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.