Long Overdue - Esther's new Sister is Home!

Esther now has two younger sisters....Carese and Christy! Christy came home to be Esther's newest sister on May 18.  Esther was not exactly thrilled with the new addition - I think she thought she was just a visitor.  She basically ignored her existence for the first month or so.

Then a transformation began.  I started with Esther being jealous of any time that her favorite brother, Reuben, spent with Christy.  She's basically climb over Reuben and force him to notice her.  This was short lived however.  Just a couple of days after this, I guess she figured out the Christy was here to stay.

The first sign of this was one evening last month that Esther got down on the floor with Christy and they were just interacting.  Soon they were both giggling!  Within days Esther was regularly interacting with Christy, even spontaneously hugging her.  It is so terribly sweet!

Esther has had a great spring and summer.  She loves playing outside.  And she's amazing at pumping while swinging and goes so high!  For a long time she was great at wearing her glasses, but she keeps losing them now that she is so very, very busy!  She spends time in the pool several times everyday - if anyone is in the pool, she wants to be there!

Tomorrow I am taking Esther to Children's Hospital in Seattle for her dental work under general anesthesia.  She has two large cavities that we know of - one is from an upper tooth rubbing on the lower tooth, and the other was where two teeth were pushing so hard on each other that it was impossible to floss between and one tooth actually broke.  She might have more work, but since we couldn't get exrays (she does not like to allow anyone besides me look into her mouth) we won't know what all needs to be done until she's under, had a cleaning and exrays and they they will go to work.

Last week I took Esther in for her pre-surgery appointment and she was such a big girl!  She walked everywhere by herself, stayed by my side and waited patiently!  Biggest surprise of the day was when I took her for her blood draw. Usually this means she sits on my lap, I hold her arm down and she cries...sometimes a lot.  This time she climbed right up into the seat all by herself, I stood next to her with my hand lightly on her free arm (just in case) and she took the blood draw like a champ - no crying, no fighting...just a little flinch when the needle went in.  I stand in awe of this little girlie!

The very day that I first found Esther giggling with Christy, that evening I had all three girls playing around at bedtime in Esther's bed, and I got this amazing video!

Esther is Growing Up!

Here's a quick update on things Esther is learning to do!

At camp last summer she found a broken bad-mitten racket and was playing it like a guitar for all she was worth.  Recently we found an adorable little tune-able toddler guitar and she loves it!

She has begun to be dry some mornings, so we began to get her on the potty seat and she has had success most mornings!  She loves the routine, and she gets so excited when she has success!  She has even begun to tell me when she is "stinky"!  This is HUGE!

We are also seeing progress in her cognitive development through the Can Do therapy program I am doing with her.  She now knows the names of nearly all the photo cards that I use with her, and just this week she was able to see two cards, and then find their matches after I took the cards away!  She is also able to repeat back to me some of the sounds for letters!  She LOVES working with these cards and gets so excited when she gets it right.  I'm so glad we were able to begin this program with her.  She doesn't like some of the physical things, but she loves all the attention!

She is talking a lot, but we can't always understand what she is saying.  I love it when we finally understand a word that she's been saying for a while.  Once we have context, then we can totally understand what she is saying, but many times, without context, we just can't figure it out.  Once we know it, sometimes is seems silly that we didn't understand it!

Esther LOVES going to the beach.  We had a little scare earlier this summer when she decided to follow the big kids and got in deeper that she was prepared for and her floaty swimsuit kept her afloat, but she got her head under the water longer than she likes and I was afraid she was going to lose her love of the beach, but our day at the beach and couple weeks ago proved that she is still 100% a fish.  She was the first one in and the last one out!

I re-arranged the girls' bedroom this week.  Esther was SO excited about the change.  I had taken her top blanket to be washed, so it was missing for a couple of days. When I brought it back she acted like it was her long lost friend!

 Her excitement over everyday things is so captivating!  I'm sure her birthday this year (in just a couple of weeks now) will be a most over-the-top exciting day for her!

Esther has been having an adventurous summer!

She swam at a big lake

She got to go on a Ferry Boat Ride!

Esther and I - having a fun time together!

Esther spending time with her daddy!

What could be better?  Hanging with her daddy and
listening to  live rag time and bluegrass music! 

Esther spent a whole week camping too!

Getting her hair braided at camp.

Esther loving on her little sister, Carese

Getting pulled around in the wagon

And Making New Friends!

We've been slacking on her wearing her orthotic bracess and glasses, but I'm going to be hardcore about them in a day or two - she had outgrown her orthotics and bent the hinge on her glasses, but both of those are going to be available soon!