Esme at 2

This girl is finding her voice.  "Sit here, give me that, my turn, candy, stop!"  So independent and full of ideas.  If she decides she wants something, she yells immediately instead of asking a couple of times and then resorting to yells.  Like yesterday when she wanted "Wheels on the Bus" to play on repeat even though our crusty old CD player doesn't have that fancy option.  It was worth the two minutes of peace for me to run in her room after it ended each time.  Since her birthday she's been loving her "learning tower" (a railed in steppy stool) to raise to the counter to help cook.

Brian thought I was dumb for buying a $75 used step stool.  But she loves it. I usually put her in charge of adding things like pepper and sesame seeds into sauces or cutting soft things with a butter knife. But the other day she insisted on making her own lunch which ended up being a traumatized piece of bread soaked in peanut oil.

She also loves her backpack.  I put it on her Sunday with a few toys and she almost fell backwards with the weight, then she compensated and hunched forward like a granny to walk before taking a rest. 

She also had the fun idea to lay in her doll's crib and went along with Eli's even better idea to push her around the house.

One more pound and she might've fallen out the bottom. Oh yes!  We switched to a new pediatrician nearby and she was not even stressed at the 19 lb 1 oz fully dressed two year old!  She asked tons of developmental questions and said her growth curve chart looks fine and if anything we should not get too crazy with the butter and even mentioned we could switch to 2% milk.  She ended by saying "See you next year," not, "How many calories a day has she been eating, what did the dietician say, I'm sending you to this specialist next, lets get her blood drawn for these other tests, have you been cramming the unnecessary medicine down her throat?" okay, maybe not realistic wording on that last one.

Yesterday at the playground she melted me when she was swinging on a bar and said "duper  fun." She melts Brian after he reaches the end of a level on Super Mario and says "gimme five" and "good job."  Oh and books. All of a sudden she can sit down for half an hour with a book. And she prefers the regular, hard-to-turn pages.  And every morning I know she's awake when I hear her soft little voice singing "E-i-e-i-o."