Summer Break Is Over

It's amazing how fast time flies sometimes and unfortunately this past week was one of those time. Nana left today and Esme'll go back to daycare tomorrow, but she seems like a whole different kid. Her language is really starting to explode.  She keeps asking "what's that?" and learning new words everyday. Nana did a great job of helping to reinforce all her new words too. Let's see if I can remember all the words she says - hi, bye, see ya, I see you, mama, dada, nana, banana, apple, hot, bath, baby, hair, nose, eye, ear, belly, toes, shoes, birdie, doggie, fish, duck, Bella, Adler, and that's all that comes to mind right now. One morning I heard her on the monitor reciting all her new words as she laid in her crib after waking up. It was like she was practicing by herself.  Her Mandarin is also coming along but I don't always know what she's saying.  From what I'm told she understands everything and can say a handful of words like all her body parts, careful, wash hands.  I can tell when she's babbling in English as compared to Mandarin though cause they sound so different.

Nana and Esme went on lots of adventures this past week while Allen and I worked.  They mostly involved playgrounds and playtime for Esme.  Then when we weren't working we had some family adventures too.  One day we caught the ferry over to Bainbridge Island for a day filled with shopping, eating, and strolling through town.  Then we also drove south to Portland to see my mom's family and help Uncle Chan celebrate his birthday.  Esme loved having someone in the back seat with her to keep her company during the 3 hour drive.  Our next trips to Portland won't be the same, that's for sure.

So it was a sad day today after taking Nana to the airport.  The house seemed so empty so Esme and I played outside in the yard and her pool most of the afternoon.  Then a very exciting thing happened - she pooped in the potty for the first time!  I recently got a seat to go over the big toilet and she seems to have better luck with that one instead of the free standing small potty.  Slowly but surely we'll get this potty training done :)


                                                           
                                  Family photo opp                                                                                              Practicing her driving skills
                                                         
                              Practicing her climbing skills                                                                        Esme's got quite the fashion sense ;)
                    
                       Riding the gator kayak with Nana                                                                 Nana's wearing Esme's other sunglasses
                   
                                 Visiting with Uncle Richard                                                                   Happy Birthday Uncle Chan

                   
                                    Esme's so intrigued by dogs                                                     Our apple tree has perfect sized apples for her hands
                                                                         

Nana's farewell dinner - homemade potstickers

Summer Break

Ms. Faye's Daycare is on summer break this week so we were left without daycare again.  Last year we shuffled Esme to a different friends house each day but this year we decided to fly in Esme's own babysitter all the way from Hawaii - Nana!  My mom arrived last Friday so we had the weekend to hang out together and for Esme to get used to having her around.  Of course Esme's so easy and warms up to people right away so it wasn't a big deal at all.  She loves waking up and looking across the hall to see if Nana's in her room.  And I love coming home at the end of the day and dinner's all made and Esme's all tired out from playing with Nana all day.  It's a great feeling!  I drew them a map of our neighborhood so they can walk to the park or the store for little adventures during the day.

Over the weekend we watched the Blue Angels over Lake Washington.  We hit some record heat that day, up in the 90s, so Esme had a hard time napping at the park while we watched the air show.  She kept fighting it but she was sooooooooooo ready.  Finally she took a nap in the car on the way home.  I think she was just happy to have AC again!

                                                      
                       These girls love copying each other                                                                           The tired little girl
                    
                                   Blue Angels air show                                                                             Watching the air show from the shores

We also visited the Ballard Locks to watch the ships travel between the Puget Sound and Lake Union.  Esme liked watching the boats rise and sink in the Locks but that was before we got to the the fish ladder.  She was mesmerized by the salmon swimming up the fish ladder and we had a hard time peeling her away from that area.
                                    
                         Watching the ships in the locks                                                                                              Ta-da!
                                                     
                                  Signing "birdie"                                                                                    Playing near the salmon ladder

Our backyard apple tree is loaded with apples right now so we've been trying to come up with apple dishes to make use of them all.  Nana made a apply crisp with her new apple peeling machine and Esme enjoyed playing with the cores and the peels.  She liked to wear the string of peels over her neck.  
                    
          Watching Nana work the apple peeling contraption                                                        Wearing the apple peel lei

We hit record heat in Washington this past weekend so we were glad we repaired our AC this year.  Our house stayed nice and cool but Esme thought it was better to just sit in the fridge to cool off.  She also had fun running around naked in the backyard and splashing in her little pool.

