Santa

Santa came to Tessa's daycare yesterday with two of his reindeer (Blitzen and Prancer??). She loved it and she squealed and laughed. One of this pictures is with her teacher Ms Marlena and her two friends Samantha and Mekel.

Yesterday was also a big day because she has her first tooth coming in (still trying to get a picture of that) AND........ she has started crawling. It's not pretty, she army crawls and scoots and wiggles, but she gets there. It seems that electronic devices such as remotes, phones, etc. motivate her. I have a couple of videos, I'll post in a couple of days once I get them downloaded and edited.

Hope everyone has a GREAT holiday.

Growing Up

Well, my little bug is growing up (faster than I'm prepared for sometimes). Starting Jan 5th, she is officially moving to the Infant II room. They usually move up to Infant II when they become more mobile and active. Starting today and through the Holidays she'll spend a few housr each day there to get acclimated. Although she can't crawl yet, she somehow through a series of scoots, rolls, and lunges manages to move around on the floor. She can't control the direction yet. If she focus' really hard on a particular toy, she ususally ends up scooting backwards. But it's a big milestone (at least for me).

Advents Calendar

Nata gave us this cute German Advents Calendar. I put these little Ikea stuffed toys in for each day. It's so cute and such a fun tradition I remember from my childhood. Christmas time is when I miss Germany the most. I miss the sights, smells, Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market); Gluhwein (basically hot sangria); Kartoffelpuffer (potato pancakes); SNOW!!!!!

Tree & Family

We had a great weekend. Tessa was a little fussy after getting her shots on Friday. We had a fun dinner with Regina, Milton and Keagan; and Bobby and Summer. Keagan LOVES giving hugs and kisses to babies.

We also picked out our Christmas Tree, we got a beautiful Douglas Fir and will decorate it this week sometime. Tessa loves having the outside indoors. She stares at the tree constantly.

***********Milestone*********

I swear she's starting to say 'Mama'. I know it's more babble than actually calling me, but I don't care. In my heart she's saying 'Mama'. Mike's not so conviced yet.

My Bug

We had a great Thanksgiving up in the mountains. Tessa napped through the first half of dinner (which allowed us to eat an uninterrupted meal) and she woke in time for Schnapps and dessert. We had an awesome time at the Tree Farm (see attached pics). She had so much fun and just laughed through the rain and cold. She was so exhasuted she barely finished her bottle and fell asleep in my arms before we even left.

It was great to see part of the Sower's clan. Tommy was a little leary of this whole baby thing and I think he was afraid it was contagious. Tessa loved sitting with Aunt Chris while she sang to her. Omi and Grandpa were awesome at taking her in the morning so that mommy could sleep in. Although, Kirsten and I did get a scolding that made us feel like we were 12 again. Tessa woke up one morning around 4:00am and Kirsten, Tessa and I were playing and being a little loud. Mom walked in and said "Give me that Baby and go to sleep" and took Tessa. I guess we were being too loud and once mom took Tessa, she was asleep in about 10 minutes. I guess we're never too old to get a butt-chewing.

This coming weekend we are having a Hartley Family Thaknsgiving, so I'll post some pictures from that also.

***MILESTONE*****

Tessa has started getting on her knees and rocking. She can scoot backwards, and occaisionally launches herself forward, but I think this is more by accident than on purpose. She's getting close, though. She can also sit up for short intervals unassisted. But just like her daddy, she can't sit still for long.