December 2012

Stella had a great Christmas! She has done so many cute and funny things lately. I never get tired of watching and listening to her. EVER! She is so sweet and quick. A few weeks ago there was a birthday party for a friend of mines daughter. There was a huge play ground thing for the kids to play in. It was three stories tall. There were a couple of ball pits on the bottom level and Stella played around those for a while. Obviously I didn't go in with her, but eventually she made her way up to the second level. She even found her way over to a section that was kind of hidden and harder to get to. I was so proud of her for going up there all by herself. I was probably beaming when she got to the third level. It was so great to watch her be independent like that.

She has been really excited for Christmas, just like with Halloween, she LOVES the decorations. Every time we go by a house that is decorated she says, “Christmas House!”. We have even seen a few “Christmas Gazebos!” There is one house close to our old house that has an inflatable thing, it’s two snow men, a bear and a penguin. They are dressed as carolers and it plays Christmas songs. She specifically requests to go by that one.

I completely forgot that we have moved into our new house as well. Stella has done really well in the transition from our house to Adam’s house to the new house. She likes the new house. We got her a new twin sized bed when we moved in. She had her first night in that in her new room and did great. She is just getting so grown up.

Yesterday it was freezing cold and sleeting when we went out to the car in the morning. I got her in the car and said, “Hurry up and get buckled, I’m going to freeze my butt off out here!” She very seriously said, “Oh Mama hurry, if you freeze your butt off you won’t be able to go pee pee!” It was so cute and funny.

Today in the car she said, “Mama I need to tell you something.” She says that a lot and most of the time it is her telling me something that maybe she shouldn't have done. She pretty much tattles on herself. So I ask her what she needs to tell me. She said, “That is just how I’m made.” I was like, OK. Then she said, “When I burp *BURP* I say, That is just how I was made.” And she is doing this thing with her hand, like explaining. I don’t know where the hell that came from!!

Praying Mantis

Two Stella stories real quick! A few nights ago I was getting her ready for bed on her little air mattress. Lately she has been worried that I am going to leave or run away or something like that. I always assure her I will never leave her. So, she said something to that effect, "Are you going to run away and leave me with Daddy and Uncle Adam?" And I said, "No, Honey I will never leave you." And she said, "I want to keep you forever." And my whole heart almost burst because little does she know, I feel so strongly the same way. And I just hugged her and tried to soak up that moment as much as possible.

Then last night we were reading The Grouchy Ladybug as our bedtime story. She really likes that book, and she has for a while even though it's a little advanced. So, we get to the page with the Praying Mantis on it. Keep in mind we have read this book over a dozen times. But tonight she said, "I don't know what a Praying Mantis is." It took me a second to understand for some reason. But I know she has never actually seen one, probably not even a picture of a real one. She said, "But I don't know what it is." So I told her, "It is a type of bug, Praying Mantis is the name of it." Then I guess she understood. But I think the word Praying was confusing her as a title.

Or Not/ Halloween!

I wish I had enough time to write down all the funny stuff Stella says! She is so bright and amazes me every day. She has finally mastered pulling her pants up and down when she goes to the potty. She was pulling them down for a while, but for some reason would claim she couldn't pull them up. Eventually I bribed her into doing it once and she caught on from there. She is getting more independent and it makes me kind of scared! She is still so sweet and cuddly though. I am so thankful for that, I love hugging her and holding her hand. She is so great at singing, this is nothing new, but she can take a tune of a song and just make up her own words to the tune. I wanted to share this conversation from a couple mornings ago while I was brushing her hair:
Me: Stella can I please put your hair in a ponytail?
Stella: No, I don't like it.
Me: Please, it will look cute and keep the hair out of your face!
Me: Say, Yes Mama.
Stella: Or not...

Stella and I went on a date a couple Saturdays ago. I have been trying to get in some special one on one time with her before the new baby comes. We went to the zoo, then lunch and then got ice cream. Great day with my baby!!

The sad thing is she got that exact phrase from hearing me say it. Whoops! She did still let me put it up though. Halloween is coming up quick and she is so excited for it! We went to Huber's a couple weekends ago and got pumpkins and she rode a pony and played. She had fun. Whenever she sees a house that is decorated for Halloween she says, "There's a Halloween house!" We are taking her to the Zoo halloween party tonight and she is going to do Trunk or Treat at my parents subdivision Friday. :) She is going to be a pink poodle on Halloween, but tonight it is going to be warm so I think she is going to wear her Snow White dress.

