So I feel like we are really close to back to normal. I had heard that taking long trips can really change kids behavior before, but hadn’t really experienced it until now. Stella is finally back to the happy, giggly girl that we know and this weekend we had so much fun with her. We went to the Jim Henson exhibit at the EMP and she got to see Ernie & Bert, Kermit, Rowlph, etc. She really loved seeing all the “puppets.” And I got to see stuff about the movie I loved when I was a kid, “The Dark Crystal” – wow, that was a trippy movie. Gotta watch again.

I was also really productive. I went to Home Depot Saturday morning and got plants for our deck which I then planted. And on Sunday I reorganized about 1/2 of my kitchen drawers (the junk drawers and lower reachable drawers) and now I can finally say we have a 99% child-proof kitchen. Whew! Its amazing how you can live in a home for years and still be figuring out how to make things fit properly. Right?

On top of that, I had some girlfriends over on Saturday night which was so much fun. And Sunday evening Mike and I went to see Pixar’s “Up.”  Wow, what a roller-coaster of a movie. And a busy weekend!

We do have our Hawaii photos up now, but they are on our Stella website. I don't want to duplicate them here, but the whole thing is really awkward – my blog here, our Smugmug site with photos, and Facebook for friends… I wish it all was one thing. Someday.

I know its been forever since I last posted. Such is life! We just got back from Hawaii – we stayed for 8 days on Kawa’i in Poipu Beach (the south shore). We stayed in a great condo with our friends Katy, Mike, and their 15 month old JD and we had such a great time. It was beautiful and warm, and we enjoyed some fun outings, as well as some great meals on the deck with a view of the bright blue ocean.

The thing that was a surprise for me was how much we enjoyed swimming. As any parent knows, having a toddler around water is a pretty stressful thing. They’ll just walk right into the pool and they cant play in an ocean with waves. So generally its not all that fun. But on this trip we were thrilled to find that the pool at the resort had a huge, shallow play area filled with small rocks, so Stella and JD could walk around and play (which they did for hours) in the water. And we could actually relax! And we also found 2 beaches that had protected, shallow play areas where the kids could scamper around safely with no waves. It was perfect!We also got to swim a bit ourselves and even snorkel, which was so nice because I wasn’t sure we’d get to do that. I saw a whole bunch of great fish, at very close range. I highly recommend Kawa’i for family trips!

It was a lot of fun to be there with another family – JD and Stella had a great time playing together, climbing on furniture and running around the deck. And we got some great adult time too, getting to chat every night over dinner. We definitely got to know them better which was a treat.

We’ll be posting photos of our trip on our site soon!

Other than that, we’ve had a great couple of months. Stella’s been changing a lot, she’s using a ton of words and really communicating a lot with us. She tells us exactly what she wants – or more often, what she doesn’t want with a string of “no, no, no” and a shake of her head. She puts words together a lot which makes our conversations a lot richer. And our friend Katy pointed out that she seems to have a French accent, which I think is true! She says “water” and “cracker” with a distinct French lift at the end. “Waterrrr?”

Stella’s a lot of fun, but this toddler thing can be a little exhaustive. Yesterday we went to the mall and I made the mistake of taking her on the escalator. Well, we spent 30 minutes after that going up and down, up and down, on the “ecalascata.” She was obsessed. I thought about trying to see how long she’d really go for – I mean, how many times is enough?? Does she just ride forever and then pass out? But alas, my patience wore thin and I had to drag her away screaming.

My focus for the next month will be preparing to be the maid of honor in my future sister-in-law’s wedding, which means working on a speech! We go in July to Boston for the exciting event. And Stella will be the flower girl, so it will be a family affair at that altar! :)

I am really happy to have summer here now – I loved having Stella in shorts and shirts and often just in a diaper. Its such a summer treat to eat blueberries in a diaper! This weekend I hope to buy some plants for our deck to make it look nicer. We had a 4 foot tall weed growing from one of our pots. Embarrassing.

