An update for my faithful readers...all four of you.

Life keeps moving along at a steady speed. Although September seems so far away, Esther already has a spot at preschool, and it's the school we wanted. It's a co-op, which means I will be in the classroom one day a week and doing monthly education/parenting classes as well. It will do me good to "have" to be involved.
Nana Carolyn came to visit earlier in the week. Esther decided hanging out in gloves was a must. Nana was a good sport.

Esther's photo of Nana.

The girls together.

Esther's photo of her little rocking chair. I like the compo-sition and the close up view.

Being silly with Dora.

Apparently it's time for Mommy to file some papers. Esther is good at bringing this stuff to my attention.

We had a great visit with Nana Marilyn, Papa Jerry and Uncle Jason's girls, Sierra and Nikkie. Esther had a great time bossing her cousins around and tackling them. The decibel level in our condo was off the charts.

Rough-housing with Nikkie (left) and Sierra (right).

Chillin'

Some how time has gotten away from me.

Where does the time go? I swear I look up and another week has passed.
The last few days I been looking into preschool for Esther starting in the fall. School already? Being new to this whole thing, apparently I should have started my search in January (for Sept). Live and learn. I found a co-op that I really like, so hopefully we'll get a spot.
E has been enjoying gymnastics more and more lately. She's getting to know the teachers and kids better. She didn't even need me to go into the gym this last visit. I just watched her from the viewing window. Every once in a while she would run up and wave at me and say "hi, Mommy".
Time outs have become big in our house. Hitting is a major issue for Esther right now so she's been spending a lot of time on the time out pillow. Her hitting is only reserved for Mom and Dad (lucky us), but every once in a while she'll swat at Sydney, our cat. Esther often says after I have her apologize to me that hitting's "not the answer", but will do it again as soon as she's frustrated or mad at one of us. (If anyone has any suggestions about how to deal with hitting, I'd love to hear it!) Her new game to play is putting Dora into her own time outs.
I don't know when the "why?" phase starts, but Esther is in the "what's that?" phase. She uses it all the time, whether she knows what something is or not. And repeatedly.
I know it probably doesn't sound like it from all the above, but I'm really enjoying Esther right now. She's becoming more and more of her own person, and is very communicative. She understands so much and I really enjoy hanging out with her (most of the time). She is so awesome to watch with other kids. She's very compassionate and caring with them. So far, sharing is not an issue with her; she's happy to let others have their turn.
self portrait

She figured out she could make her pinwheel go with the wind from the fan.

Paper bag robot.

A new creation.

Trains, hats, and coconut trees.

Gene's brother, Jason, gave Gene a hat when he was visiting. Esther calls it "Uncle Jashun's" hat and likes to sniff it. Apparently he smells pretty good.

One of E's silly looks. I guess she was modeling the highlighter.

This weekend, we went to visit our friend's store, Bella and Max. Then on to ride the kiddie train. It was a cold, brisk day but it was still fun.

Gene trying to capture us all in the photo. Looking so serene on the purple horsey.

I guess I should post something.

So much for child-proofing. Esther has pretty much figured out how to bypass any of my efforts to thwart her. She figured out how to open the pantry door (which now has a useless safety latch on it) and she likes to feed the cats. Sydney appreciates the heaps and heaps of food.
The other day when I took a shower, I put up her stools so she couldn't get into anything. But she still managed to get to my cell phone and our home phone. Gene got a call from E and talked to her for 2 1/2 minutes, all the time trying get an answer from her about where I was. All she would say is, "Where's Mommy?", so he tried dialing the home phone but couldn't get through because she was using that phone as well. Those who know Gene will probably guess what comes next. When I got out of the shower, I quickly confiscated the two phone and listened to the frantic message Gene left me; he was worried and he was on his way home to check to see if I was ok. He imagined that I was laying somewhere unconscious or hurt. Luckily, I caught him in time so he didn't have to miss much work.
I swear that girl is too smart for me!
Here's Miss Smarty-pants.

Here's another incident that I actually caught on camera. I love her expression: "I wasn't doing anything."

Here's a more defiant look. She informed me that she was "cook-ing." Apparent-ly, the pretzels weren't seasoned enough.

When I've been remiss in taking pictures...

Esther picks up the slack. She likes our camera more than she likes her own, probably because it has a large viewing screen. Here's our home from Esther's perspective:
mantle above the fireplace

Sydney and the mess E created

under the table shot of Audrey's rear

Esther's birthday balloons

Time-out pillow

baby gate

the fridge and all her "magmicks"

shot of the Wubbzy painting from Meilyn

her sweet little feet

OK, this is the one picture I took this week, of Esther's very long creation. According to her it's a robot.

Esther had her 3rd gymnastics class this week and she did much better. No crying, but she did need Mom close in the beginning. She does so well with other kids...even when one little girl pulled her hair to get a turn at the rings. E just looked at her as if to say, "what are you doing?", and then she gave her a turn. She even went up to this same girl later and said, "My name Esther, what your name?" So sweet!!!

"Thanks for Sequiming"

The love of my life on the ferry.
The other love of my life squinting in the sun.

Esther's photo of Uncle King.

Her pic of Grandpa Neil.

Esther turned 3 on Saturday, so we got her an ice cream cake. Apparently our singing of "Happy Birthday" was not music to her ears because she yelled, "STOP!" quite emphatically.

Sunday we ventured out in the cold with Nana Carolyn to the railroad bridge. Afterwards we needed some warming up, so we got some hot chocolate which E thought was pretty "delisis".

When we returned home after the weekend, we had a card waiting from Meilyn, E's Guiping sister. As soon as Esther saw Meilyn's painting, she started singing "Wow, wow, Wubbzy."

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(I muted the sound on this video because you couldn't hear the kids, and I didn't think you would want to listen to the parents gossiping.)

Esther is three!!!

This is serious business, working with Play dough.

Peek-a-boo!

One of my favorite Esther

ex-pressions.
Getting a "red envelope" for Chinese New Year from Valerie. (Thanks, Val, she loves Mickey and Minnie Mouse!)

Esther's birthday is Saturday. Her present from her relatives in California was a Dora playground set.

Look at that concentration.