Catch a magnetic fish

Last night when I was sewing Esme was playing her usual 'pretend' catch fish with a piece of ribbon, but the cat took off with the ribbon. She found this necklace chain in one of my containers on the worktable and started using it - without me really paying attention. Then she actually CAUGHT a 'fish', one of the magnetic letters in the box. She is still playing it this morning. She really needs supervision though - because she already fell off the table once doing it - and I caught her in midair because I was sitting at the sewing machine. *sigh* - But she falls off chairs and our bed or her own bed with and without trying all day long *ha*... and at least now she is holding on to the edge of the table and gripping with her feet when she does it.

I finished a pair of pants for Lizzie - also out of a remnant I had. I put a wide hem on the bottom and made the elastic the waist size her hip measurement matched.... since it is elastic it should adjust okay. I'm bringing an older pair of Esme's pants (the red doggie ones) to work for a younger girl (Gwinifer) to try - if they fit her okay I'll use the old pattern to make hers, if they are too short on her then I'll make Esme's new pattern for her pants. I already know she fits the raglan shirt pattern really well and have a yard and a half set aside especially for her.

Little bits: This morning Esme said 'Esme red girl, Mumum grey girl, Daddy grey ... Daddy!' I pointed out that Daddy's shirt was actually green. Then she got this look and said 'Oh let's see - let's see the green' and went over to him at his desk and inspected his shirt. 'Oh, that's the green, ok nice.' His undershirt is grey, though... so she was partially right ;) She has been making a few good observations the past few days I can't remember all of them right now.

crafty bits without pictures

We went into town this morning and I found some fantastic fabric with sailing mathematical measurements on it. It is reserved for something for me. My sister-in-law came through with measurements on Lizzie, and they match a size 5 vintage (even though she is younger than Esme by several months, who wears a size 3 or 4 vintage with longer arms and legs). She had outgrown the 'frog' set I had sent to her (and a matching one to Emily) and was very upset this morning when her mama put it away and said it was too small. I have nearly finished a dress for her tonight and will do a try-on for Esme after the zipper is sewn in, and pictures tomorrow.


McCalls 8715
year was 1967
made the top view in size 5 for Lizzie

She gave me the four main measurements I needed to make a set of clothes that fit.
1.) Snug (but not tight) length around the natural waist (without bulky pants over it)
2.) Snug (but not tight) length around the hips at the widest part
3.) Snug (but not tight) length around the chest under the arms at the widest part.
4.) Length from hip bone to ankle bone along the side of the leg.

With anything long-sleeved that is meant to fit well - a fifth measurement from the top of the shoulder to the wrist bone would be included as well. I'm making her a dress that does not have to go all the way down to the wrist - so I didn't get that measurement. Men's shirts would also need a good neck measurement.

Esme has been FAIRLY good about letting me sew for the past three hours. But, she is getting antsy now that I'm off the machine and asking for 'Can I have a whee please?' (swing her around in a big bucket). Earlier today we went to the library and got a chicken leg and she was saying 'oh boy goody goody goody!' about both of those. It was VERY cute.

LATER: I made Esme her food and she sat down to eat and I sat down to sew in the zipper. Halfway through her plate she asked to go to bed - for ALL of us to go to bed, and got her blanket and her pillow and her frog all ready. BUT - that is really weird for her! She has all my mommy beacons saying 'is she sick?' but her temperature is normal. I put her remainder of her food in the fridge and put her to bed and she is fast asleep. I am caught between do I work on my knitting or start another dress for her that she can keep? Or - the pants? I promised Lizzie a pair of pants to go with the dress.

bits

I was told to 'shut up mumum' last night and also again this morning. I was not amused - and she did not get away with it. Both times I was telling her something she needed to do that she didn't want to hear me say - get her drink cup in the morning, and throw away her lollipop before she went to sleep at night. Since I've been home tonight she has been extremely good - almost darling at times. She asked for a bath immediately and washed her hair without too much fuss. She might even get the present 'The Blue Fairy' sent her in the car, but I've learned to be sparing with the presents because she wants me to play with them with her RIGHT THEN and it can actually cause a meltdown if something keeps me from it.

She asked for the movie Pinocchio this morning by asking for the movie with 'bad man and the donkeys.' We had to listen really close to understand - but I got it. She has said a few more descriptive things tonight as well - 'may I please have an m?' (m&m) and 'movie with the sheeps' for Shaun the Sheep, which was actually less descriptive than asking for 'Shaun'. Mark said she was a good girl on their town trip today as well, counting buttons for the lady at the co-op and jabbering to her nicely.

Typical day 38 months

Someone on Esme's forum asked what a typical day was for the rest of us...
so here it is, for lately in the winter months this is what we do every day. We watch a lot more TV now than we ever used when she was younger - but we still have times during the day we don't have anything on and she has to just accept that and find something to do. Even when it is on she is not glued to the set all of the time - because she knows what we have by heart. We have no broadcast TV at all - it is all dvds in our collections.

