Just to Remember

• I've started a couple of knitting projects, and Tess calls it "needling." "Mommy, are you going to needle me a hat?" "Mama, are you needling?" "Mama, I am going to needle you a hat!"
• Tess likes to claim what is hers, which Eric and I use to our advantage at meal time. When she got down from the table without even tasting the green smoothie we had given her, I said, "oh good, Tess doesn't want her smoothie. I get it all." She instantly turned around and got a twinkle in her eye and a smirk on her face and said, "No! I want it." She drained her cup to the last drop, just to prevent me from getting any.

Puzzles

For the last year or more, I've been trying to interest Tess in puzzles. She never liked them. Sometimes she'd do one with me, but she never chose them.

Then, two days ago, she opened up her puzzle drawer and had to do every puzzle we own. She spent hours doing puzzles that day. She made me help her with a sixteen piece, cube puzzle that she got last Christmas. There are 6 possible puzzles on different sides of the cube. She can't do it herself, but she wants me to assist her as we do puzzle after puzzle.

Yesterday she had to do all the puzzles again. She wouldn't leave the house until she'd done them all. And when Eric got home, she was so excited to show off her puzzle skills that she wouldn't eat dinner. We couldn't convince her to wait. Instead she brought her puzzles to the table as Eric and I ate dinner, and put them together right there to show off her skills.

Crazy how the child's brain works. She just wakes up one day with abilities and interests that didn't exist the day before. She also grew a half inch this week. Literally in a day or two, because I've been measuring her recently, and there was no growth five days ago. Crazy.

Photo Time

It's time for some photos. I finally downloaded some from my phone. Many of these are on my instagram feed, but I think Robyn might be the only one seeing those.

First up: Christmas Activities.

We decorated gingerbread men with our preschool group last week. Then we did it again last night as a family. I bought little tubes of frosting, because Tess can do them herself, but they taste awful! Pity.

 While Eric went winter camping this weekend, Tess and I went into Rockefeller Center. Insane crowds, but an OK time was had nonetheless. Tess thought these huge Christmas lights were rocket ships.

 Napping after we got home:

 Then we had our building Christmas party. When I said the word party, Tess demanded that I let her wear her special "rose dress." She can't wait for her next opportunity to wear it. Me either.

Tess especially loves this little girl who is in Kindergarten. Tess has a few friends in the neighborhood who are five years old. They love to act like older sisters, and Tess loves following them around. I practically didn't see her for the whole night, because she shadowed the older girls.

 We got a Santa hat.

Tess likes to put these ponytail holders around her ankles. Yesterday she told me they were her "tights for running," and she put them on and then ran all around the apartment. She wouldn't let me take them off when we went outside, and by the time we got to music class, she had deep indentations in her ankles. :( She let me take them off at that point.

She still won't wear clothes in the house. It seriously limits my picture posting. :)

Friends

When we got to the end of Stellaluna tonight, Tess wanted me to read the last few lines over and over again. She especially loved the line, "because we're friends, and that's a fact." So I asked her who her friends were.
She said, "Nika and Seyla."
"And who else?"
After a little thought, "Ime and Sebastian."
"Do you have any other friends?"
"Andrew and Isaac."
"Anyone else?"
She thought and then shook her head, no.
"What about Marti?" I asked, pushing the category into a new age group.
"Yes! AND BENEDICK," she said her eyes lighting up with the memory that he was a friend.

I then asked about other people in the neighborhood, kids that she sees as part of our weekly preschool group. She said, "no," to all their names. She doesn't consider them friends.

She's very particular about who makes the cut. She's a loyal and intense friend, but she definitely takes her time in letting people into her heart.

Tess's Time Away

Today Tess went to her babysitter's house. It's the first time she's ever been there. (Her babysitter moved to a new apartment a month ago.) On the way, she and the babysitter got in a small accident. Though it wasn't a big deal, the babysitter had an ambulance come to ensure that she was OK. So she got to sit in an ambulance, get checked out by EMTs, watch the police come, not to mention being in the accident itself, and then go to the new apartment.

All this to say that I expected a bit of a story about the day when I got home. Instead, when I asked Tess about her day, she told me, "Sebastian took my cereal, and I cried!" That's it.

Glad we covered the important stuff.

Mimicry

We've been teaching Tess to ask for things politely rather than demanding something be done for her. So she is told repeatedly, "How about, 'Could you _____, please?'"

