planted flowers and a few thoughts

I planted flowers today in the tires in front of the garden, and along the fence.  Morning glories, moonflower, cardinal climbers, scarlet runner beans and other things along the fence, hollyhocks, marigolds, lupines and gaillairdias in a few other places.  In the garden I planted chamomile, savory, sage, lina sisco beans and a single solitary zucchini seed.  The sisco beans are all along the front edge of the corn on the house side of the garden.   The pumpkin seedlings from yesterday seem to be doing well and taking to their new home.  And - the lima beans are up!  I was happy about that - as that was the only one I used all of my seed on.  It is the Florida speckled lima beans and there were eight seeds total. I need to redo my map again now - as there were lots of additions.

The other day in the car Esme was describing all of the things she was seeing - and Mark turned to me and said 'see, you were worried about her language development, and you got her speech therapy for it.... and it's working.'  It is working, and it hasn't been much more than a month, with classes once a week - but she has more to talk about, and more she wants to do, and just a larger pool of communication to draw upon.  The teacher called it 'auditory bombardment' which is tech speak for 'she hears more - she'll talk more.'  And she still mixes some things up but it is getting so much more understandable.  She gets so serious sometimes though we fall out laughing at her - which she hates.  She also still has fits where we want her to do something and she pretends to be too little, falls on the floor, and then screams 'don't leave WAIT' when we walk away.  That is just being four years old.  We tell her she is not too little, she can pick up her toys/use the bathroom/put dishes in the sink whatever it is - and she should do it or she will have to just stay there on the floor while we go about our business.  We've put the 'very unhappy' foot down on the PT again and she has gotten much better with it - there were days there she thought she could go through eight pairs of pants and not be yelled at about it.

Yesterday I told Esme she was not being sweet - and she did not understand.  She was 'Esme' not sweet - not taste like juice.  *roll eyes*  OK.  So I explained it was when she did nice things, nice like sweet things, like drinking juice makes her happy.  She understood that in context.  And that we like to "be sweet" and do nice things.  So - point is, when I told her we had to go to sleep early and she did not like it - she came back from pouting near her bed and stood by my ear.  I was trying to sleep, and she says to me 'Mama.  This is not sweet.'  HUH?  'What is not sweet?' I asked her.  'Bed.  I don't want to sleep.  This is not sweet.'  Well okay then... I told her I could tuck her in and give her a kiss goodnight and that would be sweet.  She agreed but was sad about it - yes - that would be sweet... but she was still not happy.  She did go to sleep knowing that the sun would come back.  She is so happy that she is 'strong' and can do things like open the doors for the dogs, and get things off of shelves at the supermarket.  She was 'helping with the getting of the foods' at the grocery store, pushing the cart (very slowly and not so accurately) and taking directions of where to go and helping to get the food into the cart.  It was a bit tedious - but she was very happy to be helping.  She has also learned the words 'It is my job', although she says 'it is me' sometimes for this or 'it is you' instead of 'your job'.  She really wants to do her 'jobs.'

Today we were waiting for dinner to be ready and she was dancing in front of her reflection in the patio screen door.  She said she was little, but she goes to school, and the kids at school like her, so she will grow big.  She says 'people in the big town don't like it' when it is something someone at school has told her not to do or to do differently.  However, she will also say it about things like not bringing your food outside the kitchen or having a bath etc. because the teacher has told her to please not play with her clothes at school, and that they do not take baths at school (but I doubt she has really explained to her WHY in context.)  She also told Daddy once that he should not take a nap in the bed during the daytime because the people in the big town don't like it - 'adults' do not take naps at her school, either.   She still has not learned that rules at one place and one situation are different than rules at another - but that is a lesson she needed to learn as well and would not 'get' just at home.  The other night when I was going to give her a bath she asked 'You wanna wash my hair, dont'cha no?'  She would not get in the bathtub unless I promised no hair washing.  I really hope she doesn't ask that next time I DO have to wash it - as I will have to tell her yes.  She is always thinking about something - although she will never admit she is 'thinking' - for some reason she hates that word.  She is not going to school tomorrow because of spring break - but I have not told her that.  She will be very mad when she realizes too many days have gone by.  She already argues when she goes to bed that it is Wednesday tomorrow - and we say no, it is (whatever day it is) and then say Friday, Green, Three etc.  She does not like that game at all!  She is getting more understandable - but sometimes we still have to guess.  She wanted her kitty cat sprinkler today and we thought she was talking about a movie inside.  She said she reached for it and it went round and round and then it fell and oh no.  We got worried - thinking she had knocked down a pile of DVDs or dropped a folder etc... But then I realized she meant the sprinkler that went round and round - and she had dropped it off of the wellhouse where we had put it up from the dogs.  She is explaining to Daddy right now about how he needs to get the toy that goes fly on the hands and spin spin spins and goes UP.  She pointed to the toy she meant and it is charging on the batteries.  She is telling it needs to get ready and be blinking and pretty until it can fly up.  She knows I have been planting 'food' in the garden - but it will take a long time to grow, and it is corn and carrots and 'Mama' foods and flowers :)  She just told me to 'come on Mom - you have work to do - you have to sew something - over there, cmon, I'll show you.'  Then she decided we needed to play kitties instead.

