4 Week Picture

Professional Pictures of Caroline and Family

Click on the picture to see the rest of them.

At the hospital

Here's a quick video of Tessa meeting Caroline at the hospital

Christmas Morning Video

I've been sick

Hopefully soon we'll be back up and running and I'll update on Christmas and Caroline. But for now I'm uploading the Christmas morning video...

3 Week Picture

Play time

Christmas Season

Before Thanksgiving, yes Thanksgiving, we took Tessa to see Santa at Bass Pro Shops. She said she was "a little bit scared", however she skipped down the aisle to sit on his lap. And the whole way she was saying "choo choo, choo choo", as she has decided that this is what Santa is bringing her for Christmas this year. Tessa was very excited about seeing Santa, and would have liked to have sat on his lap for a lot longer... We also took her to the Kennedy Krieger Festival of Trees, the highlights for Tessa were not the trees...but the train ride and merry-go-round.

Not sure why, but she has decided that this face is smiling...

Our girls in their Reindeer jammies.

Putting the star on the Christmas tree with Dad.

The train garden at Kenilworth...again not a big hit with Tessa this year, maybe next year?

All dressed for her Playgroup Christmas Party

All the kids checking out Santa at the party. Sitting on Santa's lap.

34th Street Lights

A family picture, even Caroline braved the cold to see the lights.

2 Weeks of Help...

Tim and I (and Tessa for that matter) have been very fortunate to have had Nana and Mimi with us for the last two plus weeks. Things should get interesting around here tomorrow when Mimi leaves...I'm sure there will be much less blog posting going on. So I'll give a quick update on the past two weeks.

Tessa is doing amazingly well with Caroline. There doesn't seem to be any jealousy...at least not yet. She is starting to understand that babies sleep a lot. She is always asking to hold Caroline, and loves to help change her diapers and put lotion on her. She is as helpful as any two year old. She puts cream on Caroline, and takes the dirty diaper and puts in the pail, and then puts the wipes/cream/mat away. I'm very lucky! She loves to give Caroline kisses, and most of the time they are gentle. Anytime Caroline starts crying Tessa starts singing "Twinkle Twinkle".
Outside of her involvement with Caroline, Tessa continues to be a "2 year old". Most of the day she is very well behaved, but of course there are times where she doesnt listen, or purposefully does things she knows she's not supposed to do. Hopefully I'll be able to get the two of them out of the house enough, as she does much better when she is kept entertained.

And on Caroline...so far she has been quite the "dream" baby. She is generally happy and content. The only time she really cries hard is to eat. And she likes to eat every hour during the day (she might eat every hour for 3 hours and then take a 2 hr nap). At night she is sleeping pretty well, she has gone 5-6 hours at a time. And we're obviously hoping that this becomes the norm. By the time Tessa was 10 days old she was already pretty miserable and demanded to be bounced for most of the day, we're hoping that based on the fact that we made it past that point with Caroline that we are in the clear. I'm not sure how I'd bounce Caroline for 4 months with a very active 2 year old...

Hopefully I'll be able to upload some more pictures later, and post about the Christmas prep.

2 Weeks Old

1 Week Old

First Family Picture

Tessa was great while she visited the hospital and met Caroline! She kept saying that she was tiny. She was also very pleased that she was given a "Big Sister sticker". We got some of the visit on video, and when time allows I hope to edit it and get it posted. Assuming all goes fine in the nursery this morning we should be going home real soon.

Caroline Mary O'Neil

Caroline was born at 11:19am this morning, after 4 short hours of labor. She weighed in at 7lbs 4oz. Here's a picture with mom and dad, and one of just her. We are both doing great. And looking forward to seeing Tessa in the next day or so.

Singing ABCs

For quite some time we have told Tessa to sing her ABCs while her food cools off. At first, it was me singing the ABCs while she waited. Now that she can do it by herself (only missing a few letters) she sings them all the time when she is told to wait for something. It could be food that needs to cool off, or it could be a waffle in the toaster, or for me to finish something and read her a book, or anything else.

Well the other day she was talking to me about how her baby sister's swing was broken (bloken), and needed batteries. I told her we would do that before her baby sister comes. Her response was, "I sing ABCs Baby Sister come real soon."

If only it was that easy...

Pretend Calling Mimi and Playing with Blocks

Baby Sister Where Are You?

