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.