She’s back.

But man oh man, what a horrible week.

First Mom disappears on Sunday. Monday I wake up with a wretched cough and stuffy nose. All week I was laid up with an awful cold and now I think I’m teething a molar.

I guess I got so heartsick when Mom disappeared, I just couldn’t battle off the cold. I’m still suffering from the worst stuffy nose you’ve ever seen (and you can really SEE this stuffy nose). That and the teething have made food a little unappetizing too.

So anyway, miracle of miracles, I woke up in the middle of the night on Wednesday, and THERE SHE WAS! I was so happy to see her I stayed up to play with her for two hours! She and Dad didn’t seem to mind, we turned on all the lights, I had a bottle, it was great.

By Thursday I felt a little better, but that’s when my molar started rearing its ugly head. Ugh. This weekend was the worst, I felt so bad the only thing that made me feel better was being held by Mom. I made sure she was either holding me or playing with me AT ALL TIMES, and now I think I’m finally on the upswing.

I’m just so happy she’s back, words can’t describe it. I guess I can say I feel as happy as I look here:

Well gotta go, I can’t let Mom out of my site these days, don’t want her going missing again!

xoxo
-Tess

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!! Sorry I’m late, but I actually didn’t know what was coming. I thought we were just going to my aunt’s house for an ordinary dinner, I had no idea it was going to be so awesome!

We started out the weekend by packing up our new wheels with all of my toys and accoutrements. Then we made the trek up to Vermont where we had Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt Jackie’s house.

Here’s a shot of all the ladies:

You all know I’ve been around the block a couple times. In fact Dad says Vermont is the 13th state I’ve visited (I’m a little sketchy on counting for myself, plus I don’t remember much before what happened yesterday). So anyway, I think I’m qualified to declare Vermont a pretty cool place, and I’m not just talking about the weather.

Listen up. Two words: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.

Not impressed? Ok, One word: Apple Cider Donuts.

That’s actual fresh cider making happening in the background.

And if Ice Cream and Donuts don’t float your boat I have just Two more words for you: The Great Outdoors.

This was my first real hike in the woods. I have to say, I’m hooked. I can’t wait to move to Maine next year!!!

xoxo
-Tess

It’s all my fault. I admit it. If anyone deserves time in the clink, it’s me.



I deserve hard time. You should see my rap sheep. You name it, I’ve done it. I’ve lunged for sharp corners, ingested hairballs, reached for electrical sockets, tugged on power chords, chewed alphabet floor tiles, pulled armoire drawers, licked sneaker soles, face planted onto hardwood (and almost chipped a tooth!), chewed chair legs and attempted to scale impossibly top-heavy furniture that threatens to tumble down and crush me!

I guess I should feel lucky. I’m behind bars now, relatively safe. Yeah, my cellmates are a little sketchy. There’s a shifty-eyed lamb and a freakishly chipper ragamuffin girl who won’t stop shaking her rattle and crinkling her dress, but they both seem harmless enough.

Anyway, I digress. I’m incinerated but it’s for the best. Just imagine the alternative. Me, out on the streets, choking to death, goose-egg bumps, toothless and crushed under heavy furniture. I know, it’s not a pretty thought.

Mom and Dad say it’ll only be a few month, a year, max. We’ve got the best lawyers money can buy, so I’m hopeful. Don’t forget me while I’m gone.

xoxo
-Tess

I’m nine months old people!!!! Can you believe it? That’s right, yesterday was my birthday. To celebrate I slept through the night!!! And I’m not talking any piddly 6 to 8 hour stretch. Mom put me down at 6:45 pm and I slept, and slept, and slept, until 6:20 am!!!! Mom’s hoping for a repeat performance tonight, but I can’t make any promises as it took quite a bit of concentration.

In other news, this past weekend was a big family reunion for me. I traveled to Connecticut with Mom and Dad, and saw tons of aunts and uncles, and a bunch of my cousins. Here I am with all my beautiful big girl cousins.

Overall I have to say it was a perfect Fall weekend. We went for a walk in the woods to check out the foliage, here I am playing with the big girls in the leaves. What, you can’t see me? Oh, I’m just outside the shot kicking up leaves in my stroller.