We were watching a semi-scary robot movie the other day - and she was watching it with us.  It was quite mild, cheesy scary stuff.  She saw a spider on the floor and freaked about it.  We told her it wouldn't hurt her, it was okay, but she was serious about getting rid of that spider before she could rest.  So, we told her to step on it if she seriously thought it was a bad spider - she said NO I'm too little it will bite me!  We laughed - and then told her she could hit it with a shoe.  She got this weird little smile and said 'OH. haha.  Yea. I could.'  She put on one of my shoes and went over to where she had seen the spider and said 'Oh, I'm not too little now, I am STRONG, but it is gone and I no hit it.'  Then she put the shoe away and went and sat with her knees up on the bed and made sure she could see any spiders that might come by for the rest of the movie.

Cooking Spaghetti and Robot Dress

washing hands to help cook

This is the robot dress I made her out of a half yard of robot fabric and scraps of two other recent items. I think it turned out very well for on the fly! These pictures I took as Mark and Esme scuttled around the kitchen cooking. She had just had a much needed bath, but I did not wash her hair. She had been out in the garden dirt with me after I got home from work 'helping' by staying far out of the way as I used the little tiller on the garden. She also kept Loula pup away and helped me water some of the plants we put in the ground the other day. She did a good job with her responsibility, and then helped Daddy stir the noodles for supper. The spaghetti was very very good! We hope to be able to plant in the garden plot sometime later this week. Mark also took the big tractor over Grandma's garden today while Esme played with Grandma.


mid chew of a popcorn kernel...
silly face!

Loula pup is doing so much better...
she seems like she is out of the woods
and is looking healthy again

helping stir the noodles

she's growing up...

The other night Esme was begging me to tuck her in after already refusing it less than a minute before. I told her to let her Mr.Frog tuck her in. She took a second, then said 'No Mom, he's a toy.' Tonight she was hopping around like a kangaroo carrying a basket of 'kangaroo children' who were hungry. They were imaginary, by the way. I asked her what kangaroos eat, and she said 'Wait a minute for me Mom, I'll look at my computer.' ?? She opened her laptop and used the special links I have there to go to Starfall. She went to the 'what is my pet' section, chose the kangaroo and then told me what kangaroos eat - 'grass' and popcorn, and pizza, and kangaroo food. Next thing I know she will be googling for answers!

I am working on a dress for her - 'on the fly' out of things on my table. The Simplicity 3096 was missing both of the bodice pieces, so I substituted the last Butterick pattern size 6 to try to make it up. It is looking like a pretty basic dress for her - except for the two front darts which are also not perfectly to pattern. I will see how well it works.... Esme is happy I am making her a 'robot dress' and is still playing with her Starfall.

