Uh oh, the slobbering bulldozer

So we're going to start this story sort of out of order. What was going to be a fun little story about a new game has turned into a milestone. The past few days Stella has practiced crawling over to the wall, standing herself up, letting go, turning and running the few paces to mommy or daddy. This was a fun game that brought tons of giggles and we would do numerous times. Last night the game changed however. Standing at the hope chest in our bedroom, Stella turned and hightailed it out of the room, across the hallway and into the guestroom where she stopped, hovered for a moment and then landed on all fours. She did this a couple of times, each time with more gusto. Head held proudly back, hand pointing the direction and belly pushed far out to lead the way; half running, half stomping. On her final run she decided to do a celebration dance. Her frenzied head shaking and arm flailing caused Stella to loose her balance. Teetering on the edge of the play mats in the guestroom, she tumbled forward landing a perfect face-plant. I'd give her a 8 out of 10. Harry has a scar, Stella has a (what they call it in Germany) a horn. A traumatic ending to a successful escapade, BUT our little Monkey is back to running back and forth and climbing onto things. Today she pulled herself down from the bed and ran over to the big mirror. Then she ran back and forth from the mirror to the door to the balcony and back, and back, and back…each time more secure on her footing.

Stella has two preferred modes of crawling, 1. Turbo hoopdie 2.  "Bulldozer nothing stands in my way lets go".

1.    Turbo hoopdie -  when Stella turns on her turbo to get somewhere, it's like the Flintstones rock car starting to move.  You can see the proverbial wheels spinning and the legs swing out, digging the knees into the ground for traction. The arms reaching wide out in front to lead the way as the head kicks back form the shock of forward force. The sound? Like an elephant is heading your way.  In a funny sort of way it reminds me of the hoopdie cars where the hydraulics have gone out of whack. Her knees and wrists take such a beating it makes me hurt to watch but I guess that's why they have baby fat.

2.    Bulldozer. A lesson we should all learn from. What's the shortest way from point A to point B. Straight of course, regardless of what is in your way. Books, stuffed animals, balls, daddy. Stella knows where she wants to go, and if something is in her way, she'll try to move it. This morning we were sitting next to the couch. I heard Stella grunting and I realized that she was trying to push my knee out of the way. As soon as I lifted it out of her way she sped past to her goal.

A few weeks ago, Stella found the light switch to the lamp on Daddy's nightstand. A lever type switch, she easily figured out how to turn it on (pushing down closest to her) but she had problems pushing the lever down further away to turn the lamp off. This week however, she's a champ switching the lamp "on" and "off" and "on" and "off". She is also becoming more deliberate in her action. For example, standing up in her crib, throwing a blanket or stuffed animal to the ground awaiting your reaction to pick it up. If you don't notice or react quick enough, she looks straight at you and makes a noise to get your attention. Then she points to the ground where said toy is lying. If she is in position where she can move around, we tell her that she can get it herself. This morning she let her Tonka truck fall to the ground from the chair. After pointing to it and grunting I told her that she can climb down and get it herself. Which she did, climbing back into the chair and proceeded to throw the truck to the ground again.  Because we always say "Uh oh" when something falls to the ground, now when she drops something, for example over the side of the tub, she says "Uh oh" even though she did it on purpose. ☺

This past week, Stella started daycare. This was orientation week so she was only there a couple of hours and with mommy. At first Stella didn't like mommy leaving at all but by the end of the week she was fine. It helps that her friend Hannah is there. The two were cuddling together. The daycare is on our street and when we walked past yesterday, Stella wanted to turn and head down the driveway to Connie. Good sign I guess. She's learning more from the kids too as she watches how they play with toys or interact and she mimics them.
Stella is a very affectionate kid. She loves to cuddle with you and even give you kisses. She hasn't figured how that kissing is with your mouth closed and puckered. Instead she opens her mouth wide, tongue wagging, saliva dripping. Hmm, maybe she has been spending too much time with the dog. With mouth wide open she attaches to your face, covering you in slobber. She also has a new thing, giving forehead hugs. Pushing her forehead as hard as she can against you, practically pushing you over. This she even did to baby Fiona when she visited last week. But it didn't seem to bother her.
Although we haven't had a chance to go out much, this past week we took the bikes and bike trailer out. So far we've gone as far as Herrnburg about a 4 mile trip. Now whenever Stella sees the bikes or the trailer she gets all excited.

We're very happy that we have a kid that eats healthy, at least at the moment. She prefers fruits, vegetables, eggs and whole grain breads as opposed to sweet stuff, even if given the choice. We've spoken before about the strawberry monster, I think we even mentioned how crazy she went over the plumbs from our back yard. A new one this weekend…Bluberries. Maja bought a pound yesterday. At first she wasn't sure of the little blue berries but onces she had the taste of them in her mouth, well lets just say, it's not even 24 hours later and mommy and daddy had maybe 2. No joke! Gotta go to the store tomorrow to satisfy the little monster. Don't want a little shop of horrors situation arising here.