Teresa's likes and dislikes

Teresa does not like to wear her cute hat:



But she does like to push her walking toy and scatter coasters:



She's become quite skilled at using the pushing toy, pulling it away from the wall to get behind it, standing up and sitting down while holding on to it, and moving it quite quickly (faster than in this video, for sure). But she hasn't mastered maneuvering it when it becomes "stuck" on an obstacle.

Teresa's new swing

My parents gave Teresa a little swing for our backyard playset for Christmas. Yesterday was so nice I put it up and we gave it a try. She likes it!


(I didn't notice the plane flying overhead while I took this video,
but that is the background noise.)

Teresa and Papa

One night she fell asleep on him while he was watching a movie:

We were able to transfer her to her crib without waking her up, yes!!


It isn't easy to play table games with a curious baby on your lap:


This is the 2-person card version of the popular game Settlers of Catan. We got the Settlers of Catan Card Game on Amazon and have really enjoyed playing it a couple times a month. It's a great combination of strategy and chance, so neither of us always wins (as with some other games, such as Risk (David!) and Boggle (me)).


It isn't easy to put away the Christmas lights with a baby's help, either:


But she sure enjoys being involved in anything we're doing!


And she loves her Papa's attention, especially when he's really fun, like in this video:

Pineapple tidbits

More eating adventures:



I didn't get a video of it, but Teresa ate about 2 tablespoons of spicy guacamole yesterday. She loved it! It was funny to smell the onion on her breath when I nursed her twice last night, though. :)

Bonus points to anyone who can name the movie David is watching in the background of the pineapple video!

A little prayer goes...

It's amazing how just spending a few minutes in prayer with Frances can really make a difference in our marriage. Besides the grace the prayer imparts, there is definitely a shared intimacy in its pure expression as Christopher West puts it: "into-me-see."

When I pray, I open everything up to the Lord. I become vulnerable. It allows me to share all of me with Frances who reciprocates. The unifying result makes such a difference, and it's a visible difference reflected in the innocent eyes of Teresa, our daughter. She may only be 11 months, but she bares a two-tooth smile in recognition of the joy we share during and after prayer.

It's not always easy getting together to pray during a busy day, but we realize how important it is. We are always looking for new prayers, books, or suggestions to share the Lord with each other and Teresa. Do you have any suggestions?

Our house at Christmastime

David would like to keep our Christmas decorations up until the end of the Christmas season, the Baptism of the Lord, which is Sunday, January 10. Our pastor is coming to bless our house on Monday the 11th, though, so we may keep everything up another day or two.

We are getting a piano soon, though, and it's going to go right where the Christmas tree is. Hmm!

Pancake Picking

Here's another eating video...the real action is near the end. For those of you who enjoy our silly dialogue in the background as much as you enjoy watching Teresa do things, this one is good. Oh, and she didn't eat the whole pancake David plopped on her tray...but she did munch through about a third of it!

Apple Munching

Teresa enjoys using her 2 teeth to grate off bits of apple when we're eating them. I decided to let her have my core after I ate the rest of the apple. With supervision, she went to town on it for 20 minutes or so and got a good bit of the fruit!

Teresa gets around

Here are four videos of Teresa's new mobility.

First, her first crawl...if you can call it that. She steps with one foot, drags the other leg, and cries the whole time.



And here she is standing at her musical table, cruising a little:



Now our little sugar plum goes after her ball:



I took a second video to try to get a better shot of her crawling after the ball, but she does some other amusing stuff instead.



Anybody know how to tighten outlets? My vacuum plug is forever pulling out of that one and others around the house.

Teresa's first "word"

Who needs real pets when you can watch an aquarium of fish on your computer? Ever since I changed my screensaver to 5 goldfish with a changing aquarium background, Teresa has enjoyed watching them swim around.

Yesterday morning, we watched them together and I told Teresa they were fish repeatedly. She stared at them and said, "tsch!"

That's cute, I thought. She can mimic the end sound of the word I repeated for her.

Hours later, I picked Teresa up and brought her over to the computer to watch the fish. Without any prompting from me, she said, "ish." Yay!

I was home alone, so this video is the best I could do while holding the baby.