I asked Mark about another fabric to use for sleeves for this dress - as I was out of both of the other fabrics in it. Mark says 'it works for me'. Esme pipes up 'No Daddy, it is mine. You cannot wear my dress. You are too big!' HA.

getting there

I finally get the day off tomorrow... getting there has been tough. Esme seems to be feeling quite a bit better - not all the way yet. She is running around the house with her Sherlock hat on and purple clogs, playing alligator games. She has been busying herself in Minecraft putting colored wool all over the outsides of the houses that I had already built, and playing with my rail system. Mark said she wanted to make a new launch point for the rail system the other day and went back to my 'bakery' (I put a cake in there and materials so she could 'bake') to pick a button out of the chest there. Buttons 'start' minecarts but only if there are powered rails attached to them underneath. That is sort of a complicated step. She had gotten the blocks built around the rail area and put the button on a block - but had not hooked it up with two extra steps. She had her character sitting in a minecart (which she had to place) at the spot and was furiously pushing the button when Mark realized what she had done/was trying to do and got her the other two parts to complete the idea. She was happily riding around the system for a while the other day. I haven't had much energy to do much in there except see what she has done each time. And, I still have not sewn any new clothes for her. Maybe tomorrow.

//after work. Daddy bought the Lion King for Esme on sale - she watched it and liked it very much. I am working on the sleeves for her new blue cardigan sweater. She is noticeably outgrowing the one from last year and I have been so slow to finish the new one. On the sewing agenda are some more pairs of pants and probably another few 'basic' type tieback dresses. I should make another pair of my own house pants again. Esme asked me yesterday when I got home from work and had changed out of work jeans into a pair of drawstring calico pants - 'Mama, you put on REAL pants! You are home!' HAHA. I really wish that was the truth that the drawstring pants were the 'proper attire.' They show her point of view quite well - she likes it when I am home ;)

I had to explain going to work again this morning as well. She keeps wanting me to tell them 'no' and stay home. I explained firing - 'No, no... not real fire. They just point at me and say 'Go away and do not come back, we don't want you here. AND we get no more money for groceries.' She thought about that for a moment - let go of my leg and said 'OK, Mama. You go to work. I will hold the door for you and kiss and hug.' What a turanabout. She is also getting much more understandable - lots of phrases I am hearing 'complete' for the first time. I will have to try to record some of them as I hear them.

The sick continues...

Not much news from the frontline here - we are still sick with the 'green junk' and Esme is coughing a lot. We might actually keep her home from school tomorrow if she continues. I am trying to recruit Daddy to go out and get us some more juice - as I have been drinking more of it and that leaves Esme with not much. He is willing. And I have to go to work in a few hours. I was sloshing through work hours yesterday in a very grumpy state - which isn't good, because they are stepping up their 'flavor of the week demands' and it is making me a little teed off. That is not easy to do - but it is easier when I am sick and the demands seem to swirl about insignificant things rather than helping people in front of me. They were asking me to clean displays that had just been cleaned - and then cleaned them themselves just to spite me, and they were dirty again in a few hours. Why? Because those displays are under the freaking air return on the furnace. But, there is no reasoning with them. They are just passing the buck and quoting company policy about 'being clean and presentable for customers'....grr.. About 2 percent of customers are going to think anything at all about some dust in a sink bowl of a display - and even then, the situation disappears in the face of the person who actually needs a sink bowl. I brought up some 'real' concerns - things customers had been complaining about - and they came up with wild plans that involved us moving mountains to cover up a hole in the carpet. (metaphor). Like I said, I get in a bad mood when I am sick. And I just want to feel better - and have Esme be better, as well, so I am not watching in the middle of the night to make sure she is breathing okay every few hours. Yes, I still do that, especially when she is sick.

catch up bits

Bits and smatterings. I cleared up the mending table, two dresses with minor problems and two pairs of pants that needed to be made into shorts. Esme and I both have colds, and I have not done that much this weekend. My nose no sooner unclogs than it starts seizing up again. The mending, some laundry, made Jell-O, played Minecraft and began to crochet a new pair of slippers. Esme still asked me to pack her backpack for another of day school 'tomorrow' - told her she would go back but not today, or tomorrow. She played more with her stethoscope and magnifying glass today - pretending to be a doctor. She listened for Loula puppy's heart - and looked in my ears as well. She has happily eaten Jell-O and chicken noodle soup today and has been sad that we have not been outside. We keep telling her to go check outside and see if it is warm yet - she says 'no, still cold.'

random bits

Esme got sick last night - mostly because she was crying with a stuffy nose and a full stomach. She is still coughing some this morning because she hurt her throat and her nose is still stuffed up. It is cold outside, so we probably will not play outside as much as I thought we might. She played outside a lot with Daddy yesterday - and ran the puppy into the ground again. When I got home from work Loula was lying on the floor on a blanket saying she was TIRED. And Esme was still going sixty-per at that point.

