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!!
I captured these adorable pictures before we left for church!! :)
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! 
Being Silly
In her classroom, you can tell she is feeling a little nervous. We have shirt twirling and shy foot!!
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
Enjoying cider slurpees.
Tessa's Neighborhood Friends
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!
