Friday Focus- Esmeralda

Friday Focus: Esmeralda from daycaregirl on Vimeo.

Our Esme has moved on as of last week. Her family found a new house that is still sort of in the area but just far enough away that our place is not really convenient anymore. I thought I'd put a slideshow together to give her parents- since she started in January she missed out on the Christmas one I do, and I have lots of cute pictures of her. Then I couldn't get my DVD burner to work and didn't get to give them a copy. So at least it will be here so they can see it.

We will miss you, Esmeralda! We wish you luck and fun times at your new school! :)

Milestones and Summer Lovin'

Look! We're getting Big!!

Hercules can sit!

Roo can commando crawl!

Tinkerbell and Esmeralda can walk (ish)! :) They're sort of in the drunken sailor stage but they're on their feet a good portion of the time at least. They immediately plop down when I go for the camera though so I don't really have a good picture of either one standing.


Aurora and Bianca are working on table etiquette. I love the stage where they hold the spoon in one hand and shovel the food in with the other hand.


Or, you know, just forgo the utensils altogether, in favor of efficiency.


They are also finally having fun playing together at the same activity, instead of each doing their own thing near each other. I love to back off and watch them to see what they do. Currently they love to steal all my kitchen towels and use them as blankets to wrap the dollies in. They dump all the dolls out and both sit in the bucket and then rock them. :)

The summer's been pretty quiet so far, lots of people on rotating vacations. Numbers are down. We've got a couple spaces to fill. But we should be getting notification that our newest tiny squishy is born soon!! Hopefully this week. Can't wait to meet her- she's starting in October, I think. Depends on when she's actually born.

We're working on letters and numbers pretty hard this summer- lots of alphabet and counting activities. It's been fun and the kids are really starting to show progress. That's always fun. Bianca's counting now and Aurora and Silvermist are singing the alphabet. It's been way too hot and buggy to go outside much, so we've just been hanging out in the house. It's nice.

Playing

Yesterday was low key and fun. Esme and Tink are both all over the place now- scooting, crawling, trying to pull up on things... they don't like to be in the living room anymore since I have to keep moving them away from the tv, so they spent at least an hour together in the playroom while the others were napping. They did really well- only knocked each other over a few times. Esme did pull a chair over on herself at one point, which didn't hurt her at all, and actually made me really proud since I didn't realize she was to that stage. They grow so fast.

O'Malley and Lilo are cracking me up on a daily basis with their imaginative play. I really like to sit at the table in the dining room or do the dishes and just eavesdrop on them in the playroom. They were playing in the kitchen area earlier and I caught this:

L: O'Malley!! Where you going? You need to come back here and help me cook dinner!
O: I don't want to.
L: Yes you do. Chop this... what is this?
O: It's tomato.
L: Oh. Yes. Chop this tomato. We are having lotsa vegetables for dinner! I making a big salad!

Then there is noise, and I peek in to see O'Malley looking defeated and halfheartedly whacking at the plastic tomato with the plastic knife.

O: I'm all done. I need to go find Catwoman.
L: No. First help me with dinner! Then we will go kill her.

Vegetables and Catwoman, that's how you balance some good gender-specific play. :) O'Malley got Batman Lego on the Wii for his birthday, and so he is currently obsessed with Catwoman. I love the Lego video games. When you kill the bad guys, they fall apart into a little pile of Lego bricks. It's adorable.

Friday Focus- Esmeralda

Who, me?

Esmeralda and Tinkerbell spend lots of time pestering each other and rolling on top of one another.

Miss Esme... she is such a cheerful girl, and oh so fashionable. She has leg warmers, and also pacifiers that announce her as Punk Princess. She's always dressed to the nines and tops it off with a smile. I love when she gets especially excited- she pants like a dog, with her tongue hanging out and her hands flapping with glee. It's awesome to watch. Most times though, she's very ladylike. She takes small bites of food and eats slowly and carefully. She's observant and watches everybody like a hawk. I have a dangle ring and she's the only baby who ever notices it. It's hard to feed her because she keeps trying to grab it. Likes the accessories better than the food, I guess. :)