We're Still Alive!

I just have no time because living takes all the time there is. BUT.  

Have a slice of today.

Another Marnie recitation because she's so stinking cute:

A quick card from Pippin, who went to bed full of love and affection telling me he was going to write me a card in the morning with a smile and a heart and a star and "give me some cash" from his piggy bank inside. He didn't forget. Also of note: the cryptic message says, "Do you know..." and when I asked what the rest of the sentence was he replied, "The muffin man." He also included a handful of shapes, because OF COURSE he must when we discussed shapes at length in math today.

Tadhg patiently, kindly, longsufferingly washing breakfast dishes with the Most Insistent Helper who ever existed. Tessa does breakfast dishes with the boys every morning now. That and brushing her teeth are the two biggest highlights of her life. 

Christmas magic at the Magic Hour in which all the children snuggle like little mice in their nests to read and play with trinkets and generally be cozy until it's time for bed in earnest.

A bonus from yesterday--another cozy little mouse. Makes me envious.

And for anyone who still follows this dead blog and doesn't already know in real life, our family will be adding another person, God willing, in the beginning of February(ish). Whoohoo!!!

Highlights

The kids have been very inspired by reading Farmer Boy together for homeschooling, dragging their antique toboggan through the grass with loads of what-have-you, building cabins out of firewood out by the woodshed. Today's project was weaving.

At suppertime they also recited a poem they've been working on memorizing to perform for Daddy (a complete surprise to him). I didn't record their first recitation because I didn't want to give them nerves with a camera, but afterwards Rundy said I should tape it for posterity to immortalize the lisps and cuteness. They were happy to oblige with a second round (though the applause wasn't half so loud and hearty as it was the first time around, and you can't see their first flush of pleasure at Daddy's delight). They were so gratified. I didn't even know Marnie had it memorized until earlier this morning--who knew? Cute little parrot.

Twelve Months of Tessa Shalom

Happy birthday, Tessa Lou!!

Tessa is rounding out her first year with quite a miserable week of teething, poor girl; four teeth right on the cusp of breaking through the gums for days now. Despite the discomfort that has made her a bit needier than usual, she's still managed to expand her daily rounds of exploration. Her circuit now includes library cabinets, game chest drawers, the Tupperware storage cabinet, and the recycle bin. Nothing escapes her intent curiosity, and this month she's shown a great desire to communicate all the magnificent wonders she's discovered through a steady stream of grunts and gucks and tongue clucks and emphatic gestures. She continues to dance and grin as though any music in her vicinity is being made just for her enjoyment. She's become highly interested in the removal and replacing upon feet of socks and shoes. She's displayed great largesse of spirit in the unstinting sharing of food (both real and invisible) with any interested parties. Her new favorite game is playing hide and seek with her brothers around the easy chair. And she's graduated to climbing any and all couches in our home. She has a wonderfully idiosyncratic way of getting around--a speedy galumph in which she thrusts one leg and one arm forward and scooches the rest of her body on her bottom to catch up. Though she has more than enough wiry strength and balance, she still shows virtually no interest in walking. What a waste of time when she can galumph so much faster... 

She's our sweet little string bean, perpetually moving, perpetually curious, perpetually delighted in by us all.

This picture of Tessa in abject teething misery I include because it's the only one with the silly 12 month tag in the frame before she was off like a bullet.

She perked right up with a bit of distraction.

And to round the post off, a few pictures from her first birthday party this past weekend.

A climbing cake for a climbing girl:

A bemused introduction to party blowers and being the center of attention:

And ICE CREAM--HER FAVORITE THING IN THE WORLD!!!

Happy first year, sweet little firecracker.

Eleven Months of Tessa Shalom: A Blurry, Washed Out Commemoration

...in the midst of a house chaotic and awhirl thanks in no small part to the astounding inquisitiveness and energy of the commemorated girl herself.

Tessa has outdone herself in the past month. She retains all of her sunshine and has added to it a mega-dose of happy tornado. In this season of harvesting and canning and homeschool planning I've given up almost entirely on trying to keep up with her destructive capabilities and instead have resigned myself to impressive baby-trails as a fixture through the entire house. She has a regular circuit that seems to become more elaborate by the day. Toys stored in the cupboard under the kitchen sink just for her? ✔ Play kitchen? ✔ Magnets on fridge? ✔ Bookshelves in the living room? ✔ Toilet? ✔ Try to climb the stairs behind our backs if the gate is left open? ✔ She combines the physical aptitude of baby Tadhg with the lack of understanding of physical risks of baby Pippin, a lethal combination. She climbs with agility now, anything climbable. The only thing preventing her from perching on chairs and couches yet is insufficiently long legs. She bounces and claps and giggles when we sing. She waves ceremoniously like she's being paid for it. She teases and "gets" people gleefully. She gives delightful tongue-completely-out licky kisses. She makes friends easily, because who doesn't like a baby who liked them first? She has two teeth now and four more on the way. Not walking yet--obviously a waste of time when her current speed-scooching serves her so well. She's my first classic Troublemaker. She's the one who'll draw on the walls and cut her own hair and get her tongue stuck to an icy pole and all the other things small humans are famous for. 

She's getting hard to keep up with but is so much fun to watch and be around and love. Her antics make us laugh. Her presence is additive in every good way. We love you, Tessa Lou. These months with you have flown.

The quality of her help with Rundy's building projects is unparalleled.

And to cap it all off, a slice of life. She climbed up there all on her own; but for Rundy, she would've been dangling on the edge of the sink indefinitely, having kicked the stool out of her reach on her climb up.

The coveted prize:

She can't wait to be out there running with them all the time. Instead she has to be stuck inside with Mom canning pickles. Someday her Real Life Outside That Door By Herself will begin.

 

Ten Months of Tessa Shalom

{a.k.a. Too Many Blurry Photos of Hyper Toothless McGeezer}

Tessa is a whirling dervish, a grinning tornado, an intrepid explorer, a lean, wiry, happy, chummy, social blur of curiosity. She makes friends wherever she goes with naught but a gummy smile. This has been a month of finessing her mess-making abilities (she's made great strides with her speed), jabbering like crazy, pulling herself up to stand on everything, tongue-clucking louder than a grown man, clapping and waving and saying bye-bye because it makes her feel important, and still not having any more than half of one tooth to eat her elephant-sized three square meals a day (which she insists be as identical as possible to ours). 

She went to her first concert in a wondrously-renovated barn-coffeehouse in nothing other than the great metropolis of Nanticoke just this past weekend. It was supposed to go from 7 to 10 p.m. and ended up going even later, and I was unsure how she'd hold up. I never should have doubted her powers of extroversion. She bounced to the music, clapped vigorously whenever everyone else did, and generally had a wonderful time until she finally got drowsy enough to drop off to sleep while I mercifully plugged her one unsnuggled ear. 

Tessa is a delight from tip to toe, as loved as can be by us all and remarked upon with great satisfaction by various siblings many times a day.

We are all grateful for these ten months with our baby.

This photo to begin, only because this is what it was like to try to take a single, solitary good picture of her lying down next to the 10 month tag. This, over and over again.

She only stopped her perpetual motion when she had a book. Or the monthiversary tag. Or if I grabbed her leg and bounced her and cracked jokes and gobbled her up, then quickly snapped a picture before she'd stopped laughing.

And even then she started wiggling away again in under 10 seconds. What a baby. No wonder she's never had baby fat...

Current obsession: fridge magnets.

And FOOD!!!

And 2 tiny videos of everyday Tessa (ignore obnoxious Mama voice--Tessa's the real star).