Imogen and Sebastian

"Shaun the Sheep. Bees. Scary."

This weekend we went to a dance workshop with two friends, Amy and Paul. We got adjourning hotel rooms with doors connecting them. Each morning Tess climbed into bed with Amy, propped herself up against the pillow next to her, and would say, "Shaun the Sheep bees scary. Yeah. They chase Shaun. Yeah."

Best Conversation Starter Ever.

When I'm speaking to friends and family on the phone, Tess will ask to say hi, and then once I put her on the phone, she starts with, "Shaun the Sheep bees scary."

When we are eating dinner, and Eric and I are talking, Tess likes to jump in with a "Shaun the Sheep bees scary," when there's a break in the conversation.

Today in music class, Tess's friend Elena came over to the door where Tess was pulling at the doorknob, because she wanted me to go get her a snack. Tess's whole face lit up when Elena got close, and they eyed each other, Elena put a tentative arm around her shoulder, and they ended up both leaning against the wall together in a shared gesture of friendship. There was a silent moment, and then Tess said, "Shaun the Sheep bees scary! Yeah."

Things She Said

This morning at 6:30, Eric brought Tess in to nurse. We were all lying in bed while Tess nursed.
"How did you sleep," Eric asked.
"I slept pretty well. Though the last hour I had crazy dreams!" I replied.
"I heard you get up at 4."
"Actually it was 4:30. She slept all the way until 4:30. How did you sleep?"
"I slept well, too." Eric said.
Then Tess stopped nursing, and said in her little voice, "I slept well too."

*****
When Tess and Eric took out the trash this morning, they saw the neighbor's dog. As they were coming in, I heard Eric say, "Yeah and he licked you and he licked me."
"Did you see the doggy?" I asked Tess.
"Yeah, and he licked me and he licked you," Tess informed me.

It's Annual Dance Flurry Time

Time to go dance and sing in cold Saratoga Springs, NY. We can't wait. Hopefully Tess will let Eric and I get a few dances in.

"Look Mama! I look pretty!"

Drawing

First, some cute pictures:

Then, an observation about Tess's drawing. For a while, Tess would draw like this:

She filled up the page, liked circles, drew with big movements.

But for the last week, whenever she gets pens, crayons, or anything, her drawings look like this now:

I wonder if she's trying to imitate letters and writing more. I'm not really sure what changed. She still tells me that she's drawing people or Shaun the Sheep or other objects. I find it interesting.

Quiet

At 6:15 this morning, after nursing, Tess got out of bed to go play. Eric and I lay there a while, reluctant to start the day. But after a while, we began to worry about the quiet.
"Could she be on the computer?"
"No, I put the keyboard and mouse out of reach."
"It's probably OK then."

We talked a little more. Then again we started to wonder why Tess was so quiet. We dragged ourselves out of bed and found her on the floor of the kitchen, enjoying the bar of chocolate that I apparently forgot to put away last night. Mouth full, fingers covered in melted chocolate, Tess enjoyed the start of her day.

Friends

This week we've entertained and visited a lot of friends in the neighborhood. A group of mothers have organized a winter playdate schedule for mornings and afternoons so that we all have a place to go while the playground is frozen over. It's been a life-saver during these cold months. We went to two afternoon dates last week, and we hosted one Friday morning. We also had some friends over for dinner tonight.

So Tess has gotten very used to having friends around, and this morning she wanted me to lift her up so she could look through our front door's peephole in order to check and see if two of her friends were coming. When I got her up from her afternoon nap and reminded her that another of her friends was coming shortly, she was so excited that she never asked to nurse.

She's also playing in more sophisticated ways with the other kids. There's more interaction, more shared jokes and games, less fighting over toys. It's fun to watch her start to make friends.

Returning Home

This weekend I was sick. Sick with a fever, aches and pains, coughing, ear ache, sick! Fortunately, Tess had two parties scheduled for the weekend, so Eric had some place to take her so that I could rest. I was sad to miss the parties, but last night, when Tess came home so full of excitement about her afternoon away, it was thrilling. Here's our conversation! (It's still amazing to me that she's communicating like this now!)

"Mama! Hi, Mama!"

"Hi, Tess. Did you have fun at your party?"

"Yeah!"

"Was there cake?"
"Yeah and food."
"Veggie bootie?" (Eric had told me that Tess shoveled fistfuls of veggie bootie into her mouth without stopping until she complained of a stomach ache.)
"Yeah. Ate till all gone." Tess said.
"Were your friends there?"
"Ellie!" (That was the birthday girl.)
"And who else?"
"And balloons!"
"Were there balloons?"
"Yeah! Dancing!"
"Did you dance?"
"Yeah and pay whiff im."
"What?"
"Pay whiff im."
Eric helped me out, "there was a six year old boy there who she loved. She got to play with him. She poked him and chased him and they made funny faces."

