Esmeisms

Esme has been coming up with some amazing statements lately.
I had to take a moment to share some of my favorites:

"When I was little" she spent all day yesterday saying...when you were little what we kept asking stifling our giggles...
"when I was little I used to cuddle" she finally said

Last night as Andrew put pajamas on an exhausted Esme:
"what the hell is going on here?"

"You would say no Mama"

"This is my pretty necklace, I will be gentle, I will not touch it" " I will not let Jesus touch it"

While standing at the door with her dress up suitcase packed:
Andrew: "where are you going Esme?"
Esme: "I'm going on a date"
Andrew: "where are you going on your date?"
Esme: "We're going for pizza"
Jennye: "Who are you going on your date with?"
Esme: "Elli"
Yaya: "Are you sure you only want pizza? What about ice cream?"
Esme: As her eyes light up and almost pop out of her head "Ice cream, ice cream, we will have pizza and ice cream."
Andrew: Why are you taking that bag? are you staying all night with Elli?"
Esme: "yes"
Andrew then called the nunnery :)

During the procession at midnight mass
"Look mama baby Jesus is sleeping in his big girl bed"

Esme has been singing two songs that make me giggle.
She is very fond of the Itsy Ditsy spider and Little Bunty Foo Foo who in her version is chastised by the 'blue fairy'.

More to come I'm sure.
Merry Christmas everyone!

it's the little things!

Esme went pee pee on her big girl potty....
she told me before she went,
we walked to the potty,
she told me there was peepee in the potty,
we poured it out in the toilet,
she got to flush (one of her favorite things),
she got M & M's (another one of her favorite things),

I think we may be on our way!
Hooray!!!

about time!

This picture pretty much sums up how I feel these days...and it's pretty crazy to see Esme playing so hard that she exhausts herself by the end of the day as well.

I started back to work full time about a month ago and boy has it been full time!
I've been so busy I haven't had time to do anything and sadly blogging has fallen to the very bottom of the list.
It finally feels like my feet are back under me. I didn't go into work on my day off this past week (I mean the one aside from Sunday which isn't really a day off anyway) and I take that as a sign that there is light at the end of the tunnel, I'm getting things at my store under control and the 55ish hour weeks may be coming to an end. Hallelujah!!!

So anyway on to bigger and better things...
Even with me working full time we've been doing our best to fit in some fun things, mostly some fun people....so here's a little bit about what we've been doing:

Grandpa Ernie and Grandma Bette came to visit at the beginning of September and we had a great time, they were hear for a wedding and we fit in some time playing and eating great food!
Auntie Anna and Uncle Steve came to hang out the same weekend and had a great time taking care of Esme while we all went to the wedding reception.


In August my best friend Sara, her partner Kathleen and their newborn baby girl Ingrid moved to New Jersey, only about and hour and a half from us. Esme and I took a Friday and drove up to the visit them, meet Ingrid, and make an unexpected trip to the beach. Esme loved the water and sand and had a wonderful afternoon. My favorite part was that every time a wave would come in the motion would throw off her balance so much that she would completely fall over, you could see her trying to figure out how to compensate for the motion but just end up completely baffled as to what she should do, hillarious!!
My other favorite part of the day was our trip to the ice cream shop.
As soon as we set foot inside Esme began insisting I give her pennies "pennies, pennies, pennies, pennies" repeated in an insistent, half whine, at every increasing decibels was her method of choice. As soon as I figured out she was asking me to give her pennies, something she's never done before, I fished one out of my wallet. Esme walked over to the ice cream case and raised her hand as high above her head as she could toward the woman working behind the counter, "here go lady" she said "ice cream". All three of us laughed so hard as I reassured her it was only our down payment and Esme went on to eat approximately two ice cream cones, good thing I had a few more pennies.

Esme insisting to Sara that she doesn't need help in the water

A happier moment!

Too much ice cream, sun, and waves = a peaceful ride home for Mama!