Chillin in the fridge

Crescent Bar Getaway

Esme was able to go back to daycare towards the end of last week as her rash subsided.  I'd say it was a pretty mild case of hand-foot-mouth since she had less than 10 blisters on her hands and feet.  Unfortunately there was a blister on her right thumb (the one she sucks to sleep) and so once it started drying out and going through the peeling process her thumb looked worse and worse actually.  She kept showing it to people cause there'd be multiple layers of peeling skin that must have felt weird when she'd suck her thumb.

The best part about Esme getting over her rash was that we were still able to keep our weekend plans to go to Crescent Bar with some friends.  It's an annual trip and she was able to keep up with Natalie and Liberty this time who are both two years old now.  Last year they were both walking and Esme was just barely crawling since she's 7 months behind them.  We took Esme out on the boat but unfortunately she DID NOT like her life jacket.  She screamed for most of the ride out onto the water and finally calmed down when we reached our destination.  I don't think she liked all the noise either when the boat was going fast, almost like a sensory overload, so she just  put her head down on my chest and sucked her thumb till it was all over.

                                                                   
                            Look at that belly!                                                                                      The river water is sooooooo cold!
                    
               Living dangerously, trying to lean over the boat                                                       She survived the boat ride
                     
                   Allen's post-boating/wind-blown hairdo                                                 Apparently the girls aren't thrilled about the new look

Esme's left lower molar FINALLY came through last week.  It's been bulging and bugging her for about six weeks now.  Once it broke the surface it didn't waste any time and now it's almost all the way out which is faster than any of her other molars.  So let the chomping begin!  Here's a copy of the menu at Esme's daycare.  We get an e-mail copy at the beginning of every week so we can see what she's going to be having.  

  

Summer Fun

Esme's had another exciting week since our last update but most exciting of all is that she's gone pee in the potty three times last weekend!  Allen puts her on the potty right before she takes a bath every night but just recently I started sitting on the big toilet at the same time and it worked.  We're just going to keep doing that before bath time and see how she does.  Once she starts telling us the she has to go during the day then we'll start visiting the potty more.  Apparently she really likes to watch the big kids use the bathroom at daycare and they'll start working on potty training when she's ready too.

We had a field trip to the Woodland Park Zoo with Ms Faye and a few other daycare families this past weekend.  At first Esme was a little confused to see them in a different environment but then she warmed up and had so much fun running around with her friends.  She also enjoyed the zoo much more than our last few trips.  That evening  we had a bonfire with friends and Esme snuck her little hands in the marshmallow bag and tried her first one ever.  Actually it ended up being two cause she wanted one in each fist.  Greedy little girl!  She also got to visit the Bite Of Seattle and had a blast people watching, dancing to the music and watching the big water fountain at Seattle Center.

 Esme and Ms Faye

Enjoying The Bite Of Seattle

My attempt at a mommy-daughter pic

It was a busy weekend but unfortunately by the end of it we realized she'd come down with hand-foot-mouth which was going around daycare the week before.  She had a blister to her thumb and two on her feet and then just a rash to her butt and ankles.  So far she's been home this entire week and will continue to be if the blisters don't resolve soon.  The good news is that it doesn't seem to be that bad in her mouth cause she's eating just fine.

Esme, The Camping Pro

Esme's been so busy in the past week that it's hard to figure out where to start!  Last weekend we took her on her first ever camping trip out on the Key Peninsula and she did awesome.  I wasn't really sure how she'd do sleeping in a big tent so we took her pack-n-play which made things a little easier.  At least we knew she wouldn't roam all over the tent during the night.  She went to bed later than normal but slept until exactly 6am which is her normal wake time and she didn't make a peep the whole night.  During the day we went on some clamming adventures and she liked walking on the rocks during low tide and playing in the little puddles.  Esme and I actually left all the clam digging up to everyone else.  Unfortunately though she got so dirty on the first day that I decided to take her back to the car to clean her up and on our walk up the beach Esme dropped the car keys and for almost an hour we thought we lost them.  It was awful since our car was still loaded with all our camping stuff and we were FAR from home.  Luckily Uncle Chester and Addy found them and we were saved.  Otherwise Esme enjoyed hanging out at our camp site but made sure to stay clear of the fire pit which was fine with me.   

               
                              Too cool - Addy & Esme                                                                           Digging for clams at low tide
               
                        Just hanging out at base camp                                                                           Chillin in the camp chair
               
                                    Stirring her oatmeal                                                                     Determined to get the spoon to her mouth

Esme also got to meet up with her Awntee Bee (my best friend Brie) and Noonoo (Bree's mom) while on a layover at the Seattle Airport. Esme liked showing Awntee Bee all her cool, shiny hair clips and watching the escalators with Noonoo. We attempted to take a picture of all of us but Esme got ahold of the camera beforehand and wouldn't let it go so that didn't work out so well.