People in Seattle often talk about the weather. I guess everyone does it everywhere, but in Seattle, people kind of freak out when it gets nice. Traffic gets worse, people flock to every park and waterhole, outdoor seating is gone, etc. With all that aside, I am sooooo excited to have some warm weather. It’s been 70 the past few days and it feels like the tropics.

What I am excited about is how much our home life will change. It just took Stella one day to discover we have an “outside” on our deck and last night she just ran around it in circles exploring each pot, pulling out the bag of shells I have and sorting through them, pouring the water can into all the pots, etc. I am hoping to buy her a little water play table so she can play each night after work outside while I get dinner ready. She loves being outside so having our deck as an added room is going to be great. Last summer she wasn’t walking so being outside was a totally different experience.

In addition, the warm weather means a lot more exploration of Seattle. Sunday we took Stella downtown and I also walked around our neighborhood with her. Its so nice now that she’s walking. We’ve walked all over several parks and she just loves roaming.

And finally, the warm weather comes with lots of light. Its now light until 8pm and in the morning its getting light while I am at the gym and I love walking home with the sun coming up. Just changes my whole day.

Just a few downers to report: Stella has apparently been witness to and has now learned how to do tantrums. She’s seeing it in her daycare and so she’s learning like a pro. She just gets way overdramatic about things, so the past few days have been a little bit of an awakening for us. Mike and I have looked at each other with our eyebrows raised more than a few times. But, she was sick this weekend (some sort of bug so she was throwing up) so maybe its some hold-over icky feelings? Let’s hope so… I am sure we are in for it.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted, the 3 people who might read my blog are probably figuring I’ve stopped. I’ve just been so busy at work that I haven’t really had the energy when I come home to sit down and write. Here are some disparate thoughts I’ve had that I want to jot down.

Amazingly its snowing in Seattle today and I’ve just about had it! Its April, people!

I am so looking forward to our upcoming trips to Mexico and Hawaii (does that sound spoiled?). Well, the family trip to Mexico is the most relaxing thing we can think off – we just have to survive the 8 hour journey with Stella, who is now so active. I just invested in kids earphones in the hope that she’ll relax watching Elmo on the flight. The kid never sits still other than when Elmo is on. We are trying NOT to watch it, fairly successfully, but once in a while I succumb to needing a free babysitter while I cook or do groceries.

Stella is quite a little thing. She’s discovered “rides” on daddy’s back, which is really cool. They are definitely a kid when they can ride on your back around. However, she isn’t consistent about holding on so we are nervous still. She’s using lots of words and even said “Daddy home” the other day which is the first construction of a sentence.

This morning Mike was getting ready for work and heard Stella saying “daddy” from her crib on the monitor. She’s obviously gotten the hang of our routine where Daddy gets her in the morning. But then once she’s up she says Mommy until he brings her in to see me too.

I’ve introduced Stella to milkshakes of frozen berries and milk and she loves it. I’ve heard you can do some other interesting concoctions of more savory things so maybe we’ll try that.

Yesterday I had to go to work early so I had to wake up Stella, which I must admit is one of my favorite things to have to do. I rub her back slowly and brush back her hair – its this great moment when she’s not moving around to just stroke her and sooth her and I love it.

I am in a routine of going to the gym every morning before work and its going really well. I love getting back while the house is still quiet and just having my shake and reading the news. Its great to have that alone time.

We had a great visit with my parents a few weekends back. I can tell Stella had a lot of fun with Noni and Bapa. And its so fun for me to see them interacting with her. We went to a beach and picked up rocks – my dad showed his everlasting skills at skipping rocks – and we had some fun meals out.

And last weekend we had Stella outside twice at parks, so I am really looking forward to this summer when she can be outside a lot more. She just loves running around without limits. We did do one dinner at Tutta Bella Pizzeria which is this big family place = nightmare! Stella would NOT sit down for one minute, literally. Had to be running around the whole restaurant the entire time. I don't think we’ll be back there, its too stimulating. We did, however, have a much more relaxed meal at a smaller cafe.

