27 Months

We are officially on vacation. A month ago, I finished teaching (for a year, anyway) and Tessie had her last full week of daycare. She will still keep going one day a week to stay social and not be stuck with me (and the new baby) all the time. I can't believe it's only about 2 weeks until Tessie is going to be a big sister. She is going to be so good at it. She loves it when her little friends come over with their baby siblings. She loves to kiss the babies and tickle their feet. Let's hope she is willing to do the same with ours. She has already learned to love being a little helper by carrying groceries into the house, putting things away, getting the telephone (and usually bringing it to me) when it rings.
We have cut back on traveling far lately. We did make one last trip to Long Island to visit with my college pals. Tessie visited my school for a day, too. The students I work with wanted to designate Tessie as the class mascot. They love it when she visits. We visited with family down the Cape for a day. We went to New Hampshire for a five days with Grampa. Tessie really enjoyed the beach by the lake this year, although the weather didn't cooperate much. She loved jumping off the dock and swimming with her "Super-Suit" (aka coverall bathing suit with floatation devices around her chest giving the appearance of heroic superpowers). She has been able to go on a boat during day trips to Maine with friends and on Boston Harbor with family (Thanks, Steve and Jeanne). Now she asks to go on a boat every day. She truly enjoys being on the water.
Tessie is very chatty and active. She talks in complete sentences. She connects people to things going on around her. For example: "Sink dripping. Grampa come fix it.", "Telephone ringing. Call Nana Sally.", "Daddy drive in truck. Go to work/shopping/Nana's house." Most of the time she is able to tell us with her words exactly what she is thinking. Her new word of choice is "scary". Anything that is unusual right now, is scary. She sings songs a lot. She loves music and dancing.
She loves it when friends and family come over to visit. She has a good friend from daycare named Merideth that she adores and they actually play very well together- especially for a couple of 2-year olds. We still get together with friends from the Library, but not as often. That will change now that we will be home and looking for fun and exciting things to do.

We had another ultrasound for the new baby. He/She is growing big just as his/her big sister was. They technician estimated at 33 weeks that the baby was already about 5lbs 4oz- a little above average. At my last appointment they estimate more than 8 lbs. The baby is active, wriggling around for the limited space in my belly. Less than 2 weeks (maybe) until we get to meet the little one...

Happy 2nd Birthday!

Tessie is such a love in our lives. I know I keep saying it, but she is just sooo much fun to be around. She is talking even more. I have estimated that she has well over 350 words in her vocabulary. She is stringing together sentences and talking more about experiences rather than just objects. I love sneezing and hearing her little voice say “Bless you, Mama”. Her memory for people is much better, now asking for people by name Uncle (Dave), Papa (Grampa), Nana, Aunt Terri, Uncle Cookie, Kris, etc. She even inquires about them when they are not around (object permanence for you psychologists out there). We have been talking to her about the baby that is coming to live with us. I found a couple of good books about it that we have been reading to her.
We had our ultrasound on March 10th. We did not find out the gender. We did find out that the baby’s due date seems pretty accurate according to the measurements. All in all, healthy is what we are looking for, and it’s what we’ve got so far. Who could ask for more than that?

Back to Tessie-
Sitting on the potty… with results, shall we say? She is using it at daycare and at home about 4 times a day. Now that the weather seems to have broken and we have gotten our final snow storm (famous last words) we are getting much more time outside. Tessie is enjoying experiences like going to the 2 playgrounds near us…driving us crazy because there is no hiding what she wants now that she talks (“Mama, go for walk park/playground” or “Simon Park”) but not understanding conditions that make it less fun (cold, rainy, dark out, 5 minutes from bedtime).
Tessie got a toddler bed (“Happy Birthday Bed” as she calls it) as an early birthday present from us. She transitioned to it no problem and still hasn’t figured out that she can just get out of bed to find us if she wants. She still lays there waiting for one of us to come get her. It’s only a matter of time, I’m sure.
She had a great birthday, although she fell asleep at her own party! She loves playing with all of her new toys, which makes it a little harder to leave home in the morning. She has made some friends at daycare and talks about them often. We have even gotten to know some of the parents, which is nice.
Hope everyone is enjoying the coming of Spring.

(The photos are out of order. Sorry, I don't know how to fix it.)

Almost 22 months

It is almost March and the countdown to Tessie’s 2nd Birthday has begun. She is learning more everyday. It seems like every phase she goes through in life I feel like it is my favorite so far, but right now, Tessie is so fun to be around. She is learning so much every day. It makes me realize why many people have told me to cherish the time with her. Just when I feel like I know her so well, she surprises me be doing and saying more. There is no freezing time to enjoy it, or turning the clock back to remember how it was. I’m just going with the flow rather than mourning the baby that has become more and more independent each day. As many of you know by now, Tessie will be a big sister in August, so the pressure to lay still in my arms on her is going to be lessened when we welcome a new baby to our home. She has been very good about being gentle with smaller babies – like when her friend Katarina came to visit for a weekend and at daycare when she visits the infant room.
So right now she is still interested in the Signing Time Videos and Elmo along with all of the Sesame Street characters. Her Uncle Donald gave her some dolls of the characters for her 1st birthday and she carries them around the house with her. She knows all their names and requests to sleep with Ernie and Bert every night. She even likes to line them all up, sitting them all down on
the couch and sings to them. I think she's pretending to be a teacher like she is at daycare or something! It's so cute... At daycare they have been teaching her how to “march” and crawl around like animals. They have really been doing a great job with her. She also got a little plastic kitchen and she loves to “make tea” for guests. It’s her way of breaking bread and opening up. She tends to be shy for the first 15 minutes when people show up, but forget it after that. You have a friend for life if you’ll just have tea, draw, and read with her.
Tessie is talking much more- even making broken sentences. She knows most of her colors, sings the Alphabet (with about half of the letters and her name is part of the song sometimes, too), and she can count to 10 (but she skips 5 most of the time). I am very glad to report that she has some of the most important words in her vocabulary (please, thank-you, sorry, bless you) and knows when to use them.
At daycare they have started to sit Tessie on the potty, so I have done the same at home. Not a lot of pressure, but she just sits there for about 15 minutes once or twice a day while I read books to her. She seems to like it. She is letting us know almost as soon as her diaper is wet or loaded -sorry to disgust those of you who haven’t been through the process, but it’s a proud moment. We hope that she’ll be trained by the time her baby brother/sister arrives.
We have been enjoying the snow and still try to get outside as much as possible. We still look forward to spring when we can enjoy the swing set more. Not that a little snow has stopped us. She actually in the past couple of weeks started using the big girl swing (while we have snow to cushion the fall if she lets go) and she loves it. We don’t push her very high, but she just giggles away and likes to throw her head back and swing. We have been getting her out this past week while I was on vacation too. We visited with family, had friends visit, and spent a day in Boston going to the New England Aquarium and for Dim Sum in Chinatown with good friends.
Hope you all are doing well, we will continue to update the blog as much as possible although I know it’s already becoming less frequent. We have an ultrasound on March 10th…We still haven’t decided whether to find out the gender of the new baby or not…Healthy is what we want the most.