Jingle bells

We got our first Christmas carol yesterday - she was sitting in her toybox and suddenly said 'jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way' and then shyly looked around to see if anyone had heard her. She saw I had, and then she tried to hide down in the toys. I told her it was cool and she got a slowly contagious smile about it and said it again for Daddy after a bit.

I backed it up by finding it on Youtube with the words written out and let her watch it. This morning she said it again for me when she wanted an apple. She's a ham!

I've caught her talking along with movies quite a bit more, and working on pronouncing words better, too... she is having another language spurt :)

Esme and Suki

Suki is Esme's kitten. She is nearly all grown up now. Here is a little photo essay of what happened today after breakfast. It does not need much captioning. Esme loves Suki, and Suki is quite fond of her, as well. I swear they have their own language together.





'Kitty, you drink a all, right here!'




'You drink a all?'

And then she carried the bowl and her fork (yes, a fork) and put them in the sink.

busy bits

Losing days - I have no idea where half of Friday and most of Saturday went. But it went, because I am sure today is Sunday. We are invited to a Christmas party tonight at six... I really don't see us going but said I'd 'maybe' think about stopping in for a few minutes. She really thinks we're coming... hmm *my wallflower tendencies are twitching* It is so cold out - I really don't want to leave the house at all today. There are several things I should do today... but I am lacking ambition and focus.

Just a few cute things -
Yesterday Mark picked me up from work and Esme led one of my coworkers all around the store saying she was going to show her something. Apparently they never found it. She saw Santa at a store we stopped by - but she didn't want to go up to him. He gave her a candy cane, but she wouldn't even say thank you without turning around and facing the other direction first. She was really really shy! Mark got Esme two new rubber ducks at the store - Christmas themed. They are immediately 'baby ducks' for the mama duck we have downstairs (who lost her babies last year sometime). So, Esme had to have a bath - even though Mumum didn't want one! She wanted to play with the new ducks in the bathtub. She asked for PT duty three times and actually did it... pretty wow for me to have one success lately.

She asked me 'Throw away a me, mumum, throw away this a me' about her lollipop before she climbed into her bed.. which is a progression on her picking up that sentence. She'll probably have it right soon, if she is paying more attention to it. She also asked for 'chips from the package of blue' yesterday and 'chips in green' today. We have two kinds of chips we keep on the snack table and she has to ask for them - now she is differentiating which kind she wants when she asks. I'm sure this upside-down syntax comes from me. I talk funny, sometimes...without intending to. Parts of my brain are 'upside-down' in that regard, and it comes out that way. But - I want to make sure she learns the right way to ask, too.

We gave her some bunny shaped graham crackers Mark wanted to try and she had a fit about them. She said 'No eat bunny cookie.' and put them in her empty cup to carry around the room. We ate ours anyway. She then said, 'Oh no, what have you done? My bunnies cry in my hand!' The bunnies got soaked in juice drops and she wanted to throw them away. I ended up eating all the ones in her drink cup as she gave them soulfully over to me one by one. She never did eat one *facepalm*... oh well. She does have square graham crackers she eats!

We also read 'Sleeping Beauty' last night for the first time. She has never seen the movie. She was confused - she kept asking where the Cinderella book was, and trying to read the words on the pages because they were new words and she didn't know what was supposed to happen. Exactly the right reaction! And then when she seemed to be lost, I read the story to her. She fought any idea of actually laying down and having her blanket on her. She wanted to kill the dragon at the end of the book 'take that dragon!' I took her big dragon toy and had him come up into the bed and she smacked him and made him go away. Then he attacked Daddy in his bed.. and he said 'take that dragon' and the dragon went away again to the floor near Esme's bed. To this Esme quickly (and with no prompting) said 'I lay down - I sleep!' Apparently dragons on the floor mean no getting out of bed or you shall be eaten...

Patterns I'm on the watch for:

McCalls 2936, date unknown

Simplicity 5169, c. 1972

I'd like to try a dress with these kind of sleeves/waist. I found these two vintage patterns with the style but haven't been able to find any of them anywhere near Esme's size. They seem to be available in size 6 or up, or not at all :( Oh well, save the idea for the future and maybe I'll make/find something later.

