the dawning of a new age…a Marathon runner

She's quick, she's fast and can turn on a dime. I think I can safely say that we have crossed the walking milestone. Over the past week she has increasingly been walking on her own. One of her favorite games has been to hold a big ball or balloon, throw it in front of her, chase after it, pick it up and do it again. Usually however for long distances she would look for mommy or daddy's hand.  Today after her nap, we headed to get ice cream. She lasted all of 20 yards in the stroller and then she was off. She walked probably 80% of the way there and back.

This afternoon as I was putting her down for a nap, we were sitting in the chair looking at a book. She saw her other blanket, pointed and made her "I need my blankie sound" I told her that she needed to get it her self and set her down on the ground. She walked over, picked it up and walked back to the chair. And this evening instead of crawling across the hall she picked herself up and walked. 

Over the past month or so, when putting Stella down for the night, we have had to stay in the room with for a few minutes. To pass the time we had a couple craft books or National Geographic Magazines on the pile of otherwise kid-centric books. Over the last week, Stella has chosen to forgo the usual "Goodnight Gorilla" or Dr. Suess ABC's for the more intellectually stimulating National Geographic Magazine. Lately she has been so tuckered out from daycare and our playing that she has simply leafed through a few pages and then laid down. But she is still very particular about what she has in her bed with her. Her blankets have been thinned down by having one at day care and Sam the giant frog sits quietly in the corner offering a leg for her to rest her head on. The other night Stella was exhausted and should have be out like a light. Her normal end of day conversation where she tells the stuffed animals what happened that day lasted longer than normal.  Usually when this happens, she has filled her pants and doesn't want to sleep in it. So I went in to check. I snuck into the room and did my best to sniff the air for any abnormal aroma. Stella simply said "Nein" (no) and held up a small stuffed frog to me. At first I didn't see the frog but she said "Nein" a second time and then I saw it. As soon as I took it from her hands, she folded them behind her head and closed her eyes. I quietly shuffled out of the room and she was out.

If I haven't mentioned this before, Stella is or has become quite a talker. She babbles on and on and on and tells you exactly what's on her mind. We think that this openness along with another talkative playmate in daycare, Lorenz, has helped Hannah open up. We found out that this past weekend the normally silent Hannah has started talking too. Yeah!
This past weekend she spent the night at Oma and Opa's. When Heidi came in to get her out of bed, Stella had her blankets wrapped all around her and she was sitting with the baby doll "Tina" in her lap telling her a very vivid story.

Day care has been going well. Over the past week we progressed to her eating and then taking her afternoon nap there. At first Stella didn't eat very well but after three days "Conny" the daycare mom found out the problem. When Conny set the kids at the table, she took Stella's blanket away from her and set it on the counter…in plain sight. Big mistake, Stella just fussed and fussed and wouldn't eat. On the third day, Conny thought maybe the blanket might have something to do with it. She gave Stella her blanky and sure enough, once it was securely in her lap, she ate everything in site and sometimes seconds.

For what ever reason, Stella stopped eating ice cream. This made us wonder if she was really ours. But the other day she just grabbed my cone out of my hand and went to town. She had ice cream everywhere. In her hair, all over her face, in the stroller and all over the new polka-dot dress that Grandma had just sent her. We're still working on getting the stains out.
Lately in the mornings during breakfast Stella has filled her pants. Although as any parent knows, you can tell when a baby is pushing, this week more drama has enveloped the event. All activity stops and you can see the concentration in her blushing face. One day Stella even produced a satisfied AHHHH at the end. The next day after this event, I pulled Stella's pants off to change the diaper and felt a plop on my sandled foot. She had pushed so hard that the poop blew out the side of the diaper, out the onsey and literally filled her drawers, down to her socks. Ewww it didn't help that Stella has become a Blueberry monster. I'll save the rest for those weak at heart.

Speaking of, Last week Blueberries were in season and on sale. Stella couldn't get enough of them. Today we picked Blackberries. Same story. Glad she loves healthy food. Hope it stays that way.
Stella has never taken a pacifier, even when we wanted her too. At most she has chewed on it as a play-thing and spit it out after a couple of minutes. So it was especially funny for me to turn around Thursday during a play date to see Stella have Spencer's pacifier in her mouth…the wrong way, bighting down on the hard plastic shell.

Stella loves to push buttons. Give her anything with a button, a remote control, the hairdryer, cell phone. We have a massager that she has become fond off. It's basically a fist size ball with three smaller balls protruding out used for the massaging. When the big center button is pushed, the three smaller balls light up and the whole thing vibrates. Stella loves this "toy", letting it dance on the table, holding it in her hands and recently holding it to her belly to message it. 

Click here to see some pictures over the past couple weeks.