Birthday fun for Essie at the River

Though many say Esther and Adeline look so much alike, it is evident they are already their own people.  Adeline wouldn’t touch her birthday cupcake and Essie enjoyed every morsel of hers.

We had fun on the boat and in the water!

 

We had fun sitting around!

We had fun making memories:  Essie’s hand print and all of our finger prints:

Essie, we love you a ton!!!

Essie takes the cake!  Happy Birthday Baby!!!

Esther, you are amazing!  You have swept us off our feet with your beauty on the inside and out.  Just this past weekend you turned the corner from crawling primarily to walking primarily.  You know mama, dada, papa, doggie!  You sign only doggie, but know when we start talking about milk.  Though you know to do High-5 too, that is a pop culture sign I guess!  You learned this with Mr. Ray at Westside that loves babies so very well.  You are a climber.  You love going behind the couch and playing peek a poo from the fireplace hearth.  You love crawling onto Adeline’s office table, the couches, the stool in the bathroom, anything really.  You have had a weird medical year by starting out with a broken collar bone, then fungus between the fingers, to scratching your eye with a spoon.  You have had some reactive airway disease, ear infections and another scratched eye too.  We will try to keep you out of that office if we can.  Though as active as you are I have a feeling you will keep us there.  We do feel like family there!  You love Calhoun and Millie.  You love when they run by you.  You will eat just about anything.  You have been doing great drinking water from a sippy, but aren’t too sure about milk and recently don’t like drinking milk from a bottle either.  I am in a pickle over this.  You have a smile that lights up a room.  On Monday we went to a music class.  You toddled around the room shaking the egg shakers, smiling from ear to ear engaging everyone around the room.  You sleep from 7am to approx 6:30. You recently went to one nap a day.  Our dear friend Katie and her son Luke 2 mo younger than you kept you for almost 4 weeks so you could get some extra wink eye.  You had him on your heals and might have even helped spur him on to crawling.  Other than your stay with that dear sweet family you have been at Sonshine Day Care and Preschool with Adeline.  You LOVE your sister (and she you).  You guys hold hands in the car seats, pass toys and share food back and forth.  You will be held by just about anyone, at least for a minute or 2.  When something plays music you like to get your groove on.  When we play a certain couple songs in the car you “clap, clap, clap your hands” with the song.  It is a super sweet clap.  I hope to capture that soon.  You babble a ton and got the award of “most talkative” from your teachers Ms. Gwen and Ms. Nancy.  You love being in the water.  You hardly even flinch when water goes down your face.  You love bath time.  You are doing great with solid foods, and even now primarily eat finger foods rather than mush.  You love to take things out and put them in. You flip through books, though can be less than patient when they are being read to you to wait to flip the page. Everything goes in your mouth (normal for this age right)…even dirt, mouth full's of sand, dog food and even some dog poo (don’t know how you got that, but it was something stinky).   I know for sure you do not like diaper changes.  It takes the skill of distraction to get you through one without flipping over and moving away.  You love wagon rides, and until recently when you punctured the ice-pop were quite fine to just crunch on an unopened one while we walked.  You love swinging too!

We love you so so so much and savor every day.  Yet look forward to knowing your sweet personality more and more.  We pray you know Jesus in a personal way very early in life.  We try to reflect His love to you.  We pray every night over you and are so thankful God is letting us have you here on earth with us.  He has trusted us to do a lot.  We pray He fill in the daily gaps that need filling.  We want you to Love Him with your whole heart, to love His word and write it on your heart, to have wisdom from Him alone!  He has purpose for your dear life.  Already you have accomplished much – you have taught us about joy and love!

Zephaniah 3:17

The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing.