Hanging Out With The Girls

We made it to North Carolina in one piece and it was sooooooooooo much better than our last flight to the east coast.  Of course Esme was healthy this time and that made all the difference.  She only slept about 2/3 of the overnight flight and the rest of the time she just wiggled around in our laps but was happy.  The flight was longer too since we flew straight from Seattle to Charlotte, NC and I think that helped.  We spent an early morning in the Charlotte airport and then flew to Wilmington which we've decided is the cutest airport we've ever seen.  It looked like you were flying right into someone's plantation home with rocking chairs and all.  We were greeted with lots of humidity but Esme's adjusted just fine.

Since we've been here we've just been having fun hanging out with cousins Makena and Capri, and Aunty Bee and Uncle Josh.  It's been nice to not have to worry about having things to do and being go-go-go.  Esme's even been having fun playing with their boxer dog, Koa, too.  It took her a day or so to get used to him but now she has no problem.  The outside swing/playset provides a lot of entertainment but Esme has yet to go down the twisty tube slide again, after the first time which scared her pretty good.  Pictures to come later :)

More Airplanes

So tomorrow night we're embarking on another adventure to the east coast.  I'm definitely hesitant after our last trip but at least this time we'll be staying for 9 days so we'll all have more time to adjust.  We also went ahead and bought Esme her own seat for our return flight which is during the day.  Tomorrow night we're on a redeye again and we figure she'll just sleep on us anyways.  We're headed to Sneads Ferry, North Carolina to visit Aunty B, Uncle Josh, Makena and Capri.  I've been having Esme practice all their names and they end up sounding like "Ah-Bee-C" for Aunty B, "Kena" for Makena and "Pea" for Capri so we decided to use her other nickname, Cici, which she can say with no problem.  For Uncle Josh she can say the correct amount of syllables but it sounds nothing like his name. 

Since our last trip Esme's sleep has been awesome.  Bedtime is still at 7pm but now she's sleeping in till about 7am (previously it was 6am) and sometimes (maybe once or twice a week) till almost 8am.  It's so strange on those days to get ready all by myself without having to distract her the whole time.  When we're all home and she gets up we just pull her in bed with us and she'll lay there quietly until one of us opens our eyes and makes eye contact with her.  Then she's all over us and no one's going back to sleep ;)

We took this picture on our last trip when we met up with my sister and family on her birthday in Corning, NY.  It was Labor Day so the town was pretty much shut down so we decided to take a picture on the sidewalk.  We put the camera on a timer and placed it on a storefront ledge.  Well all of a sudden, right before the camera was about to go off, this man in an electric wheelchair appeared out of nowhere and had no idea we were taking a picture so he's just inches from the camera when it went off.  That explains some our silly faces cause no one knew what to do :)

Esme The Biter

Yep, you read that right.  Apparently Esme bit a kid at daycare last week and then today she bit two kids and one bit her back afterwards.  Hopefully she got a taste of her own medicine and won't continue this little trend.  At home when she's playing and gets frustrated she'll bite her toys or something and she's tried to test us by putting her teeth on our skin without pressing down but we usually stop that before it goes any further.

She's doing great with pottying at daycare though.  She's dry in her diaper most of the day but it's not cause she's telling them she has to pee or poop.  It's just because she wants to go anytime another kid is going (which can sometime be every half hour) and she's productive most of those times.  They laugh cause she even finishes and claps for herself like we do at home.  I still put her on the potty in the morning and evening but that's it.  I ask her randomly during the day and it's hit or miss whether or not she wants to go.  She's still not telling us when she has to go so we're just waiting for that to start to really push it any further. 

Here's a random compilation of pictures from the past few weeks:

Esme loves to get in the front seat of the car when we get home.  She pushes just about every button possible so that everything's going off the next time Allen or I get in our cars.  Sometimes we even have to wrestle her out of the front seat to get her in the house. 
                    

Esme gets all kinds of ponytails now that her hair is getting longer.  And daycare has fun with it too.  Sometimes they'll send her home with 3 or 4 sprouts coming out of her head. 

                    

Esme loves her berries and could seriously finish that whole tray in one sitting.  She likes to put the raspberries on her fingers and to get our attention she says "I see you!"

