On July 4th, America's Independence Day, Esther turned 19 months old.
We had a day filled with social activities, which is Esther's favorite kind of day. We were at the pool with some friends, then at a neighborhood picnic, then at an ice cream party and then went to a big gathering to watch fireworks. Esther liked watching the fireworks (except for a few minutes in the middle when she wanted to hold us tight) and liked saying "Boom, boom, boom!" I think she liked the pretty colors the best.
It was a great way to celebrate her 19 months!
We just got back from the beach!
We spent a few days in the Outer Banks with my brother's family, hoping that Esther would like the ocean. She decided that the pool was WAY better than the American beach, I think probably because 1) the ocean is LOUD and unpredictable and 2) the ground gives way beneath you when you stand on the shore!
Both of these things are quite different from the Swedish beaches, where there are no waves, no thundering sounds, and firm footing.
You can see in these photos Esther giving Mamma THE LOOK because she would rather be in the pool than on the beach. No smiles to be had.
Esther LOVES the pool. She loves it so much that she learned the word quickly so that she could say it while we were at the beach. She sounds French when she says it "zee pooool?!" which is really funny.
The thing is, whenever she is in the pool, her mouth always opens really wide, sometimes with the tongue out, sometimes not, which is cute BUT it means she gets a LOT of water in it. Oh well. After a few days she was starting to get the hang of it and could close her mouth even when jumping from the steps into our arms, and could sometimes even spit it out.
But here are some classic pictures of Esther in "zeee poool", mouth WIDE open.
As I mentioned above, Esther didn't like the American beach very much.
Here she is somewhat happy because her back is to the water and she doesn't have to see the big bad waves.
Instead, she is getting Pappa to sing "This Little Light of Mine" for the 5,025th time, which she does by sticking her finger up in the air and saying to him, "Lalalalala...lalala...lalala?!?!!" until he sings it for her. For some reason, she prefers the Swedish version.
Nai Nai bought Esther some sidewalk chalk so that they could be artistic together. Esther didn't quite get it, and ended up drawing all over her stomach instead. We figured maybe it was the Zulu in her!
This is what I look like now that I am 30, courtesy of Niklas (isn't he a great photographer?!):
I had a great birthday despite being sick. We tried to get Esther to sing Happy Birthday to me but she just wanted to sing "This Little Light of Mine". Oh well. Then this afternoon I took a walk by myself in the woods near a big lake and had some time to think and pray, and got a word to stand on. Then my brother and his family came over and we had a birthday dinner (lasagna!) and birthday cake (Hershey Bar Cake!) together. Then I watched a documentary from South Africa with my parents and now I am getting ready to go to bed. A great birthday!
