my child is a monkey

Our girl is a monkey. And Ninja the orange cat is not amused, much.

bits

I want to remember: Esme sitting under the kitchen table with her little monkey/lion/elephant noisy toy pretending it is a piano and bashing the 'keys' singing 'Everybody, Everybody..... Everybody wants to be a cat.' over and over. Then she drags the toy vacuum cleaner over to me and says 'you get the violin' and expects me to make 'boom boom boom' base noises for the song using the vacuum as a base cello. HA. She is such a cool kid.

Work has been slamming me mentally and time-wise lately... which is obvious with my nearly five day hiatus. I got a small pumpkin out of the garden this morning and an assembly of squashes. Things are getting a little overgrown out there, and I don't have any more time off until Sunday. Esme is asleep now when I get home, and it is really too late for me to do much. It has been that way all week. I do have some soup on the stove with all the leftover bits from the garden and the last of the pumpkin pulp from last week.

more bits

Esme can bring her sports bottle down to the sink, take the top off, use her stool to climb up to the faucet, turn the faucet on, fill the bottle, and put the screw top back on. The clinch comes when she wants to put a small amount of orange juice or peach juice as flavoring into it, as we do for her. She can get that out of the fridge, but she needs help with pouring the container into the tiny hole in the top of the bottle. That is completely understandable. But, she is 90% of the way there. And she hadn't told Mama about it, just Daddy. I got to see it last night. :)

She also confused me terribly last night. We were watching an episode of the Simpsons and I was attempting to nap. During the intro she says 'Shakespeare. Shakesepare right there.' I had Mark roll it back expecting maybe she was seeing the bust of Beethoven in the saxophone scene... but no, she was saying Shakespeare when Maggie goes across the checkout lane and is handed back to Marge. ??? I have no idea. But, I think I'll put up a 'bust' type image on her computer another day and see if she calls it Shakespeare. Her timing might have just been off when she said that - as the Beethoven bust is in the next scene. Other than that, I have no clue.

Our Bunny dog came in hurt again last night. It isn't major but she isn't comfortable either.

LÔ @ la folie emilie : I did get my drawing done in the sketchbook, and will post it soon.

bits

This is Esme on her new laptop computer.
"No, I am NOT cute", she says

Well, it's not a NEW laptop.. it's an old laptop, but it is new to her. Daddy has put several games on it for her that are appropriate and blocked other things. And, because she can't spell well (she spelled cat as 'cvd' today) she can't get anywhere in the URL box yet, only click on icons in the toolbar and click on things from there.


In our super geeky computer office,
all of the rest of the keyboards and monitors in
the background belong to Daddy's ONE computer!

Mark canned up six pints of thick homegrown tomato sauce last night. He was up half the night. We plan to use it on a pizza soon. We had to go to town to get some plumbing things, the pie plate I wanted and a few other things. I replaced our kitchen faucet, which was difficult as the connections had corroded on hard enough to require some serious elbow grease to get them off. It all seems to be solid and not dripping etc.

I have some fabric washing and drying to make another pair of drawstring pants for myself, and trim out the green dress I was wearing again yesterday. The sleeves are still unfinished, and Esme kept trying to put tomatoes in the pockets which were non-existant. So, it needs pockets in the skirt!

Esme is looking very cute in her braids, playing Sushi Cat and eating multigrain Pringles chips she chose for a treat at the store. She was quite unhappy earlier as she wanted to help me with all of the faucet things and I tend to get a little 'go away until I'm done with this' when a hands-on project isn't coming easily. But, as soon as I got it finished it was all good. We have Jell-O in the fridge and another pumpkin to harvest from the garden, soon!

