Monday, February 28, 2011

February 2011 Tidbits

I love that Ryan will take Tess to play outside even when it's freezing cold.

Tonight at FHE, I read Matthew 5:16, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven." I asked Tess if she ever does "good works." "Yes, I do! I do good work on my potty training!"

Ryan and I were talking during Tess' portion of FHE (she usually makes up a game for us to play). We were chastized: "No talking during Family Home Ebening!"

This morning Drew was wrapped in his swaddling blanket, but I'd freed his hands so only his legs were still confined. Tess' observation: "He look like a mermaid!"

New Tess phrase: "It's so 'dorable!"

I think Tess is pretty well daytime potty trained! We are becoming intimately familiar with the bathrooms of our community. (Oh, these are the bathrooms in your neighborhood, in your neighborhood, in your neighborhood!)

"Who made this?" After she watches a show or reads a book, Tess often wants to know who made it. I'm not always sure how to answer that question.

Whenever I'm on the phone with:
Dipsy...Tess asks...What Papa doing?
Nana...Tess asks...What Papa doing?
Meredith...Tess asks...What Lauren doing?
Maureen...Tess asks...What Xander Pants doing?

Tess has been running around, circling a ribbon in the air and yelling, "HEE HAW!" When I asked her what she was doing, she said she was a cowboy catching something. She said cowboys wear hats, shirts and cowshoes. She then corrected herself: "Oops, I mean horseshoes!"

Tess cracks me up when she tips her sunglasses and says, "Nice to meet you!"

Tess likes to put on my jewelry and play "get married."

According to Tess, anything that didn't happen today happened "yesterday."

Tess has been learning how to take a shower. After her shower today, she told me she'd just had a "warm, hot 'sauge" (aka "massage").

Tess informed us at dinner that tomorrow is Halloween. Tess and Mommy will be princesses. We will wear "crowns and beautiful dresses." Daddy will be a prince. He'll wear "nice hair, a fancy coat, shoes and bow on his neck." Drew will be a mouse, with "a nose, little bitty ears, a tail, two teeth and cheese." Tess will carry her little red pail for trick-or-treating. These plans are firmly set in stone.

Getting ready to brush her teeth, Tess climbed up on her stool, looked in the mirror and greeted herself: "Remember me?"

Anyone know how to teach a 3-year-old to stop backtalking?

Tess was watching Drew trying to fit both fists into his mouth. "Look like he playing a trumpet!"

Ryan and I went mattress shopping today. We had a computerized diagnostic test to determine our mattress preferences, which happen to be at opposite ends of the spectrum. Turns out we aren't as compatible as we thought.

I've never known anyone who can take as long to go to the bathroom as Tess. Honestly, by the time she's finished, it's time for her to go again.

On a walk, Tess and Ryan spotted two little dogs, one in a red sweater and one in a blue sweater. Tess told Ryan, "Together they make PURPLE!"

Tess excitedly told me that she was dressing up to play "Princess" with Daddy in her "castle." (Aka "the bathroom"--I guess they call it "the throne" for a reason.) "I be a princess and Daddy be a prince. Drewey, you can be...ummm....the mouse!"

The other day I was telling Tessie that there was a time when Mommy didn't know if she could have children, but then Heavenly Father sent me Tess and Drewey. Today she told Ryan: "Mommy had no friends, so Heavenly Father gave her me and Drew!"

While Tess was eating her lunch she said, "Mom, my face like a plate!" I assumed she meant that her face and plate were both covered with food, but still I asked, "How is your face like a plate?" Her response: "They both white!"

A favorite Tess line: "Mom, make him talk." Usually in reference to either her teddy bear or her baby brother.

When I take Tess out with no Pull-up I feel like an acrobat without a net.

New Tess phrase: "I wish I had that."

We've been checking out preschools for next year. We went to visit one this week and Tess was in her element there. When I asked her what she thought of it being her school next year she said, "I be beary brave. Mom, I wish I could stay here!"

For someone who really hates going to the gym, Tess sure has a good time once she's there. Wish I could say the same for me.

In other potty-related matters, Tess now calls her farts "little peeps."

"I have to go potty quick, Mom!' Music to my ears!

Ryan gave me a gift certificate for a massage for Valentine's Day. When I opened it I said, "Look, Tessie! Mommy gets to have a massage!" She turned around and tried rubbing her back against the paper. "How it work, Mommy?"

Tess stayed dry the entire day for the first time today! It was the best Valentine's Day present she could've given me!

Ryan was at a church training meeting when Tess went to bed last night, and he was at his early morning church meetings when she got up this morning. Tess asked where Dad was during breakfast, and I told her he was at a church meeting. Her response: "At meeting still? He gone LONG time!"

"Mom, know what 'leave me alone' means? It means I need privacy."

