Tessie 4, Caden 21 months

Can you believe that we just celebrated Tessie's FOURTH Birthday?!
It was a bit of a whirlwind weekend with parties. We have been busy with friends and playdates and school. The kids have visited the zoo (the highlight Tessie keeps recalling is the Gorilla ate his own poo...) and we have our garden started. We have some new additions to the plantings in our yard. In addition to last years crop of tomatoes and cucumbers we will now have lettuce, strawberries, and blueberries! Yum. Hooray for summer harvest!
Easter was fun. The weather was beautiful enough to hunt for eggs outside. Shortly after Easter, we enjoyed a visit from Nana Sally. Although the visit was short, we were all recharged by her coming and had fun.

Tessie
For Tessie's 4th Birthday, she hosted a Fancy Nancy Dressy Tessie Birthday Party at the YMCA. Last year we had way too many kids there, so this year we only invited 8 of her friends. SOOO much better. She had a couple of friends from her storytime crew (from 6mos old), former daycare, and current daycare. They all got along wonderfully. At the end of the day I had to reflect on what a wonderful group of friends Tessie has and how lucky I am to have befriended their mothers. I can only hope that she continues to choose to be around such kind, outgoing individuals for the rest of her life.
Although the Birthday has trumped all other excitement right now, Tessie has been busy with other things. She has been going to swimming classes and is getting much better at taking chances jumping from the starting blocks. We will turn her into a swimmer yet!
She cracks me up with her thoughts. I really wish I could tape record every conversation I have with her. She has such a fun perspective on life. We have a "bird restaurant" (bird feeder) as opposed to a bird house where birds would sleep. She wants to learn everything we know...like how to get to Fenway Park. She said she wants the map in her head, too.
Tessie is a wonderful big sister. She tries very hard to deal with an inflexible little brother as he slaps her. Most times just quietly complaining when Caden "slimes" (drools on) her or tackles her, but also quietly enjoying it when Caden is tortured by diaper changes and medicine dosages.

Caden
Just when I thought Tessie was a genius, Caden came into my life. He has grown so much more since the last blog. He is a little talker! He has over 200 words in his vocabulary. He is able to clearly articulate what he wants most of the time. Understanding speech development as a teacher I am impressed with conversational milestones he has met so young. He is speaking in two and three word phrases ("daddy truck"), initiating conversation ("wha-you-doin'?"), and turn-taking in conversation (C:Momma?...*waits for me to answer* ME: Yes, Caden? C: Umm...tree! ME: You see a tree, Caden? C: yeah.) If he does not get an answer, he gets mad. If I do not respond with the exact thing he saw like a tree, car, fire truck, etc. he gets mad because he thinks I wasn't listening so he will repeat the word over and over again until I tell him that I saw it, too. Such a funny kid.
He is into all sorts of manly things like trucks, balls, dirt, and destruction. He is also swimming when Tessie has class at the YMCA. He LOVES the water. He already floats horizontally on the water, uses alternating arm strokes, kicks, and blows bubbles. Just not at the same time, so for now I hold him (or my friend Pamela does) while he is in the pool. It will be a fun summer!