Kinder Graduation

Catching some poolside rays.
At the end of year class Luau celebration last week.
Tessa's letter to her teacher.
Tessa loved the SpongeBob cupcake cake!
Tessa's classroom Birthday Celebration. She turns 7 in 2 weeks.
Tessa fell in LOVE with cousin Maria while they were here in Miami a few weeks ago.
Tessa's creation...her house.
The end to a wonderful season of soccer. This sport helped Tessa in so many ways.
Tessa was a "Children's Doctor" for Career Day.

11 Months

Wow, I really can't believe that we have had Tessa almost one year now. This time last year, I was so nervous, so emotional, and so anxious. It has been incredible these months. Well, so much has happened in this last month. An amazing school year has ended, Tessa celebrated an early 7th birthday in her class, soccer has ended, ballet has ended, Chinese school has ended and Tessa has lost her two front teeth.

Tessa continues to amaze us and is doing very well. There are two things that I worry about: her clingyness and her poor growth. I am working on her clingy behavior; I had thought she was doing better, but both my husband and I have observed her inappropriate affection to people she has known only a short while (minutes). We have discussed boundaries, but I guess it wasn't good enough...so more work this summer.

And her growth....well, everyone has told me "she will grow..." It has been almost a year and she hasn't. I've watched her classmates grow 2-3 inches taller and they are all a year younger, and now much taller than Tessa. So, now that school is out, we've been busy. We saw a specialist yesterday and got a lot of lab work ordered today. We're going to rule Celiac and Lactose Intolerance first. Then we have another appt at the end of the month with another specialist. I won't pursue anything that will facilitate growth, but I want to determine if everything is ok, and if we can adjust her diet to help her absorb enough nutrients to help her grow.

We're getting ready for a big road trip to see family. Tessa is excited about seeing her cousins again. I think she will do very well.