Smiley girl

Esme still likes to push around her walker even though she doesn't need to anymore.

 Always smiling!

Hanging out at "home"...

Sorry about the light in these pictures.  There's a huge patch of sunlight on the carpet but I thought it was really funny the way that Esme was just hanging out on her front step eating a saltine... :-)

 It's always sad when the cracker's gone.

Get ready to laugh

Esme is simply hilarious...

Farmer's Market and a 5 mile run

This morning we went to the farmer's market in Mpls.  There is a section where they show outdoor landscaping and Aaron wanted to show me some large stones that he liked.  I love them too and someday we will have some of these in our back yard around our fire pit.

Esme had fun running around looking at everything.

She stopped and stood by these very cool bike racks on the way back to the car.

After getting home and relaxing for awhile, I was supposed to run 5 miles.  I'm training for a 10K that I will run next weekend.  I totally did not want to do it.  I had been dreading it all day and had psyched myself out that I didn't want to go.  Finally, I decided to go and get it over with.  It was almost dark when I went and I had the best run ever.  Really, probably the best run I've ever had in my life.  I felt really light on my feet and I felt like I could have run on and on.  It needed to be documented, sweaty hand and all!

Helping around the house

Esme likes to help around the house.  She's particularly good at taking laundry out of the laundry basket and putting it on the floor.

After all that hard work, a snack is definitely in order.

Shopping

Esme doesn't like to be in the cart that much anymore when we go shopping.  She likes to walk.  This often means that she takes off in every direction.  Usually any direction EXCEPT the one that her dad and I want to go. 

Luckily, last time we were shopping we were able to distract her for at least a little while by putting her to work.

Money in the bank

Grandpa Rex brought quarters for Esme.  He collects them for her.  She's probably going to be able to pay for her college tuition in quarters!

She thought it was fun to put them in her bank her piggy bank (that she got from Grandma Barb and Grandpa Dan).

Toddler play area

While Grandma and Grandpa were here, we ran to Eden Prairie Mall to pick out some new shoes for Esme at Scheels where we had a gift card.  I remember that Kirsten said they have a really good "toddler" play area there, so we decided to check it out.

I didn't see any signs about shoes or socks or anything.  Some kids were barefoot, some had shoes and some had socks.  So I took Esme's shoes off, but she was having a hard time standing on anything because it's all so slippery.  I decided to let her go barefoot.  That way she could climb up on the slides and steps without sliding.  Especially since there were so many other kids around.  The only bad part about that is when she has bare feet, she doesn't slide down the fastest.

Every once in awhile, she would lift up her feet and then she would slide really fast.  She loved it!!!

BTW, even though the equipment looks really hard like fiberglass or something, it's actually pretty soft and forgiving.  So falling isn't as big of a deal.

One time that she tried climbing up the slide, she got to the top and tripped a bit before she could turn around.  She fell and landed on her bum and slid BACKWARDS down the slide really fast.  I thought it would scare her, but she laughed and laughed and clapped!  This is a bad picture, but this was her when she stood up!

Gotta love the look on her face!!!

Pumpkin time!

It's time to get fall decorations!

There's a farm that I drive by each day on my way to work that has produce for sale in the summer.  I was happy to discover that in the fall, they have the best pumpkins and gourds!  We went there with Grandma and Grandpa yesterday!

There are a ton of different pumpkins and gourds.  And it's on the honor system, you pick out what you want and then put your money in a little black box.

There was a really big selection.

Check out Esme and Grandpa hanging out by the knobby pumpkins!

Grandma had to dig deep to find her favorite pumpkin!

Esme had fun too!

She got to ride in a wagon!

We had a great time!

Visiting Mom at work

Esme came in to visit me at work today and got a ride on the chair in the procedure room.

Painting by Candlelight

Our extra bathroom was crazy baby blue!  Were were very excited to get rid of that color. 

So we picked out a color and were trying to finish up the bathroom before my parents got here.  It was thundering and storming outside while I was putting the 2nd coat of paint on.  The power went out, but since my parents were going to be here the next morning, there was no time to waste.  So out came the candles and flashlights and I just kept on going!

 Here is a view of the "after".  Now we just need a few pictures and we'll be all done.

Slide fun

A garage sale purchase in the spring has been used over and over this summer.  :)

Esme has finally figured out how to climb up the slide from the back side.  Before that, she would just try to walk up the slide.  To do that, she had to be barefoot.  If she had socks on, she couldn't climb up because her feet were too slippery.  While being barefoot worked out great for going up, it wasn't so great for going down.  Her bare feet caught on the slide and she would kind of scoot down slowly rather than actually slide down.

Hopefully now that she's learned to go up the proper way, we can have her put socks on and she will really slide away!!!

Summer fun

Here's a couple of videos of Esme taken a couple of weeks ago.

It was a really warm day out and Esme was playing with her water table.  Aaron started the water in the hose for some reason (to fill the dog's water bowl maybe???) and Esme decided that she wanted to play in it.  She walked through the water spray a bunch of times, giggling like crazy!  Of course by the time that I got the video camera out she wasn't quite as enthusiastic as she had been.  Turns out, at this point she was just thirsty!

The other thing she was having a great time with was going up and down the big slide.  She pretty much has the little one figured out so it was time to move up to bigger and better things.  The good news is she has a blast doing it.  The bad news is this can only be done while Daddy is home because Mommy is not tall enough to help in case of emergency.  You'll see what I mean in a minute.  In this video too, Esme is tired.  She's climbed this slide about 7 or 8 times by now and she wants to keep doing it, but it's getting harder and harder the more fatigued she gets.

One more thing you'll probably notice, it's pretty slow going down that slide.  You can sort of see that her bum is wet when she's crawling up.  But it's really pretty soaked.  Running through a spray of water will do that for you!  The other thing she hasn't quite figured out is that she has to put her feet up to slide more quickly.  Now that it's been a little cooler and she's had socks on, she can slide down the slide REALLY fast!  Unfortunately, she can't climb up that way because her feet won't stick.  It makes for a frustrated toddler and a tired Mommy because I have to lift her up on the slide over and over again.  Then she gets even more mad because I can't lift her high enough to get her up to the crow's nest.  Oh well... I'm guessing there will be many, many more times where she will be mad at me!  :)

A new chair for Esme!

We have some new furniture in our house.  It came in the mail today.  And guess who loves it?!?



Sitting so nice



Great view!



I wonder what would happen...



If I stood all the way up?



Oops!



Purple Pride!

Esme loves her Vikings!!!  First game of the season is tonight!

My hip-hop look

New secret place

We have a nightstand/kennel by our bed that Cricket sleeps in each night.  Esme recently discovered it and thinks it's a great place to hang out.  Somehow I don't think Cricket would approve.

shh... I'm hiding!