Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

On impulse, we moved Tessa to her "big girl" bed. We let her help us put flowered sheets on the bed (she really likes flowers) and then set up a bed rail. Then we hooked up the all-important Fisher Price aquarium. Tessa handled it like she always handles transition--with ease. I, however, was a little nervous about the up and coming possible night of no sleep due to chasing a toddler around the house in the dark. So that meant that Anthony had to be on his quietest behavior. That almost rules out breathing for him...but I relented. He accidentally rammed his clodhopper shoe into the closet door while getting ready for bed, and I gave him a look that would melt the face off any normal person. Anthony just burst into a fit of barely controlled giggling. With tears in his eyes, he chuckled and leaned down to kiss me and said, I love you, in that way that really means, I love you even though you are a crazy person. Well, loud banging from Anthony notwithstanding, Tessa slept quite well. She also slept good the next night. Napping is still a problem. She likes to get up and come out of the room looking for me with a book in her hand for me to read to her. I had a "conversation" with her about staying in the bed (thanks for the tip, mom), but she seemed to think there was an asterisk in there somewhere that led to a footnote that stated "*when Momo is not around to see me". I would go up the stairs again and again to open the door to a blur of pastel cotton and dirty skin as Tessa dove past me to land on her pillow face down and pretend to be asleep. After the 5th trip up the stairs, I decided to sit in the chair next to her bed and read a book of my own while I waited for her to drift off. I know, stupid. She kept saying, Momo? Momo book! Ugh. So I gave up and threw her in the crib and left. She was asleep in 5 minutes and almost slept 3 hours. ??????????? :[

She also got a haircut (her first--mostly).

Look--I don't know how she does it. I clean her face, and this is what it looks like in 5 minutes.

Shining Through the Shiners Life Throws Her Way

Tessa got her first black eye on Tuesday. She fell off a kitchen chair and somehow pulled it down with her. The back of the chair smacked her in the face. I think I may have some hearing loss in my left ear because of the screaming. Hers, not mine. Anyway, before it faded into a memory, I had to get a quick shot. Plus, I haven't posted bath pictures yet. What kind of mother am I?

Literally 30 seconds after these shots were taken, the bath ended after a new head injury. Tessa was pulling up the non-skid matt from the bottom of the tub and trying to use it like a cover. Well, she slipped and bonked her head. It wasn't bad, but it was enough to make her want out and have two squirts of lotion to rub on her legs. Hey, we've all had two-lotion-squirt days, huh?

Musical Bust!

Tonight was Tessa's first music program through her pre-school. She was supposed to sing two songs with the rest of the kids and then exit the stage so the big kids could sing harder songs. Here is how her first 60 seconds went...

Then she spotted us in the audience, and her next 60 seconds went like this...

The teachers did try to help her redeem herself, and that turned out like this...

We figure that in years to come, this story will come up at the dinner table and family get-togethers and we will all have a good laugh. I know I'm already laughing!

It's OK?

Tonight, Tessa experienced her first thunderstorm. Well, OK. It wasn't her first exactly, but it was the first she really noticed. She was in the living room reading a book to her baby doll when a huge clap of thunder slammed the house. I have never seen a more scared little girl. She ran to me and clung to me. I picked her up and her little heart was thumping right out of her chest. So we sat together near the screen door to the porch and every time there was lightening, I would tell her to get ready for the loud sound called thunder. She would hear it and say, "Ohhhhh! It's OK?" and I would say, "Yeah, it's OK." After it was gone, she would still ask me every few minutes if it was OK. This went fine for a little while because I could always prepare Tessa for each round of thunder. But there was a sudden flash of lightening followed instantly by a huge blast of thunder. This one made us both jump. After that, she would bury her head in my neck and say (a little more frantically), "It's OK????" We spent some time talking about how God made the thunder and how it was just a sound. I also told her that Colorado thunder was NOTHING compared to Texas thunder. I don't think she was impressed at all.

When Anthony walked in the door from work, Tessa said, "Uh-oh!! Sound! It's OK?" I told Anthony that she needed to be assured that it was OK, so he told her everything was fine. Each reassurance, I would feel her body relax. It really reminded me of my walk with the Lord. Who has, by the way,already declared everything OK. But I still find myself often asking, "It's OK?"