45 months

This was a big month for Esme. 40 inches tall now. She has learned how to put on her pants without help most of the time. She has not learned the shirts - but I have not been stressing it. We haven't used a diaper in over a week - although we have changed a few sheets, mostly on our own bed when she was napping. She is making some progress on tooth brushing. She can fill her own sports bottle drink cup with water at the sink but not get juice into the opening without making a mess. It seems, at times, that she can almost read some words - ones in places she would not have known by memorizing that situation - but instead has memorized what the word looks like and knows it even when seeing it in a new place. She is using her computer with ease now, and has learned to spell a few words on her word processor - cat, mom, esme and maggie. She paints bright abstracts all over her screen and can open the last one she was in and continue from it. She has learned how to transmit her photo gallery from her computer to her paint program and try to trace over them or make other additions to the pictures. She just put a green mustache on her picture of Beethoven that was in there. She's a 'natural.' She also seems to have figured out the 'undo' key to erase her changes and make new ones. She likes to try to play my Sims game and overflow the entire yard with armchairs. We had some discussion about naming characters something other than 'boy' or 'girl' or 'friend' or 'lady'. She decided to name the little boy Bob and the little girl Maggie. The lady she wanted to name 'Chair' because she likes chairs... we settled on 'Sherry', then 'Harry' for the man instead of 'Friend Man'.

She does still scream bloody murder to have her hair washed, and hyperventilate if anything except a toy falls into the bathtub whether we are in it or not. She loves to swing on the swing Mark made for her last year. She sings the Tweety Bird song sometimes lately - 'I'm a sweet little bird in a gilded cage, Tweety's my name but I don't know my age. I don't have to worry and that's a fact, I'm safe in here from that bad Putty Tat.' She also sings the Simpsons theme. She has also learned to twist herself up on the swing and let it spin her. She calls this 'ride the dog.' I have no idea why! She still calls piggyback rides 'ride the turtle'. She pretends she is Homer Simpson or Maggie Simpson, complete with personal habits like Maggie trying to walk then falling down on her knees or Homer patting his belly and stomping around. She has also picked up the little 'Marge' habit of growling 'rrrrrr' when she is upset about something, Mama not playing, having to put on shoes etc etc...