Mike and I went out on a date with our friends Cassie and John on Saturday to Barrio on Capitol Hill. Love the scene of that place, totally fun! The food wasn’t as good as I remembered. But a real meal and margaritas with friends?? Priceless.

I’ve been busy working on invites and cards for Mike’s sister Karen’s wedding. I love crafting at night after Stella goes to bed. Its kind of mindless but satisfies my need to use my creative side. And I ordered Stella’s flower girl dress, which I can’t wait to see.

Ok, that’s probably enough for now. Love to all!

So, I knew DLS would be a hard adjustment. But I feel like its actually changed my daughter into a wee-devil! Well, she may also not feel well because of a cold, AND we have been trying to wean her off her pacifier, so perhaps its not all DLS’s fault, but I will blame that anyway.

Before the lack of sleep hit us, we did have a lovely weekend. Saturday we went out with two families we love – so we had 3 toddlers out at one dinner table. It actually went smoother than I anticipated, but I did have 1.5 Patron margaritas so that helps.

Sunday Stella and I went to a local park with a great playground and had lots of fun. She just goes and goes and goes. She sat down in the dirt and played for a while sifting it in her fingers, which was good. I worry that my fear of getting my own hands dirty is limiting her exposure to some of life’s finer experiences. :)

Here she is making a goofy face.

To turn my daughter into a couch potato! We made the mistake of showing her an Elmo video a couple weeks ago and ever since she’s been obsessed. But only in the past few days did she figure out that watching Elmo while laying back on the couch is the ultimate experience.

I know we should stop showing it to her. But she loves it so much and when I am carrying in groceries it can be a really helpful distraction. We are doomed!

So one of the things that has bothered me lately is that Stella doesn’t see enough photos of her family – meaning our families that live in CA and NJ. So I had an idea that I’ve been so excited about and I am so pleased with the result. This is totally silly stuff.

I remembered that my mom had these acrylic cubes with photos when we were little, and I loved looking at the photos of myself as a little girl as I grew. So I found them online (these aren’t everywhere anymore) and got 5 of them to build a set of photo blocks for Stella to play with. I printed like 40 photos (with a focus on showing family and showing Stella doing fun or silly things) and cut them out, and voila! Check it out!

Stella really loved it! She picked up the block that has the photo of her swinging and she actually started to pretend to swing! I am so excited. Now we can point to all her aunts and Abuelo, Abuela, Noni and Bapa. The only things I am missing are photos of her uncles and Lourdes, so I have to find good ones of them.

Last night Stella surprised me by insisting I put all of her hair bows in her hair, then putting on all of my Tahitian shell necklaces and putting on my silver bracelet. She was all decked out! I didn’t know she knew how to “adorn” herself, so it was really cute.

I got a few photos in with the bows, but she would not let me get her with the necklaces and bracelet.

Here she is climbing up on daddy’s toilet and brushing her teeth with his toothbrush. You can see the bows in her hair. What a goof!

You know you are totally and completely a parent when you are watching a movie without your child and you start pointing out the goats and owls to your spouse. Mike had a good laugh at me.

We had a nice weekend, just getting some stuff done and then watching the Superbowl at Katy and Mike’s house. Stella is all better from her tooth-capade, although she still wont sit down in the bath which is making things difficult. Yes, that’s unrelated.

I woke up on Saturday morning thinking about all my “professions” – I think I must’ve been dreaming about it because I was counting professions as I gained consciousness. I think I’ll list them out here, so that I can share them with Stella some day when she gets made at me for not doing her laundry.

Here are all the jobs I have in any given day (not including my paid job):

1. Chef or cook (I think skill level is the difference, so I am probably more of a cook)
2. Stylist
3. Personal-bather
4. Laundress
5. House-cleaner / Maid
6. Driver
7. Entertainer
8. Historian
9. Disciplinarian
10. Teacher
11. Public Relations + Events Coordinator
12. And of course Mother, but I think that is defined as all of the above.