6:30-8:30 am: wake up by leaning on me over the side of our bed 'Mumum it morningtime - get up! I need apple jack bowl. I hungry! I need socks. Here's my drink cup. Fill it up! I need butt change, here pants. Here socks. Here shirt, no I like pretty shirt NO SHIRT. Ok, shirt. Come mumum... butt change, apple jack bowl!' etc etc. It gets more and more urgent and pleading until she decides it is time to crawl up on me and shake me some. I might get attacked by a dragon or get a kitty toy put on me etc etc... Usually I distract her with a few tasks before that - getting the socks and pants, or a diaper or drink cup all rounded up and ready to come with us. She is very good about not going elsewhere in the house until she has successfully roused Mom - but I'm pretty good about not falling back to sleep on her, as well. Rarely she wakes up before dawn and I have to argue with her about it not being light out yet - and she needs to go back to bed or read a book. She usually does - until just the very first light comes, and after that she won't take that as an excuse. If I have to go to work take the time after 7 or 9 am and hand it to Daddy until I get home. She will often argue with me about going to work and I will tell her they will get mad at me and I can't buy her fish stick if I don't go - so she gives me hug and kiss and says 'bye bye have a good day see you later.'

8:30-11 am: She eats her breakfast, gives the leftover milk to the dog, and helps bring the dishes downstairs with us. She will come downstairs with us several times during the morning and gets drink cup refilled, asks for cookies or crackers or wash her hands. She may have her first tantrum in here and be threatened to go outside or put back to bed - she complies 98% of the time and straightens up. There is usually a diaper change in there or use the potty or both. She will watch a movie or several episodes of a cartoon DVD and play with miscellaneous toys some requiring more participation from us than others. She asks for things, sings songs with me if I'm here, and asks if we are going to town or to see Grandma. Daddy may lay down for an extra nap if he needs to - and Mumum will play with Esme.

11 am - 1 pm: She will ask for lunch, sometimes decide on something and help Daddy prepare it, bring it upstairs and watch TV with him while they eat. She will watch me and/or him play on computer for a bit, read a book, play dollhouse, ask to draw or build or use playdough. If it is a Mom day home and nice we might go see Grandma between now and 3 pm for a visit. Sometimes we go out for lunch if we are going shopping on a day home, or even the library. Mom might start a project or go looking for one online. She is telling us she needs to be changed more often now right after it happens - so we are getting closer for her potty training to take better root.

2pm - 5 pm: Various TV old favorites may play, something Daddy wants to watch and Esme doesn't, or vintage cartoons or Electric Company. She usually gets involved in lots of toys or running around with the animals, helping us do laundry and/or dishes, sweep the house, play with Grandma at her house. She might ask to do letters or more playdough or blocks or toy family/dollhouse etc. She watches us work on our computers and work at our workstations. She tries to get us to play with her every minute and sometimes has to be told no - we are busy. She rides the dog and torments the cats and asks for snowballs and wash her hands and pull up her socks and 'can't pull' when she gets in dozens of precarious situations. She will ask for approximately three to five snacks in this time period and bring her own spoons/dishes etc to the sink and throw away her trash - but has to be reminded to pick up toys between her activities. She will usually be good about pick up put away if she wants something she has to ask for and we use it as a bargaining lever. She gets VERY VERY active and physical in the mid to late part of the day - she runs all over and climbs on things and drags things around the room... It can get exhausting!

5pm - 7pm: Daddy might be making dinner and sometimes Mumum is just coming home from work. If I'm not home yet she might be napping while he makes the dinner. She never takes a nap when I am home unless we have been out and about and done lots of things. She will usually throw a tantrum if Mumum is coming home - especially if Mum doesn't pay attention to her immediately and has groceries or lunch dishes to put away etc etc... We will all eat dinner together and then split the leftovers to the animals. She will help us bring things downstairs. She may throw another tantrum if she is getting tired. I will ask her if she needs to go bathtub with bubbles - and sometimes she will agree, sometimes we'll pass and sometimes I'll demand it.

7pm - 11pm: Sometimes I get home from work in this time period and she is already fast asleep - usually on my part of the bed on my blanket. If she wakes up I play with her and/or work at my workstation and/or a mixture of both. She will get changed to new and/or night clothes and her face and hands washed and her hair brushed sometimes if I wasn't able to convince her into a full bath. We might call Nana in Minnesota who talks on the phone at night. We may clean up or at least make her bed and get everything ready. She might throw a HUGE fit if she has been bad (trying to get attention by knocking something over or refusing to do something required like clear her bed or table or throw her food to the dog etc.) If she has done this we make her go sit in her bed too early, or ask her to settle down because we are settling down with handwork or reading etc... Sometimes we read a few books, but more often she asks for a bedtime type movie (cinderella, pinocchio, muppet show) something she knows every word and song in and she will begin to get blinky watching it and fall asleep between 9 and 11 at night. I get her into her bed before or after this moment with a fresh diaper, drink cup on her shelf, her frog and her blanket around her. Her kitten curls up behind her back and she reaches out her little fingers and I touch fingertips with her and she falls asleep.


