Halloween

We had a blast with Halloween this year. The fun started early in the month of October with a visit to Cornbelly's. Tessa had a blast with it.

Here she is trying on a princess costume for the first time ever. She loved it. She kept looking at herself in the mirror and smiling.

And here we are as a whole family rocking on the Cornbelly Rocks! rocking chair.

Tessa had a ball with the bounce house!

Tessa played on the play ground equipment for a couple of hours. There was this truck, a pirate ship and more. Then there was this giant hay stack with slides coming off it.

Jenny didn't seem to mind this rocking horse too much.

Here Tessa is picking out her pumpkin.

She liked the tiniest ones.

We have these face painting paint markers that Tessa loves that made it really easy for Tessa to paint her pumpkin on her own.

Tessa loved painting her tiny pumpkin so much that I let her paint our butternut squash we were going to be eating for dinner.

Here is Tessa and her cousin dressed as Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Thanks Heather for Tessa's costume!

Jenny is dressed as a pumpkin.

And here are both girls in their Halloween costumes. We had a lot of fun trick-or-treating this year. We didn't hit tons of houses but we still had a good time. Tessa wanted to eat each piece of candy as soon as she got it. I let her for a while until she started complaining that her stomach was hurting. Luckily right when that happened, we stopped at this house that was giving out little dixie cups of soup and mini-breadsticks so that was fun. It's been fun getting more into the holidays now that Tessa is getting older.

Tessa Says the Darndest Things II

Tessa: Tessa sick. Tessa need these medicines. (while pointing at sprinkles)


Tessa (while rubbing Jenny's head): I pet her.

Tessa's Two and a Half-ish Photos

We took Tessa to get her pictures taken. She was a little shy with the photographer but we think they turned out pretty cute any way.

Tessa Says the Darndest Things

Tessa says things that crack me up sometimes. In what I think what will be a continuing type of blog post, I'll note some of the funny things she says. Here are a few funny things she's said in the last few days:

Tessa (holding a foam Q): This is?
Mom: That's a Q. It makes the "Qu" sound like Queen.
Tessa: Ooohhh...Queen. Tessa loves Queen. Queen best princess.


Mom: Tessa when you get a little older you'll be able to go to preschool. I'll go with you at first but then you'll go on your own.
Tessa: Tessa need help drive.
Mom: Mom or Aubrey will drive you and will drop you off at to preschool.
Tessa: Help doors.
Mom: We'll help you open the doors to your preschool.
Tessa: K.


Tessa (giving Jenny her Minion toy to play with): Don't spit up.
Mom: Oh, Jenny can play with your minion as long as she doesn't spit up on it?
Tessa: Uh huh.


I'm sure there are more that I can't think of at the moment. I'll add more as they come up.

Two and a half months

Jenny is about 2 and a half months now. She is doing great. We feel so lucky to be blessed with such a wonderful baby. At her two months doctors appointment she weighed in at 8 pounds putting her below the third percentile. She was in the 74th percentile lengthwise though. We took her to see a lactation consultant who informed us that she is needing more to eat than I have been able to produce so we have switched to formula. She has been taking to it really well and has been putting on weight rapidly. She currently weighs about 9 and a half pounds and has seemed stronger. She wears both and newborn and she 0-3 month clothes. Neither actually fit her exactly right though as the newborn clothes aren't long enough and the 0-3 month clothes are baggy.

Jenny is such a social baby. She absolutely loves it when people smile at her and talk to her. She seems to just bask in the attention. Even if she is just chilling in her bouncer seat, she likes to have someone sitting next to her. She has started smiling and smiles easily when talked to and smiled at. 

Tessa and Jenny have been getting along pretty well. Tessa will give Jenny toys to play with so that is always cute. (Don't worry - I picked Jenny up right after snapping the pictures.)

We're really glad Jenny is doing well and feel so lucky to have our girls.

