Tessie- at two and a half

I never did post about Tessie's purse...you know, those bags I said she fills up with little goodies she snarfs up from around the house? This is actually her smallest purse, filled to the spilling point with treasures. The others are actually a backpack my mom gave her and a couple of bags that were actually Halloween trick or treating bags.


The contents, in case you can't tell them all...
-A velcro "turnip", from a set of sliceable velcro foods we have
-a plate from her tea set
-a salt shaker from her play kitchen
-some link-a-doos
-a small cardstock square we were using for some craft a while back
-a couple of alcohol wipes...we have tons of these, hazard of being married to a nurse
-one of Henry's spoons
-Henry's wrist rattle
-one of Jack's airplanes
-a velcro strawberry
-a pizza from her play kitchen
-a lacing circle from Jack's occupational therapy session
-a little toy that attaches to Henry's bouncy seat
-a pot holder from her play kitchen
-a couple of napkins leftover from Jack's birthday party (they were clean!)
-a dry erase marker
-a battery (yikes!)
-a stuffed carrot and tomato
-Jack's bulldozer
-a shape from Henry's shape sorter
-red crayon
-a coupon that was attached to some cookie dough Maria bought to make some cookies for our church's cookie walk,,,apparently the cashier didn't take it off

I had a really hard time taking this picture. She caught me halfway through emptying her purse and watched anxiously as I laid out the contents. Then she kept trying to grab her treasures back while I took the picture. As soon as I was done, we had to safely reload her things. (I palmed the battery though)

(Halloween)
Tessie...She was such a sweet and easy-going baby! Now, she's the two-est two year old in existance. Oh, don't get me wrong, she's still very, very sweet. But that girl...she keeps me hopping. She dearly loves to fingerpaint, and does, with any substance she can find. Vaseline...jelly...butter...peanut butter...dog food smooshed up in the water bowl...smooshed up tomatoes she's gotten off the counter...puddles of ookey stuff outside...even the contents of her diaper will do. Blech. All of these have been recent materials of hers. She dearly loves Henry and loves to feed him. Just watch out because she'll feed him anything! She's become absolutely insane to handle during mass and usually ends up in the narthex before it's over. Don't leave the front door open, because there's a little gap between the screen door and the floor, and she loves to see what she can push through there. If anything goes missing, check her little stashes...the other day I found my missing measuring spoons, several baby spoons, the dog leash, and Kain's missing packet of peppermint cocoa in her kitchen stove. She's a booger.

("loving" Henry)
Potty training...must we discuss it? We tried over summer break. We tried again over Christmas break. She knows how to do it, and she can do it. She just doesn't want to do it. I don't know why. Our last potty training day ended when she came up to me and wiped her poop-smeared hands on my pants. I found that she had copped a squat on the dining room table and painted herself, half of the table and Henry's high chair with poo. It took me an hour to get everything, and everyone, clean again. I hung up the potty chair for the rest of vacation. Maybe during Easter break.


(asleep in Henry's swing...she's used it more than he has!)
Oh, but she's awfully sweet. She reminds me so much of Maria at this age. She loves to dance, she loves to sing...she loves to sit on the counter and watch me cook. She loves to snuggle up and read picture books together...she'll even "read" them herself, squatting on the floor with a book and chattering nonsense as she flips the pages, then shouting loudly, "THE END!". She can count, and does, often..."One, two, fee, seven, eight, seven, eight, seven!" She loves to play with her baby dolls and she loves to follow me around and do whatever I'm doing...my big "helper", you know. In a typical girly way, she already loves to do "school" and is often sitting at our little preschool table with crayons and markers, drawing large, loopy scribbles on her paper. Her motor skills are already better than Jack's (his being quite delayed), and if you ask her to write some letters she will tighten up her pencil grip, frown in concentration, nd make little tiny chicken scratches on her paper. Her verbal skills are lagging just a bit. She speaks in single words mostly, sometimes short two or three word phrases. But still, in spite of her penchant for making messes, she is easier to handle in many ways than Jack was at this age just because she *does* understand what you want from her when you correct her. Now whether she chooses to do it or not....

(Yep. She still sucks those fingers.)