Doula Meeting

Well our Doula, Paula, was here for about 2.5 hrs yesterday. Yes it's time to start thinking about labor and all that. I have to say she is really great and we both just love her. I'm really happy that she's going to be with us through the natural childbirth process.

Yesterday she brought over her bag of tricks and we practiced some techniques that she and Jeremy will use during labor...massage, stretching, pressure points. We also reviewed the birth plan that I am to submit to my doctor. It looks almost exactly like the birth plan we made for Tessa but this time we plan to stick to it! (no meds or epidural, etc).

Tessa was here during our meeting and was actually pretty cute helping Jeremy rub my back and playing with the model baby dolls in Paula's bag. Part of her service is that she documents our whole 'birth story' from start to finish, so she was taking pics of Tessa massaging my back!

We're both feeling very positive now after visiting with her. Not only does she support me, but she'll take a lot of pressure off of Jeremy as well so he can enjoy the experience alot more. She's coming back in 2 wks to review breathing techniques and stuff with us and then of course we'll see her at 'go' time.

I found a really great article on the reasons to hire a doula, cause I know not everyone understands her role:
http://www.doulaconnection.org/why_have_a_doula.html

Cute Lil Laundry

Aw look at all those receiving blankets and burp cloths!

Well Tessa is officially moved out of the nursery and into her log cabin room, as I've been cleaning out her closet in the past day. She still naps and changes diapers in there though. After moving her stuff I washed up the few things we have for Peanut. We have 5 unisex sleepers including the one below which will be his/her hospital outfit. So either way Jeremy has a post-delivery job. If it's a boy, he and Tessa are to go to Target and buy some clothes. If it's a girl, he's to get the tub of newborn girl clothes out of munchkin-land. Gotta make the man feel important, ya know?

I must be feeling nesty cause I also updated my email contact list to send the 'big announcement' from the hospital, and made a little list of things we need at the store....a pack newborn sposie dipes, little socks and more baby hangers. Next up, Jeremy and I are going to stock the freezer with some food. I also hear plans are underway with our church scheduling meal deliveries, what a HUGE blessing that was last time!

In other news, I swear that Tessa just said 'food, I want food' while slamming herself against the pantry door. Jeremy heard it too!

Good Excuse!

Well I was hoping to drop in here and report on today's meeting with our doula, but she couldn't make it because she had TWO women in labor! Haha, I guess she's off the hook. Stay tuned....

Christmas Slideshow

Well here it is, our compilation of Christmas pictures set to music (turn on your speakers!) Actually we had put it to some of the Charlie Brown Christmas music but youtube blocked it due to copyright infringement. That's a new one.

As you can see we ended up having a nice little Christmas Day here at home even though Tessa was sick. She's doing much better now, but instead of making it to Andy's for the annual fried chicken feast, we just stayed home and laid low.

Tessa's fave new toy at the moment in the grocery cart and that Andy and Becky got her. She's got all of her other new stuff stuffed inside it and is pushing it all over the house. She got lots of great stuff, and we've already boxed up some older toys to make room. We'll pull them back out in a few months and they'll be like new again! I've also been rounding up all the infant toys for Peanut, which were all over the house. Nesting time!

Anyway, here's the video:


And just for fun we dug up last year's video and watched it. What a difference! I noticed two things..yes Tessa is alot bigger and different, but I also have about 12 more chins this year! Ugh, I'm feeling really swollen right now, like a human water balloon. It would be nice to look 'normal' again!

All I Want for Christmas...

...is a good night's sleep.

It's been a while...at least two weeks, since I've had a decent night's sleep. All the other nights I can blame the fetus but last night (Christmas Eve) Tessa was up sick. She was super snotty all day yesterday and I think she's coming down with something. She's currently cuddling in bed with her Daddy attempting to fall back to sleep.

Otherwise I'm not sleeping for two reasons...I can't get comfortable and I'm hungry. I seriously hate getting snacks in the middle of the night but sometimes if I don't I get dizzy and sick (literally). The baby requires food 24/7 apparently. I remember this with Tessa too.

Christmas is going well so far though. Tessa had fun yesterday even though she didn't feel well...she was just sorta pathetic all day. Will we make it for chicken and beer in Andy's barn tonight? It's questionable unfortunately.

Stay tuned for a slideshow of pics in the coming day or so!

