Sprucing up the joint!

I got tired of my old template... and of course I'm too damned lazy to learn how to create my own... so I picked this nice shiny new template, in nice soothing green, and uploaded a better pic of myself. Small, freebie luxuries. I wish it were so easy to spruce up my house!

I just wanted to make a point of recording some notes about my little girl's growth and development. Actually, first things first, I'm going to drop the pseudonym thing. It doesn't matter if I say her real name, because nobody reads this blog anyway, right? But just to assuage my inner paranoid demon, I'm going to call her by her by her real middle name on this blog, and reserve her first name for the real world. So for blogging purposes, she is the "little girl" no longer; she is Esther.

[Insert photo here. No? Blogger is not accepting photos today? The Blogger, she ees not my friend today. Maybe tomorrow. Or maybe not. Who knows? It is all very exciting, this wondering-whether-I-can-post-photos every day!]

Esther's language skills are developing by leaps and bounds. She isn't stringing together too many sentences yet, but boy does she know a whole lot of words! She knows all her colors, all the letters although not necessarily in order, and can count one to ten with some prompting. She knows her name, although she pronounces it with a charming "y" for "r" substitution. And a new development as of yesterday - she's starting to use adjectives. Before, she might call something "pink" or "flower," but yesterday she started calling it a "pink flower." And she called Shadow a "cute dog." (Cutest 110-lb black lab/Great Dane I've ever seen.) And she called me "nice mama." While hugging me and patting my back.

She sleeps through the night now. When she wakes up, she is all smiles, kisses and cuddles. For about three minutes. And then she's all, "up! up!" Right away, she wants to go "ow-side" and splash in her "poow" and color the ground with her big sidewalk chalk sticks. And she reliably takes 2-hour naps with no fuss, resulting in a cheerful toddler all afternoon long.

She's eating so well now. She loves pineapple cottage cheese for breakfast, bites of her daddy's sliced deli turkey and cheese and mayo sandwich for lunch, hot dogs and cheese or Chef Boyardee's mini raviolis for dinner, and bite sized fruits and veggies anytime. Blueberries, strawberries, grape tomatoes all get eaten right up. She's a big fan of watermelon too. She loves pasta in any form, and even says the word - "PAT-ta!" We have linguini at least once a week and she calls that both pasta and noodles - "noo-dooz." She'll eat that up, especially with lots of parmesan on it, and also decorate herself liberally with it.

She's growing so fast. Her sweet little fishies bathing suit, size 2T, is almost too small. Dresses that came to her ankles when first purchased now don't reach her knee. Her size 5 shoes are all a little tight, but size 6's are definitely still too big. She has the plumpest, most kissable cheeks still. I'll be sad when those get lean as she grows up.

Esther is so full of love. Her very favorite thing is to have both Mama and Daddy to play with at once, going back and forth with kisses and hugs, playing peekaboo and pillow fights with first one of us and then the other. She will sit in her kiddie pool with me and splash me enthusiastically, laughing hysterically, and then hurl her wet self into my arms for watery kisses.

She's quite the water baby. We have yet to find any form of water she doesn't love - bathtub, kiddie pool, backyard pool, overcrowded municipal pool, parking lot puddles, the ocean, you name it. I took her to the municipal pool a couple of weeks ago, with her floaty vest and water wings on, and walked around the pool holding her at the surface. She tried to push away from me and swim off on her own. Once she gives up her noon-to-2-pm nap, I can enroll her in swim classes. I too was an early and dedicated swimmer, and it pleases my heart to no end to see that she's inherited my love of all things aquatic.

She is incredibly active, always in motion, endlessly curious, constantly learning. She climbs everything without any fear. She is a little problem-solver too. If you put something up high to get it out of her reach, the moment you look away she'll be dragging up a chair or a toy to climb up on and retrieve it.

Esther, my sweet little love, my sunshine, you have my heart. Every day is made better by virtue of your being part of it. I can't wait to see where you go and how you grow from here.