A typical scene at our house just before she goes to sleep
The Suki cat sleeps here with her most nights.

The baby gate is still up behind the bed actually mostly to keep the dogs out of her bed and most of her room where they would like to chew up her toys and blocks. It has worked pretty well - but she is a monkey and OFTEN crawls on TOP of the bed and over the gate to the table top. But, at least she is agile enough now to do this successfully.

Playtime

Lining up her markers


Using each marker once before setting it in line

Esme has this weird 'process' behavior when she is playing often. It's what Mark calls her 'accountant' behavior. She will open every single marker in succession - putting the cap in a pile, drawing a line, standing up the marker in a line with the others, until all the markers are used. Then she draws for a few seconds to a minute - then we make her put them away if she is going to do something else.

But when she plays with her little figures the process does not take over - she plays with them riding horses and sitting in chairs and needing keys to get in the door of the house, riding in cars and flying in planes, eating food, taking baths in teacups and giving kisses and hugs. I love these Playmobil '1 2 3' figures we bought for her when she was about two. I had 'old' Playmobil when I was a kid (klicky) cowboys, horses and indians - so I was already biased towards them before I bought this set for her. I'm even more impressed now after a year or more.


Baby doll riding horse

Most of the figures have survived up until now because I was diligent about finding them when they were missing. Thus, she also finds it important to keep them where we can see them or help me find them when they are missing. They are easy to clean and hair and junk does not stick to them. None of them have ever come apart. She also has a family of older 'Loving family' dollhouse mom, dad and baby. They sometimes are included with the playmobil family (grandparents and little girls, baby, dog, horse, cow, pig) and the Schleich cat I bought her for Christmas as her entire 'family' set to have adventures with. Now, combined with the dollhouse and it's furniture (a used set given to her for Christmas by a 'Santa' Claus) they have chairs and beds and an oven to cook donuts in :)

little bits

There is a lot more imagination going on - just all over the place. The other day she saw a bra laying with the clothes and said it was a butterfly, it go fly fly fly. She was disappointed when I pointed out what it really was! When she was in the bathtub tonight she told me the flowers were all gone - I told her they had died and she said 'they boomed! pow pow pow! booooom all gone!' complete with 'six-shooter' type hand gestures. She has been watching too many Looney Tunes. She saw Daddy smoking his pipe the other day and said 'oh no a FIRE save me protect me it burn up it FIRE seee--moke!' She sees him smoke it many times a day but wanted to pretend it was a fire that time. In her Fantasia DVD there is a part where there is lava and fire burning things and she has been crying 'save me' during that part and making me hold on to her for a little while - but it isn't real fear, just pretend playing.

She has also learned tonight how to sneak up on Daddy like Elmer Fudd - 'be very very quiet, we are hunting Daddys' - complete with hunching down on tiptoe with hands out like a T-Rex to sneak up quietly and then when she catches him she tickles him and kisses at him. Haha! Then she tells me to 'try that - you try that! come come come!'

She had a pen tonight and we asked her to find the cap for it because it was gone. She said it was 'over there', pointed in the direction of her toybox (with the trash can beyond it) and then turned around and wouldn't answer me. She sat down on her chair with her back to me and crossed her arms and refused to go find it. I think she has thrown it away and is not sure what to say. When Daddy told her he was serious go find it she said 'oh no!' and came to hide in my lap but she would not find it... so I really do think she threw it away.

I asked her where my eyeballs were earlier because Daddy showed me an awful thing on Reddit. I said I had lost them on the floor and she had to find them. She found these little cup and ball things Grandma had sent down that have black spheres on the end of little strings. She held them up and said 'here eyeball - put back!'. Very funny. She thought it was funny, too - and was quite proud of herself for finding something that 'fit the bill' of the joke.

She is learning the 'aweem a way' part to In the Jungle and will sing more of the Witch Doctor song and 'Ding dong the witch is dead'. It's odd what songs she actually picks up on and most others she just says 'uh uh' and won't say at all. Right after I got home tonight she was running in front of me in the kitchen and tripped over a ball in front of us and smacked herself on the floor. I was all worried but before a minute had passed she was asking for ravioli again. She has a lump but then I saw her try to ride Bunny dog later and thump down on the floor on her arm -- so she's going to thump herself whether I'm in the immediate vicinity or not... *sigh* good thing they're made of rubber at this age (Mark says this a lot).

