Tuesday, August 31, 2010

The Put Upon Bunny Dog





When Mark went to the store for supplies today I hung out with Esme and snapped a few pictures. She was being very good and the dogs were helping me babysit some :) Esme has been insisting on wearing her 'pink shirt' daily now.

Bunny dog was put upon quite a bit.. and she does a wonderful expression.

The fever went down some this morning and back up this evening... and the sinus drainage is beginning to congest in my chest. I'm drinking the chicken soup trimmings from Mark's semi-weekly chicken fry up. Esme is in bed. She has been snorking a little more and had some green drainage after a bath tonight. Her temperature is not up but I'll check it one more time before I'm off to bed again myself.

fever

I had one of those weird fevered dream states last night that felt all too real, and all broken up, and things happening that had no way of going together etc... Something about teapots walking together choosing the determination of their shadows and calling a 'code 3' on a banana at my register at work to check to see if it had a faucet buried inside it (I think Rowlf and Fozzie were there from the Muppet show Esme was watching too)... so surreal. There was a long dream where everything I was trying to install in this house kept changing size, position and orientation on me minute after minute.. .until I was utterly confused and frustrated in the dream and realized it was me - not the house - that I had to wake myself up because I was dreaming.

I think I drank a gallon of water every few hours last night in the middle of all that - just chugged it down and went back to sleep, woke up (for obvious reasons) an hour after that, then drank more water and went back to sleep immediately again. Esme kept waking up too, and saying 'Mumum it's morning!' and I would have to tell her it wasn't morning and to go back to sleep. I just hope she doesn't get the same kind of thing because I feel like I lost brain cells in the fever ... and I don't want her to go through the same thing.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

a few bits and christmas in august (just kidding)

Woke up with sore throats today, sneezing everywhere .. guessing it is the pollen count or the burning they were doing on the highway etc. Hope it doesn't turn bad on me. Esme seems okay, a little snorking, but she is being her usual self. We went for grocery store (oj, coffee, necessities around here) and got some fried chicken. Esme really enjoyed going to town and was charmingly happy about all of it. We were looking at dinosaur skeletons on the Internet and she tells me they are 'dragon bones'. When she sees them all jumbled up or separated they are 'broke dragon bones.' Dragon bones still go 'rar'... and she likes their feet. She has been getting in a lot of trouble today because she is chasing the cat into a corner and then sitting over there by the stairs. That's hard to explain, but there is nothing to do in that corner but pull things down off the bookcase and/or trap the poor cat, so we are telling her to get out of there and go do something else. Mama doesn't feel really good, but I'm still trying to play with her nicely :) She is burying her cow in memory cards and having the piggy toy go 'oink oink where are you cow?'

I was looking for some more things to sew for her. I might get in the mood again sometime soon. The sewing machine is acting half-right, enough that the pants weren't too hard to make lately. Maybe my thread bobbins were warped -- Mark and I looked in awed horror at two the other day where one was noticeably misshapen compared to the other. I think it came from the factory that way. That could definitely mess up the machine. Going to up that elastic size to 16.5 inches because the pants did leave a slight mark on her skin overnight. It seems to be a trial and error thing.

Have accomplished a bit of birthday/christmas shopping even though we aren't really big on that around here. It has been a large topic of discussion on the parenting board I visit -- and I guess I gave in a little and started thinking about what I would like to give her this year. The set of wooden blocks coming is for one of those, and a set of 'parquetry' blocks and cards for making designs is another one. Both of those were won off of Ebay for not much. The hardest part of all that is waiting to give them to her.... can I succeed at that? We'll see.

I've got a few other things in my own mind - not going to put them here right now. I'm amazed at how often things I've seen before and thought 'she is way too young for that' come up later and I think 'I really should have gotten that and saved it!' But I didn't on some of it.. I did do that with the rollerskates grabbing them for three bucks at a rummage sale back when she was a year old - and now she loves them. All of the plastic animals we bought her last year are still part of the 'daily lexicon' - getting into discussions with other animals and climbing block towers and swimming in cereal milk some days etc.etc... I've definitely got my eye out for a few animals she talks about a lot but we don't have one of, or don't have two of. She has this thing with needing two of any plastic animal sometimes.. so they can fight or talk. 'Hi I'm a cow. I'm a cow too! WOW, we're two cows.' etc..' She even has her fabric snake and her wooden snake talk to each other like that.. and the two dragons, and the piggy figures etc etc...

Friday, August 27, 2010

Headstand and 'fly'


swoosh


'I fly, Esme fly!'

I liked those pictures and Esme pointed to them on the screen and said 'Esme fly!' Well, right you are little one... you do fly :) She is using her name so much more often now. I did it! Esme did it! etc... and calling herself by name in the mirror and in pictures even though sometimes it feels like she still thinks that is 'another person' and not herself.... she has most of that down now.

I made her several pairs of pants the past few days - because she needed them. I cut them out at work and sewed them after I got home. They are size 3 with about two inches added to the bottom length. The medium-weight elastic is 15.5 inches, although her waist is 20.5 inches. I'm writing that down because I keep forgetting it and keep having to check again and again! She liked this pair quite a bit although Daddy says it looks like 'Florida old man golfer' fabric. I also asked her to show me her headstand she is working on. And she did. She had us all doing headstands in the kitchen earlier!


rolling giggle



headstand


I got the full five act version of how to cook a fish stick also - for her playmobil daddy doll she had downstairs. Esme told the daddy doll to sit on the chair while she pretended to take fish sticks out of the freezer, put them on a pan, put them in the oven, beep beep beep to mean they are done, and then take them out and give to the daddy doll, and put the empty dish in the oven and the plate after eating in the sink. All of this without actually opening the fridge or the oven - but making herself very clear. And she wasn't hungry - the daddy doll was, because the daddy doll said 'RAR' at her (me actually). She has so much more to say lately, Mark says, and is working ever harder on communicating it. She had a discussion with me tonight about 'need baby wipe wash hand draw blue EW!' That was her way of trying to say 'I've got blue marker on my hand please help me find something to wash it off with.'

Now she is upstairs here hunting bugs with her flyswatter and scattering blocks all over the floor for the third time tonight. I bought her a new set on Ebay - that look a lot like her red and green ones. She'll have fun with them, and I'll have fun with them, and Daddy probably will, too.