This whole kids going to the ER thing is no fun, I tell you! Here’s the scoop:

We had a great time in Seabrook. We got there Friday evening and stayed through Sunday morning. We enjoyed a nice breakfast at the cafe, and made the rest of our meals. We just played, watched movies, and went to the park to play on the swings. I came down with a cold on Saturday which was a bummer, but otherwise it was a relaxing trip.

Sunday morning when Stella woke up for breakfast, she started pointing at her cheek. When she started eating, she started crying. For the next hour, every time she tried to eat anything, soft or hard, she would cry – or even scream. I tried to check her mouth but couldn’t seen anything. But we figured it was a tooth coming in or that she bit her cheek.

On our drive back, we were in the middle of nowhere, Washington, when I noticed Stella’s cheek look swollen. Upon further exam, I noted it was swollen all the way back to her ear. She was trying to eat again and she was crying pretty hard. Well, when I felt all the swelling that was starting to push her ear back, I started getting kind of hysterical myself. I informed Mike we were going to the ER and shakily started trying to find the nearest hospital. All these horrible images were going through my head of things that could be wrong.

Long story short, Mike had to tell me repeatedly to “calm down! you are scaring Stella” and I finally got a grip. We made it to Olympia about 20 minutes later and to the ER.

The ER doctor examined her mouth and it looks like one of her teeth has very swollen gums, a bacterial infection it seems. Now she is on penicillin and we are going to the Pediatric dentist tomorrow. She seems in less pain today (even though the Tylenol with codeine wore off last night). Giving her the medication is worse than pulling my own tooth out, she struggles so much. But I’ll take that over having something much worse wrong with her. 

So, I’ll updated about what’s really going on tomorrow. And I’ll post photos of our trip, which WAS really lovely.

Someday when people ask Stella where she was when Barack became president, she can tell them in the car on the way to daycare. And then at daycare. Oh well! Not a very exciting story to tell. Anyway…

Stella has been sick for a while and we really didn’t feel like she was herself until this last weekend. And then it was like a new baby girl! She’s hilarious, her little personality just keeps evolving. Having her come out of a 2-week funk was really wild. She’s climbing up on the coffee table (no!), she’s telling the cats no, no, no (I have no idea where she picked that up), and she’s laughing at everything.

I wanted to share a very subtle but exciting moment that happened last weekend. Well, we went downtown on Sunday and it was in the grey, cement parking structure under Pacific Place mall that we experienced something I’ve been waiting for my whole life – the moment when Stella would walk with her mommy and daddy holding her hands on either side. There we were, in the quiet garage, walking the three of us, with Stella grinning and giggling, because she too knew it was different and special.

Stella is sick today so i am home with her. she started throwing up at 2am. now she’s resting and she seems a little better, she’s actually eating and drinking water, but she’s not herself. she has been lying on the couch with me, watching the wiggles, and if you know Stella, you know she doesn’t lie on the couch. she never rests.

i selfishly am enjoying it because she’s letting me hold her for a while, letting me stroke her face and hair, and just staying still with me, and usually she’s all over so its hard to just be.

it’s a day away from work for me and i am totally unproductive – she requires too much attention. but in these few moments that she’s asleep i am going to try to get caught up.

i know i have holiday photos to post – we are going to do that this weekend.

Our holidays are still going, as Mike’s Mom and sister are in town visiting this week, but I wanted to give a quick update. Mike, Stella and I flew to LA for a week-long visit which was really nice. Stella got lots of great time with her aunts, cousins, and grandparents, plus a few fun events and parties. She had a lot of fun talking with her Bapa, playing with her cousin Logan who is just a year older, and I think the highlight was having Stella’s cousins Kellie and Jason take very good care of her. Almost 10-year old Kellie is a budding babysitter and she was very responsible. It felt great.

We will post photos of our trip soon, but this photo was just too priceless. We tried to sit Stella on Santa’s lap and it just didn’t quite work. I don't blame her, Santa is scary. :)

Now that we are back in Seattle, things feel a little more relaxed, even with houseguests. Stella also seems a little more comfy, as she says lots of new words – this morning we got “breakfast” even. And she’s letting Linda and Karen pick her up, which she was really slow to do in LA. I think our big family is overwhelming.

