It's the Little Things She Does (part I)

Esme tries to get into the Hundred Acre Wood at our local Barnes & Noble

     So it's been a while since I've posted here for a variety of reasons.  Perhaps the main one is the gap between what I wanted this blog to be and what my viewers seem to want.  I wanted this to be primarily a writing blog (I'm a writer at heart), while the requests I get are always for more pictures and video.  There's also the fact that I thought this could be a format for me to discuss the realities of parenting and discussing some of the challenges that arise in frank and honest ways.  However, I've discovered a serious aversion to airing dirty laundry in public, which makes many of my potential posts difficult to write and publish.  I wish I was courageous enough to get into the nitty gritty of daily life of arguments and challenges, but I'm not.  I don't want to upset people or alienate people.  So I keep many of the juiciest bits to myself and only post the cute glory that is Esme.  If you want to read some of my inspirations for that type of blogging, you could look at some of these:

Rage Against the Minivan
and

Parenting from Scratch
and especially

Controlling Chaos

     Since I'm not as gutsy as some of these bloggers, I'll take a different tack.  I'm going to share things that I'd like Esme to know about herself later.  (I know that I have greater control of the information on this blog than I do of the information on Facebook or Google+.  For instance, I can download my entire blog and save it to my hard drive, photos, videos, writings, etc., and put them together for her to peruse on her own time when she's of an age to want to know more about her childhood.)

     So here are some written snapshots of Esme these days, with photos that may not fit each of the exact ideas, but they're pretty close:

     "I want your hand"
     Anyone who has been around Esme for any length of time lately knows that she is very clear about wanting help or wanting someone to join her on a walk.  When she visits Grandma Brenda in Lansing, she'll wait at the top of the stairs, holding up her hand, until someone comes over, takes her hand, and helps her down the steps.  (At least, she would do this until she started being able to navigate stairs on her own.)  She still does this at home when she wants to go down into the basement to play on the mat or explore.

     She also does something like this from the backyard at home when she wants me (or whoever's around) to go with her.  She'll walk up to me holding up her hand and, once she's holding my finger, she'll turn and start walking away.  Sometimes she keeps holding on, but more frequently, she'll pretty immediately let go once she knows she's being followed.  Then she'll lead me to the gate, wait for me to undo the latch, then head down the driveway to the sidewalk, occasionally looking back to make sure I'm still following.  She does the same type of thing inside the house when she wants me to accompany her to another room.  It's a wonderful way she's chosen to communicate, and it melts my heart just about every time.  (Who doesn't want to be wanted and needed in this world?)

     "That way"
     When Esme wants something that she knows she can't get for herself, she'll walk up to me, hold up her arms and wait to be picked up.  Once she's snuggled into my arms, she simply points.  Sometimes I have to ask, "What do you want?" or, "Where do you want to go?" and she'll hold out her arm in the general direction she wants to go.  Sometimes it's a toy she sees on the upper shelves of her closet.  Sometimes it's specific food or drink.  Lately, it's the fact that she saw or heard the cat at the door and wants her to be let in or out.  (What the cats are paying her for this service, we're not quite sure yet, but there's got to be some sort of payoff.  The cats have never had it so good!)

     "Mo" and "All Done"

If she didn't still have food, and the finger pointed
to her mouth, this would be 'more'

     Like many parents, we've experimented with teaching Esme a few simple words in sign language.  As I don't know sign language, I'm not absolutely certain we have the 'right' words, but as long as we're consistent using the same sign for whatever word, she picks up on them pretty quickly.  Two of the most common ones she uses these days are 'more' and 'all done.'

Half of 'all done'

     For more, she points to her mouth and says, "Mo."  This is most frequent when she's finished a bottle (or gotten close to the end of it) and wants to continue drinking.  She'll then slither out of our laps and either lead or follow us to the kitchen where we'll pour more milk into her bottle.  She also uses it when she's in her high chair and wants more of the specific item (usually fruit) that she's been eating.
     When she's done eating, we can usually tell because she starts to squirm around in her seat and seems to try to get up (which isn't possible for her with the tray in place).  She'll shake both of her hands while looking directly into our eyes and the message is clear.

     Comprehension of Language
     It is absolutely clear to me that Esme has a large set of words and phrases that she knows.  If we ask if she wants to eat or wants food (and she does) she'll walk right over to her high chair.  (And with this as well as most of the others that I'm about to mention, I've checked myself to make sure I'm not giving any visual cues.  It is definitely the words that she knows.)  If we ask if she wants to go outside, she'll go grab her boots.  (And on that vein, we can ask her to get her boots -- she'll grab the boots.  We can ask her to get her shoes -- she grabs the shoes.)

     Lately, I've been giving her choices.  "Which hat do you want?" while holding out two or three of her hats.  She'll look them all over, then make her choice and grab that one, and it's not always the same hat.  Yesterday, I knew we needed to go get more milk, but I smelled a malodorous gift in her diaper.  I tried to get her to walk down to her room with me to change, but she seemed resistant.  So I asked her if she wanted to change her diaper or go to the store in the car.  Without hesitation, she pointed to the door and grabbed her hat.  So we went to the store and came home before the diaper change.

Speaking of communication,
Esme loves 'talking on the phone'

     There are lots of other illustrations of her grasp of language.  It the evening, Tina can ask if Esme's ready for a bath and Esme will take off towards the bathroom, frequently getting there first and tapping on the door until Tina catches up to her.  When it's time for bed, Tina carries Esme over to me and asks her to give me a kiss.  Esme immediately leans towards me.  I usually have to ask her to take out her Nuk, which she does before leaning in further for a kiss.  Then Tina says, "Say goodnight to daddy."  Esme waves at me and gives a sing-song, "Nn-nnnn", mimicking the sound of Tina's 'goodnight' before they walk down the hall.  Again, it's heart-melting goodness and love.

As always, there are so many more events and photos to add, as well as (and I'm not making this up) 73 videos of Esme I have taken with my iPod, from very early on.  This is a very well documented 17 month old.  You're welcome to come visit us if you want to watch all the videos on my computer, but I suspect you'd get distracted by the girl herself.  I always do...