Two-year-old Tessa

At 2, Tessa is very active. She loves getting out of the house and goes a bit stir crazy if kept at home all day. A good day is one where we get out to the pool or park or to one of her favorite places - "Tait's house" (her cousin's/best friend's house). She also loves going to ride the ponies at Thanksgiving Point and going to play at the children's museum. She loves going on walks especially to the mail box. This week after going to the park on Monday, the pool on Tuesday, and a different park on Wednesday, I told Tessa that we were going to have a stay home day on Thursday and told David he could take the car to get to work instead of riding his bike. On our stay home day, Tessa and I ended up playing an elaborate game of pretend where she buckled her bears in and out of their imaginary carseats and drove us around town. We went to the park and pretended to swing on the swings and go down the slide. We pretended we went to the pool and swam there and we went to Tait's house where we talked to and played with a pretend Tait. Later we went to the library, a farm, an icecream parlor, and a candy store - quite the eventful pretend day on the town.

At 2, some of Tessa's favorite toys are her baby doll (referred to simply as 'baby') and stroller. She'll take her baby on walks in the stroller and likes to have baby come with us the park. She'll "breastfeed" her baby from her belly button which is pretty cute and put her baby down for naps. 

She also loves her two teddy bears named green bear and pink bear. She has become quite the little mommy with them. She'll swaddle them in Jenny's blankets and give them Jenny's pacifiers.

She also really likes these toy plates and cups she has. She likes to pretend to cook and eat with them at her little table in her play room.

At 2, Tessa has lost her nanny she's had since she was 3 month's old. She talks about her often saying "Rachey gone." or "Rachey help. Rachey's dad." She'll also draw pictures with Rachel in them. It's been hard to lose her but we've been grateful that we were able to have her for as long as we did and that Tessa was able to have a secure, loving bond with her caregiver. In this picture she is practicing writing the letter 'S' with chalk and making differently sized S's calling them 'daddy S', 'mommy S', 'Tessa S', 'Rachey S'.

Tessa can talk so well now. She says longer and longer sentences. She sometimes even uses the plural 's' correctly. She is such a chatterbox; though if you're a stranger talking to her you'd never know it as she is rather shy until she warms up to you.

At 2, the weirdest food Tessa has requested and eaten has been cubed sharp cheddar dipped in mustard. Followed closely in grossness probably has to be when she asked for mustard on her toast. Of course, the frozen peas eaten straight from the freezer (I offered to cook them) were pretty weird too. Her favorite foods are noodles, scrambled eggs, milk and of course sweets like chocolate, icecream, and chocolate milk.

We threw a little party for Tessa's second birthday. Thank you to all that were able to come and thank you for the kind gifts.

It's hard to believe David and I have a 2-year-old. It's all gone by so fast. When I think about how fast it's been going, it makes me feel like before we know it, we're going to be dropping Tessa off at college and it makes me almost want to cry. I love Tessa so much. She's so creative and playful and funny and kind. She has become such a cool kid. Sometimes I just desperately wish there was a "pause" button to pause life as it is know so I can just keep enjoying the awesome kid that Tessa is at the age she is now.

Jenny is 6 weeks old

Time is flying by. Jenny is already 6 weeks old. She has put on about a pound since she was born and is nearly 7 pounds now. She fills out her newborn clothes now. She seems longer too but it may just be that she's not scrunching her legs up as much. She still sleeps a lot but she'll have a few longer stretches during the day when she is awake. She likes to nurse to sleep and is still sleeping next to me in bed at night. She seems to give some limited eye contact now which is neat. She has the prettiest dark blue eyes though they'll likely change. She has vocalized a little bit too. She'll make this "ah" sound and I'll talk back to her and she'll make the sound again. So that was really neat to see the first inklings of communication. She likes her swing though she is so light the various settings that are supposed to swing at different intensities all just swing fast and high so I think sometimes she gets scared on it; she has her startle reflex sometimes while on it atleast. She likes her baby gym and has been able to bat at the toys on it a few times. Whenever I'm out and about with her people will generally say "oh, a brand new baby" or when people ask how old she is, they are surprised when I tell them a month old and they remark at how small she is. To me though she is getting so much bigger. We're glad she is doing well and love our Jenny girl.