It’s Been A While….

It’s been a while since my last post so this is going to be a long one. We have been busy and Tess usually keeps us busy. Back in the beginning of February the kids helped my parents pack up some of the non-necessity items in the house into a POD. My parents were putting the house on the market and needed to clean up some of the clutter they had acquired throughout the 20 years of living there. Tess went to Dallas for the weekend and we got a couple pictures of her playing with magnets on the fridge, she was also wearing an apron as she was helping nana out in the kitchen. I don’t know how much help she really was but I guess that’s why the magnets were brought out, a good distraction.

One day while Clayton was working the Braun girls went shopping at the outlet mall and Oma had to get Tess and outfit for every holiday coming up. Valentine’s Day, St, Patrick’s Day, and Easter were covered. It is hard to get a picture of Tess sitting still and looking at the camera, so these are the best shots of her holiday outfits so far this year.

 Tess has started to be a big help around the house, when she wants to be. If she thinks someone is doing something that she thinks she wants to do she will “help out”. One morning she noticed daddy was unloading the dishwasher and she needed to help. Later on when she realizes this job is not so awesome I don’t think she will be so eager to help out.

 

 

Clayton still plays indoor soccer during the year except for the summer when they get ready for the summer Olympics. We have been able to bring Tess to a couple of his early games this past season and at first she was a little unsure of the facility but she warmed up and enjoyed watching her daddy play and even ventured out and played with some of the other kids as well. She was a little tired the next day but she did well at the games and was able to watch her daddy do something he loves to do.

Tess is growing up a little too fast for me, in late February her hair was long enough for her first official ponytail. Her hair is so curly that if it was straight it would have been long enough a while ago but because of the curls it has to be longer. I don’t know when the next time we will get her hair cut, I had long hair growing up so I think we will keep the trend till it gets too long or she lets me know she wants it cut.

 

No matter if Clayton is at work or not I am the one that usually wakes up with Tess in the morning, it gives us some time in the morning to hangout, watch cartoons and be silly. I love that time with her. She loves to take pictures and she has gone through multiple phases where she is independent and then she wants to cuddle, sometimes in the same day. There was one weekend day, I think Clayton was at work and Tess and I were hanging out and she wanted to cuddle early on in the morning and then later on she has her purse with her and telling me bye. Every day with her is a new experience and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

 

 

 

Towards the end of spring break Mona and Kevin came down from Dallas to spend some time with little bit. Kevin turned the double nickel and I made him some cupcakes for the occasion. He was too quick the first time and blew out the candles before we could take any pictures. We relit the candles and made sure to get some action shots the second time. While they were in town we decided to go to Battleship Texas. We had planned on going on Saturday but there was rain in the forecast. That weekend there was a big celebration for the centennial celebration; the ship was commissioned in 1914 and is the last remaining dreadnought-style of battleship to serve in both World Wars. We went on Friday and it wasn’t too busy but it was really windy. Parts of the ship were not able to be seen because they were under construction and being repaired. We had the stroller for Tess so Clayton and his Dad toured more of the ship then Mona and I did. All in all it was a good day trip; we will probably go again when Tess is bigger. On our way back from the ship we stopped at a Dairy Queen and they had a ball pit. Tess took a quick dive into the pit and soon realized a ball pit is a lot like quick sand, the more you move the more you sink. Before we knew it all we could see was her head and a foot. She enjoyed it though; we had to use ice cream to get her out.

My brother rescued one of the cutest puppies around. He is I guess a toy schnauzer because he can fit under Toby and is basically full grown. Matt had to go out of town for the weekend so we dog sat. Roscoe and I got along just fine; he is still too much of a puppy for Clayton. In the evenings the dogs usually hang out with me on the couch, while Roscoe was at our house I had another dog hanging out with me.   

 We went to an indoor bounce house called Bouncing Bears for a friend’s daughter’s birthday party and Tess loved it there. She is still little and one of us has to do most of the activities with her but she doesn’t care. She laughed so hard and came home so exhausted that it was well worth it.

 

 

The next weekend we went up to Dallas for another birthday party. Tess had a lot of fun playing with family. We looked out in the yard and I noticed her leaning on the chair looking all smooth talking to Landon, she will eventually realize he is her cousin. They had a lot of fun running around the back yard until the big kids came out and stole the ball and started playing amongst themselves. Later that night I was looking for Toby and right about the time I was getting a little worried he popped his head up from under the blanket. He had buried himself under the blanket and was snug as a bug in a rug. O Toby…

 

 



 

When Daddy does eventually get up in the mornings Tess likes to play with him because he is usually a little more fun than mommy. This morning he was playing blocks with Tess and they built themselves a little tower until Tess knocked it down. She looks so big in this video, I think it was right around this moment that I realized, I have a toddler.

