Tess smiles

A very, very brief video of Tess. Ignore me talking. We didn't realize the camera was set on video. I was telling Bobby to "take it" before she stopped smiling.

7 weeks

Tess is 7 weeks old today. I caught an adorable smile on camera, but unfortunately, had the flash off and wiggled my hand so it's not focused all that great. But, it's still pretty darn cute. She is starting to coo a little and make some semi laughing noises. You can't tell in the pic but she has a dimple on her left cheek, same as Teagan.
She has put on a couple pounds, and has the chubby cheeks to prove it. I think she must be going through a growth spurt right now. She was sleeping 5 hours at night, but now she is waking up every few hours. Let's hope it's a short spurt.

She's always willing to smile for Daddy. She makes me work for it. I wasn't too good at catching the grins with the flash on though.

Tess isn't my only sleeping baby girl.
I guess she had a rough day at school.

Never too many

sleeping baby pics, that is. I think she looks like a baby doll in this picture, with her little hand up in the air. And yeah, she was sleeping like that.

Caught on camera

Before

After

My girls

My baby boy

Notice Daddy got his hair chopped off while I was gone.

Did you guess?

We went to KENTUCKY!!!To the Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing, to be specific. I attended a 4 day orientation while Krista hung out in a hotel room with Tess and Griffey. Ask her if she would do it again. I'm pretty sure she would have to think long and hard about it. I really had a good time. It was hard to be away from Tess all day long, but, I knew she was being spoiled, and I was meeting a lot of new and interesting people. Just learning about the history of the school and the stories behind the women who played such important roles in it, gave me such a feeling of belonging. Not to mention, being surrounded by like minded people. So many talked about not feeling like being the outsider, the crunchy, granola, crazy, birth junkie.

I am really excited about starting this adventure, but admit that I am a wee bit apprehensive. Just sitting here typing up this post, I have had to tell Tatum to quit kicking the table, Teagan to stop playing with my camera, and listened to Tatum say "Mommy take Tess, take Tess." I'm starting to wonder if the idea of grad school was a realistic one at this point in my life. Maybe I should have waited a little longer, like 18 years, until they were all out of the house, or at least 14 until they were too busy hanging out with their friends to waste time bugging me.
I have to give credit for these pics to one of my fellow students, Amanda Perkins. She spent the week snapping pics of everyone. I think I took one picture. :oP

Where have we been?

Would you believe Hurricane Ike hit Ohio? Okay, me neither. It was really just the remnants, 50 mph winds are some serious remnants though. We were with out power last Sunday for about 9 hours. Not nearly as bad as some people in the area who are still without electricity.
This is the tree in our backyard. Yeah, the one who's limb committed suicide last week. The wind took out most of the rest of them. They toppled over the fence and into the neighbor's yard.

Our own yard didn't take much of a hit.
I went to pick Krista up Monday afternoon for our trip. While she had some of a neighbor's tree in her yard, it luckily didn't do any real damage. Can't say the same for her next door neighbor's house and truck though.

And further down the street, we found this tree blocking the road. Can you see the car underneath it? Imagine walking outside and wondering where your car disappeared to. Uh, I'm pretty sure I parked around here, but I can't find my car.
Anyway, we left Monday afternoon and just returned this afternoon. Tess spent alot of the time like this.

At least while I was in the hotel room. She wasn't always so sweet for Aunt Krista. So, where were we? And no, you can't guess if you already knew where we were going.

You've got the....

...cutest little baby face.See? She doesn't always sleep.

Does 1 month make a difference?

Do I look bigger?

Sleepy girl

Rooster comb or faux hawk, whatever you call it, the girl has some wild hair.

And no, she doesn't always sleep.
If you put her in the swing, she does this
Show off her wee gangsta hand signs
Rock her bad ass air guitar!

And yes, Dad and Grandma, I know you read the blog, so please ignore the fowl language. I only use it for my children that resemble poultry. Hahaha. Get it?

Okay, not really, I use it alot. I didn't leave my sailor mouth in the Navy.

And by the way, for those of you who haven't experienced it before, mastitis sucks.

Birth

To celebrate Tess's first month, I thought I would share the birth with you. I was not able to upload the video because I'm computer illiterate and I couldn't figure out how to change the file. Anyway, I was able to capture some pics off the video. I only pushed once, but man, did it hurt.
When she started coming, she just didn't stop.
Her head is coming.
There, it's out!

And there she goes! Shooting out across the tub, as Tatum would say.
The plan was to pull her up as she was born, but she came so quickly, I had to sit up and reach for her.

And there she is, in all her dark haired glory.