More Tessa Updates
November 11, 2002- May 11, 2003
24 to 30 months
Wednesday, November 13th, 2002- We had Tessa's 2nd birthday party on Sunday the 10th. Including Brian, Tessa and I there were 20 people in attendance. For the most part it was a great party. We had been practicing blowing out a candle for weeks so I thought that part would go very smoothly. I had been singing "Happy Birthday" to her and then she would either pretend to blow out a candle or I let her blow out a real one. It didn't go well but I'll get to that later.
Tessa wandered around the house all morning saying "Birthday? Birthday?" She was so excited. In the hallway we strung fishing line along the wall and I hung a series of picture collages I have of Tessa from birth to the present. She's changed so much. I went to Safeway and picked up the cake while Brian got her down for a nap. While she was sleeping Brian used the helium tank to blow up 14 balloons. Tessa woke up at 2:15 just as my sister arrived. I got her up and dressed in her pink pants and new sweater and let her go out to the dining room. She loved the balloons and proceeded to gather up all the red ones. She sat in the rocking chair and greeted guests with her hair standing on end from the static. It was cute.
Casey's gift wiggled it way across the room. By the time I got the video camera out it had stopped. We later learned it was one of those Bumble Balls and when he set the box down it was accidentally activated. My Aunt Merilee and cousin Alicia came down from Des Moines. They hadn't been to the house yet so it was nice to see them both. Martha came from across the street with Esme and Jennifer, Tessa's little friends Ashley and Anna were there, and of course Grandma and Poppa. There was popcorn for everyone to munch on and lemonade to drink.
I had put together a trivia game for all of us to play. Most of the questions were about children's TV shows. I've watched so much of it lately it seemed an appropriate topic. Everyone seemed to enjoy answering the questions and since I had 10 prizes to award just about everyone got something to take home.
We decided to do presents before cake. Tessa got some great stuff! A few days before the party, gifts arrived from Aunt Barbara and Uncle Gary (a GREAT WSU Cougars sweat shirt with TESSA embroidered on the back) and Margaret and Paul (two cute little outfits). She got pop up books and socks from Merilee and Alicia, a beautiful pink outfit from Ashley and her family, a puzzle from Anna, Erin and Joe, a Fisher Price Baby Animal Zoo from the Hyatt's, a shopping cart, little pillow, and clothes from Grandma and Poppa, a vest, tiger t-shirt and animal song toy from Natalie, and the Bumble Ball and Elmo jiggle ball from Casey and the girls. I got her a set of plastic pots and pans. She stopped helping me open presents after she opened that. I should have kept it until last.
Then it was time for cake. I put Tessa up at the table and lit her candle and everyone gathered around the table in the dining room and sang Tessa "Happy Birthday". She freaked out! She started crying and asking for her milk and trying to get down. I was trying to keep her in the chair and her foot got caught and the chair fell over. So I let her down and let her have her milk. I cut a big corner out of the cake to save for her. Aunt Merilee served the cake for me. In all the excitement I completely forgot about the ice cream we had to go with the cake. Oh well.
Most of the guests were gone by 4:30. That's about the time Shilpa arrived. She had a late start leaving Bellevue and then took a wrong turn here in town. It actually worked out perfectly because it gave her a chance to catch up with my parents and we had some time to talk too. I was starving so we ordered pizza for dinner. Tessa played with her toys and had some bites of our pizza. After everyone had left and it was just the three of us again, I put her back in her sweater, stuck her candle in the corner of the cake we'd saved and put her back up at the table. We managed to get some really cute pictures and video of her blowing out her candle and eating some cake.
It was a long day but I think she enjoyed her party. Since she was born on Veteran's Day, we all had Monday off to hang out, clean up and recuperate.
Monday, November 18th, 2002- The weather has turned pretty yucky bit that's to be expected for mid-November in the northwest. We've kept pretty busy despite the rain. I needed to get Tessa's thank you notes out but I wanted her to be involved in the process in some way. Obviously she can't write them herself but I thought she could do the art on each Thank You card. I bought some markers and let her go to town doodling like only a two year old can doodle. I then cut the sheets in half so I had nice card sized notes when I folded them over. I got a rubber stamp that says "THANKS" and another one of a cute little frazzled looking chicken (nothing to do with thank you cards but he was so cute) and used those to stamp on the front so it would look more like a card and not just a drawn on piece of paper folded in half. Then I could write the thank you's inside and stick them in envelopes. They turned out pretty cute. Next time I'll use more of a cardstock grade paper instead of flimsy old computer paper.
The 14th was Tessa's 2 year check-up. She got to see her new doctor and he is SO good with kids. I was really impressed. Tessa was fine in the waiting area but as soon as the nurse opened the door and called her name she pretty much lost it. I had to corral her onto the scale and then take my hands off her real fast so the nurse would have a chance to read her weight. Tessa weighs 23 pounds and is 32 inches tall. Dr. McGill didn't put her height and weight on a chart like Dr. Fukui used to to see where she falls within the national average. He didn't seem at all concerned with her weight like Dr. Fukui was. I'm glad. She's little but she's obviously not underfed or anything. Checking her over was an ordeal as well. Lots of screaming and crying. Thank goodness she didn't have to have any shots! As long as she is healthy we don't need to go back again until her 3rd birthday.
That evening was my 2nd MOPS meeting. We discussed how Mom's try to create the perfect holiday for their family and how it's better to set small goals and then be delighted when you can do more than plan really big and be disappointed when it doesn't all happen. Our next meeting is on December 5th. We are going to do a cookie exchange. We bring 2 dozen cookies and copies of the recipe. Then we get to go around and collect a cookie and a recipe from everyone and leave with a bunch of different cookies to try and the means to duplicate them if we like them. Sounds fun. Now I just have to decide which kind of cookie I'm going to make.
Last Friday we went to Mia's house for playgroup and today we were at Erin's. I dropped my ring off at the jewelers to be cleaned while we were at playgroup and then picked it up before heading home.
Yesterday Tessa and I went up to Tacoma to Cyndi's house to visit with her and her parents. They live in central Washington but are over here for a few weeks to take care of Cyndi after she has back surgery on the 4th. Ouch. It was great to see them and have a chance to catch up. They were like a second set of parents to me when we were growing up. Someday they plan to move back over here to this side of the mountains so I'll be able to see them more often.
Tessa is definitely a 2 year old. She is highly opinionated on everything even when she doesn't know what her opinion means. :) When we had lunch with Cyndi last week she got Hello Kitty pink sunglasses in her Happy Meal and she wears them all the time. They are absolutely adorable on her. She usually wears them upside down. I think they are easier for her to get them on that way. When she wants to watch TV she points and says "button". She knows you have to push a button to make the TV turn on. Her favorite show right now is Teletubbies. She asks to watch them all the time. I think I'm going to start taping them because she will actually sit still for an entire half hour if Teletubbies are on and I can get things done.
Saturday, November 30th, 2002- Happy Thanksgiving! (A few days late.) We went up to Mom and Dad's for the holiday. We ended up leaving earlier than I would have liked but Tessa hadn't had a nap and was in a pretty bad mood. She fell asleep in the car before we even go to the highway and slept all the way home. Anyway, dinner was excellent as always. Turkey with all the trimmings. I brought a big container home of turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes. Mom even sent pumpkin pie and gingerbread home with us. Tessa loves the gingerbread. I'll have to make some. Now it's time to gear up for Christmas. We're celebrating here this year. I'm very excited.