And for comic relief, as if we need more... she is now spinning around near me with a box on her head saying 'I'm in box it dark got a box (on my) face HI! I hide. Peekaboo! I hide. yea, box on HEAD.' Daddy made her a balloon hat which she puts on her head and says 'I did it - I'm a funny baby!' She also called Jeff Foxworthy a 'bad funny man' tonight when he did the bit where he falls down on the floor and rolls around while everyone laughs at him. In her mind the actor is bad for rolling around on the floor like that -- but funny as well. She took turns calling the other comics on Mark's show bad and funny...she has really gotten into adjectives lately and also into saying whole phrases like 'what's happening', 'what are you doing', 'how are you' and one sentence 'o* sh*t', that we don't want her to say! But she does use that last one in proper context... when someone is falling, or people are shooting at each other in a movie etc... something bad is happening, watch out!

We made it to the beep beep

We made it to the alarm this morning with no frogs or dragons or snakes or playmobil figures tossed into bed with me.... but she did get immediately out of bed saying 'beep beep beep' So we went downstairs and got grapes and milk... her choices. She showed me her attempt at a headstand on the 'gymnastics mat' (a nap mat Mark picked up on clearance last year), and I tried to show her how to do a 'tripod' half headstand. She thought it was great but couldn't get her knees like that *ha*

Now she is building block towers to the moon again and fussing because the grapes are 'all gone' and she already licked the plate. I have to go to work again in an hour. They are changing the entire way things work again at the store -- and this way isn't going to work either.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

What is there - a pants fairy?

Is there a pants fairy like the tooth fairy? That comes in the middle of the night looking for loose pairs of pants and takes them away? Just kidding - but some days I wonder. I just did the laundry after going through Esme's clothes. There are many more pairs of pants I _remember_ making that I have not found there.... who knows where they are. The most recently made pairs are there. I cut out another pair at work today and sewed it when I got home. I need to keep it up here and there to outpace the pants fairy!

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Zombiness

was walking zombie yesterday - and still had to stay an hour later at work to put up unexpected heavy stuff.... slept in some this morning but not a lot. Esme wanted to be up at 6 am and Mark finally took her to have cereal at eight... tried to sleep some more till nine. Another long closing night tonight and then I'm on a 'turnaround' - which means going back the next morning 12 hours away from when I left the night before - and gradually coming in earlier and earlier until I'm the 'early shift' the day before I get off again. Whoever made up that idea for a 'regular' schedule was a misanthropist.

Later: Home from work, sounded off some at work - I think on fertile ears. Esme is happily playing blocks and block horsies with me and we need to go to bed soon. I was not quite as tired when I got to work as I thought I'd be - the extra hour of sleep this morning helped.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Little bits and pieces of a Tuesday

This morning I woke up to find a shape card tucked up under my blanket and puzzle pieces rearranged near my bed. Esme was obviously up in the middle of the night, and couldn't get Mumum to play with her, so she went back to bed. She has been reading her books in the middle of the night (just the pictures and words she remembers, not 'really' reading), and I hear her talking to her plastic and stuffed animals sometimes. Maybe that is why she is going to sleep so early in the evening and waking up so late - there is a point there after I am fast asleep that she is back up awake moving around. :( She can't get too far without waking me up entirely though - it would take her a lot of noisy effort to get over her baby gate that still encloses her bed area.

At the moment she is arranging books into a roadway across the room again. I heard a little voice say 'ow my toe!' a bit ago when she dropped a few. I had to laugh. Sorry little girl!

I am very tired because _I_ was up a little later than I wanted to be last night too, my throat was bothering me after drinking coffee through the wrong tube. After I went to sleep Esme must have been up awake again. We tried to go to the flea market this morning but there was a county fair setup going on :( Very sad. And very tired. I could have used more sleep.

I put in for a job that I've been hoping for - at my current workplace. One opened up that is the level I want. I don't know if I can get this one in particular - I'm qualified, but there is probably somebody else moreso. I'm thinking over what to say in interview. What I hate about interviews here is that they can happen at ANY time, any day - even when you least expect it. They just call you on the intercom and then when you call them back they say 'Can you come to the office for a chat?' And you find out it is the interview when you actually get up there. I hope it isn't today - because I am so tired. Going to go downstairs and see if I can look alive ;)

Monday, August 23, 2010

Green Hair Tie and drawing

I was going through old drawers today and found this green hair tie from long long ago... Esme said it was 'the pretty'.



I took these, the poor kitty was very tolerant


Mark took this one after I said the lighting was really bad... good job Daddy :)



I was asked to draw a baby bunny rabbit riding a bike, again... the rest of it is hers



I gave it back to her on her easel and she goes at it some more...


Esme seems back to her usual attitude/mood today. She has hardly given me any 'guff' at all about things I ask her to do - like wash her hands, use the potty or take off her own shoes and socks for bath. She did say 'NO' about the potty 'Do you need to use the potty?' and then took a second, grinned at me sweetly and went and did it anyway. She helped Daddy bring the garbage up to the curb and put away the groceries (to the extent she does either - pretending to pull the wagon and throwing away empty bags, but she thinks she helps a lot). She is also very much into 'I did it!' today clapping for herself and happy about every little accomplishment. It's sweet. I am glad to have my 'good girl' back who helps and even accepts Mama is going to work after at first crying loudly about it.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Books are the Stepping Stones to Success


Another Animation (click here)


Yet another example of her lining things up in rows... silly kid! It's kind of cool and kind of 'huh?' at the same time for me. She was telling me 'I float!' and pretending that the rest of the floor around the books was 'wet' so she needed a road to 'float' on. The poor cats got carried across the 'road' too, and the game went on and on and on for quite a while.

My organizational skills need a ramp up lately, and I need more time off to clean that isn't just when Esme is napping. Tomorrow is trash day and I am going to see what I can get done today and get rid of tomorrow etc... Grandma Irene came here today and I was really embarrassed that there was so much building up :( It's not awful (should have seen the house I grew up in Minnesota, and we didn't have this many animals) but it definitely needs more attention than I've been able to give it lately.


