Pool Time!

We went to Grandpa Rex and Grandma Jackie's house for Thanksgiving.  Esme had a great time! 

First of all, she ended up being a great traveler!  We left at 4:30 am Thanksgiving Day thinking that she would sleep for the first several hours and we would miss the traffic out of town Wednesday night.  She was not interested in sleeping at all!!!  She was awake almost the whole drive to NE.  But she played with her etch-a-sketch and watched Baby Einstein videos, and sang songs.  She didn't really fuss at all.  It was great!  We did stop in Fargo to let the dogs out and grab Starbucks.  We actually went in for coffee so that Esme could be out of the car for awhile too.  She ran around and enjoyed stretching her legs a bit and I had a nice triple venti soy latte because I was sleepy.  Other than that one stop, Esme was in her car seat the whole time!  What a trooper!

I think Esme's favorite part of the weekend was going to the pool in Dickinson.  She was a little hesitant to be in the water at first.  But soon she was having a great time!

The slide was a HUGE hit with her.  I bet she went down about 20 times and she cried when we finally left the pool.  Can you believe this is the girl who was hating water just a few short weeks ago?  Now she loves it!

Grandpa was at the top of the slide helping Esme get started and Aaron and I took turns catching her at the bottom. 

I think the pool may be a new Thanksgiving tradition. 

On the drive home Esme did pretty well although she was a little more fussy.  It's a long drive when you're an adult, much less when you're 1!  The most interesting part of the trip happened just as we were nearing Fargo.  Esme was ready to get out of the car for awhile and was having no problem of letting us know it.  I was trying to distract her and pointed out a horse in the field along the side of the road.  As we got closer to it, I realized that it wasn't a horse.  It was a moose!  I've NEVER seen a moose in ND.  The only other time I saw a moose was when I was visiting my friend Lori in Alaska.  By the time I realized what it was it was too late to take a picture, so you'll just have to believe me.  It was crazy!

We stopped in Fargo to let Esme (and us) stretch again, this time at Scheels.  Then back on the road.  Whew!  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for a great time!

False Advertising

Trail mix is a wonderful thing.  Everyone in our family loves it.  When we went to visit Grandma Gini and Uncle Len there was trail mix.  Esme likes the M & M's the best (really, who doesn't?). 

Melt in your mouth, not on your hands.  Yeah right. :)


 

Burpie or Blankie?

Esme has never had a "blankie".  She loves her burpies though.  She was a big spitter upper when she was a  baby so we have plenty of burpies around.  She goes to bed with burpies, she soothes herself with burpies, she chews on burpies when she's got teething issues, burpies are definitely her thing. 

At just about any given time, you can find a burpie lying on the floor somewhere. 

I think I counted one time and we have over 30 of these soft, white, wonder cloths. :)  Actually, as I'm typing this I just looked down and I'm sitting on a burpie.  Go figure.

So imagine my surprise when I saw this.

Linus, is that you?

She carried that blanket around all morning.  It was pretty cute.  It will be interesting to see if she becomes a "blankie" girl instead of a burpie girl. :)  I have to say that I hope not.  It's pretty easy to throw a burpie in the diaper bag or my purse.  Blankies would be a bit harder...  Here's voting for the burpie.

Budding Artist

As many of you know, we've gone back and forth with baths and water.  Esme used to love baths.  Then she hated getting her head wet and therefore hated baths.  After playing with the water table this summer she learned that water was fun and even started pouring cups of water over hear head.  Once again, baths were good.  Then inexplicably, they were bad again and she would cry every single time we neared the bathtub. 

Then came the "crayons".  Esme LOVES drawing.  Pens, crayons, pencils, it doesn't matter - if it writes, she wants to write with it.  So far she's pretty good at keeping her drawing on the paper, but I'm sure that will change soon.  Anyway, I found some crayons that you can use in the tub and that's all it took.  Now Esme loves the bath!  She cries when we take her out of it, even if the water is already cold.  I think she would sit in there all day!

Brrridge

Here's a preview of our torture session Christmas photo shoot.

Fueling up!

We decided to take our Christmas pictures at the Hanover Bridge.  It's a really cool old bridge with a great history.  It's also very close to our house.  However, we neglected to take into consideration that Esme hates being outside right now.  Actually, we knew it was cold and that the dreaded snow would be on the bridge, but 9 times out of 10 Esme is such a good sport that she can be happy in most conditions.  Not today.  It didn't help that it was also the coldest day so far this winter - like 24 degrees cold.  Yikes!  Not even Grandma Barb could make Esme smile. :(

Luckily, since we were so close to our house, we retreated to the warmth of our living room for some pictures.  Indoor pictures aren't quite as cool (literally for the better and figuratively for the worse) as being outside.  But hopefully we'll get a few keepers.

