Imitation is one way to learn. Stella has entered a phase where she will mimic you. Waving back to you, covering her eyes or nose or mouth, dancing with you etc. Yesterday, even Luke Skywalker was able to take over the role of teacher as he (the little figurine) waved at her, shook his head, and lifted his feet, Stella reacted in kind. I am glad she has taken to grabbing Luke and Princes Leah instead of the emperor lately other sometimes she does grab a Star Destroyer commander. May the force be with you!
Through out this escapade, Stella was sitting on the potty. A new breakthrough as for the past month or so she would not sit down for more than a half a second on the little potty. How did we achieve this? Let her build! We constructed a large tower from her Lego's which she in turn loves to look at, play with, drop things into, add on and demolish while sitting on the potty. Whew hew!
At first she would fuss when sat on the potty. I would try and distract her, how? By being as loud as possible to drown her out. I would cover my eyes and say, "my eyes, my eyes, my eyes, my eyes, my eyes are gone." (saying it so fast that the words blur together) Uncover my eyes and then say "Ah, there they are." This would grab her attention and calm her down. Now after a few days of doing this, she will play along. She'll cover her eyes and mumble "aya,yaa, aya,aya…Da". How cute.
For a while now Stella has known the word Nein. She'll say Nein to something and we'll ask can you say "Ja"? In which she will reply "Ja". However this wasn't very consistent in answer and deed. Yesterday however, she started nodding her head yes. "Stella would you like a drink?" nodding her head vigorously up and down and then she'd grab the cup. And so forth.
Lately when she's had a really full diaper (and it's smelled something terrible) I've held my nose and said "ewwwww". Now over the last couple of days Stella has started doing the same. High pitched, ewwwwwwwwww.
Time flies…such a cliché but how true.
But wouldn't it be perfect to have a photographic memory; to remember precisely the moment that made you smile our really touched you. How do you catalogue all those fleeting moments? A camera captures an inaudible moment. A video camera captures the moment but not the meaning, the written word really just a memory interpretation. But what about that moment when your daughter looks you in the eye piercing down to your heart and touches your sole?
You can only say "amazing" or precious so many times before it starts to lose the intended meaning. But continually that's what it is.
Amazing to notice how last week Stella although walking was still unsure, but this week running around tripping less and carrying things. Precious how after walking up after a nap, cuddling on the bed she propped herself up on my chest, to gaze out at the world, then turned to me and smiled.
Amazing, what a flirt she is and how much energy she has, goofing around with the whole family, laughing, giggling and carrying on. Precious how expressive she talks, forming so sounds which to her I am sure are sentences.
Amazing to see the wheels turning behind those piercing eyes and then seeing the click. Each day getting better at taking a cup and drinking.
And absolutely precious how as she's trying to master the spoon, she smears herself and bunny with yogurt.
I try to capture as much as I can in picture and word but time just soars on and there are so many moments that slip by. Time really does fly.
What happens when you dance in such frenzy, running around, not paying attention to your boundaries? The house lays you out flat, that's what. One evening Stella was in an over joyous mood, dancing around and running from mirror to balcony door and back. At one point, she stopped in front of the balcony door, turned around and while laughing at us started to do her humpty dance. She was a little too close to the door and when she squatted with full force, butt hits the door and in classic matrix style, slow motion speed up, she bounces off and ends up spread out on all fours on the ground.
Shake it off, it's okay. as Maja and Stella were walking past our neighbor the other day Tom Jones' sex bomb came out of the car radio. Stella stopped, started dancing and she wouldn't go further until the song was done.
The other night Stella didn't quiet down after putting her to bed. I went upstairs to check on her and found her in the corner, rocking in her now routine ostrich position (bending over, head buried in the ground as if she is going to do a headstand or summersault). She stands up looking at me with glassy eyes as if I interrupted her from some very important yoga meditation.
Something in the picture is not right however. As I scan the scene the sesame street music "one of these things is not like the other" starts playing in my head. I survey the crib and it looks different. I scan up to Stella staring at me and then the emptiness above her head. She had pulled her Mobile apart and it was laying in pieces on the bed. I cleared out the bed and laid her down and she finally fell asleep.
I guess that is why they say you should take mobiles down when they can start to push themselves up. Until this point however, she never touched it or made any inclination towards it so we had left it.
Stella's appetite is continuing to expand. We're still amazed at some of the stuff she likes. Thankfully she doesn't have a sweat tooth yet. The other day at Oma and Opa's she was faced with a big bowl of chocolate. She reached over and picked up an apple. She also ate pineapple. Another interesting treat she likes is Japanese rice cakes with a spicy kick. Last Year the Matsumotos sent us a nice care package. Although I think the rice cakes were intended for the adults Stella liked sucking on them. Recently we bought some new rice cakes at a local Asian store. Let's just say, Stella doesn't want to share.
Last week blueberries were in season, this week blackberries. We have tons of black berry bushes in the neighborhood. We have gone picking. I think only half of the berries made it into the bucket because Stella kept eating them. Then we made some Blackberry jam. Keep it out of her site because she will steal what ever you're eating if it has jam on it.
Stella's talking has expanded from the traditional mama, dada type sounds to L's and O's and syllables. Looking you in the eye, she tells you just what she thinks.
And shows you want she wants. Last week we were at Opa and Oma's. Opa pulled out the lawnmower and Stella hat to be with him. Opa is thinking about how he can build a seat on the lawnmower for the future.
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