By the Numbers

Number of hours of sleep: 3

Number of Tessa's fever: 101.4

Number of dirty diapers changed : 1 (today so far. Not bad, but I wondered to myself--where is Jack getting sand to eat? You moms know what I mean! Sorry for the TMI.)

Number on clock when Tessa threw up in her bed last night: 3:34

Number of times last night's crying, puking, cleaning, changing, etc. woke up Jack : 0 (you DO realize Tessa and Jack share a room, right?)

Number of times Tessa mentioned her Princess Ballet Class she was going to go to today : 15 (give or take a few hundred)

Number of times I've stopped typing this post to zone out: .........oh, sorry--What was I saying?

Och, weel! Ye dinna ask for more!

It has been a long time since I have updated my blog. Don't feel bad about it though--I don't!


We have been busy and I got out of the habit. And this is an attempt to begin the roll of things again. So here is what you missed if you don't live in the green house:

• Jack turned 1!!!!!!
• Jack started walking!
• I got the pile of laundry under control!
• Tessa went ice skating for the first time!
• We have started cleaning out our garage.
• Jack went to his first day of Parents Day Out and did great!
• God answered my prayer that Jack would do OK at aforementioned PDO!
• Anthony and I bought Rock Band 2 and are ADDICTED! Seriously, we need help.
• Tessa begins her first ballet class next week!
• Tessa turns 4 in two weeks and will be having a Princess Party!
• Jack had his first chest x-ray because he had a 104 temp. It was NOT fun.
• I was alone in my house Wednesday for the first time in 18 months or so!!!
• ...
• ...
• ...
• ...
• ...
• Sorry. I was remembering how wonderful yesterday was.
• Jack has switched from bottles to sippy cups!
• My squeezebox quit working and I don't know why. This makes me sad.
• I recently made a big batch of P-Dubs Cinnamon Rolls. This makes me very happy!

And since I didn't post anything about Christmas, here is my favorite picture from that holiday:

Because you can lead a kid to Santa, but you can't make them like it.

Life

Sometimes, it's tons of fun...

until this happens:
Hang in there!

Daddy's Girl

Last night, Anthony made Tessa mad by insisting she put on lotion after her bath. She has been scratching her skin off, and she really needs it. So a battle ensued and Daddy won.

Then I overheard this on the monitor:

TESSA: Tessa doesn't love Daddy anymore.

ANTHONY: Oh. Well, that hurts my feelings.

TESSA: Silence

ANTHONY: Well, if you don't love me anymore I guess there's no point in me reading you a story tonight.

TESSA: Well, Tessa loves Daddy a little bit.

At least Jack loves Daddy.

Jump Street

My Thursday Mommy Club went to Jump Street this last week. It cost me $4 for Tessa and Jack and I were free. Here is some of the fun that happened there...

Can you count how many times Tessa wipes it?


Jack spent a lot of time making out with himself.

OK. I finally got Jack doing peek-a-boo on film. It's brief and followed by Tessa referring to herself in the third person. Maybe she's practicing to be queen some day.

Speaking of queen, she found a loyal subject. This poor kid was somehow manipulated into doing this for WAAAAAAY too long.

Date Night With Tessa

I haven't posted about date nights with Tessa in a while. Probably because they have been pretty run-of-the-mill. However, last Friday was a special one. We went to Disney On Ice at the Pepsi Center. It was a very extreme date for Tessa. She was surrounded by little girls in princess dresses. She got to meet THE Cinderella. She also got to see the new princess, Tiana, who is brown (Tessa's words, not mine).

At dinner, Tessa showed off her ice-eating skills:

Before the show, there was a display of princess dresses:

This is what it looks like when your excitement bubbles over and you can't help but share it with strangers:

The show itself was lots of fun. Tessa was so overjoyed by Prince Eric skating with Ariel, that she couldn't find words. She just turned (she was in my lap) and hugged my neck before turning back to the show.

She also loved Tinkerbell:

They had Cars and the Lion King, but these paled in comparison for Tessa with the princess factor.

In fact, sometimes, I think the night got a little overwhelming for her. What do you think?

A Sign of the Season

Does time blur together for you, too?

I sometimes feel like my thoughts are a long tangled string of repetitious obsessions. They stumble over each other in my head and fight to get priority. Some are highly emotional. Those always surface strongly during a dramatic scene in a movie or because of a poignant line in a song. I will linger over these and let the feelings steep until they permeate all of me. They leave a sense of emptiness and melancholy behind when I am forced to get out of my now tepid mind soak and re-enter reality, shivering and dripping. Some of my thoughts are starkly logical. They are thoughts about cold hard facts and they usually involve numbers. Like the dollar amount I spent on something or the number of calories I just ate or the ounces of water I've drunk subtracted from how much I need to drink in a day. The minutes I have left until...everything: lunch, nap time, I leave to get Tessa from school, dinner, Anthony gets home, bedtime. Numbers that surround schedules of what is coming and what needs to be done and with whom.

And before I know it, a day has passed. Two days, three. A week. And the knots get tighter and the thoughts multiply like rabbits.

"How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?" Psalms 13:2

"For the Lord searches all hearts and minds and understands all the wanderings of the thoughts. If you seek Him you will find Him." 1 Chronicles 28:9

"Be still and know that I am God." Psalms 46:10