little green dress (with photos)

McCall's M5606
This is the pattern, a modern-day buy, I made her very first dress ever out of - but was cut out as a "size 1" for her first birthday... and it didn't fit her until recently. So I thought I would try to make another one and see where the size problem was -- and so far even my second one out of that pattern looks like a size 3 -- so it is the pattern. I've been making her size 3's out of vintage AND modern patterns and this looks like that size!



YESTERDAY:
Got home from work at a weird time tonight - neither 'early' nor 'late' ... right at 5 pm. Esme was asleep when I got home, so I started cutting out a sewing project. Tried to get her up at about 7:30 and she was very very grumpy, didn't want to eat - sniffing and snorting... so I ran her a steamy bath and put her in it. Her mood improved almost immediately. I finished cutting the little dress out while she was taking her bath. She was halfway liking Mumum being literally around the corner when she was in the bath and somehow missing the constant interaction at the same time. She is very loud in the bath - so it is easy to hear what she is doing and she answers 'this is fun' or 'yes I like it' and yells back and forth ideas. I kept peeking in every few minutes and she would show me her birthday candle game or superballs or kitty and horsie etc... and I would check the bath temp and go back to cooking her fishstick and cutting out dress bits. When the fishstick was done I asked her to put away, and she did. 'Otay! (grumble grumble)' Then she got her fishstick and I started to sew the dress together while she watched some TV and ate. After she was done eating I let her play 'fishy' with some yarn and the cats for a while, as long as she didn't start screaming about something or other - which after a good amount of work, she did. Then it was time for her to go to bed. I have it ready to finish the little bits at work and I hope it fits her well. It is a fabric from a tank type shirt I bought on clearance earlier in the year - but never liked the way it fit. She did think the fabric was pretty and I have been waiting to do something with it.

Esme is coming down a little with the cold - she had a good day with Grandma and Grandpa earlier for a little bit and then crashed for her nap. She was quite difficult tonight in between things... unlike herself, and I was sewing, which didn't help her :( Usually she would have popped up beside me on her checkwriter table and tried to pull me away every few minutes with chatter and toys and scenarios - but she mostly ran around and cried about the cats not cooperating with her, and refused to have her pants changed etc... I am hoping she will feel better tomorrow but at least she didn't have a fever, just sniffles and the occasional wheeze or cough. And she ate almost all her dinner - 2 fish sticks, strawberry jello, some fruit cocktail and graham crackers.


Eating apple jacks first thing this morning
I've always said she has Mark's eyebrows, they look particularily swoopy this morning in the pale light

She is still a little sniffly this morning but not as bad as yesterday - so definitely need to get her another steam bath in tonight when I get home, if she is awake.

Then there came a little bird...

I've been handed a pretend birdie tonight that ate a strawberry and flew away and came back - and then she put it in a box and it became three birdies and all three of them were on my knee and Daddy tried to take one downstairs and we hear 'Come back with my birdie!' She handed me quite a few 'empty' things that she told me was something tonight - including 'another baby kitty' she went and found behind a table after her first baby kitty (real) was in the box and she wanted a second one to put in there.

She asked if I was a Mumum Simpson tonight after watching the Mumum and Daddy and Boy simpsons.... and I tried to introduce her last name to her because of it. No I am a Mumum Lamb, and this is your Daddy Lamb, and you are Esme Lamb. She said some of it and that she was right.. but it is going to take a bit longer to reinforce it.

frog balloon in pants

frog balloon in pants

Sitting on Daddy's chair, watching Putty Tat (Sylvester and Tweety) hugging her frog balloon from the carnival the first of last month. He's the one who needed a 'butt change' last night according to her. I'm giving her some orange juice in water the past two days because it has been helping me some and the tart kool-aid has been turning my stomach but the orange juice hasn't. That's really weird.


the blue fabrics I bought last night

Mark made Esme a big balloon tie-up thing last night (he is still pretty good at balloon animals) and Esme said it looked like a flutterbug (butterfly). Then we brought it into the bathtub and she said it was a flutterbug boat, for her kitty and horse bath toys (small plastic animals) to ride on. 'This is fun!' the hello kitty doll said. 'Yes, fun! We ride! Run run run!' So they ran around on the 'boat' as it floated in the bathtub. She just always comes up with something, and it is so very often cute :)

The other balloon he made her was pretty much a 'balloon on a stick' and Esme insisted after getting through the 'bonk' stage with it (hit everything I can to see how far it reaches) she decided instead that it was a 'dog balloon' and drug it around on the stick like a leash and said 'come doggie' and 'woo woo doggie' and 'good doggie' etc...

Esme is doing a REALLY good job with her alphabet letters in books and her PAIRS in PEARS game tiles. I'll leave it there for the moment - but I see her taking a huge leap soon with them. It's so early.. but she's interested, so I'm ready for it!

