Doo-Wop kitty

This is doo-wop kitty, it sings 'doo - wah, doo - wah, doo - wah, do...' according to Esme. It really doesn't make any noise. A friend at work gave the kitty to us a few months ago. Esme really likes it and it often comes to play teaset with us at this table.



Here she is telling me the kitty has feet and toes.



And just one that was really cute - saying she has juice.



concentration


Watching birds with the kitty


the kitten got embarrassed to be seen with her...

Snowstorm 2010

Tried hard - but we're snowed in for the day!
I've called into work and hope to get out tomorrow... but Mark says the melt won't happen until Monday.


Borrowed this from my in-laws last night. It has four wheel drive but it's too close to the ground and the snow just won't let it go. Maybe I should have parked the vehicle at the beginning of the driveway last night because there is no getting even that far today!



And that's just the driveway! There's about three miles from there to the highway.



Mark and Esme had to walk to Grandma's last night to borrow the little car - and come get me as I was stuck at the top of a hill. Not really a good idea to try the truck as it is rear wheel drive and will probably get stranded.

miscellaneous

Esme and I went for a walk in our 'semi-blizzard' outside. The snow didn't seem to phase her one bit. I even held up a leaf full of snow and got some on her hand. No big deal. She did like to crunch it underfoot. She walked about a quarter-mile, with me asking 'please can we go home now?'..and her responding 'No...' Finally I picked her up and carried her home. What a tantrum she threw about that!

Mr.Frog also went in the washing machine this morning. Esme thought it was a good idea for him to have a bath. She waved bye bye and told him go bathtub etc... What she didn't like was once he came out he went into the dryer. That was unacceptable - she had just gotten him back! She pounded on the dryer door several times telling him to come out frog! I said he liked it in there and would come out when he was done, in a little while etc etc... She is understanding 'in a little while' much better - so eventually (but with tears) she left him spinning in there.

update: Frog came out just fine, and she told me he needed to eat an orange. We discovered the other day at Grandma's that now she LOVES oranges. I bought her a whole bag. Somewhere around 15 months she hated them terribly. Esme got to eat most of an orange and frog pretended to eat a few slices. Things like that are one of the reasons Frog needed a bath to begin with!

Also, I'm sure not every little girl gets to wake up and talk to a kitty early every morning. That is a staple here now - seven or eight in the morning I hear her having conversations with PeanutNinja, who is sitting nicely outside her crib and meowing, playing with her toys and generally just keeping the little one company until Mom or Dad come to change her and get her breakfast. Quite charming.

Doggie pants

Yesterday we went to the store and Esme attached to some doggie fabric that was on the shelf. She literally attached to it - I couldn't get it out of her hands! She hugged and pretended to kiss it and touched the doggies on their noses and told them they were 'cute.' As I got over to the lady who cuts the fabric I was trying to get Esme to put the fabric back on a shelf. She did not relent, until we got near the lady and she hands it over to the lady with a big 'thank you' and a smile. *sigh* OK - there is just over a yard left on the bolt. So, we bought it. And tonight I made her a new pair of pants out of it. This is her second pair of 'doggie pants.'

Half of the time I was making it she was sitting on/near my lap watching the process. She would remind me that they were doggies, and that doggies say 'ow-woo', and then ask what I was doing with it. Then when the project finally looked like pants but weren't 'finished' with the hems yet she started making a big ruckus and throwing thread and blocks around. She thought I was done, and had also by that time wrapped quite a bit of thread from her spools around her knees... *facepalm* - so I had to get up and untangle her some.

