Dreams

I'm not sure why, but I love that she's looking at Christmas catalogs.  :)

Annie

Today, Esme came up to me and said she was playing with Annie.  At first I thought she said "Ernie", Aaron's brother.  But nope, she clarified that Annie is what she meant.  A few minutes later she came over from playing and pointed beside herself and said "I'm playing with Annie".  Naturally, I said "Hi, Annie" and Esme giggled and said that she and Annie were picking flowers with Annie's mom.  Then she (Esme) pretended to pick a bunch of flowers.

Later we went to the grocery store and as I was getting Esme out of her car seat, she told me that Annie wanted to come a long.  And so she did.

I'm not sure what age kids have imaginary friends, but for Esme it's right now. :)

Thrill of the chase

Everything is a chasing game right now, we're forever running after Esme.  Time to get dressed?  She runs and hides.  Diaper change anyone?  Running.  Hiding.  And watch out if you bring out the camera - she's gone!  And she's not going to make getting pictures easy for anyone.

This is particularly fun difficult since I took a photography class and am trying my darnedest to take pictures in manual mode.  By the time I've figured out the light, there's no little girl in the frame anymore!

Here's a few of what I got today.

Bad lighting

love Cricket in focus and everything else (including vacuum) blurry

I had to bribe her to stand still long enough to get this picture of her "Happy Halloween Socks"

Better lighting, but kind of looks like she's going to eat the door handle

And now she's done...

Beautiful Hair

Everywhere we go, everyone always comments on Esme's hair and how beautiful and curly it is.  I have a feeling, sadly, that the curl is starting to go away a bit.  I'm holding out hope that it's losing a bit of its' curl just because her hair is getting longer.

At any rate, I love her hair.  It's perfect.

Playing with the neighbor boys

Every single day Esme asks to play with Darla, our neighbor.  Really what she wants is to go over to Darla's house and play.  Their toys are better, the boys are there and of course Darla's there too!  She even sort of likes Jeff. :)

Tonight they were all about playing video games on the driveway.  Esme loved it! :)

Love Nathan's expression :)

Esme Bakes

Last year around this time, I gave Esme an old purse of mine.  To fill it up with things, I scoured the dollar bins at Target.  One of the things that I found was a little cookbook.  It went in her purse and kind of disappeared.  Until today.  Esme pulled it out and sat in my lap and asked if we could "read" it.  Then she pointed to every single recipe (which all seemed pretty easy btw) and asked if we could make that for Daddy.  No time better than the present right?

Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins according to Esme

(and Betty Crocker)

first get your recipe and a bowl

gather ingredients

open ingredients

put everything into a bowl

mix

and viola!

Yummy muffins for Daddy!

Yaayyy Gophers!

Not only is Esme learning to spell, she's learning to be a true Gopher fan!  Enthusiasm is key!