LATER: We went to a yard sale after the post office this morning - and bought three tiny 'my little ponies' and a girl dolly for Esme. Mark got a lot of old video game equipment. I gave all the horsies and the girl dolly a thorough washing at home and made a new dress for the doll. This is like the doll I wanted to give her for her birthday - but now the cat is out of the bag and she took it to bed with her tonight. I also bought the patterning (parquetry) blocks to keep for Christmas or birthday but when Grandma was here I gave into my own urge to open them and play with them. Esme really liked them, which made me happy. I had worried it might be tedious for her and was ready to put them away when she became antsy... but she liked them a lot in more than a couple of ways. Grandma and Esme had a very nice visit together playing with nearly every toy in the house :) That is our Esme! And then I fixed dinner for Esme and Grandma snuck out using my 'go to work' routine while Esme began to eat and watched Shaun the Sheep. It worked like a charm, she hardly cried at all, that's the 'method' - two hugs, two kisses 'Have good day' and she knows everything will be alright :)

The big wooden blocks come in the mail soon as well -- and I have said I should not open them at all -- just shake them and put them in a big box! Now I have to wonder what else to do for her birthday. I still am thinking of making her a two layer pink cake with halved strawberries on top and candles on it. That is the standard 'cake' shown in Shaun the Sheep and she always points it out. I'm not full-speed-ahead set on that one, but it would be cute. And I have the 'new' maryjane shoes I've put aside, and ready to make a very pretty set of clothes that will be wrapped up. Something will come to me to replace the dolly idea, I have two months! She is already 'prewarmed' this year with her birthday candle game and being so happy when she sees birthday mentioned in a show etc... she told me last night that the shower hose in the bathtub was a snake, and it was the snake's birthday, so he got to blow out the candles and the kitty and horse had to sing happy birthday to this 'snake' while it was being a nice snake or it would chase them and say 'sssss' at them. And yes, I think it is cute and she knows it is cute... so I am not discouraging it, and not discouraging a running theme with Esme is just like encouraging it silently haha!....

cow in block city and frog needs diaper change

Playing with blocks tonight. The cow was taking turns falling into this hole and also entering in through the 'door' she had made. He was a bad cow when he knocked something over but a good cow when he 'helped' rebuild (she would move a block and then put the cow on top of it and tell him 'good job' as if he moved it.

Her 'birthday blocks' are at the post office and I can get them tomorrow. Will I have the willpower to keep them put away for November? Probably not because I want to play with them, too! I also bought some fabric tonight that I think will make a very pretty 'set' of clothes - it was on clearance and the fabrics match but not truly matchy matchy. I see a pair of pants and a shirt there that I WOULD be able to put away. We'll see if I can get to it! *sigh*

Esme was feeding her frog balloon and piggy toy different wooden fruits and bread and such. Mark told Esme not to give the frog her wooden pretend cheese because it would make him fart. She said the frog DID fart - and that he now needed a butt change - because he stinks, and brought him to her changing table and a baby wipe and 'wipe' him up and get him pants. I had to put the pants on though..

She is getting so many more 'complete' concepts lately, but sometimes with strange syntax. Like her fly swatter is 'make bug flat' and then she gets upset she can't actually find a bug to 'make flat'. She told me tonight she was not willing to share her orange, at first 'All mine a orange!'. Then there came a point where, after she had chewed on each section some, she was willing to share - but wasn't done. 'I eat more a orange', and then after that point - she was actually done. 'All done a orange.'

I hear a lot more 'what are you doing' and counting of things and 'wait a minute' and 'come back (name)', and 'I'm coming' and 'It's a bunny dog, she's PRETTY, pet pet good Bun dog!' and 'yes I can have a one a orange THATS RIGHT' and other small sentences we both agree we haven't heard this 'complete' before. She really likes to say THATS RIGHT when she is repeating something she wanted to hear us say - as if she is both saying it is a good thing and saying that helps to remember how to say the sentence at the same time.

Other things that have impressed me is picking up the difference between 'sing' and 'a song' and 'this is fun' and 'this is funny', both of those somewhere in the last few months. She says 'ball up high' for the geek ball I made and 'want more 'x' which for a lot of kids come much earlier but for miss tight-lipped-tried-to-be-a-professional-mime for a while etc... I am still proud to hear them along with the others. Also 'here we go', 'where'd it/you go?' 'it is underwater', 'go to sleep', 'it is morning!', 'make frog talk' and other things like that... I want to remember when this stuff really started happening - because in a few months it will seem like she has always said them. She is making really good progress month after month, picking up something we turn to each other and say 'hey, that's different!' It makes me really happy :)