Sleeping with all of the pillows!
Mark says this means she 'wins' ;)


Downstairs scrubbing floors and getting in corners, and using the vacuum on the carpet etc. Mark cleaned the air filter but hurt his knee doing so. Found a source of something really ucky downstairs in a back corner we couldn't get into.. and it is now cleaned up and blocked off. Taking a break and saw Esme sleeping with all the pillows and had to take a picture of it. Back down there to work on the other side of the room some, and then see what else I can get to up here.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Block power tower and new animations



Esme's 'power tower' of blocks. You can see in the background of this image the white dresser parts and box (for our business mail we package near this table) she keeps insisting she sit in and 'build a hole' around her. That is what she calls it - she wants the plastic pieces put around the box in a tower formation so she can stand up and knock them all over and build them back up around her again. And she wants to play that game ten or twelve times in a row - screaming and crying each time it falls.. which it inevitably does. Mama is getting very tired of that game because of the screaming. I like the small blocks better! The tower had just gotten too big for her to reach another block to the top, so I started taking pictures. She put all the pieces on there but I did have to convince her to build up from the bottom layer - she was going to put them all in one long line (see below) until I suggested putting some blocks on the second layer - then she took off with the rest of this up and up.



She made 'horsies' out of mega blocks and we had put them away several days ago. They were just columns of three to five square blocks with a rectangle block for the 'head'. She remembered today that they were horsies and went off with the game again. The 'baby' horse had lost it's head, so she put it back on and then the 'daddy' and the 'baby' horse came around the building to go hug the 'mama' horse and say 'you're home!' You can see all of that in the animation posted here, including a few frames of when she said 'horsie' (grin)

As I mentioned - she will just keep making a line until she runs out of blocks. This is her 'interrupted and disbelieving expression' because she asked for another block and there was only one more that size and shape. A bit after this she made her horsies run across the blocks and then we were pick up put away go to Grandma's house.


A little obsessive with the color blocking? Maybe she gets that from both of us...



horse goes 'running' across the blocks


And one other fun animation posted here, of her moving her box from one side to the other and then playing with a few blocks.

I hope you like both of the animations :) They are .gifs and not as high quality as the .jpg images, but they show her expressions and activity. They should open in new windows.

Easier to find links
Animation 'movie' #1 : playing with block horsies
Animation 'movie' #2 : moving box and playing blocks

Saturday off, rain or shine?

We just got back from town, getting chicken and picking up a CD I bought off of Ebay. It is Sergei Prokofiev's 'Romeo and Juliet' ballet. A few weeks ago I was talking about music types and things we remembered from our past on an internet forum, and I was reminded of a certain sequence from this set. I heard it in Fargo on the NPR station long ago - and although a part of it was still in my memory I am glad to be able to hear it in full again.

I was very lucky to find a cheap version of it on Ebay (very lucky, considering what it is) and today it has arrived! It is clean 'never been handled' condition, no plastic but I would not have thought anyone ever took it out of the case before. ***insert WOW hard to believe face here as the copyright is 1989!!!*** It has text in three languages on the cover and inside. Mark says it might have been kept by an 'audiophile' who took extremely good care of all their CDs. If that is so, I thank them :)

Mark says he recognizes a few of the bits from being used in movies, and it reminded him of 'Peter and the Wolf', which he owns a copy of and has been fond of for many years. Ha! That is the same composer, but he didn't know that when he said it. It's nice to discover such things ;)

Esme is running around the house full of chicken and V-8 Splash juice and eating an orange lollipop. That is spoiling for her, and she loves those town runs when we get to stop at the chicken place. As soon as we stopped at the place she stuck out her forefinger and pointed saying 'CHICKEN! YAY!' and went on to mumble things about going in there to get a chicken and a lollipop and Daddy and Mumum hold my hand etc.. she plans these things out pretty well *giggle*

I don't know if it is going to really rain or not today - the forecast says it will and it sure looked like it until the sun started shining.... now the radar looks clear but the forecast still says rain. Trying to figure out what to do with the rest of the day.

DJ at work reccommended Johnson and Johnson's vapor bath for Esme's stuffed nose. He said he used it on his son when he had a cold. It smells like rosemary and eucalyptus and it was pretty nice. She wasn't snorking this morning when she woke up like she was the other day. I can't say if it worked well or she just got better - but I'll give it a shout-out anyway as being a pretty good product.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Gear antics with cow

After Esme's bath tonight I let her play with the gear bag because she was going overboard with some other things Mom did NOT want to play (climbing into boxes and building forts around herself with plastic crates and bits of plastic dresser parts etc..) I didn't want to play that because I keep thinking she is going to smack herself in the head or eye with a corner of one... She gets so upset when it all falls down and wants me to build the same 'fort' over and over and over.... which also falls down. I changed the subject and got out the blocks and then the gears.

She was really tired and Daddy helped us clean up and put Shaun on the for the night.
I built it, but she liked it


Great little smile.
Daddy's putting the wooden blocks away that we were playing balance games and making cow and kitty houses with before.


Are you sure these aren't cookies?
Can see how tired she is getting here


And the cow came in to play, too...

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

when she NEEDS to go to bed, she won't ask

She just gets more and more unreasonable and 'not like her', but going to bed is punishment so she doesn't want to ask. She had been over here hopping in and out of my lap with markers for a half hour - trying to get me to come draw - but when I did go draw she didn't want to anymore. Same thing with other things - she wanted to participate and then she didn't. She wanted to play the physics game with me but I hit a hard place where I couldn't get the ball to go where it should -- and she wanted me to fix it and I couldn't... and then more drawing, and more skirting the edge of a tantrum (on the bed, get off the bed, want milk, won't drink it etc...) Mark said she should go to bed, but I didn't want her to go to bed -- just wanted her to act better. It's funny because this all sounds like a normal toddler but it isn't usual for Esme. She's usually 'reasonable' unless she is very tired or hungry or coming down sick. She was up before seven this morning and had not taken a nap despite being so active all day. She ate well so I hope she was just overly tired again. Very good chance she is hitting another growth spurt.

I asked her if she wanted to go to bed - and she said NO. Of course. I told her if she didn't get off the floor and stand up she would be going to bed anyway... and then she laid back down on the floor! What clearer sign is there - Mark said. He's right. *sigh* So I put her to bed. I didn't want to - because I wanted to give her a bath and give her some ice cream downstairs. I have to work tomorrow and won't be able to here. She was very unhappy when she heard that - but not enough even to stay awake and complain. She fell asleep almost immediately when her head hit her pillow.

