Movin Right Along

Esme continues to move along.  Now she's getting up on all fours and rocking and then she gets back down and resorts to her old scoot to get across the floor.  She's also sitting up for longer and longer periods of time but hasn't mastered the graceful fall back to the floor yet.  As for food, she's still a big fan of the poi and she's also trying out squash and rice cereal.  The texture of the squash is still throwing her off and she doesn't know what to do with it in her mouth but she'll figure it out. 

                               
         I have no idea how this butterfly got on my bottom?                                            Look at me, look at me!


                               
                 Hanging with Grandpa                                                                            Mmmm, daddy's watch is so......salty :)

Poi Pounder

Turns out Esme's totally been ready for food but she's just been politely waiting for us to give it to her.  I tested her out with a spoonful of water earlier this week and she took it with no problems so we decided to try some poi.  Again, I was expecting a funny face but nothing.  She took a bite of the poi, swallowed and sat in her seat waiting for more.  She's a champ at this already :)

                    
                                                                             The many faces of Esme
                    
                                                                                Trying out the Poi

Esme eating for the first time

Flying Kites

We went to the Washington State International Kite Festival in Long Beach this past weekend.  It was a little bit of an adventure since it was a 3 hour drive to the coast and then when we got there it was nice and sunny but also VERY windy.  It wouldn't have been so bad if the sand wasn't also blowing around.  Thank goodness for Esme's big hat and sunglasses, we managed not to get any in her eyes.  Though it got to be a little much for her after awhile so she just went to sleep and then woke up when we left the beach.  I was hoping she could enjoy watching the kites in the sky a little more but oh well.  Allen attempted to fly a kite and that too was an adventure!

Esme now gets very excited when she sees a glass of water.  She starts flapping her arms and legs and sometimes she even starts talking.  She likes to take a few sips and then stick her tongue in the water and then blow bubbles.  Still no reaction to food or our silverware so she's still on the milk only.  And she's moving a ton more.  She can scoot herself across the room really quickly by pushing off with her feet and sliding on her belly but she's still not up on her knees crawling. 

The Gals are blown away by the kites!

                   
      Checking out the kite festival                                                         Allen and kite flying, not a good combination

                   

      Kites in formation... very cool                                                                 Kite Wars

 She's almost crawling

Happy Half Birthday Esme!

Today Esme's 6 months old.  Woohoo!  It's hard to believe that a half a year has already gone by.  She had her 6 month well child visit last week and she passed all her tests - tracking, talking, rolling over, sitting up, etc.  She got her 3 shots and barely made a wimper.  To make it easier on me this time I just decided to leave the room when the shots arrived :)  She's now 26.5 inches long and 17# 5.5oz which puts her in the 75th percentile for both height and weight.  She's still nursing like a champ so we haven't introduced solids yet but we'll probably do that in the next few weeks.  At most she takes water from our cups and is still trying to figure out how to work a straw.  But she doesn't go crazy when we're eating and not sharing with her.  Today she'll celebrate her half birthday by staying home with daddy.  Faye's Bilingual Daycare is closed this week for a summer break so we've got a different person watching her everyday.   

The Jumping Bean

Esme's still drooling a ton and trying to eat everything she can get her hands on but no teeth yet. She was on the floor in the family room this morning and I was in the kitchen when I heard her grunting and growling so I went over to see what she was doing. She'd worked her way over to my nursing stool and was chewing on the edge of it. Ouch! She finally took some water in a sippy cup today and also from a water bottle. We've tried offering to her before with no luck so maybe food isn't far behind...


                 
              I know I'm sooooooo cute!                                               Grrr...I just can't get enough of my hands!

                    
Mmmm...mommy's nursing stool feels so good on my gums :)                       Hungry caterpillars unite!

The Adventures of Esme Bean

Esme's been on 3 different trips in the past 3 weekends and she's such a great travel partner. First was the big trip to Hawaii, then last weekend we went on a 5 1/2 hour road trip to Lewiston, ID and then this weekend we went for a 2 1/2 hour road trip to Vancouver, WA. It's been a whirlwind but she's been great. At most, her sleep schedule is still a little off but we're working on getting it back to where it was before we went to Hawaii.

Her latest trick is pivoting on her tummy when she's down on the blanket. Instead of rolling over and inching towards things, she'll just pivot on her stomach to switch directions.


                 

                Swimming with Nana                                                                Piggie in the blanket


                          
                                                        Nice hat

                 
                   Chewing on the bib                                                         Esme meet moose, moose meet Esme

More chewing

Slowly But Surely

Our little Bean is turning into a worm - an inchworm that is! She's not quite crawling but she's gotten pretty good at inching herself across the blanket when I put her down. Between the inching and rolling over she can travel pretty far. Yeah Bean! But that means we really need to get serious about the baby proofing around the house :)

She's still putting everything in her mouth and gumming anything she can get her hands on but no teeth yet. Occasionally she pulls on her ears too. The drool just keeps on coming so thank goodness for all the bibs we have or we'd be changing outfits every few hours.

Esme travelled from the center of the blanket to get to her wooden play cube

Keep The Milk Coming

I thought Esme might try some poi or apple bananas in Hawaii but she's still not showing a lot of interest in solid foods so we didn't do it. She watches us eat sometimes but not all the time. And she doesn't grab for our spoon or food when she sits in our lap while we're eating. I've tried dropping water in her mouth with a straw and she just lets it pour out. Today I even tried giving her a sippy cup with water but she just gummed it. So we'll just wait till after she's 6 months and try again. It's not like she's starving on just my milk either :)

Lasting images from Ko'Olina

    

               A full rainbow across the lagoon                                       Another great sunset  

                                                             Esme sucking her thumb

   

             Napping in the beach cabana                                              

   

               Charlie hammin' it up with goggles                                The Lindsey Clan

Happy Birthday Auntie Ness

Esme Likes Vacation

Esme's been trying to teach her cousin Hunter how to roll and he's trying to teach her how to talk really loud and how to blow spit bubbles but neither of them are having much luck :)  However we're all having a blast watching them together.  Esme's adjusted to the time change with no problem this time and she continues to sleep about 12 hours at night.  She's been tugging on her right ear a lot too but I took a look and it's healthy so I think it's just from teething cause she's not showing other signs of being sick.  I was a little worried there at first.  No teeth yet but she's been drooling a ton and chomping on anything she can get in her mouth.  

                       Father and son

    

                               Rockin the flamingo bathing suit and showing off all her rolls :)

   

                  Siblings and cousins                                                               Finally a nap!

    

                  Sunset at Ko'olina                                                      Tummy time with Hunter