9 months

It’s Groundhog Day! Hopefully Px Phil was right about spring arriving early. As mild as the winter has been, we can’t wait for warmer weather to be here. Despite the weather, we have still been getting out a lot and making new friends wherever we go. Tessie loves swim class and we still go to the library weekly. She is born to be a diva. While the librarian reads the story she crawls to the middle of the circle of babies, stands directly in front of the librarian, claps her hands, and makes little happy noises. She loves to be the center of attention.
Speaking of standing, she is getting very good at it, standing for about 30 seconds and taking some steps! I have seen her take as many as 7 steps. Stephen has seen her walk about 12 steps when I went upstairs for about 10 minutes. Isn’t that always the way? Most of the time it’s about 2-3 steps before she drops to the floor.
We have plans to travel to New York again this month, so maybe my friend Kristen will take some more beautiful pictures…hopefully Tessie will cooperate.

7 months

November was a busy month of visitors and visiting. We were lucky with the weather being so nice that we were able to travel to the Albany area to visit with Tessie’s newest cousin Tristan and her pal (and cousin) Sara Rose. She also got to meet some of the other cousins when they visited to enjoy a Lithuanian meal. She’ll learn how to cook klaitchkes when she gets older…
She is trying new foods. We have been feeding her rice cereal still and gradually starting other new solids. She didn’t enjoy the sweet potatoes at first, but she’s learning about new flavors. We will be trying peas on her next. We’ll see how she does with that. I think we fear her diaper more than her reaction to new foods. She is growing so fast. Almost 16 lbs and 25 ½ inches long.
Now that she knows how to pull herself up to standing, that’s all she wants to do. Stephen says he can tell where Tessie has been from her “snail tracks” (drool that she leaves behind) as she moves along the furniture. Still no teeth yet. I think before the end of the year that she will have one. We have gated the stairs and have other temporary set-ups to keep Tessie safe. Once she sees something she likes (usually something that’s off-limits), she can crawl pretty fast.
Tessie is learning to imitate small things we do, so we really have to watch ourselves now. She makes raspberries and a lip smacking sound. We still don’t know if she is trying to tell us something when she does it. She tries to clap her hands only she hits the back of her hand instead of her palm. She will sometimes hit your palm if you hold it out to her too. She raises her hand to wave but not all the time. She loves it when people wave to her though.
Tessie’s first Thanksgiving was a success, traveling to Grampa’s in Walpole and to Auntie Cathy’s in Wilmington. She had fun seeing everyone and playing with her cousin Molly. We look forward to Tessie’s First Christmas.
We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Safe New Year.