Do your kids play with toys? (forum)

There was a forum post asking if and how our kids played with toys still, and at what age etc. There is a wide array of responses - from 'never, s/he wants to be with me all day' to 'anything is a toy! who needs toys?' etc. Esme falls closer to the latter end of that spectrum. She loves her toys - but anything can be a toy. The original poster (op) did not consider board games, puzzles or workbooks toys, but more educational materials.

my response: (posted here for keeps)

Esme plays with her toys, mostly figures of people/animals, blocks, play food etc... But I have to say - board games are a BIG favorite as well - definitely toys - she makes anything a toy! Letter tiles and "Memory" cards and handmade shapes/counting tokens/ paper dolls & animals are often a HUGE part of her day. Chess pieces get yelled at for sitting on each other's heads and 'making go ow - get off - good boy horse(knight)'. She personifies a lot of whatever becomes a toy, as well, it has feelings and goals and needs etc.

There is a lot of imaginary play, as well -- with imaginary mice and birds from her 'Cinderella' pretends. She really likes to pretend to have little imaginary friends like that to feed and protect. The other day a 'bunny rabbit' travelled with us to town and had to eat carrots along the way.

And then there are also the 'made-up' toys she spends half the day with - balloons on strings can be dogs on leashes or 'catch a big fish', gears from K'nex on sticks stuck in paper-towel tubes, the light stick in the test tube (still a fave), five superballs and four dice in a bucket... carabiners and plastic chain and paper towel tubes and a mail crate etc. She makes a lot of her own fun during the day - and some of it we never do understand. One day I got rug tiles on clearance (just a few) and she was hopping back and forth between them for more than a half hour, counting 'approximately' under her breath 'this a one, and that a one, and two, and three, and that one'.

So - I answered 'yes' because she will play with anything, toys included. But, she has such a wide idea of what is a toy.

Cylinder blocks last night were mumums and daddys and a baby all learning to use the potty.... and she told me all about how the baby would get a lollipop and go tell the mommy and daddy YAY it used the potty and one of them would open the lollipop and the baby would be happy. But all that was a pretend game for her, more about the roles than the figures.

And she still loves her pear letter toy - and an "Upwords" game we got at a garage sale etc... those are 'fun' for her, and maybe wouldn't be for other kids. She called the "Upwords" board 'dog's letter pit' and laughed at herself about it. She read the word 'moon' last night, which I didn't know she knew... and I keep discovering new words she knows because she wants to play with those toys. The rules of 'pick up put away' for each game is part of her fun, too... which I know is not usual. When she is ready to put it away that is a big part of the process of having gotten to play with it at all.

Pre-Thanksgiving Rites of Passage

ie: the braving of the supermarket the day before a major holiday.... We had to go to the store today to get an apple pie, and a few other things to bring to Grandma's house for Thanksgiving tomorrow. It was a madhouse - more people than ever, and we skipped a few things because of the crowd. We were early in the crowd, though - if we had went after five it would have been much worse.

I want to apologize and say thank you to the lady who recognized us from the blog in the bakery section. It must have been Esme's shirt - the same one in a recent photo. I was too speechless to say much - can't even remember what I really did say. Thanks for reading, I hope you like it. Mark said: 'You're famous!'. *yeep* I knew I was prolific, but it's odd to be recognized because we're just 'regular folks' who have a blog, and post a lot :)

Also, this is the second time during the afternoon rushes the lady at the fabric table has walked away as soon as I made my choice to be cut. I know it's lunchtime - but I think it is deliberate. Mark said this was definitely 'oh no she picked something - have to escape!' attitude. He was watching from across the aisle. I wish there was more choice of places to buy fabric near here -- but there isn't, unless you want to make a day of it and take a trip to a nearby city just for fabric. Esme had asked me to make her a pink sitting chair like one on display. I didn't get worked up and make someone else come over - just left and did our groceries. I probably have enough of something (or two or three somethings) to try out a pattern for her for Christmas.

She also got a different purple nail polish. If she doesn't ask for it soon I'll keep it as a Christmas bit. She proved to me today she could count to twelve. She counted the pop dispenser tabs at a fast food last week (up to nine) and demanded to count them at a different place today. I didn't think she would make it past ten... and was impressed personally when she did. Yay Esme :) She likes to keep this kind of knowledge to herself until the opportunity arises to share it.

