New sayings from Ezra this week include: ‘I pooped’ (and almost every time he said it he actually has), ‘cold’ when he was freezing from his slightly irresponsible father not putting a jacket on him to play outside, ‘ouch, hurt’ when his foot got caught in the chair, and ‘pool, water, swim’ while nodding his head up and down – asking for a trip to the rec center.

While his vocabulary is increasing at mach speed, so is his ability to dance. His moves now include the popular butt-to-ankle dip, the hands-up-360-twirl, and the march-in-place-while-giggling.

Quick story, but first the set up. We started doing a timeout system where Ezra sits on the bottom step for things like hitting, biting, etc. I think that we discussed this here before, but he generally sits down on the step and waits without complaint just dangling his feet for the alloted time. When done, either Ahna or I will go and sit down next to him to discuss what was done wrong, then he is supposed to say ‘sorry’ (although sometimes he gives us a kiss instead and we accept that). Two weeks ago, I was walking to him at the end of the time, and he looked at me and patted the carpet next to him in a ‘sit here Daddy and let’s discuss’ sort of way….

Now to this evening’s story: he hit me twice out of frustration and I immediately – and for some unknown reason – told him to go to timeout (this was the first time that either Ahna or I have instructed him to do it instead of carrying him over)…and he instantly turned away, and in his best sulking walk went to the bottom step and sat down! It was super cute, and both Ahna and I had to contain our amazement and laughter as he took full responsibility for what he did. Such a grown up sometimes.

Ezra has been learning words on an hourly basis recently, which is probably mostly normal for someone his age, but it’s been his ability to piece them together in longer and longer almost-sentences and thoughts that has taken us for an amazing ride this past week. Seeing your child every single day lends itself to not seeing dramatic changes, but it feels as though we have been privy to a blatant transformation in his thinking and vocabulary right in front of our eyes.

Things like: “no hitting” “where’s the giraffe?” “love you” “bye-bye Mommy in car” “color train please” “oh no, train fell on floor”

It’s wonderful and fun to witness. As new sayings creep up, we’ll make sure that you know too.