Mark took her in his lap until I could get the elastic in the waist and try them on her. She is quite happy with them. She howled a lot, just like she does with her red pair of doggie pants - doggies say 'ow-woooo', so an Esme in doggie pants has to say that a lot! She danced in them in front of the mirror, showing them off to the mirror girl. I'm glad she gets to pick out what she likes and gets many things handmade by mommy for her.

conversation about a spider

The other night Esme saw PeanutNinja the cat eating a spider. She was intent on watching it, and talked about it a lot. The next time she saw a spider the cat just played with it (maybe she learned better), and Esme touched the wolf spider several times and giggled as the cat chased it. Today Esme points to the dark hallway in our kitchen and tells me something is there. I asked her what it was, and she didn't know. I asked maybe it is a spider? She thought maybe it could be a spider. I said is it a friendly spider or a RAR spider? A RAR spider would come up and go RAR at us - but maybe it was a friendly spider. She got worried about that, and climbed up on my lap and looked down at the floor like something was going to crawl up on her.

I told her don't worry, if there was a spider there the kitty would find it and eat it later. She jumped down and started to push the kitty in the direction of the hallway 'go kitty, food! food, go!' That made me start to crack up. I said the kitty would eat the spider later (if there was one, which I doubted).

She has been reading the U-LINE supply catalog more and asking us to identify things in there. She runs her finger across the name of the item and says a 'catch-all' word as if she is reading it. I think Electric Company is influencing that - she has been trying to 'read' words a lot lately, although she hardly ever even gets the first sound right, so I think it is just pretending. Even so, that is a good step forward :) But why are her dozens of 'kids' books not as interesting as a mailer catalog from an office supply company? That's how it goes...

some 26.5 month updates

It's not nearly time for another update - but Esme has spurted a little lately and I don't want to forget when these happened.

Her new favorite words are 'cute' and 'heavy'. She's got a weird identification for 'cute' - but she is using 'heavy' correctly. I've heard her say 'my chair' and 'my cup'. She likes the words 'clock' and 'watch' and will find the watch card in her memory game and try to 'count' the numbers on the face (which aren't there in the picture... kind of odd). She found an old watch that still has it's indiglo nightlight working - and she knows how to push the button to turn it on. I've heard her call me Mama sometimes, usually when I'm not in close enough range and/or eyesight to see her signals or be grabbed by the pantsleg. But, she calls me Daddy sometimes too when I'm in close range 'Daddy hold this.' etc etc...

We've been having some "deep" conversations about things. I think she understands much more now than just a few months ago. I tried to tell her I went in the truck to town the other day to go to work - and that at work people come in who don't have bathtubs. Mama helps them get bathtubs to take back to their houses and then they put the bathtub in their bathroom and they take baths in them. She listened hard - not sure how much she understood but her expression was thoughtful and she didn't try to change the subject.

I've seen her 'counting' with her fingers much more, numbers on machines we have around the house, on clocks, layers on our dehydrator machine, blocks stacked up and also sometimes counting by the 'cup' 'cup' 'cup' or 'doggie doggie' method where she just says the word the number of times. She knows several of her colors now and will say it sometimes as she hands you the right one.

The other night we were watching the episode of the Muppet Show where all the characters get copied into Pig form and are locked up while their Pig counterparts are running the show. During the 'Veterinarians Hospital' where there is usually Rolf the dog in the middle of Miss Piggy and Janice there was a pig doctor. Esme looks up from her playing and says 'Where's the Doggie?' and said it a few times before she said 'It's a PIG.' That was funny! We were playing memory game later. She can match the pictures but doesn't like to play the game the way it is 'supposed' to be played. She kept handing me cards to put on her belly and say what they were - then she would pick them up, look, and go 'mmm hmmm..' and throw it aside. I decided to tell her the dragon was a doggie - just to see what she would do. She looked at the dragon, looked at me oddly, turned over the card, looked at me again and said 'Where doggie??' She was mad - and I told her I was joking. Can't pull the wool over her eyes ;)

Some of her other favorite things to do are to throw her blocks all out of a box, or stack them all up while playing with me. Then she balances a cup on the top of it and pretends to take a sip out of the cup. Not sure where this came from. She made a lego form that looked like a rectangle with a long tower in the middle of it - and told me that it was a drink cup.

Also, much more attached to her Mr.Frog - she carries him, throws him, fights with him when she's mad about going to bed... even gives him 'drinks' from her cup if I ask if he is thirsty.

