tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-101637802024-03-12T18:57:37.955-07:00Teresa RoseDadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05444701622715008976noreply@blogger.comBlogger229125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10163780.post-7009637532695831952009-08-31T21:10:00.000-07:002009-08-31T21:15:06.612-07:00Teresa announced yesterday that she wanted to go visit President Obama. We haven't talked about "Our Leader" in ages. (She brought a photo of Barack and Michelle to preschool last January for "L" week.)<br /><br />Today she decided Obama needed a snuggie to be cozy, a quilt to keep his legs warm in case his blanket is too short, and a life jacket for when he is fishing -- so when the large wave sweeps over the boat and sinks it, he will be OK. Oh and she wants to talk to him about the trees, too many are cut down. we need to make sure baby trees are planted and seeds are saved for in case people forget to plant trees, we can do it for them.<br /><br />Where does this come from?Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04714034908983101036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10163780.post-41077216412538430362009-08-29T21:15:00.000-07:002009-08-31T21:16:30.209-07:00Teresa has upgraded to a new, bigger bike. I'm not sure we could keep up with her now if she really wanted to GO. Ms. Confident!Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04714034908983101036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10163780.post-4214735147859443312008-10-29T15:04:00.001-07:002008-10-29T15:05:04.324-07:00<h5 style="font-weight: normal;" class="other">A chat with a dear friend about the kids...<br /></h5><h5 style="font-weight: normal;" class="other"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=633894050">Rebecca:</a> Jamie remembers T as well. He remembers her informing him that she was a girl and had a vagina, and he was a boy and had a penis...</h5>Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04714034908983101036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10163780.post-40216189997225085662008-08-14T17:21:00.000-07:002008-08-14T17:22:41.239-07:00Teresa blew up her first party balloon today! red cheeked with effort and glittering happy eyes.Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04714034908983101036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10163780.post-91721936464998178562008-06-23T15:50:00.000-07:002008-06-23T15:53:07.634-07:00Teresa had her first swim lesson today. Cousin Allison and another young girl are her classmates. At the end of the lesson Teresa was the only one with dry hair. She did deign to blow a quick bubble, but clearly her comfort/confidence is not at the same level as the other girls. Teresa is excited for more lessons tomorrow and continues to tell me that she will jump off the diving board and swim swim swim very fast. I kindly noted that she would need to get her face and head wet if she would accomplish that... we'll see!Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04714034908983101036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10163780.post-26558153025063835002008-06-01T10:16:00.000-07:002008-06-01T20:41:09.115-07:00The age of experimentation...in the past couple weeks:<br />Cut her own hair<br />Tore a library book to pieces (I liked the sound she says)<br />Emptied complete rolls of TP into both toilets<br />Threw rocks at a friend's home (I looove throwing rocks)<br /><br />Time to lock up everything? or just her?Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04714034908983101036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10163780.post-63023384006070746852008-05-30T20:28:00.001-07:002008-05-30T20:28:56.421-07:00And real cartwheels! straight arms, no head on ground, all the way over real cartwheels!Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04714034908983101036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10163780.post-19559653363347711672008-05-30T17:10:00.000-07:002008-05-30T17:12:26.613-07:00Teresa's first haircut... by Teresa. Oh, she's had a few haircuts from Mama, but I guess my job isn't sufficient. Today for "quiet time" Teresa grabbed scissors from the office and proceeded to trim her locks, mostly off the top, leaving her with a pixie/crewcut. <br /><br />Ah well. Another milestone checked off!Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04714034908983101036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10163780.post-28935595278807261552008-03-08T08:03:00.001-08:002008-03-08T08:03:44.217-08:00Last weekend was Owen's first trip to the snow and Teresa's first since she was 1. Both delighted in the cold stuff.<br /><br />Teresa tried out her new skis and snowshoes and did a great job on both. She says she will ski more when she's bigger. I guess we need to save our pennies. She loved making and tossing snowballs, especially making them go plop in the street.