Let's see... on the 23rd I left Tessa at home with Brian and headed up to Bellevue to spend some time with Shilpa. I got there about 1:30 and we went to a really good Indian restaurant near her place. We ate there when I was up for a visit before and I couldn't wait to go back. After lunch we went to Bellevue Square and wandered around. The place was packed but we had a good time. Before going back to her apartment we stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few things we would need for the pasta she was making for dinner. We finally turned off the lights and went to sleep about midnight. The next morning we walked to Starbucks for coffee and scones and then made a quick stop at Lakeshore Learning Store so I could get some things for Tessa before it was time for me to head home.
On Tuesday we had lunch with Cyndi at Wendy's. Tessa made quite a mess trying to salt her french fries. Cyndi is going to have back surgery on December 4th so I'm not sure when we'll get to have lunch with her again. We've been getting together pretty consistently.
One night this past week, I can't remember which, we had another first here in the Smith house. We had put Tessa to bed and she was in her crib jumping like she usually does. There were occasional breaks in her aerobic routine where we thought she might have fallen asleep but then the jumping would start again. After awhile she started saying, "Cold, cold". I thought that was a little odd since we had the heat up and she had on her warm pajamas. I went in to check on her only to find that she had removed her pajama bottoms and her diaper and then peed all over. No wonder she was cold. So, her pajama bottoms, her crib sheet, her blankets and even a few of her stuffed animals all took a spin in the washing machine. Luckily her three favorites- Elmo, Moose and Bunny- all escaped getting wet. We got a new sheet on her mattress and some new blankets out and started the bedtime routine all over. Now we have onesies that snap at the crotch that we are going to put on her under her pajamas. Even if she gets her pajama bottoms off she shouldn't be able to get to her diaper.
While Tessa was napping yesterday I got out some of the Christmas decorations and started putting thing up. My first project was the mantle. I have a mantle to decorate! Mom had brought down Santa and the Reindeer for me to put up. They are all intact (no missing antlers!) and look so nice up there. My great Grandma Delpha was very good at ceramics and Santa, his sleigh and the 9 reindeer (you have to have Rudolph!) are treasured pieces. I put Grandma's ceramic Christmas tree on the other end of the mantle. It looks so nice.
I completely forgot to mention that our digital camera arrived on Tuesday so now I can take pictures of whatever I want and have them up on the web in the blink of an eye. It's so cool! Our memory card is on back order so we can't be too annoying yet. Once the memory card arrives we can take something like 235 pictures at the highest resolution before we have to off load them to the computer.
Anyway, last night I was going to go down to Washington Park for the tree lighting ceremony but it was 31 degrees! I read about it in the paper this morning and it sounds like everyone had a pretty good time but froze to death. I saw the lights this evening when I drove past the park on my way home from the grocery store. Good enough.
Tuesday, December 10th, 2002- It's been a busy 10 days. On the 1st we had a cord and a half of firewood delivered. Half of it stayed here and half went next door to Casey's. Now we can have fires in the fireplace all winter. Last Tuesday Tessa went to Martha's house for a few hours in the morning so Brian could go in to work for an early meeting. I rushed home at noon to pick her up and as I came out Martha's back door I saw the FedEx truck getting ready to pull away. IT was the memory chip for our digital camera that had been on back order. As I'm signing for the package, Mia pulls into our driveway with Ashley and Anna for playgroup. Busy day.
The 4th was a big errands day. I got the Christmas cards mailed out, renewed my car tabs and got new license plates in the process, and I baked about 5 dozen cookies to take to my MOPS meeting. That was on Thursday night. We had a cookie exchange and a really nice party for the holidays. Our next meeting isn't until the 9th of January.
Last Friday was the Centralia Tour of Historic Homes. There were 6 house on the tour and are all within about 9 blocks of my house. My friend Linda from work and her husband Jim did the tour with me. The houses were all really nice but I find the Victorian style of decorating way too busy and cluttered for my taste. I loved the architecture and all the crown molding and such but the flowered wallpaper (flowered everything actually) and all the little nick-knacks would drive me nuts. My favorite house is just 2 blocks down the street. It's more in the Craftsman style with nice clean lines and big rooms.
Anyway, Saturday I had to work a few hours in the morning. It's our peak time at work and lots to do. Sunday was another busy day. My parents arrived about 9:45am and we were all soon loaded into our car and their truck to go get a Christmas tree. Casey went with us to get a tree for his house. We found a nice on at Bill and Bea's and brought it home. Tessa was ready for a nap but won't go down if she feels she's going to miss out on anything so Mom, Dad and I went shopping for awhile so Brian could get her down for a nap. She ended up only sleeping for a half hour but the shopping trip was productive. I found a WSU Cougars sweatshirt at Wal-Mart and a gravy boat at one of the outlet mall cookware stores. We grabbed some Arby's sandwiches to take home and eat.
After lunch we all got changed and headed over to the Westminster Presbyterian Church for a hand bell concert. Martha has been a member for several years and this year we got to see Esme play too. It was a good concert and considering Tessa had to be fairly still and relatively quiet for more than an hour and a half, she did really well. Every time they would finish a song she would say. "More music!"
When we got back home Mom helped me put the lights on the tree (Dad and I had to run back to Wal-Mart because I didn't have enough) and Brian and I finished decorating the tree after Tessa had gone to bed. She can help next year but this year it just seemed easier to do it ourselves. It took me 3 days to string 16 feet of popcorn and it barely goes around the tree 3 times. Looks kind of goofy but oh well.
Today Tessa and I went up to Mia's house for playgroup. Tia and Macy came this time. We don't get to see them much so it was nice to catch up. It sure rained hard today. We haven't had rain in awhile (we're way behind on our rainfall totals for the year) and it was really windy too. Kind of neat to hear the rain pounding against the windows.
Saturday, December 21st, 2002- Falling behind again... On the 11th (Poppa Wayne's Birthday!) Tessa and I went to the Taxpayer Account Administration Holiday Luncheon. They had it at the Elks again this year and a bunch of us refused to pay $13.00 for bad food so we all met at Taco Time before the party for lunch. Once we got there we were all segregated way in the back at tables with signs on them- "Do Not Serve- Already Eaten". I know it was done so the wait staff would know who was eating there and who wasn't but it was buffet so that didn't really make much sense. Oh well. It was the most boring 2 hours of my life (so far). I didn't win any of the door prizes and those of us in Data Entry don't even know the rest of the people in TAA since we're in a different building. At least I can say I went this year.
After we got home I put Tessa down for a nap and headed for the kitchen to get some things made. I got the Hot Buttered Rum Mix done and in the freezer and then started on the fudge. Well, in my haste to get it all done before Tessa woke up I didn't read the instructions carefully and used a whole can of evaporated milk (12 oz) instead of 2/3 cup (5 oz). Since I had never made fudge before (not this kind anyway) I didn't notice anything was wrong right away but it said to refrigerate for 2 hours or until firm and when it was still rather liquid even by the next morning, I finally figured out what I did wrong. I had made sludge, not fudge. Oh well. It made great dip for graham crackers. :)
The 12th brought presents in the mail for Tessa from Margaret and Paul. The 13th we went to the Lewis County Mall (or "The Small" as it's usually called) to pick up some things at Hickory Farms, Hallmark and Sears. The 14th Tessa and I battled a wind storm to go out to Rainier for lunch at Suzi's house. She now works in the other building with all the other TAA people and I never get to see her anymore. Not to mention the fact that Kassie is a year and a half already and I can't remember when I saw her last. Mia joined us with Ashley and Andrew. When we arrived Suzi was out in their 5th wheel finishing up lunch preparations because their power was out! We sat and watched the branches blow off the trees as we ate.