I ordered this and two others (including the second one above in size 6) from an Ebay seller... I have about two dozen patterns -- so why do I need more? I guess it is because I found this one that is SIMILAR in size 4... and the money was already there from my Squidoo account...


Simplicity 8714

early riser

Every morning when I am awakened (even sometimes quite too early) I am amused and amazed at what this little girl has to tell me, show me, and has often already decided upon for today's routine. It's hard for me to believe sometimes that she is three years old - she has all these ideas and isn't afraid to express them. She thinks she knows exactly how things are going to go, rattles off the list of things she wants to do, and crosses between sage nodding and teenager 'do I have to?' attitudes when I tell her something she has missed/skipped/avoided.

I told her she had to wait ten minutes for the alarm clock this morning because she was already telling me she needed apple jacks and drink cup and to go tell the kitty she was a bad kitty and put her outside etc etc... I said I wasn't getting up until the beep beep went off. She threw a very small fit and then she asked me if my ears were alright and if my hair was alright and why I didn't get up if I was sick etc... So, she had me grinning by then. And she knew it. So she went and found her 'Hop on Pop' book and read me the words she has memorized and described all the pictures in the pages she hadn't memorized. I reset the alarm clock for three minutes out just to have the reinforcement that Mumum didn't want to get out of her bed until the alarm (beep beep) went off.

So, I'm up. There is no snow... but it is raining and cold, and I need to be to work by ten a.m.


examining her Christmas stocking
and the green scarf as well.

I told her I was taking a picture of her Christmas stocking for Grandma, and she had to be in on it. She actually tried to take the loose (non-working) needle back out of the sock and use it... so she 'knows how it works' but I stopped her there and told her she has to wait for a few years to learn the rest ;)

little words

Esme's latest words are 'this is so hard' (instead of 'too heavy' which she used to say for anything difficult), 'I can't pull', which she says for anything she is having difficulty but is trying to do, and 'this is very good' for food and drink she likes.

She will say 'I can't pull' for trying to get her other foot into the laundry basket and failing - for trying to open a container and failing, for trying to move something and failing. She wants help right then because she is trying but not getting the job done. If she has given up or is about to she will say 'this is so hard' and want someone else to do something for her.

Yesterday on Daddy's lap she was sitting 'reading' the computer with him and started counting things on the screen. She discovered a new number, he said. 'One, two, three, twelve, chicken!' There was no chicken. But, she was proud of herself - because Daddy laughed.

She is also singing along with the words to her Muppet Show more - and getting words right I didn't know she was paying attention to. She can sometimes be across the room playing with something else, not watching, and be singing along or narrating what is happening on the screen (not just muppets, tom and jerry, shaun whatever). Apparently she has seen her shows too much! She just has an excellent memory. When we were watching Fantasia for the second time EVER (for her) she was telling us what would come next seconds before it appeared.

I have to go into work today. It is supposed to snow and/or freezing rain this afternoon. :( I'm not looking forward to driving home in it and then back out tomorrow morning. At least our tub faucet is freed up again! We can have warm baths in less than an hour of wait time again ;) We were really lucky - I saw so many people with frozen and BROKEN pipes yesterday at work (knock on wood). A lot of people could not come to work because they were fixing things at their own houses. I am still working on the scarf and thinking about all things warm - hats, gloves etc... but I know they take so long for me to knit them! The scarf is three or four days on now and just about half or more done.

Later: Came home early from work as the roads were getting slippery - good thing I did. The main road was fine, but the road our house is on (about three miles down) was a skating rink. The truck pulled to the side at about five or six different places even going 15 mph... There is one place there I've been stuck before that would have been quite difficult to get up (more so than it was) if the weather had been worse. Mark made pizza. Esme woke up in the middle of our eating from her nap - but instead of wanting to join in for pizza she wanted to go downstairs and take a bath. Her nose was stuffed up - so I saw her logic and put my pizza in the fridge. I took the opportunity to wash and condition her hair -- which she did not like, but purple bubbles made that all better. Now she is happily eating pizza and saying it is 'mmmm mmmmm yummy'. It sounds much stranger in person - I had to hear her say it twice before I realized what she meant ;)

I'm not quite done with the scarf but I've started her Christmas stocking... making good progress.

Can I have some snow?

Please mumum, have another snow in hand?


