Show Off

The second to last week of Stella's gym class was show week. All the kids could invite anyone they wanted to come watch their class and they got to show off all the skills they learned. And they would all get little awards at the end. Mr. Frisby was able to come watch and so were Grandma and Grandpa Jespersen. At first, Stella seemed excited, but confused at them being there. Pretty soon, though, when she realized they were there to watch her, she got really into it and became quite the show off. Since Mr. Frisby was there, he was able to take loads of pictures of her doing her skills.

This is me with a super awesome and very flattering look on my face. In my defense, I was a little nervous because Stella was insisting on doing the balance beam by herself, without me even touching her. Up until that point, she wouldn't do the balance beam without me holding on tightly.

Swinging, as she so loves to do there.

"Walking" along the bars.

Swinging on the rings. This she could've done all day. She would climb up on the little box, grab the rings as they swung back toward her and then step off the box swinging through. It was pretty awesome and she was definitely showing off for Daddy and Grandma and Grandpa with this trick. We had a hard time persuading her to go do something else so other kids could have a turn.

This is Stella's teacher helping her with flipping over the bar. She was awesome and, of course, got to swing at the end.

After showing off her skills, it was time for awards. Stella went first. Here she is getting her medal.

And here is me, her teacher, and her showing off her medal. She was super proud.

Stella got bored while the other kids were getting their awards, so she headed back to the rings for more swinging fun. And also checked out her medal more closely.

I would post some video, but Blogger is lame and has a hard time uploading them, so it's not happening. Maybe one of these days I'll get a YouTube account so I can post them on there and then link to it. But, not today. You'll just have to settle for pictures.

The following week was Stella's last gym class. It was just a fun day and they got to play around on the equipment for a little bit and then the teacher blew up the bounce house for them to play in.

It wouldn't be a day at The Little Gym if Stella wasn't swinging!

Playing in the bounce house. She was very unsure about the bounce house until she discovered the slide. Then she was all over it.

Going down the bounce house slide.

Stella seemed to really enjoy her gym class and I think it was really good for her to have some structure and routine. We're excited to start again in the fall!

21 Months

I'm still behind on my blogging. I had hoped to do another post or two about other happenings in our lives before this one, but I've been lazy with uploading pictures to the computer and, therefore, I haven't done any posts. Well, I finally sat down and uploaded pics, so now I can get caught up. I figure I better do Stella's post now, though, before it becomes obsolete. So, here we go. Stella is 21 months old.

I feel like every day she becomes less and less a baby/toddler and more and more a little girl. And it's sad. But also exciting. Her personality is coming out more and more and she keeps us laughing everyday. She finished up her gym class and had so much fun that I've signed her up for another class in the fall. A post about her final class(es) is forthcoming.

Her vocabulary has increased exponentially. I can't even keep track of all the words she knows now. She's even begun stringing words together and has a few two-word phrases. "Hold it" when she wants to hold something, "want it" if she sees something she wants, "hold you" if she wants you to hold her, "hi daddy", "hi mommy" (self-explanatory). One time she even busted out a three-word phrase and said "hold the ball". Most of the time she just names the objects she sees or tells you with one word what she wants. And she picks up new words super fast. I tell her what something is once and she pretty much has it down. This month she has got "thank you" down. She signs it if she's feeling shy and she says it if she's not. I'm not sure she always understands what it means, but she seems to get it a lot of the time, so we're happy with that.

She's into flowers and we've taught her about smelling flowers. She thinks that's pretty fun.

Nursery is going well. I go with her and she has a fantastic time. I'm going to start sneaking out toward the end and see how she does with that.

She's getting better with recognizing different animals and making their sounds. She seems most interested in monkeys right now. We were in San Diego last weekend (another forthcoming post) and took her to the zoo while there. She LOVED it. She's also become aware of tails recently and finds them very interesting. Scout hates it. Speaking of Scout, Stella has started to catch on to some of her commands and tricks. She often repeats when I tell Scout to "stay" and I've even seen her a few times trying to get Scout to "beg". It's very cute.

She continues to enjoy garden night, although a couple of weeks ago she got stung by a wasp there. I felt really bad for her. She got stung on her hand and it got all swollen and red. Initially, she screamed and cried for a few minutes, but after that she ran around like nothing had happened. She's a trooper and really doesn't seem to let things bother her much.

We've been hitting up Gilroy Gardens and Stella continues to love it. We got to take Mr. Frisby again a couple of weeks ago and she had lots of fun riding rides with Daddy. I think the "sel" (carousel) has become her favorite. She gets very excited when she sees it and yells, "sel, sel, sel".

She continues her infatuation with shoes. She loves to put on any pair of shoes she sees laying around. She particularly liked the pair of shoes I bought for my birthday and insisted on helping me break them in.