*sigh* again.... so I went and cleaned in the kitchen some.
It's rare she falls asleep so early, seven o' clock!

Geekery is frowned on in everyday life, but it is FUN


future plans for something 'stellar'


Some days I have to give up my 'mild mannered appearance' and let the geek out to play. She's in there, and I usually tell her to be quiet because I can go overboard like bringing 3D math and chemistry models to work and playing with them on my lunch hour in front of confused coworkers. Not like I completely understand all of these ideas - but I want to - and how does one understand what one does not explore? Some other people seem boggled just by the sight of such things and it is true there is some thrill to that but quite a bit of sadness, too. I want them to either join in or leave me to have my fun and do their own thing. People like 'E' at work (the one who was thinking I was ruining Esme) say it makes their brain hurt LOOKING at a drawing or a model - so they want me to put it away and do something 'quieter.' This person is one year younger than I am and has five children at home... *sigh*

My definition of fun is different than most people's, I guess? I don't have a good word for it. I think museums and intricate mechanisms and libraries and stick and ball chemistry models and language root patterns are fun... as long as there aren't other people in the vicinity who are bored or upset by the very concepts etc... I also (like all humans) don't like being forced into participating in something I don't want to do at the moment... and I can see that in their reaction. But if you don't want to get into what I'm doing, then don't. Go sit over there. Lots of oddity, there... But I've never been good at that - as if just 'thinking too hard' in someone's vicinity infringing on their right to 'be' what they want to be over there where they are sitting? I can't explain the level of frustration that is. It is like a room in my head that is bright and lit up with all of these ideas and 'what if' wanting to put it out of the visual and into reality... and I turn most of those lights off as soon as they wink on. And most of the time I just keep that room shut up because there are other things that need to be done, work hours to finish etc... and nothing ever gets completed or explored to the end of the line. A million shards of some precious material I can never make into a single useful sheet etc...little bits and pieces that stay saved together in groups like areas of a puzzle put together but still wishing for that one correct piece to join them together into a full picture...

I can't say I don't find fun in 'regular' things other people do - but saying my 'range' of fun is wider and more obscure is probably the best explanation. I think Rube Goldberg machines and finding obscure parts for faucets and matching up compression fittings to solve the puzzle at hand are fun. I also like sewing meticulous things in 3D and and sketching out huge scribbles making them into animals and people etc.

But I think I might start unleashing all that sort of thing again.. because it is fun for ME. And I need some fun. And I need to stop worrying what they are thinking about so much that I constrain myself to what is expected and break outside the boxes I put myself into (by taking their comments to heart etc..) If I let it get to me then Esme will 'turn off the light' as well learning by example. I want her to let the light shine out when it is there - always. No matter what turns it on for her.


ball made last night and now hanging over Esme's bed


SIDE NOTE: The idea that maybe I should have done something 'more' with all of this energy and thought instead of shoving it down into my imagination comes up often... and I just tell it 'later' in so many ways. That one I still have to work on, but baby steps.

In other News: Last night when we were watching a new show 'Warehouse 13', which is like X-Files. Esme popped up from her nap and told the evil-eyed stone head sculpture in the pilot episode 'you're a BAD PUMPKIN. Man you all right? It all gone!' etc... She had us laughing so hard and it is so hard to explain why. Kids just see things so much simpler. I would NEVER have called it a pumpkin, and it has been so long since she saw a jack o'lantern that it took me twice to understand what the word she was saying was in fact, 'pumpkin' and to make the connection to the rest of what she was saying. But, as soon as she said it - she was absolutely completely right. The thing it resmembled most was a jack o'lantern.

The 'Aztec' stone head sculpture in the show was being a very very bad 'pumpkin' with glowing eyes and sharp grinning teeth, chasing people around making them cry and flashing bright lights etc... It was all very silly, too. I think we're going to like this series. Weird stuff, very little 'gore', lots of humor. That is one of the reasons I sat down and started making the icosahedron 'soccer ball' instead of just hanging out on Facebook playing games. I felt the geek rising in me and wanted to do something 'real' or at least tangible with it :)

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Big Cardboard blocks at the library

We went to the library and played with the Reader Rabbit Toddler program again for a bit, and then Esme asked if she could play with the big cardboard blocks they have stacked up in the corner. We had a lot of fun with those, so much she didn't want to quit and I had to drag her back out to the car yelling 'get down come back blocks!' While she was playing with them she built tall towers, walls, 'stonehenges' on top of each other, paths and bridges until she ran out of blocks each time and had to start a new strategy. At one point she had built a bridge out of all the blocks and drug a chair up to the structure and got up on top of the chair. I said 'NO you don't - those blocks won't support you.' She was going to walk across them! I told her she was 'too heavy' and she took that pretty well considering the amount of work she had done in preparation! Then she started building walls and hiding behind them again. After two warnings to pick up put away (she had been at it for nearly a half hour) I drug her out to the car where Mark was reading his book - and went back in to pick up put away myself. They had absolutely no chemistry books worth reading in either the regular nonfiction or the book sale :( They did give me a tip where the Murray students sell their old texts though... if we ever get up there.

Now she is watching Muppets season one with Daddy and eating grapes. She really likes her fishes book, a Golden Guide - she says 'fish fly!' In lots of pictures in there, they do.

We bought more ravioli at the store today, among other things. I've convinced her into banana pudding and chicken followed by a plate of grapes.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Horse draws with the marker

It's been slow since we went to the fair - I've had some long slow days at work and Esme has been asleep twice when I came home from work. We've been 'tagteaming' her a bit changing her in the middle of the night to ensure less wet bedsheets in the morning. We've all reaped some benefit by getting a longer sleep for her in the morning. Last night she was rollerskating in the kitchen and I really wished I could have gotten a few photos - but she didn't want me to leave and it wasn't that important. She is getting really good for having them on only once in a while. She has impressed us by bending down and picking things up off the floor without falling over and gliding along at speed by pulling on the table. Most of her 'skating' is just moving one foot in front of the other across the floor slowly with a giant 'I can DO this' grin on her face. She has fallen over some and we've worked to teach her to get to something she can pull on or try to right her feet by herself. If she can't right herself I'll go and help if she is far away, or have her edge over to me if I am right there and give her a hand to pull on.