Later that evening we went to Staples and bought a photo printer so we can print the pictures we take on the digital camera. The look really good but I'll have to change the way I organize things to prepare to work on my photo album. After Tessa went to bed I had quite an adventure putting together a gingerbread house. I don't think I'll make that an annual tradition. It was very frustrating. I didn't even make the walls and the roof, they came out of a gingerbread house kit I got at Costco. It looks cute but it was way to much time to get the walls to stay up and now I'm not sure where I'm going to put it once I start decorating the table on Christmas day.
On Sunday the 16th I left Tessa and Brian at home and went to the Women's Christmas Celebration at the Foursquare Church over in Chehalis. Linda from work had invited me. I made Turkey Pesto Roll-ups for my appetizer contribution and had my wrapped ornament for the gift exchange. I met some nice ladies, had some great food, and enjoyed the entertainment. Some of the ladies from the church dressed up like nuns and did the musical numbers from the movie Sister Act. They really fit their parts and did a great job. The ornament I got in the exchange is a really pretty colored glass, kind of teardrop shaped ornament that was made by Linda's son. Makes a wonderful keepsake for the evening.
The 16th we got presents for Tessa from Grandma Romona and I finally mailed of the gifts to the Keppeler's and to Jacob. The 19th took us out to Rainier once again for a playgroup at Tia's house. The 4 girls were together again. Everyone is so busy that doesn't happen all that much anymore.
Yesterday we made the 85 mile trek up to Seattle to go to the children's Christmas party at the PaineWebber office. The party was to start at 1:30 so we arrived at Mom's office about 1:15 but someone decided to push it back a half hour so we went ahead and got a seat in the conference room where Santa would arrive. When he finally got there Tessa looked cautious but when she saw all the other kids getting presents from Santa se started asking, "Turn? Turn?" Tessa's name was finally called and we went up to see Santa. She got within 3 feet of him and the screaming began. I got a picture of her clutching her present to her chest as she's screaming but she wouldn't get anywhere near him for a picture. Once we were back at our seats and Grandma suggested she open her present all the tears stopped like a faucet being shut off. She got a Farm Animal See 'n Say and played with it most of the car ride home. As Santa was leaving we caught him in the car and did manage to get a picture of Tessa being held by Brian about 2 feet away from Santa. That will have to do for this year. The traffic home was terrible and Tessa was quite unhappy by the time we got home. She slept well last night though.
This morning Tessa got all dressed up in her Christmas dress and we went over to the Church of the Nazarene for the MOPS Angel Breakfast. The Christmas Angel (the pastor's wife dressed as an angel) came in and told the kids the story of Jesus' birth while they ate Angel Halos (frosted Cheerios), Angel Wings (Frosted Flakes), fruit, muffins and juice. Tessa was fine as long as the Angel kept her distance. This afternoon Brian made Divinity. I don't like Divinity but I'm sure Brian and Casey won't have trouble finishing it off.
Monday, December 30th, 2002- Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Our first Christmas in our house was great! Last Monday I had to go drop off some paperwork at the doctor's office so we can get copies of our medical records. Our doctor is leaving the big clinic that is about 6 miles down the freeway and joining a smaller practice that is 6 blocks away! We could have stayed with the clinic and just be transferred to another doctor but I really like Dr. McGill. The only convenience we lost when we moved out of our apartment was that the doctor's office was right there next door. Now we gain the convenience back. Not quite next door but pretty close. That morning I made cookies (Chocolate Chip Oatmeal) and in the evening Cyndi came down to visit and drop off a present for Tessa. She just loves the purple feather covered phone!
On Christmas Eve Mom and Dad arrived about 4:00. Brian got home from work just a few minutes after that. We ate fried chicken and Caesar salad for dinner and then piled into the car to go look at Christmas lights. I had hoped to see the houses that won the lighting competition in the paper but I didn't feel like driving to Morton. Once we got back home I got Tessa in her pajamas and we went across the street to Martha's house for the Christmas Eve party. Mom and Dad were watching Tessa so I could safely have something to drink. Mom seemed to have fun mingling and showing off Tessa while Brian, Casey, Dad and I sat in the living room and talked with David, Heather and Jennifer. We headed back home a little before 9:00 so I could get the roast in the slow cooker. It was going to take 18 hours to cook. We later learned 16 hours would have probably been enough (it was a little dry).
I was awakened by the high winds at about 4 am but Tessa slept through them so we got to sleep for a few more hours. Tessa got up about 6:30. Once we were all up and had a little coffee, Mom took Tessa out in the motorhome to distract her for a few minutes while Dad, Brian and I got all the presents out of the utility room and under the tree. We took a few pictures before all the ripping and tearing began. When Mom brought Tessa in she didn't need to be shown what to do. She got so much stuff. Blocks, a doll, a playhut, books, a table and chair set, a big Clifford the Big Red Dog, a toy microwave, a camera and binoculars, bathtub letters and numbers, a Little People school bus, Playdoh... I could go on.
After everyone finished opening their presents and we all had some breakfast it was getting close to Tessa's nap time. Mom, Dad and I went out looking at houses for sale while Brian stayed home and got her to sleep. We got back just in time to start getting dinner ready. The roast was still in the slow cooker but Brian got the potatoes peeled, the salad was tossed, the biscuits ready to go in the oven, and the green beans ready for the microwave. I set the table and Dad opened the champagne. Dinner was pretty good except the roast was a bit dry for my taste. Mom, Dad and Casey all said it was really good though.
We headed outside after dinner so Brian could play with his new remote control Hummer. He already has a remote control car but this one is big enough it can go in the grass. Tessa got to try out her tricycle. It has a handle on the back so I can help guide her along until she gets better at steering herself. It was really cold and windy out so we came inside pretty quick and had pumpkin pie. Mom and Dad left for home a little before 6 pm. Tessa was pretty wiped out after such a busy day. She was asleep not long after they left.
Brian worked on the 26th and then took the 27th off so Michele could bring her computer down to be fixed. This past Saturday I made a run to Costco and we took down the tree and all the other decorations. I love Christmas but it's nice to have the living room back. While we had the corner empty we moved the stereo out from underneath the stairs and over to the corner. Now Tessa's little table is under the stairs and there is some storage for some of her toys. Kind of her own little play area tucked out of the way but she can still be with the big people.
Yesterday Brian replaced the door knob set between the entry way and the kitchen and put up the new front porch light I bought. The old one was broken and was driving me nuts. The new one looks so nice. We also moved the CD rack out of the living room and into one of the closets in the computer room. We needed to get it out from under the stairs since that is now Tessaland and I was getting sick of her rearranging them all the time. Now they will stay in alphabetical order. This morning I had to go back to work. After being off since the 10th it wasn't an easy thing to do. I work tomorrow, have Wednesday off for the New Year's holiday and then work Thursday, Friday and probably Saturday since this is a busy time in our section. Did I ever mention that I won the competition to name our new section? By the end of the year, all of Taxpayer Account Administration will be in one building and my section, Data Entry, will merge with the Data Management Section which is currently in another building. They had a contest for everyone to submit ideas on what our new section should be called. Management sorted through them and picked the Top 3 for us to vote on. My suggestion made it to the Top 3 and was eventually voted the winner. When we all come together we will be known as ICAP- Image Capture And Processing section. Pretty cool, huh?