 

 

We have been waiting for the time that our little one would climb out of her crib; she had been showing some signs of climbing on things. Well one night she was acting out at dinner and she had to go to timeout in her crib, I put her in her crib and explained to her that she needed to think about how she was acting, fully expecting her to completely understand what I meant. As Clayton and I were finishing up our dinner we realized her cries were getting louder and louder. I went and got the monitor and low and behold our daughter was no longer in her crib, she had climbed out. Well she had I guess landed on her face and had the rug burn to prove it. We then started the long process of trying to find her converter kit which would convert her crib to a toddler bed, that process turned into us buying her a toddler bed.

 When Clayton and I bought our house we knew that eventually we would redo the kitchen, well that time has come. We bit the bullet and replaced the countertops and backsplash. We had really good cabinets but the countertop and backsplash did not work well with the color that was originally selected. We shopped around and went with a smaller place that we had bought our bathroom tile from. Since we were only changing the countertops and backsplash it was a pretty quick process. The countertops were installed in one day and the backsplash took an afternoon and the next morning. I hate change but after it was complete I am happy with the end result.

While I get ready for bed I usually take a look at the monitor and see how Tess is doing, this one particular night she reminded me a lot of her daddy. She was completely sprawled out on her back taking up as much room in her crib as possible. Her daddy tries to do this in our bed, there are nights that I will wake up in the middle of the night and I will be sharing my pillow with Clayton. Clayton is usually all over the bed at night, it is sometimes very interesting where he ends up.

  

Tess has always loved her bread. We have tried to keep the bread till she has eaten more of her meal so that she doesn’t fill up on bread and then not want to eat what we are having for dinner. Eventually she will have a love hate relationship with bread as all women do but I will let her find that out on her own and let her enjoy it while she can.

  

We went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse one night when Mona and Kevin were in town and our waitress was really slow. Tess was getting restless so Mona and I took her up to the front and she played on the saddle that is used when you go there for your birthday. She had a good time waiting for Clayton and Kevin to pay the bill.

  

Tess has been around our puppies since the day she was brought home from the hospital. Our two pups have been extra careful around her and Lexi has pretty protective the first couple of months. She is now getting to the age that playing with them is starting to get fun. We will randomly see her pet them, lay on them, or try to play with them. She has been stealing their balls for a while and bringing them back to us to throw but she just started throwing them the balls herself. The dogs tend to look at us because they don’t go very far but they give in eventually and play with her. Eventually she is going to be the only one giving them attention.

 

As Tess is getting older she is having more and more of an opinion. She sometimes likes to pick out her outfits or her shoes or decides she wants to wear her shoes with her jammies. Instead of fighting with her I usually will let her have her way unless the outfit is ridiculous. We will see how long this lasts. So far she is ok in the outfit department, but I am not positive it’s always going to be this easy.

As summer has come so has the rain, my mom bought her a rain coat and the first day it was pouring outside I got the coat out and tried to put it on her, well she was not pumped about putting it on. So I didn’t force it and I opened the front door and she saw the rain and reached back and all of a sudden wanted the coat. She has worn it a couple of times and will probably wear it more throughout the summer.

Speaking of things coming with summer, June bugs, at first Tess didn’t want anything to do with them. Then she started wanting to stomp on anything that looked like a June bug. One morning she saw an acorn and thought it was a June bug and looked at me and was basically asking permission to stomp on it. I basically thought to myself as I am taking this video, o your father would be so proud, and he thought it was hilarious. Thankfully there are no more June Bugs for my princess to stomp.
 

Well my baby is no longer a baby. We finally broke down and bought her a big girl Minnie toddler bed. What breaks my heart the most is the fact that she loves it. She has done great. We have only found her on the floor once and it was after one of the big thunderstorms we had one night. We didn’t even hear her get up; I just looked at the camera in the morning and saw her asleep on the floor. I have to admit now that I don’t have a baby anymore, I officially have a toddler.

  

Well that is my very long but much needed update on our busy life. I will leave you with the most up to date family picture and this will be the last Harris Family Picture in the old Braun Family Home.