19 Months

19 Months Old

Tessa is such a big girl and so fun at this age. Of course we get the whining and fits but we also have constant love and comedy too!

One of the bigger changes of late is we have taken away milk at bedtime. She was drinking it from a sippy cup but still it was time. I was talking with a friend at work about potty training and that is when I realized that we will always have wetting with sleep if she drinks milk to go to sleep; and it was also a sleep crutch. So, we bit the bullet and it is getting better. At first she would cry for it but we have now transitioned to her wanting to lay in her bed and have you rub her hair, back, leg, arm, belly... i.e. trying to drag it out as long as possible. :) So now when she fidgets around we say "night night" and leave the room which leads to crying but we go back in and rub her back; this repeats until asleep. Last night we were down to 3 trips in and 30 minutes....which was much much better, so we are making progress!!

She loves all of her friends so much....John Hunter (3) across the street (she says "unta", so cute) and her new friend 2 doors down Macy. Macy and Tessa are exactly the same age....THE SAME EXACT BIRTHDAY! The other day they were "talking" with each other and it was really cute! Both kiddos of course have really great Moms so I am pretty lucky too!

Some other little things:

• she has decided it is fun to go down slides head first!
• really good with fork and spoon and will only eat things on her own
• can wash her hands on her own with her new step stool
• new words Hunter "unta", boom, yea, shakes head "no" when asked question
• dances with Dora and Hanny Manny theme songs....hilarious
• can hold herself up in the pool with her float and loves to jump in off the side (even tolerates going under)

I know there is so much more, but that's all I can think of for now! We went and had pictures taken at JC Penny the other day so here are some of my favorites!

This was our absolute favorite!!!!!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

We have been working on our garden for a few months now and wow has it worked! I've been wanting to post pictures but it seems like every day it looks better and better. But, we are starting to eat things so it won't look as pretty. (tear)

In April my Dad built us this awesome garden box it is 6ft by 16ft and makes everything look so organized, which I love!

I planted seeds the end of April for sunflowers, zinnias, cilantro, parsley, basil, collard greens, loose leaf romaine and green onions. And we also planted 3 broccoli plants in April. Then the end of May we planted green, red, yellow, and jalepeno pepper plants, 3 tomato plants, green beans and cucumbers from seed. We finally added one brussel sprout from my grandma.

This is the garden May 23rd

May 23rd, everything planted.

This is today June 3rd!!!

The sunflowers have grown taller than the fence and as you can see everything is growing wonderfully!!!

The beans (left) and cucumbers (middle) have come up from seeds. The tomatoes have all grown up about 2-3 levels on their cages and have flowers.

Zinnias (far left), Romaine (we are starting to eat), green onions, pepper plants (have flowers)

Cilantro (far left), collards, broccoli (eating this week!!) and our lone brussel sprout

I really love our garden and enjoy watching it grow, it is instant gratification at its finest, plus yummy inexpensive veggies!

May Pictures

This has been a very fun filled and eventful May. Daddy has 2 weeks of vacation and we've been having some exceptionally hot weather! Here is a sampling of pictures from our wonderful month as a family!!

Tessa 7 months eating a banana

Tessa 18 months eating a banana

What an innocent little sweet heart

Bob the Builder exhibit at the Children's Museum.

It was amazing the difference in only a couple of months; she was able to do everything in the exhibits and understand what it was and how they worked.

Supermodel

Girly girl at the Barbie exhibit with Mommy

But still able to get dirty with Daddy!

Trip to the zoo. We took our friend Logan who is 4. Tessa looks up to him and wants to do everything he does...case in point!

These are pictures from the 80 degree weather days. I thought they were great because it is Tessa just enjoying life and the weather, no bows and cute clothes.

One of my projects...hang a coat rack for Tessa. It is really cute, just her height and she feels really big. I can just picture her little backpack and lunchbox this fall when she starts preschool.

Tessa and Logan playing play dough. She would again copy everything he did, but it kept them entertained for a long time.

Logan and the food he made me.

Tessa making food.

