Behind

Oh so behind.

We just got back from a fun trip to Upstate NY and I still haven't finished posting about my trip to Idaho Falls last month.

Or the many visits from friends and family we've had in the month of June.

Or how freakin' busy Aaron and I have been this month.

Or Aaron's 31st birthday.

I've been wanting to post a picture of Tessa in the dress that I MADE. But since she doesn't really stand up that well right now its hard to get a good shot. So here is a picture of her in the hat that I MADE, a separate picture of the dress...oh and I did find one of her in the whole ensemble.And yes, I did tell everyone who commented on her hat that I MADE it.

(And yes, I did have (heaps of) help...thanks Gloria!)

Backsplash

For those interested - I posted a short update on one of our house projects. Click here.

Speaking of Months

As of next Monday Aaron and I will have been married for 85 months.

16 Months = 16 Months

Yesterday Tessa had an evaluation by a therapy team through Early Intervention. She's been in the program for a year and they do an eval every 6 months.

Yesterday she "tested" at 14-16 months on everything except Gross Motor skills. That is only because she isn't walking...yet.

Do you know what this means? It means that when people ask the simple question "how old is she?" I can drop the inner struggle over which answer to give.

There is a struggle you ask? Trust me its there.

Let use Tessa at 11 months as an example. Keeping in mind that at 11 months she looked and acted like a 8/9 month old when a grandma at the grocery store would ask I could either say "She's 1 months" and get the my-granddaughter-who-is-11-months-is-bigger/talking/waving look. Or I could say "She's 8 months" which is technically a lie (but not in my mind). Of I could say "She's 11 months but she was born early so she's small" which is a mouthful and frankly, over-sharing in a grocery store situation.

But now I need agonize no longer. Particularly because it is fairly common for 16 month olds to still be working on walking (and at the grocery store she's sitting in a cart). Now I can just say her AGE and be done with it.

Lessons Learned

Lesson #1 - be careful what you ask...

I was thinking to myself how I had planned to go to the gym but when it came down to it I wussed out and did something else (grocery shopping if you must know). Out loud I said to Tessa "Your momma is a loser, did you know that?" and she responded in her sweet voice - "Ya!"

Lesson #2 - The more (copies of) keys you have the better.

Yes, I should have known better than to let Tessa play with the keys...the automatic lock thingy in particular. The memory of having the firemen come to my house, ladder truck and all, to get her out of the car will hopefully remind me not to let it happen again.

The whole situation is particularly embarrassing, but add to it the fact that in the past month I've locked myself out of the house twice (in the same week)...and it seems like there might be a problem...



...have I ever told you about the time Aaron called me a goldfish?

Monkey

Tessa is just starting to show signs of "I can do it myself!"

An example is shown here. She won't eat banana if it is cut up into pieces. She will eat almost the whole thing if she can hold onto it though.

CNN News Story

Not even cynical me can roll my eyes at this story...

A prayer is credited for the recovery of nearly $200,000 at a garbage dump.

I think they covered the story perfectly...the facts, not too much emotion. And like the garbage man said "either you believe it or you don't believe it."

Baby

Guess what.



We bought Tessa a dolly.


It took us approximately 30 minutes to choose...

...and to be honest, I'm having buyer's remorse...we should have gotten the other one.

But luckily Tessa is happy with it...

Phone Phobics of the World - Unite!

Did you know that both Anne Hathaway* and I have a phone phobia? Its true - I really hate calling almost anyone**. I share this phobia with my mom, and two sisters (genetic link perhaps?) and just found out that a woman I admire has this phobia (hi Debbie). So I really feel like I'm in good company.

So anyway, if you ever wonder why I haven't called you back, its because I'm getting up my nerve. Apparently you are all quite a fearsome bunch.

*According to Allure Magazine.
**What if they are eating, or sleeping, or driving, or looking in the mirror, or reading a book? What if there is a bad connection or they can't read my tone and become offended? How can I see what their body language is telling me over the phone?

Balloons and Credit Due

Tessa hasn't had much exposure to balloons, however a few weekends ago Momma threw a baby shower for a friend and Tessa got to come along to pick up the 2 dozen balloons. Balloons that filled the whole car. Despite the picture below Tessa was thrilled to have them and even fell asleep grasping on to their strings.


She also had a great time with the bunch that I brought home from the party for her.



Note the air mattress she is laying on. Daddy and Mommy had to move out of the bedroom for a few days so that Tessa could re-learn how to sleep through the night. So we camped in the living room on our Aero bed.

It was sweet.


And in case you were wondering...

Emily Smith designed my ever so lovely header. Thanks so much!

Midnight Snack

Lets go back to that trip home a few weeks ago...

...here is a picture of Tessa eating a snack at the SLC airport. We arrived at 10:30 MDT which is (for the math/geography challenged) 12:30 EDT.



(I've been clearing pictures off my phone, can you tell?)

Corn on the Cob

Standing

TESSA CAN STAND ON HER OWN!

Actually the big news is that this morning she let go of the chair, stood for about 30 seconds and clapped while she was doing it!

Then she started giggling because she was SO pleased with herself - and fell over.