Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

As expected, this Christmas was very exciting. Tessie gets it that Santa comes to our house to leave toys for her. She was very calm and excited to see him and sit with him at the mall. What she doesn't understand yet is that it is only one night. She has been asking to open presents every AM since, is still requesting that I read her Christmas books, wants to watch Rudolph, and didn't want me to put away the Manger because she still wants to play with it. We compromised and decided to keep everything up until New Year's Day. We visited with friends for Christmas and New Year's parties and had some of our friends over for a cookie decorating party. We have been trying to go to the library's storytime and, with the holiday rush, we steered clear of our mall (which by the way is filmed in the new Kevin James movie "Paul Blart: Mall Cop"). Between shoppers and the snow, traffic was congested for a while around here. We spent a bit of time at the local YMCA. It has a mat room that is perfect for toddlers to just run their energy out. She is pretty good at somersaults now. Tessie was able to enjoy the snow a little. She couldn't make a snowman (Tessie:"Snow's not sticky enough"), so we made snow angels instead. We kept ourselves amused by doing Christmas crafts and other holiday traditions like cutting our own Christmas tree and decorating a gingerbread house. Tessie even helped put stamps on Christmas cards this year. She loves to help out with things like that. On Christmas Eve we attended church and both of the kids did spectacular, especially considering the size of the Christmas crowd. We baked gingerbread cookies with Auntie Kris and left some for Santa along with a glass of milk and carrots for the Reindeer. She also left her pacifier and some toys she doesn't use so Santa could bring them to children who need them. I was surprised at the amount of toys she was willing to part with. Tessie was happy to see that Santa left trains for her along with some other surprises like a tool belt. She was also happy to play with gifts for Caden from mommy and daddy- which were actually toys that we gave her 2 years ago, hid last Christmas, and rewrapped for Caden. Funny how that works. Tessie has been doing fantastic with potty training. She wears pull-ups only at night. She has even been dressing herself lately when she wears pull-on type clothes. Tessie says that she a a princess, so she insists on wearing dresses every day, preferably blue (her favorite color is aqua blue). She outright refuses to wear jeans despite the color. Whose child is this?! She is going to be transitioned from the toddler room to pre-school this month- such a smart girl. The Star Spangled Banner is still part of her bedtime repertoire. I actually taped her singing it just after I posted my last blog. I hope you enjoy it.

She is still a good big sister to Caden. Tessie can make him smile and giggle like nobody else. He loves her. Caden is a moose. At 4 1/2 months old, he is already 16 lbs! He weighed bigger at his 4 month Dr. visit than Tessie did at her 6 month check up. He has learned to roll over- and alternately learned to NOT roll over because he doesn't like to be on his tummy. He is perfectly content to swing in his swing- as long as he doesn't reach the weight limit on it first! He sleeps better there than in his own crib. I'm still holding out hope that he will sleep 6 hours at night at some point. He likes to be held up standing so he can look around. He is deliberately reaching for things and pulling them closer to him. We have even put him into Tessie's Baby Einstein (like a walker that doesn't move) and he loves that. It gets very messy because he loves to blow bubbly raspberries, too. The kids are growing so fast.
I hope you all are enjoying the updates. Best wishes for a happy and healthy 2009!

By the way- I just want to give a plug to a couple of businesses really quick.
1) Keepsafeco.com is a company some good friends of our are starting up. They sell all sorts of gear for families. They are nice, honest people offering some unique items to buy online.
2) Signingtime.com is the company that makes the DVDs that Tessie adores so much. I give them all the credit in the world for creating fun, educational videos that have allowed Tessie (and us) to learn ASL and we hope Caden will learn too. I have used them with my Special Education Students at school, too. Request them at your local library or buy some for yourself.
Both companies are trying to keep afloat in this tough economy so keep them in mind for your own family or for gifts.

18 months

Tessie is 18 months old! I can’t believe that she has been around for a year and a half. She has grown up so much. As we had expected, she is really understanding and using language now. She now has the following in her (speaking) vocabulary: hi, buh-bye, hat, mumma, dudda, apple, more-more, thank-you (duckoo), ball, shoes, socks, juice, upstairs (uppee), dog, sit (ish), train (choo-choo), boat, banana, bubble, kitty, trash (chosh). She has also added more signs: cat, helicopter, boat, cracker, and cookie, which she uses relentlessly until someone (i.e. daddy or grampa) gives in.

