A lot has happened in the last 6 months so be prepared for a
long post. I was recently diagnosed as an epileptic and spent some time in the
hospital and at home. I should have probably used that time to update the blog
but I forgot and used the time to rest and be lazy.
Tess has grown so much in the past months that it is crazy.
She loves to “read” her books. I put read in quotes because her version of
reading is either flipping through the book at a very fast pace herself or
getting you to turn the pages for her. Her pace is so fast that you can barely
even see what the words are on the page. But at least she likes books; she
loves to point at pictures and shout out her version of what animal or object
they are. She is getting a lot better and is learning more words each day.
My dad taught Tess how to get down from the couch and she
pretty much has perfected it and doesn’t need anyone’s help when she wants
down. This scares me a little because she will sometimes try and use this
technique while trying to climb down from our bed which is a lot taller than
the couch and she doesn’t realize that she has more of a drop.
For the longest time Tess would only say Daddy, even if we
asked her to say other words. She now has a pretty good vocabulary for her age
but there are still times that she only says daddy, especially if he is at
work.
During my time off we were able to go to a couple Astros
games and even went to the Texas State Fair. My parents share season tickets to
the Astros and Tess enjoys watching the other team score and even sometimes
being able to sit in her own chair. It was pretty hot when we went to the State
Fair so we thought if we stepped inside and watched the dog show it would be
better, we were wrong it was hotter inside but she was a trooper and was
content once the dogs came out and did tricks. Eventually we will have to teach
her not all dogs are nice.
Also while I was in and out of Hospitals this year Tess had
opportunities to stay with the grandparents more. My parents have stairs in
their house and she loves going up and down the stairs. She thinks they are her
personal playground. I am just glad we don’t have stairs because I would be constantly
going up and down them.
Around Halloween we went with some friends to ZooBoo at the
Houston Zoo. This was Tess’s first time at the Zoo and it started out a little
cold but it ended up being a really nice day. Tess enjoyed the time she was
able to walk around on her own; there were a lot of people so she was in the
stroller most of the time. We took a picture on a bench and there was this cute
little girl that was not ready to move on from taking pictures so she decided
to stick around and take one with Olivia, the girls and I until she realized we
were not her family and then she bolted. The girls were looking at her leave
when we got a picture of just the 4 of us. Overall it was a good day and
something we will probably do again in the future once she gets older. 
We have a routine where she always
carries her daycare bag that holds her cups every morning. She will walk out the door in the morning
and then wait for someone to help her get down the big step and then she will
walk to the car. it throws her off if she doesn's do her routine in the morning. One night after daycare we went and
ate at Rudy’s and usually she wants to be with Mommy but this time she wanted
to walk out with Daddy so I had to take a picture of Daddy and her walking
out since it doesn’t happen very often. 
We have a dog door and one of the times I was in the
hospital we had a new animal join the family. When Clayton came home one day to
check on the dogs we had 3 instead of 2.
We had a dog I guess somehow get in the backyard and wonder into the dog door. She
currently resides at our neighbor’s house and seems to like the new digs. It
was funny because our neighbor Danny had been looking for a dog and this one
just popped up, guess it was meant to be. 
As Tess gets older she shows more and more of her personality,
and we are starting to realize how much trouble we are in for. Most of the time she will do
something and we will laugh at her and she will continue to do it. We have had
to catch ourselves a couple of times because some of the behavior we don’t want
to be repeated so we try real hard not to laugh and ignore her so she just
drops it and it resolves itself. That doesn’t always work out how we want it
to.
We have had a lot of time to hang out around the house. The
weather has not always been the best on the weekends. We still try to venture
out to get Tess out but it doesn’t always work out that well. She always seems
to find something to get into around the house or someone to climb on. She has
tuned into TV quite a bit, as much as I hate it she loves Sponge Bob Square
Pants. You should see her face when it comes on. She knows the song and dances
to it, until I try to get it on video and then she stops and stands completely
still. 
My parents are in the middle of buying a new house and at
one of the model homes there were little kid homes in the back and it took Tess
a little bit to warm up to them but after she did we couldn’t get her to come
back inside. She loved looking out the windows and waving at the people that
were coming outside. She really wasn’t too keen on sharing her house but I
think that will come with time.
I will leave you with a picture Tess took of herself.