Let's see... Tessa's favorite phrases these days are "NO, don't want it!" and "I'll do it!". We have a two year old on our hands. She loves to have books read to her, she can count to 10 pretty well without prompting, she loves to feed her dolls with their little bottle, and much to my dismay she loves to crush everything I give her for snack and stir it in her little pots and pans. "Cooking, Mommy." She tells me. Thanks Tessa. Why don't I do the cooking for now.
The Rose Bowl is on January 1st! Go WSU Cougars!! 
Tuesday, January 14th, 2003- Wow. It doesn't feel like 2 weeks since I've done an update but I guess it has been that long. New Years was pretty uneventful around here. We stayed up after midnight and watched the fireworks on TV that they set off at the Space Needle. I think the KING 5 news team had been drinking. They sure were fun to watch as they let their hair down a bit. New Year's Day was kind of depressing since the Cougars pretty much let Oklahoma walk all over them in the Rose Bowl. Oh well. They're just maintaining tradition I guess- make it to the big game and lose.
On Friday the 3rd Cyndi was back to visit but this time she brought her computer with her for Brian to fix (notice a trend here?). Anyway, she had a lot of viruses on it and Brian pretty much had to wipe everything and start over. The next day Tessa stayed home with Brian while I went up to Olympia to have dinner with Cyndi. We wanted to continue the religious discussion we had started when she was here and it had been quite awhile since I had seen her without Tessa being with me. Monday brought a beautiful, sunny, mid 50's day and a visit from Linda. Linda and I know each other from work but we've really become good friends since we moved because she lives here in Centralia. She brought us some homemade canned yummies. I've already begged her for (and received) a second jar of her cinnamon applesauce. YUM! This is not like the wimpy stuff you buy in the store. This cinnamon applesauce is delicious. She's going to give me the recipe. I've never really had the desire to can anything before but for this stuff, I'll learn!
Last Tuesday Mia brought Ashley to our house to play and today Tessa and I went up to their house. The girls are so funny together. They have a whole room full of toys scattered around the floor but they both want to play with the same thing. Lots of "MINE!" being screamed. IT was always the same way at the daycare so I know it's typical behavior. That's why we always had about a half dozen of each of the more popular toys to try and avoid conflict. But in the end the girls get along and I treasure the time I get to spend with Mia. We need to schedule another Mom's night out soon when Tia and Erin are both available too.
Brian took last Thursday off to stay home with Tessa because I was in an all day Taxpayer Account Administration Retreat. Well, that's what they called it anyway. I don't really call going a half mile down the road from the building you work in to sit in the big auditorium of another state building with 120 of your co-workers all day long a retreat. They didn't even let us escape for lunch because they wanted to do Recognition Awards during lunch. My section was nominated for the team award but we were snubbed again. "It's such an honor just to be nominated...", yeah right. Anyway, they started off the day talking about the state budget and how we're 2.5 billion dollars in the red and al the cuts were going to have to make and all the staff our agency is going to have to cut. Hard to put a nice spin on any of it so they didn't even try. The rest of the day was full of "team building exercises" and such and when 4:30 rolled around we all pretty much stampeded for the doors. I would have rather been back at my desk keying. Yeah, it was that bad.
Friday after work Tessa and I had lunch with Cyndi at Burger King and when we got home I did a very quick job of washing the car. I took it in on Saturday to have the brakes done and it was just too hideously dirty I had to do something to it. Kind of like wearing clean undies to the doctor I guess. Or cleaning up the house before the maid comes. Not that I've ever had that pleasure but I hear people do that. The maid thing, not the clean underwear thing. Sunday Tessa and I met Gwenna, Dawn and Reese at McDonald's in Tumwater. Reese has several months to go before he turns 2 but he already outweighs Tessa by about 10 pounds and is a good 4 inches taller than he is. He's quite the little guy. They brought a Christmas gift for Tessa and she just loves the necklaces and the little purse they got for her. She wears the necklaces all the time and carries her sunglasses and her fake cell phone around in the purse. So cute. :)
Sunday evening we went across the street for dinner at Martha's house. She does Sunday dinner every week but she usually has a lot of people to feed. This week they were celebrating David's birthday. I told Martha that we'll have to do some of the dinners over at our place. Now I just have to figure out what to serve! Yesterday I did some rearranging in Tessa's room. We are getting ready to put a twin mattress in there on the floor as our first step toward a big kid bed. I moved her dresser into the closet but we need to get some sore of extendable bars so we can secure the closet doors shut. We're also going to put a gate on her bedroom door to keep her from wandering in the night. We have her door rigged so it won't shut all the way because she just loves to go in there and shut the door and then stand there and knock on it until we come and get her out. My biggest concern is her jumping. Usually when she wakes up in the morning or after a nap she'll stand in her crib, hold onto the railing, and jump up and down until we get her out. She also seems to use it to calm herself if she doesn't want to sleep. I'm hoping that since she will be able to get out of bed herself, there won't be a need to jump anymore and I won't have to worry about her cracking her head on the window sill or something.
Tessa has really been into music and dancing lately. When she says "music" it comes out sounding like "no neck". It took me forever to figure out what pounding on the table and rocking her head back and forth had to do with having no neck. She'll dance whenever she sees someone on TV dance and loves to dance if we play music on the stereo. Her counting is getting pretty good too. Nothing much past 14 but she gets all the lower numbers right most of the time when she's saying them. Now we need to work on visual recognition of numbers.
Wednesday, January 29th, 2003- On the 18th I moved Tessa's dresser in to her closet and we set up a gate on her door and put a twin mattress in her room on the floor. I was hoping transitioning to a big bed would be easy but I guess she's still attached to her crib. Luckily we still had her crib in her room because she won't sleep on the mattress. She did sleep there all the way through one night but that's because she fell asleep in the rocking chair in the living room and didn't even notice she wasn't in her crib until she woke up in the morning. Oh well. Eventually we'll get her in a real bed.
On the 20th I was off work for the Martin Luther King Day holiday so Tessa and I went to Mia's house to play with Ashley and Anna. I'm looking forward to the weather being nice again so the kids can play outside. Today we went to Erin's house to play. Erin's house isn't very big but Anna has a lot of toys that the other girls don't have so they seem to have fun.
Last Thursday I had to lay all my cards on the table and tell my boss I will be leaving in the middle of March. I wasn't going to turn in my notice until mid-February but I didn't have much of a choice. Brian and I have been planning this for awhile but we wanted to be absolutely sure we could live on just his income and since January and February are typically the heaviest times at work, I didn't want to just up and leave in the middle of a heavy keying cycle. Currently I work 6 am to noon and then Brian drops off Tessa so he can start work at noon. Because of the new computer system we have at work, the work flow is different and our section typically doesn't get very much work until 11 am or noon. They changed our core office hours to 8:00-4:30 so it kind of forces people to work a later shift. We had quite a few 8 hour people who would work 6 am to 2:30 but it just wasn't efficient for getting the work done. I really can't adjust my schedule so for now my boss is letting me stick with my usual 6 am to noon. Only 44 days to go!
