Ez in the Land of Enchantment

Young Ez and his entourage have moved the operation south and west. We write you now from sunny and snowy New Mexico.

For anyone out there still under the impression that the desert is hot and dry, let me disabuse you. We've already had multiple cars sliding off icy roads, and there's a foot of snow on the ground. It is shockingly beautiful here, and the fresh air and mountain views are nourishing our urban souls.

All I can say about the trip out here was that it could have been much, much worse. When we booked our tickets, it seemed like a great idea to save a few bucks by getting a flight with 2 connections: Chicago to Minneapolis to Denver to Albuquerque, followed by an hour car ride to Santa Fe. This did not seem so bright by Thursday morning. However, Ezra behaved pretty darned well, relatively speaking. He slept about 2/3 of the time, only yelped a few times and was generally a pretty tolerant traveler. Also, we missed the weather catastrophe that hit Chicago by just a few hours.

Here in Santa Fe we've been showing Ezra the ropes ... we went on our first real hike on Sunday. Ashley's folks live in the foothills right at the base of some incredible mountain trails. We strapped Ezra to our back, wrapped him up like that little kid in "A Christmas Story," and set out for the summit. Well, we didn't exactly make it to the top, or even close, but it was most satisfying nonetheless. After a brief nap, Ez was alert and smiley. He seemed to enjoy the vistas and the occasional snowflake alighting on his face. We were really gratified to share our love of the outdoors with the little guy.

Back on the ranch, Ez also enjoyed his first Hannukah observance. In the Jewish tradition, he then received some crappy presents (used book and a couple of used pairs of pants ... get used to it, kid).

We will soon have to buy a few more toys, I suspect: the Gross dog Winnie doesn't quite understand the boundary between "baby toy" and "doggie toy." We've had a few disembowelments already. Luckily, the actual baby has escaped injury thus far.

Ez has been having a great time with his grandparents, and his Auntie Katy -- who seems to speak Ezra's language. One word from her and the kid breaks out into belly laughs. He also met another compatriot: young Rohan, who is just about 2 months. He's the son of a friend of mine (Gabe) from college, who lives in an amazing house out here that he designed himself on the back of bar napkins.

Then last night, after dinner with some friends Ash has known since 4th grade, it dumped 6-8 inches of snow here. Much of today has consisted of shoveling and finagling cars. This afternoon, if we can escape, Grandma will babysit and mom and dad will get away to this Japanese-style spa place and soak in an outdoor tub for a while.

More adventures sure to follow!

Much love,
Gabe, Ash and Ez

Feats of Strength

Hello everyone! Ezra's mommy here. Just wanted to share some positive news from the homefront... and some continued challenges on the sleep front. 

First, the good news. Ezra can now roll over from his back to his stomach! He had been rocking back and forth up onto his side for a while, so we knew it was coming. But just last night he rolled over in slow motion on the futon. Because it's so soft, and it was slow motion, I didn't really count it. But today he demonstrated on the floor that he's perfected the skill. 

He gets more and more interactive with each day. He opens his mouth in one of those gigantic full-face Ezra smiles when I come home from work, which is pretty much the highlight of my day. And he's having fun with peek-a-boo (when it doesn't freak him out and make him whimper). The other day, Gabe emailed me a series of pictures. The first one was titled "Um, I lost the baby." And the second was "Oh, THERE'S the baby!" 

And as for feats of strength, the kid's grip could rival that of my homestate governor, Bill Richardson, who made the Guinness Book of World Records for the most handshakes by a politician in one 8-hour period. Ezra grabs onto stuff and WON'T LET GO. See the video below for evidence. Gabe says he read that the ability to let go comes later. I guess that's just one more evolutionary advancement to make sure the kid can cling on to his mom's hair when she's running away from the saber-toothed tiger. If only mom's hair weren't ALREADY falling out from post-childbirth hormone insanity.

Now... the bad news. Sleep still mostly eludes us. It just took us about an hour and a half to get the baby to sleep - by 10 pm! According to one of the well-respected baby sleep experts - the kid's supposed to be down by 7 pm. And last night he spent a good two-hour stretch awake in the middle of the night, fell back asleep, only to wake up again at 4:30 am. I worry we have a hyperactive kid on our hands. Swaddling seems to be our only salvation, but even that didn't help last night. And what are we going to do, swaddle him into his teens? 

Anyway, we're pretty exhausted. But happy. We head to New Mexico on Thursday - we're all craving some fresh Southwest air and sunshine and maybe some powdery snow. 

Love,

Ash, Gabe and Ez

Ezra's Zzzzzzzzzzs

It is 10 p.m., and young Ezra slumbers at last. Though for how long, it's tough to say. 