We were lucky enough this past weekend to spend Sunday in Manhattan meeting up with Auntie Mary, Uncle Mike, and Auntie Becky Uncle Shawn and Cousin Cameron who were in town for a wedding. We all met up at Central Park and let the kids play at one of the playgrounds then we had dinner and took a spin on the ferris wheel inside Toys R Us at Times Square.
Of course I realized about an hour into our day that it had been approximately 77 pictures since I had downloaded them onto our computer and I ran out of room to take anymore...so as usual there is a lack of pictures, but here are the couple I do have!

Playing with bubbles in Central Park
this bubble gun we bought on the sidewalk says
"I'm your lovely new friend take me home"

This picture cracks me up. Esme recently started into the phase where she insists on wearing only what she chooses. One Sunday for Church she insisted she must wear these green polka dotted bloomers paired with this blue striped shirt (the only redeeming factor here is that the shirt has green piping around the collar and sleeves) and the best part was that as soon as she got the clothes on her face lit up like a light bulb and she said "Purple shoes".
I mean really who wouldn't wear their purple shoes with this outfit?

another video

So after I posted the last video I got some requests for more.
Esme was being pretty cute tonight so I tried to catch it on film.
Sorry it's so dark, I was scared if I flipped the light on we'd lose the moment so I just went with it.

Enjoy!!

Twinkle Twinkle in a box

Yesterday Esme carried a box in from the kitchen...lifted it up on the couch and climbed in.
Seemed like a perfect place for singing a song...Note the change halfway through from the traditional twinkle twinkle to Esme's favorite "twinkle TC" an ode to her favorite mascot :)





Please note the Daddy styled hair:

vacation is truly over

Esme and Dada share an introspective moment in the swing

Well... it's about time I wrapped up the stories of our travels to Minnesota so I can do a better job moving us on with everyday life here in Philly.

The second part of our trip we were in the Twin Cities with Grandpa and Grandma Bette.
We had a great time with playdates this whole vacation. We met two new friends in Grand Marais, Leiv & Ella who Esme still talks about. And while we were in the Twin Cities we had two playdates with a friend from college who has two little boys. (If I were not the world's worst picture taker I would have documented proof of these playdates but alas and alack...)

Here's a naked Esme playing "in" the sprinkler
(this mostly involved thwarting the sprinkler from actually hitting her body in any way)

Esme watching Word World and cuddling TC

This picture requires the full story... TC is the Minnesota Twins mascot. We met him at the 30th Anniversary Party for El Burrito Mercado (A Mexican Market) in St. Paul. Esme was smitten the moment she saw him and spent the whole afternoon watching TC longingly and pointing. The hillarious part of these baby crushes is that she, of course, won't go near TC.
She did however spend the next week cuddling, kissing and patting the autographed TC picture that she carried everywhere with her!!

Grandpa and Grandma Bette bought Esme a stuffed TC on our way to the airport that has now replaced the rather frayed picture (thank goodness)!!

This is the super yummy corn from El Burrito Mercado
Butter, the Mexican version of sour cream, Cotija cheese and cayenne --A-Mazing!!!

Esme made herself a cozy little bed in the window seat

We went to the Minnesota Zoo, which has a working family farm,
where the goats were way too scary to actually touch but were lots of fun to visit!

Another zoo picture (not sure why some of these are so small)
Notice Grandpa Ernie the explorer in the corner there...
"Dr. Livingston I presume?"

Just thought you'd all appreciate that scrunch face faze has not yet passed!

Susannah and I spent the obligatory day shopping for clothes, her asking for my help and then refusing to buy anything I recommend...you know just like we were actually sisters :)
Luckily Grandma Bette came along and leant a hand with Esme...she also snapped these great pictures as Esme discovered the mannequins inside Old Navy. It was truly hillarious to see her decide these were her new best friends. The fascination carried on through the next few stores...results documented below...

