Almost 20 months

Happy New Year! I hope that 2007 treated everyone well.
First off, I know that I am late with this update. I wanted to include photos from Christmas so I thought I would just put it off by a couple of weeks. November and December have been very busy. Tessie is learning more and more words, so I won’t be reporting on that anymore because I can’t keep up with her growing signing and speaking dictionary. She has gotten I lot more signs since we found these “Signing Time” videos that we rent from the local library.
She has developed some serious interests lately, too. One in a furry, red, Sesame Street Character…I think Elmo is growing on us, too. She has also become very passionate about her art. She loves coloring with crayons (and watching mommy and daddy doodle a bit) and painting which is fun on special occasions. She loves to wash her hands in the sink all by herself. I do standby to control soap and faucets.
She also has become a more “independent thinker” in the respect that we think something needs to happen (eat/sleep/clean-up), and she thinks something else. I guess that’s expected at this age. She has also been showing more interest in the potty. She is able to say and sign it, then pull down her pants and sit on the potty. Unfortunately, this usually happens when she is already finished and she is still wearing her diaper. It’s a good start though. Tessie has also learned jumping both feet at the same time, so she now has added that to her repertoire of ways to get around the house. She especially enjoys jumping off of things like her (kid’s) armchair and potty. Her new favorite song/dance is the hokey pokey and it’s very cute to watch her twirl around with her little pointer fingers in the air. She has also learned how to walk around on her tippy-toes like a little ballerina…also very cute to watch. It’s like she knows that she is entertaining us…Such a ham.
Since I have been sending these emails for a while I thought that, like many people in the world, I should just start a blog. I confess that this is a copycat idea from friends who have done the same for their children, namely Viola and (the newest) lovely Sophia. I will continue to email the Tessie Fan Club to let you know when I have updated the blog. I have posted the previous updates, so it’s pretty neat to take a step back and look at how Tessie has changed. With practice I hope to be able to learn how to add more photos and videos.
You’ll also get to see more photos here, too, like out-takes from our Christmas Card photo shoot. Thanks to Grampa, and the new camera he gave me for Christmas you will be overwhelmed with even more pictures. Hope you enjoyed the blog update. Let me know what you think.