Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Tiny Talk Tuesday

Being woken up to nurse a baby in the middle of the night gets kind of old after 17 months.

But Esmé's figured out the secret to making her Mommy smile anyway. How can you help but smile when instead of hearing crying, you hear the insistent words from the baby's mouth: "Baba eat, baba eat?"

---------------
This Mommy is not a very good swimmer. Ear infections meant childhood years of sitting on the sidelines while others swam. I have no problem getting on a whitewater raft with the possibility of landing in the water, but I have no desire to simply jump in the water for the joy of it.

Yet. We're working on it. So Daddy was encouraging me to dive into the pool, with me showing all the trepidation usually reserved for bungee jumping or sky diving (which I don't think would scare me in the least, by the way, provided there is no water at the bottom).

Along comes little miss Esmé, shouting "Dive! Dive! Dive!" while pointing into the pool in front of my feet. And she tried to get Groban into the act, too, shouting the same thing at him. Good thing he knows the rules about no dogs in the pool . . .

I never got the dive right. But Esmé has no inhibitions and is happy to step into the water, as long as she's holding Daddy's hand. If she can do it, so can I. Some day.

---------------
Never underestimate the reasoning powers of a toddler. Esmé was fascinated with my body cream container, so I showed her how you dab a little bit on your fingers and rub it into your feet. She happily started rubbing it into my feet. Ahhh!

Along comes Daddy, who sees the state of my feet and tells Esmé, "Don't touch Mommy's feet! They're dirty!" (No embarrassment here, folks. TIA - This is Africa!)

She immediately walks over to the bathtub, pulls down a wet washcloth, and begins to wipe my dirty feet! What a girl!

And if you think MY feet are dirty, folks, here's a photo of Esmé's feet today.
---------------

Those wonderful words, "more" and "mine," continue in full force, sadly. Here is Esmé insisting that the camera is "mine." Should I give it to her?

12 comments:

One Mom said...

What a challenging week! I think Esme has the right idea about feet...if you find them dirty, simply wash them off! (glad to see that my feet aren't the only dirty ones...I much prefer to go barefoot than wear shoes!)

Sorry Esme, the camera belongs to Mama...at least for a few more years!

Mary@notbefore7 said...

oh sweet little gal. They know what they want at this age, don't they? D had that same look over his sister's yo-yo today...

Good luck with the swimming. Glad you have this little gal to cheer you on!

Andrea said...

Gotta love those dirty feet! :)

Anonymous said...

My feet have looked like that many a day!

Munchkins and Music said...

Her eyes are sooo blue! They are beautiful!

Anonymous said...

I love the feet. Dirt and all!

Putting the FUN in DysFUNctional said...

Those are the cutest dirty feet I've ever seen!

Mamajil said...

Love the feet!!! Are those specks of nail polish on the toes....yeah! we have little feet that look like this from time to time!! :)

Pregnantly Plump said...

I love the last picture! I would have a very hard time saying no to that look.

Kori said...

We don't even live in Africa and our feet look like that all the time. We like to have a foot-night at our house at least once a month; the kids and I take turns washing and lotioning each other's feet. It's all supposed to be spritual and stuff, and it IS, but it is also just a LOT of fun. I love the look in that last photo!

dani said...

esme, you look like a tired, little baby girl... of course the camera is yours, tee-hee!!!
love,
dani

Unknown said...

Do not give her the camera! I let Ladybug hold the camera and now I have to use masking tape to hold the batteries in!

Do not give her the camera!