                    

My cousins Shyla and Luke recently moved back to Seattle from London with their 8 month old daughter Tabitha.  Esme loved playing with a new baby and showing off all her old toys.  We took Tabby our old jumper, walker, etc and Esme was even interested in them again too.  She also wanted to play with Tabby's things like wearing her bib (even though Esme hates bibs at home, we stopped using them ages ago) and slobbering all over her rings and giving them back to her ;)

                    
                    
                    

 

What A Ride It Was

Well this might be a record for how long I've gone without posting something - 2 weeks!  Unfortunately we're still recovering from our trip to Ithaca, NY over Labor Day weekend to see Allen's sister Ting, Yoshi, and Kai.  In the end we learned that it was way too far to go for such a short time and with Esme being sick which started the moment we left.  On the flip side, it was great to be able to spend time with family :)

We planned to take a redeye flight on a Friday night so we put Esme to bed that night at her normal time and woke her up prior to leaving for the airport.  She didn't fall back asleep until we boarded our plane and they turned the lights off.  She was sprawled across both our laps and all of a sudden got really hot.  I figured it was just all our body heat combined so I unbuttoned her sleeper and she cooled off a little bit.  Then we landed in Chicago very early in the morning and Esme decided she was done sleeping so we spent our 3 hour layover at the awesome kids play area which was almost like a children's museum.  On the next flight to Syracuse, NY she slept again and started heating up but I figured that was because she was lying against my chest this time.  She cooled off once we landed and then napped again on the drive from Syracuse to Ithaca.  She had a hard time adjusting to the heat once we got to Ithaca and was still slightly warm but by the afternoon I realized she was burning up even though she was just wearing her diaper around the house.  We started giving her ibuprofen and her fever would spike every 6 hours when it wore off and this went on for about 36 hours.  She had no other symptoms though so I figured it could only be teething even though she was super hot.  Luckily we didn't have any major plans for the weekend so we spent a lot of time just hanging out and catching up with Ting, Yoshi & Kai.  Esme wasn't quite herself the whole time which was a little hard. 

On our last night we were able to coordinate a dinner with my sister Hannah and family who were driving from Buffalo, NY down to North Carolina.  It was a special treat as it was Aunty B's birthday too.  Unfortunately Esme was having a bad afternoon and didn't care much about seeing her cousins Capri and Makena.  She wouldn't even let Aunty B hold her :(

The next day, just 3 days after we arrived, we took off for Syracuse Airport again to start this whole adventure over.  By this time Esme's fevers were gone but she was still very edgy.  She slept on the first flight and then enjoyed the play area at the Chicago airport again.  But on the flight from Chicago to Seattle she was up most of the time and was super fussy.  She was crawling all over Allen and I and signing and saying "all pau" and "outside."  It was miserable.  Strangely enough as soon as we got home that evening, she ran into our house and was just screaming with glee.  She seemed so excited to be in her own home.  That night when Allen was reading to her before bed, she pointed to her crib and said "inside" cause she just wanted to go to bed already.  She's always been a great sleeper and so easy to put to bed but she never does that! 

Just a day after we got back, we noticed Esme broke out in a small, fine red rash all over her body and turns out she had roseola, a viral rash that's common in kids following a high fever. At least that explained everything but coupled with the travel it just made it that much worse. And on top of that we infected all her cousins, the children's area at the Chicago airport, and the airplane. We learned our lesson after this trip and decided to buy Esme her own seat for our next trip to North Carolina next month to make our lives a little bit easier. We'll just cross our fingers that she doesn't get sick again.

                   
                Hanging out at the Chicago Airport                                                                       Playing in the pretend shipping crates
                    
                                More playtime with daddy                                                                         Enjoying the pretend cockpit
                  
                Sleeping on daddy on the flight to Syracuse                                                     Visiting one of the gorges at Cornell University
                    
                      Playing at Cornell University architecture school                            Constantly sucking her fingers so I thought she was teething
                                                                      
                      Attempting a hike at the park                                                                                 Eating breakfast with Kai-Kai
                    
                            Cousin Capri just lights right up!                                                                       So does cousin Makena
                                                                
                                                                                        Happy Birthday Aunty B!

A Visit To The Doctor's Office

Esme had her 18 month check up this morning and passed with flying colors again.  She weighed 24.6 # which is 50% for weight, and was 32 3/4" which is 75% for height.  There were no shots at this visit which was nice since she was going to daycare afterwards.  She's talking a lot in English and Mandarin now.  She knows all body parts and can count to ten in both languages.  She's finally starting to say please and help which she's been signing up till now.  She listens to directions much better in Mandarin than English I've noticed though and I think that's because of daycare and all the other kids.  Apparently she's a great listener there and always the first one to complete a task or follow the instructions.  They're continuing to work on potty training and she's so eager to go anytime they take another kid to the toilet.  And she's such a pleaser that she actually goes pee or poop at least a few times a day for them.  At home we're still just going before bath with her and sometimes she goes and sometimes she just sits.