On preschool the other day - Esme said that the kids were mad at her, they hit her, and the lady (teacher) said STOP. She said they were not friends - but we convinced her they might be friends. Daddy really laughed over his milkshake when she said that holding two hands out as if weighing options 'Kids are not friends. But, they might be friends?' She was swinging her arms at us and pushing us, which is something she has not done in years. Her mood improved after we got milkshakes - she was turning 'back' into our Esme at that point, but she thought about the difference between kids and adults all day. I could see it in her eyes as she thought about things. She said she DID want to go back to school, although I haven't told her when. We will see what happens when next week arrives. I can help drop her off and have a short word with the teacher about it.


9644 Butterick circa 1960, size 6

This is the 'basic bonus dress' pattern. I still scan the patterns on E often - but don't feel inclined to add much more to my collection. This one was basic, yet had variations, and I had never seen it before. I snapped it up, and found that it was quite rare. I am hoping to make one up for Esme soon. I really need to make some pants - she has ripped another pair, which makes us down three.

I have the weekend off - which is starting out to be lazy. I'll see if I get any ambition later.

A four year old and Minecraft

In Minecraft -
We are just sitting here often in awe of how quickly and accurately she works out the mechanics of the game - just by observation and experimentation. She knows her way around in an uncanny manner - knows exactly where she is going and what she is going to do when she gets there. She has picked up the use and purpose of most of the tools, the inventory system and even some of the more complicated things like redstone, fishing, feeding animals and cooking (fish) in the furnace. She knows what makes the fishing rod, and a few other things - and will go and get those things out of chests and ask us to help her craft the item.

Daddy had to put all of his 'hard to find stuff' in a new set of chests in a locked room - to keep Esme out of it on the multiplayer server. She asked Daddy to open the door a few times, and he said no, it was locked. He locked the door with a set of six switches, only one of them worked to open the door, which was located around the corner in another hallway. He thought that would be enough. NO - within minutes she had her character over there examining the switches, because they were new. She was playing with them, randomly, checking what they did. Just one of them made the 'open door' sound - and she paid attention to that, and looked for a door after she heard the noise. She went away and came back a few times - watching to see if we were looking at her. It was less than three hours and she had the door open and was inside the room. He is now wondering just what he has to do to make something she can't get into.

Also - she has been watching him harvest a garden with a switch mechanism that pours water down to force the harvest (so you do not have to do it piece by piece) and collects the wheat at a trough at the bottom of the hill. It is quite elaborate - and clever, I think. She knows where the seeds are kept in a chest - and knows the steps of making a garden - water, hoe the ground, plant the seeds, wait until it turns brown etc.... Wheat makes sheep have babies - and she likes that. I saw her watch Daddy harvest the garden and then she ran 'across the world' (a good distance) to a sheep field. She took out the hoe and started making a garden and put seeds in it.

Also - she is happy that my character (whom she plays at my permission) has a 'helmet' now. She was scared of him going out in the rain before - he would get wet. Now he has a hat, and he does not need to be scared of the rain. I was mining clay in a river today and it started to rain. She came up to me and said 'wait, I click the i'. She hit the inventory button (i) and said 'OK, man - you have helmet, you be ok with rain, no hurt.' Too funny.

First day of preschool

This is Esme's first day at the special preschool, it is one day a week. I think the hardest thing is going to be explaining to her she has to leave - and that she can't go back until next week (not tomorrow).




We just got back from dropping her off at her first day of preschool. We were slightly early - but they took her in and there were other full-day kids there. She went right to playing. In the car on the way over she said she was ready - and she would have a table (Desk) and a chair and play with the kids. She did not see us leave - but I think she will be okay. The only other time we ever have left her except with Grandma was at a daycare for one day when she was two - to see how she would do, and she was fine there. I was trying not to hover - although I know they expect it...

She was playing with her backpack last night - it arrived just in time. I chose it but knew she would like it. She has three DVD discs of Hello Kitty that she has nearly memorized but still needs to watch nearly daily. She picked out two books to put in and I put her name in them and on the backpack. If this backpack survives a few years she could take it to kindergarten - as it is a good size for that.