I had to save this for last as it is my favorite picture.
You can just tell Esme feels so sad for her new headless friend...

a purse and a big ball of pot-pot

Here are a few more pictures from our time in Grand Marais...and a few more stories to accompany them.

One of Esme's favorite things about Babka's house is the Meow Meow (pronounced more like wow wow but with an "m") Willa...Esme chases her all over the house, under chairs, behind couches, the whole time chanting "hold, hold, hold" this picture is one of the rare times I convinced Esme to sit properly and hold Willa in her lap. A successful venture for all as Esme especially loves it when Willa "kicks" her tail as she pets her.

Esme and Dada strolling the metropolis of Grand Marais

We visited the family farm where Babka and Nana Coo get their milk and butter and things...here are the pigs.

And here's Esme very sure she has no desire to touch the pigs

I think this next picture is one of my favorite. It's important to the story to know, if you don't already, that Esme calls poop "pot-pot" this was her own invention and she sticks with it!

Also, while we've been on vacation Esme has started pronouncing words fully and putting 2-3 words together more often than not. One of her favorite things is to add "big" before everything.

Babka and Nana Coo are faithful composters and have been trying this new (to me anyway) method that involves putting all of their organic material in a big plastic ball that they can then move around their yard to facilitate the breakdown of everything inside.

One day Babka, Esme and Auntie Shooz (Susannah) went out to put the compost into the ball...spying it from across the yard Esme immediately called out "Big Ball"...yes it sure is. As soon as they opened the big ball, something none of Esme's balls do, she got very excited and peeked right inside. Upon spying, and more importantly smelling, the brown decompsing matter inside Esme looked up at her Auntie Shooz and said quizzically pot-pot? I guess so she said...it sure does look like pot-pot.

We've since established that it is very silly that Babka and Nana Coo keep a big ball of pot-pot in their front yard...but to each her own right?

And here in the distance you can see the big ball of pot-pot

Our little Scandahoovian trying on hats at the Duluth Pack store in, well, Duluth :)

Most importantly Esme with her new purse...

brought to you By Auntie Shooz and Uncle Chris.

Esme loves her purse as she can perfectly carry her cell phone, keys and little baby

everywhere she goes, she never leaves home without it!

The Great North Woods

We've been visiting Andrew's Mom (Babka) and her partner Suzanne (Nana Coo) in Grand Marais, MN.

Esme's favorite pastime has been sitting on the shore of Lake Superior throwing rocks. She loves the splash when they hit the water, she loves dropping them down from on top of her head, she loves sneaking as close as she can to the water then scurying back when a little wave rolls in.

Esme could spend hours down at the water. When she gets up in the morning she waves hello to the "leak" and the moment she first saw the Lake on our drive up her she asked for a "dip, dip" (upon questioning I discovered that it was herself she wanted to dip, dip in the Lake).

We spent one afternoon (or an hour of it anyway) going on Esme's first canoe ride. She did a great job sitting still in the canoe. On our return trip she got a bit antsy and kept asking to touch, splash, and dip-dip. I had to explain that we can only touch, splash, and dip-dip in the water when we can see the bottom. Of course we immediately hit an oddly shallow patch pretty far from the shore and Esme had to point out to the lake and say "Bottom"...damn smart kid :}

Andrew's Mom makes fabulous bread so my goal for my time here was to learn how to bake bread. We've baked several loaves and Esme has been a great help she loves to stir and has even been making us stone soup in the living room every night.

We also spent one afternoon playing in the small waterfalls on the Kadunce River just North of Babka's house.

Pre-baby the family used to hike up the Kadunce and up the falls every summer. I think it may take another year or two before Esme can hike up the falls with us but she loved playing in the small falls and shallow pools.

she is definitely an explorer and wanted to walk right through the rushing water and loved her first slide down one of the shorter rock falls.

I let her go at the top and her dad caught her at the bottom, she thought it was great!