"Did you get to play with him?"
"Yeah! Mama! Funny faces. Ha!" and she froze her face into a silly
face with her mouth and eyes wide open, and then started to laugh.

Then she got serious and told me,  "And bain head tv."
"What?"
We repeated these sounds back and forth for a while, me trying to match the sounds to words, her
replying, "no," to my guesses and then saying what sounded like the same thing again.
"Dada bain head. And owie!"
Eric helped out, "yeah, I pulled her out of her stroller and there was a low TV and it hit her head. "
"Oh! You banged your head on the tv?"
"yeah! I try(cry)."
"No she didn't," Eric countered.

Christmas Pictures: Part 8

Goodbye to Uncle Jon:

Christmas Pictures: Part 7

Birthday Girl

Birthday Dinner:

with ice cream for dessert!

Christmas Pictures: Part 6

Toys

My Mom went through my old toys in the garage, went to garage sales, and borrowed things from friends to collect a small stash of toys for Tess to enjoy at her house. Tess's favorite toy? The basket my Mom used to store them all.

Christmas Pictures: Part 5

Christmas Morning Stomach Flu.

This is how I spent Christmas morning. Well, before I had to run for the bathroom.

Tess had a hard time with the combination of over-stimulating presents and the occasional absence of her mama. It made for a less-than-ideal day. But we all survived. Even my Grandma, who was unfortunate enough to catch the virus the next day.

Christmas Pictures: Part 4

Soup!

Tess got a set of pans from Nana and Baba Christmas morning.

 Once we got them open, she started doing some serious cooking. Uncle Jon helped for a while...

 and everyone had to taste the results.

 Everyone!

Christmas Pictures: Part 3

Sick! Tess was sick for the first 8 days of the trip with a bad case of stomach flu.

Christmas Pictures: Part 2

Going through the Bass Pro Shop Catalogue with Baba.

Christmas Pictures: Part 1

I'm long overdue for going through our Christmas photos. I think I'll just put up some posts as I can get to them in the next week. Here's my first of the series.

Lemon Juice:

Tess repeatedly went to my Mom's cupboard and pulled out the lemon juice and asked me for some.

So I got out a teaspoon.

Let her try some.

Sour!

"I like it! More."

Monkey

Tonight, when Tess was in her crib, she asked for some water and when I was giving it to her she said to me, "Mama, Monkey sad."
"Why is Monkey sad?" I asked, a little concerned.
"He wants to watch Barney," she told me. (We had been singing the Barney closing song to help Tess fall asleep.)
"Tell Monkey he can watch Barney tomorrow," I said. "He should go to sleep, and when he wakes up, then he can watch Barney." (I repeated the last part in case the concept of tomorrow wasn't so clear.)

So Tess took Monkey, laid him down, and pet him, gently telling him, "go sleep, Monkey. Watch Barney in morning."

Sick Day

I now have the ear infection. I went to a walk in clinic on Saturday with ear pain, and the doctor prescribed an antibiotic. Yesterday I started feeling achy, tired, and generally sick. My ear was hurting more as well, so I went to see another in the neighborhood to follow up. He gave me ear drops, told me to stop the oral antibiotics, and said I probably have a virus.

Eric is home today with Tess, allowing me to rest, which is so, so nice.

Tess is extremely persistent when it comes to asking for something she wants. When I say "no," she just keeps on asking, and asking, and asking. She's also figured out that sometimes, when I say "no" to one thing she wants, I'm more lenient on another front. So when I say "no" to Shaun the Sheep, she's sure to quickly ask about Barney, Mary Poppins, candy, nursing, and then start at Shaun the Sheep again. (I've become less lenient since noticing she's on to my ways.)

I'm trying to cut back on the nursing a bit. This is very hard, but also kind of interesting to notice how Tess responds. She will swap nursing for candy in an instant. And most often when I refuse her nursing, she starts pestering me for candy, which makes me think that it's the sweet fix she's craving some of the time.

I give her a probiotic pill every day that is orange flavor, and she calls that "candy." Yesterday I had to wake her up and take her with me to the doctor quickly. I didn't have time to nurse her after nap as we always do, so I gave her the probiotic, and she was so thrilled about the "candy" that she didn't even think about nursing for another half hour or more.

If some food is sweet, I tell her it tastes like candy to get her to try it. We have a bunch of watermelon radishes from our winter CSA, and I told her they are "purple candy." She willingly eats them now, referring to them always as "purple candy."