My Little Munchie

Stella is the light of my life. Every single day I just look at her and my heart swells up with love and joy. She is the best thing that has ever happened to me. She is brilliant and hilarious and a little bit mischievous. I have multiple nicknames for her that have just popped up over the years. But I call her Munchie sometimes. So, now I will say, " I love you Munchie!" and then she responds "I love you Chrunchie!" She came up with that on her own.

She has also gotten into saying some big words. I can tell she likes to use them, she does it quite a bit. These are her favorites, Conversation, Disgusting, Disappointed and Sanitizer.

She is so amazing and I just can't ever put it into words. I wish I could.

So Proud!

My girl is getting so big! I am incredibly proud of her. We started a new routine last week where I would rock her for a few minutes then put her in her bed and let her fall asleep there. I still have stayed in the room with her, but we have made a lot of progress. I told her if she did it for 10 days she would get a super special surprise. She got a surprise every morning, but today (day 10) she got a special sign and I played “Lo Hicimos – We Did it!” the Dora song. Then she got a Snow White dress up dress and a little snow white doll. She has really done great. Hopefully we can start working towards me making my way out of the room as she falls asleep. Nervous about that.

She has been so cute lately. Last week we were up in the morning and she was sitting with me, my stomach growled really loud and I said, “Did you hear that?” She said, “Was that the little baby?” It was so cute and hilarious. She sings the cutest songs. She is so hilarious. 

New Baby

We told Stella about the new baby today in hopes that she will be more gentle with my stomach. She was so cute about it! We said "Do you like babies?" and she said "Yes!" I said, "Earlier when I asked you, you said no." Then she said, "Oh but I want this one!" Then she got things to give to the baby and laid them on my stomach! She told us when the baby comes she is going to jump out and say "Surprise!!" It was so funny, then she proceeded to act it out for us. I love her!

Fresh & Clean

Stella is doing amazing as usual! She is still the funniest thing ever, and so much fun. I am enjoying this age so much! Even with the crazy tantrums! We went to the science museum on Friday, just Stella & I. It was fun. Then we went to the lake with Daddy, InSub, Rhonda, Tom, Mark, Audrey and Makenzie to celebrate 4th of July! We had a blast there too! It was hot, but that didn't stop us. Daddy & InSub put on a really awesome fireworks show. Stella even got to do some sparklers! Audrey got some fantastic pictures of that too. Stella was playing with dominoes one day and she was stacking them. So, Jeff was doing it too. He got his stack up and said, "Look, I did it!" Stella looked at it and said, "It's going to fall over." Then she proceeded to slam it down with her hand. It was SO FUNNY!

This morning while I was trying to get us ready to go out the door Stella spilled her yogurt drink on herself and the couch. So, I got her down and was cleaning her up. I got some new pants to put on her and she looked at them and said, "Are those fresh and clean?"  It was so cute!

She is the most amazing thing I have ever done, and I try so hard to do all the right things for her.

Crazy Girl

Stella is extra hilarious today. We have a thing we do where I say do you know how much I love you? And first she always says Up to the moon and all the way back. So, today I asked her and she said All the way to Dixie Highway!

Thursday we were in the car the sun was shining on her. She was wiggling  her fingers and said My shadow looks like french fries.

Lovely Love!

Stella is up to her usual shenanigans! She is so bright and hilarious. We have a ritual where we say I love you up to the moon and all the way back, then I added, and more than all the stars in the sky. Then I added, more than all the fish in the sea. And Stella says it back to me, but when she says the last line she says, "More than all the fish in the seaweed!" It's cute. She also says, "I'm am" when she means to say I am. We have been working on it though and she is getting better! She is so much fun. I am trying to get her more involved with other kids though. She is really lacking in that area. We were at the golf scramble last weekend and there were some older kids there. She wanted to run after them up a flight of stairs, but I told her no that they were older than she is and she couldn't play with them. So she looked at me and said, "Oh, I guess I should just go play by myself." It was all I could do to keep from crying. It was SO sad. :(

Having fun at the Golf Scramble for Makenzie!

 Posing with Buddy Bat!

Merry go Round!

Happy Father's Day!!

Fun at the Zoo!

Kitty!



Funny!

