Notes on Stella

Stella Grace has discovered and fallen in love with books. I often find her sitting in her room, surrounded by all the books that were once on the shelf. Charlie used to do that too, but he never sat and looked through them on his own. She loves to look at the pictures and turns the pages, commenting along the way.

She is so stinking smart. This little girly doesn't miss a thing. She knows how to work us all and get exactly what she wants. She is feisty and so funny. Charlie is, admittedly, too rough with her. She's quite a rough and tumble thing and can take a lot of wrestling, but when she's had enough, she howls like a banshee and brings everyone running to her rescue and sends Charlie hiding under tables or behind chairs.

Stella's vocabulary is expanding every day, my favorite new development is to hear her say her own name. This is for my own counting purposes, but here are some of her words: momma, dada, mom, dad, hi, hello, guys, goodbye, bye, see ya, Stella, Charlie (this one's tough to understand), more, cheese, nana, bapo, Hayley (A-E), Ab (abby), Nick, Ca (Jessica), Grammy, Pappy, dog, buster, no way! stop, uh-uh, baby! moo, neigh, woof

Today she was trying to sign please, but instead was just frantically pounding her chest like a little gorilla.

She adores dancing. She's got a sweet shuffle move, a bounce/head nod combo, the deep knee bend and a little number she likes to call "putting my head on the ground and waving at everyone from between my legs"

Stella CAN NOT get enough of her dad. She snuggles him and follows him around like a little puppy. She races to the door when he arrives or leaves. She thinks he's hilarious and just loves playing with him.

She answers every question with a very thoughtful and serious "uh-uh" or "no". The answer is never affirmative-even if she's nodding her head and grabbing for the proffered item at the same time. 

She also considers herself to be the enforcer with my parents dog. Everyone is always telling Buster that he can't have her food, so now if he goes near the high chair she's on his tail with her little finger pointed at him yelling, "Don't! No! Stop!" She loves him though and she's been known to climb in his bed-with or without him there.

There is a fail-proof system for determining Stella's sleep-readiness. I put her blankie on my shoulder. That's the whole trick. If she wants to go to bed, she lays her head down on my shoulder and leaves it there, if she doesn't, she's not tired. Not exactly a party trick, but kind of awesome.

Stella has reached the point where she loves emptying drawers and cupboards and causing destruction. The other day Cam was observing as she picked up an armful of items from my room and carried them to the living room. After depositing her whole armful, she picked up different things and carried them to her room. She spends entire days doing this. Our house has become a disaster area. Like, I sometimes expect to come home and find a mormon helping hands crew in their little vests hauling garbage bags to the curb, kind of disaster area.

Stella has the most hilarious, deep belly laugh ever. She loves to laugh and it doesn't take much to have her in hysterics. If  she happens to hear somebody laughing, she busts up. She loves to be chased and tickled. She loves peek-a-boo and throwing things. She is such a happy and pleasant little toddler-especially when she's putting her shoes on. She loves shoes. And we love her.