Tess of the Higginbothams (and Drew, too)

Everyone is growing up around here.  

Drew will be 12 weeks old this Wednesday. He is so big I had to remove the infant head support from his carseat today.  I get tons of comments about what a big baby he is.  

Last night I was surprised to watch Drew reach out and grab one of the rings on his bouncy seat.  I thought it was maybe a fluke until he did it over and over again. (Sidenote:  Tess calls his vibrating bouncy seat the "shivering chair" and today she asked me if the shibering chair was cold.)

Tess has been making good potty training progress.  I haven't changed a stinky Tess diaper in about a week.  She can tell when it's coming and she runs to the bathroom.  

The rest is coming slowly.  (OK, that wasn't a good choice of words.)  I switched her from M&M's to Mike & Ike's because I couldn't stop eating the M&M's by the fistful.  She thinks Mike & Ike's are a special treat and they seem to be working.  

Maybe a little too well.  Today in the car she told me her hands were "all cold and hot," and I was surprised to see how chapped they are.  I think it's from all the potty handwashing.

A couple more pics of the kids' room.  I put up the matching car hooks and hung up their blessing outfits.  

Tess has been having fun with the table & chairs set from her Dipsy.  She calls that corner her "little house."  She likes to do "craps" on the table.  Recently been telling me that she needs to do her "homework" there, so I print out worksheets for her to color.

Drewey's been busy with his cooing.

My Aunt Trea sent us her college copy of Tess of the d'Urbervilles when Tess was born.  For a long time now, this has been one of Tess' favorite books.    She knows it says her name on the front and she calls it her "T-S, Tess" book.  She is mesmerized by the map of Wessex in the front of the book.  She also likes to look at the picture of the "guy who made it" on the biography page.

Lately, she's started reading the book aloud to us.  It's an incredible story of Tess, her baby brother, her mommy and daddy and how she goes to school, has friends and plays with toys.  

The other day she asked me to read her the words in the book.  So we lay on the bed together, and I started in on the story of Tess' father, John Durbeyfield and his dusty, noble d'Urberville lineage.  Tess kept stopping me and asking, "Where's Tess?"  I told her this part was about her dad and Tess was coming later.

The next morning, I snapped this picture of Tess before breakfast.  She was explaining to Ryan:  "This part Tess' daddy.  She come later."

 Too bad poor Tess Durbeyfield didn't have a dad like Tess Higginbotham's.  Her dad likes to have "blower battles."  

Another picture of Tess Higginbotham's daddy.  "He have long legs."  And a tie.  When drawing the portrait, she asked Ryan:  "Dad, you got polka dot tie or blue polka dot tie?"  The polka dots are under the blue part.