First Stomach Flu

We've been watching a lot of TV these last two days, because Tess has been sick with her first stomach flu. I am so not enjoying all the extra laundry and furniture cleaning. I keep hoping that she's past the worst of it, but then she nurses and throws it all up. She threw up tonight as I put her to bed, so clearly we're in for another day inside tomorrow. She doesn't have high fevers, so it's not serious, just messy and uncomfortable.

Play

Tess really loves drawing and painting right now. That still means that getting set up and cleaning up are about as much fun as the actual activity, but she's also starting to spend a lot more time engaged in "drawing." She holds the crayons from the end and starts and the bottom of the page and makes vertical lines all over the page. She also tries to trace her hand, which involves making lines that start from her fingers and then go up. It's not much, but it is interesting to note that she went from just brushing the crayons over the paper to suddenly making very clear marks all in the last couple of weeks.

She also loves to play with blocks now--making towers, pretending they are food, or stacking her little people up as she did here.

She's very social in her play.  In the picture below, you can see that she's surrounded herself with Elmo, a little porcelain figurine, and a sticker of a dog. She specifically wanted all of these things arranged around her to watch Shaun the Sheep with her. This is typical. She gathers little "friends" around her all day long, and LOVES when she gets to meet up with real friends.

Thanksgiving Photos

I know Thanksgiving feels like a million years ago, but I thought I should post a few of our pictures. We never seem to get good pictures of Thanksgiving. We're too busy, the lighting is really hard, and so year after year it's the same. But here's our proof that in November 2010, we transformed our living room into dining space for 18 + baby Ida. The whole extended Grossman family, Tim and Sven Beyer, and the Lessers were all able to join us. It was a record turn out, and a huge success.

Baby Ida was very patient with all of our doting affection.

The tables:

More First Sentences

On Thursday Tess spent the morning with a babysitter that she hadn't seen in two weeks. When I picked her up, the sitter remarked, "She's speaking so much more than even two weeks ago! There are whole sentences. We're having conversations now."

I agree. Something has changed recently. Here's a few of the things I'm hearing right now.

"I want this!"

"I want a doggy."

"Dada ss seeping."

"Mama's rice, hot. Dada's rice, hot."

"Dada dinner done. Na dinner, done. Shaun the sheep!" (I had told her she could watch an episode with Lenny (Na) after dinner. Initially she finished her dinner and then told me it was time for Shaun, so I told her she had to wait until Dada and Na were finished, which she did with pretty good patience.)

"Mama read it."

"Mama sit. I daw." (draw)

"Alright!"

What Have We Been Doing?

I feel very delinquent in my blogging. This is because we haven't been sleeping much for the last couple of weeks.

As soon as Eric recovered from his jet lag, we began night weaning. While in the midst of night weaning, we hosted Thanksgiving dinner for 18 people in our apartment. After putting our house back together, we said good-bye to our visiting cousins, and then Eric began a very hectic week of work. The night weaning was just starting to get better, and then Tess got a cold.

So, we're tired. On that note, I'm going to bed. If I hurry, I might be lucky enough to get a good 6 or 7 hour stretch in. Good night.

Things I'm hearing these days

• "Thas so funny" or "funny" - Tess says this a lot. Sometimes she will sit by herself, laughing at her own jokes, saying, "funny, funny." Other times, she runs away and it's quiet for a long time. When I go looking for her, she squeals and laughs as I come into the room and says, "I hide. Thas so funny." (I so wish I could convey the inflection that she uses to say it. It really is funny.) Today I found Tess hidden in a corner of my room holding my hand cream. She knew I would take it away from her, so when I showed up she gave me a guilty look and said, "funny!"

• "One and all done." That's what I tell her when she's begging for more Youtube or Shaun the Sheep videos. I tell her that we can watch ONE more and then all done. And she nods her head enthusiastically and says "one. One and all done!"

• She surprises me these days with the words she knows. We were playing with play dough today, rolling it into thin logs, and she said, "beans," which I totally didn't expect.

• "Away" She likes to put things away, and tells me, "away" when she wants help putting things away. There's also a page in the Corduroy book that ends with the word, "away." The Mom and girl walk away from Corduroy. Yesterday Tess was reading the book to herself, and she brought it to me to show me the page and said with a very serious face, "Mama, away. Away!"

• "Tess watch" as she pushes a chair or stool over to better see what I'm doing. When we paint or draw or do anything kind of special, she will often pause before we begin and then run to find Monkey, park him in a chair and say, "Aa-aa-ee watch."

• "Eet" She knows the word eat, and uses it appropriately, but when she's playing in her room she'll often yell out, "Mama eet!" She taps the floor next to her to let me know that she wants me to come sit with her while she plays.  

• "Oh-Tay" (OK) I have started to notice that I say, "OK" a lot. I'll say it as I'm making a mental list of everything we need to take with us when we leave the house. I say it when we're going to change activities. I just say it. And now, Tess says it too. 

• "Tum" (Come) She grabs my hand and guides me into her play space, pushing my legs at times to position me just so.