More: As I was up under the sink earlier tonight I was feeling more respect for the huge plumber types who squeeze into tiny spaces and reach far up over their heads at awkward angles. I had not realized just how wide my shoulders are until I tried to get in and out of the cabinet doors over and over again. I had also not thought about how difficult it is to lay on your back and reach up with a pair of heavy pliers again and again to try to loosen supply lines. I was using muscles I didn't know I had, and wishing they were more developed ones! Between that and shaking a tupperware container to mix the strawberry pudding (Esme thought it was yogurt!) up consistently, all sorts of tiny unexpected muscles were overused today. Esme has been introduced to MSPaint on the computer, and is creating quite impressive color block and line drawings. The third pumpkin, about a six pounder, was brought in and put in storage. The 'lasagna' type pie we made for dinner was not quite what we wanted it to be - but it wasn't a whole loss, either. I need to experiment with different kinds of pie crust recipes, as the boxed version I used tonight was brittle and oily. The drawstring pants have a slight pull to one side - needed to trim the reversed pieces to match each other perfectly after they were cut out of the main pattern - and I did not do that step. The resulting pants are wearable but just very slightly strange in both look and feel. They are a modern size twelve which means there is not as much room for error as there had been when I was making size sixteen and just using the drawstring to keep them tight.

It has been a long day!

Even bigger pumpkin!

The second pumpkin from the garden

This one is huge! There are also three or four more coming that are much smaller. This one was our 'hiding' pumpkin, all the way over in the middle of the zucchini!

Esme insisted on wearing this HOT long sleeved dress today after she came in from a brief attempt to sit outside in the heat advisory type weather. She brought it to Daddy and said she had to have this on. He thinks it is because after she came in from outside she was COLD in the air conditioning and wanted something warm. She has been inside since then, so it hasn't been a terrible choice.

She is still having a very good time with her computer, which has several thinking skill games loaded on it besides her Starfall. We have turned a corner with her in the imagination department, I feel - as I listen to her saying 'What you red one why you kill my bubble?' on one game, and saying 'no no kitty not that way you not supposed to go that way bad kitty ARGRGAH.. here kitty...' on the other. It is quite funny. I also heard her in the bathtub last night saying 'ICE. I got you now. You got ICE, so slippery! You fall down! HAHAHAHAHAAHA I got you in ICE.' She was pointing with her finger then saying 'that is ICE' and rubbing soap down the side of the tub wall and making her toys 'fall' on it. She has been watching The Incredibles and she loves the ice spraying character Frozone - and I could tell by her body language she was pretending she was him!


Simplicity 1936

I'm on the lookout for one of this pattern in size 4 or 5, at a not insane price. By the looks of the market at the moment I'll need to look a bit longer! I know the pattern is made up to size 6, and saw a few of both of the other sizes 'out there' but they were either combined with other patterns I don't need or had an insane price/shipping combination.

NOTES: I was down in the valley playing 'Jane of the Jungle' checking on all the seeds that were planted on my birthday and also on Esme's 'experiment' beans. The beans are starting to produce a bit, and it will be nice if they produce some mature seeds to save to plant next year - make Esme and I a 'wild bean' package ;) I also collected some of the marigold and zinnia seeds to save for next year. It felt like I was a kid myself to running around the valley looking at semi-hidden plants and watering them bit by bit.

Blue yoke shirt jacket, sunflowers and more

The first of the sunflowers is starting to open. They are 'Lemon Ice' heirloom breed, gotten free with one of our squash seeds.


The other tremendous pumpkin in the garden is starting to turn orange


The pattern is Simplicity 6121.

I received it in the mail yesterday, and worked one up last night. I'm not happy with the collar :( Collars are definitely something I will have to work on. The pattern had no 'stand' or small band that goes between the collar and the shirt... but I might have to make one for the second try. I might also have cut the collar on the bias.. but didn't. The yoke's points will need to be worked on better, too... but considering the medium amount of care I placed on making them last night they turned out better than expected.



She swears it is not too long for her and that it is a jacket for *brr* cold. I did think the sleeves were extremely well designed. They were easy to set in and also move nicely when she does.


It goes down to her knees and she wore it for about fifteen minutes until I told her it was too hot for it outside


The yoke fabric is an Aunt Grace scrapbag print.



I'll have to practice the sort of pattern quite a bit more - but making the buttonhole by hand worked much better than any work on the machine has done.


Bunny, our Staffordshire, finds a duckie in her water dish and is amused.