Stella is now 14 months and it surprises me every day that I can love her more than I did yesterday. She’s so interactive, tumbling all over me, clinging on when she wants to be held, playing with our faces, putting her headband on by herself, building block towers, etc. I was playing with her toes as she giggled last night during her bath and I felt my heart could break from the pressure. :)

Every day dropping Stella off has gotten easier. Today she only seemed to cry for a few seconds and then as I walked out the door I could see her already calming down and looking for something to do. The highlight of my day is picking her up because when she sees me she runs across the room (yes, runs) with this big grin on her face. Such a great feeling. And she pounds on my chest with both hands as if to say, “my mommy!”

Even with the rough transition in daycare, we’ve been having lots of fun. We went to Semiahmoo Resort this past weekend and she had lots of fun running around the fairly large property. Of course, we didn’t get to enjoy the pretty scenery of the location because it was cold cold! Snowed on the second day! Mike and I got massages and relaxed a bit, and then my company party was on Saturday night. Stella did really well, a very social little girl.

This week it is unbelievably cold in Seattle – its supposed to snow again today and tomorrow. The mornings are freezing but its been fun to see Stella all bundled up – she lets me put on several layers, plus a hat, hood, and mittens that surprisingly she lets me put on willingly! I guess she figured out real fast how they help.

I am so excited for the holidays. It will be fun to have Stella all dressed up for parties and to see her open presents. But we’ve been very reserved in our Christmas shopping – she doesn’t need anything and we certainly don't want more stuff in our house! But we got a few books and I bought a personalized wall hanging where she gets her height measured. I am excited about that. She wont care one bit.

If I dont blog again before Christmas, a very happy holidays to all of our friends and family.

Today has started out really hard. At Stella’s day care, we are transitioning her to the “waddlers” room, which I thought was going well until she absolutely lost it when I tried to leave today. This was the first day of putting her there first and I can see why its overwhelming for her. In the morning, they have waddlers and toddlers all mixed for breakfast, so there are older kids and they are all running around in the room. And she doesn’t know the teacher so she was of little comfort to her. Ugh. I really had a hard time leaving, and almost cried when I looked in the window to see her still crying a few minutes later.

Last night was really interesting as well. I took Stella to Whole Foods after I picked her up, and was trying to think of something to keep her occupied as we cruised around the store. I thought a small apple might do the trick, and I was right – she loved it. She took little bites all over and was happy throughout the trip. She was still working on it on the way home, and then kept it in arms reach as she ate her dinner. By this point, she’d eaten off all the skin. Then it was bath time. She took the apple upstairs and was still gripping it as I got her ready for her bath. I kept telling her that she couldn’t take the apple in the bathtub, and almost got her to put it on the edge of the tub, but I think that's too advanced of a concept. So, finally, plop, the apple went in the water. And that was the end of it.

That was the end of happy Stella too. When I took it away, she went crazy. I was thinking I would wash the thing off but then I knew out of principle I needed to have her deal with disappointment.  Well, I’ve never actually heard her cry like that. Wow. She was just flaming mad! She tried to shake the tub! Anyway, we went through this whole same exercise with the bubble bottle after that, so I think Stella’s going through some emotional issues stemming from her transition to her new class. Poor baby. All we can do is give her lots of love. Which is why leaving her at daycare this morning was so hard.

On a brighter note, I am excited to spend both days with Stella this weekend. Mike has a martial arts seminar all day both days, so Stella and I have a few adventures planned.

My first trip away from Stella was 2 weekends ago to Oklahoma City. While my trip was great and it wasn’t too bad being away (we did iChat 2 times so I could see and talk with Stella) it was terrible once I got back. Stella was super clingy last week, crying every time I even left the room, and she’s been giving her daddy, who did such a great job of taking care of her, the cold shoulder. I think she was just worried I’d leave again. I didn’t expect that reaction and it made me sad. But now that I’ve been back for a week she’s doing better.

