23 Months

This post is shamefully overdue. And it will probably be sub-par at best. Let's just say the past few weeks have been beyond crazy for us. Oh well. She'll be spending her 2nd birthday in Malta in a few weeks, so life can't be that bad.

Typically I jot down some notes during the month so I can remember all of the things Stella has been up to and how she's changed when it comes time for a blog post. That didn't happen this month. And, pictures usually help me to remember what's been going on as well, but we sure didn't take many of those once we returned from our trip. So, we'll have to see what my raw human memory can come up with.

Stella's communication skills continue to grow and it's pretty exciting. She repeats EVERYTHING we say. We have to watch our mouths now. One of my favorite expressions of hers is "sap' um" which, translated, means "have some". Like, if I'm eating a cookie and she sees me, she'll say, "Cookie. Sap' um!" because she wants to have some. She can actually say "have some" and, if you prompt her, she'll say it right. But when it just comes out of her mouth without any help, it always comes out "sap' um". She's also getting pretty good at counting. She consistently counts to ten now, always skipping eight. And she often adds "ah, ah, ah" at the end of her counting because Mr. Frisby and I do it, mimicking the count from Sesame Street.

When we got back from our trip, Stella immediately started a second round of swim lessons. This time around, she was the only kid in her age group, so she got Becca all to herself. The first week, she was not at all happy that I wasn't in the pool with her. But, during the second week, she got used to it and got more comfortable with Becca and, by the end, would voluntarily go over to Becca and get in the pool without any tears.

She continues to do her swimming lesson games and songs in the bathtub. Here she is doing, "fishy, fishy in the bay."

She's also gone to nursery at church the whole time all by herself now. She's not super excited about it, but she does okay and is happy when I go pick her up, so perhaps she's getting over her constant need to be at my side always. This is a welcome change, let me tell you!

Also after we got back from our vacation, Stella got sick. I don't know what she had and I never ended up taking her to the doctor, but she did not feel well at all. She's fine now.

Stella is pretty into babies right now. She gets excited whenever she sees a live one and likes to make her fake ones do all sorts of things like sit in her chair, have a bath, lay them down to sleep, give them high-fives:

It's pretty cute. She also loves animals and is getting much better at recognizing which animals make which sounds. For awhile, everything said "moo." But, after our time on the ranch, she has "neigh" down and from our time at the garden, she's gotten "baa". She most recently learned to say, "cock-a-doodle-doo." Or "cock-a-doodle-doodle-doo". Whatever. She's learning.

I took Stella to the beach with cousins that were visiting. I took her last year, but of course, she didn't remember. So, it was pretty much all new to her. She was really into the relaxing part, but was very wary of the sand.

Eventually she started playing in the sand, though, had lots of fun, and didn't want to leave.

We've spent a fair amount of time at Gilroy Gardens this summer and the girl really likes it. She sometimes asks about Gilroy Gardens and will name off all of the rides she likes. We'll definitely have to get a season pass again next year.

I don't have other kids to compare her to, but she seems pretty smart. I mean, she likes to read Time and stay up on her current events.

And she picks up on things fast. Usually you only have to show her something once or twice and she's got it. Her hair is getting long enough now that we can do full pigtails (not just the half piggies on top of her head) and she's definitely looking more like a little girl than a baby these days. She's starting to work on getting dressed and undressed, but still has a long way to go with that. She can put her flip-flops on and take them off herself, though, and she's pretty proud of it. I really can't believe where the last two years has gone. She keeps us on our toes and life would most definitely not be the same or as good without her!