Photos

Just thought I'd share some old photos that have been downloaded from the camera in the last month.

A couple from the Botanical Gardens three weeks ago. When it should have been spring, but was freezing!

Another from a month ago. This look was entirely natural, beginning with her desire to wear a scarf like mama, then a request for her computer book, and finally a demand for her beloved umbrella. My princess.

 Some rare time with my Iphone. (and a slightly more casual look. :))

Playing Train

She played this with Ime and Sebastian, and wanted to play it at home today.

Passover/Easter Weekend (without photos!)

First of all my sincere apologies. We forgot our camera this weekend. And really, in today's world of digital photography, Facebook, and blogging, that's kind of like allowing the weekend to not really happen at all. So rather than post my mediocre photos of Tess in adorable dresses, I will try to describe our very full weekend in words.

We left Saturday morning. We were driving to Connecticut, to Aunt Bette's house, bringing Arno and Dorit in the car. The Passover gathering didn't start until 5pm, but we wanted to drive during Tess's naptime, so we set out around 11:30. We picked up Arno and Dorit and the five of us drove up to New Haven in the rain. We then had about three hours to kill in a hotel in the middle of nowhere. (This is not an easy task with a two-year old.) But when that was over we all got dressed up and drove to Aunt Bette's house.

There were about twenty people in attendance this year. Bette, Lenny, and David are the Grossman siblings. Bette's son, his three kids, and wife were there. Len's family (us) were there. And David, Phyllis, their son and new daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law's parents and brother were there. (Plus Arno and Dorit, of course)

We ate and socialized for about an hour, during which time Tess slowly came out of her shell. She was completely overwhelmed by the crowd at first, hardly interested in her many presents because of her fear. Then about an hour into the evening, I saw her running from one room to the next, with a big grin on her face and her extroverted self in full bloom.

"Are you not shy anymore?" I asked her.
"No, mama. I not shy." she told me, and then she ran off to rejoin some game she with a new relative.

At 6:30, I told the Exodus story, and did quite well. Then David led everyone in a reading of a Haggadah that was mercifully short. We were eating around 7:30. Matzah ball soup, pot roast, asparagus, roasted chicken, stuffed tomatoes, bean salad, and more. We finished off the Haggadah around 9 or 9:30, ate a huge dessert spread, and then took our very tired baby back to the hotel at 10:30pm.

The next morning we woke up at the very late hour (for us) of 7am. We then took turns walking Tess around the parking lot until we could finally return to Bette's at 10am. Bette served a huge brunch, and we all ate and talked until noon when most everybody left. We left at 1am to drive back to the city.

We had been planning to stop by Paul's house in the evening. We thought he was having a 2pm Easter brunch with his family, and we hoped to drop in after the meal and say hello. But when we called to confirm our plans, we learned that they weren't eating until 4:30 or so. The invited us to join them, and so we ended up going straight to Paul's house, arriving at 3:30, and then eating a huge Easter dinner feast with them at 5. Tess loved being at Paul's house at first, when it was just Amy and Paul, but she was a little overwhelmed when five more guests arrived. She warmed up by dinnertime, though.

After dinner we took a walk to the park, got caught in the rain on the way home, and then finally dragged our exhausted selves home at 8pm.

Here's Tess's Passover dress. I was hoping to get a better shot of it at Bette's. :(

Talking on the Phone

Tess thinks that all phones work like skype, the person on the other end must be able to see as well as hear her. Here she is talking to her Nana on speaker phone. She brought her back to her room so that she could show her things. The two videos are in chronological order.

Little Sheep Dog

I've been comparing Tess to a little sheep dog lately, because of the way she likes to gather a group together. We took a little trip to Boston last weekend to meet my parents for my Dad's birthday. The whole weekend, Tess spent a lot of time keeping track of where everyone was, and liked it best when we were all in the same room.

At the end of meals, she asks (drills) everyone as to whether or not they are finished. She likes to keep track of when people might leave the table, and make sure she's part of it.

We also bought her sunglasses, because she so wanted to have a pair like everyone else. All weekend, she wanted everyone to wear the sunglasses on top of their head at the same time and where them on their face at the same time. If Eric had pushed his glasses off his face and I hadn't, she would tell me, "Mama, mama, glasses on head, like this!"

Speech Patterns

Just for the record, I want to record some of what we're hearing these days.

• "Open-en it." This is how Tess says "open it." "Open-en it, the umbrella. Open-en it, my _(some container)__."
• "Tess would you like _____?" She replies, "Yes, I will."
• "tssslampulum" This is how she says, "chrysanthemum" (Mom got her a book about a little mouse named Chrysanthemum, which is why she's trying to say that word at all.)
• "member when..." She's been telling me about things she remembers from time to time.
•  "Biyan" means "vitamin"

Yesterday we were coming home with a box of pizza, and Tess said, "MY pizza!"
I replied, "My pizza!"
"Yeah," she said.
"And Dada's pizza, too," I said.
"Yeah!" she replied.
"It's our pizza," I said.
"No!" she said.
So then I explained what "our" means.

April is Here!

I'm downright giddy about the arrival of April. This weekend we spent a lot of time outside, at a park, walking, just enjoying fresh air. And then this afternoon we were at the park where we met up with at least 15 friends, maybe more. Everyone is pouring out of their apartments and celebrating spring. Yippee.

Too bad tomorrow it's supposed to rain. :(

Lenny Love

Tess has loved having her Grandpa Len back from Puerto Rico. He came bearing a very special present, a "computer book." ( V-Reader) I had never heard of this before, but Tess has figured it all out in a week's time, and she is now showing us all how it works.

What Tess Learned

Visits with Nana are educational. A year ago, Tess learned to say "please" and "thank you" long before I thought it was possible to teach her such words. So I thought I'd record what Tess picked up from this visit.

1. "See you later alligator. After a while crocodile!" Tess was delighted by this hilarious saying. She loved to repeat it whenever Nana said it. A few times it saved us from some parting tears.
2. That brushing your teeth is better with sound effects. Nana has an electric toothbrush, and every morning and night, they would brush teeth together. Tess would make noises so that her experience matched Nana's.
3. That bath time is better if someone's feet are in the tub too. She no longer stands for bathing alone. I suppose a little foot soaking isn't such a bad way to end the day.
4. That suitcases hold presents. (I guess she learned that one a long while ago.)
5. And finally, Tess learned all about the wonders of play dough. Though she's had this set since December, she never had any interest in it until this last week. Once she played with Nana, however, it became a requested game at least twice a day. Nana taught her how to make sound effects while pushing to help flatten out a ball. She taught Tess to "take a pinch," and "roll it, roll it." I hear these two phrases now whenever we play together. And she taught Tess how to make a dog and cat cut out, and make them food bowls and bones.

Serious stuff.