We transitioned her to her big girl carseat since she finally outgrew her infant bucket seat.  We'll keep the big girl seat rear facing though till she's 2 and then she'll finally get to turn forward.  She still doesn't seem to mind so it's not a big deal.  She's was real excited to sit in her new seat and didn't want to get out the first few times.

All of Esme's canine teeth are coming in now, some more than others.  They all popped through after she turned 18 months.  She seems to be handling it pretty well and I don't think it's affecting her eating.  She continues to love fruit, rice and noodles the most.  At daycare she eats like a champ and at home it's hit or miss.  We give her all the same foods we're eating and she'll always try something.  She likes meatloaf or meatballs, potstickers, beans, chili and rice, scrambled eggs with cheese, and yogurt.  She's not a big fan of bread or soft granola bars unless I cut them up into bite sized pieces.  She's still drinking organic whole milk and water, no juice.

This weekend we're taking a big trip to Ithaca, NY to see Allen's sister and family.  It'll be our first redeye flight with Esme and we're just crossing our fingers that she sleeps the whole time.  We'll just be there for 3 days and then back to WA so more photos to follow after our trip!  

Biking Adventures

We're trying to soak in as many summer adventures as we can before the weather turns here in Washington. Recently we rode the Surrey bikes (a 4 wheel bike with pedals for 2 side-by-side people and one working steering wheel, the other one was just for decoration) on Alki Beach in West Seattle.  We were having a lot of fun for the first 30 minutes; Allen and I were pedaling and Esme was sitting in front and ringing the bell.  However after awhile she was over it and was much more interested in watching the doggies, birdies, and boats in the water.  We ended up making a lot of stops along the way just to keep her happy and us sane ;)

We also took Esme to the Cougar Mountain Zoo which is about 10 minutes from our house.  I'm glad we discovered it cause it's just the right size for little kids and Esme's just the right age for the zoo now.  The animals are all real close, there's not a lot of walking, and there's even areas to pet and feed the animals.  Esme was a little scared of the alpacas so I ended up feeding them for her.  Her favorite were the emu's I think and she also enjoyed watching the tiger pace around its rock mountain.  She seemed almost mesmerized watching it.  

                    
                          Taking a break on the Surrey bike                                                                Stopping to pet the doggies

                                                           
                                     Running away from daddy                                                                       Decked out in all her jewelry

                      
                        Doing acrobatics on the zoo cages                                                        Wearing a hat to cover up her bad hair day ;) 

Round Of Applause

Apparently it was a big day at daycare for Esme today - she pooped on the potty!  So far she sits on it and tries everyday and then sometimes she's gone #1 but this was the first time for #2.  There was lots of clapping and all the kids came up to her afterwards and hugged her.  Ms Faye said she just stood there with her hands clasped in front of her, swaying back and forth and smiling.  She said she looked very proud!

This past weekend we went down to Portland for my cousins baby shower.  Like many past trips, we've opted to just go for the day to avoid the hassle of having to pack up all of Esme's stuff and have her sleep in a strange place and get all out of her routine.  Usually that works fine since she'd sleep most of the 3 hour car ride if we timed it right with her nap/sleep schedule.  Well this weekend that was definitely not the case.  She barely slept an hour each way and was not too excited with being strapped into her carseat the other 2 hours of the trip.  She kept signing "all done" to me and I was having to come up with all kinds of ways to distract her.  From now on we'll have to make it an overnight trip so we don't have to put her through that agony again.

                    
                 The Kim family photo at the baby shower                                                               Esme actually kept these on for a bit

                    
                      Playing with her new pom poms                                                                        Eating her first marshmallow

18 Months Old



Esme turned 18 months old yesterday! A year and a half old! Wow, how time keeps on flying! We haven't set up her physical yet but I'll post that information as soon as we get it. In the meantime here's some recent, and no so recent, pics:



                    
                    Esme recently discovered capes.                                                                       She insisted that we both wear them.

                                    
                         Then she dove onto the body pillow.                                                                         Her first real pigtails.

These pics are from a birthday party we went to last month.  It was a little cool that day so we had to keep her leg warmers and jacket on the whole time. 

                                                                      
                        Look at that little stance!                                                                                          Hangin with mommy.

And the rest of these pics are ones from San Diego that I forgot to post awhile ago.  We went down there in June to visit Aunty B and Uncle Josh while he recovered from surgery. 

                    
                              Walking along Coronado Island                                                                Aunty B painting Esme's toes
                    
                 Her cheeser smile wasn't working that day                                                               Doing laundry with Aunty B
                    
          This trip might have been the end of the cheeser smile.                     I'm not sure what kind of smile that is.  Maybe it's too bright?
                                                                         
                                                                              Uncle Josh holding up his leg with his crutches
                                                                                        
                                                                                                           Esme going for a ride