The fence is being 'eaten' by the other squash plants. See the one growing right ON the lightweight fence? I think it is a Turk's turban, but it might be a Jarrahdale. I hope it survives. It might rot there, though :(

//NOTE// : More imagination antics today. Esme found a pink puppy watch that was a Happy Meal item a friend at work gave her - and she held up one little finger and said 'Oh, I got 15 minutes - I have to go to work!' and went out the door. She came back in (because we didn't follow) and said 'OH NO! There is a monster out there.' We said 'oh, okay.. , out on the porch? Maybe you shouldn't go out there, then.' To that, she grabbed a 'bazooka' type toy that was in her toybox and said 'This will work.' She went back out on the porch and pretended to have a fight with the monster. Mark said 'that's my girl - don't settle for hiding in the house, get that monster!' Later she was filling a small wagon up with water in our bathtub and saying 'I got my coffee.. oops! I dropped my coffee! It's all gone! I need more!' over and over... I am pretty sure it was a comment on Mama for drinking so many cups ;)

She also was a half-terror at her grandparents, asking for all food under the sun after she had already eaten. She did eat some of it.. which was decent. The visit ended in embarrassment for her. I was most upset that she did not even SAY anything at all... we have been working on it but it is just going to take heaps of patience, mostly on Mama's side of the issue. I marched her home, got her cleaned up and gave her a cup of milk to drink while she watched Clifford. That worked as sneakily planned. She went to sleep on our bed and we went downstairs to can our tomatoes and get ready to jar up the pickles which have been soaking in brine and vinegar for 8 days. There are eighteen half-pints sitting on the table and more in the pressure canner starting to heat up.

Large Harvest with little helper

Two pumpkins
the orange one will become a pie ;)


Large harvest!

We are getting ready to can the tomatoes. Mark got out the pressure canner and we are reading up what to do. I cut up a LOT of zucchini and other squashes and put them in the freezer.


helping open pinto beans


A bean!

Esme was more help than I thought in opening and shelling the beans. I had to start each one and make sure she didn't put any 'bad ones' into the good pot - but she had fun and was sad when they were all done.


A tantrum, non productive!


pinto beans

Over the past few weeks I've been eating most of the pintos and drying a few at a time. The ones already dried are in the ziploc bag. I put some more from this larger harvest into the pint jar with rice to dry. The jar gets covered with a coffee filter and a rubber band to keep air in and everything out. I shake the jar every day or so to circulate the dry rice around the beans as they dry. I have already used the rest of the beans to make soup. There is still another harvest or two in the garden!

Esme's stick figure drawings

To be correct they are 'tadpole' people, because the arms are coming out the side of the head. She's never really been interested and/or coordinated before - but tonight she shot of a few in a row after being given a whole new drawing tablet for herself.


face with 'ponytail'


added arms and legs


started out on another new sheet and added lots

This is the first time I've witnessed her drawing 'people'... and I think it was influenced by the Starfall snowman building game she has been playing the past few days... at any amount, I'm elated to see her thinking in progress :)

bits

Two things that made us go 'uhhh.... whoa hold the phone there!' with Esme the past few days.

We ran out of popsicles the other day and Mark found Esme sitting at the kitchen table with a small frozen apple pie box in front of her and a fork in one hand. She had just given up trying to stab it incessantly and was about to start crying about it. Daddy did calm her down and cook one for her... but she got it out of the freezer herself, knew what it was and understood something was 'wrong' with it but not what was wrong!

She was on my computer and hit the Google icon on my toolbar. She was typing in random letters, hitting the GO button and clicking on random links. YIKES. She has been going through my facebook as well and clicking on people's picture streams and looking at all of their pictures - which is almost all pictures of dogs and little kids, crafts and vegetables etc... and she hasn't done that unsupervised. The Google part was unsupervised as I thought she was just on her Starfall game and didn't dream she was interested in and/or could actually GET anywhere on Google.

scrap shirt

Amy Butler scrap fabric and two similar green scraps


dog hug
crooked buttonband, but it works


She is officially inches taller than the doorknob


Comparison: Last September 21
several inches below it!

