Ode to 18 months!

I don’t know if 18 months was as heralded with the other kids as it has been with Tess, but we have been counting down to the get-to-go-to-nursery milestone for quite some time. Trunky I tell you! But she is quite energetic and so we are glad to be able to pass that off to someone else for a few hours. Bless those nursery leaders!!

If you’ve ever read a book similar to If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, you know what life is like with Tess.
Tess: “Want cracker.”
Mom: Hands over a cracker.
Tess: “Want water.”
Mom: Gives some water.
Tess: “Want Play Dough.” (she pronounces it dee-doe)
Mom: Gets out play dough.
Tess: “Want ball.”
Mom: Makes a play dough ball.
Tess: “Want snake.”
Mom: Makes a snake.
Tess: “Want smell.” Puts it to her nose trying to trick mom that she is just smelling it when really her mouth is wide open ready for a bite.
Mom: “No, Tess, we don’t eat it.”
Tess: “Want cracker.”

And this is only in a 30 second time frame. . . . it goes on all day with books, drawing, going for walks, playing in the back yard etc. It is one want after another. I anticipate the day when she learns another verb. One of my favorite stories of Tess so far is from one night at supper. Tom had taken a bite of his food and I was still cutting hers up and he said, “Mmmm, this is good.” Tess said in a demanding voice, “I want good!”

So with that longish introduction, I’m going to add pictures and a bulleted list of Tessaisms for documentation (aka brag post :). You are welcome to click that little X at the top, on a link, or the back button if you don’t want to endure.

• Tess is very popular at church. Everyone loves her and gives her so much attention. Surely, this couldn’t have to do with the fact that she walks right up to people and stares at them until they talk to her; she goes up to some people and grabs their legs for hugs. And she is snatched away by kids of all ages—girls and boys. Often we have to go find her.
• She loves books and magazines. While she'll sit through a story every now and again, she'll sit with you for very long periods of time looking at and talking about the pictures.
• She knows all of her body parts and says all of them except leg, foot and fingers.
• Keeps hair dos in much better now that I put them right back in after she pulls them out . . . but, she will not leave anything ‘pretty’ in for long. She always pulls those out and hands them back to me saying “pretty”.
• She says each of the boys’ names. Cache: gash; Caleb: Bee-dub; Chandler: Nan-ner. She starts asking for Nan-ner everyday about 2:00. He comes home at 2:30.
• She’s a dare devil. Loves to go high in the swing, slide the slides and climb the ladders—all by herself, mind you.
• Some how she knows when a touchdown is being made on the Playstation football games. She throws both hands into the air and yells “nouch down!”
• She still wears a size 2 diaper and wears a lot of the same clothes she was wearing last year. The other day she needed new pajamas so I bought her some 9 month ones. . . plenty of room!
  
• She loves to be on the go. This is the understatement of the century. She asks all day “want bye”, "want go", “want out”, “want nan” (van), “want droller” (stroller), "want bike".

Okay, that is enough . . . I typed up a bunch more, but I’ll just bore the grandparents with those :).

I'll close with these pictures. . . they pretty much sum up our busy little Tessa! (Julianna, please don't look at these pictures, you'll think I'm a bad mom.)

ETA: We just got back from the 18 month check up. . .and thankfully we have a laid back doctor because she actually lost 1 oz. since her 15 month appointment. That brings her grand total weight to 16 lbs. 8 oz. The doctor said everything points to her being very healthy. . .it's just that if she get does sick it can become risky quickly. So hopefully she keeps up the good health! That's a long 3 1/2 lbs. 'till a forward facing car seat!