After our stroll in the woods we went back to the house and cousin Vivi and I played a few duets on the piano.

Dewd, my cousins are so lucky, they have an actual life sized Trampoline in their yard!!! If you don’t know what a Trampoline is, it’s sort of like a giant Exersaucer that your whole family can play on at once! Check it out:

We worked up quite an appetite so later we built a huge fire outside and made Smores! Too bad I’m not allowed chocolate until one year. I tried to tell Mom I could handle a roasted marshmallow or two, but she wouldn’t listen. Bummer. I told Mom I wanted a Smores Cake for my 1st Birthday.

Here I am all bundled up with Dad before we went out to roast marshmallows.

What great weekend.

You all know I’m a Winter baby, going out in the snow before I was even a month old. And I’ve been all around the Spring and Summer months. So now, after this weekend of official Fall weather, I think I’m finally qualified to declare a winner. After what I’ve heard about this Halloween stuff, I have to declare Fall the Best Season Ever!

Speaking of Halloween, do you have your costume ready yet??? There’s only 14 days left!!!

Well, gotta run, it’s time for bed!

xoxo
-Tess

I’m paralized by the overwhelming amount of material I have to cover here. Do you now long three weeks feels to me? I don’t even remember what I ate for breakfast let alone what happened three weeks ago.

Luckily, I have photos to help jog my memory.

Lets see, last time I checked in we were about to move from our apartment back in the West Village. Here’s me in the old place just before we left for the very last time.
It was sort of emotional for me. You know, it was my first home. I was born only a couple of blocks from that apartment. Mom and I spent many a wee hour nursing and cuddling in that cozy little apartment. ::sniff::


And then we moved to Hoboken. Now don’t get me wrong, I loved the coziness of our old apartment, but the space we have now, WOW! A girl can really rock out on her exersaucer if you know what I mean. Here I am doing just that.

Dad started school again, which means he’s busy studying all the time. Now don’t tell me that law school is not intimidating. Just look at the books, I could be buried alive by those things!

Oh gosh what else is new? Oh, since we’ve expanded in our new home, I’ve had more space to stretch my legs, and I’ve even stood on my own!

I’ve also been busy down at the playroom, and out by the pool.
Seriously, Hoboken gets a bad rap, I don’t care what you city dwellers say, this place knows how to treat a girl right!

Anyway, I gotta run, we’re going for a Straw family stroll.

xoxo
-Tess

Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim’rous Beastie,

O, what a panic’s in thy breastie!

Dear Beastie: You have no idea who you’re up against.

So imagine this. Imagine you’re a little baby. Inside your little baby mouth you have many tender, soft and fleshy surfaces. This is mostly great because you can use your squishy little mouth for all sorts of useful things with no problems like eating from an equally squishy nipple, tasting foreign objects and mouthing Dad’s face. Life is great.

But now imagine that underneath the surface of this pink fleshy playground you call your mouth there is a tortuous evil super sharp white beast. And said little Tortuous Evil Super Sharp White Beast (let’s call him TES… er, lets call him Beastie), wee little Beastie has it in his mind that he is no longer content to lie beneath the surface of your tender soft gums, and suddenly he must take his razor sharp edge, and begin to JAM his sharp edge and JAM, JAM, JAM himself up against the tender underside of your soft gums until the little bastard…. I mean Beastie manages to actually TEAR the flesh apart, creating a gaping wound in your gum line so that he may POP his greedy little self out into your previously tender, soft and fleshy mouth. OOOOOOOOUCH.

Does that sound pleasant to you? Me neither. That’s the little drama going on in my mouth these days. Can you believe it!? This morning I went from happily singing “Mom mom mom mom” to screaming “Mooooooooaaaama!!!! aaayyyaaayyyayyyay!” I’ve been sticking things in my mouth all day and nothing seems to stop the pain. I’ve even got a little fever. To top it all off its so hot here in New York that Mom won’t let me go outside. I guess that even though I’m big enough to cut my first tooth, I’m not big enough to handle a little weather. It majorly stinks. Majorly.

