The best recipe for happiness? Someone to call you "Sweetie Pie".

Well it finally happened. Tessa Kaye got her first kiss. From someone other than family, that is. Yesterday we went to a friend's house to play. The little boy there is a little over one and a half, has an adorable toothy grin, talks incredibly well and just loves Tessa to pieces. We will call him "Golden Boy" because of his blonde hair. Golden Boy would run around the house calling Tessa to chase after him and she'd try her best to follow. Although she's fast, chasing little boys on all fours isn't as easy as chasing little boys on two legs. I told her not to worry. She'd be able to catch them by the time she gets to elementary school. 

Golden Boy would lap her twice, see that she was falling behind and stop to sit next to her. He'd put her face between his hands and smile. She'd reach for him and he'd squeal and start the chase again. When Tessa got distracted by something else Golden Boy would sit next to her, softly pat her head and call her "Sweetie Pie." I don't think I've ever seen anything cuter. Tessa's never had so much attention. Daddy may have some competition. 

It seemed that these two, Golden Boy and Tessa were as "thick as thieves" but while Golden Boy was taking his afternoon nap someone else eased their way into the picture. He had red fur, a big yellow nose and stole Tessa's heart from the first "I love you." I must confess that I was the one that introduced them. It was Elmo. A kissing Elmo to be exact. If you put his hand on his mouth he'd make a loud "Muuuuuuah" and blow you a kiss. Every time he made that smooch noise Tessa would pucker up and kiss that little furry monster right on the mouth! For the rest of our stay she rolled on the floor with her new playmate. Sometimes she'd lay him on the floor, then lay her head on his chest and hold his hand. Not many people can say their first kiss was from a celebrity.    

Looks like both daddy and Golden Boy have some competition. 

The best recipe for happiness? A healthy baby girl.

For those of you who'd care to know (grandparents), here is some of the info from Tessa's check up:
Height- 27 1/2 in. (50%)
Weight- 15 (15%)
Head- 44 (50%)

She has a healthy heart and can eat eggs now. Oh! This is not related to her appointment at all but she is officially saying "da da" to Brady. She said it twice to him on the phone and last night while she was in her crib she kept calling his name to come get her. When he'd go in to her room she'd wrap her little arms around his neck or wait for him to tickle her. She never calls me "da da" so I know she knows what it means. We'll see if she keeps it up or not. All I can say is, I've never seen a grown man "melt into a puddle" as fast as Brady did last night. She has him wrapped around her little finger.

The best recipe for happiness? Nine months.

Today my baby girl is nine months old. Nine! And she is the most precious, wonderful thing there is. 

Happy 3/4 Birthday Tessa Kaye!  

The best recipe for happiness? Packages from Amazon.

This is what we do when we get packages from Amazon. I don't know what it is about kids and cardboard boxes but they are Tessa's favorite toy. We (by we, I mean me) decided it would be fun to make it into a fort. And we all know it's not a real fort unless it has your name on it and don't forget your windows with flower boxes. To make it really official we threw in a pet dog. The box sure looked cute but the only way I could get Tessa to go inside was to cover the bottom with cheerios, and even then she would only go in halfway. She preferred playing in her front yard with her pet orca, Willue (pronounced "will-oo" because I refuse to call it Willie and Walrus would just be weird). She had a hoot of a time avoiding mom and her camera. Later we will add a library and a master bedroom to the fort...as soon as Tessa gives me back my markers.

The best recipe for happiness? Copycat.

I'm not exactly sure what I would call the noise they're making in this video and if I did know, I'm not sure I'd know how to spell it. How about, "phubbbbbphubbbbbphubbbbb"? You'll just have to see for yourself:

It feels like I say this for every stage, and maybe I do, but this stage is probably my favorite so far. She's such a little person! She's pulling herself up on everything and she'll chase dad all over the house. She has sweet little baby curls (that's right, curls!) and the bluest eyes I've ever seen. Oh, and she says, "Da Da Da" all day long :(

Basically, she's the best and we want a million more just like her!

The best recipe for happiness? Embracing beauty.

When did you stop thinking you were beautiful? 

I think I'm going to let Brady take a picture of me with my hands down today :) 

The best recipe for happiness? A little 24 inch angel.

Yesterday was a very difficult day for me. I have a habit of assuming I know what people are thinking about me and more often than not, I assume what they're thinking is bad. This makes it difficult to 1.) create friendships because I get really self-conscious and 2.) be comfortable with my performance because I assume everyone is thinking I'm doing a crummy job. Either way, I end up saying or doing things I wouldn't normally say or do. This makes a mess of things, I tell you.

In an effort to counteract this bad habit I've decided to focus on doing service in different areas of my life. Trying to focus on others rather than myself. Trying to love and care for them rather than worrying whether they love or care for me. You know "losing my life" so I can "find" it.

Yesterday I invited a bunch of moms to play with Tessa and I at the wading pool. I made an extra effort to focus on them rather than myself. I tried to act confident and join in the conversation. There were a couple of hiccups but all and all I did really well. Success.