While putting a carseat cover on the newborn carrier today, Tessa told me the following: Mommy, I binoculars (as she cups her hands around her eyes). I looking for baby sister. (She then goes over to the window and screams) Baby Sister where are you? Mommy, Baby Sister close not far away."

Maybe she knows something I dont...probably not. But regardless she is very excited and anxious to meet her sister. Lets hope the enthusiasm lasts past the birth of the child.

Halloween Kodak Photo Album

I'll keep adding pictures to this album as we continue to celebrate Halloween for the next few days.
Pictures Here

Halloween Parade at School

She was acting a little shy when Tim and I went into her classroom, and Mrs. Coplai remarked that "Tessa is never shy." Its nice to know that she is comfortable there (as long as her parents are no where to be seen). After the parade we changed her out of her costume and she was off...no good bye for this mom/dad, she was done with us.

Tessa may be the youngest in her class, but she has no problem being the leader! Here come the 2 year olds (you can see Charlie - the fire fighter - peaking through the window)

Looking for mom and dad, and once she saw us she announced "Hi Mommy" and ran off down the sidewalk...

Winnie the Pooh

I'm happy Tessa's costume is done...its not perfect but it will certainly do. I'm even happier that she is still excited to wear it, seeing as though we've been talking about this since July/August.

All Ready to Go to Nursery School

Tessa tells me often that she is leaving, and going to Nursery School. Today she said this while carrying a basket of toys, pushing her stroller, wearing Minnie Mouse on her back, and her helmet backwards. Quite the getup to go to school with...

Loving the Pumpkin

Tessa cannot get enough of babies, today it was Westley's turn to get some lovin (honestly, its his turn a lot of days)

Cute Things Tessa Says

Nice to meet you (as she shakes your hand)
Thank you for having me
Thank you for coming to my house
I'm going by myself, be right back
I'm awake, come and get me, Mommy where are you?
I go trick or treating, Halloween I'm ready

Pumpkin Patch at Nursery School

Picking a pumpkin was far too difficult for Tessa...
Reading Clifford's Halloween with her class

Ring around the Rosie

Playing in the hay with Erin, Tessa talks about this little girl all the time!

Professional Pictures from School

Here's pictures of the pictures from school (we dont get them digitally).

Picture Day at School

In case non of the professional pictures come out good, I snapped a few before I brought Tessa to school this morning.

Apple Picking at Weber's Farm (MD)

Tessa loved picking the apples all "by self".We were lucky it was such a gorgeous day, and that we had gotten there first thing in the morning. Apple picking in MD, is not like in MA. Here you have to go the day it starts and hope for the best. This year we got really lucky and were able to pick lots of good Cortlands. Next week in MA, I hope to bring Tessa to Tougas where I know she'll love the hay ride, animals, donuts, etc.

Tim and Tessa on the hill slides

Sliding by herself. She LOVED that she could go down the hill like the "big kids".

2nd Birthday Party Video

Birthday Party in MA

Tessa had a birthday party in MA at Nana's house. The guest of honor was Indy, Kevin and Kayla's pet hedge hog. Tessa was really excited to finally meet him!!

She got to show off her gift opening skills...and oh boy did she get good!

And eating icecream cake was clearly an excellent idea!

First Day of School

Tessa started nursery school today! And today went great! She is going Tue/Thurs from 9:10-11:40 from now til Memorial Day. Her teacher is Mrs Coplai (cop-lee). They have a "Courduroy bear" there and so far thats her favorite thing

.

Happy 2nd Birthday

Today was a fun filled day! We took advantage of the unseasonably cool weather today and spent the morning at the zoo.

Tessa and Tim watching the penguins

Tessa feeding the giraffe

Riding the cheetah on the merry go round. After nap we started the transformation of Tessa's furniture to her new room. All that moved was her crib and dresser. The crib became a toddler bed...Now I had no intention of doing this on her birthday. However she has tried more than once to climb out of her crib so before she actually does climb out and hurt herself I figured we might as well just bite the bullet. So we emptied out the spare bedroom (read pulled out stuff we didn't even know we had stored away and tried to find new homes for it...). And now Tessa has a new room. Pictures to come soon. As I type this she is laying in bed, who knows if she'll stay there, but I'm hoping she will, or at least that I don't have to go in too many times to tell her to get back in bed.

After we moved the furniture we had Tessa's best friend Rylan over for dinner and Happy Birthday. The girls had a blast playing together!

Waiting to blow out the candles

Blowing out the candles like a pro!

Brownies are yummy

And a super cute video of the girls playing "ring around the rosie".