15 Months

Just in case you were keeping track, Esmé can now say the following words: Ball, a dog, cracker, banana, mama, dada

Her most prominent features are her her beautiful blue eyes, her non-tameable hair, her protruding tummy, and a random bunch of teeth.

She responds eagerly when asked to show you her belly button by lifting up her shirt and pointing to the spot. She will hopefully grow out of this by puberty.

You can ask her almost anything in an excited tone of voice and she'll reply with an enthusiastic, "YEEAAAHHH!!"

She expresses her excitement and wonder with an exaggerated "WHOOOAAA," her eyes go wide and her little mouth turns into an oval.

Recent interests include: eating ice, catching balls, plugging her ears, watching any of the neighbor's many feral cats, overturning boxes and climbing on them, standing up in the shopping cart, standing up in the high chair, playing with mommy's makeup, and emptying the toilet paper rolls.

Words to describe Esmé: adventurous, independent-minded, happy, enthusiastic, alert, social (but still very attached to mommy...)

Getting Ready for Church

 

Talking

Talking from Annie Phillips on Vimeo.

Hollywood Bowl

My favorite place in the world. It's a warm summer night, we picnic in the park under palm trees and the setting sun. We hear people enjoying life and smell the faint whiff of warm wine. Inside the Bowl, we sit on the wood benches under the stars and listen to the music that reminds us why we love the movies. John Williams is brilliant as ever, and we enjoy one of the best nights of the year.

 

Zoo Day

The next stop on our trip was Star Wars day at the LA Zoo. We were excited to show Esmé all the thrilling beasts at the zoo and get to enjoy a festival of Star Wars regalia at the same time. It was a winning idea! However, we failed to take a few things into account when planning this little outing:

1. Traffic in LA is inevitable. YES, even on a Saturday morning. Driving from Anaheim to Griffith Park didn't seem like such a big deal until we realized we'd be moving at ten miles per hour the whole way...

2. Believe it or not, we were able to find a place in California that was actually hotter than Houston. We got rolled by a heat wave. The scorching black asphalt and perpetual incline of the zoo did not ease the heat.

3. We don't like sweltering heat and neither do most thrilling beasts. We moved from place to place searching for animals. Most of them were curled up and hiding from the heat and the people. It was difficult to explain to Esmé that the unmoving blob that looked like a rock was not actually a rock, it was a hippo. She didn't really get it.

4. Star Wars Day at the LA Zoo consists of about six guys dressed up in storm trooper gear walking around.

At the entrance. It was really hot.

Showing Esmé a meerkat.

Flamingos

The giraffe was pretty perky and easy to see. We liked him. 

We were so lucky to have Grandma Tutu with us at the zoo. She pushed the stroller, entertained the baby, and maintained a great attitude, which is more than I can say for myself. Once we made it to the elephant sanctuary only to see no elephant, I was done with the zoo. Esmé had dumped water all over herself to combat the heat, and she just seemed happy to be out and about. Roo was determined to make the best of the day and pushed us to continue. But by noon, we were all ready to be done. I did not envy the hordes of little families and sweaty kids who were just entering for the day. No offense, LA Zoo, but we gave you our best effort. You could have at least had ewoks...

The Happiest Place on Earth

Just to see if we could out-do the beach in sheer awesomeness, we took Esmé to Disneyland. She seemed initially unimpressed by the magic of the place. However, after a few rides, she warmed up. I see in her a future Disney enthusiast...just not so much in the picture below.



She was a bit overwhelmed by It's a Small World, but really, who isn't? That's a lot of little singing dolls for even the grownest of men, much less an innocent little baby!

In addition to Small World, we made it through Pinocchio, The Haunted Mansion (which broke down mid-ride while Esmé had a poopy diaper--this was the true horror of the ride), Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (Esmé handled the chaos of getting hit by a train and going to Hell remarkably well), and Pirates of the Caribbean, which was her favorite ride. She liked the drop, the cool breezes, and the skeletons. She said "OOH" a lot on that ride. By the end of the day and after a nice lunch, we were happy as could be but very tired. So we all went back to the hotel for a nap.

Here is Esmé at our very lovely hotel.
And here is Esmé striking a sassy pose.

After baby was down for the night, Roo and I went back to D-land where I dominated on Autopia. We love Disneyland!! And we love the grandparents who babysit for us even more!