The big milestone she's recently met is she can now crawl. She has gotten pretty good at it, but still doesn't love it.
She prefers walking much more than crawling. She'll spend several hours everyday just walking around the house, the backyard, around the neighborhood, the grocery store - wherever we are. Lately she's been able to travel short distances holding onto the finger of just one hand. It's neat to see her balance improve daily. David and I both think she has the strength and interest necessary for walking and now it is just a matter of her gaining the necessary balance.
Her other new thing is that she'll regularly say "dada". I'm not sure if she actually means David or me or anything at all by it but it's cute nonetheless.
Her favorite things are probably cell phones, computer mice, laptops, remotes, and the washer and dryer. She likes to watch the clothes spin. She of course loves to walk and she likes to run. She likes to doink the doorstops and loves to lick the windows. I'm not sure if she just likes licking windows or if she's trying to give the baby in the reflection a kiss.
She also loves eating real food - particularly whatever you're eating. She'll eat pizza, waffles, strawberries - whatever. She still doesn't have any teeth but she'll just gum anything. She especially loves chocolate. Here she is after licking a chocolate covered pretzel completely clean.
She makes a huge mess but if you want to eat something in front of her, she'll want one too. She always has to hold it herself too instead of just being fed it from your hands. Give her a biscuit though and she won't even take a bite of it. In her defense the biscuit was very crumbly and I think she was fascinated by how it crumbled in her hands.
Mostly Tessa loves exploring. She just wants to walk around looking at and touching everything. She is very squirmy and playful. I'm often pretty worn out by the end of the day after spending so much time helping her walk as she explores and plays but I love that she is so curious about the world. Here she is exploring the cat's food.
It started out innocent enough . . .
(the cat coming over concerned)
. . . and then got very messy! Tess Mess strikes again!
Probably the biggest change in Tessa is that she has become opinionated. If she wants the remote or doesn't want to sit in her carseat or whatever, she'll let you know.
We love our sweet baby and enjoy seeing her personality emerge more and more every month.