We also have a bit of a milestone - she asked to pee on the big potty today and didn't cry and scream after being placed there. She didn't actually go but she tried and didn't cry even a little bit about it - so... we're making some progress at her own pace.

I am waiting on Wednesday for a day off - and for all this weather to be done with. It is impending snow again tomorrow and the next day. And we are sending good thoughts to Grandpa that the doctor can give him something for his cold!


Simplicity 6242
is a pretty good description of what I've altered my Butterick 2194 to be
but available in other sizes.

Work hard, play hard, sleep hard

Pictures from a few days ago.


Work hard,
HEAVE! Pulling all of her toys around the room in a big bucket

play hard,

Playdough kangaroos go hop hop hop to Mommy


sleep hard
napping on Mom's pillow and blanket...
smells like Mom here.

She didn't want me to go to work again this morning -- I told her they would get mad at me and not let me buy fish sticks if I didn't go to work - so she gave me a hug and kiss and said 'have good day' even though she really wanted to play. She was asleep again when I got home from work. Daddy said she has been very busy all day long while I was gone. I'm working on a pair of pants that have been sitting on my worktable for a few weeks. I'm thinking of making another one of these 'Cinderella' type dresses for her again because the red one is a bit bulkier and this one is just so perfect... The dogs ripped the back ties off of the cow dress and it is wearable but does have a hole in the back of it. *sigh*

Purple Yellow Yarn Cardigan

handknit cardigan - 3 years

This is my first handmade completed sweater, ever! I've learned a lot in my dressmaking adventures that has helped me to make this one fit pretty well.

Esme's choice of yarn for part of her Christmas present from Nana in Minnesota - although she didn't know that :) She had a gift card from Nana and the toy she chose wasn't enough to use all of it - so I asked her to pick a yarn that wouldn't blind Daddy like the bright pink from her scarf. She picked this color and called it 'purple yellow yarn.' Eventually, I knew what I wanted to make for her out of it.

This is the 'seed stitch cardigan' from the Lion Brand Yarn website. But it is altered, of course, being me. The pattern has pattern pictures and measurements in it instead of just 'k1p1' type instructions all the way through. I am awful at following knitting instructions bit by bit - I want to look at the whole pattern like a dressmaking pattern... so that was perfect for me. I was able to knit to match the measurements with this yarn (Red Heart Melonberry multicolor) and make changes to it by treating it like a fabric pattern. I had size 10 needles, even though the pattern called for size 8... so I was further in 'No-Man's Land' to following the pattern at all. I had laid the front panel on top of her while she slept on our bed one night and it didn't even go up to her shoulder.... I added the 'peppered' seed stitch shoulder panels because I knew it wouldn't go over her handmade dresses. When I had done that altering the sleeve was not hard at all - and adding on two inches to the length of each sleeve because my measuring tape said their 10 inches was much too short for her! Seeing it on her I am very glad I did lengthen them - they are just right.

I would knit the collar on AFTER the buttonbands next time - not before. It is much too small for the rest of the sweater. In fact, it could be removed and redone. I am going to recast on and make some loose ribbing on the bottom for a few inches to keep it from flipping up like it is doing. I hope I'll get a good 'after' picture :) She does like it and put it on pretty readily after I had hidden her other coat at Grandma's *ha* Once she heard that was her 'new jacket' she put it on and didn't fuss looking for the one she had worn in. Mumum does things like that!

other note: The buttons are vintage somethings from a box of buttons Diana at work gave to us. I thought they were so pretty.. and so glad I could use them on something.


back of the cardigan
worn over handmade tieback 'Cinderella' dress and handmade pants


side and shoulder
Added more here so it would fit over handmade dresses

NOTE: While Esme watched Pinocchio tonight (and was entranced) I picked up the bottom edge on six double pointed needles and knit a 3-1 ribbing all around. It worked! It looks great and I hope it will still fit just as fine (it should). I don't think I'll mess with the collar - it is a functional garment and it will get a lot of good use :)

The whole cardigan took about a week of 'in-between' times, lunch hours and breaks at work and a few days off when I asked Esme to 'let Mumum work' during some parts of the day -- something I usually can't let myself do because I feel so guilty about it! She was giving me two of all of her toys today while I was trying to put the last row and bind-off on that ribbing... and I felt so guilty not playing with her - especially when she gave me the 'far-off sadness' look and THEN... of course... when I stopped knitting and gave her my full attention - she didn't want to play with ME, she was 'busy' with her lincoln logs throwing them between containers. ha. mirror child - what I give I get. She is sitting in bed now watching Cinderella and snuggling Daddy and nearly asleep.

little words and larger ideas

Esme has surprised me SO much the past few days -- definitely another language spurt going on, now she is using some of the little words (with/for/so/there/all/now) and more phrases we've said for a long time but she has never used on her own.