<br /><br />Owen found icy puddles to break the surface of and submerge his feet in with great stomping splashes. Rides on the sleds brought beaming smiles with glittery eyes.Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04714034908983101036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10163780.post-46030339912522281122008-02-09T19:26:00.000-08:002008-02-09T19:29:36.277-08:00Big Big girl bed!<br /><br />Mama and Teresa found Thomas the train sheets last week at a good price so ever since Teresa has been anxious for a twin size bed onto which the sheets would fit.<br /><br />Today we acquired the new bed for her - sans mattress - but naptime was successfully held in her new big Thomas bed. Next to get the actual mattress, until then it's a mix of couch pillows, blankets and her toddler mattress filling up the space.<br /><br />We also need to acquire more sheets and a big duvet and other bits needed for a big bed, but we're started! Owen will soon get her old bed.Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04714034908983101036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10163780.post-31961290973039412322008-01-31T20:19:00.001-08:002008-01-31T20:19:21.428-08:00Teresa<br />37.125 inches<br />26lbMamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04714034908983101036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10163780.post-21135641347959014012008-01-31T20:17:00.000-08:002008-01-31T20:18:12.688-08:00COMPLETELY DIAPER FREE! Gave up the largely useless nighttime diapers - were always dry so what's the point? Now to consider when to move to a big girl (twin) bed!Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04714034908983101036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10163780.post-62074929693203541132008-01-24T22:09:00.000-08:002008-01-24T22:13:02.963-08:00Teresa has made the transition from an digital world to an analog one quite well..<br />At naptime today, Teresa came out at 3:45 and announced to mama that naptime was over....<br /><br />Teresa: The short hand is on the 4...<br />Mama: and where is the big hand? Is it on the 12?<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> (Teresa pads down the hall...)<br /><br /> (15 minutes later Teresa pads up the hall...)<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></span></span>Teresa: The long hand is on the 12!<br />Mama and where is the little hand?<br />Teresa: It's on the 4!!!!<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></span></span>Dadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05444701622715008976noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10163780.post-64215206317491546232008-01-14T21:41:00.001-08:002008-01-14T21:42:59.207-08:00Mama got a box of clothes via UPS today. When I put on a skirt to see how it fit, Teresa says, " you look like a lady." keeper. Skirt and daughter.Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04714034908983101036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10163780.post-70456329707643923522008-01-07T21:20:00.000-08:002008-01-07T21:25:52.239-08:00Speaking of alarm clocks - Teresa reports to me some afternoons that, "there's a 4 on my clock, quiet time is over." She says Daddy told her she could get up when there was a 4.<br /><br />Now there are a few problems with this -<br />First, she does not concern herself with which position on the clock the 4 is in - thus it could read 2:14 and she professes it has a 4 and quiet time is over.<br />Second, she knows how to change the numbers displayed on the clock so at any given moment she can change the clock to have a 4 in the readout and thus make it "end of quiet time."<br />Third, as an artifact of the second problem listed above, the displayed time on the clock has no basis in reality!<br /><br />Fortunately GramMary got her an analog clock for Christmas which we need to install and learn to read.Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04714034908983101036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10163780.post-17132366303219033582008-01-07T21:19:00.000-08:002008-01-07T21:20:42.941-08:00Sound sleeper<br /><br />Teresa's little digital alarm clock just went off. In the LR it was insanely loud. Daddy darted off to turn it off and comes back to report Teresa will never awaken for a smoke alarm... she never stirred with the alarm clock bleeping a yard away.Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04714034908983101036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10163780.post-28070248978982018052008-01-06T16:43:00.000-08:002008-01-06T16:44:25.078-08:00snuggies!Grammary made snuggies for mommy and daddy for christmas!Dadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05444701622715008976noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10163780.post-20303143670741000582007-11-15T20:21:00.000-08:002007-11-15T20:22:23.151-08:00"Teresa, what is on your wish list for Santa to bring to you?"