Grossman family west

Ezra’s eighth month brought some new adventures, talents, and discoveries: crawling, musical instruments, swinging, and pumpkin picking!

And, of course, football season is in full swing, so Ezra has been cheering on the Pats with the rest of the family. All this, and more, captured in Ezra’s Eight Month Photoshoot, now posted in the Photo Gallery!

Put me in coach, I'm ready to play!

As our avid readers know, Mommy traveled down to SoCal to celebrate her 35th birthday with some pals a few weeks ago. But that wasn’t the whole story! She took Avi and Ezra down to San Diego as well, and they all got to spend a lot of quality time with Gigi and Grandpa. But wait–there’s more! The week before, we had some visitors to San Francisco: Aunt Robin and Gigi traveled north while John and Michele (bringing some exciting news!) headed south from Seattle. We had a blast with all of our visitors and wish we got to see them more often. In the meantime, we’ve shared a photo album in the Photo Gallery.

Gigi, Aunt Robin, and Michele Visiting Us in SF

Weekly, it seems, Avi adds new sportastsic activities to his repertoire. At first, it was watching football and March Madness on TV with Daddy and his friends. He has since left the old men on the sidelines. Avi now plays “organized” soccer and baseball regularly, and enjoys scooting around (both indoors and out) on his new scooter. Ezra looks eager to join him. For now, though, we’ve posted some pictures of Sporty Avi in the Photo Gallery.

Try to keep up, Mommy!

Well, with some helpful modeling from his big brother, young Ezra Grossman is now mobile. He is crawling all over the house, sticking every wire he can possibly find into his little mouth. We have two video clips* to show you–in the first, Avi models crawling for Ezra on the carpet, which we decide is too easy; so for the second clip, we let Ezra crawl on wet cement. Next week, he’ll crawl on a tightrope attached to the roofs of our house and our neighbor’s house…

Enjoy the video, now posted in the photo gallery!

Ready or not, here I come!

* NOTE: starting with this video, we are moving to YouTube for hosting videos. No more Silverlight. As with all YouTube videos, you can pop our videos out Full Screen, you can adjust the quality, etc. Please let us know if you have any problems!

Ezra’s Seven Month was quite an experience for him, including “real” food, street fairs, music classes, Patriots football (on TV), and he’s even starting to eye his big brother’s toys.

As you have come to expect, we have posted Ezra’s Seven Month Photoshoot (which includes two videos) in the Photo Gallery for your enjoyment!

As soon as they let me out of this thing, I'm gonna get your toys!

For our final trip of the summer, GFW (including Aunt Debbie!) went to Hawaii and spent a week in Maui with some of our favorite pals (and neighbors!) from San Francisco. Three families, each with at least one child about 2 years old, hopped on a plane and flew to Maui, where we all stayed at the Westin Villas—a great resort for families that offered multiple 1-foot deep kiddie pools (including one with a pirate ship!). We did Snuba, we barbequed, we got babysitters (!) and went out on the town, we tanned and relaxed by the pool, and we even had a “Guys Day” (jet skiing) and “Girls Day” (spa). Overall, it was a fantastic way to spend a week. If you couldn’t be there with us, you can feel like you were by checking out the 167-photo slideshow (which also includes 4 short videos), now in the Photo Gallery!

Avi, Ruby, and Nate chillin in Maui

It has been quite a summer of travel for GFW and last month was no exception. We all hopped in the car and headed south to Huntington Beach, CA, where we got to cohabitate with a lot of the Persinger family in a great almost-on-the-beach house! We had a blast: visiting, eating, playing, and working on our tan before spending a long thrilling day at Disneyland (thanks, Uncle Brian!) Along with grandparents, Uncles and Aunts, it was also great to spend so much time with cousins Jennah and Carson.

We were there for a week, so we have a slideshow with 105 photos(!) and a video, now in the Photo Gallery.

Lots of Love in Huntington Beach!

Anyone who has ever known the Grossman Family well knows that we’re passionate about our food. It is therefore a very special moment when a young Grossman first begins to eat solid food. Fans of GFW, we are thrilled to announce that young Ezra Grossman has reached that important milestone in a young Grossman’s life, when a baby becomes a full-fledged member of the family: Ezra has begun to eat solid food!

For now, it’s rice cereal with various pureed options (sweet potato, peas, pears) offered for variety. Admittedly, Ezra is taking to food more cautiously than we might like: he appears to prefer the tasteless (rice cereal) over the tasty (just about anything else). We are sure he will soon learn to appreciate the finer things.

Of course, we have documented this momentous event with the latest in digital photography, now posted in the Photo Gallery. Yum.

Feed Me, Mommy!

With all of the hustle and bustle going on (hurricanes and massive East Coast earthquakes), potty training, and lots of travel for Grossman Family West, it is possible to blink and miss little Ezra growing up right under our noses! Fortunately, mommy and the paparazzi were on the spot for Ezra’s six month birthday a few weeks back. We now share with you the best of their pictures in the official Ezra Six Month Photoshoot, now in the Photo Gallery. Enjoy!

I'm basically ready to go to work and open a 401k

Well, Grossman Family West fans, mark this day as a turning point: the loss of innocence—not unlike the day that Skynet became self-aware, or when Darth told Luke he was his father.

We have been potty training Avi and, while we are not yet ready to hang a giant “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED” banner outside the house, Avi has been regularly peeing in the potty… but much less regularly pooping in the potty. Today was an exciting day because there was an early afternoon poop in the potty, much to everyone’s delight. But that’s not what this post is about.

This evening, Daddy came home from work early because his friend Mark Brown happened to be in town and so we had invited Mark over for dinner. When Daddy arrived home, he found Avi happily playing with his toy trains and with Mark, but Avi was unwilling to give Daddy his typical “Welcome Home” hug, which was a little strange. Daddy soon realized why: upon insisting on getting a hug, daddy smelled a poop in the pants.

Mark, whose beautiful daughter is not yet of potty-training age, pieced together a puzzle that had been stumping him. “You know, a few minutes ago, I heard Avi fart; well, I had thought it was a fart at the time. Then—and this had confused me (but now makes sense)— your two-and-a-half year old son looked me right in the eyes and said with mafia-like seriousness: ‘DON’T TELL MOMMY‘”

And so it begins…

"DON'T TELL MOMMY"