Today when I was reading with her before her nap, she gave me some of my own medicine. I had read Are You My Mother? to her twice. When she wanted me to read it a third time, I suggested that she read it to me. So she did, quite well for the most part. But after the first two pages, she stopped and told me that I needed to close my eyes. And then when I asked if she'd continue, she told me I had to say, "please! Please will you read it? You say that to me," she instructed. After every page, she'd demand that I ask her nicely before she'd continue. She has a very stern voice when issuing commands. I can't imagine where she learned that. ;)

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She also has been responding to Eric and I with, "of course!" We'll comment on something like how nice her drawing is, and she will say, "of course it is!" Or we'll thank her for something she did, and she'll say, "of course!"

I've been wondering about this for the last couple of days, but it was Eric who said tonight, "Tim always says that!" Tim, Eric's cousin, has been visiting us from Germany all last week. And he does say, "of course!" a lot. Just as Tess has been using it.

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The various visiting relatives made lots of impressions this past week. After Ida's visit, Tess was drawing, and she made a tiny little circle and then told me, "that is Ida. She is little." Then she drew a few very long lines next to it saying, "And this is TALL Campbell. And this is tall Natalia. And this is Dada. And this is Tess. I am BIG!" After drawing her lines, she went back to the top of each line and added dots saying, "and two eyes. And two eyes. And two eyes."

The day that Sven left, she drew this picture. She started with a line, saying, "this is Sven. He has a BIG neck." As you can see, he got his two eyes. Somewhere in the middle of the page is also a portrait of Claudie, Sven's girlfriend. Tess was smitten by beautiful Claudie. I think the only recognizable bit to everyone other than Tess, however, are the two eyes. Can you find them?

 This is Sven. Not sure if his neck is really so big, but he might appreciate that Tess noticed his upper-body build.

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And one last photo. This is an egg beater that Tess likes to play with out of my kitchen utensil drawer. She found him a hat.

Thanksgiving 2011

We had 12 around the table this year for one of our best dinners yet.
The menu:
-Turkey and gravy
-Mashed Potatoes
-Green beans with garlic and cashews
-Roasted butternut squash with a cider vinaigrette
-Roasted root vegetables
-Bread made by Eric
-Salad
-Apple and Pecan pie for dessert

Table decorated by Kirsten and Tim. Tess helped me make the turkey name cards.

The guest list included:
-Lenny
-Campbell, Natalia, and Ida
-Tim, Sven, and Claudia from Germany
-Phyllis and David

Tess turns on her camera smile.

The 18 pound turkey--juicy and delicious.

Dessert:

After dinner kisses:

We went to bed full, tired, and happy.

Talking

On Thanksgiving morning, my friend Jenny brought Tess over to her house to play with her girls, Nika and Seyla, while Eric and I cooked and prepped for the big meal. It was a lovely treat for all of us.

Jenny picked Tess up while walking her dog, and they walked the four short blocks back to Jenny's house. Tess chatted non-stop the whole walk, telling Jenny about visiting her grandparents at Christmas, who was coming to Thanksgiving, "her" dog Benedick, and so on. When they arrived at the apartment, Tess turned to Jenny, and while gesturing with her hand said, "Jenny, I have been talking this whole walk. That was a nice little talk we had."

I am still laughing every time I think of it.

Her story recall constantly amazes me.

Tess just picked up a book we haven't read in weeks. She opened it up and could recite several sentences word for word from the first few pages. Once she gets past those parts, she starts to make stuff up. :) She has the intonations just right, even when it's nonsense she's speaking.

Porridge

This morning I had some leftover millet that I heated up and sweetened for breakfast. I told Tess I was making porridge.
"Oh, like the three bears," she replied.
When we sat down to eat, I told her mine was too hot.
"Are you the BIG bear?" she asked, grinning.

Theater Show

Yesterday Tess, Lenny, and I went to see the show White. It was a delightful little piece of children's theater, lasting 40 minutes. Two characters, Cotton and Wrinkle live in a white world. The play opens with their morning routines as they wake up, wash, eat breakfast, and then begin their work--to care for several birdhouses. Whenever they come across a piece of color, they "put it in the bin," and go back satisfied to their white world.

The big event is when the eggs arrive. They fall from the sky and Wrinkle and Cotton catch them, give them little hats, kiss them, and put them in the houses. But then, a red egg falls! Wrinkle insists that Cotton put it in the bin, but Cotton doesn't want to. After they go to sleep, Cotton sneaks out and retrieves the egg and vows to care for it in secret.