At the moment I am being handed the play money I printed out for her a long time ago and being told the numbers. haha and she found the old wallet we bought her for her 2 year birthday and wants me to put the money in it. Now she brings me her jacket and says 'outside.' I told her we'll go buy groceries tomorrow at the snap-snap :)

:)

I heard 'memory game' today loud and clear. It was cool! She has been calling it 'pretty' and pointing clearly to the box every day this last week. Right now we are having a session where every toy she likes gets put in the mailing crate and shut in together.... hmm. I'm waiting for her to try to climb in there and find out there is no room.

Memory Game and Frog

Last night I dressed Mr. Frog up in Esme's jacket when I was folding the laundry. She insisted he needed a pair of pants and some socks too. Then she wanted to play Memory game and somehow got the idea that Mr.Frog could get in on the action. There is a set of cutout cardstock letters in her Memory Game I made for some other reason - she likes to go through them as well as the picture cards.


Here Mr.Frog, have an 'S.'


The flash was doing weird things to her eyes


Loving on Mr. Frog

Limp noodle

I have to go into work today and make a few calls. We'll bring Esme with and then hit some 'day-off' places on the way home. I'm officially off until Wednesday. Wednesday I have a lot of 'homework' to get done and 'graded.' Then I have to drive to Milan again on Thursday.

This is a picture of Esme completely 'limp noodlified' (sp?) haha. I had gotten home from work and Mark had supper ready. Esme ate lots of pork chop and corn. We were watching the first part of Monty Python and the Holy Grail and she just completely passed out sitting on my lap. She was happy and warm and full and 'got mom.'

Cousins 1982ish

My cousins Brandy, Ty, and myself at ages 2 and 3. Brandy and I were one month apart, and Ty was a year younger.

Happy Birthday Grandma :)

And, because I didn't get to go up with them today - Happy Birthday Grandma :) Hope it was a good one! I heard Esme played sweep brooms with you and had a nice visit.

beware of flying frogs

This is Mr. Frog

This is Mr.Frog flying
he does this a lot, to the tune of 'wheeee! fly frog!'

Mark calls the background 'evidence of Hurricane Esme'

Hamming it up

Big Backyard magazine

OK I admit she looks a lot like me here
Haha - but for some reason I think of a 1950s secretary filing her nails and saying 'Messages? What Messages?'


She has also taken to using my wooden artist's mannequin as a 'dolly', carrying it around, adjusting its arms and legs and then telling me about it's head, feet etc etc.. It is a little surreal to be given 'dolly' in this form ;)

I had training in Jackson, TN again today. That meant closing and then driving the next morning at 6 am. I was SO tired. But the training was actually a good session - and Esme was a very good little girl when I got home. I dressed down to my lounge clothes and she grabbed her magazine and wanted to sit on my lap and read - then play with frog, then eat fish etc... Late shift tomorrow again so I will get to sleep in maybe... maybe.

Water in the pipes and Memory Game

This was so cool today I had to share. We were doing our regular bathtime thing but - because it has been freezing cold out here - I left the water in the tub trickling after the bath to keep the pipes from freezing.

I was leaning against the tub and heard the water in the pipes gurgling. I said 'wow' and showed Esme what I was doing in an exaggerated fashion - told her the water was in there too (inside the tub wall) and I could hear it with my ear. She took a minute of 'what are you DOING mom?' and then she tried it. The look in her eyes was amazing. WOW WOW WOW she was so happy she tried what Mom did and discovered something. I got hugs and kisses as well as jumping up and down and 'I did it WOW'

She has also been asking for her 'Memory' game now. She finally thinks it's cool and not just as a large pile of things to throw around. She asks us what the pictures are and identifies some now in between the throwing around ;) She hates to put it away, but has asked to play with it a few days in a row. I remember I bought it when she was about 16 months old from Ebay hoping she would like it then (as she was in to puzzles then) and she wasn't very interested in matching the pictures or even identifying them then.

