Trois

Tess had her 3-year-old annual checkup yesterday, and she checked out as a healthy specimen.  She weighs 30 lbs. (45th percentile) and is 38 inches tall (65th percentile).  She's meeting all the benchmarks at this age and didn't even need any shots.  (Although she did get a fingerprick.  "Mom, it a baby shot, not a big shot.")  The doctor wasn't concerned about our lack of potty training progress.  I guess she'll do it when she's ready.

A quick peek at some of Tess' creative undertakings.  She does not the house to be too quiet, so she likes  to listen to music and she loves dancing.  

She also likes to set up "tea parties" with her friends all over the house.  The following are common scenes:

Tess likes being at home and doing her own thing, but she's had a tough time with going out lately.  She has a really hard time with mornings.  She loves to snuggle on the couch and watch TV and she can spend 2 hours eating breakfast.  Getting her ready to go anywhere before noon is a real challenge.

She gets particularly worked up if it's a social situation.  This week, she's thrown tantrums about going to church, going to playgroup, going to exercise group at church and going to the gym.  She'll cry and scream and come up with any number of excuses why she can't go.  "The kids take my toys!  The kids take my coat!  The kids take my baby brother!"  Once we actually make it to any of those places, she does fine and usually doesn't want to leave when it's time to go.  But there's just no reasoning with her beforehand.

She has these kind of tantrums periodically and then she seems to outgrow them, so I'm trying to ride this cycle out.  Granted, she has had to adjust to a number of changes around here lately. 

And for the most part, she's taken it all in stride.

How The Grouch Stole the Dinner Salad

Tess has been quite the character lately.  Tonight at dinner, she kept pointing at something while saying, "The Grouch! The Grouch!" and acting like she was scared.  We let it go the first couple times, but she persisted, so I asked her if she was talking about Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street.

"No," she said.  "The Christmas Cat in the Hat Grouch."

"Oh!  You mean The Grinch?"

"Yes, The Grinch!"

"But why are you talking about The Grinch?"

"The Grinch in the salad."  Huh?

And then we looked at the salad bowl and saw The Grinch.  In profile.  In the salad bowl.

The Grinchy culprit.  I ate the Grinch and then she wasn't scared anymore. 

Ryan's comment:  Tess' reference to the Grouch/Grinch reminded me of a recent comic strip:

We got a dusting of snow this weekend and rascally Tess had fun playing in the snow and throwing snowballs at Dad.

Tess has also been doing more drawing lately.  I love seeing what comes out of her little head.  This is a portrait of Tess and her baby brother.

And a picture of Tess and her school friends.  She threw Baby Brother in for good measure.  You can tell which one is Tess because she's the biggest and has eyelashes.

Being such a monkey can be positively exhausting.  This is how we found Tess asleep in bed the other night.  I guess it was kind of heavy reading. 

Drew's personality is also beginning to shine.  He's started smiling and talking to us.  I absolutely melt when his little lips curl around to form a perfect little "Coo!"  I could watch this over and over again.  My Cooey Drewey.

My boys.  Do I have a cute family or what?!

Of Late

Happy to report that I have nothing too eventful to report.  Ryan's back at work and I'm learning to juggle the two kiddies at home alone.

In my need for sanity and rest, Tess has become something of a TV junkie.  Today I thought we'd see how long we could last without turning to the tube.  Tess needs background noise, so I got a bunch of kids music CD's from the library--every one of which drove me batty.

Tess was much more creative today when she wasn't plugged in to the telly.  This is a photo of her "experient," which she defines as "something new I try."  This experiment involved creating a bridge out of cushions and pillows and doing tricks to get across to the other side.

Without cushions, the couch made a "perfect lil bed" for Teddy and Tess read him bedtime stories. 

She also painted, colored, played computer games, helped me with a Valentine's craft, read library books and played dollhouse.  We made it until 4:00, when I turned Curious Buddies on continuous play and let it go for 3 rounds.

Speaking of Valentine's crafts...

Heart pockets just right for love notes and a Valentine's Day treat.

And a paper heart garland that I made because I couldn't find one I liked in the store.  I thought Tess would enjoy helping me "curl" the hearts, but the novelty of it wore off quickly.  Still, she approves of the final result:  "I love all your hearts, Mom!"

Speaking of love...

I may be biased, but this baby of ours is getting really cute lately.  Ryan has a special knack for getting newborns to talk and he had Drew cooing tonight.  Both Ryan and Nana claim they've seen Drew smile, but I've yet to see it.  He is definitely starting to develop a little personality.

Drew's hair is lightening up like Tess' did, but we've been surprised to see new hair growing in too.  Tess was basically a cue ball once she lost all her dark hair.  Tess loves to point out and laugh at his "spiky hair."  Today she was doing a fish puzzle at the library and she held up a puzzle piece shaped like a puffer fish next to Drew.  "Look Mom, the puffer fish has spiky hair just like baby brother!"

Awww...our little baby puffer fish.

Dressy Drewser

Ryan's been lamenting the fact that Drew's wardrobe selection is more limited than Tess' was, so I had to do at least one "What Drew Wore to Church Today" post.  Today was Drew's first day at church, and we basically had to take him because I don't think he'll fit into this outfit next week.  Already it's too short and he kind of looks like he's wearing knickers.

Drew was a good boy and slept in his carseat for all but the last 15 minutes of church, which meant that nobody saw his knickers anyway.  But let me assure you that he looked very handsome for the 15 minutes that he spent out of his seat screaming in Relief Society.

 

Mommy loves this little boy.  Does he remind you of this little girl? (Minus the corn syrup bow, of course.)