A Girl's Best Friend

It is really Callie-dog that Esme connects with and dresses up, climbs on, pets and coddles.  But, that does not mean she ignores Phoebe.  She gets very concerned when Phoebe ("She-bee" to Esme), does not eat, or is not covered up, or is left outside too long.  Let me explain the dogs' eating habits.  Her fave, Callie, is an "eat the entire bowl of food when it is put down" dog, and Phoebe is a grazer and especially does not like to eat from her bowl. She has to remove mouth fulls and then eat piece by piece.  Esme decided this was not acceptable and yelled for "Shee-bee" until she came over to eat.

 I love how Esme knows that Phoebe will not eat more than one piece at a time.

And so it went on and on...until the bowl was empty.

Then there is Callie.  I just don't think she cares anymore.

 Seriously, she maybe sat looking out the window for squirrels for about 10 minutes. She didn't even try to remove the silly headband.   Hilarious, right?

Stella could not let the photo opportunity pass.

My Little Monkey

Esme just completed her first round of Gymnastics.  She LOVES it so much.  Of course, she still wants to do ballet like her sister too (I am going to enroll her in her first ballet class in January along with the gymnastics).  But, this is where she belongs.  These are shots from her last class.

 It is kind of like Gymboree on steriods.  The age group is one and a half to three in this class, but the instructors do introduce a new foundation skill every week.

 She swings her legs up there with out any assistance.  The girl has abs.

 She never fell.  She loves doing the high beams but gets so mad at me for touching/spotting her.

Ummm...my future goal.  

Waiting patiently for the flying machine.

I think she may have cut a few kids that were on the fence.

ARGH! My camera was on the wrong setting and I didn't check it once in the five shots I took of her "fllying."  At least you can see the pure joy on her face here.  This was the first time they did the flying machine...she was so high, and she LOVED it. 

Ok, now a little something more project related...

I received a package today with some craft supplies!  I will be busy and of course will be sharing!  Yea, I'm so excited, this is a new one for me.  It's not like I don't have a few other things to work on...or anything.

Let's Talk About Comfort

How about bedtime comfort?  I just need to be cold enough to snuggle under blankets and that is my comfort.  The girls' have other things in mind.

Here is Stella's Bed this morning...

 Oh, excuse my manners, let me introduce you.  This is Dolly, Blanky (which she has actually slept with since about 10 months old), bunny, Rapunzel, Rainbow Dog, Unicorny the pillow pet and last, Pink Unicorn.  Stella sleeps right there in the middle.  Do you see that little spot?  This is the order they have to be placed in every night as well.

Not to be out done, is little sister Esme (who HAS TO DO EVERYTHING her big sister does)...

These are neccessities,  Singy, her Water, Violet (which is the only original sleep item from about 6 months old), OX, Bear, Cinderella, Belle, and ball (do you see it?), and of course her pillow pet actually used as a pillow named, "BUG." To be completely honest, this picture is missing "Baby," which is lugged everywhere and is the reason for missing the photo.  Also missing are the books.  I have already been in and picked up her room this morning, but she usually has a good amount of books piled to the side that she likes to sleep with.  Occasionally, she feels the need to sleep with her Lightening McQueen car.

Should I mention that both girls also fall to sleep to a Children's CD?

Hanging with a Disc Man

When Stella is at school, Esme LOVES to hang in her big sister's room.  She found Stella's disc man the other day and jammed out for a while.  She just had this smirk on her face that was priceless.

In case you are wondering...she is getting her groove on to Wonder Pets.

Yellow Dress and Make-Up

I was cleaning out some clothing bins and reorganizing.  Esme saw this yellow shirt and claimed it as a yellow dress. Yellow is her favorite color right now, so this was very exciting for her.
 Let me tell you about this yellow "dress."  It is really a maternity shirt.  A maternity shirt that I have only been able to wear when I am 10 months pregnant and swollen from a Kansas August, otherwise it was always too big.  Esme insisted on wearing it. After watching her struggle with tripping on it and realizing she was not going to take it off any time soon, I tied the back up.

 She wore it to play in.

 She wore it over jammies to sleep in.

 She wore it for three days straight.  She wore it to Target.  Hey, you have to pick your battles.

 She wore it to cast spells and eat Yogurt in.

She eventually moved onto the red sparkle shoes.  This is our second pair of shoes to attach to.  

The first - pink boots.  She even napped in them.  

Stella found my make up.  She said she put make up on her eyes just like mommy.  

Hmmm...I didn't think I did smoky eye brows.

Sledding Down the Mountain

Ok, not really a mountain.  But, Stella thinks the foothills are mountains and with this being one of the largest hills she has ever sled down...she did refer to it as a "baby mountain."
It was so much fun getting pics of this.  I love every shot.

 I did not envy Ben carrying baby girls up this hill.

 Getting ready.  He figured it was best not to start at the very top.  

You know, get a feel for this baby mountain first.

 I love how Ben's feet are stuck in for breaks and Stella looks like she could go faster.

Still not the entire hill.  Just Stella this time.

 Action shots.

It just makes me laugh.  

Just Esme.

 "Daddy, look!! A snowball!"  (As Stella and Ben are sliding down the baby mountain)

 Stella doesn't play in the snow with out leaving her mark.  Snow Angels!

She started to cry when she sled down the hill. She started to cry when she was left behind.  She told me she was coooold.  When we decided to leave...she sat down on the sled and cried that she didn't want to go.  

Oh, the life of a two year old.

Brushing Callie

Callie is Esme's dog.  I may be Callie's "chosen human" but she is Esme's dog.  Esme climbs on her, pulls her ears, shoves things in her mouth and Callie just accepts it with a dogs' grace.  She even lets Esme brush her.  This is impressive given the typical struggle Ben has.

Halloween!

A Pony!  A Unicorn!  A Fairy Princess!  Rapunzel!

These are all proclamations at one time or another of what Stella wanted to be for Halloween.  A couple weeks before, she finally settled on Rapunzel and wanted Esme to be Pascal, the chameleon friend.  Since Stella was a green dragon a couple years ago, we decided that could pass for Pascal on Esme.  Rapunzel was easy enough...or so I thought.  I just didn't like the Rapunzel costumes at the stores for $25-$30.  Maybe the Disney store's version of the dress would have been more...substantial.  But that was $40...with out any hair!
SO.....I checked out Goodwill and found this dress for $5.

 I bought some RIT purple dye and some plain purple fabric.  Then got to cutting and sewing.

This is at her school party.  I cut off all the gold frilly stuff, put a purple layer around the skirt and a panel with the pink ribbon crossing over the bodice.  I may have also made the sleeves short.  Stella brought her doll down to compare after every adjustment.  "Mommy, there needs to be a pink bow RIGHT here."

Pretty close...Stella did mention that Rapunzel "has flowers on the inside part."  Good thing distraction still works on her.

The hair was tricky.  I knew that there was no way Stella would keep an itchy wig on.  So instead of spend $10-$20 on a real Rapunzel wig, I bough a cheap plain blond one.  I cut it up into sections and hot glued it onto pony tail holders.  Stella LOVED it; said "it looked like Rapunzel's hair when she and Flynn Rider went into the village and danced." (Whew!)

These were all taken at Stella's school party.  It was a little crowded and hard to get good pictures.  But here is Pascal.  Esme could have cared less what she looked like this year...as long as she was dressed up in something.  She insisted on wearing the paws/claws to the point of trying to eat in them.

Yup.  That's our trick-or-treating group.  Two princesses and their dragons.