I was putting away her 'baby toys' this morning in the high place in the closet and she knew what I was doing. She pulled out several things she didn't want to leave - some doll bottles and a few plastic screws. The rest of it she didn't mind. I'm trying to pare down the array of 'stuff' that gets scattered around the house. She doesn't have a huge amount of toys like some kids, but what she does she scatters far and wide!

She's watching 'The Fox and the Hound' now, and enjoying it. Ninja cat is sleeping next to her begging for attention. Ninja has been needy and nosy and playful today....

More future reference pattern: Simplicity 5169 from 1972, gathered dirndl style dress -- I couldn't find one in Esme's size, maybe I can at a later date (or she'll grow hahaha and I'll find one in her size then)

P/T update

When I'm home the P/T is having some effects, and some successes. We had a few more wet pairs of pants, and a messy pair that made her very upset (hard to deal with - but I think we managed okay - baby wipes are now double-storaged in bathroom and by changing table). It will take a good long while, though, I fear. I have to keep changing up the treats/consequences for her to continue to listen and cooperate. One that worked the other night (when nothing else would) was 'I'll call Grandma and tell her you are a bad girl.' WHOOSH - she ran past me into the bathroom and did the deed, then didn't want the lollipop - she wanted to call Grandma and say she was a GOOD girl, just in case Grandma had somehow heard the 'bad girl' from way down here... She was quite worried, and happy when we visited Grandma a bit later and she was told she was good ;)

I've got this morning, then work - and then two days off (day before and day of Thanksgiving) then back to work again. Mark says he sees a little difference when I'm gone to work as well --- Esme doesn't drink large amounts at one sitting now. But, she isn't asking him to potty yet.

Further update: Some non-messy shorts. YAY. We're telling her we are proud of her and she is cooperating more once we get there, but less willing to actually come with me willingly when needed... so I pick her up and carry/drag her. But I'll take what cooperation I can get and keep encouraging the good parts (and log carrying there if needed).

In other news: pink tutu dress (the one she asked me to make "shirt in the pink", AND she drug out of her dresser the other day), purple ribbon scraps being asked to put in hair, begging for purple finger and toenail polish , begging for Cinderella TWICE yesterday, asking Daddy to buy her a pair of pink butterfly wing halloween costume on clearance (which he did).... we might be raising a more girly girl than we ever thought was possible for us. *haha* But the other day she was 'air lifting' her Little Pony dolls (she found at a rummage sale) with a pair of plastic pliers... fly pony, fly!

80s hair yarn chick

Just a photo Mark took this morning before I got Esme ready to go see her Grandma. Her hair was loosely tied up for sleeping after a bath last night - and she asked me to tie this tiny piece of purple ribbon in it this morning. Then she was interested in my knitting project and wanted to 'help' and 'Esme do.' Those are several pieces of a Halloween light stick necklace.

She is wearing her 'birthday' shirt with the Cliffords on it.


I ordered the above patterns from an Etsy seller. They were both in Esme's current size and I had a little Squidoo money come in which made me go looking... very nice buy and I will look forward to them. The side pleats on the blue dress skirt are interesting and the coat of the other pattern looks quite a bit like McCalls 8001 (see below), which I was really enchanted by temporarily on Ebay (but not at the price they wanted). And there was also Simplicity 7228, which I REALLY like the styling of the yoke on (tried to alter a raglan like this once and failed -- I see why now in the sleeve on the package picture), but again - I got both of those patterns above and shipped for less than they wanted for either of the others.... pretty nice. I'm definitely not lacking in projects right now... more so in time - but it is nice to have something really tempting ready to set hands to. Esme is doing fairly well with most of her fall clothing -- I still did not finish the wool jacket that was cut out --- maybe a heavy cotton one would be more fitting for her.