Stella put something in her mouth this morning that she shouldn’t have, so in the car I told her, “If you start feeling funny, you need to tell Grammy.” So a minute later she just starts laughing, hahahaha. I said, “What?”. She said, “I feel like I am funny.” OMG it was hilarious. Sooooo funny, she is right!!

She is getting so big and grown up. It is so crazy to look at videos of her from a year ago. The differences are so insane. She is so smart and really a good 2 year old. She did have a REALLY bad tantrum in TJ Maxx last weekend. Jeff was with us, pretty sure he was super embarrased. It didn't phase me too much. I am just glad I handled it without screaming at her and losing my temper. I talked her down, but it took a little while.

She LOVES the water! I am pretty sure she would just swim all day if we let her. She loves going to the lake. She is so awesome.

Here is a hilarious video of her from last weekend. This was not her first time drinking Pepsi, but she was so obsessed with it!!

Chatty

Wow, my child talks non-stop. Every night I rock her to sleep she talks for like 15 minutes straight. She is so brilliant! A few nights ago I was rocking her and she says something I couldn't understand what she was dating so I kept asking her to say it again. Finally I realized she was saying, "I'm disappointed Mama." I could not believe she said that! She didn't give a reason why she was disappointed though. One of the cutest things she does lately is she means Naked as a jaybird, but says, "Naked as a jay burger! It's so cute.

Today she wore some shorts with a fake zipper. So, it was kind of like a vertical pocket. So, I'm putting Stella in the car and look down to the fake
zipper/pocket and there its a clump if hair sticking out if of it. I was like WTF!? Apparently she had taken clumps of the cats hair and stuck it in there thinking it was a pocket. It really tripped me it though when I saw it.

Last night I took off her diaper and it looked like she was straining. Then she said, "I'm trying to day on you!" I don't know where she got that.

She is also saying Man after a lot of her sentences. Like, "That is my toy Man!" It is pretty funny and she totally knows it!

Bad Move

Tonight I was trying to get Stella to cooperate for bed. I was using a serious tone and told her she needed to go to sleep. She said, "you're in a bad move!"

Last night she wanted to play with my ponytail, she said, "you doesn't mind right Mama?" There are quite a few things she says the phrase for but says it with the intent of a question. Like, "I can have this?"

One morning on the way to my mom's house we had to stop at the gas station. We pulled up the pump and she said, "you have to get some grass?"

Love

Stella was saying some if the best stuff today! I got to spend all day with her. Earlier she took this little bottle if hand sanitizer and decided she should rub it on my tits to make them sparkle. So she takes some sanitizer and rubs it on my feet. It was so funny. She has no idea what a pedicure is, but that is basically what she was doing.
Then when I was rocking her to sleep she have me a hug and said, "I love hugging you!" Then she said, "I'm your best friend Mama." It was too freaking precious! Sometimes it is stressful having to rock her to sleep every night, but I know when it's home I will miss it very much. I love her so.

Time out!

Stella and I were in the living room and the cat was in the ned room. He was sharpening his claws on the carpet for the fifth time today. So I yelled at him, "Kitty, if you don't stop sharpening your claws on the carpet..." Then Stella says, "you're going to put him in time out?"

My Little Lady

Today at church I was holding Stella, she had her hand behind my head. She said that hand is playing peekaboo! It was so cute and funny. She is getting so big! She had her first trip to Thunder yesterday, it was quite cold, but fun! She was a trooper, and she wasn't scared of the fireworks, but she did seem overwhelmed.

 Grandma brought her some fresh picked strawberries today. Boy did she eat them up!! :) 

She also asked about Darcie again today. Last week she said, "Where's Darcie?" And so I told her Darcie was sick, and she couldn't stay with us anymore. She had to go live up on the moon and she wasn't sick there. She seemed anxious when I told her, she was kind of ringing her hands. So, I tried not to force any info on her. She mentions her sometime and I can tell she still thinks she is at the doctor. Today we walked to the park, our first trip without Darcie. On the way back there was a lady with a dog and when we walked away she said, "I don't have a dog." Tonight when I was rocking her, she had a stuffed dog that looks just like Darcie and she calls it Darcie. She said, "Darcie is at the doctor. You took her to the doctor Mamma." I told her, no, remember, Darcie was sick and she had to go stay on the moon now. She feels better now on the moon, but she can't stay with us anymore. She said, Oh... I said, do you miss her? She was sad and she said Yes, I cried a lot. I told her I missed her too. She said, I missed her at the park. I don't know how I held myself together. It was so sad. My poor baby deserves to grow up with her dog. I don't know what I will do, I want us both to be dog owners...It really sucks. A LOT.

