Play date with Josie

We love our neighborhood.  We love the location, the fact that there's a bike path that goes by the Crow River right by our house.  We can walk to parks, and have friends in the neighborhood and we have nice neighbors.  But the one thing we hate is that there aren't really any little girls in our area.  There are two boys next door that Esme loves.  But behind us, across the street from us and on the other side of us from the boys are all older people with grown up kids.  So if the boys next door are busy, there is no one to just run outside and play with.

Josie is a girl who lives a block or so away from our house.  She is a little oder than Esme and they have met a couple of times.  Out of the blue, I decided to call and ask if it would be ok if Josie came over for a play date.  Luckily, she was free!

Oh my gosh did these girls have fun.  Right away they were outside sledding down the hill and playing in the snow.  Then they came in and decided to have a party and set up for it.  They made invitations, decorated and had food.  They set the table and played music.  It was super fun!

Esme playing music for the guests

Great conversation!

Here is a close up of the beautiful table.

Afterwards they were excited to watch The Little Mermaid together.

As we walked Josie home, she and Esme were inviting each other to their upcoming birthday parties. They're both in the summer.  At one point I heard Josie say that her imaginary friend was going to look just like Esme and was going to have the same name as Esme. :)  How cute is that?  After we got home, Esme asked if she could invite Josie over every single day.

I'm so excited that she may have a little girlfriend in the neighborhood finally!

Christmas Day

Esme got the thing she wanted most from Santa this year.  A "Real Surprise Baby".  It's today's iteration of the baby that eats and drinks and poops and pees.  Yaayyy for those of us (that would be me) who get to change baby's diapers and make sure she's cleaned out so the food doesn't crust up and get gross.  Oh yeah, I now have to buy doll food and doll diapers too.  Ugh...

But Esme loves her and named her Elizabeth.

The surprise that Esme wasn't expecting, but loves is the make up box that Santa brought her.  It's a box with make up brushes and some pressed powder, lip gloss and very light pink blush and eye shadow.

She is having so much fun putting makeup on everyone.  She has a lot to learn though because she puts the eyeshadow on everyone's fingernails and says that she's "sparkling them". :)

After she opened presents we got ready for company.  Esme wanted to have brunch at our house.  So Mamoo and Papa, Grandma Barb and Grandpa Dan, and Eric and Nicole came over.  It was really fun!

Merry Christmas!

Girls night at Midwest Archery

My fabulous friend Connie invited me to come with her to Midwest Archery in St. Michael for a Girls night.  It was super fun!  I got to meet some new people and shoot a real bow for the first time.  I have shot Esme's little bow, but I'm pretty sure that doesn't count.

We used some base model bows which I'm told are a bit harder to shoot with but it was still really cool.  It took me awhile to actually hit the target but eventually I did it!  I'm left eye dominant, so I shoot left handed which basically means that I am fabulous!

Here I am!

The funny thing is that I got this crazy bruise on my right inside forearm from the wire (I'm sure there's some more technical term for that) hitting my arm as it went by.  I knew that would happen because it happens with Esme's bow a bit.  There's a way to turn your wrist and arm to avoid that and if this is something I ever decide to do more of I will have to work on that - a lot!  See the bruise for yourself.

that evening

the next morning

It was worth it to get the bruise for two reasons.  First of all, I won an awesome sweatshirt from Midwest Archery for having the best bruise.  I won hands down!  I don't have a picture of it now, but it's black and has a pink logo on it.  It's heavy and comfy and exactly what a great sweatshirt should be.  Also, here is a picture of the target after my last shoot.

Please ignore the arrow that completely missed the paper target and direct your attention to the one that is in the bigger bullseye area!  WooHOOOO! :)

I had such a great time.  I would definitely consider joining a league at some point.  Aaron and I even talked about doing it as a family because we think Esme would like it.  The hardest part is the bows.  They are unbelievably expensive.  They gave one away that night as a door prize and it was almost $600!  Not to mention the fact that there are all these other accessories that you need - like arrows, some wrist-y thing that you use to let go of the arrow as it flies.  It's an expensive hobby.  One girl even had little blinky lights on the end of her arrows so she could see exactly where they were on the target.  Let me tell you this, if I ever decide to do this for real, I want that!  And I would have to work really hard to avoid any camoflauge - which might be hard to do because most of the accessories and bows have camo detailing.  Let me tell you, I was surrounded my more camouflage than I have been around in a long dang time!!!