Her added height is showing everywhere - needing lots of new pants, being able to sit on the potty unassisted, reaching the kitchen sink faucet handles when standing on her stool (she couldn't do this last week, but surprised me today by turning it on, washing her hands and turning it off before I crossed the room to help). She will probably be getting her own breakfast before the end of the year, complete with milk in the cereal bowl.

I have hopes that these shirts might teach her in the future how to button her own clothes on... Most of her clothes up until now have been back zippers, which is not easy for a child to 'self-help' on.

Another camp shirt from the wardrobe pattern. It was made with scraps of several fabrics. The actual buttonband was added on afterward because the facings were too narrow to provide reinforcement for the buttonholes. The machine-made and hand-reinforced buttonholes still look awful up-close, until the buttons are actually buttoned, then they look serviceable. This one is a little short ...probably because of the seam on the front pieces. I will need to try to extend the length to make something that doesn't show her belly when she is running around!

Other: We went to the donut shop, hardware store, a shoe outlet and the drug store trying to make up time to get to the health food store when it opened at ten. That was a lot of wandering around... and Esme was very good during most of that... After I picked up my red lentils at the health food store (so glad they had them as no one else did!) we went to the library. Esme copied what another girl did on the computers bit for bit for a while, and it impressed me, too, as she had not been able to do some of those operations in that game before. She got pretty upset after some young boys came in with a grandma that did not want them to play but wanted them to sit and read. Esme got the youngest boy in big trouble when the grandma went to get another book, so we had to leave too, in a ruckus of tears and screaming on Esme's part. *sigh* And it had been going so well up until then! I really wish we had a children's library where the rule wasn't "inside voices." It is so very hard to keep them there when they don't get to see other children very often.

We are home now, and hopefully the rest of the day will be more relaxing!

pattern used:

Simplicity 4969, 1950s era, undated

bits

The sketchbook project arrived today. I'll see what I can do with it tomorrow, which is a day off. It is so beautiful already...

Esme has a kiddie pool from Grandma and is enjoying it. She was so set on having it made up for her last night, at least got her to wait until today! Right now she is amusing herself with a small log floating it around the pool and throwing it in and watching it float again. Simply amused, but there are scientist tendencies there. She threw every outside toy (including the electronic one, which I saved at the last minute and may dry out) into the pool to see if THEY floated. *headsmack* Daddy wouldn't mind if that toy died, he doesn't like the noise it makes. I picked the garden and watered the plants down in the valley. Mark's birdhouse gourds are huge - weighing down the plant so much that the fence it is crawling up is sagging as well. There was one ear of sweet white/yellow corn that had a purple kernel in it from the ornamental corn crossing. That was interesting.

I have green beans and blackeyed peas, carrot, zucchini and more simmering in a pot downstairs. I've taken something like that to work most days the past few weeks, and it has always been delicious. Now to drink some coffee and get ready for the late shift tonight. I need to finish a shirt tomorrow as well, and replant a few things that didn't survive the past few days.

notes: for Grandma and Grandpa 'penguin water' or 'penguin juice' is cranberry pomegranate juice mixed 1/5 with water being the other 4/5. I don't know why we call it this. We just do, Daddy can't say pomegranate as quickly and Esme can't either... If Esme asks for it, at least you'll know what she is asking for! There is some name brand called 'penguin juice' but it is in no way affiliated.. just a nickname.

I was just given a sandwich made of two plastic plates dipped in the swimming pool and then she washed dishes and put them away under her slide. She told me she had went 'hiding' in the water, underneath the water, even though her hair was dry and it is about five inches deep. Now, I am bringing her lunch outside and she is telling me she has swimming foots that are cold. She has tried several times to drag one of the dogs to the pool to give them 'showers'... but they have good sense and get away long before she gets them near it!


6583 Simplicity

I'd like to get this pattern to use when it is cooler again. I like the back neck yoke and think it is a challenge.

imagination antics

I don't know where she gets some of this from...

