WOW!

Tess and I were in Florida last week to visit my family. Tess seriously made this face so many times every day it was crazy. She just went from one thrilling experience to the next.

Butts Up

Summer Peach

Book Lover

She likes to find small spaces and a solid surface against her back for her reading pleasure.

More on Language

Tess has trouble with consonants, especially when they end words. So a lot of her speak has to be understood by context. For example, one day we left her daycare by walking through the back where the pool is located. Tess wanted to go swimming and screamed, "DA POO! Da poo." the whole way home that day. Later in the afternoon, she informed me that she needed a new diaper by pointing and telling me, "da poo!"

She says boo for book. And now of course I can't think of other examples, but I want to try and record them as I overhear them.

During this week with my parents, my Mom taught Tess "please" and "thank you." It comes out "peesss" and "dah doo."

She also saw a rooster that my Mom has up way high for decoration and wanted it. I told her it was a rooster, which goes cock-a-doodle-doo. For the rest of the trip, she called it the "dah doo." So "dah doo" has become the new catch-all phrase for everything.

"What's that Tess?" (me pointing to anything she can't name.)
"dah doo," she tells me. (The intonation is different from her way of saying thank you, however, so at least that's clear.)

Fun with Uncle Jon

These two have the best laughs.

Falling Asleep at Grandma's House

I took these videos of Tess as she was settling in to her nap, because she was talking to her dog and her monkey, and I thought I'd try to capture it. I stopped the recordings so that the video length wouldn't be too long for Youtube, but hardly any time passed between videos.

Last Day

Last day of summer camp daycare. It's been five weeks now of three mornings a week. After a rough start, Tess ended up having a great time at daycare. Though I left her this morning and got the usual wailing, crocodile tears, and death grip around my neck. Her teacher tells me she does this for two minutes after I leave and then she's fine. Yet the drama never diminished. In fact, she just got smarter as the week went by and now refuses to be distracted by anything--no matter how tempting--when she knows I'm about to leave.

I've really enjoyed the time to do things without Tess in tow. I've also enjoyed seeing her come home with new experiences and new words. (She knew the word paint today, and she didn't learn that from me!)

I'm not sending her to daycare in the fall, but I will look into it when she turns two. The next couple of weeks will be shock for both of us.

Tess Vocabulary

Here's what Tess is saying at 19 months:

• Oaf = phone
• keys, shoes, and nurse are all pretty clear, but can also sound very similar to each other at times.
• Pee, tea, and bee are clear. She likes those words, because they are easy to pronounce.
• Up
• Juice (though this can sometimes mean water also)
• nanan for banana
• baba for grandpa, but then she also used it to say backpack this weekend. I notice that she'll cling to sounds that she knows like da-da or ba-ba and use them in various contexts for words that start with the "d" and "b" sounds.
• nigh-nigh for sleeping
• ba for ball (it's almost ball, but not quite)
• more (sounds like mah-r)
• eye
• arm
• oh, wow! (This one cracks me up. She must have heard me say this phrase.)
• mmannamm (she said this to mean her lamb)
• uh-oh

She does a lot of sound effects for words.

• for dog she says "woof"
• for car she says "beep, beep"
• for sneeze she says "aaa-choo"
• for cow, horse, duck, she makes their animal noise
• for train she says "choo-choo"
• whenever she hears a phone ring, she starts saying "hi! hi! hi!"

I feel like her understanding and communication level surpass her ability to articulate right now. So she has a very limited amount of sounds that she can reproduce, but she's communicating with the few sounds she has, gestures, and facial expressions pretty clearly. And her favorite method of communicating is still a high-pitched scream. It's very effective at getting people to look at her out-stretched hand.

Things That Go

Tess is deep in a "Things That Go" stage. Busses, trucks, bikes, scooters, cars, tractors, airplanes, etc. are all so fascinating to her, and these objects are the center of much of her play. On this theme, she wants to listen to the song, Wheels on the Bus ALL THE TIME. First thing in the morning, she points at the computer and makes the sign for THE song.

So here's a small taste of what we do many, many times each day. The version of the song I'm playing is one a friend sent me. It's a very jazzy rendition, and Eric and I prefer it to the kids versions, though we are both haunted by it day and night right now. When the video starts, Tess thinks I won't put the song on, because she doesn't recognize the musical intro. This is what happens when I play other music. She gets very upset and just wants her song.

Anyhow, enjoy. :)

Hugs

Tess loves to give and receive hugs and kisses. With very little encouragement, she hugs friends hello and good-bye, and she's almost always game to give a hug if I ask for one. Also, if she sees Eric and me hugging, she comes running at us with arms open wide. She latches onto one of our legs, and says, "up!" We pick her up and she drapes an arm around each of our necks for a three-person hug. The she kisses us each on the cheek.

Such a snuggle-bunny, this child!

Summer Nights

I think one of the main reasons I love summer despite the heat, the humidity--and did I mention the horrible heat and humidity?--is the extra hours of sunlight. We've been enjoying our summer nights a lot the last couple of weeks. After dinner we take Tess to the park and enjoy the breeze. Other nights we turn on music and chase Tess around or try to teach her to jump. We can sit in the living room without turning on the lights.

I feel such freedom to play in the summer. Whereas in the winter, I have the irrational feeling that I must go to bed when the sun sets, and so I feel anxious all evening. I need to learn how to relax with candlelight or something. But for now, I'm just so glad to have all these hours in the day.

Trains

Our friend Charlotte gave us some train tracks and Tess has just started to take an interest in them. She really liked the train table with fancy Thomas train pieces at the toy store this weekend.

(And the dress...I bought this because we went to a baby shower this weekend. However, Tess absolutely refused to wear the dress to the party. Then on Monday, she pulled the dress out of the suitcase and insisted on wearing it that day. Stinker.)

And here she is walking another little train that we inherited from someone.

Conversations

(Usually this happens when Tess is in her crib and having troubles falling asleep. However, it also happens when she's in her car seat on long trips.)

Tess: MAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMA (continues in loud volume until I respond with...)

Me: What?

Tess: (in soft little voice) up?

Me: No, Tess. No up.

Tess: MAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMA

and so it continues for a long, long time.

Photos from Eric's Iphone

Tess likes ribs
and swinging very high

and driving, driving, driving!
We were in Boston this weekend, where we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. We also visited Eric's cousin and his wife who are expecting a baby sometime in the next month. It was a great weekend.