18 Month Little Lady

We did Tessa's 18 month photo shoot on the beach in Florida. It was really sunny so she has her shades on, and considering she isn't a fan of the sand this was as good as we got. They can't be too bad when you have such a perfect subject for the pics!!

It has been FOREVER since I've done an update about the little one so here it all is!

Stats:

23lbs 7ozs 38%

33 inches 86%

(as you can see she is still long and skinny, continues to fit anywhere from 9-12 month clothing up to 24 month pants)

Sleep:

We have improved greatly since my last posting about sleep. We've found that the key is to get as much energy out of her before nap time and wind down with books and milk downstairs.

She is napping about 3 hours in the afternoon 12-3pm or 1-4pm.

Going to bed by 8pm and sleeping until 7am.

Eating:

She is a really great eater over all, she is like any toddler some days she is starving and others she just snacks here and there. We don't really force it just try to offer her things she likes, but still give a good variety.

Some of her favorite things are: buttered pasta noodles, guacamole, tomatoes, any fruit but especially grapes and blueberries, gerber fruit snacks, yogurt and yogurt smoothies, green beans, roasted asparagus, peas, and bananas.

She is able to use a fork really well and can scoop yogurt on a spoon and get it into her mouth without too much mess. She loves to drink out of cups with straws (real straws). When she wants a bite or drink she gets your attention and then points into her mouth.

Her favorite things:

-She has a very deep love for one of my baby dolls from childhood, it is a life size newborn doll almost as big as her. She makes it do everything from looking out the window for visitors, to checking to see if it has a wet diaper. When we go for a walk sometimes she insists on bringing it and that means she is either going to carry the lifesize doll or the doll will ride in the stroller and she will push...yes that means it is a VERY slow walk either way. :)

-she loves to play outside all day long, and really enjoys the playground and swing set. She will swing on her belly airplane style, climbs the steps and can go down slides on her bottom all by herself!

-We took the baby gate down off the stairs and she loves to sit on the bottom step and eat a snack or read books...always with her baby right there too.

-Her favorite show is the Backyardigans....she points and laughs at the TV when they start singing there theme song...the laugh has gotten louder over time and will NEVER get old to us.

Other tid bits:

-She is concerned about having a wet or "uck" diaper as she would point to it and say. She lays down to get changed. The pediatrician encouraged me to get a potty chair and start offering her to go potty. I am worried she is still a little young, but she is so smart I guess we will try it out and see where it goes?

-We continue to work on saying words. Here is her vocabulary...dada, mama, ane (Zayne), go, vroom vroom (car), that, there, fish sound, uck, and pig sound. She also waves hi and bye. She communicates really well, but we don't have too many words yet.

I could write forever about our little lady because she is continually doing something new and great. Although we are now in the toddler stage and have some meltdowns and fits, she is such an extremely happy little girl. I don't get much time to blog but that is definitely not because we aren't up to much; we are just up to too much!

Destin Trip

We took our first family vacation in over a year in early May with Dan's parents. We rented a condo in Fort Walton Beach (Destin). It was our first time in this area of Florida and we really enjoyed it; not too busy and beautiful, very clean beaches. The condo we were at was just perfect...it has a zero entry pool perfect for Tessa and a toddler splash park, what more could you ask for. It also had a lazy river, beach, nature area, and our own private deck with a hot tub! Here are some of the highlights in pictures, of course I have a million more!

First time swimming since last summer...loved it...no fear!

Her favorite thing to say "huh?"

Her curls went crazy in the humidity, it was adorable.

There were tons of sting rays right along the bayside path just down from our condo. SCARY!

Bubbles!!

Some quick digging in the sand with Daddy, she quickly decided that the sand was "uck" "uck" and stayed on the towel with Mommy.

Here is an example of "uck" "uck", as some was on her leg. :)

Our sweet little princess

Dan and his Dad went deep sea fishing and caught a bunch!!

Lil ruffle bum

Hamming it up at the splash park. She doesn't mind getting her face wet at all which is great.

She loves to do anything that she thinks makes her "big"...like this.

I always love a feet in the sand picture...I love that we have a tiny pair to go with ours now :)