The bus asked the baby doll to come ride because it was brown bear time (dark outside) and it was dangerous. Come quick baby, come ride! It dropped the baby off at a house, and then started across the room again. The bus was crying because it crashed and all of the people fell out. Then all of the people were okay, but she said that the bus hurt it's foot and we needed to fix it, so I had the Grandpa 'change a tire'... and we told the bus not to get hurt again. The bus did not want to be driven by anyone else after that - or give any rides.

She saw a picture of a little girl looking at candy in a store and told me the girl was 'grocery shopping' (I've never heard her say that before!) and that she needed fifteen dollars to go shopping for building blocks. I said we had blocks in the box and she said oh.. no fifteen dollars, not want to have. She has a little trunk with pretend money printed on the inside of it and is calling it the fifteen dollars oh wow look...

When she was blowing bubbles again she told me she needed a 'bubble map'. She caught a big bubble in both hands and held it up close to her face and said 'ooooohhh.. I see a house. I find my way home.' UH oh.. map popped! Need another map. ??

Grandma got her a baby swimming pool for the yard and the package has ladybugs and butterflies on it. She says it is a 'bug swimming' and we need to cut it (open the package) and is trying to blow it up without it being out of the package. I told her we have to wait until morningtime to use it... and she finally said okay.

The things they say and do....

Here are some things I've collected the past day or so. Hilarious, at least to me. And mostly, she is being serious and doesn't understand why mom is snickering so VERY much.

to Grandpa Playmobil from Grandma playmobil and two dogs: "go away we play dogs. Right now. Go over there." (I take him and start dancing him around on the desk). No dancing. I SAY NO DANCING. GO AWAY from doggies we play." (the playmobil goes over to the other side of my computer) "Ok. You be sad now. SAD. NOW. Ok. be better." (lets him come back and play with the others)

In the bathtub with her bubble wand: "I build. I build bubbles. (She starts to blow bubbles and push them together to make stuck-together bubbles.) There, I build a house! (She gives me the wand and I blow bubbles onto her arm) "AAAHHHHHHH bubbles. I've GOT SPOTS. (said at the top of her lungs as if it was the end of the world, then softly and with sneakiness) I'm a kitty. (her kitty puppet we made last night had spots) Oh no! SPOTS! (waves arms around, the bubbles pop) "whew. I saved. I'm ALIVE." There was more after this, too.. about her hand needing a bubble which was big so it could be a house and she could go in it from under the water. "Oh, I have a house. Thank you, I go in. OH NO MY HOUSE it fall down.. "

In the garden this morning after I asked her to go out because she was not listening about where to step. I told her to go out because she was stepping on babies (plants). "No, I no go away, I LOVE YOU, I'm the baby girl your mama (comparing herself to the plants, she is the baby, not them), I STAY! please give me hug? (I hug her) give kiss? (kiss her forehead) 'Oh thank you. I help you. I HELP. I throw not a radish." I tried to give her the hoe and she said it was too heavy for her. She did go out after the next time she stepped on something, then came back and said she was scared, and she needed to help me again.

Other: We ran out of popsicles the other day.. so she has found other candy she can reward herself with for the potty. She is still trying to go use the potty like a big girl, but she fell asleep for a nap on our bed (instead of hers) and we had to clean up :(

She is also asking me every once in a while for 'fifteen dollars.' I have no idea where this is coming from.. but she apparently has big plans to buy some 'eatings' with it. It is always fifteen dollars.. which, coincidentally, is the highest number she usually counts to before she starts to stumble and need help.

Esme and my dad, and a camp shirt

My dad made a surprise visit last night, and had been playing with Esme all afternoon when I came home from work. They had a lot of fun.









I had this shirt down to needing sleeves and buttons at that time. I finished it around midnight and she wore it to bed.


camp shirt with buttons


from the back

Overall I'm happy with it as a first try. It needs more handsewn reinforcement on the buttonholes and I had to bend the front facings underneath and sew them down 'blazer' style because the neckline was up around her chin at first. She likes it. Mark says it looks 'professional.'