We should get the pictures in a few weeks.  Hopefully, we'll get a few good outdoor ones and we'll get a good Christmas card out of the deal.  Thanks Kendra for being so flexible!

Superstar!

Ok, enough about food.  Let's get back to the important stuff, Esme.

Tonight after work, I went to pick her up.  Barb told me that when Aaron dropped her off in the morning, she showed up with her sunglasses on.  Amazingly, she's pretty good at wearing them for extended periods of time.  What's funny is that when Aaron drops her off at his parent's house for the day, it's not even light out yet.  When we got ready to leave for home, she once again wanted to wear them.  And once again, it was dark outside.

Maybe she really is going to be a California Girl and insist on wearing shades at all times.  Or else she's practicing to be a superstar!

Cranberry Fun

I saw this recipe for Vanilla Bean Sugared Cranberries in a Rachel Ray magazine and had to try it.  I love most things cranberry.  I don't like cranberry jelly or sauce, but I like dried cranberries and cranberry scones, muffins, etc.  If cranberries are sweet, I love 'em!  I've made this twice in the last couple of weeks and I think it will definitely be a go to snack for holiday parties.

First you make a simple syrup and soak the cranberries overnight.

Then you coat the cranberries in a fine vanilla flavored sugar and let them set for about an hour.  You end up with fresh cranberries with a crusty sugar coating.  Just put into a bowl and serve.  Delish!

Next time I make them I'm going to do it with orange zest instead of vanilla.  Two vanilla beans are $6 or more and I really like the orange flavored dried cranberries from Trader Joe's.  I'm excited to see what the orange would taste like and if it's cheaper too?  Bonus!

Forgotten Soup

Martha's

Ok, so actually, I was wrong in my last post.  I made four recipes out of the Martha Stewart cookbook, not three.  I forgot about the Lentil Soup that I made.  It was really good and it made a great hot lunch this week since it was the first week of really cold weather in MN.

Yummy!

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it until I took it for lunch, so while this is not a great picture, it was super great soup!

Channeling Martha Stewart

I love cook books, especially ones with lots of pictures.

I came across this book at the bookstore a couple of weeks ago.

I was very excited because it had a picture with each recipe.  But I was a little nervous because it was a Martha Stewart cookbook and when I think of M.S. I invariably think of the need for minute amounts of very eccentric and expensive ingredients.  Not what I want in a cookbook.  But as I paged through this book, all the ingredients were normal; no truffle oil or saffron or anything like that.

I've made 3 recipes so far and they've all turned out pretty good!  The first one I made was Butternut Squash Soup.  I didn't take any pictures of it, but it wasn't bad.  It's not the best Butternut Squash soup I've ever had in my life, but it was pretty good.

Martha's version

The second recipe turned out great!  Tortilla and Black Bean Pie.  So good right away and even better the next day.  One of the ingredients was beer and I used a homemade beer that my cousin Todd made me.  It was a little sad to use, but we raised a toast to Todd as we poured the beer in the pan.  It added a great flavor!  I got out taco sauce and salsa to serve with it, but really just a little sour cream was all it needed.  I'll probably make a few changes to the recipe when I make it next time.  Mainly, I think I'll try to toast the tortillas in the oven for a few minutes ahead of time to crisp-en them up.

Right out of the oven!

Cut a bit too soon it sets up better after a few minutes of resting.

Last night for dinner I made Garlic Marinated Chicken Cutlets with Grilled Potatoes.  Again, very good.  The recipe is written to do on the grill, but since we just got a foot of snow, we did it in the oven and on a grill plate on the stove.  Very, very yummy.  Aaron and Esme loved it!  I did mix sweet potatoes in with the baby potatoes, cuz we are a sweet potato family. :)

Martha's

Mine

This will definitely be a regular at our house.

So right now I'm loving Martha.  There were two cookbooks like this and I'm pretty sure I'll be getting the other one as well.  Bon Appetit!

California Girl

I was very excited for the first snowfall of the winter.  I couldn't wait to take pictures of Esme playing in the snow.  Sledding, snowballs, snowman.  So when we got a foot of snow on Saturday, I was ready to head outside and play.  Someone forgot to tell her that this was going to be fun.