<br />"I wish that Santa will bring you and Daddy snuggies"Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04714034908983101036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10163780.post-31827548971439193732007-10-26T14:29:00.000-07:002007-10-26T14:30:38.661-07:00jigsaw puzzles - doing 50 pieces puzzles in her sleep, we're moving up to 60 and 100 pieces.<br />headstands - can now do in middle of room - no wall needed for support.Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04714034908983101036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10163780.post-45590511118170828842007-10-18T14:18:00.000-07:002007-10-18T14:22:05.546-07:00Scooter!While Daddy and Teresa were away on the weekend celebrating Great Nana's 90th birthday, Owen and I were able to wander some garage sales. One of our finds was a little pink scooter for free!<br /><br />Teresa noticed it and asked if it was for her - and when she could ride it. So today after preschool she found her helmet and gave her scooter a try. The first couple pushes netted her a forward movement of half an inch... but within a minute she was zipping across the driveway with good pushes and balance and gleeful glitters in her eyes.Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04714034908983101036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10163780.post-4853546024154523272007-10-07T08:10:00.000-07:002007-10-07T08:11:20.874-07:00Mama, do youhave a bug in your throat?<br /><br />Yes, honey, mama is not feling so good.<br /><br />Is it a ladybug?Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04714034908983101036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10163780.post-86659625976339335992007-10-04T20:41:00.000-07:002007-10-04T21:31:27.031-07:00IrelandAt this point, we've been home nearly a week from our big trip to Ireland... It was a fun trip, but it was alot of work for Mom and Dad: not nearly as much of a vacation as we would have liked, I think. We went for a little over two weeks: arrived in Dublin on Friday morning and spent most of the weekend doing some local exploring in the parks, (especially St. Stephen's Green near our hotel) and getting the kids adjusted to the time change. The first week Dad worked, while mom tried to hold the family together: It was pretty stressful on everyone for Dad to get up early (before Teresa!) and take the light rail train to meet his carpool, and then arrive back at the hotel just in time to rush off for a not ludicrously expensive dinner before a bit of playtime and then bedtime. To make matters worse, Mom caught a bit of cough ("A bug caught Momma!") and wasn't sleeping well anyway. Fortunately, for the most part Teresa adjusted well to living in the hotel (and later B&Bs) although by the end of her trip, she was beginning to tire of the whole process (as were we all).<br /><br />Dublin highlights:<br />Chasing pigeons in the park.<br />Feeding the ducks in the park.<br />Short swings: easy to pump!<br />Figuring out how to walk on the wiggly beams.<br />"A TAXI!"<br />Listening to buskers on Grafton Street<br />St. Andrew's/Andrea's church, converted into the tourist info center.<br />Churches in general: "Spires go way up into the sky and reach up to the heavens!"<br />"Another taxi!"<br />Taking the train to Dun Laoghrie and watching the boats.<br />Doing puzzles at all hours in the hotel lobby.<br />Flirting with the guys going off to play golf.<br />Climbing in and out of the port-a-crib.<br />Lots of yogurt.<br /><br />On Friday, Tina and Peter flew in from Denmark and we joined them at a B&B in Navan county Meath just north of Dublin. The owner was also a sheep farmer, so there were lots of sheep to watch and a slide in the backyard, which was as much fun to jump from as to slide down. On Saturday, we did a little exploring and discovered Bestwick Abbey, a somewhat standing old church in the area, which was a great climbing structure. On Sunday, we began our cross-country drive, attempted a hike in the driving rain, gave up, and ended up near Nenagh in the central portion of the country in search of a playground. Asking around, we discovered that the nearest playground was in a small town called Dromineer off of Loch Derg, a few km outside of town. We ended up finding the playground and staying at the B&B next door: a great little place that was the former Gargai (police) barracks. It turns out that Dromineer was once a main port on the canal route from Limerick to Dublin, but is now a small town mostly used by boaters in the summer. We did have a great night of roaring rain, but were able to enjoy it (and the spiders in the window!) from inside.