Going Good

I'm happy to report that Tessa is officially sleeping every night in her twin bed. And no longer using the sneaky move from the crib. We're putting her down in there fully awake and she is okay with it. Yay! She's still waking up a little earlier sometimes but not really crying or anything.

So she must like her new place! She's still napping in the crib but we'll move her once I'm sure she's really solid in her big bed. I hate screwing around with naptime, it's my daily break too!

On another exciting note Tessa has now informed us twice that she's had a dirty diaper by pulling on her pants and saying 'poo poo'. Whoah! I guess she's more aware of her functions, which is a sign that potty training is on the horizon. I realize that poopy pants may not be as exciting to you, the general public, but it's big time stuff around here.

Christmas Dance

Enjoy this funny video I captured of Tessa dancing to the Charlie Brown Christmas cd. It looks like she's playing the piano on the window sill. Where she learned that I don't really know cause I never play our piano (maybe I should!)

33 wk check up

Nothing much to report, just one of those super short appointments. After the next one I start going every week.

So my bp was 110/70, baby's heartbeat in the 140s, and I'm holding steady at 40 lbs gained to which my doc said to 'be careful over the holidays'. I'll do my best! All is well.

Ice Day

Well we never did leave the house today. In fact I wasn't even brave enough to go down the sheet of ice that is our driveway to get the trash out. But we had fun anyway! We decided to make dough ornaments. Well I made them and Tessa played with flour.

I put a tarp on the floor with some flour and bowls and let her go to town while I shaped our ornaments. She played with it for about an hour before she was tired of it.


Then later we painted them our ornaments with water colors. Tessa didn't really get it and was upset she couldn't eat them. She painted a little bit the mostly played with her brushes and splashed in the paint water.

I have NO IDEA why this pic is sideways but it won't let me flip it. Who knows.


Tessa's only creation, I did the rest of them


The best one I think...see it's a T and B!

Dough Ornaments:
1 cup flour
1 cup salt
1/2 cup water
makes a play doh like consistency that you can mold
bake 350 for 1hr

I'm hoping we can get out tomorrow cause we have a playdate at Marcie's, we'll see!

Iced In- give me some creative play ideas!!

We've been in alot lately for one reason or another...illness, weather, etc. Well today we are actually iced into the house. I just tried to take a stack of Christmas letters to the mailbox and didn't make it. Our step and driveway are a solid sheet.

Help me beat the cabin fever with some ideas. We have our normal watercolors and crayons that we always do. And actually I have some play doh that Tessa's never tried (I'm afraid she'll eat it).

We have all the standard kitchen stuff too...any homeade toys or games that would be new and different? I know I've heard of having toddlers play with dried beans (which we have) but I'm afraid the dogs would try to eat them.

I know some of you are crafty...help!

ps- I threw up my morning banana today. I think my body was just reminding me I'm pregnant in case I forgot.

thump.

Well it didn't take Tessa very long to fall out of her new bed, even with the guard rails. I have a feeling she launched herself over the guard rails. At least it's close to the ground unlike her crib...that would have hurt alot more.

I heard a loud thump at about 6am and found her standing up in the middle of her room crying. We snuggled in our bed for a while until she started groping my face and saying 'nose'. So basically she's still waking up earlier than normal but sleeping well in her new room!

Another Fun Weekend

Saturday we babysat our nephews Mark and Bob all day and overnight. We were supposed to have baby David too the poor guy was sick. Becky was going through her Master's graduation ceremony- congratulations!

In the afternoon we made Christmas cookies which was alot of fun and definitely time consuming. I convinced Jer to use tubed dough and frosting in a can, much to his dismay...but I think it was a good call given our varied skill levels.

We made cookies while Tessa napped and frosted when she woke up. She liked 'frosting her cookie' (aka eating frosting) for about 5 min and then was over it.


Our beautiful creations! As you can guess the giant hand, 'pig and cattle farmers' and such were Jeremy's. Mark made a pretty cool snow monster and I helped Bob make the giant m&m snowman on the left. Did you know frosting comes in a aerosol can? Fun stuff!

We got baths before dinner cause everyone was sticky. The boys loved the big tub and jets. Tessa stayed in with them for a little bit but we didn't get a good pic with all three. Surprisingly she wasn't at all interested in their unique anatomy.

The boys were pretty excited to sleep in Tessa's 'log cabin room'

Sunday Jeremy got to join Andy and Mark on one of their railing trips. One of those yellow rail cars belongs to Andy and they rode the rails with Santa Claus, making stops along the way. Jeremy had a really good time, while Tessa and I opted to stay home and be lazy.

