"When I'm big," said Tessa the other day, "I'm gon' drive a purple sparkly car and drink Diet Coke."
We can only hope, y'all.
I started telling Tessa that soda makes kids sick and is only for adults so that she won't pick up my caffeinated sugar bubbles habit. I had ironically given up Diet Coke before I got pregnant with Livvy, but then coffee made me so nauseous that I returned dutifully to my silver cans for a caffeine fix that wouldn't make me hurl. Now, Diet Coke and me, we're reunited, two peas in a pod. Me and coffee? I'm back on that sauce, too.
Speaking of sugar, we discovered another way to reward and encourage Tessa's good behavior other than Dum-dum lollipops. I actually think this works better, too. On one of my recent nursery-decorating-related trips to JoAnn, Nekos came up with the idea to buy Tessa a bag of plastic beads and let her pick one out every time she does something good (i.e., goes to bed without giving either of her parents a splitting headache, peeing in the potty even though she'd rather let loose in a diaper, eating a baby carrot even though she'd really, really rather not, etc.). She is now so proud of her necklace and all of its "charms" and its evidence of her goodness. At night when I'm smooching her sweet cheeks and putting her to bed with promises of a new bead in the morning should she go to bed without a fuss, she says, "But, mommy, I don't know which bead I will pick out. Red or purple or green or pink?" And she drifts off to sleep dreaming of the tupperware container full of beads that sits atop our refrigerator. Oh so tantalizing.
Tessa's other new favorite thing? The horses that trot around downtown Nashville at night, sweeping tourists and rosy-cheeked couples around in carriages. We've taken the long way home more often than not recently, rolling up right next to those horses so that our Tess can get a good, long look at them. "I want a horse to come live at our house," she says, all moony-eyed.
Things are so good around here. I'm putting the finishing touches on the nursery, which I've spent the last six weeks or so having so much fun decorating and shopping for and thinking of. It's been a process, and I can't remember taking so much time to redo any other room in our rouse. I'm normally not the picky sort, but I ordered three sets of curtains for Baby Livvy's room before I found just the right ones. I think part of it is my expectation that hard times may be ahead--sleepless nights, for sure, but maybe baby blues, too--so I wanted to create as serene and as sweetly cheerful a space as possible, like an antidote to any bad juju out there. Plus, there can't possibly be a room that's more fun to decorate than a baby girl's.
Anyway, just wanted to pop in share some new Tessa pictures. Will be back soon with finished nursery pics and more. Hey, I'm going to have a baby in a month!