Nine Months Old

Esme's 3/4th's a year old! She had her physical today and was right on target - babbling, clapping, waving, pulling up, crawling, picking things up with her thumb and forefinger, etc. She weighed 19 pounds = 50th percentile for weight, and 28 inches long = 65th percentile for length. She also got her flu shot and so I decided to get mines at the same time. She barely made a fuss while getting the shot and then she was done. Then this afternoon she got to enjoy some string cheese for the first time and she gobbled it up.

She discovered the Tupperware cabinet

Yummy egg yolks

Pulling up on the ottoman

Whistle While You.....Play

Emse's latest trick is whistling!  She makes her lips into an "o" when she gets excited about something and then she breathes in and out and whistles.  Then she just gets more excited.  It's pretty cute but we haven't been able to catch it on video yet.  She's officially pulling up now and we've realized that we don't have many places where she can do that in our house.  She still manages to get everywhere with her army crawl.  Sometimes she rocks on all fours or gets up like a little crab but goes nowhere.  We still need to put baby gates on our staircase and then we should be safe for awhile more.  Esme's been enjoying trying all the squashes and pumpkins that are in season now.  She's also ventured into yogurt, applesauce, Cheerios, and then tomorrow is egg yolks (no whites until 1 year).   

Daylight Savings Time

Amazingly Esme woke up at her normal time, 6am, this morning even though we turned the clocks back an hour before going to bed last night.  I was a little worried she'd wake up an hour earlier and wasn't looking forward to that on a Sunday morning :)  We kept her up later than normal the night before so that might have helped.

Playing With Food

Esme's finding all new places to explore in the house now that she's so mobile.  She loves to hurry over to the pantry when we accidentally leave the doors open and then she finds some cans to roll around the floor with her.  She's still trying to pull up on things and sometimes gets in the position to crab crawl (or something similar to a downward dog yoga pose) but then goes nowhere.  We lowered her crib mattress but she has yet to pull up in her crib that we've seen.  She's still enjoying her voice and seeing how loud it can go, especially when there's something loud to compete with like the washer, the running bath water, etc.

We're gonna try tofu and purple sweet potatoes for lunch today.  She's seeming more interested in the foods that Allen and I are eating and she actually pulls the spoon to her mouth now.  Before she just wanted to play with it.  Her 9 month well child visit is coming up soon so it'll be interesting to see how well she's growing.     

Happy Halloween

Esme's all set for Halloween.  The kids at Faye's Daycare will trick-or-treat around the neighborhood in the afternoon on Monday and then we've got our bowl of candy all set for our house that evening.  We're not sure if Esme will make it till then so we dressed her up over the weekend just in case.  As you can see below, she's got a few outfits to choose from.

Esme's enjoying waving hi and bye to us lately and really exploring how loud her voice can get.  Of course the first time she did this was at a restaurant and has been going strong ever since :)  She finally figured out how to go from lying on the floor to a sitting position by herself and now she goes up and down, and up and down all the time.  She continues to try to pull up on whatever she can but she still has a ways to go.       



                               
       Angry Birds and a 2 Toothed Jack-O-Lantern (like Esme)                Winter bear suit that doubles as a Halloween costume

                                                                
                                         Ladybug!                                                                                Practicing her daily yoga

Wearing the bear blanket

Winter Wear

I think Esme's all set for the cold winter weather now.  She's got some pink leather boots, a purple fleece jacket, a brown snow cap, lots of beanies, some vests, a few fleece buntings/prams/bodysuits and tons of other cute clothes to layer underneath.  It's a lot of work getting these little ones dressed in the cold weather!  Right now she's obsessed with pulling off her socks and sticking them in her mouth.  That can usually keep her busy for awhile, depending on how tight or high the socks are.  I'm scared to see what happens when we put tights on her though. 

This past weekend we baby proofed all the cabinets and drawers and put up one of the baby gates.  It's been a transition but I think we're finally getting used to the drawers snapping back at us when we yank on them :)  We've had some improvement in the feeding department since I've gone down to four nursing sessions a day instead of five.  She seems to be more hungry for solid foods that way.  She tried acorn squash recently and was able to eat it after I thinned it out a bit.  Otherwise she gags on it if it's too thick.  Thankfully she likes her prunes which are helping to keep her nice and regular.

 

Talka-Talka

Esme's on her way to talking!  Just two days ago she started to make some new sounds - ba, ma, da, ga, ya.  I thought she might be a little behind because of the two languages but she seems to be holding her own for now.  We'll have "conversations" back and forth where she makes a sound and I make a similar sound afterwards.  She seems to enjoy it and laughs at the end.  She's gotten used to the camera and now puts on a huge, squinty face smile when she sees it.  What a ham!  She's also trying to pull up on objects/furniture but hasn't figured it out just yet but if we put her next to something while she's standing up then she'll hold on for dear life :)

                               
                         Finally enjoying the top of her play cube.                                            Her favorite side lying position.
                               
                        Ooohhh, the telephone!                                                                       Just chilllaxing, reading her books.

   Her cheesy smile :)

Eight Months Old!

Woohoo, Esme's now 2/3 of a year old!  She's doing amazing of course :)  She seems to be eating solid foods better if Allen's feeding her so that's been our regimen if we're all home together.  And she chows down at daycare without any problems.  She's gotten our morning routine memorized and she knows when we pull into Ms Faye's driveway (which is only about 3/4 mile from our house) cause she starts kicking her legs and smiling/laughing.  She likes to imitate our faces and actions and can even carry on a conversation back and forth with us in her baby talk.  She's perfected her army crawl and gets all over the house that way.



                               
               First Prunes... likes to wear on face!                                                                       First winter hat!
                               
         Look at me daddy! I'm about to make a break for it!                                               Hanging out under the table!

Fun time on the swing!

Pumpkin Patch

Esme got to visit her first pumpkin patch this weekend.  She wasn't much help in picking out a pumpkin but she was very interested in her friend Addy's pigtails.  Now that her hair's growing back in it won't be long until she can have some of her own :)

                              

                              

Chomp, Chomp, Chomp

Esme's second tooth came in at the end of last week and it was so different than how the first one came in.  Her gums were all puffy and she was so much more tired and fussy compared to before.  She could barely stay up for me to feed her after I got home for work.  Since then she continues to chew on everything and has even experimented with biting me while nursing.  Yikes!  She's quickly learned that's definitely not the way to get anymore milk and hasn't done it since.

A little stranger anxiety has also set in.  I can't just take her somewhere and plop her down with people cause she'll start to cry.  If I ease her in then she's fine but I can't just disappear right away.  Same thing happens when I come home at the end of the day.  She gets all excited to see me but if I disappear out of her line of sight just to put my bags down then she starts to fuss.  It's strange cause she rarely fusses otherwise. 

Oh and something even more exciting - Esme signed milk for me last weekend!  I have to admit that I kept thinking she was waving hi to me the first few times she did it and then it hit me - she wants milk!  Turns out now that she can sign it to me she wants it more than I ever used to give it to her.  Ha ha!  We've also been signing more, water, and eat consistently but now we'll have to start doing the others more, like please, thank you, up, down, change diaper, book, bath, bed, etc.   

 This is the only picture of those little teeth that we've gotten so far

Esme was so excited for "Awntie" B's visit from San Francisco