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.

Painting in August

Keeping clothes on this girl is impossible! These pictures are from the summer, but even now when I'm running around the house in slippers and a sweat shirt, Tess refuses to keep her clothes on. "I not cold, Mommy," she assures me.

Morning Conversation

"Mommy, my boo-boo still hurts. Can I have a band-aid?"
I say, "I don't have time to get you a band-aid right now. Maybe you can get one at Ime and Sebastian's house."
"They don't have band-aids, Mama," she explained. "They have plasters."

(Ime's father is British, and certain English words are part of those three's vernacular.)

Big girl bed

A few weeks ago, we took the side off of Tess's crib. The side rail that comes with the bed is pretty small, and we lost the hardware for it, so we've been experimenting with just leaving the side of the bed open. She rolls out of bed frequently, so we put some pillows down to cushion the falls. Usually she sleeps right through falling out of bed.

A few days ago, I woke up at 4:45 am to Tess's screams. Her cries were desperate and urgent, and as I ran to her room, I wondered what on earth could inspire such terror. A nightmare? As I stumbled into the dark room, I quickly realized that Tess wasn't in her bed or on the floor beside her bed. I followed the voice down to the floor, when I realized she was UNDER the bed. She had somehow rolled all the way under her crib, and now couldn't get out. I felt for her, and then had to lift the crib up with one hand as I pulled her out with the other. The poor thing was really in a tight spot.

I don't know how she got her head under the bed in the first place. I don't know how she did all that moving and stayed asleep. But it has us wondering about a railing.

Tess believes...

...that boo-boos wash away in the bath. She's scared to get in for fear that her scrapes or cuts will disappear. She reminds us to be careful when we wash her, fearful that we might scrub them right off.

One night, while in the bathtub, she noticed that a scrape had healed. She was convinced that it was my fault, that I hadn't been careful, that I had washed the boo-boo away! She cried for ever so long that night. Finally we went to each of her stuffed animals and asked them if they had seen her missing boo-boo, and that gesture proved funny enough to snap her out of the sorrow of losing her boo-boo.

Coughing, Ever Coughing

Tess was up a lot of last night coughing. Eric is away, so she climbed into bed with me in the middle of the night, and then kept me up with her coughing and later she kept me up from the loud snoring she was doing.

I think it's just a cold. It doesn't seem serious, just messy and irritating, but it's the third cold in a row. She literally hasn't stopped coughing altogether since mid-August. Twice before, she seems almost better, and then the nasal drip gets worse and the cough intensifies for a while. It's starting to make me worried.