It's cold! (and wet, and runny)
Bunny dog is doing her 'laugh'

Esme asked me for snow several times again today - she wants to have it melt in her hand. Silly, silly child! But, curious - and I let her do it again today. All the dogs think it is very silly, too.


Grandma's dogs came for a visit
Iggy, on left. Tansy, on right.


Our calendar
She's putting the kitty on the right square.

She picked the heart stickers out at the store and gets one to put on the calendar each morning. Then we move the 'morningtime kitty' to the next day. I tell Esme what day of the week it is and what we are doing today. She thinks days of the week are like counting.. I think... she names them off while looking at her fingers. Then if she asks about Christmas I tell her how many 'morningtimes' the kitty has to go before we get to 'Christmas morningtime.' I see deep thought, then... and not always happy about it but *sigh* okay - now what?

The only thing she's not quite sure about is how the kitty gets back to the start of the line.... she understands sequence really well, but not when things 'start over' or are in sets. I've seen that in her counting as well - she will count three rows of three as 1,2,3 AND 1,2,3 AND 1,2,3 instead of counting them as nine... until I introduce the idea of continuing 4,5,6 and she gets it then. But - she doesn't know WHY we would stop or start or continue yet. NOTE: All of what I just described is entirely normal for kids who are learning to count!... but I find it fascinating!

little bits and pieces

Esme was so sweet this morning, and helpful. She did everything asked to get ready for the morning, find new clothes, get on the changing table and get changed, put on socks, locate drink cup, put old clothes in hamper. I didn't push the hair, though - which is doing a good impression of Albert Einstein. She is sitting on her changing table wrestling with the kitten right now. I've heard 'You are so cute.' and 'You are E'me's cat' several times. She is speaking in the third person quite a bit more - this is E'me's room/bed/drink cup/chair/food/movie ... whatever she feels she must lay claim to at the moment. I've finished another shirt for her and cut out a pair of pants. I'm thinking of heavier fabrics from my collection for another pair of pants. The chambray 'jeans' are very nice.

We watched 'Snow White' together and she was entranced by the animals cleaning of the house, and the singing and the 'take bath' of all the little men. She completely tanked it after the queen turned into a witch - she was done with it, then. But - she usually pays attention better the second time around to the parts she ignored earlier. I was impressed she laid in my lap on the electric blanket and snuggled until Snow White told the dwarves to go wash. Then Esme sat up on her knees and waggled her finger at the dwarves and told them they were DIRTY and needed a bath Go boy Go NOW you DIRTY. She loves to be the boss.

Once I offered to read her a story last night she went to sleep well - we read the story from her Richard Scarry's book about the uncle cats who catch the big fish and bring it home for the nine kittens and their mommy. The mommy cooks the fish and they all eat at a big table. She really likes that one - and was counting all the baby kitties and their fish plates.

HUH moments She was talking to me in her sleep last night - something about 'mumum.... E'me want (?)... mumum... wait me mumum...'. She was entirely asleep. This morning she had a ball of playdough stashed in the 'trunk' of her rolly car downstairs. Neither of us have any idea how long that has been there -- it was still fresh. ??

Extremely simple games: She has several superballs caught under a small plastic bowl, and a small plastic funnel. She will play rolling them around and catching them for a long time.

37 month update

Esme is 37 months now, one month over three years old. Some things have changed a lot! - She is in a size 3 vintage pattern and size 4 storebought, and size 9.5 or size 10 toddler shoes. All of that apparently, is HUGE for her age. People I work with often think she is four years, not a new three. She is 39 inches tall,, that is 3 inches taller than last time we measured her (4 months ago). PT is going somewhat better - it isn't a flat outright NO and refusal anymore. But she still has to be in the mood and we have to be stern about it. Some days I am working and I really don't do as much with it as I should when I come home. With her growth spurt I'm scrambling to make her clothes with longer arms and legs in them, and that are appropriate for the season. She fits hardly ANY toddler socks on the market.. and I don't have time to make socks for her (it takes forever with my knitting abilities) -- I'm going to have to find something, maybe girl's size 'small' - haven't tried those, yet.