In other bits - she looks so tall in these pictures, like she has grown nearly a foot in the past year... She is 42 inches tall, and I could see it when she went in among the other kids. I don't know if half of them are younger than four - but she is showing her genetics from two 'tall' parents ;)

New and old garden plots

The road down to the lake
Mark did a lot of work on this last year


playing in the sand


good tractor...


The new garden plot


Plowed ground and 'earth rocks' as Esme called it


trek


Esme volunteering to be the scarecrow ;)
This is her imitation of one from the cartoon she likes right now


The old garden spot, clear of fence and t-posts


All the 'structure' pulled out of the old garden

We are out in the garden

innocent, really!


blurry, but too cute not to share

We are out in the garden today, there might be some other pictures later. But, these are Esme and Loula posing. They have been running around playing and having a grand time chasing sticks etc etc... Daddy is plowing with the tractor, I am clearing out brush, wire and old structures before tilling the ground up. We had a quick trip to town as a bolt broke on the tractor and we had to replace it. We had some good sandwiches at the deli place as well - Esme got a thick slice of bologna and some cheetos.. she enjoyed that.

All of the immunization shot information is caught up - and Esme had no reaction whatsoever to the shots she did receive. She is set to go to school tomorrow and is happy about it!

preschool shots and a walk in the woods

Esme and Loula come for a walk...
It was a little like wild kingdom with Esme carrying sticks and
the puppy 'helping' along.


Esme went for her preschool shots this morning - she did very well. We told her she would be 'strong' after this - so she could go to school. She likes that idea very much. She got them early this morning and is just a little cranky - but has eaten well and run around like crazy all day - just like usual.



We went for a walk out in the woods and around the garden. It is so different with most of the tree cover gone in the valley. We looked at the burn piles from last year and cleaned up debris and a can the loggers had left behind. We went down to the lake and played a bit at the edge of the water. Loula puppy was very happy to run alongside with us and bounce and play with Esme.



Mark took hold of the camera and got some pretty abstract shots.


A pretty plant
and the monkey sticker the nurse gave her

Some ash mixed with baked clay

// She played outside for a good while, and got Grandma to come down and fly a kite with us. There was lots of sun and wind. Then she came inside and calmed down playing Minecraft on my computer. At about 5:30 she fell asleep in my desk chair, before supper! She is still asleep over there - no fever, seems good.

I am going to have to put more pants on the sewing agenda - she has ripped two pairs in as many days... but both of them were actually made last fall. Loula has been being rougher with her and likewise.

bits

Treehaus blocks
bought on clearance at BBB last month


The 'ladder' to the top she built

Esme has become fond of Mickey and the Beanstalk, and asks to watch it nearly every day. It shows up in all of her imagination, as well. She has finally learned to have confidence that she can open and close the front door to the house by herself. She could do it for a long time, but always said she was too little and needed help. She has been doing it by herself to let dogs and cats in and out for days now. I hear a lot more about 'school' in her pretend, as well - even though I haven't told her about the proposed one day a week that we are working on.

Her play with Minecraft has become intense. Yesterday she abandoned my computer screen because I did not have the materials to make a nether gate - and Daddy did - so she begged him to make one. She is making a ladder out of her blocks right now to reach the top of a hill - balancing them against the side like Minecraft.

The story is that the two little figures are 'with Mickey Mouse' and they are climbing the ladder to the giant's house. The alien is on top of the 'school' and is the daddy of the alien kids in the bus that are coming to school.

speech test results

I was able to speak to the teacher about Esme's evaluation today. Overall, the results were good. The hearing test was normal. The receptive language test (how well they can identify things when asked to point to the pictures) was 100%. The teacher stopped that test at 'age 9' when Esme was still getting every question correctly. She had the vocabulary to identify all of the pictures they presented when the word was said for her. Then, they did the expressive langauge test - where they show her pictures and ask her to produce words - to describe what is in them - or some aspect about the picture. She scored '2 years 11 months' on that test, although most of her answers were 'on topic' they were not hitting the points the test required to continue. It was mostly a difference of opinion - she said a starfish was an octopus, and could not identify category words to describe what things shared in common (clothes for a page of clothes pictures, animals for page of animals etc.). They did a test of over/under/behind/front/by/near/far etc and she did not get many of those correct, mostly opposite of expected.

