Change of Address

Big daddy here. So, this time we have an excuse for being blogosphere deadbeats. Besides being preoccupied with the move, we were actually without internet for a couple of weeks. Finally on Friday, a technician from AT&T came to plug us back into the series of tubes. He arrived while Ezra was napping. When Ezra awoke, Ash brought him out into the living room and pointed to the tech -- she said, this is Sam. He's hooking our computer up to the internet.

OK, stay with me. Fast forward two days. Things transpire. There are shopping trips and playdates. New foods are tried and rejected. It's the weekend now, Ash and Ezra are at the playground. Apropos of nothing, Ezra busts out with, "Sam! Computer! Internet!" It's kind of stunning to observe how much raw information is sinking into that kid's head. I feel like he's way, way beyond anything we as adults are capable of right now. If he kept up at this pace, he'd crush us within a couple of years. Luckily, he'll slow down and his old dad will still be able to boss him around for a while yet. At least, I think so.

So, as always, the flip side of Ezra's frenetic little mind is that he can be impossible to manage. We made an ill-advised trip to IKEA Saturday, which we naively thought would be fun. Ezra instantly took the place over. He rolled his little toy lawnmower thingie all over the place, disassembled stuff, darted in and out of the massive (and quite dirty) shelves and stacks down on the first-floor warehouse area. And he would not tolerate being reined in. Somehow, other toddlers we saw were placid and even bored. But IKEA, to Ezra, is something like a performance-enhancing drug, complete with bouts of 'roid rage.

Anyway, between that trip and some dogged unpacking, we're slowly managing to move this lovely new apartment from utterly chaotic to just pleasantly disheveled -- in short, like the kind of place we would live. We're really liking it, though. Our landlords live below us and have twin three-year-olds, and the first-floor tenants also have a three-year old. Everyone is really friendly and welcoming, and the back patio is all set up with toys for both kids (sandbox, playhouse) and adults (deck chairs, gas grill). The in-unit laundry here is a godsend, and the place just generally seems bright and full of good vibes.

There are also several very fine playgrounds nearby, which Ezra has been exploring. And while we traded away our close proximity to the Lake, we now live a 5 minute walk to the River, where there are several miles of bucolic little trails and plenty more playgrounds.

Ash is swelling up nicely. We had our 20-week ultrasound almost two weeks ago now, and everything looked A-OK. Moose is measuring right where he should be, and seems to be generally on schedule. Now when we point to Ash's tummy and ask Ezra what's in there, he says, "Baby!" Then he says, "Come out!" Though as Ash points out, he may be eating those words before long.

Anyway, we apologize for not posting pics of the new place yet, but it's still such a wreck that it's just not quite ready for prime time yet. Perhaps on the next post .... which, I promise will not take as long as this one did. Thanks to Sam.

Much love,

Gabe, Ash and Ez

Moving

We are moving. It's not fun. But at least as of Saturday night we'll be in our new digs. Then we'll do a proper post.

Love,

Ash, Gabe and Ez

Noni & Mickey Drop In

Living in Chicago means living far away from all our immediate family. It really is a drag sometimes because Ezra loves his aunts, uncle, and grandparents, and they love him - and it would be fun to just have them around all the time. But thankfully, flights to Chicago aren't all that much, and it's not too terrible a drive from Ohio, so he's gotten in some good quality time with both sets of grandparents lately.

Mickey and Noni Gross flew into town for a couple of days this past weekend. Ezra had fun playing "I gotcha!" (a cross between monster and hide and seek) with Mickey. Ezra would go into his room, slam the door, and my (Ash's) dad would stand in the hall. Then my dad would slowly push the door open, reaching in his hand (with Ezra giggling inside) and then barge in, grabbing Ezra and yelling, "I Gotcha!" And Ezra would shriek with delight. It was a big hit.