Her descriptive vocabulary is increasing. She tells in the mornings she is HUNGRY, and that the downstairs is COLD *teeth chatter*. We bring our breakfasts upstairs as a rule. Getting her to take a bath when it is COLD is another thing as well - it is a fight until she hits the warm water and gets her bubbles. She likes food coloring in her bathwater - it is a good incentive to get her to go willingly. Once in a while bedtime is fraught with crying and disobeying. It really takes me being ready to go to bed as well and refusing to let her get up because I'm in bed, and she should be doing like Mumum does. She asks me to sleep in her bed often after I read her a story - and I tell her I don't fit. This makes her sad! She is wanting to be a 'big girl' and copies Mumum and Daddy to the word and the laugh and the action sometimes... as if she is practicing.

She pays very close attention to things and will try to describe things to us later -- sometimes it is hard to understand. She thinks 'differently' - calls chicken soup broth 'soup milk', and asks for a box on the shelf by reading off letters on it and saying 'the hat on the head box right there - the hat on the head box'... because it has a hat image on the side of it. She has an excellent memory - sometimes better than I do, so sometimes what she is describing takes a while to filter back in my head... 'the yellow cup we had the coffee and the milk in' or 'the purple the toes make the toes the purple'.. her upside-down grammar continues to improve but still requires some extra thinking.

Some of her favorite games are sitting on her changing table rolling a ball, or stacking blocks, or playing with her little figures. She still does a lot of stacking and counting and sorting in her play. Mark says she is training to be an accountant. Other times we will hear her in a whole conversation with the figures and stuffed animals - telling them what is right and wrong and no fighting and no poop in the bed and whatever she decides they need to be reprimanded about. She tells the dogs and cats exactly how to behave as if she was the 'big sister' to them. She also loves to roleplay she or one of her stuffed animals is the mumum or daddy and take a 'baby' animal for food and clothes and change and bath and to bed and go through everything we would normally do in a day in miniature. She is still a 'process' kid directing us through processes in the house like making coffee, juice, using the appliances etc, although now she is usually more into whatever she is doing elsewhere to stick with the 'benevolent dictator' mode where she directs us around the house for an extended period of time.

She loves to use her rollerskates downstairs, but not for too long. Give her something new or change things up a little and she is looking things over for longer than I have patience for... trying combinations over and over and when finally satisfied she knows how it works, then she is off to do another thing. She does draw and do some crafty things, but once again she usually doesn't stick to it very long. She would draw for hours when she was newly two, but now it is a few slashes and she thinks she is done or needs a new piece of paper!

In the last few months her imagination has taken off from just stories between animals and toys to the world of imaginary friends, pretending to be doggie/kitty/Daddy etc with sound effects and gestures etc. I know we've had some of this before but it is really full-blown now. I get asked to feed carrots to imaginary rabbits in the truck, handed imaginary mice and told to protect them from dogs sitting on them etc etc... She has done more of the 'this imaginary dog/bear/nothing came out of that book/tv and now I'm playing with it', as well.

She is very opinionated about colors, what food or show or ... whatever she thinks she has a 'say' in (and of course things she doesn't *ha*) I get told 'no' now to fabrics I want to use for her clothing, and sometimes to a piece of clothing I want her to wear for the day. I have to use 'deals' and compromises - especially if she is asking me for something while refusing to do something else I expect her to do. Example: she wants me to give her a candy but will NOT pick up the blocks on the floor she was done playing with fifteen minutes ago. I tell her she can have that candy - it is ok - BUT I expect her to help me pick up the blocks FIRST. And then she thinks about it.. and sometimes says No, and then gets the same response the next time she wants something -- eventually I get the task I want done and she gets a want fulfilled by Mumum. It has added up to more listening and less discipline in the long run when everything isn't answered with 'No', but she knows what her expectations are.

She is still reading small words by 'memorizing' - and will often say 'hat' is 'cat' if she isn't trying hard to pay attention. I still often find words I didn't know she knew. She watches 'WordWorld' episodes and games online, and loves to play with the 'Upwords' game. She is counting to nine accurately - and a little higher if she decides to. But she often will count 'nine, eleven, twelve, fourteen, seventeen' -- even though she knows what 'ten' is and the other numbers... and has counted using them before. Her favorite shows are Tom and Jerry and Cinderella. Her favorite books are Go Dog Go, and the Disney Cinderella that matches her movie. I've had to extend her handmade pants pattern from 17 to 19 inches long to fit her! WOW. In fact, I should just go ahead and look at my vintage size 4 pants pattern and see if she is ready for one of those.