20 months old!

Ezra is now 20 months old and keeping us busier than ever!

He's developed a new found love of being rocked...in the middle of the night, when he's just woken up and is still a little sleepy, or when he's trying to take his nap. I love it, and secretly, some nights almost wish he'd wake up so I could go in and snuggle with him!

Not too much readily comes to mind in terms of recent physical developments. He is still as active as ever! Only nursing one time a day now, just for a minute or two before bedtime. I wish I could say that it's a deeply sentimental transition, but honestly, it has been good. Especially with a new baby on the way. And I'm so glad we had the time to transition slowly and gently.

Ezra's favorite activities include playing outside, going to Grandmomma's house and playing in the creek with Grandad, puzzles (he's very good at simple peg puzzles now), eating, listening to music each morning during breakfast (he will specify that he wants "violin music" and can also recognize musical notes). He can recognize two items now (For example, if he's holding two animals, he'll say something like "two animals"). He tries to count on his fingers and has quite the pattern of saying "one, free, two!!" as he skips over a few fingers. He can recognize the letters "o" and "u", and hopefully will learn more soon!

This month Ezra has developed a love of shrimp and havarti cheese. We just have to laugh at his not very normal toddler tastes, like his love of olive oil and old bay. Oh, and tea and coffee! He LOVES to take a sip of my coffee if I am sipping on some decaf with cream.

Ezra is really starting to understand us when we walk about the new baby. He looks forward to a lot of things we'll do this summer, like catching fireflies, but he also knows "baby come out summertime." If you ask him where the baby is he'll promptly pull up my shirt and point to my belly. He was pretty much astonished when we told him he was having a sister; he kept blinking rapidly and looking at us with this most serious look. :) Now whenever we ask him about the baby he repeats that behavior, we think because we laughed and made such a big deal of it. He still thinks it would be fun to name her "Monkey Joy" or "white doggy joy" or "meow joy" or "kitty joy," but I've caught him a couple of times referring to her by the name we think we've chosen (hint: joy may very well end up being the middle name). :) When we showed him our 20 week ultrasound pictures, he kept referring to them as "blue," to which I'd respond that they were grey. It took me a few days to realize that he really must be wondering why his little sister is grey, after all!

We've been talking to Ezra a lot about Easter lately, and he seems fascinated with the concept of Jesus being alive. I'm grateful for this holiday, for in all my attempts to tell Ezra about Jesus, I realized just within the last week or two that I've only emphasized that Jesus died for us, but never thought much of mentioning the resurrection! Ezra is--for whatever reason I'm not quite sure--very fascinated by the phrase "Jesus is alive" and will start talking about it throughout the day. He likes when I sing him a kids' song that contains the same phrase. :) I'm excited to watch him continuing to learn more and more!