Esme at 26 months

She can finally jump with both feet and 'get air.' She can go up and down the stairs without much worry from me.. but I still like to be somewhere downhill of her just in case. She can take off her shirt and is working at pulling her pants up and down. She can drink from a straw well and carry the cup from surface to surface without it necessarily ending in cleanup. She is talking so much more than ever before - although sometimes I still wish we could understand each other better.

She knows all the letters of the alphabet but will still get mixed up with lowercase 'l' and uppercase 'I' on her Starfall games. She can navigate half of the arrow-key maze on one of the games before she gets frustrated, tell me where the letters go in the 'make a word' puzzles that have all the letters up top in different shapes and the shapes down below they go into, play the match games with me on-screen (point to where she saw it last and is usually right) etc... I am amazed and happy she loves the site so much. She is also working on her numbers and colors more but without as much interest. She is very interested in letters: The other day she actually took Daddy's books off the shelf (big no no) just so she could name off the letters on the covers to me.

Mark got a new remote control truck off of the Christmas clearance aisle. Esme loves it - says 'car! car!' and demanded to be shown how it works. She can make it go forward but then goes and runs to get it and turns it around instead of using reverse. She keeps looking for the button on the car that would make it run around like her zhu zhu hamster, but then remembers the handheld device and makes it go using that. She was playing with the steering on it but couldn't get both the steering wheel and the accelerator at the same time in her little hands.

Last night I had my mom on speakerphone and Esme had the phone walking around the room. My mom asked Mark if he was going to go outside and play in the new snow. He said 'No' very loudly and Esme put the phone facedown on the bed and shook her finger at it. Daddy had said the phone was bad - and she was 100% certain she wasn't in trouble, but the phone was - so it needed a timeout. She still doesn't entirely 'get' how the phone talks - but is much more willing to think it is a person now than a toy.

Now this morning we've already had tea with our stuffed frog (he ate teacakes and a car.. so yummy).. She has also offered a notebook to her 'mommy and daddy' dollhouse dolls and asked them to draw with her. That didn't work like she had planned - so now she is back to Mommy asking me to get a pen out of a drawer she can see but not reach - so she can draw with me. Now that I'm typing she is over at the bed showing Mark how well she can draw and asking him to draw with her. Also all of the white crayons out of her box are on my desk... I think she wants them fixed because they 'don't draw.' haha

I originally had to go to work at 10 today but they changed it last minute yesterday. I have to go in at 12:30 and then I have the weekend off. I feel I've been making a habit of looking scruffy lately - winter weather, very little time to get ready in the mornings, laundry being a hassle so I do the minimum necessary etc... so I did some 'me' stuff after getting home last night and hope to get my hair trimmed up this weekend. They went through some 'confidence' and interview stuff at the beginning of our managerial training yesterday and it kicked me a little higher into gear.


Esme drawing with pen - I circled the part Daddy did but the rest is hers

Cat in a Box or A Toddler's Shroedinger Experiment

These are mail crates from our local post office used for carrying large amounts of mail for our small business. They are 'used properly' 95% of the time - but since they are also stored in our living space they became part of a toddler's shroedinger experiment tonight. She was testing the cat-in-a-box theory and PeanutNinja, our not quite six month old kitten, was being very tolerant of lots of rough play. In the first picture you can see the kitten's mother, Mitzi, looking on and supervising the entire process.

Esme also looks like a little ragamuffin in these pictures. It was just after her breakfast and before her bath yesterday. Then we went to town and did mail and groceries, and she had part of a BBQ sandwich from Trolingers. She was a happy camper. This morning her nose is running a little and after she finishes her cereal bar a warm steamy bathroom is waiting for us downstairs.



And, although it's no thing of beauty in its construction, I have finished the first of the wool woven slippers. It is positively warm to wear. I don't care if it looks primitive and funky. I want another one, now... but that will take a few more days to actually do. A bit of a woven band with a button around the ankle would make them look a lot better.