C'mon baby, do the locomotion. . .

Esme has achieved mobility! She's not crawling, that's so passé. No, our girl is a scooter. She propels herself with her arms as she slides along gracefully on her backside. It's something to see.



As you can see, Esme takes her scooting very seriously. And having only appropriated this skill two days ago she's just beginning to learn the finer points of using one's bum for transportation. For example, today she learned that hardwood is a much faster ride than carpet. It's the Autobahn of scooting.


The best part of locomotion as far as Esme is concerned is that it has opened new doors for her. Or perhaps, better put, it has enabled her to open new doors. This afternoon while playing in the den she discovered what's behind the closet door.





As I'm typing this, Esme is still in the process of emptying the contents of the closet. Lucky for her (and me) there was a big bag of toys within that has, for the most part, captivated her attention. Daddy's shoes and the yoga gear were summarily tossed aside.





For me it's just fun to watch as her impact on our environment grows more significant. To think it's been just months since she was a tiny thing wiggling in her bassinet. Now she's clattering about, getting into things and getting a lot more out of things, too.

Paris est un escargot. . .

It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who knows us that we fully expect Esme to have inherited our Francophile gene. And since we both have some command of the French language we feel that this is something we can share with her. Besides, since her name is officially spelled with an accent, she's got to at least be able to sing a few rounds of "Frere Jacques."

For the most part we're just exposing her to French children's music which, we're learning, is a perfect reflection of the culture. For example, much of the music focuses on food. There's a song, "Monsieur Bibendum," that concerns a literally larger-than-life fellow who loves to eat. The song assures us that his kilos are not the result of eating at MacDonald's, but instead of indulging in the finer things, "Monsieur Bibendum ... the good life, personified" the chorus goes. And though it may seem cliché, there are dozens of songs about snails. One lists the foods infants can look forward to eating once they're bigger... croissants, croque monsieurs, and, yes, escargot. Could you imagine the bastions of chicken-finger-eating American kids being plied with the promise of breaded snails in their futures?!

There's a little rhyme that pops up on one of the collections. My rough translation: "Little green mouse, hiding in the grass. I'll catch you in my hands, then dip you in water and dip you in oil and that's how you make escargot." How sweet.

Anyway, that blows paddy cake out of the water, non?

Esme's cute little snail tee is courtesy of Elk Inks.

Just BEET it. . .

A lot of our life these days revolves around food. Each week I try to introduce something new to expand Esme's repertoire. And since she pretty much only wants to feed herself, I'm left with only those things I can chop into soft, gummable morsels she can manage with her limited dexterity. Needless to say, I was quite excited when, at the nine month mark, beets became an option. Soft. Easy to dice. An uber vegetable on the nutrition front. And a favorite of this household already. And, needless to say, the hours of fun I'd have scrubbing the beet stains out of her clothing! (Almost as much fun as digging the remains of Esme's meals out of the crevices of her high chair!) Anyway, it's always good to have a tee shirt to mark the occasion.

So the beets have received a pretty positive reception. And the overall mess not as bad as anticipated. It is great to have another food in the mix.




And because it's never fun to eat alone, Esme often likes to have a friend or two over for dinner. Just the other day she suggested we include one of her cherished ducks. She had a hunch he'd be into the beets. And you know what?
She was right.

Mile High

We've returned from Denver, and I'm happy to report that it was a resounding success. Esme was quite the trooper, and best of all, she seemed to really enjoy herself. It wasn't the easiest trip to document photographically as I was either pushing her in a stroller, carrying her in a sling or attempting to get her to nap in our hotel room. But we did manage to get a few pictures. Here were are standing on the "mile-high" step of the capital building...




Mostly we enjoyed beautiful weather. As I said before, we spent the majority of the trip touring around-- either by stroller or sling --as it was a shame to waste all that sunshine indoors! Plus Denver is a city of green spaces, so we made a point to visit as many parks as we could.




Unfortunately the weather wasn't always on our side. Kristopher took Thursday off so that we could rent a car and drive into the mountains. Despite sunny, 80-degree weather the day before, our day in the Rockies was foiled by chilly temperatures and, incredibly, snow! Wisely we decided to stay local instead. So we took in some art museums. Esme quite liked the Denver Museum of Contemporary Art.

One of the best parts of the trip was being able to eat en famille all week long. Esme loves to eat out as much as we do. Here she is signaling to the waiter. Apparently there was a Cheerio in her wine. How did that get there?!



Anyway we had a great time and hope to return soon.