She is still running everywhere and climbing very well. She has become more independent in her play. She doesn’t need an adult on the floor with her all the time. She is happy enough to tinker around with her toys on her own and bring a book over to us once in a while. Her favorite book of the moment is “A” You’re Adorable (based on the song). She loves to sing and dance. She would give Jonathan Papelbon (Go Red Sox) a run for his money. You have to see the video. Hopefully I can figure that out for the next update

The biggest thing for me right now is how on-the-ball she is. She understands so much now. She follows directions (when she wants to) and even learned to be shy and/or embarrassed. It’s so cute. Her head drops down and she looks at her hands in her lap. I’m hoping we can bring her back out of her shell by touring her around again to visit lots of people. She wants to do everything on her own. She gets frustrated when I try to help her with things (like eating, wiping her nose and face, washing her hands, going up/down stairs, etc.) because she wants to do it by herself.

Tessie had lots of fun this fall. We picked out our pumpkins at Parlee Farms and had fun feeding goats. We had (toddler) friends over for a mini Halloween Party. My friend Liz took a bunch of fabulous photos of Tessie in her costume. We went to Brooklyn, New York this past weekend. She was a really flexible about adjusting to city life and being strapped down for the 4.5 hour ride each way. We visited with college roomie Karin (and cat Joey, whom was terrorized by Tessie all weekend). Tessie got her first ride on a train to Coney Island on Sunday. Tessie loved the New York Aquarium. She was a little freaked out by the giant walrus, but loved the fish, water fountains, and the general freedom of running around. We topped the day off by walking the boardwalk (seeing the Coney Island Polar Bear Club take a dip in the ocean) and getting none other than a famous Nathan’s Hot Dog. Take a look at the pictures.

I have changed the way you look at photos now. Instead of attaching huge files, I am sending you to Kodak or Snapfish (you choose) so you can see a whole slideshow rather than just a few pictures. It won’t take up space in your email and you can even have the photos printed locally if you want (Nana Sally). Let me know if you have a preference of a site because it’s tough uploading to two different sites. So look for emails immediately following this one from Kodak and Snapfish.

15 months

July turned out to be a very busy month and August is looking equally eventful. Tessie had a successful week at home with daddy while mommy was at a workshop. He took her to the zoo (and didn’t take ANY pictures... I could kill him) and brought her to work a couple of times. She has had a lot of outside time playing in the mini-pool and just running around the back yard. Auntie Sally kept Tessie busy and into trouble visiting for a week. We also had some of the Dowgos family over for a visit on Sunday. Tessie enjoyed playing with everyone.
On Friday, Tessie had her 15 month appointment and some shots. She was very brave. She now measures 30.5 inches tall and has finally hit 20lbs. She is learning more signs. She has about 10 that she uses and understands like eat, more (thanks to cousin Jaime), hat (says “hat” too), dog, sleep, baby, siren (we hear lots of those), airplane, bird, sit, book, and she’s still learning more. She says “mumma” and “dadda” although she sometimes confuses them. She is teaching us how to baby-proof better because she is a climber. All benches/chairs must be pushed in because she uses them to climb onto the picnic/dining room tables. I’m wondering how much adrenaline a body can produce because I use my quota daily by keeping Tessie safe.
We have planned a long weekend trip to New York to visit the college friends and Tessie newest baby-friend Katarina! I’m sure we will have more pictures when we return.

14 months

Happy Independence Day!

Tessie is really becoming a little girl. She is learning so much so fast. It is incredible what she is able to understand and is even letting us know that she understands. I have been doing some sign language with her and she is starting to use the gestures. She does the sign for eat when she is hungry- and sometimes just when she sees something she wants to try to eat. She is 100% off baby food and baby’s milk. I can’t quite convince her that cow’s milk is the way to go. Any advice you might have to sway her otherwise would be helpful.
She loves books. We have one book that is just labeled photos. I think it’s her new favorite, second only to the Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Anyway, when she sees the picture for “feet” she puts her feet on the book, when she sees the picture for “nose” she touches her nose, and when she sees the picture for “ball” she searches the house and brings back a ball.
She loves to dance. We listen to music a lot during the day. She twirls and stomps her foot (very cute). Her favorite song is the itsy-bitsy spider. She points her fingers together when she wants to hear it and does some of the motions- I can’t get her to do the sun part.
She shows love by leaning in touch her head to yours. It’s awfully sweet. She does it to her little baby friends too. I think she is going to be just fine in daycare. She is still working on sharing toys when her friends come over. She is generally good about it as long as they don’t take her favorites.
We did a couple of day trips to the Cape to visit with cousins Rainy and Pat and see friends from the Lowell School. July will be a fairly calm month. Daddy will be with Tessie for a week while Mommy does some training for school…It will be good practice…for both!