Television, unrequited love, and puppy kisses

Esme's finally figured out that the television is there.  Up until now she's been pretty oblivious to it.  Sometimes we would turn it on to cartoons and she would look at it for a tenth of a second and then she was on to the next thing. 

I even got a little portable DVD player that we would take in the car to ND when she was several months old.  When she would get fussy on the long drive, I would put on Baby Mozart or something like that, and she would kind of watch it, but she wasn't really all that impressed.

So imagine my surprise the other day when I had the TV on while I was in the kitchen and I looked over and saw that she was watching it!  I knew it would happen eventually, but I was still surprised.  I changed the channel to cartoons for her and she sat perfectly still, in this position for several minutes.

Later we went over to Jack and Charlie's house and she was watching television with Charlie. 

Or maybe she was just watching Charlie...  It's hard to tell in this picture.  Charlie used to be Esme's "boyfriend", but now that we've moved away it appears that he's moved on.  I hear he's found another.  We won't tell Esme just yet since she seems so interested in him.  Although, it could be that she was interested in the snack he was eating.  At Jack and Charlie's Esme gets puffs and she loves them!

Sadie and Emma like Puffs too!

Emma kept giving Esme kisses.  I'm sure she was making sure that Esme felt loved.  Esme fell hook, line and sinker.  She kept putting her mouth right next to Emma's to try to get more and more kisses from her.  Good thing she was generous with them!

Charlie Bakken eat your heart out!

I think at the moment, she's made the right choice.  Puppies are WAY more lovable than boys!  Unless of course the boy has a snack that you want. :)

Favorite toys

I remember hearing stories from my parents about how when I was little my favorite toys were soup cans and potatoes.  And you always hear people say that the box toys come in or the paper they're wrapped in are usually more fun for the toddler than the actual toy.

Esme is no exception to the fact that simple toys can be the most fun.  Today she had a blast playing with her dishes.

And later she emptied my wallet at least three times.  How much fun is that?!?  I know, I know, get used to it right?

Reading is fun!

Everyone always says "read to your kids".  How many bed time rituals include a book?  Ours does sometimes, but not every night.  There are a lot of nights that we talk, or sing, or go over parts of the face like lips, nose, eyes, etc. and reading gets missed.  At first I was feeling a little bad, but I decided not to worry about it.  Somehow I think she'll grow up to be a reader.

Here's why -

• Esme has a LOT of books to choose from.  Right now two of her favorites are Yummy Yucky and Ten Tiny Tickles.  She likes to look at them all day long and over and over again!

• Aaron and I each pretty much ALWAYS have a book going.  I have a pile of books on my side of the bed and often one in the car.  Aaron always has a book by his side of the bed and usually takes it to work with him.  We have boxes of books in the basement just waiting for a bookshelf.  Books are everywhere in our house and reading is definitely a part of our life.
• Esme is pretty entertained by any and all books.  She likes to play with our books as well as her own.  She will just leaf through them over and over again.  She even likes to take books to bed with her.  No doll (yet) but always a book.

Apparently she fell asleep while kicking the books out!

• The other night Aaron and I were sitting out on the deck, each reading a book.  Esme wanted to join us.  So we set her up in her own chair and gave her a book IKEA catalog to "read" (fun pictures and who cares if it gets ripped up!).  She sat  there so good, just like a big girl "reading" her book.

Yes, it is August and I have a jacket on!

•  Even when we're in the car, she likes to read.  Today on the way home from daycare, she looked at a catalog the entire time.

It's a long commute!

So needless to say, I'm pretty sure Esme's going to be a reader!  I know there's always a fluky chance that she won't like it, but I would be very surprised!

The store is now closed.

Esme loves the pantry.  I always say that she likes to go "shopping" in there.  It's a great store!  There are boxes of noodles to shake, containers of Crystal Light to crash together and lids to plastic containers to play with.  We haven't really minded letting her play in there because she's usually very good at putting things back where they were and she genuinely seems to be having a great time.

One of her favorite things to play with is the baking powder.  It's quite amusing to watch.  She loves to carry it over to the dishwasher and pretend to pour it in.  We can't figure out why she does this or why it's only the baking powder.  It might make sense if we used a powder dish washing detergent, but we use little capsules.  So I'm not sure where she's come up with this idea.  I was trying to catch her doing it in this video.  Also pay attention to the cocoa powder on the shelf and the strawberry syrup that she "kisses".

Did you see the cocoa and the syrup?  A couple days after this video was taken, she dropped the syrup and broke the glass bottle.  There was sticky syrup all over the floor of the pantry.  The next day, she managed to open the cocoa powder and it too was all over the floor.

So now the door to the pantry (store) is closed.  We hope there won't be an uprising by the shopper...

Musikgarten

Tonight after work I went to Dan and Barb's to pick up Esme and we went to Anoka to an open house for Musikgarten.  It's a music program for kids.  Barb took Annika and Laurel to Music for Toddlers when they were little and now she's going to take Esme.  The classes are once a week from September to January. 

Here's what the website says about the class -

Discover the joy of music and movement with your toddler as we focus on music from the Sing with Me Musikgarten CD. We'll sing about kittens, teddy bears, horses, ponies and many other animals. You and your child will learn Hands a-Washing which will come in handy before meals when it's time to get the hands clean. Learn a whole repertoire of lullabies, including Ninna Nanna, Golden Slumbers and Sleep, Baby, Sleep for use at nap time and bedtime. Music for walking, jumping, marching, dancing and galloping is also included. We'll learn finger plays and play many different instruments. The last few minutes of class are reserved for exploring additional classroom instruments with your child and/or reading books from our music library. This class will give you many ideas for how to bring music into your daily home life!

