Tuesday, June 29, 2010

We're always at the pool

Or at least we should always be at the pool. We're trying to get Stasa interested in the big kid pool and it's partially working. She can stand in the 2 feet section and loves climbing up the ladder and then having us "throw" her in the water, but she HATES going farther than that. I got her some water wings and a small inner tube, but she had a huge meltdown when I put them on her, so we'll have to try again later. 


For now, she still loves playing in the baby pool and especially loves when other kids are there, too.






She's always playing the beggar at the pool since the baby pool is right next to the snack bar, so I've been bringing snacks with us to keep her from bothering the other moms. 


Here she mid-bite:



And finally a pic of both of us, well at least one of us is looking at the camera:

Monday, June 28, 2010

Summer just keeps getting better

You know you've had a full day when you fall asleep IN your dinner.





And it's not summer unless you're walking around, mostly naked with watermelon dripping down your belly.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Mark and Dianna's Wedding, belated, I know

I was cleaning our office last night and came across the photo booth pictures Tom and I took at Mark and Dianna's wedding last month and remembered the online photo gallery of ALL of the snapshots that were taken that night. We each got 2 hard copies; 1 to keep and 1 to tape in a memory book for Mark and Dianna. 


Here are a few of the happy couple, me and Tom, Aunt Peggy and Uncle Pat and a bunch of our crazy friends.
Mark and Dianna Wells:



In their memory book, I wrote "It's not always easy, but it's always worth it."



Aunt Peggy and Uncle Pat:



And our crazy friends:
James and his dad:



Jason and Stacy, who will tie the knot this August:



Ben and Miranda, who were married the year after us:



Annnnnnnnd Kool and the Gang:



To view all of the photo booth pictures, go to this site, click on Dianna and Mark's Wedding and enter Gallery Code 052910.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Cell phone pic montage

I find myself taking quite a few cell phone pictures of Stasa, mostly because we're out at the store or just hanging out at someone else's house and I don't have my camera with me. Luckily my phone takes a pretty decent picture. Here are a few shots I've taken in the past month or so of our little monkey.

Grabbing my sunglasses in the car (look in the mirror):

Lounging on our bed with a good summer book:

Stuffing her face:

Entertaining me while I work:

Just being the cutie-pie that she is:

And celebrating Father's Day with breakfast at IHOP:

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Father's Day




We slept in a little this past Sunday and then got dressed and ready for a breakfast at IHOP to celebrate Tom. IHOP is probably like heaven to Stasa; they have all of her favorite foods: eggs, pancakes, waffles, chocolate milk, regular milk, hash browns and more. She spent most of her time feeding herself individual strands of hash brown, though she did mix it up every now and then with a bite of scrambled egg. 


After breakfast we headed over to the pool for a quick dip before nap time, but we ended up staying a bit too long and were witnesses to a stage 5 meltdown. So back home we went for a nice long nap and quiet time for me and Tom. 


Once Stas woke up from her much needed nap, we headed out to for a fancy dinner at McDonald's and then a bit of shopping at the Container Store, which Stasa also loved. She was rocking out in the cart and having a head-banging good time while we browsed kitchen organizers. 


We wrapped up the day with a little sidewalk chalk coloring in the cul-de-sac and then went in for a bath and bed time after Stasa skinned her knee...again. 








HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, TOM! 

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Bathing, playing and pigging

So far we've had an action-packed summer. Stasa and I have spent many an afternoon soaking up the sun at the pool and this weekend Tom and I took her into the big kid pool and she LOVED it! Plus she can stand and walk in the 2 feet section and even climb out using the ladder. She especially loves when we count to 3 and then dip her in the water. I love our little water baby.


And speaking of water, this kid can't get enough of it and squeals when it's bath time, too. She stands at the edge of the tub, stretching to get into the warm water and the minute her butt hits the tub, she scrambles to toss in her toys and spends the majority of the time splashing and thrashing like a wild child.








