Life As She Knows It

Goodness there is so much to say and remember about this little princess.

The past two years have been quite the adventure and life with her just keeps getting better.

More dramatic, but better.

Here is a little (or a lot) about Miss Stella Rose at two years old:

Our mornings have been starting a little earlier than normal since the girl moved to her big girl bed.

She isn't afraid to get out of bed on her own and sometime between 6 and 7 am we hear the little pitter patter of toddler feet making their way into our bedroom.

A smiling, energetic Stella greets us with arms full of books, stuffed animals, and anything else she can carry.

The next hour or two of our morning are spent eating breakfast, watching shows, and playing in our jammies.

Stella still loves movies and shows and would watch them all day long if we let her.

I will admit the TV is on more than it probably should be, but I have found a little something to curb her Disney princess movie addiction: Pandora Disney Station.

We play it through our Blue Ray player so the album cover is visible on the TV screen and I think it makes her believe she is still watching a show.

She loves to sing along with all of the princess anthems and you can usually find some form of the appropriate princess doll in her arms as she enjoys her favorite form of entertainment.

The rest of our mornings are spent getting ready for the day, reading stories, play dates, tumbling classes, the occasional appointment, and of course, dancing.

We are still beyond obsessed with dancing around these parts.

We wear dresses and ballet shoes, we watch Angelina Ballerina, and we dance every second we can.

Some days it is exhausting, but most days it is beyond cute.

Stella had her 2 year check up last week and it went as could be expected for a two year old- a lot of screaming at first, but she slowly settled down enough to chat with the doctor a little bit.

The girl does not like to be messed with.  It is quite the chore to clip her fingernails, clean her ears, or anything else that she feels invades her space.  Thus, doctor appointments aren't her favorite activity.

At 2 years old Stella is weighing just under 28 pounds (70%) and is 34 inches tall (50%).  I was a little surprised she is still in the seventieth percentile for weight because it really seems like she is thinning out and losing all of her baby fat.  Makes me a little sad!

Her head is still big and the doctor was more than impressed with our little smarty pants.

Stella currently counts to 20, can say and recognize the entire alphabet, and talks non-stop.

She repeats anything and everything and some of our favorite phrases include:

"How's your day?"

"Trouble!"- this is new and she says it anytime something seems to be going wrong in her mind.

"Lay by you" or "Hold you"- in which you really means me.  She is definitely going through a cling-to-mom phase.  Mostly just when we are at home as she still goes to nursery or plays at other peoples houses just fine.  I don't know if it is a common thing for this age or just her?

"My _____"- you can add anything here: cup, toys, books, bed, etc.

"Put it right there"- she knows what she wants, when she wants it, and where she wants it.

The girl still LOVES to eat and will eat almost anything we put in front of her at every meal, especially when we do so in the form of a "picnic", which means she gets to sit on a dish towel in front of the tv to eat her meal.  The simple joys in life, right?

Breakfast: loves cereal with milk so she can drink the milk out of the bowl, toast, oatmeal, eggs, bananas, blueberries

Lunch: quesadilla (so cute when she says it!), PBJ, PB and honey, peas and carrots, chicken nuggets, TOMATOES! (loves them), cheese

Dinner:  anything we are eating- salmon, chicken, beef, spaghetti, broccoli, peppers, soup, black beans

The only two things I can think of that she doesn't like to eat are green beans and avocados.

And of course she loves juice, treats, and fruit snacks.  The RD in me dreamed it wouldn't happen, but she is still 2 years old.  I would feel worse if she wouldn't eat anything else, but I think we find a pretty good balance most days.

Thankfully nap time is still happening at our house.  Most afternoons both girls are even napping at the same time and in the same room.  Miracle!

Very rarely does the little miss fall asleep during playtime, but every once in a while it happens and it just melts my heart.  I think this picture was taken during a week long spurt of 5-6 am wake up calls.  In turn she was falling asleep at 10 am.  It was an interesting week.

Normally we head upstairs around 1pm for a story and some quite time in the big girl bed listening to primary songs and getting our back scratched.  She loves listening to and singing I love to See The Temple right now.  I like that she is at an age where nap time can be a little more flexible, especially since we now have 11am church.

She has been doing great sleeping in her big girl bed the past couple of weeks.  She occasionally will still get out once, but after we put her back in bed she stays there.  Most of the time she was/is getting down to retrieve books so we just let her keep one or two in the bed to begin with and that has seemed to help.

Lately, however; her new bedtime thing is taking her pajamas off.  We usually go up to check on her 30 minutes after we leave her for the night and find her pants off or her sleeper unzipped and pulled down to her ankles.  Silly girl!

I wasn't sure bedtime was ever going to be a good thing again, but I am proud of how well she is doing now.  I am not going to lie, most nights she is still waking up crying once or twice in the middle of the night but if we go in and lay by her for even five minutes she is usually back to sleep quickly.  Hopefully that subsides soon, but at least now she has a bed we get to utilize at two in the morning!

Our afternoons always consist of more dancing, chats on the phone with Nanas, and a little sister time.

Stella has recently started to pretend play a lot more.

We play Lion King together which means her name is Simba, my name is "Mala", and we crawl around and growl and chase each other.

She also names each of us a new princess name each day and we play in her "castle" (tent).

Her little imagination is just taking off and it is so amazing to watch what she comes up with!

Big sister Stella is just the best! (Do you love their hats?  Uncle Jace sent them from Bolivia.  Only problem is they are the same size and Stella's big, beautiful head will hardly fit into it!)  I am so proud of the way she has embraced her role as big sister and the love she has for Eliza.

Every morning and afternoon when she wakes up her first question is where is Eliza?

She loves to mimic our baby talk voices and tell little sister that she is "so cute!" or respond to her coos with "What? What? What?".  It is our favorite thing she does.

When Eliza spits up she makes sure we know it by exclaiming "Oh, sick!" and quickly wiping her face.  She even took Eliza spitting up right in her face and on her mouth like a champ.  Sad, but a little funny.

Overall she loves her baby sister and I really feel like I can count on one hand the times she has seemed upset with or resentful of Eliza's presence.

Every once in a while our days consist of something a little more out of the ordinary, like a visit to the aquarium or swimming at the RPAC on campus.

Stella has an amazing memory and once we mention an activity it better happen or the day will end in tears.

Recently this was the case with both our trip to "see the fishies" and swimming.  The aquarium visit happened right away, but swimming kept getting put off for another day and her little heart was just broken about it.

She was so excited to finally go swimming with her dad and friends!

Our days finally wrap up in the bath tub making soup and giving our princess dolls a shower.

She loves when Eliza takes a bath with her and especially loves their after bath time together getting lotioned up and putting their jammies on.

I must admit it is one of my favorite times of the day as well, and not just because bed time is nearing.

Both girls are usually just so happy and smiley after baths, and who can really resist a pajama clad baby with wet hair and lavender smelling cheeks?

Life with Stella is such a treat.  She makes everyone she comes in contact with smile because of her sweetness and personality.  She is certainly two years old and has opinions and emotions and everything that comes along with being a toddler, but I cherish everyday I get to spend being her mom.

Cute, smart, and sassy- it's all in a days work for this little girl!