I had to work on Saturday from 10 am to 3 pm. We'll be working this Saturday as well. I had signed up to take a class at the community college this Saturday and I'm not very happy about having to miss it. Maybe they'll offer it again next quarter. Saturday evening Tessa did the sweetest thing. I was sitting on the floor leaning against the couch watching TV when Tessa came over and stood next to me. I turned and gave her a little kiss on the cheek and whispered in her ear, "You're my favorite daughter. " She put her arm around my shoulder, leaned her head against mine, and said, "best friend". I burst into tears. It was the sweetest thing I have ever heard.
She's become quite the little ham. If something bad happens (or something she thinks is bad) she puts her hand up in front of her mouth and says, "Oh, my, gosh." She also likes to use an uncooked piece of spaghetti as her magic wand and walks around the house waving it and saying, "Hocus Pocus!" One of her favorite shows is Franklin and on an episode a few weeks ago, Franklin and Bear were putting on a magic show. That's the only thing I can think of where she might have learned that. She's also started in with "What's that?" quite a bit. Especially when we are reading books. One of her favorite foods is still Key Lime Pie "yo-yuck" (that's how she says yogurt). She'll walk up and shake your hand and say, "meet you!", her version of "Nice to meet you!"
On Sunday we went up to visit Grandma and Poppa while Brian and Casey stayed home to watch the Super Bowl. Tessa got some new shoes that have hearts on the side that light up when she walks. We went to Taco Time for lunch. Tessa didn't want any Mexi Fries or any of our tacos so she ate 2 packets of ketchup and some ice from my drink. Nice lunch, huh? Luckily she had a pretty good dinner. After lunch we went to Albertson's to pick up a turkey roast for dinner. Dad was going to cook it over the fire on the rotating spit. It turned out great! Anyway, we're standing in the checkout line and Tessa looks over at the magazines and points and says loudly, "Oprah!" Yep, there was Oprah on the front of her "O" Magazine. The checkout lady started cracking up. I guess she doesn't get too many 2 year olds going through her lane who knows Oprah on site. :)
Yesterday after work I took Tessa over to the Hands On Children's Museum and got signed up for one of their parent/toddler classes. I also started a membership so we can go and play anytime we want. The class is every Friday and starts the week after I quit working. Mia and Ashley are taking the class right now and have already signed up for the next one. I think we are both going to sign the girls up for a two day a week Dance and Play class here in Centralia. March, April and May are going to be busy, busy, busy!
Sunday, February 9th- It's been a fairly quiet couple of weeks. I've spent a lot of time watching the news channels- crying with the families who lost a loved one on the Space Shuttle Columbia and watching President Bush puff up his ego as he moves us closer and closer to war with Iraq. One news story brought the country together and the other seems to be tearing us apart. I had to work on Saturday the 1st so I spent most of my time listening to National Public Radio on my headphones. I had seen the news coverage of the Columbia before I left for work and was a bit surprised by most of the radio stations who were just kind of sticking it into their news as an "oh by the way, the space shuttle broke apart in the atmosphere, no survivors" report. It wasn't easy to key that day.
On the 3rd Tessa and I had lunch with Cyndi. I had to take the 4th off work because Brian had to be in early and Tessa was going to go to Martha's for a few hours but she was too sick to go. Her nose was running really bad and she took several naps in the rocking chair throughout the day. She's all better now thankfully. Two days later Mia came down with Ashley to play since we had both missed the playgroup at Erin's on Tuesday.
Last night Tessa stayed at home with Brian so I could go out to dinner with Mia and Erin. It had been a long time since we had done a Mommy's Night Out. Tia couldn't make it because of her work schedule but we're going to try and do another one soon. We went to El Sarape for Mexican food and margaritas. It's a good thing the Perfecta Margarita was so delicious because it cost more than my meal! We had a nice time talking and made it most of the way through the evening without mentioning our girls. :) It was a lot of fun.
Only 32 days of work left! Yikes!
Sunday, March 2nd- I knew I was getting behind but I didn't know I had gone so long. Lots to catch up on I guess. Let's see...
Cyndi and I have continued our weekly lunches at Burger King. The topic of discussion lately has been religion. Looks like we have agreed to disagree. We have differing views on faith, evolution, the accurateness of the Bible, and other lofty religious premises so I think for now we'll move on to something a little less serious like finding her the perfect man. :)
Back on February 12th we officially got rid of the bottle. I was at Costco and saw a 4-pack of sippy cups that I handed to Tessa in the cart and told her, "These are your new big-girl milk cups." She hasn't had a bottle since. She's not a big fan of drinking milk out of a cup yet but drinks a lot of water and calcium fortified orange juice. The move away from so much milk has helped in her digestion so we no longer wait around all day every third day waiting for her to "produce". :) We are all much happier.
On Valentine's Day we had another cord and a half of wood delivered (half here and half to Casey's). The other 3/4 of a cord lasted 2 and a half months. Since the weather is getting warmer, I assume we won't go through this load quite so fast. We also went to H&R Block and had our taxes done. We didn't get back as much as we hoped but at least we didn't have to pay this time. Next year well have a full 12 months of mortgage interest to deduct and should see even more (I hope).
The 15th was a full day. I went up to the Applebee's in Lacey in the morning to have lunch with Stacey, Mary and Gwenna. Gwenna and her family were moving to Indiana so we all wanted to get together one last time. In the evening Brian, Tessa and I headed out to Bob's house for a Smith family gathering. Bob and Betty were both turning 50 this year and there are also 3 or 4 other family members who have a birthday in February. Most of the gang was there. All the kids are growing up so fast. Tessa got to meet hr cousin Katie who is about 4 months younger than she is. It took a little bit for them to warm up to each other but then they had a lot of fun playing together.
The rest of the weekend and the President's Day holiday were fairly quiet. On the 18th our chest freezer was delivered. Now I can buy more than a pound of hamburger and 2 loaves of bread at a time. The next day while I was in the shower Tessa got hold of a pencil I had left within her reach and decided the vertical blinds in the living room needed a little decoration. Luckily she drew on the plastic side and not the fabric side. It came off pretty easily with Simple Green. On the 20th, playgroup was at our house. Mia and Erin both made it and so did Karen and her little one, Annaliese. We hadn't seen them in several months. Now Anna is walking and is able to play with the older girls easier. The girls all played for a long time and then we ordered pizza for lunch. I pulled Tessa's little table and chairs into the kitchen for the kids to sit at but they spent more time running in circles through the living room and kitchen then they did eating. One of them even managed to string toilet paper all over the bathroom while we weren't paying attention. Oh well. It was a really fun day.
The next morning we met Mia and Ashley at the Hands On Children's Museum. Since we have a membership we may as well use it. The girls had fun playing in all the different rooms. Tessa loves the sandbox and the water table. She also likes going up and down the stairs in the toddler playroom. I guess they fascinate her since she is not allowed to go on the stairs here at home. We even got to see Grandma. Mom was in town with her 4-H kids and knew I was going to be somewhere on Capitol Campus at the museum. I just happened to be in the front room where all the windows are when she and Caris were going by. They came in for a few minutes but Tessa wasn't very thrilled to see her. I hadn't prepared her for seeing Grandma that day so she was a little confused. Plus she was busy playing and didn't want to be social.
