Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving. We ate dinner with friends and it was great. The only person who ate more than Aaron was Tessa.

Just kidding, she did feast on the creamy mashed potatoes though...and Daddy gave her some roll. Mommy had to give him "the look" for that one.

No, we did not wake up early to go shopping on Friday. Do we look crazy? Nevertheless we are ready to head into the Christmas season. Ho Ho Ho!!

Just for the heck of it, here is another picture that shows off Tessa's beautiful eyes.

Its confirmed

Yesterday there were a few icy/snowy crystals in the air here at home, but none at Aaron's office. Today, though, its snow.

~*~*~*~ SNOW ~*~*~*~

I guess this week is perfect timing. However I feel just a bit of dread (I must be a a weather pessimist) at the idea that winter is here for the next who knows how long...

I'll just repeat over and over "Hot chocolate, fudge, christmas lights, hot chocolate, fudge, christmas lights, hot chocolate..."

Small Confession

I have a list of blogs that I check frequently and I especially like it when those people post, well, daily, really. However they don't always do that and so then I need to find some other random thing to do to fill my daily-time-wasted-online quota. So then I follow the links for their friends and/or commentators blogs. Wait...thats not the confession. The confession is, that makes me jealous. "Jealous of what?" I ask myself. Jealous that my friends have other friends? Jealous that my witty friends have friends who are eloquent and charming? That is ridiculous. Is it that I'm jealous that I'm not as eloquent as they are? No, no, as edit and edit this post I'm working through my feelings and I think what makes me jealous is that I don't get to have frequent contact with these friends and so I'm jealous that the thought that maybe there are people out there who do. Well, I hope they realize how good they've got it!

Another confession: we are supposed to having Family Home Evening right now (I believe that was either going to be Dunk-angel-food-cake-and-bananas-in-chocolate or Watch-the-movie-we-rented-over-the-weekend) but Aaron is sleeping. Well, I guess it should be him confessing, but he can't, he's sleeping.

Self promotion

In case you've stopped your all consuming habit of checking my other blog you should know that I posted pictures of the before and after of our bedroom.

9 Months/ 6 Months

The traffic fairy was not as accommodating this morning on our real drive to the doctor. Rain and the day after a vacation combined to make us 1/2 hour late for the appointment. However it gave Tessa time for a long nap so after a brief moment of alligator tears right at the beginning she did very well at her appointment.

This appointment was her "6 month" NICU follow-up visit. Meaning if she had gone full term she would have been 6 months at this point. I'm not sure if I talked about this earlier but that is her "adjusted" or "corrected" age and that means in terms of developmental ability she is only expected to act like a 6 month old. And based on her weekly occupational therapy activities, her monthly pediatrician visits, and of course, today's appointment with the pediatric developmental specialists she is right on track. In some things, particularly her schedule for eating solid food and in someways her visual and social skills she is a bit advanced and closer to her actual, chronological age. As she gets older her developmental abilities and chronological ages will start to align and merge around two years of age.

Today, 9 months after birth and exactly 6 months after hospital discharge, she giggled during the physical exam and smiled smiled smiled at everyone, until she got sleepy, then she just stared and snuggled with Daddy.

She weighed 14 lbs 14 oz, and is 27 inches long! And, in case you are either challenged in the math department or in denial (like me) in three months my little big girl will be ONE! Pardon me while I go find some sand to bury my head in and pretend she'll be my little one forever.

Today is not November 13th

However I did not realize that until after I woke up at 5:30 (2.5 hours earlier than usual), shower, packed up Tessa and Aaron, drove into Boston, and sat in a doctor's waiting room for 20 minutes.

So I am considering that the dry run for tomorrow when Tessa's ACTUAL appointment is. Stay tuned.

"On the bright side," I thought, I was going to be able to get to the bank and the post office earlier and also get more work done at home.

Unless of course today is Veteran's Day, which it is, which I did not realize until after I parked, got Tessa out of the car and tried the door at the bank, which was locked.

I am NOT obsessed with my eyelashes

Although apparently I am supposed to be. After all, every magazine on the rack has a headline about having "Thicker, Darker, Sexier Lashes" that are in fact "Lash-Tastic," the makeup companies are rolling out new products everyday to make my lashes standout, curl, separate, lengthen, feather, and thicken...and I just don't care.

What is my problem?

Perhaps its the fact that I have fairly light coloring (maybe you haven't noticed) so really, if I show up with long, dark, lethally pointy lashes people should be aware that they are not my natural lashes. Its just the truth.

In fact...sometime I go out with NO mascara on. This is pretty big considering that for most of my makeup wearing life I counted "mascara" as one of those 10 things you grab if your house is on fire. Its great to A) feel like I look good (enough) to parade around the grocery store bare faced and B) be able to rub my eyes whenever I want.

In fact my best day last week was when I hit the bank and the grocery store with no make up and my baby wearing her slippers out of the house! I'm not being sarcastic to say that I feel like this is the life!

Look what I made

Halloween in Salem

Halloween in Salem is great fun. Even on a Wednesday there was a crowd of 75,000 people who came that night. However not many of them came down our street (thank goodness) so it was a quiet night for us. Tessa did ask to get dressed in her costume though and so we spent some time on the front porch giving out candy and charming the neighbors.

However there was some real creepiness afoot. Some friends of ours' nanny came caught this video...its hard to tell what you are actually seeing so it really could be nothing...but take a look and see what you think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo8CP9Hhb58