Happabirday!

Yesterday was Estelle's birthday (or, "Happabirday!" as she likes to say). We had a nice party with dinner and cake -- she looked truly delighted when everyone sang "happy birthday to you," a phrase she often sings after we read one of her favorite books (Curious George and the Birthday Surprise).

Speaking of cake, can you just take a look at one earnest mom's creation -- I seriously need to get a hold of myself.

I don't know why I do it...I get an idea in my head and I MUST make it happen, at the expense of sleep (and aesthetics, in this case). Take this cake for example. I decided that Estelle must have a Clifford cake. But his character is not easy to find...unlike, Elmo...or Curious George, for that matter...two other characters she ALSO loves. At any time, I could have abandoned the Clifford idea and ordered an Elmo cake from the grocery store. Alas, the idea in my head took over. Unfortunately, Clifford was the one who suffered. At least it tasted good and Estelle did recognize him, despite his malformations. Check out the video clip.

Here are a few more cute photos from the party...you can see more by clicking on the link to Flickr on the right.

Who needs mommy and daddy?

Especially when Estelle has Grandma/Darien/Regina, my cousin Kelly, and Darien's fish to entertain her... We spent our first weekend away from Estelle to attend a wedding of a dear friend from grad school. Though I worried about leaving her, Estelle did absolutely fine without us. She stayed a couple of nights with my mom, and then Kelly watched her at our house for about a day so my mom could head out on her vacation (which explains the fish staying at our house).

Kelly snapped some cute photos of Estelle watching the fish (and a hilarious video which I'll attempt to upload).

EP - the next generation

It was so fun to see some of my high school friends recently -- Amy just had a new baby, Madeline, and we all got to meet her and catch up. It's a blast to see each other's kids -- it was a bit of bedlam trying to get them to sit still for a picture.

Pool Pals

Estelle went to the pool with her friend, Annika, last weekend. There's a great play area in the zero-depth pool with slides and swings and waterfalls, but it was just a little too much water in the girls' eyes. They had a better time sitting at the edge, playing with tupperware containers. So many fun things to do in the summer....so little time to blog about it!

Eating watermelon

Well, I guess it would be more accurate to say "Licking watermelon" because I can't actually get her to take a bite of it. Weird...she'll eat a piece of yellow bell pepper but not watermelon.

This was one of those fun summer evenings where we went outside after dinner to enjoy the sunset, cool breeze and watermelon on the front step. Life is good!

Hot and sticky

It was a perfect, hot June day today. Estelle tried running through the sprinkler for the first time. It took a little convincing -- I'm sure the neighbors got a kick out of Bryan and I showing her how to do it. She also had her first popsicle -- that took no convincing whatsoever.





"This stick is pretty good, but I like the cold stuff better."

Estelle played with Darien a lot this weekend. They are pratically inseparable. When they're together, she follows him around like a shadow. When Darien's not around, Estelle asks about him all the time (and she's saying his name pretty well now, though the "r" is more like a "w"). I think the picture below is so cute. They were cuddling and Darien was trying to play possum...Estelle wasn't buying it. You can see he's trying really hard not to smile.

Mischevious

Estelle was really hamming it up for the camera in this picture. It was one of those moments when it was way too quiet in the house. I knew she was getting into something...this time it was climbing up the wrong side of the stairs.

Say Cheese (Seriously!)

So I'm stealing real estate from Estelle to show you all the cheeziest of photos. A couple weeks ago, I went to prom (heart, heart, heart)! It wasn't our first time (nor the last, certainly, since it is a part of Bryan's job) but it's the only prom picture we've had taken. I think it's pretty dang funny. The theme was "Starry Night." The girls were beautiful and mostly appropriately dressed (with a few "J-Lo at the Grammys" exceptions); the boys were coolly dapper, strutting in their tuxes with assorted accessories like top hats and blinged-out canes. As a chaperone, Bryan gave me strict instructions about dancing. Alas, I was relegated to the adults table, forbidden to get my groove on (except, of course, when "Ballin'" came on and then I shot my hand up goose-neck at the appropriate moments). In the end, Bryan relented and we danced during the last slow song of the night.

Warning: Apples Falling Directly Under the Tree

After dinner tonight, I convinced Estelle to sit down and play with puzzles. She sat down but started to cry. She looked straight at me, furrowed her brow and pointed her index finger, jabbing at the rug as if to say, "part of the bargain was you sitting down next to me." I could hardly refuse. This was the first time she's been so forceful in a non-temper tantrum way -- it was quite convincing. I guess it's not a surprise that both verbal and non-verbal communication is developing rapidly right now. What is surprising is the attitude that she gives it. This morning I made her cereal and we sat down to eat. She looked up a me, held out her hands and in an exasperated tone said, "'poon." Not "'poon?" like a request; more like "come on already with the spoon, lady!" I'd better be on my best behavior from here on out.

More fun at the park

Estelle can't get enough of the park. She's worked her way up to the big slide. Today we got her to do "hands up"...






And by the way, teddy goes everywhere with us lately...to the park, in the car, to bed, reading books...shortly after I took this picture, she sat down on the sidewalk and gave teddy a drink of water.

At the park

Estelle is getting braver at the park. She loves to swing and go down the slides. And if there are any other kids there, she'll follow them around like a shadow.

Yay for spring!

