Ellis - 15mo

I took Ellis to the Doctor for his 15 month check-up & shots. He did great. He is 25lbs 3 oz (45%) and 32.5" tall (85%). The doctor was very pleased with his progress and said not to worry about his speech yet, she said he was right on track. He probably says about 10 words right now, maybe a few more, but most of his communication currently comes in the form of grunts, screams, and laughs. He has the BEST smile in the world, it totally melts my heart. He's only developed this funny giggle/laugh. I need to capture it on video and post.

He's moved up to the Toddler class full-time and is doing great. He loves being able to run around everywhere and by far his favorite toys are the shopping carts. At home he'll push anything around (chairs, laundry baskets, boxes, vacuums, etc.) but he also has a particular fondess for carrying the broom around. He's a strange boy sometimes.

We've also changed his nickname from Buddha to Hooch (although I still call him Buddha a lot). He is the messiest eater and he drools all the time. The other day at dinner, he had blackberries smeared all over his face and was droling up a storm (due to teething). Well he startd shaking his head from side to side and the combo of that and the slobber swinging around, I immediately decided to pass the nickname, Hooch, along to him. My dad used to call me that growing up and it's only fitting that my son get the name also.....ESPECIALLY when he lives up to it more that I did.

DOLLY

I got the best (early) Birthday present ever from my dear, sweet sister......tickets to see my all-time favorite, Dolly Parton. She's amazing. Most people don't give her the credit she derserves. She plays the dumb country blonde to her advantage and laighs all the way to the bank. She's owns the rights too all of her songs (wouldn't sell the rights to "I will always Love you" to Elvis when he wanted to sing it) She broke away from her manager, Porter Waggoner, back in the day when women just didn't do that.

Anyway, it was a great show and I had such a great time. I will post more pictures when Kirsten get back (with her camera) from the cabin.

Thanks K-Rock.

WHAT????

Last night, while Tessa was watching Tinkerbell, I was cross-stitching. I know most of you just fell out of your chair laughing at the thought of me cross-stitching. It doesn't seem to be my style, but I LOVE it. It's very therapeutic for me. Anyways, if I do it when Tessa's around she normally tries to climb all over me, plays with the scissors, pulls the threads, and constantly asks "Can I do it, Mommy" NO, you can do it when you are 10, you're only 3, so that's seven more years! Two minutes later "Can I do it now?"

When you get older, sweety. Then she asked "I can do it when my beebos (aka boobs) get bigger?" What the HELL? Where did she learn that? I thought she may have stumbled on her words, or gotten something wrong, but she kept asking it. I've never said anything to her about her beebos getting bigger or anything. I finally asked her where she got that from and she said "Daddy" to which he replied "I never said no such thing". She always points out how Daddy, Tessa and Ellis have little beebos and Mommy has big beebos and somehow she's figured out that she will get bigger beebos as she gets older.

Oooooohhhh, the things kids say!

Quirks

Seeing a post from Samanthat on her daughter Penny who has a fear of sinks with soaps, reminded me of some of Tessa's quirks. In general Tessa is not afraid of anything. She has no fear of water, animals, even storms. When we have bad thunderstorms she just stares out the window and says "Look Mommy, it's blinking" (aka lightning).

For some reason, though, she has developed a fear of the bath drain. The tub in our bathroom has a stop that you push down to close and when bumped or touched the wrong way can open easily. So of course, with all of her toys, buckets, AND Ellis in the tub, it gets bumped and opens. She flips out. It's gotten a little better since we have been working with her on it, but for a while. She would start screaming and pushing Ellis out of the way, which in turn would freak him out since he didn't like getting knocked over in the tub. It's very strange, since she developed this fear recently. She's gotten better where she doesn't start screaming or shaking, but she always lets us know "Don't let the water out, Daddy". We have to wait until she's in bed before draining the tub.

The other quirky thing is that she doesn't like flushing the potty when not at home. This fear I think I can explain. She was at the new playground by my parents house with my Mom, and had to go potty. They are newew, nicer, public potties with automatic flushers. I guess since she was so small, the sensor didn't work quite right and it flushed while she peeing. Then at the same time a lady started to dry her hands with one of those X-lerator hand dryers and I think it was too much at once. Since then she never wants to flush in public. On our way back from Jekyll Island she had a total melt-down when I flushed and for 20 minutes was screaming in the car about how I flushed the potty. Sometimes I can coax her to do it, but it's still a little wierd.

LOVE

Tessa LOVES everything now. It's her new word. This morning I was wearing these cute little red shoes and Tessa said "Mommy, I LOVE your shoes. Wow, they're cute." or the other day when I was changing she said "Mommy, I LOVE your belly button." And on Tuesday she asked Mike "Daddy, do you LOVE purple butterflies?"

It really is pretty funny how she says it all the time. Her other phrase is "Ooooh Maaaaan" Last night I said, alright Tessa, it's bedtime and she said "Ooooohhh Maaannnn". She just cintinues to crack me up. I can't wait until Ellis starts talking, and just listen to the two of them.

Classic Tessa

My parents came back from the mountains today (my mom was up there all week, soooooo jealous) and we had them over for dinner. We just grilled some burgers, had some fresh corn from the mountains, cucumber salad and fresh peaches from the mountains. While eating dessert, Tessa tried to eat her ice cream with her hands. So in an attempt to help educate Tessa, Opa said "Tessa, you can't use your fingers! Dogs don't even eat with their fingers." then off to the side he said "Because dogs don't have fingers." You could just see the wheels in Tessa's head turning and she said "No, Opa, dogs don't eat ice cream"!

Yeah, Opa, you silly goose.

The kids

Tessa has learned a couple of new expressions. One of them is 'again' and the other is 'because'. Pretty much everything I say is anwered with 'again?". This morning she asked What is today, mommy? and I replied 'Tuesday' and she said 'again?'. In addition to that, everythings is because of something. I'm thirsty because Tinkerbell is laughing" or Ellis is poopy (AGAIN) because he's not listening. And sometimes it just stops at because and then I ask 'because why' and she just says because I said so.

Tessa is taking soccer this summer and so far really likes it. She said she really liked her coach, Diego. I asked if he was cute, she said yes. I may enroll. Mike asked her if he was Mexican, I explained that was not appropiate. Tessa wasn't waying attention as she was taling (again) about doing toe-taps. We've also started Tessa with some swimming lesson. She's had two and already she thinks she's Micheal Phelps. She always wants to swim without her swimmies, she wasnts to go down the water slide (despite her major slide accident) and wants to go off the 'jumping' board. Her swim instructor keeps commenting on how great she is and unafraid of the water.

Ellis is still a little unsure of the whole pool thing. He likes the baby pool since she can stand. We have a little pool at home we bust out sometimes that has a little slide in it. He likes to splash around in there until TEssa comes barreling down the slide and knocks him down. Then he's done and wants out. In the big pool he just clammers on to whoever is holding him. The more we go, the more comfortable he gets. I try to hold him away from me and let him float some. He talks up a storm, but I have yet to decipher what he's saying. I swear he said Princess the other day when pointing to Ms Princess' classroom. He's really ready to move up to the new room.

At the end of the summer there are two kids moving up from the toddler class and then Ellis will move in there. He LOVES it in the room. If I let him walk back to his class, he always veers to the left instead of the right for his room. Ms Laura siad they are working with him on sitting down and staying seated since they do Circle Time in the toddler room. Ellis like to walk too much, so this can be a challenge. He loves to copy Tessa. Whatever she does, he tries to do. If she hides in the closet, he goes and tries to hide in there. If she runs down the hall, he does the same thing. It's SOOOOO much fun watching the two of them together.