Silly Essie

Today we had Essie's 2 1/2 year check up. She is growing well...in the 90th percentile for her height, 97th for her weight. The nurses are always impressed with her vocal abilities. The doctor is always pleased with her progress as well and comments on how healthy she is.

Of course, as she grows, her little personality comes out more and more. I thought I'd share a few silly Essie stories from the recent days.....

* A few weeks ago, we went to my cousins wedding reception. She found the food table as soon as we arrived and had a couple of snacks. We walked outside and were surrounded by people when someone asked her a question. She began to reply with a mouth full of food and I reminded her to "Empty your mouth before you talk." She proceeded to spit her food out, answer the question, then put the food back in and continue chewing!

* We've been working on potty training and it's going very well since we started giving her 3 M&Ms for everytime she uses the potty! The other morning, Daddy had an early meeting so Essie had to go with me to Zumba. As we finished setting up, I had to go to the bathroom. While in there, I asked if she needed to potty. She looked at me and asked, "did you bring M&Ms?" I said no and she replied, "No, I don't have to potty." Little stinker!

* Mommy is always on Daddy to turn on the fan and use spray when he's finished in the bathroom (yeah, probably TMI, but I have to set up the story! :)) He's been doing very well with the fan, but most days forgets to spray. This morning, he gets Essie up and she runs into our bathroom to potty. She stops just shy of the toilet and screams "YUCK!" Then, she turns around and runs out, looks right at Nick and says, "It smells like you pooped!" Mommy nearly cried from laughter over that one!!!!

* The other day, while we were all getting dressed, she asked Daddy where his Big Girl Panties are!

I'm sure there are so many more stories...though some are not appropriate for public posting! :-)

No adoption updates to post.....hopefully soon!!!

Thankful

That is the theme tonight!

I feel so blessed to have had the wonderful experience we did with Essie's adoption. We've been 'waiting' since December for baby #2. I've said before we may have to wait up to 2 years for another one. In the meantime, we've received 6 or 7 emails from our agency regarding different situations. Each email is to see if we would like to be considered, and we've said yes to all of them. We firmly believe that we will end up with whatever child(ren) God intends for us.

A few weeks back, there was a situation with an 8-month old baby girl. We were one of only two families being considered for her. The birthparents decided against adoption. More recently, we were one of three families being considered for a brother/sister sibling group. Another family was chosen. About two weeks ago, we were a top choice for a 6 month old baby girl; birthmom decided against adoption. And, today, we met with a birth family for a baby due in November. They met with us and one other family. The other family was chosen because they don't currently have any children.

We have a small, faithful group of friends praying for us each time a situation comes up. We covet those prayers and really do feel peaceful. But, boy oh boy is this a roller coaster ride. Again, I'm so thankful for NOT experiencing this with Essie! I have a new appreciation for what so many other families go through waiting for their first child!

So, tonight, I'm sad, but still at peace. Until the time is right for addition(s) to our family, we get to enjoy giving all of our attention to the most beautiful two year old ever!!

Essie's 2nd birthday

Essie associates birthday's with cake! Every time we talked about her birthday coming up, she would ask to eat some cake. So, Mommy was very proud of her for patiently waiting until her party to actually eat the cake!! One of the girls daddy works with made and decorated the cake for us. She did a GREAT job! After we sang to Essie, I let her take a lick of icing before we cut it. She loved the icing, but wasn't so happy with me when I took it away so it could be served!!




She loved opening presnts this year....though she wasn't too fond of the clothes :) She'd just look at them, toss them aside and move to the next gift..haha!

Uh-oh Mama!

Essie came running into the kitchen the other day yelling, "Mama, I made a mess. Go clean it!" I followed her into the family room to see what the mess was all about....She found daddy's foot powder, pulled the lid off and spilled the entire container on the floor.....

Road Trip!

The day after Christmas, we headed East for a couple of days in PA. Essie did a great job on the ride there. Coming home was another story.....she woke at 1:30 AM our second night there throwing up. After cleaning things up and getting settled back in bed 3 times, we dedided to pack up and leave - at 3:00AM!!! Since mommy doesn't do well with that kind of sick, I drove and Nick tended to Essie! Did I mention we hit a white out while driving along the highest point on Route 80???

It took Essie a couple of days to feel better, but we think it was a reaction to milk. She is intolerant, but can normally have some dairy products and be okay.

We are so thankful we made the trip, though, as our beloved Aunt Essie passed away a few weeks later. We are sad that our little Essie will not get to personally know the wonderful woman after whom we chose to name her, but thankful we were able to see her one last time....

Essie and Daddy with Uncle Warren and Aunt Essie

Essie's (2nd) cousins, Caleb and Noah

Playing with Uncle Warren

Ess with her headphones watching one of her MANY movies as we rode along....

Essie and Daddy with Uncle Frank and Aunt Ev

Essie with her (2nd) cousins Angela and Kaitlin

Christmas....a little late

So begins my quest to catch up on events from the last 2 1/2 months! Essie had a blast with Christmas this year! Of course, this is also the age where she gets attached to one present and couldn't care less about the others!!!

The first pictures are actually from Nana's 60th birthday party a couple weeks before Christmas. We were thankful Santa came to the party, because that meant we didn't have to stand in line at the mall and pay for a picture...haha!! :-)



Santa gave Essie a candy cane so, of course, she loved him right away!