Tessa's blessing

Tessa got blessed about 3 weeks ago, and I'm finally getting the pictures up about it. So here she is in her pretty little dress. She's such a good baby. She's so happy and sweet. I could not ask for a better baby. The spirit just seemed powerful when Billy pronounced her name, and the love I have for her just expanded even more during the blessing. One thing that stood out to me, is that she was blessed with the desire to do good. That makes me feel SOOOO good as her mother! To me that means she will be teachable and that (hopefully) she won't want to test limits...I have high hopes for her. :)
I know that our Heavenly Father loves her and each one of us, and I am so glad he trusts us enough to give us this special spirit so that we can teach her the things He would want her to know.
Will has started talking more and more about Jesus lately, and it makes me feel so good to think that we are actually teaching him things that some people go their whole life without knowing.

You're Gonna Miss This

I just heard a song by Trace Adkins. I don't listen to the radio all that often, but country songs seem to have the best lyrics. This song is so good. I've actually been thinking a lot about this lately, that you need to appreciate each stage of life you're in. One day I was holding Tessa and thinking about the million things I needed to get done, and I was a little frustrated. I was thinking "She always needs to be held!" And then instead of getting angry about it I stopped and had the thought, "She is not going to be little like this for very long. I need to appreciate it while it lasts." And then I really just stared at her- sleeping peacefully in her mommy's arms, and I thought- she is SO sweet. And I had a huge rush of love for this precious little girl.
So if you'd like to listen to this song, it's great. Remember to push pause on the first music player, then you can play the song on the next music player. Here are the lyrics:

She was staring out the window
Of their SUV
Complaining, saying,
I cant wait to turn 18
She said, "I'll make my own money"
And I'll make my own rules"
Mama put the car in park
Out there in front of the school
And she kissed her head
And said 'I was just like you"

You're going to miss this
You're going to want this back
You're going to wish these days
Hadn't gone by so fast
These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're going to miss this

Before she knows it
She's a brand new bride
In her one bedroom apartment
And her daddy stops by
He tells her "It's a nice place"
She says "It'll do for now"
Starts talking about babies
And buying a house
Daddy shakes his head
And says "Baby just slow down"

Cause
You're going to miss this
You're going to want this back
You're going to wish these days
Hadn't gone by so fast
These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're going to miss this

Five years later
There's a plumber
Working on the water heater
Dogs barking, phones ringing
One kids crying, one kids screaming
She keeps apologizing
He says "They don't bother me.
I've got two babies of my own.
One's 36, one's 23.
It's hard to believe..."

But
You're going to miss this
You're going to want this back
You're going to wish these days
Hadn't gone by so fast
These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're going to miss this
You're going to miss this
Yeah you're going to miss this

Mosquitoes

Will almost got eaten alive the other day! I didn't even know there were that many mosquitoes outside, but we only went outside for like an hour the other day and he's got about 30 mosquito bites. There were ants too- so I guess some of them could be from the ants. But he swells up like I do and he's been scratching like crazy so it looks bad. Hopefully they'll clear up soon.
He's wearing his pjs in these pictures. This is from the front and then the back. Poor guy.

Willisms

Today I was helping Will write some letters. We did A-E all in a row, and then all the sudden he set his pencil down and put his hands at the beginning and the end of the row of letters and he made the motion like he was trying to squeeze the letters together. He was really concentrating on it too. At first I was confused, wondering what he was trying to do, and then I realized he was trying to squeeze the letters together to make it turn into the word like on WordWorld! haha. I started laughing and asked him if that's what he was doing. Sure enough, he really thought that would do something! haha.

Yesterday, while Will was playing he (out of nowhere) said, "Let's think of ONE more thing... a hat, a purse, a backpack? Which one do you need?" lol. So I said a purse. And then he said "Otay. Now. A hat, a blankbip (blanket), a pillow, or... a baby?... Which one do you like?" And I thought oh, that's easy, "A baby." haha. That was the first time he's done something like that. It's like he just made up some sort of learning game. I think he got it from the learning section at the end of Caillou. they always have something at the end that teaches what item goes with what. It was very funny, but then I'm thinking "Hmmm, is he watching too much TV? He's really soaking this stuff up."

One more funny Will story. He "fixed" something and then he said "I put it on free (3) times. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10! 6 times!"

Torticollis

My little baby is not so little anymore! OK, she's still little but she seems to be passed the newborn stage now. She's just a cute little baby now, and she's a happy baby too. She coos and smiles now; it makes me so happy to see her smile. She is a very good baby. She hardly cries at all. Sometimes I set her down and then when I finish with something I go to pick her up and she has a dirty diaper- and she didn't even make one little peep, and she doesn't cry during diaper changes. She doesn't even get that upset when she's hungry. I am so lucky I have such a good baby! If she was a hard or colicky baby I would be going crazy right now with all the kids so young. It's hard enough taking care of 3 kids 3 and under, I don't know what I'd do if they were hard kids. I'm lucky they are so good.
Anyway, Tessa had her 2 month check up yesterday. She is tall! I didn't even know it. She's in the 95% for height and 50% for weight. So she's doing great. There is only one problem... :( She has a bit of torticollis or plagiocephaly Basically this is a condition that could have been present at birth due to an abnormal positioning in the womb. She pretty much had a tightening in her neck on one side, so when I lay her down she automatically turns to the right. It used to be that babies were put to sleep on their stomaches and they wouldn't spend much time with the back of their head on the mattress, it would also strenghten their neck muscles working out the condition. But now, it's "back to sleep", and this condition has become more common over the years. I feel terrible about it as a mother though, b/c Will had it, and I thought "Never again- now that I know what to do to prevent it, this will never happen again." I was clueless before I had Will that newborns needed as much tummy time as possible, that you needed to put them down in different positions in the crib so they don't always look to one side and that you need to hold them on different sides. So with Will I was kind of upset that I didn't know that, but everything turned out ok. This time I've done all those things!! And still she prefers the right side. I noticed it when she was about 4 weeks old and since then I've been doing the neck streches they recommed for Will after every diaper change. She's gotten better where her range of movement has improved significantly. She will turn to the left when she hears my voice on that side, or if I have her track an object, but she now has a flat spot on the back of her head so if you lay her down flat the flat side doesn't quite touch the mattress and her head kind of automatically goes down to that flat side- it's just more comfortable for her. So anyway, it makes me feel like crying- my poor sweet little baby girl. I wish I could've prevented it and I hope that it will still improve on it's own, b/c if it doesn't she'll have to wear a helmet, or a doc band (you can see the picture of Will with one) and I don't want my little girl to have to wear one if it can be prevented. Will had one and really on the positive side it only took a couple months and his head was all better. So the time really was short, but I hope and pray that it'll fix itself with the home treatments we are doing. I know God could send a small miracle our way if it was His will. Maybe it is not his will, and I would be ok with that too, but I am praying that everything will work out.
Check out this before and after photo http://www.cranialtech.com/treatment/caseb.html The before is like Tessa's head, you can see why her head would automatically fall to that side.