For future reference only:

details from Simplicity 7228 I liked
update: I caved on this one when I found it for cheap in size 4.
It's coming next week!


details from McCalls 8001 I liked

Sunday tumbled in

and I was up very early with a headache. Que cera. I was thinking in the bathtub and came to the idea that maybe Esme will be MORE ready for Kindergarten when she is six, than the other children.. and maybe that isn't such a bad thing. She has such a happy-go-lucky sweet attitude (at least now, that could change by then, too), that she will probably be thrilled to see other kids and use the material she already knows to be the one with her hand always up, always ready to do something NEW if perchance it does come along etc etc... And that in that time she does need to learn a few other very important skills that are not set yet for her -- how to follow rules, how to be nice to other kids (not a lot of opportunity right now), less argumentative about things she doesn't want to do, P/T (of course, and away from home will be different than at home), self-help in putting on jackets, shoes a bit more, eating her lunch and maybe not always 'fun' food away from home etc... There are a lot of things about K that will be new and challenging for her. There will be TOYS she has never seen - kids to play with them with her, new puzzles and ideas and things like Dora and Elmo she has never seen but I know other kids would love to fill her in on etc etc.... So - hold back mama... it isn't all gloom and doom....

There are a few kids on Esme's forum that have very different personalities. One is a year older than her and very emotional. She has been in preschool for a year already, and gets almost 'depressed' when they ask her easy things. She comes home and cries to her mom that the teachers must think she is 'dumb' and that she doesn't want to go back because she knows there will never be anything new. This little girl is one of those I would call 'too smart for her own good..', in the real sense of the words. The other, older kids at the school tease her because she is a 'baby' and 'babies don't read'. She takes all of this so seriously to heart, and the poor girl sometimes comes home in tears. And her mama can cheer her up temporarily - but she really relies on her peers and of course, kids at that age are not kind... so... BUT. I don't think Esme is that kind of personality - I think she would find some other common ground with the other kids and make them forget that she is 'a baby.' I think she has such a strong 'happy' and 'sweet' mixed with a leadership 'come see the great things with me' that it will take some serious downtrodding to make her upset for more than a short period of time.

And another thing I wanted to touch on. I have found in the past few months a way to get Esme to cooperate with getting her hair washed... and now it also works on cleaning the grime out from under her fingernails (not sure if that one will last.) Mark REALLY likes movies (and I do also, but not so passionately). Esme watches bits of movies that probably would not be considered 'kid fare', but she does not watch them all the way through and tends to ignore all but the most harrowing and exciting bits. A good while back she watched bits of Men in Black, and Percy Jackson - and was asking me about both Medusa-like characters. I told her that is what happens when you don't wash your hair - it gets snakes and spiders and bugs in it. She does NOT like bugs - wants to 'make bug flat' with fly swatter when she sees one etc... and well, who can really truly blame her? There are worse things to be afraid of and at least she is 'active' in her fear (make bug FLAT, get rid of bug) and not up on a chair crying for me to get it away etc etc...

So.... I'm capitalizing on her sense of bug vengeance. When I wash her hair she calms right down if I remind her that I need to make sure no bugs or spiders want to live there -- and washing it makes sure of that, and doesn't take all that long.... you can survive this etc. And it works - she complains, but I don't have to hold her down like a football. And the other night she caught a tiny bit of 'The Matrix' where the scorpion like thing attacks Keanu Reaves and goes into his belly button. She was, for a moment, VERY scared and checked her own belly button and told the actor that he needed to get help that his belly button was hurt and he needed to look at it etc etc.. And I calmed her down by telling her he didn't wash it and if he did - the bug wouldn't want to be there. I told her that last night when I washed under her fingernails and "checked" her belly button (she is an outie so HAHA it really isn't an issue *rofl*) and pretended to clean it. She was all wide-eyed about that - oh yes, please make sure of that. And she cried terrible bloody murder about using the fingernail brush on her fingernails... until I told her I had to get that dirt out because bugs would like to live in there - and then she calmed down and made tiny 'ow' remarks but didn't twist and try to get away. They are tiny white lies, right? It works. Once she is old enough to understand a bit better I can translate 'bugs might want to live there so we need to keep it CLEAN and they won't' to germs or other reasons that she will understand better then. And she won't look like she just rolled out of a ditch (so often) when I take her to Grandma's or to town. **still haha because she is an outie and now she agrees she needs to keep her belly button clean**

