Supervised egg cracking

On a walk along the Burke-Gilman trail recently, Esther and I were accompanied by a 4-year boy and his mother. Along the entire walk to the playground, this little guy made sure that I knew that Esther needed a tricycle. He even asked me when I was planning to buy it. Well, if that little boy reads this blog (ha!), he'll be happy to know that Gene and I took his suggestion. What a little salesman!!
Modeling her new helmet, elbow and knee pads. (It's a very "broken down" couture pose as they would say on "America's Next Top Model". Ahem, not that I watch that or anything.)

The new trike complete with parent steering.

After the "Great Egg Debacle of 2009," I let Esther crack a few eggs and she helped cook them. At night now, we hook up a bungee cord to the fridge door. I guess that should work until Esther figures out how to dismantle the entire refrigerator.

And here's our expert somer-saulter.

Mid "sault".

I need some coffee.

Esther loves eggs. But not to eat...just to play with. Sometimes I will let her help me crack them in to a bowl. This morning, at a very early 5:30 am, Gene and I were awakened to a sweet little voice outside our door saying, "Let me in." I opened up our bedroom door and realized the lights were in the kitchen. Esther was standing there all excited and said, "Look Mommy, I cook eggs." I glanced down at me feet and there was a sauce pan full of de-shelled eggs, about 9 or 10 of them. The carton lay on the floor along with a big eggy mess. I did not have the wherewithal so early in the morning to document this catastrophic event with pictures. I think the only thing I could mumble to E was, "uhh, that's a big mess." Oh, what fun it is to clean runny egg off the floor especially half awake. (Note to self: must buy refrigerator child-proofing.) On a positive note, Esther was kind enough to put all the shells in the sink with the garbage disposal. Luckily, we were able to convince E that it was much too early to be awake yet, and she did go back to bed. Now on to my second cup of coffee.
Self portrait.

Of course, robots!

Loungin' in bed.

Lots of puddle jumping pictures

We've put Miss E's new rain boots and raincoat to good use. And I'm glad I bought some boots for myself, because Esther "made" me jump in some puddles, too. Although we had lots of fun, I'm glad to see the sun now. Hopefully it will stick around for a little while.
Esther really enjoys being read to lately. For a while, she would only let you read her the same 5 books over and over and over again, but now we can pretty much read her anything as long as she gets a choice now and then. I read to her before her nap and her dad gets to read to her at bedtime. Her favorite books right now are "The Little Engine that Could", "Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed", and of course the classics like "Everyone Poops", "Holes in Your Nose", and "Pass that Gas".

And now for those puddle pictures:

Throwing rocks

There IS a video this time!

Our daughter is a superstar about going to the potty now (no, that's not what the video is about), but I've been reluctant to risk going out in public without Esther in pull-ups. E has a little fear of public restrooms, but I realized it was really my issue, not wanting to deal with searching for bathrooms or wet pants. A lot of the time, Esther is more ready for things than her mommy. So I bucked up and decided today was the day. Esther made it through her gym class without a diaper or an accident. I had told her beforehand that if she needed to use the potty she needed to tell her teachers and then come get me. And she listened! So I guess this means her mommy's growing up a little bit.
It was time for new rain boots for our little puddle jumper as her others were getting a tad small and smelled a little funky after getting wet. So I ordered some from Zappos along with a brand spanking new raincoat.
She loves polka-dots so I immediately knew she would love her new boots.

The new outfit was fun, but the box was pretty exciting, too.

Esther enjoys instructing her daddy on what things he needs to draw for her. Mainly robots. And in this picture she's telling him to draw "snippies", which are robot hands apparently. (See video for more drawing fun.)

We watched a video of our travel buddies' "Gottcha Day" today, and Esther noticed us in the background. She immediately wanted to know where her yellow jacket was, so I pulled it out for her. She ended up wearing it most of the day. As you can see it's a little small, but it still fits. Can you believe my little 10 1/2 month old arrived in this?

Showing off her dimples with a cheesy grin.