But I went home and started allowing myself to think they didn't like me and I spiraled. Fail.

One of the women couldn't make it because she is moving and needed to clean her old house. I offered my services. She has a toddler, which makes cleaning difficult, so I said I'd play with him while her and her visiting teachers cleaned. Attempting to think of others. Success.

When I got there I realized one of the visiting teachers was someone that really intimidates me. Dang. Not off to a good start. The son didn't really want to play with me and kept running back to his mom. Rather than just trying my best, with love still in my heart, I began to think everyone thought I wasn't helping at all. To make a long story short I caused my friend more stress than help and probably ended up looking like a jerk. How's that for making assumptions? Major fail.

I got home and went to my room and laid on my bed and cried. I'm religious. I pray. I feel Heavenly Fathers comforting arms around me often. But I wasn't feeling those arms yesterday.

Tessa saw when I came in. She saw that I didn't see her. She saw which direction I went. Tessa is a scooter, not a full out crawler.  Because of this, getting around takes some effort. She rarely goes long distances unless she really wants something. She was on the other side of the house.

Sprawled on the bed, feeling sorry for myself, I hear a small noise. I looked toward the door and there was my little girl. In the hall. Scooting as fast as she could to find me. When she saw me look up and see her, she gave me a smile that was similar to this picture:

 She had followed me. I got on the floor and she made the long journey to my bed. When I picked her up she clapped her hands and open-mouth-kissed my lips (she does that sometimes and it's awesome). She then wrapped her little hands around my neck and gave me a mommy-I-missed-you-why-didn't-you-pick-me-up-but-I-forgive-you hug. There were the comforting arms I asked for.

I guess sometimes Heavenly Father uses someone else's arms to pick you up, even if they're as little as arms could possibly be. The littlest arms are the strongest.

I can't believe she dragged herself all that long way just to get to me.
Actually...
 I can.

The best recipe for happiness? Killer upper body strength.

Tessa all of the sudden seems like such a big girl. She's eating big girl food, she'll clap her hands when you say "yeah!", and if you blow a raspberry on her cheek she'll turn around and give you one right back. Then she'll laugh and laugh. The most recent event of her "bigness" is her sudden ability to pull herself up on everything. It's so cute because she'll get up and then not know how to get down. This results in her sticking out her bum just willing the ground to be right under it. All of this pulling up stuff just happened this morning. Brady said, just before he left for work, "I bet she'll pull herself up on her crib any day now." Well, it happened sooner than we thought it would. I put her down for a nap and when I went in there to check on her there she was, standing up on her own. Pleased as punch about it, too. She's such a little person now. And this is so much fun.

The best recipe for happiness? A big meal.

I can't even begin to tell you how much I'm loving feeding Tessa these days. It used to be so frustrating for me but now that she's eight months old we've started to give her whatever we're having for dinner. Last night she had stuffed peppers and baked potatoes. Much more appetizing than the pureed baby food, which she's not a fan of.

Tessa is so independent! She doesn't like being spoon fed and wants to do everything herself. The problem is, you can't eat pureed peaches with your hands and she can't quite get the spoon to her mouth without the food slipping off. Frustrated Tessa. Frustrated mom. She's loved the past few days because she can actually pick the food up with her hands. No spoon needed! No mom needed! 

In the pictures below she was eating manicotti for lunch. Let me just say, this girl knows how to enjoy her dinner. She has to be hosed down after every meal and I find left over food in the strangest places...ears, hair, diaper, between her toes, you name it, foods been there.

Last night she was so messy she had to have a pre-bath before her actual bath. You might say I'm overdoing it with the baths but you try and keep her from eating the floating food mixed with soap. Yuck. I'll take the double bath. 

In the next day or two she's going to try some BBQ chicken (blended so it's a little easier to chew) and she's going to LOVE it. My fearless adventurer is also a fearless eater. 

  

Happy 4th!

The best recipe for happiness? Wading pools.

^I love this picture. She looks like such a little lady.^

Yesterday I took Tessa Kaye to the wading pool at the park. I love how excited she gets with everything in her life. She's such a curious little explorer. She went right in that pool and marched those chubby little legs everywhere she could. She smacked at the water and then giggled, quite pleased with the big splashes she was making. She smiled a welcoming smile to every child that was near beckoning them to come join in her fun. And every once in a while she would lift her head up, face towards the sky and let out a triumphant yell. No fear. Just curiosity and joy. And lucky me, she held tightly to my finger the entire time.

^Also one of my favorites.^

What kind of adventures are you going on this summer?

The best recipe for happiness? Baby on board.

So I promised occasional posts during our cruise not realizing that I'd have NO service the entire trip. It was nice to get away from my phone/computer for a week but it did mean no posts. So sorry. I'm currently in the process of collecting pictures from family so I will have more to show. Brady and I decided we'd rather soak it all in than take pictures, which was awesome in the moment but not so awesome when you're trying to remember it all and show your family everything you did. While I'm working on the posts from the cruise, here are some pictures of my adorable baby. The first few days were really difficult for Tessa but she gradually got used to the new faces and new noises around her. She's such a little trooper.