'You're silly - not a dragon - you the daddy!'
'Daddy I fix - you the rebot (robot) (bloop bloop - push "buttons" on chest) - there I fixed - Daddy you fixed!'
'Mumumum you come with downstairs get apple jack bowl! You cold? Here - you get coat (tosses blanket at me)- here - you put on - you PUT ON coat, come with, downstairs apple jack bowl bring upstairs sit on Tee (sit down and turn on tv)'
To us while we sit in our chairs at our desks : 'Mumum - you play with yarn? (knitting.. yes!) Daddy - you play with orange juice?' (haha - not quite right - but she was trying to compare)
'I put in the hamper - I put - I did it - I put it IN THERE.'
'You make the coffee Mumum? This coffee cup. It empty! You drink ALL? Good job mumum you drink all it empty - go put in sink! We come with (go together) (she gets her drink cup and tells me to get mine and prepares to march with me downstairs to do our drink cup manipulations together)'
'Daddy - you fill up the drink cup - thank you Daddy! You good job fill up the drink cup it all fill up!' (he did it when she didn't see)
'You take IT. TAKE! That's better. I take. We come with.'

When asked to find four quarters so she could bring them to get a chicken leg tomorrow she wrinkled her little nose at me in deep thought. Then she said 'I got it!' and went and asked Daddy for a quarter. He gave her a dollar (big!) and we said it was the same as four quarters and she had to put it in her music box so she could get a chicken leg - and don't lose it! and don't let a kitty or a doggie eat it! She put it in the music box for a while, then took it out and showed the mouse inside the music box 'I got a DOLLAR! I got a dollar!' and then asked for a quarter for her jellybeans... Daddy said she could give the dollar to Mumum and get FOUR jellybeans tonight, or save it until morningtime and get a chicken leg. She wrinkled her little nose again and thought hard - and then found her dinosaur book and put the dollar inside there with lots of 'rars' and 'you go RAR - bite - no fighting!' to the dinosaurs in the book on every page. I think she wanted the dinosaurs to protect the dollar from the doggies and kitties and wasn't sure what the mouse in the music box was going to do with it! It is still in the book, I think. She also told me that all the dinosaurs in the book were actually dinosaurs (instead of dragons) except for the pictures of them as bones - those are 'dragon parts'. I am not sure at all where that comes from.. or the idea that Daddy was a 'rebot'(robot) earlier and she had to fix him. Her imagination is really taking off!

And she is the most polite three-year-old we've ever met with her thank yous and you're welcomes. That's wonderful :)

Happy birthday Grandma :)

Mark and Esme might come visit you a little later today, and bring something I have here. I had Esme call you on the phone because she didn't want to sit still at all for a picture this morning. I mostly got pictures of her dragging her toy bucket around, things flying through the air, and the back of her head as she said 'Happy birthday' and turned away from the camera at the same time. Ha. Yes, mumum and daddy are shutterbugs and she is learning the Greta Garbo pose.

I noticed another uptick in her language starting yesterday (probably before). She is saying things like 'Here, you take it. Take it!', 'Get out of there, get out from in there, kitty. What are you doing in there, kitty?' and 'pull socks up please', 'come with - we go downstairs.' All of those are more complete than she has done before. She has also begun a bit further abstract thinking. In 'morningtime' she told me to get up - and I said I was cold. She told me to get up out of bed and put on my coat (a blanket I wear downstairs around my shoulders', tugged the blanket off the bed and shoved it at me. She corrected it to 'blanket' but was insistent it was a 'coat' at first, because of how I use it. She has started to get more of 'witch doctor (oo ee oo ah ah, ting tang, walla walla bing bang)' song memorized but won't do it very much for Daddy. Last night when I got home she came with me downstairs and said 'Ravioli, where are you? You in fridge? Ravioli?' in a ploy to get a snack. 'Pizza? I like the pizza. yea, I like it.' but then she didn't eat the quarter of a mini pizza I gave up to her on an extra plate. I had just come home late from work - so she just wanted to be with me and be involved.

Now she is demanding Mr.Frog be dressed up in her clothes again and walk around the house with her. She has been having more 'discussions' with him and hugging him while she sits in her bed watching Cinderella at night, long before she uses him as a pillow to go to bed. Now they are sitting having 'tea' and talking about the weather (It snow, you see the snow?') and she gave him a kiss when I took the last picture here because (You frog, Grandma see you!).



Frog wear dress
(Her idea - I put it on him for her)


Frog sit chair


Frog have tea
(I found her teapot and a cup for her - she asked for plates and food)

little bits and pieces

The other day Mark thought Esme was getting a cavity in her front canine tooth - but I think it was just a dark bit of something stuck there, because it is gone now and there is just white tooth. He is really worried she will have 'bad teeth' like he did as a child - cavities everywhere at an early age etc. I do have a dental plan for her now but have yet to find a dentist in this rural area that will accept it - have not done much hard looking, yet, though. I have to do that for myself, as well, and have not yet gotten to it. I don't want to drive to Jackson just for a cleaning!