Success Again!

Well mostly. We did the sneaky bed plan again last night and she slept in there all night until 5:30 at which point she was awake and crying 'sooozzzyyy' (snoozy, our word for sleep). So she finished the morning off in her crib cause I wasn't ready to get up just yet. Thursdays are her 'late night' since we have small group so in the interest of sleeping in later than 5:30, I think we'll go for a full night in the crib tonight. Baby steps right?


Tessa's been watching alot more TV lately, a sure sign that Mommy is slowing down. The only shows I record for her are Sesame Street and Jack's Big Music Show but I've also been getting all those Christmas movies they are showing on ABC. Here her and Daddy are watching Charlie Brown Christmas. Yesterday we watched 'Olive the Other Reindeer'. Holy crap that movie is cute, I highly recommend for grownups too. I love that Olive's best friend is named Martini.

I got an outfit set for her new baby that came with a paci and surprisingly Tessa knew just what to do with it (even though she gave up pacis at 8 months old). She walked around like this all day yesterday..sheesh!

The clothing set also came with tiny diapers to change. They are real diapers with tape tabs so of course once the tabs wear out you can buy more doll diapers at Target. Seriously...I'm going to buy sposie diapers for a doll? Yeah right. My friend Marcie is going to help me make tiny cloth ones to fit the doll so Tessa can change it. More accurate anyway right?

We went to our normal library time this morning and Santa was there handing out candy canes. Tessa was pretty freaked out. She clutched so tightly to my leg I couldn't walk. When he offered her a candy cane she held out her hand but wouldn't get any closer. And that was it for our run in with Santa this year, haha.

Success!

The sneak attack sleep plan was a good idea. I moved her into her big bed at about 8:30, once she had been asleep for well over an hour. She didn't even notice.

I was afraid she was going to get up during the night and realize she was in a strange place, but she didn't wake until 6:15! Good thing too, Mommy was tired. I know I have to get used the idea of waking in the night again, but I'm not ready just yet.

Granted 6:15 is about an hour too early, she did attempt to go back to sleep twice and we didn't actually get up until like 6:40. The first time I heard her on the monitor saying 'babeeeeee!', so I put her baby in bed with her and she went back to sleep. Then of course I heard 'Momeeeee!'. Yes she finally calls me by name, that started about 2 wks ago.

The cool thing is she never tried to escape her bed!

We're going to do it again tonight!

Sneak Attack

I'm starting to wonder if naptime is the best time for the initial bed transition, given that she is still so awake and aware of her surroundings.

She such a good and sound sleeper at night that I'm going to go with Erin and Melissa's suggestion to let her fall asleep in her crib tonight then move her into the bed later so she wakes up in the bed in the morning. My thought is that if we do this a few times she'll start to see this is a cool place to sleep, then I can start putting her down in there.

Luckily she never wakes at night so I'm hoping my plot will work and not lead to middle of the night confusion. We shall see!

We have been spending alot more time in there and she really likes it. We also go in and check on 'baby' and make sure she's tucked into the bed before naptime, which she also enjoys. Our past few days have just been so off schedule that I haven't attempted naptime in there. But tonight is the night for the sneak sleep attack!

What a Weekend!

We had a fun weekend around here and man am I tired! Yesterday Mom and I went to see Twilight in the afternoon. Yes I admit to being one of those crazy Twilight fanatics but I will say I think the movie was not nearly as good as the books. The movie came across overly cheesy if you ask me.

Last night Blythe came over to babysit Tessa and we took my parents to go see the Lion King (on stage). It was so amazing. I've seen alot of plays and I think this was really the most impressive as far as visual affects and stunning costumes. So good!

Then this morning a couple of my old highschool friends and I met for our annual Christmas shopping trip. Eventhough I was only shopping for presents for Jeremy and Tessa's stockings, I ended up going overboard. I haven't bought Tessa any toys since her bday in April so I got a little overly excited in Toys R Us...so many cool things she would like! Her stocking is going to be stuffed I think.

We had such a good time shopping....I think each of us laughed until we peed at least once. That's what I call retail therapy. Jeremy manned up and babyset Tessa eventhough he was sick. What a guy.

Tessa is now into loading all the manger people into the bus and driving them around the house. She's like baby Jesus's personal tour guide.