Other things I need to work on with her - she has a very 'equal' sense of justice. She wants equal treatment for everything... which is good and bad in a way, because she can be a benevolent dictator! It is good and sweet because she tucks her toys and her kitten into bed with her 'tuck tuck tuck' into her blankets everyone together equally etc. She will share a bowl of leftover cereal milk spoon by spoon one to every animal in the room until it is all gone. Those are very sweet and almost sappy moments. It's bad when her sense of justice means she thinks she can tell us we are 'bad mumum' and 'bad daddy' for doing something she thinks she shouldn't do - like take her food/lollipops etc when they are getting cold/dirty/nosed by animals and she takes it as US ruining her good time. She tells me I am bad mumum for making her go get changed when she told me she didn't need to... IE: she can't drag me somewhere, why can I drag her there? Because I'm the MUMUM, that is why.... It hits me somewhere deep down that she has such a natural sense of 'If I can't do it why can YOU do it' that she waggles her little finger and tells us so etc... I love it, but I hate it in a way too... how do you explain inequality of privileges to a three year old? Why do I feel like I should? (yes I am the MUMUM, I do know better than she does, but she asks for PROOF and sometimes I would like to be able to explain... she is understanding so much more, she can actually 'get' some of these ideas now and once she does - things are so much easier.) Maybe I'm just a silly goose... It's in the back of my mind lately - maybe I'll click with some better answers.

The language has moved up one more small step. She is telling me things she did during the day and I am understanding what she means.. and that it was earlier.. even though she isn't using past tense. There were also a few 'I want' sentences tonight that were quite complicated compared to recent terms. She had 'babble lengths' in both of them - but I understood her. The first one was she wanted me to find milk and a spoon and put coffee and the milk in a yellow cup (one we have and I've done it before) so it would be the hot and she could drink it. She didn't drink it.. she played in it. But I was willing, and she was excited, and I drank my coffee and it wasn't a terrible waste. She drank a tiny bit, three times... and felt 'big and in the know.' She wanted to play 'wordworld' on pbskids and see 'the one the girl the sheep, the sheep the hat, the sheep wears the hat, that one, yea that one'.. (the game where the girl sheep wears a hat=Alphabet Falls game on the left hand side of this page). The other one was we had purple food coloring in the bathwater and she wanted me to 'make the purple toes'... so I was ?? for a few minutes thinking she meant the bathwater was MAKING her toes purple. Until, she said 'over there - the purple toes' pointing at the sink across the room and touched all of her toes one by one. She wanted the purple NAIL POLISH from the vanity sink back ledge... and the purple water was reminding her of it. So we did the purple toes ;) And she sat so still and was so good, and then ran off to show Daddy her purple toes.

It's Thursday somewhere

Yesterday Mark found Esme getting into all sort of forbidden things whenever she was quiet... network cards, cords, a knife in a sheath that she KNOWS she isn't supposed to touch.. but she didn't hurt herself and he got it put away from her again. AND - there were tiny clear footprints up about six feet in the air on the back of a glass tabletop where two monitors sit high up on his desk. She had climbed the back of the desk to get up standing behind the monitors, somehow - probably going after the green robot toy which is stored up there ... and it has not worked for a month or so. She is very sad because she wants to play with it and it does not work. How in the world did she get up there?

I am trying not to worry about schooling again, after a thread on Esme's forum about 'what the average K student knows upon entry.'Yes, she's barely three - and I'm trying to keep it in the back of my mind because of that. But, she will be six by the time they let her into K 'by the rules.' She will change, a lot, by then. She already has changed so much in this last year.

To know why I'm worried about that pdf.. start at the 'what most children know'... and then take a look at Esme's last update. And think she has three more years until she is eligible for kindergarten in our state. We may truly need to homeschool kindergarten and try to skip her a grade... or find something else more suited for her when the time arrives.

Ick dodging

I'm hoping to dodge the ick people at work seem to have - don't know how successful I'll be. The cold and wet weather is contributing to it. I was extremely tired at work yesterday and after getting home and eating dinner all together it wasn't much more than an hour before I told Esme I couldn't play anymore - too tired.. need to go to bed, at about eight o'clock. Mark put on Shaun the Sheep for Esme and we got her an extra plate of food and drink cup and put her in her room where she could see Shaun. She cooperated with the idea and went to sleep - and stayed asleep until 8 or so this morning, with some short 'is it morning?' jaunts between 4 and 6 when the animals were doing their raucous acts. I need the sleep - I needed even more, but feel better than yesterday.