The nature museum, as always, was a ton of fun (even though we had to pull Mickey away from the Canada-U.S. final hockey match, I think he'd say it was worth it). Ezra ran around, yelling, "button! button" (a machine with buttons you push to make frog sounds), and "bear! bear!" for the polar bear, as well as "butterflies! butterflies!" This time, no butterfly landed on him, unfortunately, but he still remembers the time one did and he'll say, "butterfly! knee!" It made a big impression. We also made it to the zoo, and I'd have a hard time saying who was more excited by the meerkats - Ezra or my dad. They're cute little prairie-dog type creatures.

Gabe and I are starting to prepare for Moose's arrival. We found a new, bigger apartment to move to and will be doing that at the end of the month. The thought of packing all this junk is pretty daunting. But we're excited about the new place (washer/dryer INSIDE the unit! what luxury!). We'll also be sad to leave behind the animal/hot air balloon/monkey family mural we painted on Ezra's wall. But there are a lot of reasons to leave, not least of all the sketchy guys who hang out in our alley with bottles in paper bags - whom we have to pass every time we go to our car.

I'm including a picture of Ezra and Isaac at the Field Museum. We have a semi-regular playdate every other week with them and he may be Ezra's best friend, even though they hardly interact. He does talk about Isaac all the time, so I'm hopeful one of these days they'll actually start to play together!

Love,

Ash, Gabe and Ez

Blasto + Moose = Double the Fun, Double the Chaos

Well, Ez, you've got six more months at the center of the universe. On or around Aug. 15th, make way for Moose! (See picture.) We are excited to announce the impending arrival of Blasto II, gender: male. We dubbed him Moose because when we learned of his presence about 6 weeks ago, he was about as far away from Moose-size as you can get.

So far Moose has been a chill little fetus. Hasn't caused me (Ash) any morning sickness or made his presence felt to any degree, besides starting to make buttoning my pants a challenge. But I know this calm is temporary. After talking to friends with two little ones, I admit to feeling kind of terrified. Coping with one sometimes seems about all we can handle, especially on those days when we can barely drag ourselves through the accumulated mess enough to wash a few dishes. But hopefully we'll muddle through like all those parents did before us.

In the meantime, watching Ezra learn new stuff is a constant reminder at how fast time moves. Just last summer he was still a baby - and now he's this little boy who tells us what he wants and doesn't want, throws fits and goofs off. Every day he does or says something new that cracks us up. The latest is that he throws one of his cars on the floor and then says "Accident!" And, according to Gabe the other morning in the middle of uncontrollable crying, Ezra paused long enough to say, "I'm freaking out!" Now, I am skeptical as to whether he actually uttered the complete sentence. But I'll give my husband the benefit of the doubt because it makes me laugh.

It's been so long since we posted... it would be amazing if anyone other than our immediate family still checks this site. Grandma and PopPop Spitzer came to visit at the end of January and brought along the most INCREDIBLE wooden push-sled, handcrafted by PopPop. It is a thing of beauty and Ezra loves it. We had fun visiting the Skokie cousins (Cathy and Joe Gluck, and their kids, along with Emily Spitzer). And one afternoon, Ezra showed his grandparents the nature museum (I'm sure Grandma especially was thrilled with the cockroach exhibit!) and he finally got the hang of going down a slide on his own and then didn't want to stop.

We also visited our pals, the Briscoes, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Ezra dove into their collection of Transformers and robots and weird things I'll have to learn one day - like "Bakugan Battle Brawlers." Arthur (6) and David (4) were so sweet to him, I am still in awe. They actually WANTED to show him their toys and didn't mind him touching their stuff. And we all went sledding down "Mount Garbage" (I'm told it's not actually garbage). I thought Ezra might be scared, but as soon as we got to the bottom, he said, "Again! Again!" and cried when we left.

This Friday Nonni and Mickey Gross arrive, so Ezra's getting a good dose of grandparental love. We're looking forward to some good visits to Ezra's favorite place, the "museum!" (This can be any museum, as long as there's a lot of space to run around in and some animals to look at.)

