Ezra & Charlotte

2 Months Old!!

On Thursday, May 22, Ezra was two months old. We went to see Dr. Ogan on Friday for a checkup. Ezra is now 10 pounds 6 ounces! He has grown two full inches since last month's appointment, which shocked the doctor.

While at the doctor he received his first two shots for his immunizations. He cried for a few seconds and then just stopped. The rest of the day he slept quite a bit, but no fussiness with this laid back little baby!


Ezra is smiling and cooing regularly now. Today he sat with Morgan for about 30 minutes and was just happy as a clam. She called it "talking day".

The biggest change has been in the sleep department. Ezra spent the week last week with Grandma Edgecomb and she has been working on getting him to accept sleeping in the crib. She also bought a sound box which makes nature sounds, and that has made a world of difference. For the past three nights Ezra has slept 3-4 hour chunks and then gone right back to bed after nursing. Nick & I are ecstatic!

Fine Dining

Here's Ezra at his first fancy restaurant dinner. We are at Staunton Grocery to celebrate Zoe's graduation from Architecture School. Luckily, the bead store next door let us visit to nurse and change a poopy diaper, because that would have been a little embarrassing in that small place. In the picture below are (from left to right) Chris Laiacona, Sheri, Catherine, Zoe, Ned, Nick Laiacona, Sarah, Sarah's Boyfriend. Although this is the first fancy restaurant Ezra has been to, he has also been a sweet sleeping angel in X Lounge and several other restaurants.

Ezra's dedication in the Unitarian Unversalist church

As UUs we do not formally baptize our child. Rather, we participate in a dedication ceremony where all members of the congregation and community present agree to help guide our child on a path of respect for the interdependent web of existence and in search of his personal truth. Here we are on Sunday May 11, 2008. In addition to Ezra, the Grandparents Laiacona, Nick and myself, the Grandparents Edgecomb, Zoe, Morgan and Charlotte were also present.

Chillin with the Grandmas

Grandma Laiacona

Grandma Edgecomb

Political Protestor

Here's Ezra at his first political protest. As a future skier, he is appalled by the concept of mountaintop removal for coal mining. Since we believe in taking an interest in our son's activities, Nick & I decided to join him at the rally.

Oohs, Aahs, and Smiles

Ezra is starting to really come to life. He smiled at Nick & I today for the first time. Of course, I've been waiting eagerly for that first smile. We've had several false alarms in the past few days when I thought he was starting to smile only to see that it was crying he was after.

For a few weeks Ezra has made a random "happy noise" here and there. This morning he was laying on his floor gym and really oohing and aahing up a storm!

Sofia's Birthday

Yesterday was Sofia's birthday. She was, well, zero. She weighed in at 7 pounds 15 ounces, almost as big as Ezra at 5 weeks! She is a healthy little girl, and it was obvious that Wendy & Mike are just as smitten with her as Nick & I are with Ezra.

Nick, Ezra and I took our first road trip to Shady Grove, Maryland to meet Sofia and congratulate Mike & Wendy. The drive was about 3 hours, and we stopped in Gainesville to nurse on the way up, and in Opal on the way home. We had a very nice visit with the grandparents Laiacona, Mike, Wendy and Matt. Ezra was very happy to spend a good portion of the day in his grandmother's arms.

While we were there Nick's parents gave us his baby book. These are the first newborn photos I've seen of Nick, and he couldn't look more like Ezra! (Except huge!)

First Family Hike

Here we are starting out on our first hike as a family! On our way out of town it seemed that everything was conspiring to slow our travels. Long lines at Bodos, strange noises under my car, slow drivers on country roads. You name it. When we finally got to the trailhead our beautiful sunny day was overtaken by a brief but intense thunderstorm. Turns out all of those delays worked in our favor and allowed us to wait out the storm in the car.

This is the Hazel River Trail at milepost 33.5 on the Skyline drive. We hiked about 4 miles. The path was well cleared, not too rocky, with an easy grade.

One Month Check-up

Yesterday was Ezra's first visit to his doctor's office. He was there for his one month check-up. He now weighs 8 pounds 6 ounces! This is a full two pound gain from two weeks ago. Great news since an ounce a day is average. This means his gain is just above average on strictly breast milk!!! After the challenges we went through in the beginning, I can't tell you how happy this made me.

Another big breakthrough last night was in the sleep department. Ezra slept for 5 hours straight. He also went to sleep directly after eating twice. A pretty big accomplishment since usually we have to walk around for about 2 hours after eating to get him down.

The truth is that I did cheat a bit. After he ate I let him sleep on my chest in the bedroom. I don't sleep well this way, but it's better than walking around. After an hour or so he'll let me put him down. In another couple of months we'll work on better sleep habits, but right now I need to get to a place where I can get enough sleep when I go back to work in 3 weeks.