I gotta go brush the Beastie now. Later.

xoxo
-Tess

I know, I know, where have I been, you ask? Why such a long silence?

Well, first off, I’ve been busy. But I know that’s no excuse. But I’ve also been a bit under the weather. I don’t want to get into the gorry details, lets just say it involves lots and lots of green liquid, located in my diaper. Happily it seems to have cleared up now.

So, lots of catching up to do. I’ve been rolling like crazy, coming within inches of the side of the bed, eating solids, blowing bubbles, making rasberry sounds, sitting up momentarily without being supported…. let’s see what else?

I’ve made several forays into the world of solids. Mom and I tried rice cereal, oatmeal, even yams, but none of that really appealed to me. So this week we tried bananas, and woah baby, those are good! From now on I’m not eating anything unless it’s mixed with bananas. Hmmm, and what else have I done? Drumroll please……

I’ve said a word!!! Well, I think I said a word. “WORD” as defined by Merriam-Webster is:

WORD, noun 2 a (1) : a speech sound or series of speech sounds that symbolizes and communicates a meaning usually without being divisible into smaller units capable of independent use.

Now I’m not going to be all pedantic about it, so I’ll just let you see for yourself. You be the judge:

In other news, Mom, Dad and I are packing up for our big move. We’re moving to a bigger apartment so I can have more room to crawl, and eventually walk! I’ll try not to go too long before my next update.

xoxo
-Tess

This past weekend Mom, Dad and I went to Cape Cod Massachusetts to visit my Grandpa Marino and many, many relatives on the Marino side. I met two more cousins — Ian and Adam. And another Auntie, Leslie. But there must be something wrong with Mom & Dad’s camera, because when we got home we discovered we only had pictures of ME. I wonder what happened? This is all we got:

Well to be honest we did get a few shots of me with Grandpa Marino, and my Dad.

That’s me at the Cape Cod Bowl. What fun that was!!! Can’t wait ’til I can find a pair of bowling shoes that fit my little feet!

Before we left the Cape we went to the National Cemetery. I know, sounds scary, but it was nothing really. It turns out my Grandma Marino and Great Grandpa Straw are BOTH there. Mom and Dad think its some kind of destiny thing.

In other news, I’m rolling in every direction with ease. In fact I’m finding it hard not to get my little legs all tangled up in the crib bars when I roll around in there. It’s kind of frustrating, but as soon as I let out one big wail, Mom usually knows what’s up and comes to save me.

And I’ve also learned how to raspberry. You know, thhhhwwwwwwbt! (but juicy). Dad is currently working on cutting a video clip of it so I can post it here. Stay tuned!

xoxo
-Tess

Wow, its been a while since I last wrote! This weekend was jammed packed with fun.

Saturday morning we packed up the stroller and took the D train waaaaaay out through Brooklyn to Coney Island!

None of us had ever been there before, and it was my first time ever at the beach. Mom and Dad said we probably won’t be going back, I’m not sure why. It was fun enough. We walked the boardwalk, ate some Nathan’s Famous Hotdogs, and did some people watching. It was sort of hot so we cut our trip short and headed back into the city to our air conditioned apartment.

Here’s me and Dad on the boardwalk. You can see the famous Cyclone in the background:

Sunday we all woke up early so I could give Dad his father’s day gift: a Mug with My Mug on it!!! He loves it. Now he gets to show me off to his co-workers without actually bringing up my name. Can you picture it, Dad will be like “That’s very interesting Jim, let me think about it while I take another sip of coffee from this mug here….. sssssssssssssiiip.”

Other than that we’ve been trying to stay cool in the heat.

Oh, and I almost forgot!!! Tonight I rolled over back-to-front, for the very first time (or at least its the first time Mom caught me doing it). I was going down for my nap, and I was stretching all over and suddenly I found myself on my belly. I was a little discombobulated and not sure how to get myself rolled back the other way. Luckily, Mom came in to check on me and she set me straight again. Phew! Anyway, that was fun.

Gotta run, bedtime for me.

xoxo
-Tess