Elmo and Tess are on the outs...

We had the perfect morning planned today... Tess with tickets to see Sesame Street Live at the Fox Theater, 4th row seats (center stage, of course), a cute new Elmo outfit and a new Abby Cadabby doll to take with us. What could possibly go wrong? Something that never really crossed my mind...

TESS HATED IT.

Okay, maybe hate is a strong word. Tess was pretty excited when we first got in the door and she saw some Elmo posters and souvenirs. She got a little more excited when we got to our seats and saw the stage. I couldn't wait to see her reaction when the big guy, her most favorite guy, hit the stage. I guess my first clue that all was about to go wrong was when Big Bird came over the loud speaker to announce that the show was about to start. Tess first seemed excited to hear Big Bird's voice, but then some music started and Tess said, "noisy!" That was the last word we heard from her for the rest of the show (oh, unless you count when I took her to the restroom and then asked her if she wanted to go back to see Elmo, after which she replied with a stern, "no." Nice. I grounded her then and there.)

So basically, Tess sat stone-faced during the whole show, glued to either Damon or me. It was like she wanted to crawl behind us and hide. At some point, she began yawning uncontrollably and then fell asleep. (Keep in mind, we purposefully chose the morning show which was nowhere near her nap time.) It was like she was trying to escape! She never did cry, but I don't think I saw a smile either. I kept looking around trying to find another unhappy child, trying to console my heartbroken self, but no luck. Oh, well. Did I mention we're going on the Disney cruise in less than a week, bound to run into a big mouse and his girlfriend? Oh, dear. Hopefully, this was just a temporary, very short phase of being scared to death when seeing our most beloved cartoon friends in real life!

Don't be fooled when you see a smile here... we haven't left yet. But at least the outfit is cute!

(Notice that Tess is also practicing her Nixon impression here.)

All set to go!

Trying to get a picture in the same spot we got one last year (click here), but Tess wasn't cooperating (go figure), so this is what we got...

Dad and Tess waiting for the horror show to begin

So close! (In other words, what a waste!!)

Our view
The whole gang

Trying to hide (although, notice we are still hanging on to Elmo... it must not be THAT bad)
Such a happy girl! Yeah, right.
Here I am trying to stay positive... she's gotta snap out of it, right?!

Yeah, not so much. Oh, well. Nice place for a nap.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Tess is enjoying a relaxing morning at home hanging out with her dad, who stayed home from work this morning for some extra QT and TLC with Tess. AND we're making cinnamon rolls! Can you smell 'em? Soooo good!

Anyway, Tess sends her love to all of her fans! Happy Valentine's Day!

MUUUUUUAH!

Yippeee! Sledding time!

It was FINALLY warm enough outside for Tess to give her new snow pants a whirl and hit the sledding slopes. It has been so cold lately that she would have froze her little face right off had we attempted it another day. Anyway, we had a little it of a rough weekend as we are currently going through the dreaded bottle detox. We had a few hysterical periods where Tess was going into withdrawal... it's enough to break your heart. (If we let it go on, she was bound to be holding her bottle in her senior pictures, so we needed to do and get it over with!) Sledding was the perfect treat to take her mind off of her sorrows.

Hysterical Tess getting ready to go

Doing a little better...

Doing a LOT better!
Fun on the slide

Playing at the park

My little angel!

Walking home
"Wheeeee!"

Pulling the sled home

A new day.

In honor of today's inauguration, we added to the music playlist, Air and Simple Gifts, the song that was played at the ceremonies by the quartet of Venezuelan-American pianist Gabriela Montero, Chinese-American cellist Yo-Yo Ma, Israeli-American violinist Itzhak Perlman and African-American clarinetist Anthony McGill. You can more read about it here. It was beautiful!

The unsung lyrics go as follows:

"'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,
'Tis the gift to come down where you ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight."

What an extraordinary day.

BFF playdate!

The BFFs were finally reunited last night! Oh, and what fun they had! This was actually the first time that Tess and Kadie played together and hung out. They had such a blast playing with Kadie's new play kitchen and chasing each other around Kadie's house. Kadie even gave Tess a tour of her bedroom. And last but not least, Kadie's mom bought them the most adorable little cupcakes (ok, so they weren't so little) that were made for the two of them. All day today, Tess was walking around calling, "Kaaaaaadie, Kaaaaadie!"*

* As I am sure you can recall (if not, click here) she has had good practice saying this name. Finally she has another person that she can associate it with!

"Tess, it's been soooo long!"
Cupcake = smile

Tess' soon-to-be-demolished-and-then-eaten-by-Kadie's-dog-when-no-one-is-looking cupcake.

"Wow, Kadie - good idea using your finger. I am going to copy your every move."

"Can we come back tomorrow?"

BFF TV and juice break. Notice they are sporting their new BFF rings (that came in their cupcake - which is why Kadie looks like she is licking hers). Mmmmmm!
Fun playing with Kadie's castle
BFF chase (which went on for quite some time - yes, this was after the cupcakes... go figure)

What happened to the sunshine?

That is what Tess was asking herself when she got back home after our trip to visit Uncle Mike in Vero Beach, Florida last weekend. She was also asking us why in the heck we live in Michigan?! We didn't know what to tell her as we were wondering the same thing ourselves.

We had a great time seeing Uncle Mike. We hung out at the beach, did some swimming in the pool at the hotel, partied and danced at the cute little street fair that they had right in front of our hotel and even made a stop at Downtown Disney to shop and eat. So fun!

Waiting patiently to get on the "air pane"

Notice her DVD player on her lap.

It is the whole reason why we are being patient here.

Having a snack at the restaurant on the beach
Tess just put Mom's sunglasses on Mom's face and thought it was the most fun ever
Little Bunny butt checking out the ocean

Tess and "Meena" going for a walk on the beach

With Daddy

Papa, Meena and Tess

Uncle Mike!

The gang at dinner

Tess and Papa ready for the beach

Checking out the view

Hard at work

This is fun!

Chillin' out

Meena and Sailor Tess

Tess contimplating whether she is going to get up and dance at the street party

Dancing with Papa and Meena

Finally grooving on her own!


Tess with Daddy... and Daddy (She routinely calls Buzz Lightyear "Daddy". There is a resemblance!)

With Papa on the carousel at Downtown Disney

Tess with her fav lego character, Norman
(To see how much Tess has grown since she was at this spot in March 08, click here and scroll to the end.)

With Daisy and "Don-Duk!"

Great trip!

Happy New Year!

Festive Tess

(handy option: this picture could also be substituted for a passport picture or a mug shot, if needed)

Tess just returned from a great trip to West Virginia where she got to see Grandma and Grandpa Tillman and Uncle Mark. She made out like a bandit and was lucky enough to inherit her Dad's old school desk which fits her perfectly! So fun!

Tess coloring at her new work station

Dad and Tess taking a timeout on the way to the Greenbrier (if you look close you can see mountains in the windows)
Pouty Tess in front of a neat bird tree at the Greenbrier

Tess with Grandpa and Grandma in front of another cool tree at the Greenbrier

Daredevil Tess touching an ice sculpure at the Greenbrier (it says "Happy New Year 2009")

Uncle Mark and Tess (who is sporting her cute outfit from Uncle Mark) at our fave spot, Pies & Pints