The good news is that seeing Ashley, Brian, and baby Carson in OKC was wonderful. They have a lovely house and the city is clearly so welcoming to them. Sheesh, makes Seattle-ites look so cold. And Carson is a little prince charming. Ashley is doing such an amazing job of being a mom and setting up their new life.

This past weekend we had such a great time, we had dinner with friends at Serendipity Cafe (which has a play area for kids and is super family-friendly) and then dinner at another family’s house last night. Stella played in our friend’s daughter’s pink castle which has a tapestry-like fabric hanging for a door. When she realized she could push through the “door” and the fabric would just fall behind her she went nuts. Squealing with delight! We’ve never heard her laugh like that, she went back and forth through the door probably 50 times. It was so much fun, we have to install something like that in our house now.

In addition, our friends got Stella a baby doll, baby doll stroller, and a fun pink tea set. She is already having so much fun with the baby and stroller, she pushed it all around this morning. What a girly-girl she is!

Stella’s learning new stuff every day. She knows a lot of words that we say – she knows upstairs, bath, nap, food, up, out and so on. And she’s trying to repeat me, saying words like “out” “up” “vroom” etc. She’s hiding things now (remember that, Megan?) and putting things in everything. She’s making us laugh all the time.

Finally, here are some shots of Stella in her turtle costume. Not the best photos, but at least we have them!

Also some cute shots of her in this very old dress (with jeans). Mom, did I wear this dress? :)

So, Halloween was a bust here. Stella got a fever on Thursday night and she didn’t seem totally back to normal on Friday, so we didn’t get to go to our friends’ house for festivities. We are so bummed! So we dressed up Stella for a few minutes in her turtle costume. We’ll get the photos up asap.

This weekend we noticed so many new things that Stella was doing, so I thought I should record what I could remember. I know none of this is news-worthy, but we are still having a blast with it all!

1. When we snapped our fingers in front of her, she started mimicking by rubbing her fingers together. It was even the right finger on one of her hands!

2. Stella tries to put my shoes on – she sticks her little foot into my shoe, clearly knowing it is “a shoe” for her feet. Its so cute, it complements how she picks up anything with handles and slings over her shoulder.

3. She’s learned to do this kind of cry-growl when she gets upset or can’t do what she wants. Its really grating on your ears and I really hope this is not her tantrum voice. Both of us were bewildered every time she did it this weekend.

4. She’s really getting the whole stacking concept, even with the rings. And we were shocked that she could put a shape through the whole in the wood shapes box.

Ok, that’s enough. :)

We’ve had so much fun celebrating our first year with Stella. A friend said to me, did you get emotional when Stella turned one? And I laughed because I hadn’t really thought about the emotional side of the whole thing. Just the milestone of being one! But when I stopped to think about it, it really is amazing that one year ago we were just getting used to having this little life in our house. We were exhilarated, shocked, tired, cozied up in our house, amazed, terrified, thrilled, all in one. And now we have this little firecracker running around our house, grabbing anything she can, getting upset with us when we take things away, snuggling with us, laughing and playing games. Its such a wild ride.

Sometimes I think, I didn’t record enough, I want to capture every moment! But then its like, hello, Melinda, you have literally thousands of photos, countless videos… and the bottom line is you just get to live it once. Just once. Until, of course, we have another one. :) Not yet, not yet.

This weekend we had a joint birthday with our PEPs group and that was so fun to get Stella together with friends. Here is Stella with friends:

And then Sunday we went to our friends Stacie and Tyler’s house for Collin’s 1st birthday. That was a blast too! Here’s Stella with her two boyfriends Collin and JD:

And Stacie and Tyler got Stella a baby buggy! This thing is amazing, she sits inside and you can push her all around. Stella immediately went nuts for it.

And this is too funny, all the dads taking photos of their babies:

Mike got a new flash for his camera, and wow, does it make a difference on the indoor photos. Cool! Finally photos in the bathtub that don't look like flash photos!