I did get some photos tonight of a little fun.
These are some shots of Esme 'giving' her toy horse a marker to 'draw with.'
Melita (a friend on FB with a little boy six months older than Esme) noted she is drawing with her left hand. She is kind of ambidextrous, like I am. That makes the pictures here with the 'handing over' from right to left even cooler ;)








Then the horse 'draws' on the paper.
It was drawing 'grass' and 'bugs' for a cow toy she had given me. The cow 'ate' the drawn grass and 'bugs' which were lines and dots. The spirals are attempts at flowers and snails. I drew her some flowers and a puppy with a drink cup as well.


Then she pats it on the head and says 'good boy horse you DRAW, it pretty!'


Esme ate an ENTIRE can of ravioli to herself today - Mark winced in pain at the thought of it. And she begged me for more when I got home! We were having a lot of fun building with blocks as well, and a lot of simple fun :) Esme even got Daddy to participate. 'Daddy TRY!' So Daddy would try to put a block on top of a very wavering tower. Then, 'Mumum TRY. Esme TRY. I did it! I did it!' and 'It fall down.' and she would try to hide behind this tiny tower of blocks and jump out and say 'boo!'. 'I hide! I hide! BOO Daddy! Boo Mumum!' etc... She's eating applesauce and drinking juice now. She wanted more ravioli but I told her if she had ravioli again she would need to go to BED right afterwards but if we saved the ravioli for another day she have applesauce and could watch another show before going to bed.

A few other pictures:


concentrating while drawing with the right hand (before the horse decided to draw).


saying 'aaaaahhhhh they fall down!' at the screen when two cartoon characters fell off a cliff.

Friday, August 13, 2010

county fair 2010

We had Esme out to the county fair this year! She loved it - and they let her ride the rides again this time (last time they didn't (last August), time before that they did (April 2009?). She was so very very happy about the strawberry ride and the carousel and went on the rocky boat with me as well. She did not want to get off any ride when it was done, kept saying 'this is fun, whee ride MORE whee!' etc ... The carousel had 'pretty white horsies go RIDE'

She wanted to go on the big slide but we ran out of tickets.

She got a frog balloon and a stuffed cow toy, saw real cows, goats and sheep. We didn't take any pictures but she had a blast.

LONG RANT : Esme's stories, interests and etc...

I was talking to someone at work the other day about Esme watching Muppet Show and singing along with actors this coworker had never heard of (Danny Kaye, Lou Rawls, laughing at Don Knotts and Milton Burl etc..) and making up elaborate stories with her toys and blocks etc.... She said something to the effect of 'why would you do that to a child her age?' I asked 'What?' She said: show them something that OLD like that! like it was 'normal' tv, and not let them watch Dora and the Wiggles and Yo Gabba Gabba... things other kids their AGE will watch. She won't be able to RELATE to any of her peers in school! She also went into all of those electronic toys (Dora dolls etc) she is apparently missing out on being a 'normal' kid of her 'day and age' etc.. because I tend to like non-electronic toys and we don't watch 'modern' children's programming.

uh huh...*as if that will make her a weirdo?* really now...

And there was a discussion on a board I saw about parents who would like other parents to stop actually teaching their children 'boring' things other kids their age 'wouldn't know' and instead let them watch Nick and listen only to popular music and 'nursery rhymes' (no classical or even stuff we like) and then they would end up normal. This mom believed kids under five wouldn't ever ask questions about anything in a BOOK or about anything not shown on a children's television show etc...and anything else would be pushing a child to learn things 'above' them.

uh huh... again.

There is some to 'growing up different' that these people are talking about... but everybody grows up differently, and parents can't try to be something they are not just to 'be normal.' Mark and I are geeks, and we kind of like it that way ;) Esme will come to some of that by proxy and everything else by her own interests.

I try to follow her interests. If she is interested in 'tick tocks' (clocks) I read her the numbers. If she likes colors lately I will let her pick out her clothes and say 'oh you want the PURPLE shorts, they're pretty' etc and then let her pick out fabric at the store the same way... When she started to play with the money in my wallet I made her play money and told her what each piece was. Now she asks me for a 'quarter' or a 'dollar' at the store etc... If I am making a quilt with hexagons, I tell her what they are and am prouder than punch when she brings me the hexagon out of her shape puzzle. She always makes connections I don't expect - and I find them cool. She did that before she could talk as a way of communicating with us, and they are only getting more interesting now that she can talk better.

She also likes her letters and numbers - has been very interested in the idea for a long time when she would see them in books, on signs, at the supermarket and on Electric Company. She traces her fingers over some letters and sometimes says them out loud - but she really isn't a performer just because we ask her to etc.. She is often VERY stubborn about showing what she knows to anybody (I remember hearing 'NO 5, NO 8' etc.. when she saw them drawn out and then she would erase them angrily and tell me what she DID want me to draw. _I_ didn't think she knew those numbers, which is why I drew them on there to see... and hey, she knew them.. and wasn't amused!

I also used to get begged daily to go to Starfall.com but she has mostly outgrown that now. She does want me to open my wordprocessor so she can play with it quite a bit lately. And just try to put away the PAIRS in PEARS game once she has begged it out onto the table.. or telling her I don't want to play MEMORY for the fifth time today etc...so instead her kitty toy begins to eat the cards and she finds all the food cards and shares the food with her dolls etc...

If Mama is reading about it or she finds a picture of it - she wants to know what it is, even if she can't pronounce it or have any way to understand it right now. She wants to be involved. She will open magazines, and textbooks and anything she can find - sometimes it is just to get attention and other times because she really truly likes what she sees (our atlas, for example, or the science book with all the diagrams).

She goes through her collections and asks me to identify all the fruit, or all the colors of something, or all her shape cards. She will take something away too, and play keepaway not letting me see the card - and still expect me to answer *hate that*. She loves to match pairs of things and thinks it is cool and funny to find two of something. She is creative and likes to make up stories so she can have fun with us. She will ask me to draw aliens and bears on the magnadoodle and dress them in hats on every 'head' and boots on every 'foot'. Her animals and dolls have interesting busy lives doing things sometimes I have NO idea what it is etc... Tonight her new cow toy had to meet every single other toy and say it was a cow. I didn't understand much more of it but Daddy was pretty sure that was the gist of it.

