My Sweet Girl

Today I was tired, from a little cold, too little sleep, and sore muscles. A couple of times I just couldn't take the standard Tess antics. One too many running away from me laughing, or jumping into my arms when I'm holding out her shorts, waiting for her to put her legs in...I just snapped a couple of times. But Tess handled it all in stride, and when I would tell her that I was really tired and not feeling well, she would say, "I love you, Mom. I love you so much." She offered to get me band-aids, kiss my boo-boos, and give me medicine, too. And when I left her with her Dad this evening and ran off to a yoga class, she hugged and kissed me three times, saying, "just one more," after each kiss.

I love her.

Counting the Days

Tess woke up last Thursday morning yelling, "Mama. I want to go to California now. I want to see Nana and Baba and Uncle Jimmy and Uncle Jon and Grandma Betty!" Unfortunately we don't leave until this coming Friday. Everyday, Tess will talk about the trip, telling us how excited she is and how much she wants to go.

Saturday morning I made a little count down calendar for her, and every night we cross off a day at bedtime. It helps quantify the stretch of time. This morning, she finished some activity, and then told me, "OK, we can go to California now."

Soon, my dear. Soon.

Mela-oops

Tess had a scratch or something near her eye. (Not the band-aid. That was just decoration. For a week.) Because of the scratch, she thought she'd put some Mela-gel on her boo-boo. She managed to get the foil off of a brand new bottle, and then she pointed it at her eye and squeezed. Fortunately for all, it missed her eye.

She did this all while video skyping Marti. I had stepped into the other room for something, and I hear Marti calling out for me to come check on Tess. This is what I found when I returned.

"You can pet him..."

"This is my lamb. You can pet him. He doesn't bite, actually. He's my best lamb, because he soft. You can pet him. He will lick your hand. Look, he have a tail. You can touch it. He won't bite. Actually, he's a good boy. He has ears, see? Nice lamb. Want to give him a treat?"

And on and on and on it goes. All day long. Everything she's learned about pet dogs gets repeated all day long.

Summer Virus

Tess came down with a fever yesterday, and we seem to be home for a while nursing a virus.

Music

I recently bought Tess some Backyardigan songs from her favorite TV show. She loves them, and has started learning the lyrics and singing along. She has started wanted to dress up and dance along, which she did the other day here:



I also invested in some headsets for our upcoming vacation to California so that we wouldn't all have to listen to Tess's music non-stop in the car. It has proven to be a wonderful investment. The headsets and an old ipod, and suddenly we can see visions of her teenage self: