Good Bye for Now

To all of my faithful followers:

We are through blogging for now, we are as busy as ever and although I will miss the detailed family saga to look back at; I won't miss the guilty feelings about not updating! I have decided to print all of my blog into book form and have also switched to writing in a journal so I don't forget all of the things Tessa does and how she changes. :)

So, thank you for being a follower and maybe I will be back.

Whenever we are blessed with another wonderful bundle of joy I may have to being again so that little person doesn't get the second child treatment! No, I am not announcing we are pregnant just that another baby is in our future plans! :)

Love: Bri, Dan, and Tessa

Tessa Turns 2

Our daughter is officially a toddler now! Not only is she 2 years old she is a little person with her own personality and opinions. She is such a great little girl; she is stubborn and opionated but so eager to please us!!

Weight: 25lbs 1 oz (29th %)

Length: 35 1/4 inches (86th %)

She is fully potty trained except for sleeping and doing excellent!

Sleeps all night...with PJ's on...and takes one nap for 1-3hours.

Picky eater, but still loves all fruit and most veggies. Our other staple are noodles and yogurt.

She switched to 2% milk.

Talking like crazy now...will repeat and say anything, putting 2 words together, but she does tends to drop the first letter of words.

She can draw a T and E

She counts 1,2,3

Loves Dora and Diego

Doing great with school and is always saying that she did that at "cool"

She gives the best hugs ever...she will run to you and just squeeze...love it

The list goes on and on...she is wonderful!!!

October 2010

As everyone knows I have not been blogging for months now, but I am going to do a October recap of my favorite pictures and a 2 year birthday post because I feel like I need an ending point and it just didn't feel finished.

October was full of Halloween festivities and fun days at home!!

Tessa did great with school, loves to talk about it, and has really figured out the routine!

Tessa and Macie Both turned 2 on Nov 6th!

She picked out a pumpkin at Tuttle's Orchard

Her Pink Poodle costume made by myself!!

Her class party at "school"

She still loves fruit and RAW veggies. She is taking a bite out of a red pepper I was trying to cut up for a recipe!

My most favorite picture from October. What a little lady!

Cousins

This past weekend our nephew came to spend the night with us! Tessa was so excited to have a sleepover!! David is so great, the sweetest kid, and so well behaved!! My favorite quote from the weekend...upon entering the guest room "I'm in heaven!"

I captured these adorable pictures before we left for church!! :)

First Day of School

Tessa - 22 Months Old

First Day of School

Tessa had her first day of "school", she went to Child's Day Out at our church for 4 hours. She will be going every Friday for the school year!

I'm happy to say she did really well. I told her she was going to stay and play with friends while I ran errands and then I'd be back to get her, she said "yea, yea, yea." So I kissed her and left. I looked in the window and she was playing with a puzzle doing just fine!

The teacher said she only cried once when another little boy was upset, she can be so sensitive to others when they are upset.

So, we'll see how next week goes since she knows what happens! But so far so good!!

Being Silly

In her classroom, you can tell she is feeling a little nervous. We have shirt twirling and shy foot!!

Apple Orchard

We took a trip to Tuttle's Orchard this week with Kendra and John Hunter, Katie and Macie, Katie and Addie, and Tessa and I. It was really fun and the kids loved it.

Tessa completely understood how to find an apple on the tree and pick it. She did really good with not picking too many and only getting good ones.


The fruit of her labor!

In the pail.

She was also a great helper with the wagon, she didn't want me to touch the handle!

We finished the trip with a Caramel Apple...yum

Notice the cute shirts...Kendra made them for the kids. too cute

Enjoying cider slurpees.

John Hunter, Addie, and Tessa

(not pictured...Macie ;() )

22 Months Old

Tessa is quickly approaching 2 years old!! She is getting so independant with everything...she wants to dress herself (including picking out her outfit), pick out her own cup for drinks, wants no help with anything not even a finger touching her, buckling her carseat....just about everthing!

She loves to swing and hang on the bar...we lowered it and now she can reach it herself! She can go down the slides by herself. She now likes to jump off things. She will roll down the hill in the backyard....you probably get the idea that she is on the move!! She loves to follow her older friends and does a pretty good job of keeping up.

Tessa has a lot of new words and is repeating most things although they are still hard to understand when she says them. I am somewhat of her interpreter these days. Still uses a lot of her own signs for things, which get her point across well. Her most recent was turning her arms in a circle to have grandma turn the puzzle piece around. Her favorite word by far is.....NO....she says it about everything and to anything! Some nights we can hear her through the monitor...no, no, no, nooooo, no, no, noooooo.

She is such a character, and has the best sense of humor! Love her to pieces!!

Tessa's Neighborhood Friends

Macie (same birthday as Tess) and John Hunter (almost 4)

Saugatuck Family Vacation

We took a family vacation to Saugatuck Michigan with my parents and Janelle and Matt. The week was the perfect balance between doing things and just relaxing. We went out dancing one night, painted pottery at "The Art Barn", golfed, swam, sang karaoke, went out to dinner, biked, visited South Haven's Blueberry Festival, Holland's farmer's market, and just spent great time together.

Saugatuck is a very artsy town, even the park has some art in it!

We rented a pontoon boat one day and road out to Lake Michigan where we turned around due to the crashing waves!! This was Tessa's first boat ride, she was pretty entertained. She mostly wanted to throw bread to the ducks (which she symbolizes by waving her arm in a throwing motion).

Tessa is really starting to repeat sounds and trying to say more things. One of her new words this trip was Matt!! He was so proud!

Grandma and Grandad's little girl

Enjoying her FIRST ice cream cone....she had one more before the week was over. It was pure delight!

Such a little lady

Breakfast in bed...another first.

We rode our bikes about 1/2 mile to town quite a bit. It was an easy way to get around, get some exercise, and Tessa enjoys it!

Tessa also turned 21 months while we were there. Like I said she is starting to put together more sounds, repeat some sounds, and really listen like she is figuring it all out. I think it will be true that she will just start talking in sentences one day soon.

She is constantly yelling "mama mama" and never really wants anything but to know that I'm paying attention to her. The other day Dan asked "Does she do this all day long?" my response "Do what? Oh that? Yea I don't even notice it anymore." :)

She is a really good swimmer, she swims in the big pool with just arm floats and DOES NOT want you to touch her AT ALL. Continuing with the independence.

Our challenges this month are...

1. Getting frustrated because she can't communicate with words, so wines or cries

2. Is taking her diaper off at night...Dan found her in the morning with jammies off, diaper off, and wet bed; smiling I'm sure! We try to use button onesies and pants as a barrier, this is very frustrating to her. We purchased pull ups today and we really are going to try potty training soon. :)

Still loves babies and really plays dolls with them feeding, rocking, talks to them, etc...

She starts child's day out in 2 weeks!!!

That's it for now!! Oh yeah, today she has started licking me like a dog! Wonderful huh? :)

20 Months Old

Our little girl is growing so big! She is 20 months old!!!

We have so many laughs when Tessa is around, she is hilarious. I don't have any idea what I did with my time before Tessa was here, she is my joy, love, and entertainment!

I did a little photo shoot today to capture my little girl!

Here is an update of what Tessa is doing at 20 months:

• the largest milestone....Tessa has learned how to pee in the potty!!! It is sporadic at this point, but probably sometime this month we're gonna try panties and see what happens!!
• saying more words (although most don't sound like the real word) she has a "Tessa" word for: Dora, backpack, map, night night, lovey, there, that, mama, dada, zayne, cow, chicken, crab, cat, pig, alligator, hot, boom, Hunter (her neighbor friend)
• has "Tessa" signs for potty, drink, swimming, rub her back
• she LOVES to dance, especially to Dora songs, Zac Brown Band, and Michael Jackson :)
• her favorite shows are Dora and Backyardigans
• favorite foods: all fruit, corn on cob, butter noodles, milk, shredded cheese, yogurt. Many have described her diet as a zero calorie diet :)
• she naps for about 2-21/2 hours and sleeps 11 or 12 hours a night. She has started to go to bed around 8:45/9 and get up later like 8:15/8:30
• very independent about everything, always wants a choice about things
• we've started counting 1-2-3 to get her to listen and make a choice about behavior; which is working
• her favorite activities: SWIMMING, cooking, playing babies, and dress up
• she can swim with her swimmy float all on her own, jumps in from side, goes under, swims in circles

I guess that's all for now, we are just loving summer!!