Not only does Esme say Bella, one of her classmates, but now she says Adler too which is one of the babies at daycare. Whenever she sees a baby now she just calls it Adler. She has a hard time with the d sound so it ends up sounding like Ah-ler. She's transitioned to napping with all the big kids on a little mat instead of in her pack-n-play which means she's only napping once at daycare. At home she still seems to need a morning and afternoon nap to get by.

Her 4th molar is still just under the surface and Esme frequently puts her fingers in her mouth around that area. The others are almost all the way through so we've seen some changes in her eating. She's eating more sandwiches, meat, vegetables and also branching out in her tastes. The latest addition to her diet includes homemade guacamole with lots of garlic.

Esme got a very special present in the mail the other day - her very own Rody! It was a surprise gift from Nana who's going to be here in just a few weeks to play with Esme. Allen had a hard time using the pump so just decided to blow it up on his own :)

Bye-Bye Bottle

Well my frozen milk supply has finally come to an end.  Even though I weaned Esme around 13 months I still had a huge supply of breastmilk stored in our deep freezer.  She's been getting a bottle of my warm milk every morning since then.  Otherwise during the day she has whole milk and water in a sippy cup.  Initially we tried to give her the breastmilk in a sippy cup but that didn't go over well so I let her keep the bottle while we still had my milk supply in the freezer. 

I have to admit, the past 2 mornings have been hard for Esme because she's used to waking up and getting a warm bottle immediately. We've tried to offer her a sippy of warm milk instead but she's barely touched it. The first morning she actually threw it all over the kitchen. I'm sure it'll just take a little time to transition to this new morning routine and she'll be fine. She's always been a trooper!

The last bottle

No more mommy's milk

Fever Free

Esme seems to have a thing for getting fevers on holidays (her last one was on Christmas morning) because she spiked one on the 4th of July.  I took her to a parade and was amazed at how content she was just sitting in her stroller and watching.  Then afterwards we went to the playground and she just wanted to stand back and observe the other kids which seemed a little odd until I felt her burning up.  I checked her temp when we got home and it was 102.  I gave her some Tylenol and put her down for a nap and she woke up all better so we went to a friends house for a holiday barbecue.  Unfortunately later that evening her fever came back and didn't stop for the next 48 hours.  We gave her Tylenol and Motrin around the clock and the fever would always creep back up before the next dose.  She'd wake in the middle of the night burning up too.  It was so awful to watch cause she was miserable and wouldn't eat a thing.  We were lucky if we got 10 Cheerios in her each day.  Luckily she still wanted to drink her milk and some water.

Esme's been teething for the past few weeks but these fevers got up to 104 and I couldn't find anything wrong with her.  She didn't have any cold symptoms and I checked her ears and lungs for infection but nothing.  I took her into my office just to make sure I wasn't missing anything and she was clear.  That was the day the fevers stopped, after 2 days straight.  I kept expecting a rash afterwards, like roseola or hand-foot-mouth but that didn't come either.  It was the strangest thing.  I checked with her daycare and nothing was going around there.  Now she's better and slowly picking up her appetite.  She was even able to attend her friend Natalie's 2nd birthday party this weekend and was in good spirits.

               
                      4th of July wagon rides with Uncle Rex                                           Barbecue dinner with Ethan, Ozzie, and Aunty Ang
               
                                      Birthday party fun                                                                        In the bounce house with mommy
               
                                   Esme loved the slide                                                              She kept going up and down, again and again

Happy 4th Of July Eve

Esme's learning so quickly these days that we're constantly amazed.  She's been enjoying counting in Mandarin and English and can usually repeat the next number if you start counting first.  She's also learning the days of the week and apparently she sits in circle time with the big kids and loves to yell out Tuesday in Mandarin cause it ends in an "errrrrrr" sound.  Of course she waits for them to say Sunday and Monday first and then she has her turn.  

Her three molars still aren't all the way through and they look so painful in there.  Her gums are red, swollen and bloody at times which explains why she's been so edgy lately.  We're trying our best to keep her distracted and entertained cause that seems to help.  We're still waiting on the bottom left molar and then after that all her canines to come in.    

  

               
                       Playing with daddy's computer                                                                Esme's egg carton/shape-sorter
                
                                             Esme likes to stick the top of the eggs on her hands and bang them together for music                
                                            Eating corn on the cob for the first time with daddy and she finished most of her little piece
                                                         

          Mmmmm......corn

Esme singing

Esme has been singing a lot.  Sometimes we know what she is singing and sometimes we don't.  Here is a case of the latter.  Also, it seems like she's picking up language pretty well.  She can understand a lot of what we are saying and likes to boss us around.  Without further ado... the next Adele: