Happy Halloween!

Tessa got to take in her first parade. We went to the Anoka Halloween Parade on Saturday. She got to see floats and a bunch of kids dressed up - she left the candy to Isaac but did manage to bring home one snickers bar for Dad. Personally, she was the cutest one there and she managed to keep her outfit (including the ears) on the whole time!

It's fall time!

Tessa and I spent the day at Apple Jack's Orchard. There were apple donuts, apple cider, pumpkins, goats, geese, chickens and ponies! Yet, the only thing my kid was really interested in were the other little boys that were there. She was all smiles at them...just not at the camera.

Next photographer?

Here is Tess from this past weekend playing with Auntie Kari's camera. Only 9 months old and already playing with electronics - oh my!

Can you move a little to the right?

Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

How the time goes by. I had to pack up all of Tessa's summer clothes (and there were A LOT!!!!) and now pulling out her fall stuff. I never thought after holding that 5lb baby that she'd ever fit into what she is now. It's so sad....I have 2 HUGE totes full of clothes and another 2 just waiting for colder weather. How can one little kid have so many clothes?!?!? GO VIKES!!!!! (Thanks for the outfit, Auntie Becca - this outfit hasn't brought the VIKES luck with the last two wearers: Ashley & Sophie...and so far it appears that Tess isn't helping either!!!)

8 Month Update

It's been a whole month since any new news was added about little Miss Tessa - not that the flash hasn't been going off on the computer! Tessa has had quite a few weeks - she got a cast on and got it off on Friday. Only a few tears were shed when the scary machine cut off her cast and only a few grimices by Mom as I watched a circular blade aimed at my baby's arm. Sounds like a vacumn...I don't think so! I've never seen a vacumn shred through fiberglass like that thing did. But all if all - her hand looks good. We need to work on her using her right hand now but she is flexing it and trying to pick up things with it although it is still pretty week.

It doesn't seem possible that in only 4 days she will be 8 months old. Where has the time gone? Bought some new sleepers for her (6-9mo) and poor Aaron looked a little sad when I showed them to him. Now that the cast is off - we expect rolling over to occur at any moment and as long as the dog is in front of her - she is willing to tolerate being on her stomach. Tessa is about the only one who can tolerate Josie's bad breath and kisse! YIKES!!!! Here are some pics from the past few weeks:

Aaron and his best friend Kyle with Carter and Tessa. The boys all grown up!

Our little movie star - hamming it up!

Hey, you're dressed like me again...stop it...will ya!

Here's the cast!

Here is Tessa with her purple cast. It looks a lot worse than it is. She woke up this morning just as happy as could be and doesn't really realize that she can't use her right hand until she wants to play with a toy. She is pretty much right-hand dominated so the next 4 weeks will be interesting.

She hasn't clubbed the dog yet with the cast but has hit mom a few times (on mistake, of course) with it. It stings a little.

Hasn't had any meds since last night at 6:30pm to help her sleep. So that big bottle of medicine will collect dust on the shelf.

Came home yesterday and had a nice surprise in the mailbox from my cousin Lori who is will be going through her own surgery experience with her little one on Monday. We are thinking of her family too - Dylan will sail right through it.

We survived surgery!

Took this pic last night - it was as if she was telling me..."here it is Mom - take one last picture!"

Everything went a-ok today. Got up this morning and left the house around 4:30am and got to the hospital by 5:50am - the drive felt like we were driving to the opposite side of the state - it was oddly reminiscent of getting up to drive to Ohio to visit the rellies! We opted not to take her to the door of the operation area - figured it would be too hard to watch her go through the door. Instead, they wrapped her up and took her down - they said that she was laughing and smiling until they put their masks on and then gave them the look of, "hey, what do you think you're doing!?!?!?". Pretty good for a kid that hadn't ate anything since 11:30 the night before!

The staff was wonderful and surgery took exactly the 45 minutes that the dr said it would. She was pretty groggy when she woke up and was not happy - I've never heard her cry that like before. So they brought us back to recovery earlier than normal. Have to say that I tried to get her to calm down and nothing worked - but Dad on the other hand...he had the magic touch! After that she was pretty much our easy going kid - smiling and watching everything going on around her.

She has pretty much slept the day aways since we got home, along with Mom and Dad. We're just waiting for her to club the dog with her cast - it completely covers her hand and is all the way up past the elbow - it looks like a giant purple club...yes, we picked purple because Dad thinks that is her color and a little extra luck for the Vikes this year! The cast will come off on August 29th!!!

Looking forward to a quiet weekend at home to see how she adjusts to her newest accessory!