William Ellis Hartley

Welcome to the world!!! William Ellis Hartley was born Saturday (4/24/2010) at 10:53am and weighed 7 lbs 9oz and 19.5" long.

We were very fortunate to have another GREAT delivery. I barely had to push at all. We did our regualr pushes, the nurse asked me to stop half way through one and called the Doctor in. Dr Bennett came in and was putting on her gown and gloves when she looked over and hurried over because Ellis was apparently already coming out (I wasn't doing anything). He was just ready and slipped right out. It really was another awesome birth.

Mike and also realized that Ellis' birthday is 4/24 and Tessa's birthday is 5/25. Kind of neat. In another funny little twist, we were at the Hospital during a shift change and when our nurse came in in the morning, she introduced herself and Mike and I both started laughing. Her name was TESSA! It was so wierd talking with and asking Tessa for help when I'm so used to Tessa needing help from ME! She was great and we were once again so lucky to have a great Piedmont Hospital delivery nurse.

Below is a link for some pictures.



Click here to view photos

Chopped Liver

Ms Princess is the most popular toddler teacher at Tessa's current day-care. I'm not trying to sound racist, but she looks a little bit like Aunt Jemima. She's slighly larger, with the real dark skin and short hair. She has a wonderful personality that the children absolutely love. If she is in the room, no one else matters (not mom, dad, Opa, Omi, or anyone).

This morning when I dropped Tessa off Ms Princess was not in yet, so she went into the Infant Room with Ms Laura. Tessa know Ms Laura very well, as she was her teacher for almost a year. Tessa was in the room playing with one of the babies, Jesse. As I do every morning, I told Tessa "Alright, I have to go to work, bye bye I love you." She started to get really upset and didn't want me to leave. Laura and I tried all kinds of distraction techniques that normally work in this situation (bubbles, books, music, etc.) "No mommy, no mommy, don't go. I carry you (meaning pick me up)." Since there was only one baby in there, Laura suggested we go for a walk and look at the fish (they have a large fish tank at the front with a bunch of colorful fish). This seemed to calm her down, so Laura picked up Jesse and I grabbed a sniffeling Tessa and we walked out of the room to go see the fish.

Just as we walked out the door Ms Princess rounds the corner and Tessa lights up like a Christmas Tree and takes off down the hall suealing with excitement and runs right into her arms. Ms Princess picks her up and gives her a bigg hug and a kiss and Tessa turns to me and says "Bye Bye Mommy" and waves and blows me a kiss. Ms Laura and I died laughing. Two seconds ago, she was all upset and begging me to stay and now that Ms P was there, I might as well have been chopped liver. She is such a GOOBER!

Big Girl

She looks so grown up in this picture. She had lunch outside after her nap on Saturday, partially because she was really dirty from playing in the yard.

Mike insisted on getting her this PINK Lawnmower. It's supposed to blow bubbles, but it hardly ever does. She still like to play with it, though. Lawnmower is one of her new words. With all of the nice weather we've been having, more people are outside mowing thier lawns again. When she says it sounds more like Mawnmomer.

Coolest Pic Ever

This has to be the coolest picture. It's from the Volcano eruption in Iceland. Also, here's the link so that you can blow it up and get a better view. It's a REAL picture, I got it from NASA's web site.





http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

Dirt

With the weather finally warming up, we have spent the majority of our time outside in the yard. Mike and I finally planted our vegetable garden this weekend and planted some flowers (a minor melt-down at the nursery prevented us from doing any further shopping for the garden). THis is where my doubts set in. Tessa LOVES dirt. She loves playing in it, sitting in it, and burrying herself in it. We went through three outfits yesterday. She rubs it on her legs, arms, and face and yes she even eats it! She tries to feed it to the cat and the dogs. I struggle with letting her explore and discover nature versus tearing up my flowers. She always wants to pick the flowers, but she won't pick the Azaleas, which have a million blossoms on them. No, she wants to pick my ONE pretty Dahlia or the Diasy. What about my pretty purple flocks (sp?) there are a hundred pretty little purple flowers on that. Hell, she could pick my favorite Haliboris (sp?) we have so much of it.

It will be interesting to see how this summer goes once the tomatos and jalapenos start to grow. I bet she only picks it and eats it once!

