Esme June - Ten Months Old

Esme is ten months old today and she is on the move!  She still likes sitting a lot, but can army crawl and roll her way around.  She loves anything electronic and will crawl towards Parker's iPad and our phones.  She is starting to figure out some of her tactile toys like the the animal pop-up and giraffe spinner.  She continues to sleep well at night, but sometimes needs a little encouragement to fall asleep at first.

By my at home measurements she is still about 21 lbs.  She is wearing all 12 month clothing and is still in size 4 diapers during the day and at night.  She is generally eating 40 ounces of formula per day and still gets at least one meal of food most days.  She has tried carrots in the last month and we will be offering more finger foods soon.  She has has some gagging issues with the few things we have given her, so I don't want to push too hard.  Here are a couple videos of Esme's new skills.

We did a Valentine's photo shoot on Sunday and it turned out utterly adorable!  Can't believe we are only a couple months away from 1 year!

Date Night, Dance Night

Jimmy and I had a kidless date night on Friday.  Our church got group tickets to see "Til' Death: A Marriage Musical."  It was put on by Bucket Brigade Theater at Art House North in St. Paul.  It was within walking distance of a restaurant we really wanted to try, but traffic was a nightmare so we had to call an audible and find something faster.  I was really annoyed and bummed at first, but so grateful after we finished eating.  Tavial Grill is a cute little quick serve Mexican joint.  We shares tamales and a chimichanga and it was so good!  We will definitely be back, even if it's just for take out!

 The play brought humor to the real struggle that marriage can be sometimes.  Everyone was bursting with laughter.  We even got character themed cupcakes during intermission.  I would definitely recommend this play to all my friends, but it only goes through February 25th, so move fast!

 We made our way to Rosedale on Saturday night.  It has been years since we have been there and they are doing a lot of renovations.  I made sure to get an Apple Store picture to add to our collection!

 A giant slice of pizza makes us all happy!

Family dance night was combined with bath night and I tried to get some video.  Esme was enjoying the music so much, but Parker kept standing up so a lot of it needed to be edited out!

Sunday, Squirming, School, Snuggles, and Spinning

Here is a quick synopsis of our week.  We spent Super Bowl Sunday at my parents with chicken wings, spinach artichoke dip, bacon wrapped smokies and ham and swiss sandwiches.  We also made these tasty bars for dessert!

Esme is finally starting to get up on her knees and has started army crawling.  She can get around pretty good when she is motivated.

Esme did her first "school" art project at ECFE on Wednesday.  They put a heart shaped paper a little paint and a marble in a small box.  She shook it up to paint the heart.

It's been a snuggly week as well.  Parker likes to climb in our bed in the morning.

Leave it to a family snuggle to give us a great picture of us all smiling.

Parker showed Esme his sit n' spin this week as well and she is hooked.  She can't sit herself on it, but she crawls over and spins it.  He is interacting with her more each day it's fun to watch their friendship grow.

Here are Esme's weekly pictures as well.  Getting so close to 52!

Forks and Hurdles

Parker's occupational therapist has been working on using a fork.  We are finally seeing some fruits of this labor.  He has eaten several meals with his fork almost exclusively.  We are still working on the proper way to hold it, but I am proud of his progress.

 Esme has been getting ever closer to forward motion.  She ends up in a hurdler position which is super cute until she gets frustrated and starts crying.

 It is getting ever harder to keep Esme still enough to take pictures.  She loved grabbing and kicking the blocks.  I still got her to focus long enough, but I don't know if I will be able to make it 10 more weeks.

I will leave you with my favorite part of the week.  Saturday night has now been dubbed Family Dance Night.  We'll pick a new artist every week (or however often it happens) and dance to our hearts content!  Parker has long been exposed to the stylings of *NSYNC, but Esme is well overdue!  Please enjoy our silliness!

Two Harbors Birthdays

We drove up to Two Harbors on Sunday to celebrate our niece and nephew's birthdays.  Esme stole the show a bit as everyone wanted to play with her.

 Paul was sharing Lamby and singing songs to her.

 She got to meet Mick Dundee's cousin Harry Hedgehog.  He also hails from the land of Fleet Farm, but is a year older...

 Parker was using the remote control car and Izzy's finger got pinched.  I just happened to snap a picture at that moment!

 We had person pizzas and calzones for dinner with homemade crust.  They were built and baked to order.  It was SO good!

Typical expressions from a 14 year old and 7 year old.  Happy Birthday Izzy and Paul, we love you!

Snow Carving at the St. Paul Winter Carnival

We headed out to the state fair grounds to see the winter carnival snow sculptures yesterday. My friend, Shannon, has done it in the past and entered the new amateur category this year. She has 3 kids and 8 hours is much more manageable than 60.  This was the carving the entrance that was in progress.

They have a snow maze, snow pile and snow slide for kids (and adults) to enjoy.

I wasn't sure how Parker would do on the slide. He was a little scared of the scaffold stairs, but was excited once we got to the top. We ended up only needing 1 ticket per sled so Jimmy got to go down with him as well.

Teams still had about 10 hours remaining to finish, but they were looking pretty good. 

The baby was a little creepy, but impressive none the less.

Shannon's team made a Lego gnome! 

The c-shapes hands were spot on! Hopefully we will get to see pictures of the rest of the finished sculptures. 

Here are Esme's weekly pictures from yesterday as well. She is definitely on the mend, but is still being a finicky eater. Sleep has been much better the last few nights, which helps the whole family!

Hope you have a great week!