Saturday Tessa and I met Grandma at her hotel in Olympia and accompanied her and the 4-H kids to the mall for dinner. Tessa shared my Chinese food (she loves rice) and rode in one of the little car shaped strollers you can borrow while we did some wandering around in the stores. We headed home about 7:30 because we had a half hour drive ahead of us and Tessa was already showing signs of needing to get to bed. She is usually down between 7:15 and 8:15 depending on what we've done that day. Some days we get lucky and she'll sleep until 8 am but most of the time she is up between 6:30 and 7 am.
On the 26th I turned in my letter of resignation. I'm still kind of nervous about being home full time because part of me feels like I won't be contributing but mostly I'm excited. I want to take full advantage of my time at home and keep busy with playgroup and other activities with Tessa. Mia and I are going to sign up for the play and dance class soon so for several weeks we'll have somewhere to be 3 of the 5 weekdays. The 27th Tessa spent a few hours in the morning at Martha's house so Brian could go to a meeting. Tessa loves to help out with the twin babies that Martha watches.
Last Friday I left from work and drove up to Kent to have my transmission looked at. My car has been doing something funky. A few times now I've gone out, started my car, put it in gear (at least I thought it was in gear), push on the gas and the car won't move. Luckily the 4 times it has happened Brian was here and can temporarily fix it for me by rocking the car back and forth until it rolls. It only happens in the morning after the car has been sitting all night and had only happened 4 times since it first happened on February 1st. I hoped the problem was something that would be covered by the warranty on the transmission but Bill found something new. I'm going to have Mia's husband look at it and see if he can fix it for me. I'd much rather drive to his shop in Olympia and give him the business than all the way back to Kent. If it was covered by the warranty it would be one thing but since it's not, I'd rather have Matt do it. For my birthday next year, I get a new car. :) Brian's will be paid off by them and we'll be able to replace his car payment with mine.
Today we were over at Just Wood Furniture to look at corner china cabinets for the dining room and ended up buying a kitchen table. I had gone there several weeks ago and they didn't have the kind of table I was looking for but this time they did. I have to call tomorrow to arrange for delivery but I'm excited about getting the old dining set out of my pretty kitchen. I'm excited I'll have the new one by my birthday party next weekend. We're going to use the table in the computer room and at least one of the chairs will be used upstairs at my desk.
Tessa has some new phrases she likes to use. She'll stick her finger up in the air and say with great glee, "I have an idea!" I'm not sure where she learned that one. A few weeks ago I was sitting on the couch and she crawled up into my lap and put her hands on my cheeks and said, "So cute!" I think she got that one from Grandma. :)
Sunday, March 16th, 2003- I'm 2 weeks behind again. It's been busy though. On the 3rd Tessa and I stopped by Just Wood Furniture to arrange for delivery of the table and chairs. He said he'd have the guy bring it right over. All the way home Tessa kept saying something in the back seat but I couldn't figure out what it was until I got her home. She kept saying "West Pine" over and over. That's part of our address! She had heard me tell the guy at the store our address and picked up on that part of it. Now if you ask her what our address is she'll say "West Pine!".
On the 5th I arrived at work to find my desk decorated with streamers and confetti and "Good Luck" and "We'll Miss You" balloons. My co-workers had also bought me a pretty garden ornament. It's an angel holding a little "welcome" sign. In the last several months I seem to have started an angel collection. I'll need to get going on decorating my dining room so I can get a little display shelf up so I have more room to put them where little hands can't reach. :) Ruby got me a pretty angel made out of bent wire that her hairdresser makes. During break time we all had Cinnabon cinnamon rolls for my going away celebration and then lunch was our March Birthday potluck.
The 6th was a normal workday until it was decided it would be the last day of the keying cycle. Suddenly it was my last day of work. I cried. What a surprise. I thanked my supervisor for putting up with my restrictive work hours and turned in my credentials. Saying good bye to everyone wasn't very hard because the people I know the best would be at our place on Saturday for my Birthday party. After work Tessa and I went to Mia's house for playgroup. We were the only one's who could make it so it was a quiet afternoon with only Tessa and Ashley to fight over the toys. :)
The 7th I finished up the grocery shopping for the party and Brian helped me bake my cake. We're still playing with Nina's recipe for her chocolate chunk cake I guess. It rose up way above the pan and looked so pretty when I took it out of the oven. But then it fell and looked so sad. We ended up turning it out onto a tray and frosting the bottom of it.
My birthday was a combination of good and bad things. As I pulled back the curtain after my shower, Tessa was standing there with a card that said "MOM" on the envelope (Daddy helped). She wanted to give it to me so bad but I convinced her to let me dry off a little. She was so excited about the circle on the envelope (The "O" in Mom). I also got a couple of cards from Brian. He had bought me a Dust Buster a few weeks before as a gift (It's what I wanted! Really!) and I knew he had bought me some DVD's but I had to wait to open those. Mom and Nat were the first one's to arrive with Linda and her husband Jim close behind. We ended up having 25 people here including Brian, Tessa and myself. It was a good crowd. I got some nice things too. A tiger shirt from Nat, $50 from Mom and Dad, a gift certificate for the Olympic Club from Paula, a cool plant (it looks like an alien) from Mia and Matt, a bouquet of flowers from Dena, and a gardening apron and gloves from Ruby. Erin even made me a cake. If the weather had been nicer more people could have spilled out onto the patio but it was pretty cold. We had borrowed Martha's long table and her folding chairs so we had two table set up in the dining room for people to eat at and the seating in the living room. Everyone seemed to enjoy the build your own taco salads and my cake was ugly but yummy! I won't talk about the bad things that happened.
Mom and Dad had stayed in the motorhome and Natalie stayed next door at Casey's (part of the bad things) and in the morning we all went to Shari's for breakfast. Dad went over to Sunbird and spent the gift certificate we got him for Christmas while Mom stayed and played with Tessa some more. It was about 1:00 when the house was put back into some semblance of order. I was tired!
On the 11th Tessa and I were supposed to go to lunch with Cyndi but just as I got on the freeway I saw steam coming out from under the hood and had to turn around and go home. The radiator hose had come unhooked again. Brian came home and fixed it for me but it looks like we're going to have to get a new radiator for it. On the 12th Mia and Erin came down with the girls for playgroup. After a bit of playing we all headed over to the Vanity Fair Factory Outlet to get some clothes for the girls. I only spent $35 but got several cute things for Tessa. Mia and I then went over to Thorbeck's to sign up for a dance and play class for the girls that starts April 14th. For several weeks we will have a class on Monday and Wednesday down here and a class on Friday in Olympia. When we got home I was able to get Tessa to take a nap in her big girl bed. It's still just a mattress on the floor but I was happy I actually got her to do it. Most days we start out with her on the big bed but she ends up in her crib because I get so frustrated that she won't stay laying down.
The 13th we finally made it up to Tumwater for lunch with Cyndi and that evening I went to my MOPS meeting. Yesterday I went to Mary Weeks baby shower. I sure hope the ultrasound was right and she is having a girl because I've never seen so many pink clothes in all my life. :)
Tuesday, March 25th- Tessa is actually taking a nap today! She naps about 3 days out of the week. Some days I really want her to take a nap because I need a break but other times I'm glad she didn't because she ends up crashing and is in bed for the night by 6:30. Some days I need the hour or so break during the day and some days it's nice to have a few quiet hours in the evening. Now if we could just set up some sort of agreement about which days would be which!