Love,

Ash, Gabe and Ez

Disrobing

Big Poppa here. Well, we wrapped up a tough week, absorbing a couple of difficult losses, as Ash mentioned in our previous post. We take comfort in the warmth of family, and consider ourselves very lucky to have all we have. Someday we'll have to begin trying to explain this sort of thing to Ezra, which is terribly daunting. But, humbled, we soldier on.

Luckily, Ezra is such a source of joy, and caring for him is life-affirming. Not long ago we read somewhere that at this age they love to discover that they can do things we normally do for him. This article suggested letting him begin to undress himself before bath time. We gave it a shot, and as the video below indicates, we were not disappointed.

Also, a note from the Department of Delayed Gratification: since Ezra's birth, we have subjected him to somewhat regular dance parties. These were tolerated, for the most part. But in just the last few weeks, these have become major highlights of Ezra's day. He requests music at all hours of morning or evening -- often all too early in the morning, he'll start blurting out, "Myoogick! Myoogick!" When we oblige with the iPod and, I daresay, some sweet moves, he beams and chants, "Dancing! Dancing!" He's a big fan so far of The Pogues and Lucinda Williams. Also, in the car and at bedtime he has taken to requesting songs. There aren't many people who appreciate, let alone demand, our musical stylings, so we are especially gratified by this.

The weather here has been predictably grim, which adds up to a lot of cabin fever. We have been slow to discover many indoor activities outside the home around here. But Ash did shrewdly buy a membership to the Notebart Nature Museum, which readers may recall as the "butterfly place" from an earlier post. Ezra is a big fan, and can rattle off its attractions upon request: "Cockroaches! Bear! Turtle! Water!" You'd understand if you've been there. Anyway, that's been a welcome haven from our increasingly cluttered quarters.

In a few days we will greet Pop-Pop and Grandma as they make an encore appearance here in Chicago, and a week from today we'll mark Ezra's 18-month birthday. Ah, the sands of the hourglass ...

Much love,

Gabe, Ash and Ez

New Wheels!

Mom here, hoping the entire family has now turned the corner on the pestilence that has plagued our household for one long month. We've had enough! How many tissue boxes does one family need, anyway?

On to the fun stuff... Ezra is now the proud owner of one red Radio Flyer wagon, courtesy of PopPop and Grandma Spitzer for Chanukah. We inaugurated it on Sunday with a brisk walk to Lake Michigan and back. Ezra loves riding in it. He also very much wants to be in control - meaning he tries to climb out and pull or push it, which is fine at home but not so great when it's below freezing and we're out on a crowded sidewalk. But maybe he'll get the hang of riding leisurely when PopPop takes him for a spin in a couple of weeks.

Gabe's cousin Emily Spitzer

joined us for dinner the other night and kindly babysat for us while we saw Avatar.

She's a freshman at Northwestern.

Even though Ezra only wound up hanging out with her for about an hour before he went to bed, we got in some good story time, and now periodically he says, "Emily! Emily! Emily!" out of the blue without prompting.

I think it's a sign we need to have her over more regularly!

We also had Denise Gelb and Josh Herman over this evening for dinner, and when Ezra heard Josh was coming, he kept saying, "Unc-Osh, Unc-Osh!" I was sorry to break the news to him that his Uncle Josh is still in Montana and wasn't coming over for dinner.

Both Gabe and I are feeling sad for a couple of reasons lately. One is that a truly great former colleague from WBEZ, Carlos Hernandez Gomez, died yesterday after a year-long fight with cancer. He was only 36 and had just married not long before he was diagnosed. Even though I barely knew him, I knew OF him - he was legendary in our newsroom. Gabe knew him better and had recently visited him in the hospital. Our hearts are heavy as we think about the loss to the city and especially to his family. Here's a link to tributes from WBEZ colleagues.

And another coworker, Melanie, has spent the past half year in Cincinnati at the hospital bed of her daughter, Taylor, who had a bone marrow transplant in the fall and is now on a ventilator for her lungs after suffering complications. Taylor is just 4 years old. As parents, and as friends of Melanie, we can't imagine what it's been like for both of them and we're sending our love and prayers for a full recovery.