<br /><br />On monday, we finished our trek across the country to the Dingle peninsula. Most of the day was rainy, which made our 'perfect stop' going to see the Crag Cave. Most of the rest of our trip was spent on the Dingle Peninsula at a B&B between Lispole and Dingle. We were originally hoping to do a great B&B to B&B trek, but in the end we settled for one big hiking day where our host dropped us off in nearby Anascaul and we hiked about 6 miles back to Lispole, where she picked us up again. The stretch of the Dingle Way we did was mostly on back roads, letting us take the stroller and not have to worry about carrying both kids plus all our gear. Teresa wasn't terribly sure that she wanted to do a hike in the beginning (being more interested in puzzles and the B&B dog Fairn) and Daddy carried her most of the first mile. fortunately, after that she warmed up our adventure (after being assured that we were going BACK to the B&B) and ended up walking quite a bit. We had lunch at Minard Castle beach, dominated by a once formidable fortress, and got to wander around the rocks for a bit before continuing.<br /><br />On another outing, we went to Dingle and took a boat into the harbor to see Fungie, the Dingle resident dolphin (pleasing crowds since 1984!) Teresa got a great kick out of that and combined with getting to climb on the bronze Fungie statue, it was one of the highlights of her trip.<br /><br />Mom and Dad's 5th anniversary was on the trip: Dad surprised mom with a GPS receiver, so we could try geocaching (or "searching for buried treasure"). We looked for one overlooking Inch Strand (which was no longer there, apparently) and later in the week tried to find another no O'Conner pass (which we didn't have the right coordinates for).<br /><br />Teresa and Owen both did pretty well in the Pubs/restaurants for dinner, although one time near the end of our trip, Teresa adamantly asserted that she did NOT want to go to a restaurant for dinner: Mom and Dad ended up with takeout Chinese food back at the B&B. They were both often a hit with the other patrons, and Teresa would sometimes carry on conversations with other people all by herself. Of course she was also interested in just having them read her a book!<br /><br />On Friday, we left our wonderful B&B and headed north, taking a detour across the Tarbert-Killimer car ferry (also a hit, of course) before spending one last night in Bunratty near the Shannon airport.<br /><br />More highlights:<br />Teresa's purple rock from the Cave.<br />Climbing on Fungie.<br />Potty adventures (squatting in the park, realizing she had to go potty after going down 4 stories into the Cave, waking up with dry diapers, her realizing this and the next night deciding to take her diaper off before going to bed and then climbing out of the crib to go potty (all by herself!))<br />Picking out a hat (and a hat for Kristi!) at the farmer's market.<br />Digging in the sand on the beaches.<br />Getting stuck behind a herd of sheep on dingle.<br />Airplanes!<br />Reading books with Peter.<br />Taking a shower by herself using the hand shower.Dadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05444701622715008976noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10163780.post-20704895278468082782007-08-22T21:32:00.000-07:002007-08-22T21:34:42.274-07:00Chopsticks!The dear girl is mastering chopsticks. We went out tonight to celebrate Daddy's usefulness at work and she devoured two bowls of miso soup - complete with a long session of chopstick use lessons from Dad to get the tofu to her mouth. Oh, and she ate the seaweed "just like a fish!"Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04714034908983101036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10163780.post-87663335663675527442007-08-22T21:27:00.000-07:002007-08-22T21:32:38.756-07:00It's naptime/quiet time. I'm organizing in O's room.<br />I hear the pitterpatter of small feet in the hallway (not authorized for quiet time but I allowed passage since I was elbow deep).<br />T enters our room then returns. I peek out of O's room to see her trying to replace the dryer lint screen into the dryer.<br />Turns out she has emptied the dryer of all her clothes, put them away, now removed the lint from the screen and placed lint in trash can and of course needs to put the screen back in. I popped out and asked what was she doing and she says, quite indignantly, "mama, you need to put away Owen's clothes!" Sigh, so much for naptime :)<br /><br />Who knew she was so industrious!Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04714034908983101036noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10163780.post-4503061176306902432007-07-23T20:54:00.000-07:002007-07-23T20:55:13.883-07:00Dry dipes! overnight! Soon She may be declared 100% pottytrained - currently she only dipes at night :)Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04714034908983101036noreply@blogger.com0