She would ALSO love electronic toys that make lots of noise like any other kid her age.. but for how long? Would she get bored quickly when they just say the same thing every time you push the foot or hand? And those bother Mark's ears after a bit, so it becomes more about getting a reaction out of the noise than it is about playing with the toy.

She does watch a lot of TV, compared to the 'reccommendations'... but we don't sit her in front of it all day, either. We play TV during and after mealtimes for a bit. She has quite a few shows she really likes, and usually it is something we like or at least tolerate. We have no broadcast TV, all DVDs. We rented Yo Gabba Gabba once on Netflix, she HATED it. She cried NO NO,NO. I asked her if I should put it back on the next day and she again cried NO. She likes things with long storylines best, like Pixar films or cat/dog movies. She does like Shaun the Sheep a lot.

As for music, Mark listens to hip hop and 60s and 70s and Beatles and Zappa etc... mostly when I am at work. I put on the classical and the folk music and jazz, and enjoy some of what Mark does as well. He says he has a copy of Beethoven's Ninth besides the one I have - and he guards it heavily so it will never be scratched! Esme has her own tastes as well. She doesn't like some of the music that we really like, but we give her a chance to listen to a lot for someone her age. Sometimes she surprises us like when she dances 'mosh' to Digital Underground's 'All around the world' with Mark or when she talked to the 'Ode to Joy' the other day like it was a phone conversation ??

In most every way she is completely and utterly a two year old - running and screaming and spinning around in circles and loving the carousel at the fair, playing with cats and dogs and in mud puddles and throwing tantrums over potty training or not getting a lollipop etc... and to us everything else she does is perfectly normal, too. And I'm not going to stop listening to what she wants to do (letters, reading, asking me hard things) because a few people at my work are uncertain if it is possible for a three year old to know who Don Knotts is or read off the letters in the breakroom signs to me and say 'YEA THAT's RIGHT' etc.. They've either never had kids, or never had curious ones ;)

I think the basic thing is she knows what she wants and we listen to her - she has a good memory and a curious streak and isn't afraid to show it when she wants to. AND, she hasn't been made to think she is 'bothering' us every minute of the day by showing it. Sometimes I feel that is what my sister and sister-in-law have beat into their kids - leave me alone and stop asking questions, stop wondering, stop imagining, be quiet etc.... I don't want to do that to Esme - I want her to be able to think and express and ask away - even though sometimes I will have to say 'wait a minute' or 'after X' or 'let mama finish typing this' etc.... She is getting better at that, too...

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Quotes and bits from today

Esme: 'bye bye poop - have a good day! FLUSH.'

me: 'it's an octopus, it can sing if it wants to. It's a trick for an octopus to sing, enjoy it!' (Daddy made balloon animals and one of them was an octopus)

Esme: 'Miss Piggy YOU THE ONE!' (singing along with Lou Rawls on the Muppet Show)

There was lots about the headphones when I put them on her later - she was talking to Beethoven's Ninth thinking it was someone on the phone - where they start singing Hallelujah etc... and telling them about the color of her shirt etc and wondering why they didn't talk back. Then when the next just music came on she kept telling me it was pretty and taking it off and putting it back on her ears etc..

Esme: 'it's a coseeheedon (icosohedron), PRETTY' Mark: what? what was that? Me: It was labeled on Makezine, so I read it to her!' We were looking at hexagons and pentagons last night in a craft pattern and she really liked that - so when I saw the 'platonic solids done in beads' on Makezine I made sure to show her those, too.

Esme: 'oooooo it's play a TOY!' (seeing me looking through playmobil stuff on Ebay)

Esme: 'bear you go to TOWN, purple boots, you are ready, you go truck go TOWN. (seconds later) BEAR YOU HOME! Off shoe. No No No. on boot *cry frustrate / bring to mom* On brown shoe BEAR! on BOOT, purple boot. etc etc..' <-- we take off our shoes when we get home, and then she was mad because she wanted them back on the bear. Her shoes are 'brown shoe', the bear's shoes are purple boots I made.

Daddy telling her we will go to the fair and see colored lights and ride a ferris wheel. She was really happy about that - and then we looked at the weather forecast and thought we would go tomorrow. Then she was very unhappy about it. I told her we could go for a walk instead and we ended up at Grandma's again.

NOTES Ninja cat and Iggy dog were spayed today. It worked out pretty well and they are resting nicely. We had to think back some - Ninja was probably born around July of 2009, Iggy was probably born in May of 2009 (we got her in June). Looking at all the old pictures on the blog trying to figure this out (ninja was hard as her birth was not on the blog but a previous litter was... ) caught photos of Esme with a pacifier in her mouth just over a year ago. She has grown so much since then it is hard to believe.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Bear and thread spools




Esme had me drawing a bear on her magnadoodle and dressing him up in shirt and pants and shoes and a hat. So, I sat down and made her this bear out of some pieces of felt. I will think about making some clothes for him so she can dress him.

It was very cute she kept coming over to see if he was done - knew he was a bear as soon as she saw the head cut out etc... Now they are stacking thread spools together.

paper dolls and paper kitty




something I made the other night ... simple freehand cutting and I could do a lot better with an exacto knife and some more care. Esme is outside playing with Daddy and the garden hose, watering the roof of the house and filling the dog dishes and washing out the cat carrier. Ninja kitty goes to the vet tomorrow to be spayed.

NOTE: Esme was noticing more numbers today and thinks that doubled numbers are funny, apparently. She read '9 9' off our fast food slip today and was thinking that was funny with two nines. She also read 8-1-1 (date) off of my watch and said that the two one's were also funny. She had a great time at my workplace this morning with Daddy showing all of my coworkers the mud she had gotten on her hand and the duck pattern on her pants. In the store we bought her a new pillow and she put it across the top of the cart in her lap and put her head down and pretended to sleep. She is now taking a two hour nap and I should wake her up and see what she wants for dinner.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

dollhouse card antics and ketchup



Esme's usual dolly family that she plays with. They are a little more worn and dirty than when we bought them. There are several other members of the family, another girl, a baby, a grandma and a grandpa. They are not all from the same 'set' originally. There is also a kitty hairclip that Grandma Irene gave her - and that is the kitty of the family. ;)


Showing her reflection (in the back of my printer casing) the ketchup on her finger.



Almost evil look as she shows it to me and the camera. Yikes!


They all like to play in the memory game cards in this box from the fruit set.


