The Creature Crawling

I wouldn't call it pretty. I wouldn't call it graceful. But I'd call it crawling. 

Ez is learning to creep/shimmy/lurch his way across the floor in pursuit of a toy ... or, as pictured below, a crusty used nursing pad. It is a thing to behold. He's still pretty clunky, but it gets more coordinated every day. This must be, for him, a colossal change in his relationship with the world. Now all the sudden he can move in the direction of stuff he wants ... if he sees something across the room, no longer must he just reach pathetically off into thin air -- he can go get that mother. 

Of course, we're terribly happy about this now. We might feel differently in a few weeks. Ez is such a crazy active kid: he's constantly squirming and groping and gesticulating. We can just tell he's going to be a maniac crawler and get into everything. Oh, ask us how far we are on baby-proofing the house. (How far along are you?)  We have not begun! The house is littered with tacks and used needles and lengths of barbed wire. Soooo .... we probably should take care of that. 

Another consequence of Ezra's high-energy nature is that it's made diaper-changing and clothing him an extreme challenge. We're often forced to double-team him in order to keep him subdued. I know I (Gabe) was a hyper kid, and I fear we're really in for it. Also, we've had some fairly dramatic backsliding on the sleep front. I'll refrain from writing much about that now, as it will only depress me. 

Over the weekend we dropped in for a quick visit to Canton, where my parents and various Spitzer family friends generously feted us in honor of our coming nuptials. It was a lovely weekend, though far too short. Ezra took his third plane ride -- luckily it was just about 45 minutes long each way. Travel may get more challenging as time wears on. 

Tomorrow, Ezra will be 8 months old. I hardly remember life before he was here. 

Much love, 

Gabe, Ash and Ez

I'm Gonna Learn How to Fly

Auntie Lisa has arrived! She swept into town Thursday evening from NYC and all of a sudden, chez Spitzer/Gross is a lot more exciting. Ezra's basking in the attention - happy to have someone here who's not quite as worn out and exhausted as his ma and pa. (see Exhibit A, the video below. Lisa's getting the boy ready for his Broadway debut.)

In other news, Ezra has made some major breakthroughs on the solid foods front. The first epiphany was Cheerios. He can't get enough of them!* And that's exciting because we'd been trying in vain for weeks to get him to eat rice cereal or oatmeal. The doc told us he needs to have the cereal or oatmeal so he'll get enough iron. But lo and behold, Cheerios also have iron. (Excuse the General Mills plug.) And he is just a lot more interested in being in charge of what he's eating and he seems to like the challenge of practicing his "fine pincer grasp."

And the other solid food he seems to like is - surprisingly - prunes. They make a COLOSSAL mess. But at this point, I (Ash) do not care in the slightest as long as some winds up in his tummy. He's still pretty puny compared to the bruisers in his playgroup, so I've morphed into the caricature of a Jewish mother, shoving food into him every time he halfway opens his mouth. Next I'll try to guilt him into eating. :-)

Stay tuned for the next installment, when Gabe will hopefully post some footage of the Great Cheerios Experiment of 2009. 

Love,

Ash, Gabe and Ez

* Post-Cheerios Poop Report: Delayed two days, then massive, brown, stinky and quite adult-seeming. The diaper-changing required two parents. 

Gross Motor Skills (and Spitzer Motor Skills)

I (Gabe) write this post knowing that there's a limit to how much mass appeal a baby's granular developmental advances have for people who aren't that baby's parents or grandparents. For example, to us it's a big deal that Ezra tried sweet potatoes today (his first tuber!). Not sure if this merits others' attention exactly, but we'll go ahead and report them anyway. 

Today we had some distinct verbal progress. Ezra's vocalizations thus far have consisted mostly of grunts, moans, raspberries,  coos, chirps, screams and more raspberries. Today, we began to hear some telltale consonant-vowel pairings: mostly "da" and "boo." The Gettysburg Address is sure to follow shortly. 

Also, he seems to be getting his manual dexterity on. As you can see in the video below, he's getting pretty sophisticated in his ability to manipulate objects, and seems to have discovered what his wrists do. He also managed a few pincer-like grasps of small objects between his thumb and forefinger. 

The Briscoe clan visited us this weekend. You'll recall they're our friends from Wisconsin that we visited recently (see posting on Feb. 1). They provided us a glimpse of the future (or one of our possible futures), in the persons of their two wonderful, exuberant, sweet and highly energetic boys. We did our best to keep up with Arthur and David, and they kept Ezra in thrall. We

 gallivanted around downtown Chicago in the pouring rain, and went to the top of the Hancock Tower, which was completely enshrouded by clouds. All of the boys had big fun, and Ash and I really enjoyed connecting with Pat and Sarah (the brood's owners). 

The visit reminded us that the term "parenting" encompasses a whole hell of a lot. Parenting Ezra is very, very different from parenting a 5 year-old, which is completely different from parenting a teenager or, say a 32-year-old. It  hardly seems like the same term should apply. I think that we will never, ever be bored again. 

Much love, 

Gabe, Ash and Ez

Leaps and Bounds

Gabe here. Our standard apologies for not posting more fully and promptly. I do hope you enjoyed the video that Ash posted last week. I like to call it, "Zerberts: Or, Attack of the Giant Bald Head." We certainly enjoyed making it. 

Grandma and Grandpa Spitzer just blew into town this weekend, and they brought wondrous things with them. The most extraordinary, by far, is pictured here. It is, in fact, Ezra's first hog. Grandpa John actually made this little beauty by hand, from scratch. 

Now, we Spitzers have never been accused of being mechanically inclined, handy with a table saw, or -- let's face it -- coordinated enough to assemble so much as a sandwich. But the good rabbi has found a calling in his retirement, and this woodworking gem is an absolutely amazing gift. Note the Ez/Easy wordplay, the Ohio license plate in back (not pictured) and splinter-free, unleaded paint detailing. Grandma did the paint job. When Ezra is a touch older I have no doubt he will treasure it. 

Another wonder they toted along: the Jumperoo. Since he was about a month old, Ezra has had quite a spring in his step. We've never been quite able to harness this power. We bought one of those jumpy thingies that hangs from the doorway, only to discover that none of our door frames fit it. So we returned it. But this ground-based model seems to be just what the doctor ordered. 

In other news, Ezra is making more progress in solid foods, but his weight gain still concerns us. Our doctor remains relentlessly upbeat. He keeps reassuring us that Ezra is extremely healthy, happy as hell, and hitting all of his developmental marks. We continue to counter with demands that he find something wrong: a tapeworm or meth habit. We are at a stalemate. So we're working on not sweating it. 

In general, Ezra smiles all the time, thinks his parents are hilarious, and is sleeping long stretches. He's like a little stoned person. It is a wonderful stage, and we're doing our best to drink it in. 

Much love, 

Gabe, Ash and Ez