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!!

Summer Fun

We are having a fun filled summer so far. We go swimming almost every day! I am going to take pictures of her swimming soon!

Otherwise we try to spend time outside without getting too hot! Here are some cute pics of Tessa enjoying summer!

Watercolor painting

Girly girl in her dress up shoes

I love this pose...booty out!

Tessa enjoyed a watermelon feast yesterday. I stripped her down to a diaper and let her go at it! It was dripping all over, she loved it, then straight to the bath!

Mouth full of melon :)

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.