Stella is nineteen months old now. She continues to grow and develop at a very rapid rate and the time flies by. This month, she's been practicing her tantrum-throwing skills. Super exciting. She has learned to protest when she doesn't like something. And she currently doesn't like diaper changes, being pulled down from furniture she has been climbing up on, being moved from any situation or environment that she thinks she should be a part of, being told "no", not getting milk the instant she asks for it, etc, etc. We get a lot of protesting around here now.
Stella is also getting good at tormenting Scout. And Scout, bless her heart, has been the epitome of patience through it all (probably because she knows what'll happen if she does anything to Stella). As soon as the trouble begins, Scout flees the situation. It's slightly reminiscent of Joseph fleeing from Potipher's wife.
Case in point: Stella thinks it would be funny to crawl into Scout's kennel to bother her while she's trying to nap...
... Scout gets the hell out of Dodge...
... as fast as caninely possible!
Scout's only safe haven now is a small space under Stella's crib. And she goes there often. She's a good dog. They actually do like each other and play together sometimes. And, on very rare occasions, can even be coerced into taking a picture or two together.
Stella continues to be an excellent mess-maker. In fact, she sometimes does things with the express purpose of making a mess. Like hauling her mega blocks into the kitchen, dumping them in the middle of the floor, and then promptly making her way back to her room to actually play with something.
Stella loves her Daddy. Especially when he's computing. She loves to join in on the fun.
She also loves seeing her Daddy at church. Since he's in the bishopric, he always goes to church early for meetings. Stella doesn't get to see him on Sunday mornings until we arrive at church. And, since he sits up on the stand, it's always exciting when she first catches a glimpse of him up there. She starts yelling "daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy" and waves at him until he waves back. This usually happens within the first few minutes of arriving, so someone is speaking at the podium or the organ is playing - something is making noise that helps to drown out her excited daddy greetings. But, a couple weeks ago, she noticed him during the Sacrament. There was no other noise to drown out her yells. And she became very upset when I wouldn't let her run up to see him. I started to hear people around me laughing as her excitement and protesting got louder and as I dashed out of the chapel with her, I could hear most of the congregation laughing (myself and Mr. Frisby included). It was very cute and very embarrassing all at the same time. I'm glad she's the source of entertainment for so many during church.
Speaking of church, Stella is now going to nursery. She hates it. But, she goes. She screams when we drop her off (again with the protesting). But, eventually she stops crying and participates a little here and there. Hopefully she'll continue to get more comfortable with nursery and maybe she'll even start to enjoy it.
Stella continues to enjoy her gym class. She gets excited when we pull into the parking lot and she's getting really comfortable with running around and exploring everything there is to do at the gym. She's even getting braver on the balance beam.
One week they did baby rock-climbing and Stella absolutely loved it. She was pretty good at it, too. All I had to do was show her how to put her little feet on the rocks and she climbed right up the wall by herself. She made sure she got a few turns on it.
She's also recently gotten into strawberries. She learned how to say the word and she recognizes them, so whenever she sees one, it's "bawbry, bawbry, bawbry". She has pajamas that have strawberries on them that she loves to wear and she has a book about a strawberry (it's actually about a mouse and a strawberry, but she just cares about the strawberry) that she loves to look at. And she likes to eat them. She also likes big trucks. She gets very excited when we see them on the freeway. It's handy if we're driving and I need to keep her awake. I just tell her to look for trucks. She also still gets excited whenever she sees the mail truck, garbage truck, or street sweeper.
Her vocabulary continues to expand and she's even started to say short phrases. Her first was, "Hi Daddy!" She's learning her body parts and can point to lots of them if we tell her to. We keep trying to teach her animal sounds, but she's having a harder time with those. She just barely started doing a monkey sound, but that's about it. She's very hesitant to try new foods, but she seems to sense when it's a dessert type food and usually has no problem with those. She's getting better at feeding herself with a spoon and she's working on drinking out of regular cup. She's a good little helper and loves to help us with whatever little task she can. Currently, she loves helping me put all of the pillows on our bed after I make it in the morning. She also likes to help pick up her toys at night.
She's very particular about putting things away. She will often put things back where she got them from and in the same position they were in. She's very observant and knows exactly where everything goes in her room. My mom says she's going to be a perfectionist. I have slight concerns about obsessive-compulsive disorder.
She definitely keeps us entertained. She was helping me get dinner going the other day and decided to wear her sunglasses for the occasion.
She also had her first trip to Gilroy Gardens this month, but that is for a different post. I guess that's our little Stella this month and we're excited to see what she comes up with next month.
