Sequel to the Target portrait studio story, Ez update, and conversations with Bella

I took Ez to get some new pictures at Target the other day. Bella had been whining the whole drive down so Blaine made her stay in the car with him instead of going into the store with us. (Remember when our parents used to send us out to the car when we were misbehaving in the grocery store? Of course, that would constitute neglect these days so I rarely get to threaten Bella with that except when Blaine is with us and we can divide and conquer). Anyway, back to the story...So, Ez is getting his pictures taken and the guy remembers Ezra's unique name and asks if he took his picture before. I said that he had. After we were done, and I was looking at the pics. on the computer, Blaine and Bella came in. I introduced Blaine as my husband and the guy said, "Oh yeah, I just looked on the computer and saw the picture of you and Ezra from the last time you were in." I said, "Oh, yeah" with an awkward nervous laugh as I am thinking in my head, "Um, that is a completely different guy in the pictures." (If you read my post about three months ago, I am referring to when I took Ezra and his birthdad to Target to get pictures together.) After we left, Blaine was saying how he should have made a scene and said, "What? I never got my picture taken here. You were with another guy??? Let me see those pictures!" That would have been funny to see the guy's reaction but I guess, after all, our lives just really aren't that Jerry Springer.

So, Ez is 9 months now. This past month has been one of many accomplishments. He learned how to sit up with out assistance and he is now crawling (the army crawl). He has cut his first tooth and he is eating those little cereal puffs. We finally moved him out of our room into his own room and he is basically sleeping the night through (he goes down at 8, takes a bottle around 11 and then sleeps until 5:30 or 7 am). Moving him into his own room was a much bigger deal for me than I ever anticipated. Bella got the boot from our room at a mere 6 weeks old but Ez had just come home from the hospital at 5 weeks and I worried so much about him that I wanted him as close to me as possible for so long. But, it has been so great having him in his own room now and we are all sleeping better because of it. It is amazing to me that he was born with a condition that people rarely survived just 30 years ago. Now he is thriving and has the potential to live a long, and healthy life.





Bella spent the night at my parent's house Sunday night. She and two of her cousins had a great time at Grandma and Grandpa's house. I missed her like crazy all day on Monday but man, I got a lot of things done around the house with out her here! She said some cute things when she got back:

"Grace "frew" a boogar on Ellie. But, she didn't "frow" a boogar on me. She is nice to me."

And, "Ellie and Grace fought a lot. Heavenly Father doesn't want us to fight. I told them that."

She has been using her line about what Heavenly Father wants a lot lately. After I have used my "mommy means business" voice on her a few times this past week, she has said to me, "Heavenly Father doesn't want us to be mad." Yep, she is right.