Dipsy Visit: October 2009

I don't think I've ever seen Tess as sad as when we dropped Dipsy off at the airport this afternoon. Tess has been on airplanes and she understands what they do: take people far, far away. Tess was sobbing so hard, she couldn't catch her breath. She was heartbroken to see her Dipsy go.

Mom had a nice, long visit this time, so the pace of our activities wasn't as frantic as it has been in the past. Still, we managed to pack a lot in.

Tess loved having another doting adult at her beck-and-call. A well-worn word in our house is "P-w-a-y, p-w-a-y?," which is Tess' way of asking you to play with her. She usually makes this request while pulling you by the finger toward her desired activity. Tess loved showing Dipsy her favorite ways to play.

Slam dunk! No, that man is not Tess' father.

Mom treated Ry & I to some free babysitting time, so we took the opportunity to skip town for a few days! We headed to the Shenandoah Mountains for a fall getaway at the Jordan Hollow Inn. We've stayed there before Tess was born, but it seemed really quiet this time. I guess were just used to more noise now! The quiet was nice though. We picked up some good reads at a used book store, watched movies, took naps when we wanted, and ate lots of good food.

While we were gone, Mom become close friends with the GPS, played "beauty parlor" and went shopping with Tess, and played "Monkeys" over and over again on Tess' toes (for some reason, that's what Tess calls "This Little Piggy Went to Market.") Mom also got to hear Tess' VERY favorite word, "pun-kin," about 150,000 times.

Tess is all about "Huh'ween" these days--as long as it's not too scary! She points out pumpkins everywhere we go, but she's terrified to walk down the Halloween aisle in Target (it kind of scares me too!).

Halloween, Halloween!
Lots of FUN on Halloween!
Black cats and ghosts, skeletons too,
Bats, and witches all say...
BOO!

We couldn't resist taking her to the Halloween Festival at the Nursery by our house. Tess wasn't quite sure what to make of it all, but she joined in once she saw the other little kids having fun.

This little boy loved Tess and offered to show her how to play on everything. We weren't sure what he meant when he wanted to show us the "potty ride."

Oh, of course, a motorized commode. Why didn't I think of that? Well, this ride sure made a big splash with the kids (bad, bad pun)!

Tess picked out her own pumpkin to add to our collection. They had big pumpkins, but apparently that's not what she had in mind.

A Mom-visit wouldn't be complete without manual labor. We undertook a few less-than-glamorous projects that I knew I would never want to tackle on my own: stripping paint off my kitchen counter ledge, painting baseboards and painting the ceiling. Woo hoo! The ceiling was a big job (and my neck is sore from looking up all day long!), but it really looks nice. My mom was an encouraging, enthusiastic trooper--as always!

I know you wanted a close-up shot of my ceiling!

We miss you already Mom! I'll think of you every time I eat apple crisp or look at the ceiling--neither of which I plan on doing again anytime soon! We love you!