Showing off her favorite body part, her tummy. If you're not careful she'll lift up your shirt and check yours out too.

some cool old ladies

For anyone banking the sex of the baby based on my belly shape...here's my 32 wk profile

Look I made a slideshow of our Thanksgiving pics! Jer wanted to do it with his fancy software but I was able to whip it up on slide.com in a lot less time. If you hover over the pic you'll see a caption (not all of them have captions though).

We got some pretty awesome pics of our trip! Of course most of them are of Tessa :)

Big Girl Bed Attempt #2

Well today Tessa lasted about 15 min in her big girl bed today before making some noise. She laid under the blankey with baby who we 'put to sleep' and I thought we were golden...then I think she sorta woke up and didn't know where she was.

We'll get there!

Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas

We are done decorating for Christmas and the house feels all nice and Merry. Note our little green stocking. We had it for Tessa two Christmases ago! (when she was in utero)

Tessa's doing okay with the big tree. She really wants to mess with the ornaments but is starting to get the idea that she's not allowed to. She has her tiny tree with wooden ornaments she can play with, but she seems sort of indifferent to it.

What she really loves this year is her Little People nativity. We spent all day yesterday trying to locate baby Jesus who was at the bottom of the toy box. She really loves the animals the most. We also bought this two Christmases ago and it's finally getting some play!

I don't really remember the manger scene looking like this....

After naptime today we spent a good 30 min in her new room playing with some toys and rocking on the horse. I also put her new baby in there and she helped me put her to sleep many times and I made her leave her in there cause 'that's where baby lives' We'll see!...

Big Girl Bed Attempt #1 failed

Well we tried naptime in the big girl bed today and failed. Mommy gave up after about 25 min of crying and kicking. I'm pretty sure the big mistake was leaving her rocky horse in the room where she could see it. She was pretty snoozy and I actually closed the door and left but then she started screaming 'horsey horsey!!". I removed it from the room and that just made things worse.

So we'll try again tomorrow sans rocky horse. She's really into caring for her baby dolls so I thought we might practice putting one to sleep in that bed. Any other great ideas?

It should be noted that Tessa is normally an easy and routine 2 hr napper. For her to throw a fit at naptime is not normal so this is new territory for me. After our 25 min tantrum I took her to her crib where she let out a deep sigh and closed her eyes. She's pretty happy in her current bedroom. Hmmm...

30 wk checkup

All is well.....blood pressure nice and low, baby heart rate strong, and my weight gain is ugh as usual. Oh and I passed the sugar test from last appointment with flying colors. Back in two weeks!

Thanksgiving Video

Jeremy took our new (free!) video camera along on our trip, and here are some of the best highlights. As you can see Tessa did not like riding on Grampie's lawn tractor, much to our surprise.

Home and Ready to Nest

If you're wondering where we have been we just got home from our week long Thanksgiving trip to Colorado. We were there visiting Jeremy's parents, enjoying some good food and sharing Tessa's cuteness with everyone. We had a great time and are all tired tonight but glad to be home. Since the doc cuts off my air travel at 32 weeks I am done until who knows when, all ready for Christmas and nesting in the winter to come!

Once I collect all of our pics from CO, I'll put together a little slide show but for now here are the highlights...Tessa prefers broccoli, fruit salad and dinner rolls to anything else on the turkey day menu. Not only did she remember Grammie and Grampie's dog Annie, she woke up most mornings standing in her crib calling for her. Playing with dirt and rocks is even more fun in CO, especially the exploding cattails. And all grandparents can turn into blubbering fools when there's a baby bathing in their kitchen sink, which is awesome.

And I realize there's a story from our trip that many of you are interested to hear although I find it a little too embarrassing to share. Let's just say pregnant women can get easily dehydrated in the mountains, and yes an impacted bowel can feel very similar to contractions, and no one shouldn't be ashamed for visiting the Boulder hospital because of it. The end.

Yesterday we hit 'black Friday' but no we're not crazy...we did it online! Old Navy had 50% off alot of clothes and free shipping so we bought Tessa several pairs of new jeans and jammies as well as some stuff for us. We also found a website that had a good deal and free shipping on the double stroller we wanted...score!

We've put some research into what double stroller would be best for our needs (easy to travel with, durable for stroller aerobics, etc) and landed on the Maclaren twin techno. The seats can recline all the way so the new babe can lay down while Tessa sits up. This is the only 'gear' we've had to buy, although I'm also salivating over an Ergo carrier. But compared to all the junk we had to buy last time...this baby has so far been alot easier and cheaper!