It is snowing outside again - this weather really has me upside-down. I know I lived most of my life in an environment full of snow half the year, and yet it freezes me with fear now that I might have to get Mark out there to dislocate the vehicle from a ditch - and Esme is still so little etc...

She woke up at 1 this morning and told me it was morningtime. She cried loudly because I told her it wasn't. The rule is you have to be able to see the trees outside for the sun to be up - and that is morningtime. If it is not morningtime (or some other emergency) we sleep in our beds, or at least lay in them and read books etc... She said 'I cry!' and I asked her why - did she hurt or was she scared and she just kept saying 'I cry!' and laying her head and arms down over my arms in my bed and trying to sleep standing up without success. She went back to her bed for about an hour, after Daddy asked her if she wanted to sleep inside or outside (ha - it works as a threat tactic), and was back at my side again asking to sleep on me, but not crying loudly. She hasn't done this in a VERY long time, if ever- ask to sleep in our bed. I think she had a bad dream but couldn't remember what was bad about it when she woke up. Most of the time when she has a nightmare she stays in her bed and cries, and I go ask her what is wrong and tuck her back in and she is fine. _I_ was having a bad dream the first time she woke me up. It was about kittens in aquariums and being unable to get them out... a recurring dream for me, that or fish in the air and unable to get them back IN... ((I have an odd brain, but that is well documented.)) Maybe she woke up because she sensed my nightmare. I wouldn't put that past her, as she is sensitive. She slept draped over my side and shoulders until 5 am when she would finally go back to her bed and sleep until 'morningtime' when the sun was up. I was luckier than that, she slept until 9 am ;)

A green feather

Esme has found a green feather from her craft kit and is playing with the air vents. And then she got it stuck on her head and couldn't find it! HAHA. She has been playing this game for about a half hour tossing it, brushing it, waving it.... watching it flutter with the mysterious air out of the vent. This is another one of those 'little scientist' moments I love to see as she grows -- why does it do this? what is it doing? what else does it do? Now she is having me blow it through the air and doing it herself - then comparing it back to what happens at the vent.


seeing what it does


took her a few seconds to find it


playing 'boo'


part of her expression after being shown the picture with the feather on her head

little bits and pieces

This morning Esme made me laugh really hard. She has been asking me to make penguins out of playdough - a daddy penguin and a baby. The daddy needs a 'hat' - she says. They eat donuts, she says. The donuts get cooked in the oven of the dollhouse. She took the 'daddy' penguin over to the calendar that is still up from last month, which has stickers of penguins wearing hats. She holds him up next to the other penguins and compares my 'work of art' to those -- gets an odd look on her face, then starts telling me they have hats and this 'penguin' needs a hat. But she was definitely trying to see what the similarity was between the two that made them both penguins.

We also made bunny rabbits and elephants, mothers and babies, yesterday of playdough. She asks for what she wants - and I try to make it. All the mothers and babies introduced each other, gave hugs and played ball. She told the baby elephant it could fly - and it said it didn't know how. So she went and dug around in her room until she found her mumum angel wing cow and it gave the baby lessons. Later at night she dug around in her room again and found the 'baby' cow she got for her birthday and the mumum and baby cow had donuts in the dollhouse and did a lot of playacting falling down, feeding, going to sleep etc etc. Her playacting between moms and dads and babies is SO cute - hugs and help and daily routine.

She is taking another language leap - more in understanding and some in spoken. She understood what I meant about her soup being too hot that is why I gave her dry cereal beside it to eat until it got 'not hot'. She was fussing about it being hot and stopped, thought about what I said, and said 'oh okay...' and started to eat the cereal. Last night it was too cold in the bathroom for a full bath and she threw a HUGE fit about that - as expected.. but after she said her pajamas were warm upstairs I reminded her I was saying she needed her pajamas because the bathroom was too cold.. and she stopped, looked me in the eyes, and hugged me in an odd clinging 'I'm limp but don't let me go' way for a while before calming right down.

Her baby kitty woke her up in the middle of the night by rubbing up against her. She does this often. I told Mark to take a look, as the cat was demanding attention from the sleeping girl. The kitty and her tried about three different positions and then Esme, still half-asleep, said something incomprehensible, picked the cat up and threw her on the floor, pulled her blankets back around herself, and went back to sleep. The cat crept back up and settled at her feet smugly. Mark and I both laughed as quietly as we could so we wouldn't wake her up.

