Raspberry Picking

Tessa likes picking the raspberries out back.

Mind you she doesn't actually like to eat the raspberries. She just likes to 

pull them off the bushes and squish them.

Silly girlie! 

Hot Summer Day

Someone get this poor baby some AC . . . 

after 45 minutes riding in a car without AC

Don't worry. She was doing much better after getting home to the AC and a lot of water.

Walking Machine

In the last week or so Tessa has started walking on her own a lot more often. In fact, the other day, she was even able to follow me around a little bit while grocery shopping. I used to think getting errands done will be so much easier once she's walking more on her own . . .

                                                                                              . . . now I'm not so sure. :P

Bicycle Riding

Tessa riding a bicycle for the first time!

Or at least the baby equivalent of riding and bicycle. :) Isn't she cute! I guess I need to see about finding her a tiny helmet now.

10 Months

At a little over 10 months (I know, I'm way late in getting this posted) Tessa is doing great. She is getting to be our big little girl. The time has gone by so fast but at the same time it feels like Tessa has been part of our family forever.

She is walking a bit more on her own but she still prefers to hold onto a finger. She is slowly gaining more and more confidence though.

She's saying 'dada' more lately and has even said 'mom' a few times and said something that sounded like she was trying to say dog.

She has learned how to wave bye bye and hello and if you wave at her she'll usually wave back. She loves to wave at animals, other kids, and the even the garbage truck.

Another new thing is she likes is playing at the park. She's always liked being outside and has enjoyed walking around on the grass for a long time. Recently though she has started enjoying playing on the jungle equipment.

She likes going down the slides and crawling through the tubes that are there.

And yes that very sloped tube in the background is one of the ones she likes to go through. It's been fun to be able to take her to play at the park lately. She still just loves playing out in the grass and just outdoors in general. She can even tell us when she wants to go outside by walking us to the front door and fussing. She generally spends 2-3 hours outside daily. Here she is enjoying the outdoors with dad at the Thanksgiving Point Gardens.

She loves animals more and more now too. She used to be more scared of dogs but now she doesn't even get scared when they lick her on the face. She loves to pet any dogs or cats we pass on our walks. She also loves to feed the ducks and geese.

The other day on a walk, we came across 6 domesticated ducks and Tessa wanted to pet them. They were scared of her though so she ended up chasing them. Attempting to get away, one of the ducks waddled into the nearby pond. Undeterred, Tessa followed the duck right into the pond. I think she took about 2 steps in before she realized what she had done but she loves the water and splashing around so she actually didn't mind.

Recently she started making this funny face where she would purse her lips. Sometimes she'll do it when she's upset and other times she'll do it for seemingly no reason. 

It's fun to watch her as she grows up. I almost can't believe that we're coming up on her one year birthday but it's coming up soon.