Shrimp

Today was Tessa's 15 month check-up. Everything is great. She in still in the 50% for weight and she dropped from the 25% to 20% for height. I've started calling her my little shrimp. Of course she had to get her shots today (3). But, she was fine about 3 minutes later. But I don't think you ever get used to having to see your baby in pain. I wish they could give me the shots and I could somehow osmose the vaccine into her. Can one of my smart family members or friends work on that please? Thanks.

She's teething right now and apparently the molars are pretty bad. One of my buddies, Divo, recommended those little teething balls that dissolve. I am going out this afternoon to buy some. My poor little booger has been waking up almost every night. Wednesday night was horrible. She woke up screaming and would not stop for two hours no matter what. I ended up sleeping on the floor next to her crib (thank god we have carpet) and holding her little hand between the bars.

I love my little booger.

Blinking

Mike like to deliberatly blink at Tessa several times, which she just thinks is the funniest thing. In response, she has started blinking back. It is so cute. I was sitting with her last night and noticed her blinkking at me and when I started blinking back she starting giggling. I told Mike about it and he started laughing and told me that they do that at night together before she goes to bed. I was a little upset that they had this little special game that I didn't know about, but then I realized I have my own little special moments with her.

On a more somber note, one of my dad's best friend, Bob Stiles, passed away yesterday. It was very sudden, he was only 58. My parents had had dinner with him and his wife Olga the night before. They were doing an autopsy to determine the cause, but we have not heard anything yet. THEN, on top of all that, one of my cousin's was in a horrible car accident and is in ICU. The next 48-hrs are critical. It's just amazing how quick something can happen. I want to run to Tessa's day-care and pick her up and just hold her and squeeze her. Last night I just wanted to hold Mike and never let go. It's makes you realize to truly sieze the day (Carpe Diem).

Omi

We are soooo excited that Omi is coming back tomorrow. She's been in Germany for two weeks. I know Tessa is excited, but I think Grandpa is WAY more excited. Dad actaully had to do laundry all by himself (apparently he washed a yellow towel with some blue ones and that wasn't very successful). Today he is frantically cleaning to get the house back to the pristine condition my mom left it in. And he's been srounging for dinners whenever possible. HAHAHAHA!!!! Just kidding, Dad. I love you and I need $20.

I've been really busy at work. They have moved me from Engineering into the field to help finish the 1st floor and do punchlist. Punchlist is my least favorite part of a job, but with the economy and job market, I'm thankful to have a job. I'm just working more hours now and Tessa is spending longer days in day-care. I don't think she cares, she loves hanging out with her buddies (aka bossing them around). I know this sounds crazy, but I hope she doesn't become a bully, she can be kind of tough. Mike has been crazy busy and has been working a lot of nights pouring concrete. He thinks it will slow down in a couple of weeks, but I've heard that before. All in all, we are all doing great.

Hokey Pokey & Bi-polar

She hasn't been napping very well lately, so after school she is pretty crabby. This video is a prime example of her bi-polarness.

She is also trying to master the use of the spoon. As you can tell, placing the food on the spoon first, and then into mouth defeats the purpose of using the spoon to keep your hands clean. At least she's trying. Most of the time, she just uses her hands as this is much faster.

Her dance skills are improving greatly. She loves to spin in circles. I think she learned this in daycare doing the hokey-pokey. In our 'Little Gym' class on Saturday, she was doing this everytime they played music.

Brown Bear - Genius

So, everyone who has children knows the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear". Tessa does not have the patience to read a book, so we end up flipping through the pages really fast while I try to read as fast as I can. There are many books that I have never read the last page of. Brown Bear is one of those books, so my shortended and condensed version is (read REALLY fast)....Red Bird - Tweet Tweet (I do ad-lib the animal sounds), Yellow Duck - Quack Quack, Blue Horse - hairball (I can't do horse sounds), Green Frog - Ribbit, etc.

So this weekend, I am reading the book and Tessa just walks off because some shiny object caught her eye. So, I just keep reading, the next page was White Dog and Tessa did her woof woof. I thought this was a conincidence, but decided to test her and said Purple Cat too which she meowed, Black Sheep she a-a-a-a-a'd (she leaves out the b), red bird - twee twee, etc. She did almost every animal with out looking at the book and I didn't read them in order to make sure she hadn't just memorized the sequence.

I just think it is so amazing that she has already memorized this book. It's one of her favorites (from her buddy Jack).