Loss of a Best Friend

It has been a week since we lost our best friend. It is still so hard  for me to deal with the loss of Darcie. She was a irreplaceable companion, not only to us, but to Stella too. She was always so obedient and loving. There are so many amazing happy memories of her. She was the epitome of a pet and I am beyond heartbroken without her. I can still remember the day that I found her, which is strange because my memory usually doesn't work that way.It was May 2007, I was driving down our street, Parkway Drive, towards Poplar Level. When I got down to Dixie Ave. she darted out right in front of my car. It was a miracle I didn't hit her. I turned and followed her down and across Clarks Lane. She ended up in a parking area and there was a girl getting into her car, the dog had run up to her. So, I asked her, "Is that your dog?" It looked like the dog knew her. She said it wasn't, so I picked her up and took her back to my house. I had to call to work and tell them I would be late. Then I took her picture and made up signs saying I had found the dog. I went back out and hung them up around where I found her. She waited for me in the car. I got to the intersection where I found her and got out to hang up the sign, I left the car running. I don't know how long it took to realize, but I had locked her in the car. I freaked out and went to the house on the corner and knocked on their back door. It was a lady in her 40's who was there visiting her parents. They kindly let me use their phone and wait for AAA to come. That is where the memory of that day ends, but there were so many more to follow. I am forever grateful for her and will never forget her. I don't think the ache in my heart will ever go away either. Every time I drop a piece of food, scrape a plate into the trash, go to the park, go out in the back yard, so many things I will do and always think of her. I have a lot of guilt about Darcie because once Stella came along I did not give her enough attention. Not anywhere near what I gave her before Stella. I should have done things differently. She was always so amazing with Stella from day one, which I never doubted. She was such a sweet kind  and loving dog. I remember Valerie would always call her my shadow. When I worked at JV Rockwell I took her to work with me all the time. Everyone loved her, and she would not ever leave my side. She was my baby, and I loved her. She got sick on Saturday the 14th, when we woke up that morning she had thrown up twice on the floor next to her usually sleeping spot, the right end underneath the bed. She has puked before, and she didn't seem like she was in pain at that time. As the day went on, she would not eat anything, not even Doritos which is so unlike her. I considered taking her to the vet that day, but didn't think it was that bad. I left at 7 for the Sugarland concert, she was outside with Jeff and Stella. When I got home at midnight she was under the bed in her spot. Jeff said she was not doing good at all. I got her out from under the bed and she just wasn't acting right at all. I said I wanted to take her to Jeffereson Animal Hospital. When I got there they said their vet just went into surgery and wouldn't be out for an hour. So I took her to MVS out on Blankenbaker. I drove so fast because she was in so much pain. We finally made it and they took her to weigh her, then the vet came in by hinself and said since she was in so much pain he did a quick ultrasound and saw a large mass behind her left kidney. He didn't charge me for the ultrasound since he didn't get approval to do it. If they did a full ultrasound it would have cost $240, so they gave her pain meds and nausea medicine and I told them I would take her to the regu;lar vet Monday. We went home and I took her to bed with me and she fell asleep laying on my arm.    The next day, I decided to take her to Shively Animal Clinic because they were open on Sunday and I didn't think it should wait till Monday. It is first come first served there, so I knew we would have a long wait. The whole time we waited I held her and tried to lessen her pain. It was an excruciating 3 hours and 45 minutes before they called us back. Thankfully once they called us, the doctor was in withing minutes. We discussed what we should do considering what the other vet saw on the ultrasound. They started with an x-ray, but that didn't give us a clear answer of what it was. So, he told me it would cost almost the same amount to do exploratory surgery as it would to do the ultrasound. To me, that was a no brainer, because they could have done an ultrasound and still not been sure what it was. There are MANY things in hindsight I wish I would have done differently... So, they said leave her there and they would do blood work and give me a call. The vet called around 5 and said the bloodwork indicated she may be dehydrated and he wanted to give her fluids overnight. So, I agreed and he said she would have surgery the next morning or early afternoon (April 16th). He also said, when they went in, if it was something simple they would remove it. If it was more serious, they would call me and let me know what was going on then I would make a decision. When I left her there I did give her a kiss before he took her away. The day of surgery was a nightmare, I was literally sick to my stomach worrying all day long. They didn't call me all day, and finally at 5 I called and had to demand to speak to the vet to find out she hadn't had surgery yet. There had been other emergencies that came in and she got pushed back. He said he would call me soon, it would definitely be that day. I got the call around 6:30, I was making dinner. I was standing at the stove when he told me. It was a vascular mass, all blood. It had started leaking into her body. They could not remove it or she would bleed to death. It looked like a tumor that was on her kidney. He said if they did sew her up and she made it out of anesthesia she would only have a few hours or maybe days. I told him I had to make a decision with Jeff and call him right back. We discussed it, and it was VERY important to me that I be there with her when she passed away. But first and foremost that she not be in any more pain. The vet said he would keep her under anesthisa until I could get there. Jeff stayed home with Stella and I raced to the vet. I got there, but had to wait in the lobby for what felt like forever. Finally they brought me to a room where I cried, sobbed and waited some more. Then the vet came and said he would take me to her. She was laying on the table, and I broke down and laid my head down on her. I told her I was sorry, and after about a minute of me holding her, I told him to give her the drug. Then she was gone, and I told him I had to take her back with me. I had promised Jeff that I would. He said he would have her wrapped up for me, so I waited and sobbed some more. Then I got her body and left. I just kept saying, "My dog, my dog, my poor dog." And I kept telling her I was sorry. Then I got home and Jeff and I buried her. I think she was about 8 years old. 

