A year ago today

A year ago today Stasa was just a little peanut crawling around the playground and today she's climbing up and down the big kid slides and running all over the place.

Toddlers, they're hilarious

If you can look past the tantrums and the selective hearing, this age is definitely the most fun and entertaining. Here are just a few of the things Stasa does that make us laugh.

• Sitting on the kitchen floor trying to "catch" the rays of light coming in from the window only to look at her empty hands confused
• Walking around in our shoes, wingtips or heels, every morning while we get ready for work
• Pouring bath water on her face and then acting all surprised each and every time she gets splashed
• Yelling "vweeeeeeee!" (yes, with a v-w) every time she's doing something she loves, like going down a slide, riding on her Little People car or being tossed in the air
• Running to her room with her blankets and bear when we ask "ready for night night?" and turning on her night music
• Dancing and spinning in circles when she's feeling particularly silly
• Walking like the Gestapo without bending her knees
• Fake snoring
• Waving her hand and declaring "MEEEE!" when she wants something we have - usually our drink or dinner

Deep Creek Lake

We spent the weekend at Lauren's parent's lake house at Deep Creek Lake and had a blast. They have a perfect set-up and a beautiful house that's right on the lake. We got there late Friday night thanks to funky GPS directions and windy West Virginia roads. We were up early Saturday morning to take advantage of the gorgeous day and went out on the boat for a bit. It was Stasa's first boat ride and first time swimming in the lake. I don't think she knew what to think of the actual boat ride at first, but she was clapping and excited when we stopped to swim. She all but threw herself overboard to get in the water with the ducks.


After our swim, we headed back to the house for lunch and naptime for the girls. Lauren and I spent the afternoon lounging in the cold lake water and then spent more time lounging on the docked boat. After the girls woke up, we drank many many homemade slushies, had dinner and then went to the creamery for some delicious and rich ice cream. Once the girls were in bed we played some board games. Lauren and I destroyed the guys in Pictionary, but Tom beat us all in this trivia game, Eat It, about candy, ice cream, chocolate and snack treat trivia.


Click here to view the pictures.

Today on the Stasa channel...

Catching up, again

The summer has flown by and most of our weekends have been busy with weddings, trips out of town or other obligations. We won't have another weekend of nothing until September, which sounds crazy, but is really just around the corner. 


This weekend and yesterday we battled the Big D with Stas and I think we finally have it under control after a couple of days with the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast). Thank God, because we were all getting tired of starting our day with a bath and bed sheet stripping. I feel like I've done more laundry int he past few days than I have all month. On the bright side, it did give me an excuse to wash her "bees" so they're all clean and fluffy and less gray. 


This weekend we're heading to Deep Creek Lake in Maryland with Dan, Lauren and Audrey. It'll be fun to relax in the middle of nowhere and let the girls run wild. And they have a boat so if the weather cooperates, that will be Stasa's first boat ride!


While I catch up on work and sleep, I'll leave you with these pictures from earlier this month.





"Peek-a-boo, daddy!"






Her favorite "bee"



Dress-up time












Some new shoes (they were $8 at Ross and came with a necklace, clip-on earrings and a tiara)

Trip to Connecticut

Lauren and I took the girls up to Connecticut to visit Julia and Caroline last weekend. While it was a long and tiring trip, Audrey and Stas did so well on the ride there and back (16 hours total) and all of the girls were well behaved all weekend. I have only downloaded my cell phone pictures so far and have quite a few playground pictures on my other camera and will upload those this weekend. 


For now I'll leave you with these somewhat blurry and dark pictures.


Friday morning at Lauren's house - Stas is ready to go:



After a 2 hour nap and another hour driving, the girls were ready for lunch:






We hit unbelievable traffic in Connecticut, so we stopped to stretch our legs and gas up:






We finally finally arrived at Julia's and the girls were happy to have a new place to explore.



Saturday morning we got up and played for a bit and then everyone took a 2 hour nap.






After our nap, we headed out to the pool for a quick dip and then to the playground to let the girls burn off some energy.









And then after dinner and a quick trip to a local ice cream shop, it was bath and bed time.

The beginning of the end of summer

I think Stasa may be sensitive to cinnamon because she had a slight skin reaction after scarfing down a bowl of apple cinnamon oatmeal. 






We spent the day relaxing and playing and trying to get back on schedule since we spent the day and night before at Pooja's wedding.






She still loves playing with her bears and babies and thinks it's fun to push them in the stroller. And laughs like a lunatic when she purposefully dumps them out of the stroller. 









And who knows what was going on here, but I'm pretty sure she started this because she wasn't getting her way, so Tom decided to join her. 
Two tantrumming monsters.









And just like that, she was done.



She and Tom have tea parties almost everyday. I love when she forces us to drink her tea. 


















Another favorite game of theirs is Torture the Cat. Because of Tom, Stasa now throws all balls at the cat and falls down in a gigglefit when she throws things down the stairs and the cat chases them. Well, now Tom taught her how to play attack with the cat. Poor baby alligator.









We ended the day (and almost every day now) with some dress up time in her lengha.