Gina

Regina (or Gina as Tessa calls her) took Tessa up to Helen, GA last Friday. Tessa had a lot of fun with Keegan, Makayla, Regina and Marie. Now, included in her repetoire of who all should "Come Home Right Now" is Gina! (It started off with Opa, then Daddy was added and now Gina is on the board).

Visitation

So, currently they are not allowing any visitors except for spouses and grandparents at Piedmont Hospital. Not even siblings are allowed right now. This means I won't get to see Tessa at all after I have the baby. It will be my longest time away from my bug!

She's really developed an attachment to me that I think has to do with Mike being out of town. She gets upset if she thinks I am leaving her. She does great by herself with my mom, but the moment I'm around she's afraid I'm going to leave. She even gets upset if I go to the bathroom. I hope I get to spend enough quality time with her after the baby is born to assure her that Mommy still loves her just as much and will never leave her. I keep telling her that she's going to have a best friend soon who will be her BEST buddy for the rest of her life and they they are going to have so much fun together.

I hope all goes well.

Rocks

I learned something new this weekend. If they swallow something less than an 1" that they should NOT have then they should be OK. Mike was out in the yard playing with Tessa Saturday night when I walked out to talk to him about dinner. He had this puzzled look on his face said "Tessa just swallowed a rock" WHAT???? Luckily, it was a small pea gravel (think peanut M&M sized). I did call the nurse hot-line and she said unless she was having trouble breathing or seemed really upset, she should pass it normally. SO far no rock, but Mike had poop duty/inspection for the rest of the weekend.

Song and Dance

Tessa is really starting to sing a lot more than she used to. In the car, whenever I play her favorite songs, she will sing along with the entire song instead of just shouting out a few select words. She will also 'act' out the songs. Any songs that have some sort of dance to go along she'll dance right along, even when she's strapped into her car seat. Her favorites right now are "Baby Bumble Bee", "Hokey Pokey", "Wheels on the Bus", "Monkey's on the Bed" and "If you're Happy and you know it". It has been so much fun riding around in the car, singing and dancing.

She does still enjoy watching her music "Bibeos" and will now request which ones she wants. Ma-ma-ma-ma (Pokerface - Lady Gaga), Boom Boom (Boom Boom Pow - Black Eyed Pees), Na-Na-Na-Na (So What - Pink). She really likes Pink right now and knows her name, so when she see's her she always says "Pink". When she is tired of a song, she'll just so "No more Boom Boom Pow, next song." Little girl knows what she wants and likes.

Funny Words

Tessa is talking up a storm. Sometimes I understand what she is saying and sometimes I have no clue. When she wants her daddy, she sometimes calls "Hey Buddy" like I do when I'm looking for him. Recently she has started saying "Mike" and of course it sounds just like me. She has also started calling for Opa as "Randy" and sounds just like my mom when she calls for my dad. It's hilarious.

We basically have to tell Tessa a word just once or twice and then she remembers it. She's learning the difference between Tractor Trailer and School Bus. She know the difference between an Airplane and Helicopter. She started saying bicycle (not bike). Most of her statements are sentences now also. She will say "Look! School Bus. Do you see it? Hear it? Bye Bye School Bus. See you later. School Bus is going home".

I don't think she knows I vs You. When she wants to be carried she says "I carry you?" Of course I'm like "I wish". Today when I was leaving her classroom, I told her "Bye Bug, I have to go to work now" and then she said "I go to work. I love you, mommy"

Easter

What a beautiful Easter Weekend. The weather was gorgeous and we spent most of the time outside. Tessa LOVES swinging on the front porch, breaking sticks in the front yard, playing in the dirt in the vegetable garden and finding rocks. We found a worm while gardening, Tessa wasn't too sure about the "texture" of this moving creature, but at least she didn't try to eat it.

We did a little Easter Egg hunt Sunday after her nap. Unfortunately, she was still a little sleepy AND she can be a little crabby when I try to take her picture. Luckily she perked up after we busted out the bubbles. I think bubbles are her absolute favorite. It's like she can't get enough of them.

Below is a link for more Easter pictures.

I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.
Click here to view photos

Tootie

Tessa has had some GI issues here lately and has been a little tootie. Last night after her bath, she was running around naked, tooting away and she kept saying "Toot". Then she kept trying to bend over and see where the toot came from. It was so funny to see her trying to completely fold over/bend in half to look at her little butt. She also always laughs when she toots out loud. She must have picked this up from her Dad. She cracks me up (no pun intended).