Getting him down tonight was a lengthy process that began around 7:00, and has gone on more or less continuously since then. Ash took the first shift, as she often does. It goes like this: nurse, doze, wake, nurse, wake, doze, wake, doze. We finally get brave enough to lay him, ever so gingerly, down in his crib. Thrashing and grunting ensue almost immediately. You'd think we'd laid him on a bed of jellyfish, or something. 

Repeat process. Same result. 

Then we play the bath card. I'm not sure if this really helps him get ready for sleep, but it at least makes us feel like we're getting somewhere. 

After another nursing session, Papa takes over. We bounce gently on our exercise/birthing ball, and I go through an increasingly consistent repetoire of "lullabies." Here's how the playlist is shaping up: "All the Pretty Horses," "Danny Boy" (or my own half-remembered version of it), "America" (Simon and Garfunkel), "Sweet Baby James" (though, with apologies to James Taylor, we go with "Sweet Ezra James"), "Sounds of Silence." Lately, I've been throwing in "Father and Son" (Cat Stevens) and "Jesus the Mexican Boy" (Iron and Wine). By then, he's usually curled around my shoulder and fast asleep. At last, I very slowly, very gently, set the child down in his crib. Thrashing and crying ensue. Repeat process. 

Anyway, the kid finally consents to sleep eventually. We are a bit worse for the wear, though. Tonight, we're experimenting with trying to ween him away from one of his night feedings. I'll let you know how that goes. 

We've been entertaining a few different philosophies on how to gradually reduce this madness. We're hopeful we can avoid the trauma of a full-on cry-it-out method, but who knows. Any tips are surely appreciated -- post them in the comments or email us at blastolives@gmail.com. 

Meanwhile, we're instituting a little poll. We've been getting widely varying opinions on which parent Ezra resembles most. I won't tip our hand as to what we think, but we're posting baby pictures of Mama and Papa below -- What do you think? Vote in the poll in the top left column of this page. 

(NOTE: Ash insists that I 'fess up to one thing: I did sort of select a pic of myself that looked especially Ez-like. Guilty.)

And on to another week. Wish us luck. 

With love, 

Gabe, Ash and Ez

Backseat Conniption

He wailed in South Bend ... sobbed in Toledo ... and melted down in Cleveland.

Yes, our dear son does not like the car. Even a trip to the grocery store can trigger apoplexy in the back seat, and we stuck him back there for a 7-hour drive. Or, at least, that's what it used to take. This trip took us more like 10.

The reason was a visit to Canton, OH to see the Spitzer clan, eat Thanksgiving fare, and display the baby. Travel hell aside, the visit was splendid. We stuffed our faces and introduced Ez to people his Daddy has known almost his whole life, and drove halfway to Pittsburgh to meet an old, dear friend of Ashley's. We went a-calling at various homes, where we graciously accepted praise, coos and joyous baby-babble from Ezra's admirers. And, grandma and grandpa babysat again so Ash and I could go see the Batman movie ( as you can tell, our pop-culture sensibility sort of froze around July).

We also dropped by Grandpa's office to visit the wonderful gals of Temple Israel -- some of this blog's most devoted readers. Hi ladies! Ez enjoyed meeting his fans, as always, and we were rightfully chided for our slacking on new posts.

While we were at it, Ezra's out-of-wedlock parents bought our wedding bands. Hooray!

We returned yesterday (Monday), and Ezra reprised his role as Lucifer in the backseat. This time, the stress was exacerbated by a lake-effect snowstorm in Indiana, and by some simmering anxiety we've had over Ezra's weight. His growth seemed to have plateaued about a month ago, and his eating has taken a turn for the worse, too. Then the whole car ride home, he refused food almost completely (I'm told this is called a "nursing strike"). We were quite ragged by the time we got home.

Luckily, we had a doctor's visit scheduled for the day after our return. We went this morning, fearing that his weight gain was lagging a lot by now. When they plopped him on the scale, we were astonished to see him top out at 12lbs 12oz! That's almost a full pound heavier than our crappy home scale said. That still puts him in a low percentile, but it means his growth curve has been steady. The doc was very reassuring, and it appears that we have nothing to worry about! We are enormously relieved. We're still a little touchy about his weight, and we wish he'd get a little more regular about his eating, but for now, it appears that the kid is gonna be OK.

We'll leave you with this little episode. Ez tried out a swing in Grandma and Grandpa's dining room. While Ez swung, his Uncle Josh began rattling off all the different ways Ezra and his miscreant uncle will misbehave together when Ez is a little older. I don't know if it was the swinging, Josh's voice, or what, but Ezra just thought it all was freakin' hilarious. He laughed as much as we've ever seen him laugh. Here it is ... (forgive the video quality. I had to film while hiding behind Josh, because if Ez saw me he'd get distracted).




Lots of warm, happy holiday wishes to all,
Gabe, Ash and Ez