All of this put her at the threshold for what they would recommend 30 minutes of instruction per week to help her develop those skills. The further reccommendation was one day a week 'half-time' in their preschool, with the 30 minutes of speech therapy being included on that day. Very mild - the only thing we have to worry about is transporting her there and back. She will have to have a backpack with a change of clothes and a folder to put any take-home information in. The teacher did note that Esme participated a lot more on those tests than most children do, especially to do all four tests in one hour. She was very cooperative and attentive, and she could tell there was 'a lot to Esme' beyond the surface level. We did an 'individual education plan' or IEP to mark that she was doing some reading and writing, a 'visual learner' and the proposed language development skills.

cold bits

It has been freezing cold outside, very cold inside as well. It snowed some today and they are predicting more. Esme has had a bad cough and nasal junk for several days. I have been giving her eucalyptus vapor baths at least once (sometimes twice) a day and am very glad she seems to be improving. I haven't done any other sewing since the last pair of pants - I've barely been able to keep the laundry up this week. The cold just saps it all out of me, as well as worrying about how to make her cold better. We have been watching the Big Bang Theory and getting a good kick out of that. It is nice to watch something with geek humor in it - and to get the occasional thing I need to look up just because it won't let me sleep without knowing if it is what I thought it was etc etc....



A few pictures I snapped the other day and never posted... Esme stacking her wooden trucks and dripping watercolor paint down the side to see how it flowed. As long as she keeps it (mostly) on the paper I don't mind so much. She lined up all of her playmobil onto chairs and put blocks in front of them and said they were 'on machines playing blocks' - Minecraft!

She has been playing Minecraft and Sims 2 on my computer a lot when I am at work - and sometimes on Daddy's computer as well. He was watching her build 'houses' today with windows and doors - but he had to make the doors on the crafting table as she still hasn't got that part. She did build the walls and did a very good job. She still gets very upset when her character gets too far underwater before she starts to swim, and dies... today she respawned after the character died and wiped her brow saying 'Whew, that was a close one!' She still doesn't really 'get' it... but she knows something terrible is happening when the hearts (life) start getting less and less and the 'ow' noises start. She also was having a tame wolf follow her and was saying 'here doggie, here doggie, GOOD BOY doggie'. Yesterday she saw a non-tame wolf in the forest and climbed a tree (by placing blocks to make a staircase) and said she was 'hiding from the wolfses.' Sometimes, we just have to wonder what is going on in that mind... besides making waterfalls, hiding from wolves and throwing snowballs through the air to watch them arc she thinks that throwing items out onto the ice (discard item key) is great fun. She took an entire stack of dirt (64 blocks) and threw them out one by one to watch them 'slippery when wet' skid across the ice.

I've been hearing other very good words lately - that have perked my ears. 'That is perfect now.' is a sentence I have heard often as she adjusts toys into their places and makes things just 'so'. Tonight she said she didn't want to get out of the bathtub and 'didn't want to go upstairs either.' Either? I was impressed. 'I'm just kidding, I'm joking' is said OFTEN now.

She has been growling at me more about doing things she doesn't like though - like getting out of the bath, or going to bed. She is also emulating Curious George and pretending she is a monkey that does not need to talk, and Mama should pretend along with her and treat her like a monkey. That gets tiresome! I tell her to use her words and tell me what she means, instead of growling or oo-oo-ing like a monkey. Sometimes, that works. I've told her with the growling/refusing to cooperate that I want my 'better Esme' back because she insists she is 'the Esme Esme' instead of an 'Esme girl' or a 'better Esme'. I said the growling Esme wasn't a very good one and I wanted the better one we had before.

She told me also she wants to 'go to the BIG house in the BIG town and see the toys and the Mickey Mouse and the house again.' I don't know which place that is - Daddy or Grandma will have to tell me.

remembering

old times
on the couch
note the middle picture is me at about four...

I saw a picture my brother's wife posted and it reminded me of these old times from my photo collection... way back when we (my brother, sister, cousin and I) were kids.


