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.