Simplicity 4969, 1950s era, undated

NOTES: The lima beans are beginning to pod, following several days of HOT weather. The squash looks absolutely miserable today... can't wait for the sun to go down so I can water it extra long. I forgot to put a diaper on Esme the last time she went to the potty last night... and she slept through the night - got up, went potty again and only then did I realize she had went through the night without peeing the bed. She has had several accidents during the day... but at least there is huge progress going on.

We harvested about 8 gallons of corn, blanched and froze it! We put a diaper on Esme after her bath and she came up, took it off, and went potty! She is making it, slowly.

44 months

Playmobil having dinner with the pig in the dollhouse

It's a few days earlier, but she has had a big cognitive leap this month in a couple of stages. The difference from the beginning of the month to the end of the month is large! She has learned to use my computer mouse (the kind with the little button in the middle of the keypad and the click keys elsewhere) and get on her own Starfall game from an open browser using the star icon in my bookmarks toolbar. She plays all the games on there mostly without help and closes it back up when she is done. I am very impressed by that. She can also open the front door much better, the refrigerator and freezer using a chair for the freezer, and can poor a half-gallon of milk by herself although of course, with supervision as it gets away from her.

She can put on her pants when sitting down on a bench, but still needs help with it. She can balance on the big potty even though she is not yet tall enough for her feet to hit the ground. She takes off her pants completely but holds her long dress skirts up with one hand and balances... which is pretty impressive to me as well especially because she figured it out herself. She got her own popsicle out of the freezer once as a reward! While I was washing my hair earlier she came down to the bathroom and said she needed to pee - wasn't wearing a diaper and wouldn't come downstairs with me because she was playing a game. She was not wet. She did what she needed to do. I helped her put on her pants and she went back upstairs and went back to play.

She is also talking in a much more complex way, and I feel more comfortable using different and 'odd' words around her and explaining what they mean to her. She actually listens to the explanations instead of demanding I use the words she is used to. That is a big leap for her. She allows me to call her 'child' and 'slowpoke' and 'little monkey' and other things when she used to demand loudly 'I am not a *adjective*, I am the ESME, I am the little girl!' etc... She wants to know why I said that word instead and then may accept or deny it after talking about it. She told me 'no mirror, that a window' one night, and I told her it was a reflection, like a mirror, see yourself in it like a mirror - and she has been using the word reflection now. She told Pollywog kitten she was 'really soft kitten' today. She told a bubble it was a 'really dead bubble' in the bathtub. Both of those are putting together more than she usually has in the past. She is also actually listening to choices given instead of saying yes or no on tone of voice or saying yes or no to just the first thing she hears. She asks us 'what do we think' about things and also says 'I'm thinking.. I'm thinking about colors...' while pacing with her hands behind her back. Then she says 'I know! A lollipop.. a purple and a green lollipop!' The 'wow, that's really cool' vibe continues. I am holding my urge to giggle when I hear that much better than before!

Her imaginary play has catapulted into the weird and the wonderful. Things go to the moon, they make food, they do laundry etc.. Sometimes aliens or dragons or dinosaurs come, or things fall down, or other animals misbehave and she puts them 'in line.' Her playmobil grandparents just had dinner with a pig and a dog that were allowed on the table, then they weren't, then she gave in and gave the pig some pie again. They stopped to do laundry and wear imaginary crowns and dance around. They told the pig and dog to go to bed in another room and be quiet because they were oinking and woofing at each other trying to look at moons and read books and look in 'junks' (treasure chests). They went downstairs and did dishes and fed a dragon monster that was at first not allowed in the house and then they gave it a place it could look at moons and read books and go to sleep with his cereal bowl. I love it.

new words in the past few hours I've perked my ears at: stay, leave and left, soft, love/like used much more and differently before, child, grow and garden used daily, want to have, don't want to have, alive/dead for things existing when she thought they were gone and things that won't move when she thinks they should, laundry, wash/make dishes, make food / sandwiches/ fish sticks etc... lunchtime, dinner I am hearing a lot of 'it is *adjective or activity* day' Come - it is blocks day, play blocks.


Dollhouse and a kitty


Petting the cat, she is 'really soft'
Pollywog the kitten likes Esme!