It was at this point that Tess got upset. She didn't like the tension in the least. She had been sitting by herself, laughing along, and when the conflict arose, she turned to me and said, "I want to go home, Mommy." I took her into my lap, and we stayed, but so long as the tension built, she was really uncomfortable.

In the morning, bits of color have popped up everywhere. For a while Cotton and Wrinkle try to hide or ignore the color, but eventually they just confess to each other that they really like other colors, and they accept and celebrate them.

Once this resolution was reached, Tess visibly relaxed. The play ended with bits of color exploding from the bin, and Tess ran to collect the pieces of tissue paper.

This is the set after the play was finished:

 Tess wanted to go meet Wrinkle. She was very shy, but wanted to speak to him anyhow. The other actor, however, she had no interest in him. She couldn't even remember his name. When we talk about the show, she talks about Wrinkle and the other guy--even after I told her a couple of times that his name was Cotton. Funny to me.

 Collecting color and giving it to Len:

This is the second show I've taken Tess to see. The first one was in support of a friend who runs a company. Tess still talks about that Coyote show. And, as chance would have it, we ran into that very same friend and her daughter at White yesterday. They were there with another mutual friend from the storytelling world. It was so fun to run into them.

We all really enjoyed the show. I enjoyed watching Tess take it in and respond to the experience. And the theme of this play was really clever and enjoyable.

Late Afternoon Walk

On the days when I don't have to make dinner in the late afternoon, post-nap, Tess and I will sometimes go for a walk around the neighborhood. Yesterday, Tess wanted to take her stroller, and her three special friends: seal, doggy, and red teddy bear.

We set out for a trip around the block.

The "babies":

Doggy needed to be carried for a while.

Then Tess suggested an empenada snack. Red teddy bear thought that was a great idea.

On the way home, we passed a horse. Tess made sure everyone got a ride.

School Time for Seal and Red Teddy Bear

Halloween 2011

About three months ago, a friend suggested that Tess be Pablo, her favorite character from Backyardigans, for Halloween. That settled it in her mind. She was going to be Pablo. With some brainstorming help from friends in the neighborhood, I managed to pull a costume together.

This afternoon, before the HUGE neighborhood parade, we met up with some friends for a pre-parade party. At some point we tried to line the kids up for a photo shoot. Here's the comical results:

 

Then we set out for the parade, where we met up with Lenny.

And Nika, Seyla, Jenny, and the doggy. As Tess told me today, "Mama, Nika and Seyla are my bestest friends!"

Nika and Tess enjoyed jumping and screaming together, and holding hands. We walked about 12 blocks in one direction and then 12 blocks to get back home.

Once we got back to our building, by chance we met up with a crew of kids from the building that we know. They were all going to neighbors in the building who were participating in the trick-or-treating. So Tess ran around with that group, knocking on doors and collecting candy.

She got home and was a fussy mess, as we expected. She went to bed after a crying fit when we cut off the candy. And now we are all glad for the rest.

Conversations

As she's eating the lentil soup, "mmm! Thank you for dinner Mommy. Thank you for yummy dinner." (With a smile that melts me.)

Last night Eric was carrying her as we walked back to the car. She told him, "Dada, when you are a little girl, and I'm bigger, I will carry you."

"And I will make dough and you will get to eat it," she continued. "I will make dough and put it in the oven, and you will have to wait until it's ready. But then you can eat it!"

Little Scenes

The evening clean up reveals all kinds of funny little scenes like this around the apartment. Tess is busy with all kinds of imaginative play these days. For hours at a time, she will be lost in her stories and games. Tonight we peeked into her room to find her standing on her play kitchen--naked of course--singing to herself as she waved her arms in time. Other times she'll be sitting in the room with me, and when I look over I see her talking to some imagined person, making funny faces and gesturing all as part of the conversation.

Storm King

A couple of weeks ago, we drove up to Storm King to enjoy a beautiful (hot!) fall day. Storm King has grand, sweeping vistas and is filled with large art sculptures and installations. It's a really nice place to spend a day. We wished we had more time.

This was a fence made of mirrors.

Tess brought three tiny beads, as is common with her. One of the clear ones was lost in the grass. It made her very grumpy when we couldn't find it.

Do you have enough books?

Yep. Every last book off the bookshelf.