This is the kitty welcoming the Mama 'HOME' from work and giving her licks like a puppy.... *haha*

NOTE: I gave in to the clearance rack last night and bought this blue shirt for two bucks... she really likes it!

Monday, August 09, 2010

Minor nose catastrophe


The nose in question


Minor nose catastrophe yesterday morning as I was serving Esme her breakfast. I set it on the table, she took three bites and ran off after a cat. As I was calling 'Esme - come back and eat your breakfast!' I hear TH-THUMP TH-THUMP at the bottom of the stairs. Somehow she managed to skin her nose falling after the cat there. She cried - and I carried her to her chair and set her in front of her breakfast. Then she stopped crying and asked for a 'zebra cake' sweet. I told her no, and she pretended to cry again and then ran back after the cat. *sigh*... the nose took a few hours to 'develop' while I was at work - but it looks like it will be all better in a few days, unless she bumps it again somewhere.

This morning she was having swing rides for her dollhouse girls on a leash hanging on the wall for the dog. One doll was swinging and saying 'this is fun! push!' and the other girl was 'pushing' and/or riding as well and saying 'we're going to fall AHHHHHHH' then they had a fight over whose 'mine' the swing was, and one girl fell. I told them to play nicely on the swing *roll eyes* and they did for a few more minutes. Sometimes she cracks me up with the things she comes up with.

Saturday, August 07, 2010

Saturday night and 33 months update

Home from work and back early tomorrow. The sewing machine is now doing the opposite problem it was doing a week ago... and it is just too hot lately to mess much with it. I might drag myself over there to disassemble it and try to squirrel out the problem a bit later... I might not. I was handsewing the hexagons during a movie last night just for something easy to do that would not be something I would normally do with a machine. And I saw non foursquare hexagons on somebody's blog after finishing the wall around Eden by Joan Slonczewski, which has hexagonal fields and 'eyeglasses' and other hexagonal things.

I scored a light canvas weight curtain display the other day I am making some more hexagons out of, and would like to dig in my fabric for a light weight red canvas or medium weight cotton... I'm sure there is something in there just have to find where it is.

This morning before I went to work I printed out a lot of label words for Esme's teaset, fruitstand and sandwich toys and a few of her animals. I taped them to colored cardstock and we had some fun with those before I had to go to work. I just wish I would have 'bold ideas' like that some more than an hour before I have to leave in my vehicle, so we don't have to put it away just as we are having fun.

Right now Esme is begging to play with the remote control car but Daddy and I have told her it is asleep. In another year she won't believe us when we say things are asleep and can't be played with, or that they live on the toy store shelf so they have to go back with the others etc... but we're enjoying those 'fibs' while they last.


Some development notes: We measured Esme at 36 inches tall the other day. We haven't weighed her in a good while - but Grandma said she was over 30 lbs when she played on the scale at her house months ago. I'm sure she has gained weight since then. She is very solid, not spindly - and she has MUSCLES in her arms when she tries to pick up something big it is impressive. She is in a size 9-10 toddler shoe and I am still using 3-4 sewing patterns for her. She knows all of her alphabet letters (individually, still won't sing the song) and most of her numerals and all the 'regular' colors blue, red, orange, yellow (has trouble saying), purple, white, brown, green, black, pink. I haven't tried hard to teach her anything like gray or turquoise 'fancy' colors. I have heard her singing along with some CD songs in the car and the Muppet Show and Electric Company themes.

She walks around backwards for fun and swings on her swing by herself, hanging on tight (cross fingers). She swims well wearing her floatee life jacket. Most of the time she loves to tell pretend play stories with her animals and plastic dolls and their cars, dollhouse and etc.. We get attacked by fanged walruses and dinosaurs wanting lettuce sandwiches and sometimes her plastic dolls have a grape-stomping party in the crayon box where they all jump up and down and then pretend to eat the crayons. I have no idea what that is about, but it does make me laugh. I get stories about mama and daddy and little girl dolls going to town and to work, and to find grandma and grandpa dolls and plastic dogs and cats etc etc.. they have a very busy schedule, these dollhouse dolls. She also loves to draw with crayons and serve pretend food and stack towers and line up patterns of blocks on the floor.

She really knows what is going on in her shows now - and makes commentary like 'bye alien have a good day!' when the alien takes off in his ship. We often hear 'poor sheep' or 'poor dog' when she thinks someone has reason to be sad or is in pain/trouble on a tv show. She also tells the tv characters (like mama mouse in secret of nimh) that they do a good job when they accomplish something big. Her memory is still outstanding, remembering things about tv shows and town trips and other things that I have to think hard about. Her language has gotten so much better. She can say full sentences most everyone understands but sometimes I still need to translate some of her words, especially those with 'l' or 'm' in them or when she runs them together oddly (usual for her age!). An example is 'This (is) a purple sticker with EYES Daddy, it funny.' etc... She had gotten a purple silly face sticker from the lady at the bank and even I had to look back and realize she was saying 'with EYES' because it didn't seem to go with the sentence at first and it sounded like one word. Still calling me 'mumum' which I think she finds easier to say even than 'mama.'

Mark adds: We'll forget these things if we don't write them down - like the fact that she was ever such a good girl.. haha.. when she is crashing cars at age ten and blowing up the chemistry lab etc etc... Today while I was at work he was brought a pear and a pink pig and asked if the pink pig can eat the pear. He was also attacked by the walrus today and licked as if it was a puppy. Also at 7:15 he asked Esme to pick up all her toys so they would be 'pick up put away' when Mama got home from work. She did that - and then waited for me at the door expectantly, as if it would cause me to appear! I didn't actually get home until 7:45, and she got sad somewhere in there... but was happy when I got home and we immediately went for drink cups in the kitchen.

Friday, August 06, 2010

Little hexie hexagons



fun to make


Mark likes the little 'spaceship'. That is a scrap from Esme's 'airport' fabric shorts.

Flotsam and Jetsam Friday

When we were out buying groceries today the cashier asked if Esme was going to school this year. *blink* I think she meant preschool. But I asked her why she asked that and she said she thought Esme was older than she was. We weren't buying any school supplies, either - just food and household things (it's school supply time). Esme really has gotten tall lately, which is part of it. I think she is just going to be as tall as her daddy, perhaps, which would be tall for a girl! She was so happy she got an orange she was talking the cashier up about it and reading something off the produce sticker on it (a few letters I think). That might have been part of it, too. She is getting easier to understand and sounds older now because she is talking clearly.

