Growing

It just sort of dawned on me that I never made a blog announcement about the impending growth of our family!  Although I'm pretty sure that the small handful of people who read this little blog already know.  Anyway...come March 2011 we will be a party of FIVE!

Of course Tessa doesn't really get it yet...but Calder seems to be excited.  He really wants another sister and initially said he wanted to name her Tessa.  We finally got him to understand that it would be confusing to have two sisters named Tessa, so now he's favoring "Sweetie" or "Cutie". 

And for fun, here's my first "belly pic"...Calder style.  I'd say I'm about 13 weeks pregnant in this picture.  And yes, that's the baby coming out of my shoulder with a giant arm.

Fall Fever

We've got fall fever around here.  Well, at least I do!  Who cares that it was a record-setting 98 degrees here on Friday?  Umm...ok, I do.  Bring on the fall weather, please!!!   Despite the heat, we set out to a local nursery to pick up some pumpkins and mums on Saturday.  It's a great place that also has a fun pumpkin play area for the kids. 

Tessa spent most of the time "cleaning" inside this tunnel.  She picked up every single rock inside and dumped them back outside where they belonged!  One at a time, of course.   (Note to self:  Next time, leave the cute white skirt at home.)

Lots of fun pumpkins and gourds:

Tessa found her pumpkin!

And Calder found his!

Strolling through the pumpkin aisles.

Mommy's little helper.

Despite a valiant effort, she didn't get anywhere.

Tomatoes!

The kids loved chasing after the roosters and chickens that roam the nursery.

Calder checks out our load!

Pigtails and other girly things...

I can't even tell you how excited I was this weekend when, after months of trying, Tessa finally let me put a barrette in her hair!   I bought a bunch of them when she was a baby, and it always made me sad to see them sitting untouched on her dresser.  Until this weekend, she would rip them out the moment I put them in her hair. 

So, this morning I decided to push my luck and see if she might actually let me do something more with her hair.  And....voila!  Her first pigtails!  She sat so still for me -- I was shocked!  Obviously, my technique needs a little work, but I didn't want to push my luck too far by trying to perfect them.  Her curls tend to get a bit frizzy after sleeping on them, which is why the pigtail on the right is a bit wild. 

So, while we were getting all girly, I decided to break out some dress up jewelry that I picked up at a yard sale earlier this summer.  She loved her "bakelet" the best.  :)

Soccer

The fall season is upon us, which means it's soccer time!  We signed Calder up for his first soccer "team" this year through a local youth club.  It's actually not so much a team, since they just meet weekly and spend half of the time practicing skills and the other half scrimmaging each other.  Leading up to the first "game", he was very excited...but once we got there he started having second thoughts.  Ultimately, he decided to join in. 

Go Team Bananas!

Going for goal! 

...And this is pretty much how it ended for him.  The team was scrimmaging and using his ball.  He suddently decided he didn't want to share his ball anymore, so he stopped running and sat down on his ball in the middle of the field.  When another kid got the ball loose, Calder lost it.  Ahh well...at least he made it through almost the whole hour! 

Hometown Heroes

A Good Laugh

Dave and I had a really good laugh tonight when he went up to check on Calder and found this:

As I tried to snap the picture without waking him with my laughter, I was immediately taken back to January 2007, when he was a mere 5 months old:

First Golf Outing

A few weekends ago, we got together with some of my coworkers for a mini-golf outing.  It was Calder's first mini-golf experience, and he really had a lot of fun! 

A little lesson for Little T!

Snack break!

Ok, so perhaps his technique needs a little work.  Fortunately (for all of us) we didn't keep score!

20 Months!

Tessa is 20 months old today.  This isn't a grand milestone or anything...but she's growing and changing so much each day, and I like to write these things down. 

Her speech is really taking off.  She actually sounds like she is trying to carry on a conversation sometimes (although much of it is still unintelligible) and she has recently started to say her own name.  Some of my favorite things that she says:  "cookoo" for cookie, "nuk" for drink, and "baka" (we don't have a clue what it means, but she says it all the time!).   

Waiting for the "cookoos" to finish baking!

She is 110% obsessed with shoes. I have a bin of hand-me-down shoes in her closet and she frequently gets it out to play with.  It's good, quality, long-lasting entertainment!  When the closet door is closed, she'll impatiently point to it and yell "shoe! shoe!" until I get the bin out.  She is about 99% obsessed with phones. I can't make a phone call without her yelling "Nonna!" and trying to grab the phone from me. She always thinks Nonna is on the other end, and she is ready to talk to her! Sometimes she realizes it's a man's voice on the other end, and she knows it's Daddy.

Her favorite book and song is Wheels on the Bus.  She'll wave her arm in the air (trying to do the hand motions to the song) to request it.  She also LOVES to look at magazines (any kind will do).  She likes to point out all of the pictures of dogs, shoes and babies. 

Lately she is really enjoying our play kitchen and the big doll house that Nonna and Zaidy brought to her and Calder during their last visit. There is a tiny baby doll that goes along with the doll house, and she loves putting "baby" into his high chair to eat and into his cradle for "night night". It's very cute! She's also showing an increased interest in her babydolls.

She can throw a temper tantrum like a professional 2-year old.  But, she is also probably the most polite toddler I have ever known!  If you give her something, she will thank you ten times over.  Gotta love that!

Settling into her favorite little sitting spot

Sleep Eating

Who knew that you could lull yourself to sleep while chewing a tortilla chip? 


Sleep Eating from courtney on Vimeo.

Hard Work

Trying to act...

...just like your big brother...

...is really hard work. 

We're Going On A Bear Hunt

This video is several months old, but the kids have really been into this book lately, so it reminded me that I never uploaded this one.  I know this is a really popular kids book, but we never had it until I found a like-new copy at a garage sale earlier this summer.  I have my 3-year old niece to thank for teaching us the song that goes along with it!  Oh, and excuse the little one that has to use the bathroom. :)


Going on a bear hunt from courtney on Vimeo.