It all started out good.  She was looking out the window, pointing and babbling.  She says "bye, bye" when she wants to go outside and she kept saying it over and over again.  She wanted to go outside!!!

She didn't really like getting all bundled up.  It took way too much time.  There were a few tears, but then finally a little bit of a smile when she knew we were about to go out.

The hardest part about dressing like a marshmallow is that if you fall down, you can't really get up.  Esme took about 3 seconds to fall down once she was standing in the snow.  She was kind of like a turtle on it's back and it was pretty funny (in a cute way).  Funny for the person who's watching anyway, but that was the end of the fun for her.  She refused to walk, or even move.  She just wanted to be carried and refused to be put down on the ground. 

Sledding distracted her from her misery for a few seconds, but mostly Esme looked like this.

This was her face most of the time we were outside.

She would not be dissuaded though.  As soon as we went back inside, Esme was asking to go out again.  "Bye, bye", "bye, bye".  She was not about to be bundled up though, she just wanted to go outside!  It was cold and wet out, but we thought maybe if we let her go outside without her snowsuit maybe she would figure it out.

I'm not sure if it worked or not.  She only made it a few feet out on the deck before she got cold and headed back to the warmth of the house.  But even after she got inside, she still kept asking to go out.  I think what she was really trying to say is that she wants it the way it was last week.  She wants to just go outside and play like she used to.  This winter stuff is for the birds!


Aaron and I agreed that as soon as she's old enough to do so, she's probably going to move to a much warmer location.  Oh well, at least she should enjoy our Hawaiian vacation in January!

On a side note, Kaiser and Cricket loved the snow!

On the trail of something good!

Kaiser loving the weather!

Straw

Esme learned how to drink out of a straw today.  The straw has been her nemesis for awhile now.  She would always chew on it or just hold it in her mouth waiting for something to happen.  But today we went out to dinner and she figured it out.  The look on her face was priceless! :)

Progress: Tears and Cheers

No pictures today, just a story.

Esme has been HATING baths lately.  We've tried everything.  I got in the tub with her - that worked as long as she could sit on my lap and not actually touch the water.  I've showered with her, Aaron's showered with her.  Again, fine as long as she's not actually in the water.  She even plays with the water with her hands, but as soon as we try to get her wet, she screams.   That "my world is ending" kind of scream with crocodile tears. 

Last night we were trying to decide what to do because it was that time again, she needed to be clean.  We hadn't tried a bath for a few times, so we agreed on that.  We tried putting her in and she screamed.  So we slowed down.  First she stood outside the tub and played with the water with her hands.  Then we tried to put her in - no go.  So we had her sit on the edge of the tub and dangle her feet in the water.  She did that for quite awhile and then FINALLY, she got in!  She even played in the water for quite awhile.  We did use soap and wash her up, but we didn't wash her hair.  We figured it was more important for her to be comfortable in the water than to have perfectly clean hair.  But I wet her hair with my hands and she didn't seem to mind so much.  Yaayyy!  Success!  Hopefully, next time it will go as well or even better!

Backing up a bit.  We put a potty chair in the bathroom and she always sits on it right before she gets in the tub or shower.  Nothing ever happens, but she's getting used to the idea of sitting on a chair with a big hole in the middle.  Last night when she stood up, she had actually gone potty!!!  We cheered and clapped our hands and she did too, but I'm pretty sure she had no idea why. :)

Progress...

Disco with snacks!

Esme has discovered light switches.  She likes to turn them off and on - over and over and over again! :)  I feel a little bit like I'm living in a disco-tech!

After working hard on the lighting system it was time to sit down with a snack.  It's always best to share.

And yes, she does have her shoes on with her pajamas.  She insisted...

Tree moving

Aaron and I planted a tree the weekend of our wedding.

We were living in my townhouse at the time, so we planted it in Dan and Barb's front yard.  This weekend we decided to move it to our back yard.

Even Esme and baby helped!

Here's the tree in it's new home.

These shoes were made for walking...

Ok, so admittedly this isn't uber exciting.  But this is one of my all time favorite pictures of Esme so it gets to be on the blog...

We've had a great fall this year.  It's been really warm.  This means lots of walks.  Our pace has slowed down quite a bit though because Esme is more interested in actually walking than riding in the stroller.

Soon it will be cold, but for now we'll keep on walking!

Halloween

This year for Halloween, Esme was a Rainbow Caterpillar again.  That's what she was last year too, but this year she actually fit into her costume!  Remember 2009?

All ready to go!

On my way!!!

First door of the night.