**AN UPDATE ON TUESDAY, JAN. 19**

Taylor died this morning. We are heartbroken. It's very hard to understand why things happen the way they do.

Auld Lang Syne

Big daddy here. As we leave the oughts behind, Ezra now stands mightily astride two decades. Not bad for such a little squirt. We passed the New Year, by our recent-but-welcome tradition, with our friends Mara, Nate and the winsome Mikaela. We ate the traditional New Year's waffles, played on the carpet, and bailed by 7:30 pm. Crazy night, man. Crazy.

Before the calendars flipped, we spent a good part of December in Santa Fe with Team Gross. Ash went out (bravely) with Ezra, and then I followed several days later. When I arrived, I learned that Andi had gone the previous night to the emergency room. Culprit: kidney. Evidently she had a major rock up in there that was causing her all kinds of pain. It sounds awful. The sonic raygun machine that takes on kidney stones was, apparently, in use somewhere else, and would not be available for a full week. So Andi bravely collected her wits and prepared to endure the agony. Several days later she was back in the hospital, with pain she described as "worse than childbirth." To make the long, slightly gruesome story just a little shorter, she wound up having a minimally invasive surgical procedure done on Monday (instead of Thursday), and was home and smiling that very night.

The morning that Andi was to have the operation, Ash, Ezra and I were at the urgent care. Ezra, you see, had spiked a fever the night before of 103.2 -- his highest to date. The doc basically looked him over and told us to wait it out. That night, it peaked out at 103.8, and we were just on the edge of taking him to the ER. We put him to bed, and he seemed to be doing OK. Then he awoke, was burning up. and tossed his cookies on Ashley's fleece jacket. That was enough -- off to the ER we went.

The ER was a pretty unpleasant experience. We waited about an hour in the waiting room, then triage, then another hour. It was late. Ezra was wide awake by now, and actually seemed to be perversely enjoying himself. We, on the other hand, were ragged. Finally we saw the doc -- and it turned out to be the same doc who saw Andi days before! Small town. He was also a perfectly charming guy, with twin boys Ezra's age, and he set us more or less at ease. He basically told us the same thing: probably a viral infection, nothing to be done, just hang in there. The ER was another learning experience for us -- one we'd prefer not to repeat.

The fever finally broke after about 4 days, and along with it came that final missing clue of his diagnosis. He broke out in a lacy pink rash over his face and torso: Roseola. It had been going around among some of our Chicago friends in the previous weeks. All in all, it was mildly miserable, but he came out of it OK. As in past illnesses, he was actually not too ill-tempered most of the time. He'd crack easily, but he'd spring back quickly, too.

In the mean time, we managed to give and receive some fantastic presents (Ezra's train/truck/heavy equipment collection has grown substantially). He also delighted in all the attention from his grandparents and aunts. Even now, more than a week later, he's still asking for them.

We also, on a day when his fever was gone, dressed him up in his snowsuit for his first full-fledged romp in the snow. He adored this for about 12 minutes. If only we'd quit then. Instead, we pushed it an extra couple of minutes, which led to a small atomic freakout. When will we learn to quit while we're ahead?

Temperamentally, Ezra is testing the waters of the terrible twos. It is a time of great contradictions: he's unbearably charming, hilarious and whip-smart. But his "frustration trigger" is exquisitely sensitive. Whether it's taking away a "toy" (like, say, a Sharpie marker) or, you know, letting his mother walk out the door for work, his head pretty much explodes. luckily, he has not yet learned to throw things or wreck stuff. I think we're in for some epic tantrums. I've thrown a few in my day, and this kid has all the makings of a tantrum prodigy.

Anyway, we'll update on more language and skill progress in a future post. Meanwhile, we're once again grateful and humbled to enter another New Year with such a rich and entertaining family. We wish all of you the warmest, happiest New Year possible.

All best,

Gabe, Ash and Ez