She was drawing with her marker today and I was typing a letter to my mom to go with a set of photos I had printed. Esme and I traded places. I let her play on the word processor (with the size up to 72 so she could type and see big letters) - and I went to sit on the bed and read the letter for changes. Somewhere during that time I was handed back the pink marker, capped, and asked to put it away. ?? I came back to my computer and there is a little pink circle drawn in the bottom left hand corner of the LCD screen. I should have asked her about that - but I think she was already off to other things and it was washable. Sheesh! I really have to be more careful with leaving her unsupervised with those - and just be glad she was a good girl. Maybe I'll find something else later, though. HA.

Mark is downstairs frying up the chicken to freeze again. Esme is watching 'Secret of NIMH' and telling the mama mouse she did a good job making the 'box' fly (the cinder block that was their house). I hope she naps soon! We did a few things in town today that have needed doing for a while - oil change was a big one.

Thursday, August 05, 2010

Ivy

clothes washing and drying, rice made for work tonight, I've been craving rice lately, with salty soy sauce and an egg on the side. Esme is watching her doggie kitty movie and Mark is at the post office. I keep telling Esme that tomorrow is our town day, not today... but she won't believe me. She has a town shirt and shoes on and is sitting by the door watching her movie waiting for Daddy to come back.

She has emptied her memory game onto the bed and is playing with a kitty hair clip pretending it is eating the cards and jumping up and down in them. She has been inordinately loud and prone to running around the house singing 'babababababababa' at the top of her lungs the past few days. It has been too hot to go outside and she just has too much energy to wear off.

I have an English ivy plant that I have kept since my first college year in Fargo, ND. That was about ten years ago now. It was lonely and spindly on a clearance shelf in front of the supermarket bank I deposited my Michaels paychecks in. I felt sorry for it and brought it home to my dorm room. This is actually a 'clone' of the original, a cutting taken and given to Mark months before I decided to move here with him. He surprised me with it after I moved in and we bought a pretty pot to put it in together.

It decided to take a turn for the worst a few weeks ago - and dried up nearly entirely. All of the leaves had gotten sticky and began to wither. I did save another cutting off of it before it finished drying up - and that cutting seems to be doing well in the laundry room but has not yet taken root. I couldn't bring myself to throw away the rest of the plant yet. Last night while I was bathing Esme it sort of sparked my memory in a weird way, almost as if the plant had spoke. I remembered a picture of cutting back another ivy to the woody bits and it regenerating weeks later. It was worth a try and I did that last night after Esme went to sleep. I hope it will work!

The other day Esme spilled a glass of orange juice in her room - dousing several of the stuffed animals. Two of them are in the washer, but her pink rabbit music box I worried about washing that way. We gave it a 'bath' in the bathtub with shampoo. Esme said the bunny was 'peeing' after that .... so we pretended it would pee in the potty and she got to tell the bunny it did a good job using the potty chair. Then I had to convince her putting it in the dyer 'just like Mr.Frog' would be just fine. She is in there with some clothes drying and I hope she will be alright. My mother sent that to her when she was born. She didn't really take to it until a year ago and especially since she has had her big girl bed. She will play 'catch' with her, turning her music box on and throwing her through the skylight of her car bed over and over 'fly bunny! good bunny rabbit!'

Also: last night Esme crashed asleep without her Mr.Frog or her Doddi Bear on the bed with her, and even without the blanket she was given by Miss Leilani at work. In the middle of the night (3 am I think) she is standing right beside me with the blanket in her hand 'tuck in PLEEASE?' It was remarkably, unbelievably cute. She did get right in her bed, cover her toes with the blanket and ask for all her animals... then right to sleep again. Mark says she has 'infrastructure' now ;)

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Butterflies and more






On my way home I saw a bunch of butterflies on this one plant. I see them there often, but not so many. When I see them I always think how wonderful it would be to photograph them - or have Mark use his camera to photograph them. It was nearly sunset, but as soon as I got in the driveway I asked Mark if he would be apt for a short side trip back with the camera. He got five beautiful photos. The plant is 'joe pye weed' and the butterflies are tiger swallowtails (mostly). The butterflies, bees and wasps seem to think this plant is wonderful.

My sales today were 1/4 of my entire sales for last month. In ONE day. And they told me I had hit top 3 last month in the region... so WOW, guess everyone was having it hard. And this feels like a nice turnaround. I was BUSY today though, at least had some reliable help for most of the day. That was different than Monday, which was also a quite busy day. I work late tomorrow and off Friday.

Sunday, August 01, 2010

Esme's piggy story

This is Esme's story she told me about the piggies. Remember, she is two and a half, so it is very simple. She actually told me this story in the bathtub - so it made more sense there! We had just been swimming earlier and the pigs have been part of our bath toys for a while because they float in the bubbles. I've recreated the background and everything on this table to make nice pictures. The story was just so sweet and I got the great idea when I remembered we had a toy fish in our toybox! In the bathtub one side of the tub was 'work' and the other side was where the baby got stuck on a ledge. The fishy was a hand coming up and eating the pig inside a soap box, which was the piggies 'house where they swim.'

The piggies are a mama and a baby. They live in this house. These piggies swim in and around their house. Swim, swim, swim piggies.


Mama and baby pig in house



The Mama pig swam to work. Baby pig said 'bye bye mama have good day!'



A big fish saw the baby pig and came up to say hello.



The fish went AWMP and swallowed the little pig. It cried HELP HELP! The mama pig saw and heard. She came home. You are HOME Mama Piggy.



The fish saw the mama pig calling 'Baby pig where are you?' She was crying because she could not find her baby pig. I guess the big fish felt bad for the mama pig, because it spit the baby pig back up.



The baby pig was alright! It yelled to the mama pig it was 'alright mama pig'. Then it swam to shore. It had trouble swimming very far. The big fish went away. Go away big fish!



On the way back to his house the baby pig fell in a hole. He could see Mama pig but he could not get out. He called again: 'Help! Help Mama piggy! I'm STUCK!'



Mama pig swam to where the baby pig was.



They walked back home.



The mama and the baby pig got home and ate pie.
(in the bathtub it was bubbles)