Since I last updated, Tessa has spent at least 2 nights in her big girl bed, maybe 3. I can't remember. We brought the box spring down out of the attic so it looks more like a bed now and she seems to associate it more with sleep. She slept in it last night but when she woke up at 2:30 for a few minutes, I put her back to sleep in her crib. I'm not quite ready to take it down yet. It's a crutch but until she is easily sleeping in her bed, I don't want a sleepless night trying to get her back to sleep in her bed.
We still have lunch every week with Cyndi but since I'm not already in town for work, I may have to cut back to every two weeks just to save on some gas money. The cheap stuff was $1.83 at Chevron the other day. I think supreme was $2.03. Not nearly as high as other parts of the country buy high enough that I try to cram all of my errands into one trip if I can. My car is still having some radiator problems anyway so it gives me an excuse to only drive into Olympia once or twice a week.
Last Thursday was Tessa's first trip to the library and my first trip to the Centralia Library. Tessa knows all about being quiet at the library. She's seen some of the characters on her favorite children's shows going to the library. We went back again this morning to return the books we got last week and get some new ones. She was doing a good job until we got to the check out counter. There was a metal book cart sitting there with some metal book ends sitting on it. She decided she was going to make some music and started clanging them together. I told her to be quiet which was met with a crying jag and "I'm sorry Mommy" through her tears. I think I would have preferred her "music" to the sobbing and dramatics.
I've been spending quite a bit of time this past week watching the news of course. Some days I don't watch at all and other days I can't seem to turn it off. I'm kind of shocked at how many US and British casualties we've had already. I think most of America is. Bush and his buddies kind of set this up to the American public as an easy war. Sounded tome like all the Iraqi people would be thrilled to see us and the Iraqi troops would just be surrendering left and right, not tricking our guys into an ambush. :( I won't drone on and on about my political stance but I think we're in over our heads a bit this time. Even though I'm not really worried about terrorism here in our little town, we have 15 gallons of water stored and pretty much everything else on hand that all of the disaster preparedness brochures recommend.
On Sunday Tessa stayed home with Brian while I went to the Northwest Women's Show in Seattle with Cyndi, Brenda and Brenda (Cyndi's sister and her brother's girlfriend). We all met at Shari's for breakfast and then headed downtown to the Seahawk Stadium Exhibition Center. There were lots and lots of booths handing out free stuff (lotion, foot scrubs, make-up, candy, etc.) and we all came home with a big bag full of goodies. The best part of the day was hearing Susan Powter speak and meeting her in person to have her autograph her book. She's a fireball. Heck, if she can be at 260 pounds and now look as incredible as she does, I should be able to get to my ideal weight. She's 45 and looks fabulous. I have 13 years to get there too. :)
Monday, April 7th- First I want to say that I was devastated to hear about the death of MSNBC reporter, David Bloom. He died in Iraq over the weekend of a blood clot. He was only 39 years old and left behind a wife and 3 young daughters. I loved watching his reports from the front lines as her traveled with the Army's 3rd Infantry Division and since I don't know anyone personally who is over there this time, he was the closest "friend" involved in the war. He was an amazing reporter and I'll miss seeing him put a human face on the war in Iraq.
It's been a pretty busy couple of weeks. March 26th we had our playgroup at Mia's house. The 27th I had a MOPS meeting and then had to get up in the night because Tessa fell out of her bed. She wasn't hurt, just a little rattled. It took about 45 minutes to get her back to sleep and since she refused to go back into her big girl bed, she spent the rest of the night in her crib. :( I was too tired to argue. The 28th was our first class at the Hands On Children's Museum. It's from 9 to 10:30 on Friday's and I have been calling it "school" to try and get Tessa familiar with the concept of going to a classroom with other kids. We do art projects, sing songs, listen to stories, have snack and play in the Tot Spot (a room in the museum specifically designed for the little ones). Her teacher, Mr. Scotty, is really nice but sometimes he's really bubbly and I think that scares Tessa. Scares mea little anyway. :)
Saturday the 29th I went up to Lacey and met two of the other mom's that are in the same Western Washington Moms e-mail group I'm in. Leah brought her son, Trevor, and Maureen brought her daughter, Riley. It was nice to finally put some faces with the names and get to know then a little better than you can through e-mail. It was a beautiful day so when Tessa and I got home we all got out in the yard and pulled some weeds and mowed the lawn for the first time this spring. I got some cute pictures of Tessa "mowing" with her little plastic lawn mower.
Last Wednesday we had playgroup at our house. Since we meet between 10 and 10:30 we've decided to start incorporating lunch into playgroup so that we and the girls get something to eat before everyone finally makes it home around 1:30 or 2:00. I made Easy Mac and hot dogs for the girls and the Mommies had rice and chicken rolls that I bought at Costco. Friday was our second day of "school". Tessa did better and didn't seem as clingy as she did the first day.
On Saturday we took down Tessa's crib. She hadn't been in it since the night she fell out of bed. Now there is a lot more room in there to spread her toys out. She's been doing really well. Some nights she wakes up crying and I have to go in and rub her back for a few minutes to get her back to sleep, but she is pretty much on the same sleep schedule as she was in the crib. Now we just have to tackle potty training...
Monday, April 21st- April 9th was Shilpa's birthday and since she was going to be coming through town after a day in Vancouver, she stopped so we could go out to dinner. We went to Casa Ramos for Mexican food and margaritas. Shilpa is moving to Denver at the end of April for a new job so this was kind of our last chance to sit down and catch up. The original plan was for her to spend the night but with an 80 mile drive to get back home and a 10:00 am meeting, it was going to be easier to leave that night.
On the 11th Tessa and I went to her class at the Hands On Museum. We stayed and played for a little while after class and then went around the corner to Meconi's and got sandwiches for Brian, Casey and I. Before we left home that morning I had moved as much of the small furniture out of the living room and dining room as I could. Brian and Casey were going to move the couches and the dining room table out onto the patio while Tessa and I were gone so the carpet cleaning guy could come and clean the carpets. They weren't supposed to be there until 12:30 but when I got home about noon her had already been there for almost an hour due to a cancellation earlier in the day. We went through the laundry room into the kitchen to eat our sandwiches and by the time we were done, the carpets were clean. They still needed about an hour to dry so Tessa and I went to Wal-Mart for awhile and Brian hung out next door with Casey. We had all the furniture moved back in by 2:30.
On the 13th I left Tessa home with Brian while I went to Cynthia's house for a Natural Bodycare party. They sell products for skin and hair care. We got to soak our feet and try different lotions and some of their other products. It was fun and I managed to only spend $38.00 even though there were lots of things in the catalog I was tempted by.
Monday the 14th was supposed to be the first day of Ashley and Tessa's new class at Thorbeck's here in town. We stayed for about the first 20 minutes and then asked for a refund on our way out the door. The class is supposed to be for 2 to 6 year olds but Tessa and Ashley were the only two young ones in there. The other kids were 4 years old and up and all seemed to know each other. The teacher was trying to get our girls involved but they were playing Duck, Duck Goose and Red Light, Green Light and doing soccer drills that the girls were just too young for. We may start taking classes at the Olympia Center again in June when we are done with class at the Hands On Museum. But the classes there are 3 days a week so we'd be driving to Olympia quite a bit. I suppose for $19 a month I can pick and choose what days I want to go. If we went to every session in June it would be a little over $1.40 per session. That's well worth the price.