On Thursday, I spontaneously decided to stop at the playground on the way home from work since I had packed flip flops for myself and it was a gorgeous day. Stasa ran straight to the swings, but then was ready to get out and run around after just a few pushes. She figured out how to climb up the structure to get to the slide and even sat and pushed herself down the slide, but she hasn't quite grasped the "take your turn" approach to playground play. As soon as she reached the bottom of the slide, she clamored back up the slide to go again. Unfortunately there were a few other kids waiting not-so-patiently for their turn, so Stasa learned a hard lesson that day: SHARE. She also managed to scare a little girl who was about 3 by simply running up to her with her shark teeth exposed in a humongous grin. Apparently this little girl is never around other kids and gets frightened easily. Kind of strange.






And it's not quite summer without crunching into a slice of watermelon, is it? Stasa LOVES watermelon, as do Tom and I, and the way she eats it cracks us up. She DEVOURS eat piece just like her daddy.





I LOVE SUMMER!

Friday, June 18, 2010

Stasa, 17 months old

Stasa's almost a year and a half already and her personality becomes more defined each day and we find ourselves laughing all the time at some new thing she does.


We play in the playroom while Tom prepares dinner each night and when he calls up "dinner's ready!" Stasa runs over to the gate and walks down the stairs with assistance and then bee-lines for her highchair. She's getting better about eating what's served and always tries something before refusing to eat it. We can usually trick her into eating things by dipping them in ketchup. She ate grilled tuna for the first time this week, but only after I dipped it in Catalina dressing, which was disgusting. But at least she ate half a tuna steak. I've also had to stop having a drink with dinner because if she sees my cup, she'll refuse to eat anything until she can drink all of my milk or juice. So after she's eaten a good amount, I've been bringing out a little bit of milk in a big girl cup (no lid!) for her. She drinks most of it without spilling and puts the cup down on her tray in between sips and goes "ahhhh!" each time. I don't know where she picks up these little things, but it's so funny when she does it.


Stasa's such a happy kid when she wakes up each morning and usually wakes up talking to her bears that sleep with her. Once we come in, she gets up and helps us hang her blankets over the rails, then she grabs her 2 bears and is ready to get changed for the day. Those 2 bears seem to go everywhere with her nowadays; 1 is a bear Dan and Jenny brought back from Harrod's and the other is the first bear we built at Build-a-Bear. 


And don't you know those bears come back into her room when it's time for bed. We tell her to "say night night" and she grabs those bears and RUNS to her room. And the bears have to come up on the changing table when she gets into her pajamas, too. As soon as we put Stasa in her crib, she crawls around and pulls down all of her blankets and then curls up with her bears. We've been putting her to bed a little early, anytime between 7:30 and 8:00 PM and most nights she spends a good 15-20 minutes talking to her bears before falling asleep. 


She's recently become obsessed with our hairbrushes and combs and always grabs one when she comes in our room each morning. Then she walks around trying to comb her hair, but only manages to brush a few hairs into her face. And if I sit down she'll "brush" my hair, too. It's amazing how much she picks up from our daily routine. She'll play in the bathroom every morning while I do my hair and makeup, so now I know she's paying attention to everything. 


I'm thinking of buying a training potty seat soon since she knows when she poops and will tell us when we ask. I'm sure it's probably way too early, but I figure it can't hurt. I'll just put it in the bathroom and will bring her in whenever we go in there, too. I should probably start researching best practices with potty training, too, so I can be prepared. 

Thursday, June 17, 2010

The scrunchie queen

Lesli and I both bought scrunchies as a gag gift for the girls when we went to Chicago. I ended up coming home with like 5 of them so I gave all of them to Stasa for playtime and dress-ups. Of course she has no clue what to do with them other than to simply throw them around, so I helped her out a bit.


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She usually takes everything off of her head or out of her hair, but left these in and would go over to the mirror, see them in her hair, pet them and then giggle. I finally took them out and then she ran over to the mirror with all of her necklaces. "Ooooo," she says, every time she puts one on.


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And here's a picture of our little furbaby, to prove that she's not forgotten.
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Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Cry baby walker

We try to take a walk most days after work or after dinner. Now when I say "let's go bye bye" to Stasa, she grabs her shoes and bee-lines for her stroller. But God forbid we stop walking. She gets so mad at us and turns on the waterworks. She has such a hard life. Seriously.


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Painted tootsies!
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And so it begins...
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And just like that it's over and it's back to regularly scheduled playing.
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Oh, and the other week I scraped and repainted our mailbox pole only to come home the next day to this:
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Thanks, birds.