Helping Mommy

Since Mommy is all big and fat with a new baby inside I try to help out all the time. This is how I help Mommy with laundry.

First I steal the hamper from the laundry room and fill it will all of my play food from my kitchen.

Then I climb into the hamper and pull it all out again and disperse it all over the floor. Then later Mommy makes me help her pick things up that she can't reach. I'm good at reaching things on the floor, that's why I try to put as much stuff on the floor as possible
Later I help Mommy stuff my clean diapers. If I'm not sure where to put the insert I just put it on my head. The same rule applies for playing with Mommy's clean undies and socks. If in doubt, put it on your head.

It's fun to be a good helper! ~ Tessa

Place Your Bets

Per Becky's request for a 'vegas style' baby pool like last time....it's time to place your bets on the sex, size and arrival date of Peanut! I wish they had a spot where you could guess what it's name will be also, that would be fun. I'll give you a hint...it's not Ben or Penny.

http://www.expectnet.com/games/PeanutBennington

So people are always asking me questions in order to guess the sex. I've tried to include the answers to the most common questions I get, but let me know if there's anything important I've left out that is important to your decision making.
cravings:
spicy bloody mary mix, mexican food, cheese and icy cold beverages
baby's heartrate:
at last appt was in the 140's
my skin:
is clear and not broken out (but could perhaps be do to my new skincare regime?)
sickness:
definitely more nausea this time and super strong gag reflex which has caused me to choke on my pills and throwup three times!
food aversions:
in the beginning, not now, to anything that was super strong like garlic and onions (it's a wonder Jer didn't kick me out)
shape:
I would call it wide across and high right now, and actually sorta pointy from a side view. I would provide a pic but don't have a recent enough one nor anyone to take one at the moment. I'll try to post one soon.

disclaimer: I won't mention any names but to those who figured out they could cheat the system and win the pool by entering in all the correct data after the birth and before I had a chance to close the game (cause I was busy)....that's just not nice :-)

That Time of Year

One of my favorite new Christmas traditions...I hope Office Max keeps this up every year! Yup we've elfed ourselves again!

http://getyourvideo.jibjab.com/a1v/sv3/4o9/238/a30/p3r/na1/3xo.mpg

Abstract Toddler Art

She gets the idea of Mr. Potato Head, just prefers to define her own rules on the body parts.



Bonus~ I got this potato head, hardly used, at a garage sale for $1!

Jeremy's Version...

...of Tessa's nightly prayer changes every time cause he can never remember the words. Last night's sounded something like...

Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord my soul to keep
Twinkle twinkle little star
I love Jesus
Amen

Hey whatever works, right?

28 wk Checkup

This morning Tessa got to play at our friend Marcie's house while I went to my 28 wk OB appointment. I chose not to take her with me because I knew it would be a long appointment.

Today was the fun appointment when you get to drink the nasty sugar water and do a glucose tolerance test. I've done these before when I was tested for hypoglycemia and of course when I was pregnant with Tessa, but it's still not fun. The sugar gives me a major buzz and makes me kinda sick.

They are checking of course for gestational diabetes, which I'm not worried about given my history with low (instead of high) blood sugar. I had to wait an hour for the blood test which was nice cause to just chill with my Twilight book (actually I'm on the 4th one!)

The rest of the appointment was simple:
-- good baby heartrate in the 140's
-- good Mommy bp of 108/70
-- and Mommy is STILL gaining weight even though I've tried to be alot healthier this month. I've gained 30 lbs so far so I'm really really hoping to only gain about 10 more. Ugh. Right now I'm at the weight was at the end of my pregnancy with Tessa, with 12 wks left to go. Poop on that. I have weight watcher plans again for my future.

And now I start doing appointments every two weeks, rotating through all six doctors in the practice. Hard to believe we are to that point already!

Tessa's Purty Hat

Look what we bought from my friend Abbie who does custom made hairbows and girly accesories, Tessa's beautiful new hat for winter! Check out Abbie's store: www.missyprissybowboutique.com

She kept saying 'hat hat' and taking it off and on

Thinking Christmas

Well it's time to start shopping or thinking about it I guess. I swear November is flying by, probably because I lost a couple days in a drug induced state. I'm getting ready to order Tessa's present from Step 2 (which sells American made toys, did you know?).