This morning her frog had fallen out of bed and she told him 'oh.. don't worry, don't worry, I've got you little one. There. You go sleep.' and put him back on her pillow. She has been saying 'Now I've got you!' in a dramatic voice often to her toys during playfights. She repeats a lot of strange cartoon things out of her old Disney and warner brothers cartoons, including tom and jerry and mickey mouse and donald duck etc.. Mark has collections that go all over the place - 1940s and up. Esme likes baseball and was repeating the 'windup' from a goofy short the other day to Grandpa, but she wouldn't do it for Grandma and I. She also saw a tree across the legs of someone in a cartoon and did that to me at home with the broom saying 'I stuck I stuck - a tree fall down and I stuck!' I rolled my eyes at her but laughed.

She also had her army men after the dragon yesterday. But the dragon isn't always mean - and I had one of the army men make up with the dragon, give him hugs and tell the other army men not to be mean to him. She wasn't sure what to do with that - but after a few minutes she got on board and the dragon was a nice dragon who licked the army men and the dragon was dancing to her music box. He opened it with his nose, so she opened it with her nose the next time.

I really love her imagination, her compassion and her very very sweet nature.

playing with the dollhouse

This has quarters!

Nova has grown so much!

Can I sit there?

mousies sit here

stay in drawer!

Call Nana on the phone and tell her about the dollhouse!

little bits and pieces

I laugh myself when I hear Esme wake up in the middle of the night and start laughing at something she was dreaming about, then hug her pillow and go back to sleep. It is just so beautiful. Once in a while I know exactly what it was she was dreaming about - she says a word, or the laugh is just like something that happened today (when the kid lost all his 'quarters' (change) on the floor at the store and she laughed at him etc..) She also wakes up halfway and cries out for me once in a while, 'mumum give hand I fall down!' etc. And she will have one leg out of her bed and can't get it back because the blanket is twisted etc... I want to remember that when she is older. She is usually not even fully awake - and I doubt she remembers it the next morning, either.

I found it quite cool today when she was playing with a little bed out of the dollhouse. It has a trundle drawer that comes out with a switch on the pillow, but the catch on the drawer only works if it is pressed in really hard or from both ends at once. I showed Esme that the drawer had two little 'dots' on it spaced apart from each other, and to put her thumb and forefinger one on each dot when she pushed it in and she wouldn't be struggling with it not closing for her(I can't pull - Mumum do). It did not take very long before she understood what I meant (every time I did it the drawer stayed in easily.. while she has to fight it). I thought the idea of pushing two places at once on the drawer might be too detailed for her right now - but she tried pushing one, then the other - then both at the same time and it worked. She was slightly impressed, but then tried not to show it and went off to sit in her bucket with the toy :)

She also caught her kitten today and brought her upstairs to Daddy to 'throw outside - no poop in the house - bad kitten!' She got all 'benevolent dictator' after seeing me clean something up. She asked me to get the kitten and throw her out. She was insistent about it. I told her I couldn't catch the kitty but maybe she could. She did. And then she brought her to Daddy and he opened the front door for her. When she saw the kitten asking to come in a few minutes later she told her again that she was a bad kitty, but a funny kitty, and she would need to stay outside. Then she wouldn't eat her pieces of chicken on her plate because she said they looked like kitty poop. *roll eyes*

In other news: I have the second glove down to knitting the fingers, and have made a few other odd items. I've shrunk the fish pattern down, but it was TOO small - so need to make it a little bigger than that. I have all these thoughts that run through my head when I am waking up - things to make, fabric patterns I'd love to have printed... I really need to work more on a book to publish with all of my toy patterns in it and other little crafts/excerpts.

Working on making a few more fabric designs but haven't printed any of them out yet. They are 5.00 per swatch, or 20.00 for 12 swatches (35 for 24) if ordered at once. I'm stuck between a few designs, but ending up with some good ones. I might just save all of the designs for a few more months and order the lot. After they are swatched they can be put up for sale on the 'print-on-demand' site, and if anyone else wants to buy them I would get ten percent of the sales. Pretty cool!

38 month update

She is using her name (sounds like 'Ee-me') in sentences more often and getting plenty of use out of the word 'No.' We tell her OFTEN that she is a 'Bossy Cow, now go moo' when she is being difficult ordering us around then refusing to do as she is told etc. Some mornings she is sweet as sugar as soon as she wakes up - until the point comes that she needs to go potty and get her clothes changed etc etc.. then she throws an absolute fit. Yesterday morning she did the potty part for me just fine - but the clothes change she refused, even when it was the cow dress. Part of that is she is still being obstinate about putting anything over her head. She screams 'no' at the top of her lungs and is strong enough to make it impossible to dress her if she is not cooperating. After she gets changed and clothed she gets her breakfast and is usually sweet again.