This morning Mark left hot water (he takes vulcanian style baths) that was still toasty an hour later... Esme was still asleep when I snuck off. However, as I was washing my hair I turn around to see an Esme getting into the bathtub fully clothed. 'Esme take bath.' Very matter-of-fact. So I was peeling wet clothes and she thought that was very funny. She even let me wash and brush her hair... which is usually a tirade of screams, so I'm left wondering if SHE is coming down with something, too. I gave her a plate of warmed ravioli for her breakfast and she is now watching Looney Tunes she requested.

Her other new idea this morning was : 'Esme, are you a truck? BEEP BEEP.' She pretended to be me asking the question as well as her answering the question. She also said she was a baby kitty and her name was Suki and she said meow meow, and then asked Suki what she was doing upstairs (when she was really sitting by her chair). Very odd little imaginaries. I got imaginary baby mice handed to me during dinner last night - and I don't think she knows yet that I'm making her a family of mouse dolls for Christmas. Her sense of humor this morning is in high spirits - she thinks a LOT of things are funny.

Enpinkified

Yesterday while I was at work Esme found a pink marker, and she purposefully hid the fact from Daddy... She drew all over one arm, under her shirt all around her middle, up under her pantslegs, across one side of her face and even stuck the marker into both ears (nice little pink dots in each ear). *sigh* I saw her and thought she had gotten a terrible burn all over her arm! Mark said he found a pile of pinked baby wipes stuffed back in the baby wipe box near the changing table, and didn't find the marker. I did a quick search when I got home, and the marker was hidden under a pile of blankets and clothing in the middle of her room, all the way at the bottom. She had tried to hide the evidence, and wash it off... and it hadn't worked. I told her she was a bad girl, but I was laughing, too. She fell down on the floor and acted dead and tried to hide her arms. After a short dinner I marched her into the bathtub. Most of the pink came out during her bath -- luckily it was washable and it was TRUTHFUL about being washable. I didn't even have to scrub too badly.

She was cute just before she went to bed - I laid her frog down on her pillow and she said 'hi frog - I kiss' and kissed him on the nose, then laid down and went to sleep.

She is still asleep right now, and it is 8:30 in the morning. That is a new record for the week - she has been up at seven or before every morning this week. I have three late shifts after today.. so that sounds good to me!

Cat salad and a game to look forward to

This is Esme's kitten Suki, which means 'I love you.' The cat literally does love her - will sit for hours and be carried around the house and never leave to go away unless Esme is truly mean to her (which does happen, but not often). This 'cat salad' went on for about twenty minutes. I really thought I wouldn't catch it on camera when they started doing it - but the kitten truly enjoyed it. Esme even moved the table across the room and back and the cat never jumped down until Esme was off playing doing something else. When the dog came up there was a very noticeable sneer from the cat 'I'm special, and you aren't.'



This is a game I won on Ebay for Esme out of some Etsy shop money. I think she is really going to like the pictures in it. It has four pictures in every sequence and a card that shows them in the proper sequence to match them to. I was looking for a new regular 'Memory' game for her to replace the one she has nearly loved to death... but found this instead. We are still thinking of a regular Memory for her at a later date. On a side note she has been asking daily to play with the pattern blocks I gave her before her birthday. To get the box she either describes what the pieces look like or tries to name off the letters on the side of the box. She does not always play with them with the cards but she has been setting them up in rows, finding 'all' of the pieces of one type etc etc... It was a good buy then, too.



Someone on our board called this a 'very educational' game.. and yes, it is. But I know Esme's "sensibilities", and this promises to be something she will really enjoy, as well. Her 'Memory' game is a multitude of things to her. She asks to 'play cards' every single day - multiple times a day. Sometimes she just lays them out, sometimes she matches them, sometimes they are 'confetti' that is tossed about then recollected etc etc... Sometimes she talks to the frogs and dogs and suns and planes etc and tells them what they are and tries to feed them. It's one of the biggest things about her - she can make anything into a toy that does what she wants at the moment, if the thought crosses her mind. I could probably have drawn some of these types of sequences for her, as well.. but I think she also finds some sort of great joy in boxed sets - thus the 'specialness' of her pattern blocks, the Chess game, the Upwords game etc... The original Memory game used to have a box, too -- but it became less and less whole due to EXTREME use.

Imagination Land and apples shirt

'What a pair'
I drew a picture of this for a letter I'm sending out next week...