More to come as soon as I find a USB cable and can download our pictures!

two little words

Those of you who have to listen to me complain about the minutiae of my day to day life know that I have been dying for Esme to get beyond one syllable words and to start putting words together.
I know I'm a demanding mother with high expectations...but she knows so many words and she repeats them over and over again all the time...why can't she just put two of them together already?

And today (duh-duh-duh-duh, drum roll please) she did!!!
Esme's first two letter phrase "My - Phone"
So I'm thinking maybe we could have waited a little longer...I mean really did that have to be her first declarative statement?
I did feel somewhat redeemed as a parent when after dinner I got her to follow it up with "open - please"
And now I'm living in the constant hope that my world may begin to move on from that broken record like monotony of one single syllable repeated over an over again for what feels like hours at a time all day long.

"more - more - more - more - more - more - more - more - more - more"
"mama - mama - mama - mama - mama - mama - mama - mama - mama"
"key - key - key - key - key - key - key - key - key - key - key - key - key - key"
"A-door - A-door - A-door - A-door - A-door - A-door - A-door - A-door - A-door"

See...you're ready for a second word too huh?

The daily show

Sorry for the quiet spell everyone.
It seems like the drama here never dies down and I've been a bit overwhelmed by a number of things lately.
I've had a sinus infection/infection of some sort (?) for almost a month now that has been kicking my butt...a week and a half of Amoxicilan has finally started to clear my head a little bit and the past week is the first of the last three that I haven't been napping with Esme every day.
Esme seems to be done cutting her one year molars and is settling back into being a happier little girl.
We've started a playgroup that meets at our church every Thursday afternoon and it's growing and starting to be a fun way to meet some other kids (and moms/nannies).
Esme is still learning a couple words a day it seems. Her favorites right now are "knock, knock", "look", "hello" and "Shawn".
Esme seems to have her first crush on Andrew's boss Sean. She talks about him all the time, out of the blue and when she expects to see him. If we walk by the church she says "da-da", "Shaw".
The other day we were headed home and we were discussing who would be at home to meet us when we got there. Esme said "Dude", I said "who else", Esme said "Clare", I said "who else do you think will be at home?" Esme said "Bax" (this is what she calls Sean's dog Baxter). I said "Baxter doesn't live at our house, who does Baxter live with?" With a big grin she immediately said "Shaw".
Esme also told her first joke this last weekend. We were riding back from Mass at our Mission Parish St. James the Less and Esme was sitting in her car seat knocking on her shoe and saying "knock, knock" "knock, knock" I said "who's there?" and Esme said "toe" than started laughing...of course everyone else in the car started laughing even harder so she spent the rest of the trip home knocking on her shoe and saying "knock, knock toe" "knock, knock, toe" and giggling away.

Esme also put her shoes on completely by herself for the first time yesterday. She has been obsessed with taking shoes off and on since she was at least one but yesterday was the first time that in response to hearing we were going bye-bye she picked out two of the same shoes, sat down and put them both on. The best part was that they were totally on the wrong feet. Since I knew she would just be riding in her stroller the whole time I left them that way...we all have to start somewhere right?

I think the only other new news from our house is that Clare cut her paw on a piece of glass over the weekend so she's wearing a big E-collar to keep her from licking her stitches so now every time Esme sees her she says "hat".

Blessings to our friend Anne Lane who was here visiting over the weekend and weathered the chaos of Esme's Saturday night, I've been up too long today without a nap, meltdown happening at exactly the same time Clare cut her paw. It was a long hour or so until we got everyone situated.

Andrew just got a new phone with a much better camera than his old one, so I've attached some of the great pictures he's been taking of Esme, it's nice to have a new photographer around!

A sleeping Esme supported by Patches the nigh-nigh friend
(I'm sure you will not be surprised to her Patches was Esme's Christmas gift
from Sean and sleeps with her every night.)

The main Facebook consensus from this photo was that we should neither keep Esme frozen,
as the box suggests, nor should we ship her anywhere. I think we will heed that advice.
Thank goodness our parenting is a community endeavor!

