Esme Sinclair

Esme went back to the doctor last week and… they took the cast off. She is now free to move about the house, but so far she has only been crawling. We’re looking forward to a speedy recovery.

Esme broke her leg a couple weeks ago. According to witnesses, she was playing on a slide when she fell. Other unconfirmed theories include stage diving and kick boxing accidents.

Esme has had a bright pink cast for just over two weeks now. She goes back to the hospital on Friday and we’ll find out whether she’s getting a new cast or something else.

They don’t give crutches to toddlers, so Esme has been crawling around dragging the cast behind her. It’s not too graceful but she’s been pretty good about it.

Esme has developed a few new tricks in the last few days. Yesterday she laughed for the first time. I wish I could say she was laughing at the Simpsons or John Stewart, but at this age she finds her mother blowing raspberries in her face to be much more amusing. The second new thing that I just witnessed a minute ago was Esme throwing down both her arms in frustration. I guess that’s a positive development.

Esme is good at standing with support from her parents. We keep trying to teach her to sit up without help, which she hasn’t really done so far. Here’s a picture of an attempt yesterday.

Today was Esme’s 4 month birthday.  Now, when people ask how old she is, we can say “1/3″.

Looking back, it is amazing how much she has learned to do in just the past 2 months.  For example, at 2 months, she could hold her head up when she was on her tummy.  But now, at 4 months, she can hold herself up on her forearms and reach for things with her hands.

Also, at 2 months, she could wave her hands around in excitement when she was in her bouncy chair.  And now, at 4 months, she can grab onto her little woodland friends and even pull her owl off the bar and into her mouth!

We are just so excited to see what she will be doing at 6 months!

With daddy on vacation for a week, we headed off to Seattle, Washington and the Applegate Valley in Oregon to visit the Sinclair clan.

Grandad Sinclair organized a tour de Esme of Ashland and Applegate Oregon, with visits to Greatgrandad and Greatgrandma Sinclair’s house, Aunt Christie and Uncle Doug’s house, and Aunt Karen “the Elder” and Uncle Alan’s house.  We even got to spend a night at the Wooldridge lodge (thanks Aunt Karen!).  Thank you everyone for taking time to visit with us and to show us such hospitality!

Here’s Esme with her Grandad …

and with her Greatgrandad!

Are you counting the number of flights Esme has taken so far?  The correct answer is 8!  We are happy to say that she was wonderful on 7 of the flights, and heartily thank Grandad Sinclair (and the Horizon crew) for their patience on that other one.

Next up, Esme and her mom traveled to Detroit and Chicago for a couple of weeks to spend more time with her Grandpa and Grandma Schouten.

During our visit, Esme met her Greatgrandpa …

and her Greatgrandma …

as well as her uncle Brian …

her aunt Marianne (who gave her a proper introduction to Devo) …

and her “scary” greatuncle Harry …

So much for scary - she was giggling and laughing the whole time!

During our visit, Esme started babbling in long sentences of sounds, trying to add her two cents to the conversation.  She also began standing on her own two legs (with some assistance for balance).  What else?  She can grab onto and hold some of her toys in her little fist all on her own!

Although Esme and her mom were out of town on the day Hallmark designated as Father’s Day, Esme spent some quality time with her father a week earlier.  Aren’t they adorable?

I love you, Dada!

Esme has been keeping her parents busy.  So busy, in fact, that they have not been keeping up with her blog posts.  However, that is about to change.  We look forward to bringing you up to date on Esme’s developments, including our travels and other adventures.

First, back over Memorial Day weekend, we traveled to Dallas, Texas to celebrate the wedding of Andrew’s cousin Michael and Alex.  This was Esme’s first plane ride and her first trip out of the state.  It was a big success!

Esme was very excited to finally meet her Grandad Sinclair and her aunt Katie, as well as many other aunts, uncles and cousins.

We also took a day trip to Fort Worth, where Esme saw a longhorn cattle drive and saddled up to the bar for the first time.

Don’t worry - she ordered milk.

I’ve been recording some video clips of Esme during her first month. She’s starting to be a little more active, but at the time these were recorded, she was most active when waking up, so you’ll see her stretching and a bout of face vs. hand.

Esme (and her parents) were very lucky to have three weeks of help from Grandma Sinclair, Grandma Schouten and Grandpa Schouten.  Esme got lots of cuddle time with her grandparents while her mom got a few naps!

Starting today, Esme and her mom are on our own during the day while daddy is away at work - wish us luck!