Life is Good

Tessie found yet another way to endear herself to me tonight when she announced, "I want to get Daddy a beer!" and proceeded to do just that.



This is what fatherhood is all about, isn't it?

Holiday Extravaganza!

Before Christmas, Tessie's day care held a "Holiday Extravaganza" pageant featuring all of the children, split up into their various age groups. Tessie and her cohort of two-year-olds, the Ducklings, were in fine form as they kicked off the evening's entertainment in front of a restless audience of parents, grandparents and electronic recording devices:

Yule (Back) Log

Has it really been over a month since last I posted anything here? Yikes. Serious catching up needs to be done.

In the coming days, I'll try to get caught up with all of our Holiday adventures, including Tessie's first-ever Christmas Pageant performance, our trip to Massachusetts to see her American grandparents, and the following visit to our home by her Canadian grandparents. Much to do!

Expensive tastes

"I like lobster. I like it very much. It's good food for me. It's good food for everybody. It's good for Babi and Děda and Mommy and Daddy and Tessie!"

- Tessie, 1/18/08, after being told that the steamer basket is for cooking lobster (and yes, she has had lobster, courtesy of Babi and Děda)

More conversations with Tessie

I really should keep a tape recorder running the car. This post won't do justice to the running commentary on our daily commutes. (Items below are all from one day's drives.)


Family fun
(to fully appreciate this one, you need to know that my dad is an avid photographer and my mom an avid videographer, particularly when it comes to (a) travel and (b) their only granddaughter; they came out for a visit over New Year's)

Having mastered the name of her own street, Tessie is now eager to learn about others, and "What's this street called?" (followed by "Why?") is a common refrain during our drives. This morning we were on Foothill Blvd., which I explained was named for the foothills of our local mountain range, which we could see to the north.

T: "We went to the mountains with Babi and Děda."

me: "Yes, we did. What did we do there?" (to see if she'd remember playing
in the snow)

T: "They take pictures!"



Fire trucks, fire trucks

As previously mentioned, we pass by a fire station on our way to and from work and school. Today the lights were out in the station, prompting this analysis from Tessie:

It's dark inside the fire station. They didn't turn the lights on. Fire truck is sleeping. We read a story to the fire truck so it can go to sleep. When we get home we read a story to the pretend [toy] fire truck.

Seek, and ye shall find

Apropos of nothing, Tessie stated: "We saw baby Jesus at the pub."

me: "Really, now? What was baby Jesus doing at the pub?"

T: "Lying in the hay!"

Oh, o.k., now I know what she's talking about: Over the holidays, there was a crèche (not to mention a Christmas tree, several penguins, a snowman, and a menorah and giant dreidl) set up in the pocket park just outside the local pub we often visit. The crèche (and tree, penguins, snowman, menorah, and dreidl) got many -- evidently memorable -- visits as well.


Miscellany from the back seat

Upon encountering a traffic jam: "Too much cars need to get out of the way. Bye bye, too much cars. See you later, too much cars."

"The moon is a semi-circle." (Indeed it was.)

And, finally: "Elmo's not a monster. He's real!"