Tape Fixes Everything

We took Stella to the park Sunday afternoon. She had such a good time and didn't want to leave. When we got home we were sitting on the porch. There was group of people walking down the street. Jeff said, "There's a whole family!" Stella said,.maybe that whole family wants to play with me!" They went by and she went down the stairs trying to see where they went. I told her they were gone, and asked if she needed someone to play with. She said yes, and I said, "awwww". She said, "Poor me."

Lately I have been having to repair some of her books with tape. She likes trying to help. Tonight we were eating dinner and Jeff was acting like something hurt him. She asked, "What's the matter Daddy?" He told her his elbow hurts. She said, "Don't worry Daddy I will get some tape and fix it for you!" She said it totally serious and it was so precious.

Sunshine

Earlier the tv was on and Stella was doing something else. The McDonald's commercial came on with the girl singing, and Stella sang it word for word. I was like, no way! Goes like this, Sunshine to start my day gonna start my morning without delay, everything is going my way...

This morning we were getting ready to go to the Zoo so she could ride the Merry-Go-Round. She had a little duck and a little people girl in her hand. I explained to her that she could only take one, she didn't quite grasp what I was saying though. So, I tried to tell her a few more times. I asked, "Which one doe you want to take?" She said this one and this one. So I told her, no that is two, you can only take one. Which one do you want to take? She said, "I'll take the duck and you take the little girl!" as she shoved her into my hand. It was so funny! How can she be that smart!?!?!

Hey, What's the big idea?

Stella has been hilarious this morning! She woke up and was sitting in bed with us and she wanted Darcie to come up too. So, Darcie is sitting in the bed and Stella said, "Look at her face. It looks like a dog face!" Then later she was up and Mister Meow was laying in the window, she walked up to him and said, "Hey, what's the big idea?!?!?" in this weird voice over an over. She is so funny.

Nothings Impossible

Stella is so wonderful! Lately out of no where she has started saying, "Nothings impossible!" Neither I nor my mom know where she picked it up. It's really cute though.

I put lotion on her the other night because agree apparently has bad skin like me. After I put it on her she said, "need some more glue please!" It was hilarious and later she saw the bottle and referred to it as glue.

One day in the car the sun was in her face, she can't stand it! I said, "You don't like the sun in your face?" She said, "No, turn it off please." Then I gave her her sun glasses and she said, "I feel cool with my sunglasses on!"

We were at JoAnn's today and Stella saw these containers with fake Easter eggs in them.

She picked one up and the lid fell off and they went everywhere. We picked them all up and she said, "I'm sorry mommy." I told her it was ok, but not to pick them up again because we didn't want to drop them. She said, "Yes, because they might hatch." She blows my mind how much she understands things. She is so funny.

Sometimes in the car Stella will ask me for something and I will tell her I can't get it because I am driving  the car. We were in the car and it was nap time, she was very tired and cranky. She was upset and crying for no reason. So I reached back and put my hand on her leg, I said, "Hold Mommy's hand." She said, "No Mommy I can't, you're driving the car." I busted out laughing.

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