I have to say that personally this smile coupled with the t-shirt is almost too much!

Learning and some fun pics

I've been amazed lately by Esme's language acquisition. Every day I hear her say a new word that I didn't even know she knew.
Today when her babysitter Sara (otherwise known as YaYa) was leaving she sad "See you later alligator" to which Esme promptly responded cahc-cahc (obviously crocodile :))

When her Godmother Kit was here she spent the whole day teaching Esme to say "Shake, shake, shake. Shake, shake, shake. Shake your booty". I just walked into the bathroom the other day in time to hear Esme, shaking a hotel size shampoo bottle, say "shake, shake, shake, boo, boo"

Ya Ya has been working on letters with Esme and Andrew has been working on numbers (my focus is shopping just in case I was sounding delinquent for a moment) so the other day over lunch Andrew said "1" and Esme said "2" (which is her favorite of all numbers), Andrew said "3" and Esme said "4", Andrew said "5" and as my jaw started to drop Esme said "6", Andrew said "7" and Esme said "B"...we'll keep working :)

Another new favorite pastime is cuddling...she'll throw her arm over my shoulder, give me a bear hug, and say "cu".
I'm still waiting for the second syllable to kick in but it is amazing to see her pride when she uses a new word and her joy for learning!

Esme and Ya Ya all ready for their girls night in!

Esme's been very into hat's lately...
here she is all ready to go bye bye with her hat hat

Sara helped me build Esme's new trike and we thought we'd take it for a spin
Now that the rain is gone I'll be sure to get a picture of Esme on her trike.


Andrew and I ready to go out to the Spring Orpheus Club Concert


Ready for her own hot date!
I didn't realize that Esme found my lipstick today...
Not bad for her first try I think, we'll still hold off a few years though.

bubbles

Esme's been working very hard on blowing bubbles in the bath for months.
Last week she finally got it, boy was she proud!!

The grand finale

Our trip ended in Arizona with two weeks visiting my sister.
I know you all have heard plenty about Esme's illness while we were there so I just wanted to share some of the actual fun things we did, and pass along some pictures:

We got to see my Dad's sister Aunt Loretta for the first time in a few years and she met Esme (and Cameron) for the first time.
You can also see my dad in this picture, turns out we didn't do such a great job getting pictures of him!

We ate breakfast one morning at the Wild Horse Cafe where Esme was obsessed with the Ozhos

This may have been the end of a long hot day for everyone but boy does Ahma/Grandma look happy!

Esme & Cameron's first baseball game

accompanied by Uncle Art (U-ya) Auntie Melanie (Ah-Ma) Shawn, Becky & Mama
Please note the new Orla Kiely bag, my super exciting $40 Last Chance find!!

One more happy sunshiney baseball picture

On day two of Esme's illness when she actually seemed better and coincidentally the one day that I was sick. Everyone went to the Renaissance Festival, Esme has been in a Elephant phase so here's everyone checking out the "Ella's"

My brother in law expressed his regret that he did not manage to get a picture of me throwing up in one of the festival garbage cans, which is sort of amusing since in the hour and bit I spent inside the festival I think I did manage to hit just about every one they had...I think the world can live without that picture though :)

A dubious Esme getting a foot rub from Auntie Melanie...wait who's been in the stroller all day here?

Here's Esme in her renaissance outfit

We had a great time swimming in Grandpa's pool

The cousins first meeting, Cameron seems a bit more sure than Esme

Esme came around though as she was soon willing to share her chair

All tired out after her first day at the ball park
(if you ask her what they're doing on the field she says 'ball')

This is my very favorite 'save until she's 16 and has a first boyfriend' blackmail photo.
Her little (and by little I mean big) belly is tooo cute!

Okay...I feel a lot of pressure relieved now that you all finally know about this trip, we can move on! Are you all as glad as I am?