Hello?

Oh my gosh... I think I see the future.

Sorry, the image quality on this isn't great, but the video is long enough that I couldn't keep the quality on here and still do the whole video. :)

Cleaning

Do you remember this? Esme vacuuming with Daddy? That was in November. She looks so little!


Well, some things never change.


Ok, maybe SOME things do. It's a different house. :)

And by the way, I do vacuum as well. Aaron just doesn't photograph it!!! :)

The beginning of food wars???

Esme's getting pickier and pickier when it comes to food. She wants to eat only a few bites of things and then she's done.

Lately she's loving saltines, but that's been a constant for awhile now. She's definitely a salty girl. Not like her sweet loving momma! She doesn't like graham crackers, but give her a saltine and she's happy. She also loves pork chops. She also likes tomatoes, apples, bananas, really anything she can eat by herself. But she's figured out that when she shakes her head no, it means no. She's not using the word no yet, but when she doesn't want to eat something, you quickly know.

She practiced using a spoon yesterday for the first time and did pretty well. I think she probably got a good half of the food in that she tried to.

On another note, we finished with formula today! We're finally done with it! On to whole milk. We've been doing milk for a couple of weeks now, but mixing it with formula to get rid of the formula. It's going to be nice to not have to mix that powder from now on.


It's hard to believe that Esme's big enough to be done with formula. Next step, giving up bottles. We'll see how that goes!!!

1 year = 1 tree

In honor of Esme's first birthday, we planted an oak tree. We wanted to plant one when she was born, but we were living in a townhouse, so it wasn't an option. Her first birthday seemed like the next logical time to do it. Now we can watch them grow together!

Looks like she may be taking over for Vanna White someday! :)

Here's a flashback. We also planted a tree in honor of our wedding. Because we were in the townhouse, we planted it in Dan and Barb's front yard. It is a Sugar Maple tree.

A morning at the park

We went to the park this morning. Esme went on her first airplane ride. :)

Then she worked on her walking skills a little bit more.

And finally she just decided to play with wood chips.

Overall, a good day at the park!

Increasingly mobile!

Esme's walking! Exactly one week after her first birthday.

She had been hugging the perimeter of rooms and walking along the wall for awhile now. She's also been standing and walking next to every piece of furniture in the house. But now she's officially a walker.

When I got home today, I asked Aaron how her day was at daycare. His answer - "very busy". I asked why (thinking maybe she ran errands with Grandma and Grandpa) and he said "she spent the whole day walking around"! Oh my gosh! I was imagining her taking few steps here and there and then falling down. But no, she's actually walking pretty far! Aaron had me stand by the sink in the kitchen and then he set her down by the pantry and she walked all the way over to me!!! It was probably 8-9 steps. I couldn't believe that she could walk so far so quickly! I guess when you get it, you get it.

She still prefers to crawl sometimes. It's just faster... for now!

Esme's First Birthday Party

Esme had her first birthday party this weekend. She's such a big girl!!! Grandma and Grandpa came from North Dakota for the weekend to help celebrate.Grandma helped decorate Esme's cake.Esme helped make frosting for one of the other cakes.


The day started out kind of rainy.

But it ended up being a nice afternoon and Esme was able to enjoy her cake on the deck.


I was surprised that she didn't make a bigger mess. She really didn't eat much of the cake at all. She mostly just squished the frosting between her fingers. She didn't even get any frosting in her hair! She still needed a little clean up though. The laundry sink seemed to work nicely.


She got lots of fun presents.


Jodie and Steve came with Annika and Laurel.


Eric came over.


Mike, Karen and Sam came for Esme's party and saw our house for the first time as well!


She ended up having a great day and being in a wonderful mood all day despite not taking a nap at all. She woke up at about 7 am and didn't go to bed until 8:30pm. But she was a happy girl!