It turns out that there were about 60 women and girls there.  That is what I would call a success!  Thank you so much Connie for inviting me and exposing me to a really fun sport!

Crow Hassan

Today we went for a hike at Crow Hassan, our favorite hiking spot.  As usual, Esme got the map right away and pointed out where we should go.  Don't tell her, but we really just go whatever way we want to and she thinks it's what the map says.

She also likes to pull off all the seeds from the grasses and drop them on the ground.  It can make the hiking slow. ;)

After awhile, we got off the trail and did a little climbing over and under trees.  Esme's learning to follow the dogs since they know the best path to use.  She has such a great time climbing!

 

 

Esme also loves to be in charge of walking Cricket.  I got her to slow down for a minute to take this picture.

It reminds me of one of my favorite pictures of Esme. :)  Check out the last picture of this post.

Still Stylin'

So...  We're ba-ack!

It's been months since I've blogged.  April???  It's just crazy how time flies!  The good news is that a ton has happened and I've still been taking pictures of it all.  So I better get back to it.  What brings me back you ask?  The answer is Halloween.  Esme asked me what she was the past years.  For the life of me, I couldn't remember two years ago.  So I came to the blog and looked.

Which is the main reason that I blog, specifically so that I can look back and remember.  I think there are so many little details of life that are forgotten and I want to remember everything about Esme's life that I can.  I joke that when I'm old and in a nursing home, I'll just read the blog over and over again.  Well, for the last few months there's not going to be much to read!  So my plan is to start blogging again today and then fill in the missing holes from the last several months.

Yesterday Esme really wanted to go bowling.  We invited Annika, Laurel, Jodi, Eric, Nicole and Carson to go with us.  I didn't take any pictures of bowling, but I did get a couple of pictures of Esme in her outfit.

She's really been into bandana's lately - probably because of my Halloween costume this year.  So here she is with her bandana (and her purse).

She also wanted a tattoo, so we added a ladybug on a leaf to her arm.  I asked her to show me her muscles and her mean face - and here is what we got.

I cannot even begin to tell you what that look means...  :)  But I can tell you that bowling was a hit!  Esme did a great job and we all had a great time.

So keep your eyes open for more blog posts!  I'm excited to keep up with our life now.  Also, watch for back posts.  I'll be adding as many as I can.

Crossfit Halloween

Tonight we did our Crossfit Halloween WOD.  We were told that we had to come in costume or we would have to 50 burpees in front of everyone.  Needless to say, everyone dressed up.  Including me! It was hard to think of a costume at all, but especially a costume that you could work out in.  I decided to be Rosie the Riveter.

It was an easy costume to put together but I will say that the blue shirt didn't last long once the workout started, it was too hot!

We did a Devil workout - 666.  Six rounds of six reps of 6 exercises - AMRAP (as many reps as possible) in 20 minutes.  It was hard, really hard.  But I finished and I didn't die - so that's good. :)

Carrots!

This year we decided to grow carrots in our garden.  It was our first garden and I chose the multicolor carrots.  Today we dug them all out.

The orange ones are the best, so next year I think I'll just do those.  The other ones are pretty, but the white ones are a bit soggy and take forever to cook.  The dark purple ones are great, but they are not orange throughout as I thought they would be.  They are orange inside and if you peel them or scrub them too hard when you're cleaning them, the purple comes off.

All of the green tops filled our compost bin to the top!

Brrr...

It's supposed to be spring.  It's supposed to be warm.  It's not...

Tonight we went to Old Chicago for dinner.  I had to order a hot drink because I was so dang cold.  I got a hot chocolate with Kahlua. 

Don't worry, this was followed by a margarita.  :)  

Whenever the check comes, Esme likes to sign too.  So we always give her the second receipt and let her sign it.  Sometimes she draws pictures too. :)

I can't wait until she buys for real!

Easter

This year Laurel's birthday landed on Easter and Annika's is April 4th.  We got to celebrate by going to Steve and Jodie's house.  I didn't take a lot of pictures, but here is a cute one of the three girls.

Happy Easter everyone.  And Happy Birthday Laurel and Annika!