She also started swimming lessons a couple weeks ago. They're taught by her cousin and they're mommy and me classes, so I hop in with her. We do it the pool in our backyard, so it's super convenient. And she's finally figuring out what the swimming pool is for. She doesn't remember going in it last year. She really seems to like it (except the part when she has to go all the way under) and it's been fun to see her progress and learn new things. Also, maybe it's just me, but I feel like there's really nothing cuter than a chubby little toddler girl in a swimsuit. The swimming lessons are a success!

She's also figuring out the whole tantrum business and it's pretty awesome. I mean, her tantrums are so hysterical that I can't help but laugh through them. She had a pretty awesome one at Gilroy Gardens where she would side-stomp one foot and then drag the other one to meet it and did that around in a circle. Screaming the whole time of course. Lately, she'll get upset and carefully, but purposefully lay down on the ground and just lay there or roll side to side a little and just scream. I just let her do her thing and after a few seconds, she's done with it. It's really quite entertaining and I'm excited to see what new antics she'll come up with.

Stella is really into buckles now. She insists on doing the top buckle in her car seat when we put her in. She won't let us help and gets upset if our hands are anywhere on the car seat at all. It's maddening when we're in a hurry. She also likes to do the buckle in her high chair and the buckle on the grocery cart and the buckle in her stroller. If there's a buckle, she wants to do it. And she's getting pretty good at it.

She's actually trying to be very independent. She tries to put on her shoes and socks. She tries to feed herself everything we give her. She can open the doors and get into everything. It definitely keeps me on my toes.

She continues to be a big tease and seems to just enjoy life. She's pretty easy going and loves to explore. She's still very much a mama's girl and we're excited for the end of that phase which has seemed to go on forever. We love her to pieces.

Best Work Party Ever!

I'm behind on my blogging. Life has been busy. Disclaimer: this post is not about Stella, nor will it have any pictures of her. If that's all you care about, you can stop reading now.

Awhile ago, Mr. Frisby came home from work and informed me that there was a work party scheduled for June 1st at AT&T park. The Giants would be traveling, so they would be having the party at the stadium. I thought that sounded like a nice party for him. When he checked the info and found out that I was invited too, I got really excited.

We got a sitter for Stella and headed up to the city for the party. And, it was the best work party ever! We arrived at the park and they directed us to the club level. We checked in and they gave us free tickets for a game in September. Then we got in line to take pictures with the world series trophies. After that, we signed up for a tour of the ballpark and batting practice in the Giants' batting cages. Since we had time before our tour started, we helped ourselves to the various dinner buffets they had set up. The food was delish. This was no surprise given how awesome the party was.

After we ate dinner, it was time for our tour to begin. Our tour guide took us down to the press box. Those journalists have quite a view.

The tour guide told us about the baseball glove sculpture in left field. Then he produced an actual model of the glove that it replicates. Pretty sweet. After that, we headed down to see the visiting clubhouse. The tour guide told us a few stories in which we learned that Sammy Sosa is a cheapskate and the Dodgers, surprisingly, are classy fellows.

After checking out the visiting clubhouse, we headed out to the visitors' dugout. From there, they let us walk onto the dirt in front of the dugout, but not the grass. I've actually been on the field and in both dugouts at AT&T park. Back when I worked at UCSF, I covered the city high school baseball championship game which was held there. So, this part was a bit of a yawner for me. Been there, done that. Still cool, though, and fun to see how excited everyone else on the tour was. That concluded our ballpark tour, so we headed back up to the club level to have our turns in the batting cages.

I was super excited and also very nervous about the batting cages. I've never been in any batting cage, let alone the Giants' batting cages. I was really afraid I wouldn't hit the ball and I would look like an idiot. They took our group down to the cages and, somehow, Mr. Frisby and I were at the front of the line. The had the pitching machine set to about 50 mph and we each got 5 pitches. Mr. Frisby went first and got two hits. I made sure to get some pictures.

After Mr. Frisby finished, I stepped up to the plate. I had a swing and a miss for the first four pitches. On the last pitch, I thought to myself, "just hit the ball so you don't look like an idiot." I watched the ball more carefully and - blamo! - I hit it! I was very excited. Mr. Frisby took pictures and even a video, but those are on his phone, so I don't have them accessible to post here. After our turn in the cages, they let us hang out in the Giants' dugout while we waited until the group was all done so we could head back up to the club level. Again, I had already been in the Giants' dugout, but it was still cool and more fun to be there with Mr. Frisby.

After we finished and went back up to the club level, we decided to grab some dessert and take it out to the seats overlooking the field. We sat and enjoyed our tasty treats on a lovely evening at AT&T Park. And thus concluded the awesome work party. Did I mention this was the best work party ever?