Esme's cousin Elizabeth, one month younger
my brother's daughter


Esme with her Gertie doll

What a resemblance, huh? Perhaps just being four and happy is enough to see the connection :)

little notes: I laughed this morning as Esme and I both huddled under our 'blankets' on the way downstairs to the bathtub. I always wear one around my shoulders to keep warmer in the morning. Esme wore one of my sweater coats because the blankets were too big for her to walk in. We looked like two little old ladies hunched over keeping blankets around our shoulders.

Her cough is a bit better today, and the fever from last night went down. I am hoping she is on the recovery side. I bought more eucalyptus bath for her as that does seem to be working quite well.

notes and language exercises for Esme

Grandpa is in the hospital again. Grandma, Daddy and Esme will go see him again in the big city today. I have to work. I hope they can get his flu and etc. under moderation.

I have been working some the past month with Esme - it seems to be working for several reasons. 1.) she was already in a spurt (big one) 2.) she is in an 'acceptable' mood and will take direction and corrections lately without too much frustration ie: she is listening and understanding. I am asking her to describe pictures she sees and also talking a lot more about what we are doing and asking her to repeat it from her point of view. I am hearing much more complete sentences and the big thing - she is slowing down to think a sentence through instead of just charging along. She does still sometimes charge along - I heard 'I not the Esme's nose does not hurting.' today, but it is balanced with things like 'I having your hands full with soup and milk and I carry the juice.' That is closer, and takes a lot of think for a little one! She also made a funny comment about a blister I had on my foot. Mom - you have a cat scratch there. A cat scratched you? I told her it was from using my foot a lot at work - walking for a long time. She said 'It is bad your foot is hurt from walking, but good - because you were walking carrying food in the WalMart, at work!' Uh huh.. we had a discussion again that Mama works at the house building place and that makes the money they give me - so that we can go buy the food in the WalMart and carry it home. She thought for a few minutes, and then agreed. Yesterday we had a discussion about why she could not 'I ride and you drive and we take food for lunch and I sit and you work.' etc.. I told her she could not come to work with me, even if she was good and sat still, because I could not watch her there. Someone could come and take her, or she could get hurt while I worked on the computer or moved tubs and toilets etc.. Finally she reluctantly agreed that it was a better idea to stay at home with Daddy, who could watch her and make sure she was alright, then to go with Mama while she was busy at work.

Oh the things I explain lately... but she is taking it in.

We also were both amazed last night watching her play Minecraft. She was building waterfalls with buckets of water placed in complex patterns all around a pool. Then she was building a staircase out of blocks she had mined - to make a high place to jump into the water from. Without any help, she was planning all of this and getting it done quite well. Mark and I sat back and watched her mind at work - and giggled at each other. He said we have switched places a bit - I have been worried about her development and 'knew there was something up' for a long time, while he has told me to just sit back and watch. Now, I am certain and 'grooving' with it and he is the one worried about just where we will be in a few years, what she will be doing etc. I told him to expect her to start taking pictures and posting to the blog in about two years or less. He said if she gets a cell phone (Which she won't) it would be sooner. Plus I still don't want her to handle the camera yet, it is heavy. ;)

off to work.

Rolling out the yards....

Sewing mode has started. I've been collecting a few yards of this and that over the past two weeks in preparation for this weekend. I have plans for: Robot shirt, planetary pants, hello kitty pants, not sure what to do with the brown flower fabric... sheep shirt and plaid jumper are still on the list but I want to make sure those end up well constructed, not rushing them... Fabric is in the washer, soon to be in the dryer... start cutting out pattern pieces and most likely sew up the pairs of pants immediately.

several items to be patched, green size five dress could be saved if I replace the entire skirt.... torn severely! There are several dresses that need to be put in the 'almost trash' drawer - stained and starting to become a little small, but still a good emergency item if she gets everything else ruined.

Esme is sitting upside-down on my bed with her feet in the air, watching Tarzan. She was good in town. She just drained a pez dispenser of all of it's candy and had two chicken legs. She has been good but demanding all day... hopefully she will let me sew without one hundred interruptions? Maybe fifteen... I have a tentative playdate set for her for tomorrow... we will see if it comes around.