We were supposed to have playgroup at Erin's on Wednesday but Anna was sick. Mia and I made plans to meet at the mall but my car was acting up again so we ended up staying home on Wednesday and went to Mia's on Thursday. Friday we did not have class at the Hands On Museum because it was Spring Break and the teachers were all doing Spring Break trips with the older kids. Tessa and I headed up to Kent to spend the night at Mom and Dad's house. Since it was Good Friday the stock market was closed and Mom had the day off. We spent Friday stopping at garage sales, buying Annalisa a wedding gift at Target, and doing a little shopping at Mervyn's and Ross. We stopped for lunch at Taco Time and Tessa ate quite a bit of food. Back at the house Tessa played and I tried to relax. Poppa came home from work and wore Tessa out playing. Nat stopped by for awhile just before dinner. Tessa inhaled quite a bit of rice, ham and peaches. For dessert, Dad and I went to get Blizzards while Tessa stayed at home with Grandma. She finally crashed in Grandma's lap at 9:30 pm. Tessa and I stayed until about 12:30 on Saturday afternoon before heading home.
Yesterday was Easter Sunday. Like last Easter, we spent the morning out at Tia and Toby's house to hunt for Easter eggs. Tessa liked the bunny even less this year than she did last year. Oh well. After she realized the bunny wasn't going to come close to her unless she wanted him to she was able to relax and find some eggs. I think she picked up a dozen of them. After the egg hunt the girls played on Macy's swing set and on the trampoline. Tessa just loved that. She wore the cute little dress that Grandma bought her on Friday and amazingly it didn't get dirty. Her shoes however, are going to need some scuff repair stuff on them.
For Easter dinner we had Casey over and Brian BBQ'd T-bone steaks while I prepared the biscuits, mashed potatoes and sautéed mushrooms. It was a very yummy meal. We had strawberry cheesecake for dessert while we watched Buffy. It usually isn't on Sunday nights but it had been pre-empted by Mariners Baseball last Tuesday.
Friday, May 9th- This will be my last entry on this page. Tessa turns 2 and a half on Sunday (Mother's Day) so I will be starting a new Updates page the next time I do this. There will be a link to the new page at the bottom of this page and on Tessa's main Crib Notes page.
Anyway, time to catch up on everything. I guess I'll go all the way back to April 22nd. It was a beautiful, sunny day and Tessa and I spent the afternoon outside blowing bubbles while we waited for Brian to come home with our new lawn mower. After he got it assembled, I mowed the backyard and he mowed the front. It really needed it.
The 23rd was playgroup at Erin's house, the 24th Tessa and I had lunch with Cyndi and I went to my MOPS meeting (we learned how to do flower arranging), and the 25th was Tessa's class at the Hands On Museum. Mr. Scotty read Rainbow Fish and the kids got to color a fish and glue brightly colored scales to them. She promptly ripped them off when we got home but it was cute while it lasted. When we got home, I gathered up my ingredients and made lentil soup. I had never made it before and was very pleased with the results. Yum!
That Saturday, I took Tessa over to the Cooks Hill Community Church (where the MOPS meetings are held) to attend the church's Spring Carnival. Many of the activities were for older kids but we did the cake walk a couple of times, had some popcorn, and looked at the goats and bunnies in the small petting zoo. Later in the day, all three of us walked over to the railroad tracks across the street where they had an old steam engine displayed as part of Railroad Days.
Sunday was very busy. Mom arrived in the morning and brought Tessa's new big girl bed with her in the truck. After we got that unloaded we played outside and had some lunch. We were all going to Annalisa's bridal shower but we didn't have to leave for several more hours. I was quite surprised to get a phone call from my dad, JB. He was in the area and wanted to come by for a visit. We hadn't seen him since the day after Christmas 2001 so I was thrilled he wanted to come see Tessa. She was really shy around him and wasn't cooperating very much for pictures. I gave him a tour of the house and we had a chance to catch up a little bit before he had to go.
After JB left we changed our clothes and headed 45 minutes north to the bridal shower. We were a little late but so was the bride-to-be so it worked out well. Tessa was very well behaved except that she wanted the ribbons off of the presents. We got back to Centralia about 4:00 and dropped Tessa off at home with Brian so Mom and I could go to the outlet stores and get Tessa a few outfits for summer. Now she's all set with some cute capri pants and shirts.
Tessa seems to be in a phase where she would rather not wear clothes at all (god, I hope it's just a phase). I leave her alone for just a minute to find she has stripped off all her clothes and her diaper. The other day I was headed back to the living room from the computer room and I hear her say, "Look at me!!" I round the corner to find her spinning in circles in the living room without a thing on. I can tell the teenage years are going to be rough.
She is also quite a good counter. Must have inherited her math skills from her Dad. If left on her own, she can count to 11 with no problem. If you ask her to count she says, "1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 14..." Apparently 4 and 5 have offended her in some way and get left out.
Last Friday we went to Tessa's class and then came home and spent most of the day outside playing in the yard. The weather was beautiful and I even got a bit of a sunburn on my arms. The next morning we headed up to Lacey to meet Tia, Erin and Mia at Sears to have the girls' picture taken. Ashley didn't want to stand in front of the back ground with the other girls but we finally got a good picture when her big brother, Andrew, sat next to her. So this year the picture is the 4 girls, and Andrew. :)
Later that evening the four of us met up at my house for our mommies night out dinner. I had a gift certificate for the Olympic Club from Paula that she gave me for my Birthday and I finally got to use it. We were going to walk down but the weather was kind of cold and wet (what a surprise) so we drove down. We tried one of the beer samplers and all had dinner. It was a lot of fun and nice to get away. After dinner we came back to the house and had margaritas and sat around and talked for awhile. Originally it was going to be a sleep over but everyone had obligations elsewhere so we called it a night around 11:30.
Brian turned 44 years old on the 6th. He had meetings all day and couldn't take it off like he usually does so he took the 5th off instead. We had cake and sang Happy Birthday a day early. :) Tessa and I stopped in to see him at work between his meetings after she and I had lunch with Cyndi. I got to see a lot of my friends from work too. That was nice to catch up a little bit with everyone.
Yesterday Tessa and I went to the Olympia Farmer's Market. We wandered around with Tia and Macy, Erin and Anna, and Mia and Ashley. I had been hungry for Indian food and gobbled down my chicken curry that I got for lunch at Curry In A Hurry. :) After lunch we wandered over to the waterfront and the girls had fun throwing rocks in the water while the mommies talked. We stopped at one of the little bakery stands on our way back through the market and bought cookies for dessert. It was a lot of fun and nice to do something different than our typical playgroup days. Brian came home a little earlier than normal so I could go to my MOPS meeting. We have another one on the 22nd and then that is it until September. Regina has asked me to be on the steering committee for next year so at least I'll be able to stay in contact with everyone. Cynthia and I are planning to get together for a couple of play dates this summer as well.
Today was Tessa's class again. We only have 4 classes to go now. Tessa was being a little pill this morning and we almost didn't go but I'm glad we did because she really had fun and we did some cute art projects. She really enjoys circle time and we had bananas and strawberries for snack today which was a big hit.
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