Esme didn't have a super great time at the open house because she wasn't feeling all that well.  But she did stand and watch the musicians play for quite awhile.  That's Ginny in the black and white outfit.  She teaches the classes.

I'm sure she will enjoy the class!  Right now she loves singing The Wheels on the Bus so I'm sure she'll love learning new songs.  Plus, it will be a nice outing for her and Barb once winter comes.  

Yaayyy Musikgarten!

Soccer girl

In the video I posted the other day of the Erntson family soccer match, Esme ran around and did get to kick the ball once in awhile although I did not actually get video of that.

Here is proof that she does like to kick the ball and is pretty good at it.  When she's focused.  As you can see, she's easily distracted.  We'll have to work on that! :)

Here's another video of the same afternoon. Esme really likes to chase Cricket and grab her tail.  Or she pets her nicely and then grabs a hand full of fur and flesh until Cricket squeaks.  Surprisingly, Cricket does ok with this most of the time.  Yes, this is the same Cricket who was scared to death of anyone younger than 35 when I got her.  We've been working with Esme to "be nice" and to "pet nicely".  She decided to take it to the extreme and give Cricket some real love. :)

Dolan Family Reunion

Yesterday we went to the Dolan Family Reunion.  Barb's maiden name is Dolan.  Esme had a lot of fun running around.  We all had a great time!

Annika did a great job of corralling Esme when she got too far away!  She's such a great helper!

There was a playground that had a toddler size play set.  I think Annika and Laurel enjoyed it more than Esme did. :)  She was enthralled by what the big kids were doing.

Esme watching the big kids

Even Steve found something fun to do!

There were games for the kids. Esme didn't play by the rules.  She just wanted to play in the water! :)

As usual, she had to taste everything.  Her sippy cup ended up in the water!  I don't think that was how the game was supposed to be played Esme!!!

Eventually, there was a family game of soccer.

Esme tried her best to play too!

It will be fun to see what kind of soccer player she's going to be.  So far if there's a ball near her, she's kicking it.  I think she takes after her dad!

Esme ended up crashing on the way home and then slept for over 12 hours.  What a great day!

Welcome to Everyday Erntson!

Welcome to our new home! :)  Not much has really changed, we'll mostly be talking about Esme.  But now we can talk about other stuff too.

Let's catch up on the last week or so.

For my birthday Aaron took me to Lake Superior to kayak.  It was the 14th Annual Kayak Festival in Two Harbors, MN.

We went for a three and a half hour kayak with a group of of eight other kayaks.  Really fun.  We went from Burlington Beach to Agate Beach and back.

Look how tiny the kayak is under the loading dock!

Then we went to Duluth and hung out at Canal Park for the night.  It was pouring rain, so we had to take a cab back to our hotel which was downtown.  The next morning we got to sleep in, always the best!

Then we drove back home and had dinner at Dan and Barb's to celebrate my and Eric's birthday.  It was SUPER hot and humid out.  Little Esme's curls just sprung.

And Cricket found refuge under the potting bench in the shade.

The good news is that on Monday, Cricket went in to get her hair cut.

She went from this -

To this -

She's even smiling, she's so happy!  A dog needs a good haircut in Minnesota in August!

Thanks for visiting our new home.  Come back soon or follow us!

Change up?

I'm thinking about changing the name of our blog.  I would like to put things about the rest of our family on here also, but then it seems like there might be a more appropriate name for the blog. 

One of my favorite blogs is about my friend Brian's family, his wife writes it and they have three kids.  It's called www.thesnyder5.com.  I'm trying to think of what might be a clever blog name with Erntson.  I guess I could just do www.erntsonfamily.blogspot.com, but that's not very exciting.  I'd have to check to see if it's even available.  www.erntsonzoo.blogspot.com?  www.erntsonhappenings.blogspot.com?  www.erntsonstoday.blogspot.com?

Does anyone have any fun ideas?  Comment and let me know what you think!

Esme's Flowers

Annika, Laurel and Esme planted flowers with Grandma Barb this summer.  The girls each put seeds in a pot and now we all get to watch them grow.

These are Esme's.  Clearly, she has more of a green thumb than her mother does.  She must take after the Erntson side when it comes to growing things. :)

Facial anyone?

The education in culinary utensils continues...

Not to worry, isn't yogurt good for your skin?  And it must be good for clothing too right?  At least it sort of blends in with the polka dots!

Favorite toy right now

Esme loves this toy.  She will bring it up to anyone at anytime to play with her.

I'm not even sure of the name of it.  Shape ball?  Puzzle ball?  She got it from my parents.  Grandma was looking for the old Tupperware one that was red and blue.  BTW, Tupperware calls theirs the "Shape-O" toy.  Clearly they couldn't think of a good name for it either.

No matter the name, it's the most entertaining toy at the moment.  I actually like the new one better because there are different colors, so she can learn colors and shapes.  It has numbers on it also, but the numbers don't always match.  For example, you would think that the hexagon would have a 6 on it, the square a 4, etc.  But because they have shapes like a heart, the whole thing is off.  The pentagon has a 2 on it, and the 5 is on the heart.

But you can see how much Esme gets into it.  She really concentrates.  It's funny, because she hasn't quite figured out how to find the right spot for the right piece yet.  If you show her what spot to put the square, for example, she can put it in but it takes her a bit to orient the shape at the right angle.  She also puts the pieces in the opposite way that I would think to put them.  She puts them in with the hollow side pointing towards her, where I would put it with the hollow side towards the toy.

When she gets too frustrated she hands us the piece and tries to get us to do it for her.  Sometimes, she just decides that she's done.

 

Here's a video.