Just before we left town to go to Idaho Tessa had a NICU follow-up evaluation scheduled. Very unfortunately our trip into Boston involved some throwing up, followed by an incredibly long trek to a gas station in order to clean up. Luckily for me (very very luckily indeed) Aaron was a passenger so he handled most of the gross-ness. I'm not going to get to details but suffice it to say, my pregnant stomach would not have handled it well.
The point of the vomit story is to tell you that we postponed the follow-up appointment until we got back from Idaho. This time we used our "key to a throw-up free trip" = pack an extra set of clothes...if you are prepared for a disaster it will not happen. Anyone want to scientifically test that statement for me?
Tessa did really well at her evaluation. Of course she started out shy, but eventually warmed up and had a fun time playing. The bottom line = she was 22 months and tested at 21 months. This is in keeping with the idea that a preemie catches up to her adjusted age by 24 months. I figure that she does more stuff with me at home so that puts her right on target and I couldn't be happier. She tested just a little lower on her expressive language, we are working on that and I keep feeling like she is just about to start talking up a storm. Actually she already talks up a storm, unfortunatly we can't understand what she so expressively tells us.
Hello...Hello...?
Thrilled. To. Death. To be wearing Momma's shoes.
Here is our big little girl helping Momma make taco soup.According to old Hollywood movies people used to get and decorate their Christmas trees on Christmas Eve, or sometimes Santa himself would deliver it. How magical.
I personally prefer to have the tree up the whole month of December; however, in our life, things rarely go according to plan (someday I'll explain our family motto of "Completely Unprepared for Absolutely Everything"). So, its not really to surprising that being out of town in the beginning of December threw everything off. Add to that a big snow storm this past weekend and we found ourselves out on Christmas Eve looking for a Christmas tree.
The only "real" place (i.e. a plant nursery/tree lot) that still had trees was selling $80.00 trees for 40% off...I'm sorry, not a good enough deal for the Udys! So what if they were beautiful, they still shoud have been $20.00 - IMHO. So we finally gave in and headed to Wal-mart (not even the nice one in the next town over, but the trashy one down the street from us) for the tiny trees I'd seen leaning against the building for $10.00. And lo, they had been further discounted to...
...wait for it...
...$5.00!!
A Christmas miracle. (Okay - don't worry, we aren't that poor, we were planning to spend a lot more than that but still - FIVE DOLLARS! You can't loose!)
Before - Aaron is trying to put on a "poor me" face next to our shrimpy tree.
After - LOVE IT!Friday night, after Tessa had gone to bed I was quite flattered when Aaron leaned over to me and whispered
In TEETH!
After months and months of waiting I can both see and feel two shiny new top teeth in Tessa's mouth. Those pesky things have sure taken their time showing up and I think two more are on the way. I hoping for some relief from the late night fussing that the still-sleeping-Tessa has been doing for the aforementioned months and months.
That is Aaron's claim to fame. And it looks like Tessa will be following in his footsteps as she recently attended the parade in honor of the Celtics fabulous win in the NBA finals.
Okay, okay - we really just went because we were in Boston on other business and decided to hang around for the "rolling rally" (fancy name for a parade).
The real bummer of the day - Tess and I were both wearing pink shirts (literally the only people in a sea of green) when we both had lime green pants sitting at home feeling neglected and unloved. (I still haven't gotten over it)
The really great part of the day. Cannoli's from Mikes Pastry!
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.