Striking another pose

Esme is still being her normal fashionista self.  Here was today's outfit.  She also decided to start posing for the camera. :)

Apples and trees

Last night it was my night to put Esme to bed.  We read a book called Wump World that we got from the library.  I understand the idea behind the book and Lord knows I'm all about the environment when I can be.  But let me just tell you that this book was simply depressing...  Moving on.

After reading, Esme and I snuggled for a bit.  She always says "put your arm around me to keep me safe" while she's falling asleep.  So we always lay on our sides, and I put my arm around her.  We make a great spoon!  But last night I just couldn't get comfortable so I told her that I was going to lay on my stomach next to her.  Pretty soon she decided to lay on her stomach too.  I said "now we are the same!"  And her response?

"Mom, you know the apple doesn't fall far from the tree..."

What the?????????  :)  The fact that she knows that quote and can recite it without making any mistakes just floors me!

And then she fell asleep.

Ouch!

In an effort to enjoy the last few days of snow on the ground this winter/spring, Mamoo and Papa took Esme sledding.

On Papa's first trip down with Esme, the hit a bump and went flying.  Esme scraped up her face (apparently she's related to me!) from the snow and from her headband that came down over her face.  The little teeth on it really got her.  This is the picture Mamoo texted me.

Unfortunately, Papa Rex hurt his back and had to be taken home right after the wipe out.  Mamoo didn't want that to be Esme's last sled of the winter, so after they dropped off Papa at home, they went back to the hill and sledded for quite awhile.

When I got home from work, Esme was sitting on the couch under a blanket.  This is the girl who is NEVER cold.  I asked her if she was cold and she said no (of course not!) but that being covered up with the blanket was helping her face to feel better!  Apparently, Oreo cookies help too since there were a ton of Oreo crumbs on her face. :)

We were a little worried because she had swimming lessons tonight and hoping that it wouldn't sting when she got in the water.  We put some Vaseline over the cuts and she did great!  It didn't even seem to bother her at all.  I think afterwards she was a little more swollen, but maybe that would have happened even without being in the pool water.

The good news is that every time I ask her if it hurts, she says no.  So I think it looks worse than it is.  Let's just hope that this is the last time she tries to land on her face...

Snowman

Esme, Mamoo and Papa made a snowman today.  I think this might be the best snowman I have ever seen in my life!

Beginning of Spring Break!

No preschool for us this week because of Spring Break.  Esme's very first one!

We started off the day with a play date with Esme's favorite friend in the whole world right now, Emily.  Esme L-O-V-E-S Emily!  We play a lot of make believe at our house and no matter what we're doing, Esme pretends her name is Emily. :)  This is a great improvement over our previous pretend personality - Rihanna.  Yuck...  Anyway...

Emily's mom, Laura, is the best and she planned an Easter Egg hunt for the girls which included Emily's three sisters.

Esme and Emily

Esme, Jessica, Emily, Hayley and Rebecca

And don't forget Daisy!

After we got home from Emily's house, Esme went for a bike ride.  She has come such a long ways since last fall.  She has all kind of confidence and just zooms all over the place.  I couldn't keep up!

Look how far away she is!!!

Over all it was a great day!  Thanks Laura and the Roth family for having us over.

Fashion choices

Esme continues to floor me with her fashion choices.  I love them!  Here she is as she got ready to go hiking with Aaron.

I'm convinced she'll be a fashion star someday!

Waiting for the Bus

Today Aaron was sick.  He finally caught the crud that the rest of us have beed struggling with. :(  That meant that I took Esme to Aaron's parents for the day when he usually does it.

I was loading up the car and running in and out of the garage and when suddenly I got a glimpse of Esme.

Me:  Esme, what are you doing?

Esme:  Waiting for the bus.

My car was the bus, and it was not even close to looking like rain.

Board Games

Today we had a fun day.  Esme got a new game called Sequence.  I've never played this game before in my life, but the kid version was fun!

 Cinder decided she wanted to play too.  She kept crawling across the board.

 Kaiser, however, was not as interested...

Littles 2 or Littles 3 - that is the ???