We couldn't get Estelle to come inside all weekend -- every time we tried to get her to come in, she cried. I can't wait until we get the backyard landscaped and we can set her free out there on a swingset and in a sandbox.

In this one, she's got something icky on her hands...

So proud

My cousins were so cute with Estelle on Sunday...and particularly laid back about allowing her to go through their purses (one of her favorite activities). So, imagine my surprise when she knew exactly what to do with the cosmetics. My girlfriends will really appreciate these pictures.

Hunting for eggs...with some help

We had a lovely Easter at my mom's -- it was a little cool, but that didn't stop the kids from enjoying the egg hunt. After being shown that she should pick the eggs up instead of just look at them, Estelle got into the spirit of things. She also got quite protective of her stash.

Eyes, Off, Hot, Mama

Okay, so maybe she's not stringing them together in that order, but these are four of Estelle's favorite words right now.

"Eyes" - usually accompanied by poking her finger in my eye or her teddy's eye.

"Off" -- as a statement, usually accompanied by an earnest look and holding her bare feet in the car after she's removed her shoes and socks for the 47 billionth time; as a question ("off?") after she's ripped off another flap in her lift-the-flap books. She hasn't quite gotten that the flaps don't go back on like the socks and shoes do.

"Hot" -- sometimes a truth, sometimes a fib when she doesn't want to eat something, in which case it's usually accompanied by a tongue thrust pushing all the food out of her mouth. Also when testing the bath water.

"Mama" -- only when she's really upset or trying to get my attention while I'm driving...and sometimes when she's looking at a picture with me in it. I'll take it though.

Winter Wonderland

Holy cow, we've got a ton of snow! It's so beautiful. It's really too deep for Estelle to play in - it's pretty much up to her eyeballs. She wants to take off her mittens to grab the snow, but then cries because her fingers are cold. Darien totally digs it though.

Ebb and Flow

Children are strange and wonderful creatures. Sometimes it seems like Estelle is changing all the time. But in reality, I think her progress is much more sporadic, reminding me of Stephen Jay Gould's theory that evolution occurs by sudden lucky leaps forward, separated by long periods of essentially no change (how about that for retention from my evolutionary bio class at Olaf, huh?). Except, in our case, the evolution occurs by sudden lucky leaps forward, separated by long periods of no change or regression.

Case in point: the last week has been a veritable multiple personality disorder of parenting for me. Estelle came down with some viral thing last weekend and steadily progressed to pneumonia. All of a sudden, she has completely forgotten how to play by herself -- it's all mommy, all the time...enter "Kid Koala" who screams bloody murder and maintains a permanent leg-clutch position when I try to set her on the floor (I HATE parenting!); On the other hand, she's cuddly and wants to be rocked, an activity she's shunned since she started walking (I LOVE parenting!); I miss an entire week of work (I HATE parenting!)

Then the antibiotics kick in and in the last two days, she starts to feel better. Suddently, she makes a developmental leap -- she starts repeating words we say, including "cold" "go" "eye" and "mouth" -- I LOVE parenting again!

I've decided it's my challenge to appreciate the mundane days as well as the days full of developmental progress. Though, that's been made demonstrably more difficult in the short-term, since I'm now suffering with her cold (I HATE parenting!). Actually, it's made me want to regress developmentally as well. How the mighty are brought low...

Wait for me!

I know -- it's overkill on the bathtub photos, but I swear it's her favorite thing right now. She can't quite climb her way into the big tub, but she makes a valiant attempt. You can see she's standing on her tippy toes.

New Year's Day SNOW! and other updates

So many things to report from the last 2 weeks...where do I begin? First, Christmas was wonderful. My brother, Eddie, and his family were here. His son is just a 1-1/2 months younger than Estelle, so the cousins had a chance to check each other out. They were mostly annoyed with having to share toys. I think in 2 or 3 years they'll really enjoy each other. Estelle's favorite part of the holiday was, not opening, but climbing on top of the presents. I think her favorite gift is a big stuffed dog from her dad and I. She likes to lay on it, give it kisses and have us chase her around the house holding it and barking. (And to your next likely question -- no, we are not getting a real dog anytime soon.)

We had a lovely break over the holidays. I took the week off and of course Bryan was home from school so we had lots of great family time. A favorite luxury of Bryan's is soaking in the bathtub. Estelle has discovered that she can easily persuade her dad to let her join him and she adores the bubbles. This picture is too cute (and Bryan will probably make me take it down), but enjoy the bubble merriment. She likes to take handfuls and eat them.


Finally, we had a beautiful snow that started New Year's Eve and made for a winter wonderland on New Year's Day. It was gorgeous -- sunny and warm (30 degrees) -- so everyone was out sledding and playing. We took Estelle to a hill in our neighborhood and she was tickled by going down the hill with one of us -- even more pleased with Bryan's antics when he came the hill by himself.


She's feeding herself almost all her own food now, and trying hard to says words that still don't sound quite right. I keep waiting for her to repeat things I say spontaneously without me prodding her. She's getting very good at her puzzles and likes to wrestle and climb. She also loves looking out her window -- here she is checking out the snow, but most of the time she's just watching for dogs to walk by so she can bark at them...she does do that without prompting.

Portraits

So the pictures aren't absolutely current (from October), but we just got the portraits back from our photo session. I'm really pleased with the way they turned out, even though Estelle wasn't feeling so hot that day.

You can also go to the photographer's Web site and click on the "contact" page -- one of Estelle's photos is featured.