We're hoping to start a tradition of getting her (and Peanut) one major present from Mommy and Daddy and a stocking filled by Santa. I also like how Andy and Becky give their boys new pjs to open on Christmas Eve and wear to bed.

This will be Tessa's present for this year, a two sided art easel that she can draw chalk on and do magnets. The magnet side also comes with dry erase markers but I'm thinking we will wait until she's a little older to whip those out. But you can also clip paper on it for crayon drawing. Cool eh?...and hopefully a long lasting unisex present for our house.

I've been wondering about how she will react to the tree this year, and my friend Traci gave me a great idea. We have a small table top size tree that can be Tessa's, decorated with soft ornaments . She can take them off and on and do whatever she wants, it's all hers. The big tree however is a no no and she won't be allowed to mess with the lights and ornaments without getting in trouble. We'll see how that goes.... a novel idea anyway!

In case anyone needs specs on Tessa's sizes for Christmas, she is wearing 18 months and probably will through the winter, 24 months for spring. (I dressed her in 24 month outfit yesterday and it practically fell off). She likes books or anything with animals, Elmo and things that fit together like puzzles.

Animal Sounds

Well it's not a perfect performance but still pretty cute. This was our fourth attempt at a video so she was getting tired of me asking her for animal noises. In the first videos she pooped her pants and threw a fit over dropping her spoon. You can sorta hear her snore when I ask her to 'pretend to snooze'...sometimes she will lay her head on her tray and snore, so cute!


And look what we got at Target for only $5...a leftover Halloween costume to play dress up with! It's a 3T and really big on her so should last a while. I also scored her a Christmas dress for $12.99 and a matching sweater.

We love Target. I'd say about 50% of her wardrobe is from Old Navy (bi-annual baby sales!), 40% from Target and 10% from assorted other sources/gifts. Without Target, I'd be naked half the time too.

Tessa's Big Girl Room

As you can see we haven't moved any of her toys or belongings into her new room yet, but it is complete! (minus a couple of babyproofing fixes)

Since we are traveling around Thanksgiving I think our plan will be to wait until after we get home and on a regular schedule to start doing naptime in there. Hopefully naptime will go well and we can move on to bedtime in December and January. The thought of leaving her alone in a room that she could possibly roam around in is still kinda strange to me, but being that she is such a good sleeper I'm hoping she will do well.

Any one have an great tips on transitioning to the bed?

By the way check out the awesome dresser and bed that Erin gave us free of charge because she is AWESOME....they look so perfect with the decor


Recovery from the tooth surgery is going well. I am off the 'hard stuff' and only have a little achy pain. Tomorrow I go to get the stitches out of my gums. The tylenol 3 messed up my stomach more than anything but I only tossed my cookies once. Thank goodness for cereal bars, mashed potatoes and those little squishably soft McD's hamburgers that practically slide down with no chewing.

Jeremy and Tessa had a fun Halloween. She visited our neighbors on the cul-de-sac and tried to hand out candy but mostly liked sorting it from one bucket to another. It was all fun until she figured out you could eat it, then we were in trouble. He has pics and video on his fancy new camera he promised to share with me later.

Stoned but Well

I'm kinda tired on tylenol 3 but wanted to update that my dental surgery went well. The dentist has me on the max amount of pain killer I'm allowed to take (which is alot less than what they'd normally prescribe) and since I can't take ibuprofen I'm a little extra swollen. I look like Jeremy's been smacking me around.

Jeremy and Tessa are having good Daddy time while Mommy watches reruns of House in bed. More updates later :)

Flashback

This time last year....

Early Halloween

Yesterday we went down south to visit room 42 and go to my cousin Kelly's Halloween party. Tessa was a Lion most of the day and seemed pretty content in her costume. Everyone at Hayden fussed over her and gave her candy. She was grumpy at first until she noticed how much attention everyone was paying her, then she perked up.

Amanda and Kelly went crazy with their crafty Halloween decorations. There was even a cake that looked like a box of kitty litter. But it was all a little much for Tessa. She spent most of the party glued to my leg. She was especially leery of Kelly's green face paint. I think she's not sure about Halloween but at least she likes her costume. Friday she is geared up to pass out candy with Daddy while Mommy lays on the couch stoned on tylenol 3.

So I get a bag AND candy to put in it? Wow



Mamaw Creech has a great treat for Tessa, a green dinosaur that talks
My favorite costume was baby David's chili pepper