Today was Esme's last day of swimming lessons for this session.  It looks like we are going to do Littles 2 again next session.  At the beginning of this session, she started off doing so well that we thought she was a shoe in for Littles 3 next time.  We even registered her for it with the instructor's approval.  But then we had a few iffy weeks.  After we got back from Hawaii, Esme didn't want to do as much in the water without help.  She wanted Miss Christy to hold on to her the whole time, or to jump into Miss Christy's arms rather than into the water beside her.  So we decided that it would be better not to push her and re-registered her for Littles 2.  We thought/think it would be better to make sure that lessons are always an enjoyable experience for her.

Wouldn't you know it, tonight on her last night of class, she kicked butt!  She did so great!  Miss Christy said it was her best week ever and that based just on tonight she would say she could move to Littles 3.  What to do, what to do?

We decided on this.  We're keeping her in Littles 2 for now, with the same rationalization as before.  I would rather have her do really well in Littles 2 than to flounder in Littles 3.  That being said, the first week of class the new teacher will test her and if it looks like she could move on, we will reevaluate then.  So the verdict is still sort of out.

The last thing done in class each week is some sort of fun reward for the kids.  Today it was getting thrown in the air like a cannonball.  Esme loved it!  Thanks Miss Christy for a great session!

Taking care of Mom

Today I stayed home from work.  I had a headache, cough, sore throat, plugged nose, etc.  Your everyday, average crud.  Esme has been sick too, but she's towards the end of it.  She felt good enough to go to The Children's Museum with Mamoo and Papa while I stayed home and slept the day away.

When she got home, she came and sat with me for about three and a half minutes.  That's really all you can get her to sit still for these days.  She brought one of her books for me to read to her.  I told her I really thought she should read it to me since I was sick.  She reminded me that she didn't know how to read, so I asked her to try it "for pretend".  She made up a great story about Scuffy the Tugboat.

And then she left to play downstairs and do "more fun things".  Oh well, at least I got a few minutes with her!

Granola Girl

Esme loves to dress herself.  For the most part I let her.  I know there's going to be a time in the future when the struggles of being a parent of a girl are going to be huge.  Boy issues, friend issues, self esteem issues, facebook issues.  Ugh.  Not looking forward to it.

I, not so secretly, hope that by the time Esme is a teenager the pendulum is going to shift far in the opposite direction of where it is now.  I pray that facebook and anything remotely similar is gone, that turtlenecks and long prairie style skirts and dresses are in, and that tattoos are taboo.  Please, just allow me to live in my dream world for just a little while, won't you?

Ok, so back to the real world.  As I said, I let Esme dress herself 90+% of the time.  My main reasoning for this is twofold.  First, I think that there are bigger fish to fry, if you will.  I'm not going to argue about colors that don't match, etc because I want her to have a lot of "yes" moments so that I'm not the "no" mom that never allows anything.  Second, and more importantly, I think it's most important that Esme likes the way she looks.  I care more that she thinks she's pretty than if anyone else does.  And if she thinks she looks beautiful in a mermaid dress and galoshes or a gazillion accessories who am I to tell her differently?!?  She needs to answer to herself.

On that note.  The other day she decided that she wanted to wear her Chaco's.  Yes there was snow on the ground and no she didn't care.  I told her that she had to wear socks so she should probably just wear her shoes.  She said - "I can wear socks with my Chaco's!"  The compromise that we made was that she had to wear her boots to preschool and then she could wear the sandals.  Oh my gosh, that made her a happy girl!

So here she is, my granola girl.  I posted a picture of this on facebook (do I see the irony in that?  Yes I do!) and a friend of mine from Washington state said this was a sure sign that we are meant to be back in the Pacific Northwest.  Who knows?  Wouldn't that be nice!  Maybe someday Esme really will grow up to be a granola girl in Portland or Seattle.  We'll have to wait and see!

Crazy Sock Day

It's Crazy Sock Day at Preschool today!

Star of the Week!

Today was Esme's turn to be Star of the week at preschool.  She worked on a poster all about herself and got to share it with the whole class.

Here is what's on the poster.  This is what I look like.  I am 3 1/2 years old.  This is what I looked like as a baby.  My birthday is June 8, 2009.  My favorite color is Pink and Purple.  My favorite food is hot dogs.  My family.  My favorite thing to do is play in my toy kitchen.  At preschool I want to play on the computer.  On the front of the book Esme drew a computer.