Esme and Suki kitten on the changing table. The lacy cloth beside them was on top of the cat... for a good long time in various layers. The sunglasses also migrated to the cat before too long. The kicker is after Esme left the cat up there by herself the kitten continued to sit there, wondering where her playmate had gone.

Besides this game there have been a lot of imagination things taking off today. She is pretending that she can take and put characters back into the TV, and I have had to take care of more imaginary birds, as well. We were watching 'Bolt' and during a time the other characters were looking for Bolt Esme pretended she saw Bolt at the end of the bed and went to 'pick him up' and bring him to me. She wanted me to put him back in the TV - throw him in there - and make him come back. That is a new level for her .. interesting, I think. She thought I succeeded.. so then she wanted other characters brought out of the TV.

She is back on the changing table with a funnel full of buttons she carefully collected out of another container, in order to bring over there and play with them 'up high.'



This is the apple shirt I was buying the blue fabric for. I had apple fabric on the back shoulder areas, too.. but messed up on my reversing the pieces *growl* - so it is just plain blue on the back. I need to put the zipper into it, yet. The Eeyore fabric is what Esme picked out the other day - I need to decide whether to make her a pillowcase with it or a pair of pants. The thing about the Eeyore fabric is that I don't know what else it wouldn't clash with except plain pink... I've still got some of that left from her butterfly dress.

Peter Pan

Esme continues to amaze me with what she picks up and how - she sang this little rising tune (kind of like the opening part of the Disney DVD menu) while doing an 'engarde' stance with her wooden playset knife as a 'sword'. I knew she meant the swordfighting in Peter Pan a few days ago (the only part of that movie she truly paid attention to the first time through). We then proceeded to have a long but gentle swordfight around the house watching out for alligators in the process. It was VERY funny, and I had a hard time resisting that combination of song/stance - she knew that, and kept me playing by repeating it.

Mark found a fish shaped rock out in the woods yesterday and Esme is fascinated with it. It is pretty cool! We have been 'cooking' it with the wooden knife and lemon and bread.

I've noticed a lot of 'long babble strings' in Esme's speech again this week. It's not stuttering, because there really isn't any actual 'word' she comes up with at all. She starts out with a good sentence, then cuts to a lot of 'nonsense' sounds and then back to 'upside-down grammar', which is the norm right now for her. In the past she has done that exact thing before she picks up a whole new set of words. My thoughts: She wants to say words in between but when she gets to the point to put the new word in she can't find the right one, so after a moment she gives up and goes back to what she knows will get the point across.

'You Mumum read the book ****long babble string of sounds**** the mice book, the book, the mice, Mumum you read.'
'OK. Mumum read the book about the mice?'
'Yea. the book, the mice.'

The Curse of Daylight Savings Time (ie: Early Risers vs. Mom)

Esme was asleep at 8:30 pm last night (completely and utterly unheard of) and up at 6:55 this morning. It is not all that good for me though, as I start on the late shift today and could have used a bit more so I don't fall asleep at the wheel on the way home tonight. I'll be abusing caffeine today (even moreso than usual).

Esme is very sweet today and into quite a lot of things like usual. She did some reading exercise and typing letters on the computer, played with her pattern blocks and did some great counting with them and played nicely with the cat. She asked for pizza and ate almost all of it. I put extra block cheese shreds on the microwave pizza and real pepperoni and spices and she still said it was 'good pizza cheese thank you mumum!'

Then we had this while she was sitting in the hamper
Are you a doggie? WOOF
Are you a shirt? (??)
Are you a kitty? MEOW
Are you a birdie? TWEET
Are you a sheep? MAAAAAA
Are you a dragon? ROARAOAROARAR
Are you an alligator? ROARARO (chomp hands)
Are you a frog? (forgot that one) frog frog? oh yea - ribbit ribbit.
Are you a pig? OINK
Are you an egg? CRACK! (stomp on something on ground)
Are you a butterfly? FLY FLY FLY.
Are you a little girl? HRRRRMMMMMMM (put finger to mouth and doesn't answer)

Then she started doing the sounds by herself again and making me guess which one she was doing.

