Grossman family west

Without further ado, we present 41 pictures of Ezra at 1 month old (along with some pictures of his friends), now in the photo gallery!

Yah, that's right-- ONE MONTH! Boom!

Indeed, GFW fans, we have completed Ezra’s One Month Photoshoot, which we will post another day. However, today we are pleased to release an unauthorized “Behind The Scenes” video of the Star Himself, during some downtime from his One Month Photoshoot. Check out this exclusive footage quickly—before they make us take it down! Now in the photo gallery.

We have all heard the (true?) stories of the mom who picked up a car that was trapping a child, or man who wrestles an alligator who stole his Bud Light. Well, ladies and gentleman, I present to you Ezra’s first feat of Herculean strength, performed at a MERE 12 DAYS OLD! Check out the video now!

This is not Ezra

Some of you may remember Avi’s first singing performance in the back of the car. For the past year, he has been training under the expert tutelage of some of the greatest pop music managers that the west coast has to offer–experts like Teacher Jill (Music Class), Jutta (from Stepping Up at Temple), and of course, Mom. We are proud to reveal the fruits of this labor. We present, at the ripe old age of two, Avi singing songs WITH words (we haven’t studied dancing yet, so he’s still performing in his natural surroundings). The video is now posted to the Photo Gallery.

Avi in twenty years?

As Ezra turns one month old, we thought it would be a good time to publicly release his Two Week Photoshoot, now available in the Photo Gallery.

Two Week Old Photoshoot

Avi has been thrilled to have Ezra around the house and he’s been a fantastic big brother, checking on Ezra when Avi wakes up in the morning, pointing out when Ezra is crying, adjusting Ezra’s swing, and even helping Ezra when his pacifier falls out. Mom and Dad are practically ready to resume date night and let Avi babysit Ezra. But then we shot this video of Avi holding Ezra and “drill and kill” Mommy took the opportunity to quiz Avi on Ezra’s dietary requirements.

He did not pass. Video evidence now in the Photo Gallery.

Best Big Brother EVER!

Over the past two weeks, we have felt like the luckiest people alive—not only because of the arrival of Ezra, but also because of the tremendous support we have had from loved ones from across the country. As (young!) parents, we often found it pretty exhausting to keep up with Avi, but we now know that that was just “Level One”! We really don’t know how we would have survived the first couple of weeks with both Avi and Ezra if we had had to do it alone.

But we never were alone. In this post, we wanted to offer a special thanks to those who traveled from far away to spend so much time just helping us out: Mimi and Zayda, Uncle Dave and Aunt Dara, and Aunt Lizzie. You all are the best family support that we could ask for, going above and beyond to lend your helping hands. Aunt Debbie, although local, also deserves a tremendous shout-out: she started putting in serious hours even before Ezra arrived, suffering a 3 AM wake-up call without complaint to race over to our house and watch Avi while we headed to the hospital to deliver Ezra. And we also enjoyed wonderful visits from our dear friend Rachael, Aunt Dara’s parents Stewie and Linda, and Aunt Amy, Uncle Rick, and Cousin Sam. We loved seeing you all and thank you so much for your help. Avi, in particular, loved all of the attention!

It really does take a village to raise a child, and city to raise two. We feel so fortunate to have such loving support racing to help create a city of support in our little apartment on our far edge of the country. We love you all so much and are thrilled to post a new photo album to the gallery with pictures of those who visited and helped us out during Ezra’s first days!

And the best part is that we’re looking forward to having more visitors soon! How lucky are we?!?!

Much Love and Many Many Thanks from San Francisco,
Joel, Holly, Avi, and Ezra

Thanks for helping out my new parents!!

Ezra’s Bris was yesterday and we were so honored to have family and friends join us at our house to help us celebrate. This morning, we awoke to a few emails asking “how’d he do?”, so we figured we’d blog to answer you all at once…

We are quite pleased to say that he handled it like a champ. There were some tears, of course, but not as much as many expected. It seemed like it wasn’t his first time. He listened intently to the mohel, held his breath when the deed happened, and, of course, ate voraciously afterwards.

If you look very closely, you can see him here, taking Ezra from Dad, just before the mohel started snipping. Overall, great work yesterday, Zayda!

Ezra and Mom handled the event fantastically as well, some photos now in the photo gallery.

Great job, Zayda!

Almost exactly a week ago (at this exact moment), Holly asked Joel to call Aunt Debbie to come watch Avi so we could go to the hospital. Joel replied “You don’t seem to be laboring that hard, let’s let Debbie sleep a while longer and if it gets real, we’ll call her…”

Well, it’s been a fantastic week with little Ezra and our family has been loving every minute of him: not just Holly, Joel, and Avi, but Mimi and Zayda flew in, Aunt Debbie spent a lot of time with us, and friends and family from all over have been Skyping or otherwise sending us lots of love. Many thanks to you all!

For those of you who haven’t met Ezra in person yet, we’ve posted a photo album of 35 pictures for the week, including this one, now in the Photo Gallery… enjoy!

Big Brother and Little Brother

As many have heard, Ezra joined us only a couple of hours after we arrived at the hospital on Wednesday morning—Holly was a champion hypnobirth-er. As luck would have it, third year med student, friend of Auntie Debbie, and sister of one of Joel’s fraternity brothers, Sara Epstein, was on her OB rotation at UCSF! We enjoyed the Golden Gate Bridge view from our birthing suite for just a couple of hours before moving into our post-natal room.

Auntie Debbie did a fantastic job watching Avi the entire time–they even came to visit us in the hospital once (Dad, Mom, and Ezra spent the night there). While in the hospital, we also visited with our friend Danielle in person, and great-grandma Nanny, Uncle Jake, and Aunt Liz via Skype.

When we got home, we found a Welcome Home sign colored by Avi and Auntie Debbie, along with a barnyard full of animals that Avi’s Uncles and Aunts had given Avi. Whew. So much excitement, all captured for you in a new album in the photo gallery!

No Confusing Who is the Baby Daddy!