Three, two, one, Booster Nixon and Liftoff!

Hello everyone! (All six of you still checking this site... we salute you!) Sorry for the long delay - time sure moves fast when you add another person to the mix.

First off, the title of this post. Ezra is now fully obsessed with space. Ever since a trip to the planetarium over the summer, he's wanted to talk of nothing but planets, asteroids, meteors, Martians, and of course, rockets. We've also invented some extraterrestrial creatures called grizzosaurs and ooga booga beasts. The highlight of all of these stories is countdown and liftoff. Then, we discovered there's a big trove of space shuttle launch videos on YouTube. He can sit for hours and watch the space shuttle blast off. (Unfortunately that means that every two minutes or so, we have to stop a video and start another one, since he gets kind of bored once the shuttle's actually airborne.) The Booster Nixon part? No, it's not some Richard Nixon PAC, circa 1972. It's his garbled understanding of "booster ignition"... it's pretty hilarious to hear him do the countdown. Unfortunately, the audio I have isn't great so I'm not going to post it... maybe Gabe can find some better audio and post at a later date.

He's really getting the hang of the English language, though - all kinds of parts of speech, gerunds, past participle, stuff that somehow took me and Gabe years to learn in foreign language classes just sinks into his head effortlessly. So it's even that much funnier when he gets stuff wrong. His latest is: "Are you have a headache, Mommy?" "Are you like ice cream, Daddy?" The word "do" seems to still elude him, at least in the form of a question. The best was when we saw our friend Michael de Bonis and Ezra piped up from his stroller, "Are you love me, Michael?" Luckily, Michael comprehended and assured him he loves Ezra very much.

And Oliver is doing great. He's at this incredibly adorable roly-poly chubby baby stage. And he laughs! Gabe can elicit big giggles by burrowing his nose in Oliver's tummy. He's also extremely curious about the world and can't stand lying on his back. He doesn't complain, though, he just keeps doing mini-crunches trying to sit up. I should follow his example - my abs could use it.

Thanksgiving seems like a long time ago - but we never posted about our great trip to Canton! The actual traveling there and back wasn't a barrel of laughs - suffice it to say that driving overnight with two kids sounded like a terrific idea in theory, but when applied to Ezra, turned out to be a lousy one. From midnight till 4 am he wanted us to tell him Martian stories. Luckily he'd also pass the time by saying, "I love you, Mommy. I love you, Daddy. I love you, Oliver." So it could have been worse. Oliver slept like - well, like a baby.

We had the traditional Thanksgiving at the Bertmans' house - the crowd is expanding! Since I started going there four years ago, five kids have been born - all boys. It was fun getting to see all the little ones. Other highlights of the trip include a romp in the leaves with Uncle Josh, drawing and doing stickers with Grandma and PopPop at the great activity table they scored from the temple, and then a visit by Noni's friend Ellen.

That visit deserves its own paragraph, it's so amazing. Ellen knew my mom (Andi aka Noni) when my mom lived in Olmsted Falls, OH. My mom moved away to New Hampshire at age 8. But somehow Ellen and my mom stayed in touch this whole time and now Ellen has become a BlastoLives/BlastOliver reader. So we proposed meeting up in Canton, since she lives in nearby Chagrin Falls. She drove an hour to see us and it was so fun. Ellen has a truly incredible story that she told us a bit about. Back in the 60s, while studying in France during her junior year abroad, she gave up a baby boy for adoption. Then by chance she reconnected with him a few years ago when he decided to seek her out... She had left a letter at the adoption agency for him during a trip to France and a short time later he got in touch with her! Now he's part of her life and part of her other two kids' lives. Now that I have kids, I feel like I can understand so much better how painful it must have been for her to give him up in the first place and spend all those years wondering about him. She says she's writing a book about it. (She's in the picture with me, Ezra and Oliver.) Thanks so much for visiting, Ellen!

And last but not least, we received two amazing gifts from Aunt Sheila! She's an artist who does portraits - and she did ones of our boys. The one of Ezra we knew about, but the one of Oliver (in the initial moments after birth) was a bonus surprise. What a truly wonderful gift. We're so grateful and moved. Thanks, Aunt Sheila!

We head to Santa Fe on Wednesday for a week and can't wait to see the family there, plus go for some hikes and introduce Ezra to some really spicy green chile. We'll see if he can hack it.

Lots of love and best wishes for the new year,
Ashley, Gabe, Ezra and Oliver