New word/phrases are 'thank you SO MUCH', 'oh boy' and 'you throw a trash for me'. Every morning I am asked to 'get up - I want to play with you' and other things. She is using a lot closer to complete sentences in some places, and I can understand the difference between similar words a little better - but sometimes it is still very contextual. She prattles on while she plays and I can understand a lot of that at a distance. She has an excellent memory. She repeats entire bits of shows she knows - sings along with songs she doesn't know the meaning of the words etc -- almost as if she isn't even paying attention to the screen at all. She will be across the house and I'll hear 'an actor's life for me' sung along to or an entire Fozzie bear routine repeated word for word with the tv. That is eerie, but at least I know her hearing is excellent. ;) She probably has the visual half of it going on in her memory like I do - and my mom said I would talk along with her 8-tracks as a young child when she had them playing in the other room. So, yes, she comes by the eerieness naturally.

She likes to get the chance to make choices - but she hates to actually make them, and sometimes that will set her off - whether it is you or her or Daddy that made the choice she is upset because it was made?? Sometimes she invites us to play something still and then decides that no, that wasn't a good idea, and she becomes a sourpuss for a while. Normal toddler things, but it is trying at times.

Bedtime can be just as much of a trial and other nights she crawls into her bed all by herself, asks for a blanket and goes to sleep without a word of argument. Some nights she wants me to read the entire book collection to her and gets mad when I stop at two or three. I still have to offer her deals sometimes to get her to do what we need done (diaper change, hair put up etc) -- negative discipline will make her lay down and cry, not do the action. I have to 'use the carrot' and if it is the right carrot she will comply and cooperate. I worry (I'm always the worrier) that she will be 'spoiled' by this, but I'm certain sticking to what works and trying to direct her to better or self-rewards in the future is the right path. It works, don't break it etc.

PT is going about as well as can be expected - she has the idea down and knows she gets the reward and upset otherwise... but I don't have the time at home to be the enforcer. She will tell me NO one second while she is in her training shorts and then pee on the floor within the same minute, grab my leg and tell me that 'Big Red Dog' told her she needs to go potty for a lollipop, and then go put what she was able to hold in the potty. She can at least pull her shorts down now - but she still takes them ALL the way off. One of her problems is she sees it as a 'produce' idea instead of a 'capture'... she will pee on the floor then go to the chair and be mad because she has none left to 'produce' to get the treat. ?? *sigh* Mark keeps saying she'll get it when she is ready - and that is what the other moms on the forum are saying as well. Some of them had four-year-olds that just 'understood' finally and worked harder towards getting it right.

She shows a lot of empathy towards us and the animals when she thinks we are hurt - and she hardly ever tries to smack anyone etc..she plays caretaker with her toys often in the same way 'you fall down? you alright? you wake up and have bath kitty' etc. When Daddy was sick she tried to give him belly raspberries again because that seemed to make Mumum laugh when she was sick. And when I told her his nose hurt she wanted to check it out and see why it hurt. When Daddy said he was scared and needed a hug from Mumum because it was too cold outside she pointed at his jacket and said he needed to go put his shirt on NOW. I expected to hear 'and now Buster' or something like that from her to go with the scowling pouty-lipped expression and the pointing finger. We laughed.

She has a lot of imaginative play - making stories and games for her little figures. She likes playdough, still figuring out all that can be done with it. She pretends to be a doggy or kitty often and interchanges the role every few seconds at times. One of her favorite activities is still to throw a bunch of toys in a box, sit in it, and throw them back out. She repeats this over and over and over.... that gets tedious. But she will engage in story play and building with me sometimes and stop the 'accountant' repetition of tossing things back and forth between containers -- some days it takes more than others to get her into something else. There is not as much block building as there used to be - but more playdough and she has taken up drawing on her easel once in a while again. Still very creative - was using the metal handle of a flyswatter in a bucket to collect magnetic letters and then naming them off as she dropped them back in. Her 'reading' is about the same, she names off the sounds of each letter and then tries to guess at what the word is. I should be doing more with that with her again - she has said 'no' to watching WordWorld lately on the computer mostly because of the lag time. Counting is the same - she demands 'one two three' or five or twelve of whatever treat she wants.

Extra notes: (1/11) I've seen her do the 'splits' several times and demand me to do it as well. She is doing a lot more comparing things in pictures to things in real life - and asking about why things are called with certain words instead of others etc. I told her she had a 'potato head' toy and she insists I call him 'potato boy' instead. etc. She compared her 'daddy penguin' playdough creature to a sticker of a 'daddy penguin' (penguin with a hat) on the calendar. She has also surprised me a little this month with diving/digging in her mounds of toys and finding something that has some connection with something else we are playing with - another horse, a baby cow to the mumum cow, etc... I can see her understanding more complex ideas and trying to put them all together. She asked me to make a 'birthday cake' out of some brown playdough. I made a donut instead, and a baby penguin. So the cow flashlight ate the donut but sometimes ate the baby penguin and then the daddy got worried and went crying for the baby etc etc.. She put the donut in the oven of the dollhouse and told it 'cook cook' and had the baby penguin dance in front of the oven ( like she does when she is watching her fish sticks cook) and then the daddy and the baby penguin took it out of the oven and 'ate' the donut.