I love those moments.
Right now she has sorted all of her fruits, vegetables and sandwich accessories into the empty hamper and is sorting them in and out and under and on top of it over and over. Whatever floats the boat, kid.. I don't always understand the game but she seems to have a lot of fun with whatever she makes up. As I said elsewhere today about activities: "I take her lead because I'm not sure where we're going and she seems to have some good ideas"


Computer time


hard to see - but she let her 'dragon' wind-up dinosaur play, too. She told him he did 'good job dragon'

She can find letters, but usually just likes to mash and see what comes up - then try to find out why. She will often count up to three of a letter then just fill the screen etc. I take turns with her and write words, then let her try again. I asked her to find the letter 'b' in one of these shots and she did.

Tuesday developments with pumpkins needing shirts and pants

A friend of mine at work gave Esme a few stuffed cows and a cow 'angel'. Esme says the angel is a 'cow mumum lady' and she has to keep the 'baby' cows in sight and take care of them etc. The cow angel is just a tiny bit creepy -- but Esme seems to think it is wonderful, so... hmm?

We went to the flea market this morning and picked Esme up a few little kid's books from a few of the stalls, and a nearly new in box chess game, all for about five bucks. We replaced her 'New Hat, Old Hat' book and got a new Clifford book and a 101 Dalmations book and a few others.. pretty good finds. The Chess game is an odd idea, I know... but I don't want her ruining Mark's X-Games-in-One set he says he has. She helped me lay out all the chess pieces on the board and I told her who they were and where their 'homes' were and when they were 'all ready' in their places they moved around the board haphazardly and 'pick up put away' back in the ziploc. Just that is enough to be fun for both of us and maybe get her interested in the game when she is a few years older. I played Chess a lot with my cousin and brother and I wasn't very old.. probably five or six. I never won.. but I played ;) and have fond memories of it.

She is drawing on a pumpkin (50 cents yesterday Mark found it at the grocery store) with a magic marker and trying to make a face. I don't see much of it except a big wide mouth - that is easy to tell what she is doing. She says the pumpkin needs shirt and pants but not sure where to put them (turned pumpkin over and started scribbling on the underneath). She IS creative. I like that, a lot.

home, happy

Did a turn around shift last night ie: back early this morning and it was crazy Monday like you would never believe. I was slapping 'SOLD' on things left and right, and trying to make sure we didn't run out of things. And now I'm off, and at home, and happy to be so.

Esme is happy and bumbling around the house with the animals. Mark did the grocery shopping this morning, so we seem good to hole up for a few days and get some things done here at the house. Earlier today she had another talcum powder experiment, this time with the kitten... the floor is still slippery with it.

Mark bought Esme an orange light stick on clearance at the store today. He lit it up for her tonight and she cries out 'it is the beautiful!' It was an extremely sweet moment :) That is maybe the second or third time I've heard her use that word instead of 'pretty', which she has said since she was about eighteen months old. She got a cardboard tube and was putting it inside and saying 'beautiful not here - where beautiful?' Then she would reveal it again and say 'there you are!'. That was also quite touching!

Went downstairs and showed her how the light stick looked in the white vanity bowl sink - and silly me went around the corner to get a cup of coffee. Came back to see her SITTING in the bowl of the vanity sink - how did she get up there? Even with her stairstool she barely comes chest-high to the edge! She had the light stick in her lap and was testing the stick against the white bowl, her clothes, etc etc.. seeing the colors looked with the orange light in the dark. I told her to get down and she did - lithely turning around so her feet pointed off the vanity and then slowly lowering herself off the edge of the vanity top and down to the floor by some insane stomach/arm strength combination - completely missing the small stepstool (about 1 foot of the 3 foot height - and she is 36 inches tall) to lower herself to the floor without falling or faltering one bit. I was truly amazed... told Daddy about it because he needs to know what she is capable of and how quickly! He said: 'Little Monkey!' He didn't know she could do that, either. Those 'solid-looking' little arms and legs, as Grandpa calls them, really have some power to them -- she would be excellent at gymnastics.