"Mom, know another word means 'hungry?' Another word is 'starving.' Mom, I starving!"

"I not doing that!" Tess' response whenever we tell her to stop doing something. Deny all charges.

Today Ryan offered to get Tess out of my hair for a little while and take her to the church while he did some work in the clerk's office. Her response: "I think I stay here." So, I sweetened the deal: "Tess, if you go with Dad to the church, you guys can go get a smoothie together after!" Her response: "How about I stay here? Dad, you bring a smoothie to me?"

"Mom, you know why I shake my hair? Cuz I'm so get-cited!"

Tess was thrilled to find new sunglasses in her heart pocket for Valentine's Day. She's been wearing them everywhere we go, and she often comments: "Mom, it's dark in here!" She tried them on her teddy bear and said, "There, Teddy. Now you look completelylike a movie star!"

Tess hasn't taken a nap in months. This afternoon Tess was so insistent that we not go to the gym I told her she could choose between that and taking a nap. She chose the nap, and she actually took it. If she hates the gym that much, I may have to start going at 6 am. Especially if I can get a nap in the afternoon!

My charming Tessie has taken to calling me "Big Bum." I wouldn't mind so much if it weren't such an accurate description. I told her that it was not nice to say and that I didn't like those words. She insisted it was nice and that she was just "being goofy." I asked her if there were others words she could use to be goofy, and she eagerly rattled off a bunch of nonsense words. Now she'll call me "Skalala" and then ask: "That better than 'Big Bum,' Mom?" Much better.

I have to be careful what I say around Tess--she's been getting me in trouble. Last night I was waiting impatiently for Ryan to get home from work so I could go to Enrichment. When I got home from the activity Ryan said to me, "So, Tess told me that I'm slow. She told me that Mommy said, 'Daddy too slow!'"

I have not changed a stinky Tess diaper in 4 days! She likes putting it "down the pipe."

Tess' description of her tricycle-riding skills: "I can go backways and right ways."

I (Ryan) often ask Tess about her dreams the previous night. This morning we had the following conversation. Tess: "What you dream about, Dad?" Ryan: "I don't remember, Tess. Did you know that people dream every night, but they don't always remember their dreams." A few minutes later, Tess, apparently unsatisfied with my response, asks me: "Dad, you dream about an elephant or cat?" Ryan, playing along: "An elephant." Tess: "The elephant ride a bike. Was it a big elephant or a little elephant?" Ryan: "Big." Tess: "That a funny dream."

We were reading books at the library and Tess was ready to pick out a new book to read. "Mom, you stay right here and don't move. I be right back. You no get in trouble."

Tess and I were discussing what she should do if someone else takes one of her toys. "I have a great idea!" she said. "I get a net!"

"Mom, please call gym we not coming."

New Tess phrase: "But I really, really want.... I really, really do!"

Tess is becoming more aware and concerned about the order of things. At dinner, she'll often ask what we're doing tomorrow: "Mom, after I finish dinner and brush my teeth and do jammies and play with Dad and read book and go sleep--what next?"

Whenever Tess spits out her toothpaste in the sink she says, "ptooey!"

I love the names Tess comes up with for her dolls, such as "Claudee Sashee Pushda." As she says it, you can tell she's making it up as she goes along.

New Tess phrase: "If you say so."

Tess was drawing pictures of our family with Ryan last night. When it came time for my portrait, she asked: "Mom, you got glasses, or just eyes?"

I love baby kisses.

We're now working through the "I don't want to go to the gym" tantrums. (Tessie, not me.) Today she said she wanted everything at the gym to go away. "Mommy, you tell the teachers, kids, toys, ceiling, carpet and walls to go away! You say that, OK?"

"Mom, I have a question for my teachers [at the gym]. My question is, "You go away. You stay in bathroom, OK?"

I'm continuing to hone my skills as a race-relations mediator. Tess has now decided that she doesn't like the teacher at the gym "with black hair." She's an hispanic lady who is as nice as can be and loves Tess. And she has an accent. Tess says, "She talk to me and she talk different. She talk interesting. She say, 'Play with me' and that not nice!"

Tess and I were discussing holidays. I told her that Christmas was a celebration because Jesus was born and Easter was a celebration because Jesus was alive again. She started freaking out screaming, "What Jesus look like? I no want to see him! He no come to my house! I no see Santa, I no see Jesus!"

Tess was reminiscing about Christmas and I told her that Santa would come again next year. "OK, I sit on the couch and wait for him."

When we have to use diaper rash cream on Tess, we tell that the medicine is "doing its job" to get rid of her owie. Last night she told us the medicine "needed a hammer or something" to do its job.

1 comments:

juanita said...

these are so great! Keep them coming! i love the one about Tess saying Ryan was at the church meeting for a long time. And about the smoothie one and trying to get everyone else to leave the gym, she is quite the negotiater.