Tessa

Toddlers change so much so fast that I need to be better at recording Tessa's little goings on because she has many. (Way too many, in fact. . . if you see her listed on eBay, please don't think harshly of me, it just meant we had a very hard day.) This is a documentary post so don't feel obligated to read!

One day she woke up insistent upon having a 'party'. It just happened on a day that I was planning on making cinnamon rolls to celebrate the coming home of Tom and Cache from their very last back packing trip so I said "Okay". That was the wrong thing to say. That just turned her on. Soon she was dancing and singing "Cha, cha, cha, ooo, laa, laa, Gooooo Monkeys!" and wanting to blow out birthday candles. So we pulled out the candles and had them on cinnamon rolls.Traditionally, Tessie has been a great night sleeper because she is so worn out from running everywhere she goes and not taking longish naps. But lately she has been giving us fits at nights. We have tried lots of different things to help her sleep through the night (getting her warmer jammies, feeding her right before bed etc.) to take care of possible reasons for wake-ups. We haven't been super successful. Often at 3:00AM, we hear a little girl pushing her stroller down the hall off to play. She has climbed out of her crib, strippped down to her onesie, put her doll in her stroller and on her way before we hear a peep. Suggestions as to how to fix this issue are welcome.

She LOVES shoes. Our neighbors gave us some cute pink Converse high tops when she was born and the smallest size they could find was size 6 (ATM she is barely a size 4). One day she was rummaging through her closet and found them. Immediately she wanted her 'boots'. She also found a jacket, even though it was quite hot, insisted on wearing them both all day. She has to change her shoes multiple times a day and often wants to wear them over her jammies to bed. (I promise that she usually wears girl clothes, but Christine gave us two brand new sleepers she hadn't used with Luke and who cares what she wears to bed---we took a lot of slack from Cache about it "How come Tess always wears mens' pajamas?"!)

Tess loves when the kids come home from school. She always wants to 'do math'. So I have to give her a paper and pencil and she gets up to the table and says things like "nine" "thirteen" as she writes. Pretty cute.I think it is pretty typical of this age to start inserting independence for what they wear. Tess is no different. She loves her shoes, her skirts and her swimsuit. You can't see it, but in this picture she has a swim diaper on too, over her onesie. Of course, how is a swimsuit not complete without the swim diaper???? One day Tess heard us talking about going to the temple. Anytime she hears the word 'go' she squeals at the top of her lungs "I want come!" even if we are just discussing and not actually going at that time. Which was the case this day. And somehow she decided she had to go in the truck. So the rest of the night she was a broken record "Want temple, in truck. Want temple, in truck."

She loves, loves, loves people and learns names very quickly. She knows most of our neighbor's names and asks where they are nearly every day. After I've exhausted the "They're at school, they're at work" answers for everyone she can think of, she goes to cousins or others she knows. When we are at stores or out and about instead of asking 'what' everything is, like most kids, she asks 'who' everyone is. Sometimes she is so insistent about it that I just make up a name and she is happy with that.

She also loves to be on everything. The counter and the piano are the worst. I have moved stools, kept them on their sides etc. to try to keep her down from things. That worked for a while, until she learned how to stand the stools and chairs back up and push them to where she wants and climbs. There were a few days that I got thinking that she was getting better in that department but has started back up again at greater force than she was before. (which was why she almost was listed on eBay the other day)

Like most kids with older siblings, they want to go to school. She has a little back pack that she puts books in and wants to go to school. This is just one of her pictures of 'school'.
She loves books. Thankfully I have a lot from my teaching years (about 8 plastic bins). When I need a quiet moment, I can pull a new box and keep her occupied for 20 minutes or so. She is also getting really good at 'reading' her board books. Although she usually only says a few words for each book, you can tell that she has got the gist of the books and knows which book has which story.

Just a few more pictures: Made this skirt for her a couple of months ago and just never got it posted.Since she is on the small side, we are really looking forward to that 20 lb. mark so we can upgrade to a forward facing carseat. The other day we took her to the post office to weigh her (at the little do-it yourself machine) and I was discouraged that the first number was 18. But I didn't pay attention to the ounces until Tom pointed it out. It was 14. So she is close to 19 lbs. When I came home and charted it on her growth chart, I was greatly encouraged because she is on the upswing. Such great news!! (and we finally went up to size 3 diapers!)
Despite all the exhaustion she causes me, I really do love her! Tom's patriarchal blessing says he'll be blessed with energetic children and Tessa sure fits the bill, so often I curse him for the circles she makes me run, but she is SO much fun and I'm very blessed to be her momma.