Persistent Princess

Anna, while enjoying dress-ups, has never been obsessed with being in costume. She adopts an identity ("I'm the baby arctic fox, and you're the mama arctic fox!"), but she doesn't feel the need to dress the part. Tessa, on the other hand, has become positively obsessed with dress-ups since Halloween. For those of you who haven't seen the gorgeous wonder that was Tessa on Halloween, here you go:


I mean, come on - cute! I know I'm a biased mommy, but that's one adorable Cinderella. Since Halloween, that costume, which I knew would take up residence in the dress-ups box, has been worn more times than my cost-per-wear analysis could possibly have dreamed of and has gone through the wash close to half a dozen times. It's held up remarkably (Disney Store, here's your plug). Ditto for Anna's Minnie Mouse costume, which Tessa has also appropriated. And last year's Tinkerbell costume, although that one doesn't have the princess skirt appeal of the other two, apparently, as it's not getting the same air time.

She's wearing these to bed. To school. To birthday parties (lest anyone forget who the *real* star of the day might be!). And, while at first we thought ???, we have since adopted the mantra that this is not a battle we're willing to fight. As long as she's dressed appropriately for the weather under the costume, and as long as she ends up with shoes and a coat, where's the harm? It's adorable at 2 years 9 months of age. As long as it's gone by 24 or so, she should be fine, right?

Versary

On the way home one night last week, I explained to the girls that Eric and I were going to go out on Saturday night to celebrate our anniversary and that they would get to stay home and play with a friend of ours.

Anna liked that the word has her name sound at the beginning of it, and she wanted to know what it was. I told them that an anniversary is like a birthday, but not for a person - a birthday for something else special that happened - and that this anniversary was for when Eric and I got married.

They absorbed this, and then Tessa proclaimed, "No! It's a Tessaversary."

Well, it kind of makes sense...

Tessa has taken to referring to passing gas as "belly burps." It's nice to see her creativity emerging in such a...descriptive fashion.

Words

First, as in five months since I've written any here. Second, as in the funny ones the kiddos have been saying as their vocabularies develop. I need to record these for posterity and before the soundtrack goes out of my head. Many have now been defeated in favor of the correct pronunciations. I'm actually kind of sad about that.

Here goes - Anna's list is shorter than Tessa's, for perhaps obvious reasons!

Anna's Constructions
beeber = beaver (thank the Littlest Pet Shop collection for even needing to know this one)
drunk store = drug store (upon seeing a CVS: "Mama! It's the drunk store!")

Tessa's Constructions
meenas = bananas
culluh = color (she sounded like something out of Gone With the Wind on that one)
banewns = balloons
cocadots = polka dots
foooon = spoon
eesheeeyah! = there it is!
choo choo pain = choo choo train

Never a dull moment in our family conversations.

Something like this...

Anna meandered into our room, half-asleep, at some point overnight, and we pulled her in to zonk out with us. This happens with some frequency. I can't say that I really mind, since I don't get to see her during the day. Some snuggle time is just fine, and it's not out of hand as she usually burrows in and is sound asleep from about the time her head hits the pillow.

Last night, though, we had the added bonus of Tessa, who woke up at around 4:15 or so and wasn't having any suggestion of going back to sleep. With all of us piled in, little arms and legs and stuffed beasties flying everywhere, and me half-asleep (maybe not quite half), I was struck with an image I hadn't thought of in years. What I wouldn't have given for nine feet high and six feet wide...

Look Who's Two!

Happy Birthday, Tessa!

Books I Read in 2008

I've been meaning to post this list for the past month and a half, but I've been busy starting on the 2009 list! Without further ado, here are the books I read in 2008. The titles in bold are the ones I liked the most, for whatever reason. Just about all of these are first-time reads.

1. The Ecco Book of Christmas Stories - Alberto Manguel, ed.
2. The Gathering - Anne Enright
3. Come Back: A Mother and Daughter's Journey through Hell and Back - Claire Fontaine and Mia Fontaine
4. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson
5. I Am America (And So Can You!) - Stephen Colbert
6. Fantasyland: A Season on Baseball's Lunatic Fringe - Sam Walker
7. The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen
8. Coraline - Neil Gaiman
9. The Senator's Wife - Sue Miller
10. Twilight - Stephenie Meyer
11. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
12. The Namesake - Jumpala Lahiri
13. The Whole World Over - Julia Glass
14. Eat Pray Love - Elizabeth Gilbert
15. New Moon - Stephenie Meyer
16. Uglies - Scott Westerfeld
17. Eclipse - Stephenie Meyer
18. Pretties - Scott Westerfeld
19. Specials – Scott Westerfeld
20. The Looking Glass Wars – Frank Beddor
21. Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman
22. Just in Case – Meg Rosoff
23. Smoke and Mirrors – Neil Gaiman
24. The Post-Birthday World – Lionel Shriver
25. Replay – Ken Grimwood
26. The Speed of Light – Elizabeth Rosner
27. The Host – Stephenie Meyer
28. We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda – Philip Gourevitch
29. In His Sights: A True Story of Love and Obsession – Kate Brennan
30. What Happened to Anna K: A Novel – Irina Reyn
31. The Summer of Naked Swim Parties: A Novel – Jessica Anya Blau
32. We Need to Talk about Kevin – Lionel Shriver
33. The Three of Us: A Family Story – Julia Blackburn
34. Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card
35. Case of a Lifetime: A Criminal Defense Lawyer’s Story – Abbe Smith
36. Playing for Pizza – John Grisham
37. Run – Ann Patchett
38. I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman – Nora Ephron
39. Everyman – Philip Roth
40. Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace… One School at a Time – Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
41. Blindness – Jose Saramago
42. Breaking Dawn – Stephenie Meyer
43. On Chesil Beach – Ian McEwan
44. Revolutionary Road – Richard Yates
45. Dangerous Laughter: 13 Stories – Steven Millhauser
46. The Secret History – Donna Tartt
47. I Was Told There’d Be Cake – Sloane Crosley
48. Netherland – Joseph O’Neill

Modeling for Grandma

Look, Mom - she grew into it!


Toasty warm, and so cute. Grandma Sweaters are extra warm because of all the love.

New Toy

Anna discovers bubble wrap...


...and we wonder exactly why we bought all those toys.

She's no Don King, but...

How does Tessa feel about having a new President?


Electrified!!

Recap

Well. That was a long stretch of no posting. I blame Facebook and our new Wii. But I'm here to tell you that these past two and a half months have been full of activity. Let me tell it from Anna's and Tessa's perspectives. To them, the past two and a half months boil down to one event: CHRISTMAS!!!

The requisite early morning PJ pictures show the girls reveling in their new (and larger) dollhouse,


Tessa going absolutely bananas over her most favorite Disney princess (thanks to Anna for schooling her on all of the options),


and Anna breaking out her first Guitar Hero moment - no electronics required!


We've had a great couple of months despite getting some kind of virus or another at every turn lately. We've enjoyed visits from family, and we've especially enjoyed watching our country take a step into a new and brighter light. As cheesy as that sounds, I can't think of a better way to describe the feeling I had on January 20th as Eric and I watched the inauguration on a giant screen in a (warm) movie theater near home. Anna describes that day as "President Obama's special day," and I think it was a special day for a lot of us.

More to come soon!