THREE

Tessa turned three last week and I'm still trying to comprehend how she went from this cute little girl...

...to this beautiful "big" girl in just one short year.
 

I won't lie.  It was a rough year with this one.  But, you can hardly blame her.  Two is not an easy age for little ones, and her world was rocked with the arrival of her baby sister just 2 weeks after her 2nd birthday.
She has quite a stubborn streak, and while we haven't exactly cleared the "terrible twos" quite yet...I think we're starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel.  The other evening when she started into some not-so-desirable behavior after a particularly good day, I asked her "What happened to the nice girl that was here earlier?"  She replied with "All gone. Out."  I guess she had already used up all of her 'nice' for the day!

Despite the adjustment to being the middle child...she loves her little sister SO much. 

 And hopefully it's not just because she can boss her around...

If there ever was a bossy little girl, it's Tessa.  Calder surely agrees.  Last week, when Nonna asked him if he thought Tessa would make a good teacher someday, he said "Yeah. Or a boss. She bosses me all the time." But at least she knows who the real boss is -- she often greets me with "Hi Mommy Boss". :)

Some recent quotable quotes from our girl:

"I have a bottom.  Calder has a butt."

"I want a wreck-a-saurus."  (While playing dinosaurs with Calder.)

Tessa: "Mommy, my face! my face!"
Mommy: "What happened to your face?" 
Tessa: "I cried on it."

Tessa:  "Lucky, you want to try some chocolate?"
Mommy: "Honey, Lucky can't have chocolate, it would hurt his belly."
Tessa:  "He doesn't have a belly!"
Mommy:  "Yes he does, where do you think his food goes?"
Tessa:  "In his tail."



Her favorite things right now are Caillou, her stuffed piggy and her baby dolls.  She's accumulated quite the collection of baby dolls over the last year, although her favorites are still Jaya (left) and Rohan (right).  Poor Rohan needs to get some boy clothes.  She takes very good care of them all, making sure to change their diapers and clothes frequently.

She loves prunes and grapefruit.
She prefers snacks to a meal.
Trying to brush her hair is a living nightmare.
She loves to help.
She loves to sing and listen to music.  
She keeps a huge stack of books in her bed.  She lines them all up and calls them her "class".  Each night a different book gets to be the "line leader".

A few funny things that she says that I can't bring myself to correct...

She likes to go to "resta-haunts".

She misplaces the word "all".  As in, "I drank my milk all."

She says "tree" instead of "three".  She recently moved up to the 3 year old classroom at school and I did a double take when she came home and announced "Mommy, I went potty in the trees today!"

Happy Three to our sweet, spunky, shy, sassy, sensitive, stubborn little girl!

We love you!