.

The bravest moment of Darcy's life. Getting an egg off Nick's motorcycle! There were a couple more on there but she couldn't stand to go back to get them.

Mr. Matty looked so cute in his Easter egg hunting outfit!

Drew and Ezra trying not to freeze during the hunt.

Hunting

Jumping

Ezra's Easter outfit. I got his bow tie in the dollar bins at Target!

Our little neapolitan girl.

The fam all ready for church.

Braden at GG's egg hunt.

Drew's cousin Kyle gave Braden, Ezra, and Darcy a ride in this wagon and they were loving it!

Happy girl coming out of the orchard.

Ezra getting a ride at Aunt Robin's.

Visitor

A few nights ago our door bell rang. When I answered it this giant red bull was sitting on our doorstep but there wasn't a person in sight. Around his neck it said, "We think you're great. No bull about it." And then it gave us instructions to pass it on to someone else in our ward. How fun! Darcy loved it. Drew and I had fun ding dong ditching another family in our ward to pass it on.

Video Time

Here are a couple videos we love.

We were at Haley and Brian's a couple months ago and they had some bubble wrap. Darcy started jumping on it and Ezra laughed every time she did. This was the first time he had ever really laughed like this and we were loving it.



The other day we were out and about and I was starting to feel anxious about how long we had been in the car, because Ezra doesn't usually last very long. But just in the nick of time Darcy started playing peek-a-boo with him and they were being way too cute back there.


I made up this little ditty to teach Darcy to spell her name. Our favorite part is the awkward curtsy at the end. :)