.: ABCs, 123s, and a Big Girl Now!

Whoops. It is been a while since I posted something other than links to pictures. Sorry about that. Sometimes days and weeks just get away from me! Usually once Tessa crashes for the night, we pick up a little and then crash as well. Life with a toddler is the most exhausting experience of life thus far!
So what have we been up to? First of all, if you are around Tessa for longer than a few hours she WILL warm up to you. Once she does, she won’t stop talking. She has a long conversation with you where you will catch a few words and be able to understand what she is talking to you about. Topics of interest involve Elmo, Hawkeyes (which she likes to scream at the top of her lungs in our church entrance in Ames. We have informed her that this is probably not the best place to yell that), crackers, mommy, daddy, ducky (which is actually Lucky-we are working on Ls), Greta, Tosh, Grandma and Papa, and then just repeating whatever we say. I LOVE to walk through a store and just rattle off words and listen to how she pronounces them.

Just in the past few weeks Tessa has started to count. If we say one, she says two, if we say three, she says six, nine, ten, Yeah! Ok so it isn’t in order but she is recognizing that there is some sort of numerical order out there. I do also think it is humorous that she only goes to ten. For the dancers out there if I am not paying attention, sometimes I count to eight and start over…Tessa also loves to sing her ABCs. Although she usually jumps from d to j to something I can’t understand, but again, she is recognizing that there is an order to something.

The weekend before Thanksgiving we went and spent some time with my family up North. It was a quick weekend, but got in some quality Mexican Train and bonding time with my parents. (For those that don’t know: Mexican Train is a dominos game. Something my parents found in Texas while visiting my Aunt and Uncle. We are now hooked. We play usually after Tessa goes to bed. Games can run roughly 2 hours and towards the end we are usually pretty delusional! We really should be making a Quote Book of the things that we say or do…) Tessa always enjoys going to Grandma and Papa’s house because there is so much to do. She got in some coloring time with Shirley down at the café and got to spend time reading books with Grandma and Papa. We even found Tessa in an odd place reading to herself—see pictures below for proof!

We spent Thanksgiving Day with the Dillinger crew. Of course Greta and Tessa ran around like the hooligans they are and didn’t nap at all (not without much effort from parents and grandparents). We had a great day eating, pouring over the Black Friday ads, and just hanging out. The boys played Mario Kart on the Wii and I am pretty sure napped in the basement while the girls all hung out upstairs. The little girls got to decorate sugar cookies. Tessa wasn’t really sure what to do and as with any new or sweet food, she wouldn’t try the frosting or the cookie. (Picky eater or not, are we sure she is my child?!) Greta, however, had a hay day with the sprinkles. I am pretty sure she had about 5-6 cookies in one sitting.

On Friday, Jetra, Crystal and I ventured out at 3 AM. Yes. We went shopping. Although we didn’t start at the places that had a huge door busters. We went to Valley West Mall and Crystal almost won a $5000 shopping spree. We hit up a few more spots like Target, Kohl’s, and Wal-Mart later---much later in fact after the crazy riots had taken place. It was a fun bonding experience for the three of us. I think we might do it again! (maybe). After a quick nap (mine not Tessa’s) we took Tessa to see Santa Claus at Bass Pro shop. I don’t have much to report other than I have never heard her scream with such fear in my life. We didn’t even get a picture with her on his lap. He was a good sport and knew that she was completely freaked out. I am guessing he gets that often. As much as Tessa is not afraid of anything, this reaction shocked both Travis and I.

Last Monday, November 30th, was a huge milestone for Tessa. She finally moved up to the toddler room at daycare. She gets to eat breakfast and lunch at the big kid table and gets to nap on a cot. So far I think things are going well. She loves being able to play in the bigger room and will now be able to socialize with more children her age. When I had dropped her off that first day the teachers informed me that she would sit in the infant room just on the other side half way dividing it from the toddler room and repeat whatever the toddlers were saying over in their room! I think that was a sign for them that she needed to move up.

That pretty much catches us back up to today! Below are some pictures of Tessa over the past few weeks.