Extra note: Whatever Mark did building that vanity to put the top on that well... good for him!

homeschool : very short reading exercise spurred by her reading words off my computer screen earlier when I was searching for youtube videos. She saw the actual words 'cat and mouse' on the screen and said 'cat and mouse on 'puter watch on Tee?' Took the 'pairs in pears' letters out at her insistent request for Scrabble game and started making words. she got the following words right without prompting: fish, cat, cow, kite, pizza. Ignored the following word: bed, red and pop (she knew bed - but avoids that word for obvious reasons!, 'pop' she refused to pay attention, but the next word was 'fish' and she did say that one then asked for a candy from Daddy's stash because she knew I was impressed. I complied. Mistook 'good' for 'dog' and 'hat' for 'cat' until I showed her the differences. She nodded and smiled at the word 'bus' but would not say it. Tried an extra word for her to build on : 'more' and used it in a sentence and spelled it. She demanded 'pizza' before I completely got the 'a' on the end of the word - so we made a mini microwave one to share. I showed her it said 'cheese' and 'pizza' on the package.

bits of Friday

Went out to lunch today with a coworker, been a long time since I accepted that kind of invitation and it was nice. I ate enough food to last me through supper, though... another good reason why I try to keep away from that habit (I usually bring ramen noodles or a simple sandwich etc then spend half the hour allotment doing some craft or etc.) Mark fried up the week's worth of chicken and Esme demolished her playhouse box during that time. Poor Daddy! I saw ducks migrating across the highway today on my way to work - and it is supposed to freeze down to 23 degrees tonight.

Esme is wearing her sunglasses tonight and she looks very 'rockstar'. She even wore them in the bathtub!

Last night we were playing blocks all together. There are like thirty of the little blue blocks, give or take some. Esme was counting them and she got up to nine, and then she couldn't remember 'ten', so everything was 'some-teen'/'thirteen','some-teen' etc etc all the way down the line. She realized it was funny after a minute and rolled around laughing. Daddy and I were impressed even by nine :)

Third birthday party

We had a birthday 'party' at Grandma and Grandpa's again this year. Mark took LOTS of pictures, of which only a few are here. I love some of the 'sequence' shots he got of her with her cake and the flashlight. This year she knows what a 'birthday cake' and a 'birthday party' is. I told her last night she would have a birthday cake today and she was VERY excited about it. She watched me make the cake this morning (eggs - you crack!) And then she was very excited about going to see Grandma and Grandpa.






Frosting!

She blew out her candles (again and again and again! She even had Grandma in the kitchen two more times to pretend birthday candles again.) and ate some ice cream but very little of the cake. Then she got to open her presents. Grandma and Grandpa got her a Clifford collection of DVDs, which she has been watching here at home and isn't quite sure why she hasn't seen them before. They also got her a bag of BIG balloons and a Clifford book. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa :) We got her some socks, the box of blocks, a handmade shirt from Mumum (clifford pattern, she wasn't sure what to make of that either), a balloon, some little wind-up dinosaurs that were on the clearance rack and some cow things a friend at work had given to me to pass along to Esme. She was enraptured with the cow flashlight and figuring out how it worked. It moos and shines the light out of it's mouth when the switch is pushed, but sometimes can be made to moo and turn on by jiggling the mouth while it is forced open. She says the dinosaurs are 'dragons' and she likes them very much.


birthday dragons


'It goes MOO.'


How do you do that?


Grandma wearing a pair of sunglasses from Gwen

And the playhouse. She LOVES the 'box house', and has been all over the idea since she first saw it. Definitely worth a little bit of time invested in it. It was very easy to make because it is all one big box, with just some cuts made in it and painted.



'Come in, Grandma!'


She was ducking and coming back up to blow a noisemaker at us from inside the playhouse :) She also threw all her present bows out of the house at Grandma and for a while they had a bow fight.


Coralling ballooons

At Grandma's house it was a corral for balloons. At our house, it has become a corral for cats! Hmm.. kind of expected that :)


She drug the playhouse around the room, and her Daddy around the room.. and Grandma around the house. She said she had a balloon, and this was Esme's birthday PARTY, and that it was beautiful :) I'm sure she meant the balloon was beautiful but the whole day is, too :)

Happy birthday Esme, and thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for having a wonderful time again with all of us together.

LATER: She got to go for a chicken leg for supper, and a lollipop. The sunset was beautiful. We really wished we'd brought the camera for that, and to catch the picture of her asleep with her second chicken leg still in hand strapped into her carseat when we got home.

Esme at three years old

She will have her birthday party tomorrow... but wanted to catch some of her real personality and thought process today.



Interest and focus



At three
I worked hard to get a shot from this angle because.. (see below)

compared with at two years... much more chin now.


Always with the animals...

And capturing the intent and concentration she has daily...