AFTER NOTE: She got in big trouble tonight for two things.. big trouble for around here. She took the fruit container out of the fridge when I went to fill her drink cup, after she already had ice cream and other food. She hadn't eaten her fruit earlier today - let toys play in it, so I told her 'No, put it back, you had ice cream just a minute ago.' She threw a fit. I told her she had to go right to bed after fruit if she wanted it badly. She didn't agree to that - so she put it back and we came upstairs. Then the second 'big no' was pulling a plug out of the wall that is connected to some X-mas lights that go up the wall and across the ceiling. They have recently stopped working, but we haven't removed them yet. She then came to tell me that she had 'broke' it and couldn't fix it. I think she might have been trying to fix it... I told her never to touch that, especially without us - and Mark hauled her into her bed after that. She knows much much better than that! Sometimes I think she does something bad just to get put to bed, so she doesn't have to ask... but isn't willing to agree to go to bed either, except sometimes for a Cheeto bribe. haha. then it is 'cheeto, then bed. cheeto, TWO cheeto, then bed.' etc mantra she repeats over and over until the cheetos are deployed and she cooperates with the rest of the agreement.

like a dying ostrich with the croup

I'm coughing about that much, and exactly how you might picture that - or perhaps a seal falling over on a wet deck and sloshing around a little. *ha* I have to keep my sense of humor up! I get tomorrow off but going to try to make it today - as they have 'big plans' they want to get finished. That is why I stayed longer yesterday than I really should have - and have to cut that time off of today. I'm getting sick pay for the day and a half I did take off this week, I hope. I didn't think a day and a half qualifies but an employee who has been there longer says they tell you that because they don't want you to try to use it - to 'save it up for later when you need it' etc because most people abuse it... I put in for it and I'll probably hear something if they decide against it etc... I was at the meeting for my sales level yesterday and everyone there thought I was about to die - using my rootbeer bottle as an ice pack. I told them I can look like I'm about to die here - there are no customers.. I have to save my strength ;)

Esme has been wonderful this morning. She came downstairs with me after a very perky hello. She told me her drink cup was VERY heavy and made a big deal about handing me this empty drink cup as if it weighed 50 lbs. That made me smirk. She said a few other things this morning that were both 'more complete' and/or subtle - but I can't remember them atm. Then she cooperated fully with changing her clothes and going down for breakfast. Esme coughed some drinking her first drink of the day - but she still isn't running a fever and I haven't seen any more nose drainage from her. She played with the cats like usual in the middle of breakfast - capturing not only the baby kitten but also Ninja in a clothes hamper and dragging them around the kitchen. They were dis amused by the idea.. but not truly frantic. I think they thought as long as they had each other in there it couldn't get too bad. There was a lot of 'pet pet' kitty and 'you're a good kitty' and 'kitty bite tail!' as they were playing with each other in there. I think Ninja was both proud of herself and also wondering what she got herself into at the same time.

Esme finished her cereal, picked out her own shirt and helped me put it on - and now is watching 'Putty Tat' Sylvester and Tweety. I'm coughing every few minutes and producing much yuck... but at least the cats are still in their skins and relatively calm about it. I didn't even wake anyone up last night coughing so I guess it isn't too bad yet.

well enough

I'm not well, but well enough - so I'm going into work. Mostly it is coughing up the junk out of my lungs now and dealing with the headache that comes with that, and flashes of fever coming and going. But my nose isn't running down my face and I'm not coughing terribly and I can stay awake for more than an hour at a time... so...

Esme was cute this morning. She was all ready for a bath and perky perky little girl at 7 in the morning. And then she gave up eating her applejacks to go play with the little cat, putting her in a big box and laughing when she got out - playing 'cat basketball' putting her back in again and again and picking her up after she got out. The cat was cooperating. This is the last one that was left from the outside litter and we would like to give it away, too... but haven't managed to yet. Ninja thinks it is a wonderful playmate and is usually found not too far away from the games.

Esme was trying to repeat the word 'assistance' from me this morning, which was cute - and she might need to hear that one a few more times to differentiate it from Wallace and Gromit 'assistance' which is being hit with a large hammer when Wallace is too fat to fit through the fireman's hole in his floor. ha! She is picking up more and more words and longer ones - trying to say a lot more that we understand and then goes off on long running sentences that we have to very listen very closely to. She corrected me this morning when I asked her if she wanted to take a 'bathtub', and said NO MUMUM 'take a bath'. Uh.. yea, that works too ;) I've always said take a bathtub to her because she never used to understand 'take a bath' the same way!

One of her new bathtub games is to line up her marker covers (little cylinders 2 inches long and have an open hole on one side) on the side of the tub and put superballs on top of each one - then say it is a 'burfday cake' and blow on them. She's getting in practice! She still won't answer how old she is, or will be - but she knows birthday has a cake and you blow on candles and sing a badly sung rendition of the song.

We watched Date Night last night and it was pretty good. Mark was sweet and remembered I had wanted to see it, so when he was out for supplies he rented it from our local shop.