talking bit

This morning at 5 am the puppies were howling downstairs in the basement. Esme gets up and puts on her shoes, walks past our bed and downstairs and proceeds to have the following conversation.

'I can't sleep. You go away, run away, go away scram. You be quiet. You are loud. I am so tired and I can't sleep! I do not love you, no, go - I do not love you anymore. You go sleep. You go run away. Mama and Daddy are sleeping, you be quiet! etc etc.. It went on for several minutes. The kicker? Silence. All of the puppies went away for about five minutes. That was about as much time as it took for her to come upstairs, take off her shoes and get back into her bed. And then, of course, the yelping continued.

When she woke up later in the morning she came to my bed and said 'Mama, you stand up, it is morningtime, you stand up, stretch and yawn and stand up and go downstairs get me food, yea, you get me food, downstairs! You get up stretch and yawn like this, see?' And then I remind her we need to get ready to go to town with Grandma today. She told me we had to bring Grandma a Monkey Esme, Grandma needed a Monkey Esme that could talk. Uh huh. Then she started 'checking' to see if I was ready (which obviously I was not) - and tells me the thing she sees missing are socks. Hey, wait, I need socks. I get socks. (she got her own socks and shoes and put them on). Mama needed a lot more than socks - like non-pajama pants! We went to town and took a few hours buying groceries and other necessities.

We just got back, and I have the fabric washing for another new dress. There are a lot of things I want to do - and lots of cleaning that needs to be done. I hope to have pictures of finished projects maybe later today or tomorrow? It has been hard with the mid-day schedules I've been getting to take any pictures... After today off I will have five more days 'on' of varying schedules again, right up until a few days before Christmas.

I ordered more beans from the Little Ragamuffin (See sidebar links) - King of the Early Bean and Hutterite soup beans. Both look very interesting. I had to fight Esme to wash her hair again last night - but it wasn't quite as hard as it usually is. After the initial water dousing I was able to convince her to pour half of the water over her own head, and have her sit still to get most of the rest poured over her. I told her she had to be a 'strong' girl and do this herself, brave and strong. She said she was 'big and strong' - but when faced with the fact that I can do that without crying and she can't - she was willing to try and be 'brave and strong and big'. We're making some improvements... I am so glad she is reasonable, at times.

//dressing note: She was able to do most of her own sweater buttons today and undo them without trouble. I did have to help her with her 'frustration' problem to slow down and try again on the buttons - and to try the third one again while holding the hole open instead of just shoving at the button. etc etc.. She is really coming along, now, at least with the huge buttons that are on that sweater. The only thing she has to have us help with is putting on or taking off is her dress with the back zipper. Front button dresses will probably be something on my agenda in a few more years - but for ease of making, taking care of etc... the back zipper and back-ties are still a better choice.