//hello kitty pants finished. I used Simplicity 8943 pattern (vintage) size 5 and had to trim the back panels by more than an inch on each side to make my one yard work. But - it fits and is long enough. all the rest of the plans went by the wayside after the try on stage. Esme and Daddy were learning MineCraft again and I took a crash course. I was soon building a waterfall for Esme to use as a waterslide (she can walk and jump pretty well and wander around). A bit later Esme had crashed in her bed and Mama was still up building castles, mining for iron ore and smelting iron and glass in the furnace. I stayed at it until midnight. Mark says I need my own account now ;) Esme can't have her own account until she learns not to dig down into a hole and can't get out! Also, never shear a wolf with the sheep shears. It is bad news. That was me.

//Oh my word - where did this one come from? Every once in a while she still blows me entirely out of the water with a complete thought that makes too much sense.

Esme was dancing around making bubbles and humming downstairs. I was sitting there knitting.
I said 'it's like Esme and the Beast, huh?' about the song she was humming.
She says: 'No, I'm Esme. We're in the green house, on EARTH. The Belle and the Beast are on TV.'
I pressed: Well, if we're on earth, where are they? Where do things on TV live?
She says: 'They're on a ship, a spaceship, with the aliens and Hello Kitty.'

She has recently been watching the 3 disk set of Hello Kitty and has absorbed them. I think they are really good for her because they 'retell' other stories with the same characters. Some of the stories she knows from other forms - like 'Aladdin' and 'Peter Pan', and others she doesn't yet know are parodies - but she really does 'get' the idea that they are telling stories and "playing pretend". I hear a lot of 'it's (two-tend) pretend, like Hello Kitty/Catnip/penguin/My Melody etc...'

We have something more on the question front...

She stopped me after she had been looking at a bite mark/scratch on her arm that was now almost gone - from her playdate. I wanted her to get in the bathtub and she holds up her hand and says STOP. then proceeds very slowly : 'What is ....house .....the lady with the animals .....name animals?' (with raised voice and hands spread out at the end) She couldn't remember the name of the animals at the house - they were ferrets. She was happy she got the answer she wanted.

'What is that?' (asked her about different things five times, while she says NO THAT) Then what? Point to it. It looks like water. "NO - That. The window in the water all shiny - what is that?" That is a reflection, a reflection of the window in the water - like the reflection of Esme in the mirror. "OH. Yea. reflection, That."

We have something...

notes

We are all back from Jackson and settled down for the night. It was a long busy day! Grandpa went to his doctor's appointment and Esme was not terribly awful for the trip, although she could have been in a better mood in general. She became a little better after her food kicked in, I think. We found a nice castle block set on clearance, and I bought some fabric to make Esme a special pillow for her bed. It is burgundy satin with tucks. She surprised me with that as I had expected her to gravitate to something pink or lime green -- or even purple. She kind of 'took in' the kids section and then went to an oriental looking set and patted it and said she liked that one. I do like seeing how much her tastes differ from what is 'expected' for young kids. I thought her choice was very pretty.

She was picking pillows out of the clearance bin at the bed/bath store, but the one she liked did not have a price on it - and I knew I could make it instead. She picked out some stars/planet and robot fabric at the craft store as well - probably destined to be part of a new lightweight blanket for her bed. I want to give her more personal choice in her room now that she is offering opinions on everything right and left! A burgundy satin pillow was really one of the furthest things from my mind, but after I had made it she laid her head down on it and said it was SO nice.

She really wanted a broken workbench toy display in the clearance section - which was the reason she became upset - Mama did not want to buy the expensive broken item for her and she didn't care if it worked or not, it looked cool. She soon after started dragging her feet along the floor and being a dead weight (even with the blocks which we were going to buy) but I deposited her in the car with Daddy and Grandpa and we 'moved along.' When we were waiting for Grandma and Grandpa to come out of the doctor's office she was quite good, playing blocks and talking with me in the van and opening windows saying 'It smells like fresh air! Ahhhhhh... deep breath. etc.'

She is working on her communication - subtle changes here and there. There is still a very noticeable amount of back-and-forth arguing of the type that doesn't make much sense, yes/no/no/yes crying and changing her mind/opinion five times in a minute etc... but once we get through that she returns to good sense again. She was asleep in the van on the way home for about ten minutes - then she went from fast asleep to full speed within the course of a minute.