Today on the Stasa channel...

A new trick: jumping
(though it is very similar to the way she dances, lol)



Gigglefits



Diva-in-training




Playing with her piggybank



And quiet time with a book

Bookworm

Lately Stasa's become very interested in the bookshelves in her room. We don't let her in there very often, so when we do, she beelines for the books and loves to climb up in the glider and "read" to herself.





And sometimes she insists on reading to her "bees", too.

A pictures only kind of post

Oh the tantrums...

It's most definitely a hard life when you're a toddler. Especially when you're left in a room full of toys and books all by yourself.



Toddlers often feel the need to remind their parents how hard their life is.



And just in case the parents still didn't understand the pains of toddlerhood, the toddler pulls out their last trick...the floor face-plant.



The toddler finally calms down upon realizing that their parent is already in the room with them.



But their world falls apart again when the parent moves to a new spot in the room.



Poor toddler. What a hard hard life.

Cell phone pic montage

A little ponytail on a hot day:

Sitting like a big girl in an adult chair:

Hanging out at IKEA:

On the walk back from the pool on Sunday:

Walking in yet another one of our shoes:

And lounging in her new chair with her alligator friend and her "dutdies":

Happy 1/2 birthday, Stasa! (aka 18 months old)

Today Stasa is 18 months old. 


We went to her 18 month appointment yesterday; wanna know her stats?
28 lbs (95th! percentile, yes, you read that right NINETY-FIFTH, as in only 5% of little girls her age are bigger than her)
33" tall (75th percentile)
18.2" head (50th percentile)


I really think she's going to be at least 5'8" or 5'9" as an adult. They say you can double their height at 2 years old and get a good idea of their adult height. 




Part of my conversation with Dr. Hunter:
Dr. Hunter: Does she scribble?
Me: Oh, boy does she scribble.
DH: Is she drinking from a cup?
Me: She's been drinking from a sippy since 9 months and she can take a few sips from a regular cup.
DH: Can she point to her body parts?
Me: She can point to her nose, head, belly and feet. We're still working on the other parts.
DH: Does she have at least 7 words? 
Me: Yep.
DH: Which ones?
Me: Mommy, daddy, duckie, doggie, yes...wait, does it count as a word if she says something that's not a real word, but does have meaning?
DH: Like what?
Me: Like she says "bah-boo" and totally means ball or says "bee" for her bears.
DH: No, those don't really count.
Me: Well, she definitely has at least 7 words.
DH: Okay...can she climb into a chair?
Me: Psh, she's part monkey. She can climb up on most anything.
::laughs::
DH: Is she eating okay?
Me: Well, she's picky, but not like picky-picky, just toddler picky. She eats a lot.
DH: What's a lot?
Me: Well, most days she eats the lunch we pack and then also eats 1/2 of someone else's lunch.
DH: She really doesn't need to be eating more than 1 lunch.
Me: So, when do you think we can say "what's on your plate is it for dinner"?
DH: She's big enough you can say that now. 


Poor Stasa, she needs to put down the fork. She also got 3 shots, but I've already forgotten which ones (bad bad mom) and she won't need any more vaccinations until she's 4. I was told over and over again how healthy looking she was. And Dr. Hunter literally laughed when she saw Stasa's little potbelly. 


Stas was not at all happy with getting shots, but cheered right up when her favorite nurse let her choose a toy. She chose a little plastic Spongebob and a Highlights magazine. 



So all in all, it was a good appointment. We don't go back until Stas is 2 years old. 


Oh and yesterday evening, after I told Tom about the vocabulary discussion, we counted up her "real" words: mommy, daddy, duckie, doggie, yes, i did and then we forgot the rest. But then this morning we both looked at each other and were like "SHOE"! If you count her Stasa-language words that have meaning, she has a much larger vocabulary. I guess we'll have to work on enunciating more and practicing with her. 

Dinner with the Erxlebens

I really wanted to go to IKEA on Saturday to get a new lounge chair for the playroom since we returned Topher's Pottery Barn Kids chair back to Emily. I searched all over the place and finally decided to get her a baby Poang since she loves the adult ones that we have.

Since we're about equi-distant from a couple of IKEAs, I decided to see if Lauren and Audrey wanted to meet us at the one in College Park, which they did. 

Of course, I can't go to IKEA and just get one thing, well, I can, but only if Tom is with me, hurrying me out of the store. After we found the chair, we decided to browse the children's toy section and wouldn't you know Stasa picked out a stuffed animal for herself, so I let her keep it, even though I wished it was a slightly less creepy stuffed animal. I also got a hammer toy and a giant stuffed alligator in a nightshirt that was eating it's baby.

Oh and her creepy animal? Yeah, a stuffed rat, who I now call Rat Baby or Rattie. She grabbed the one in grey.

And she lovingly held Rat Baby and patted its back the whole time we were in IKEA. While we were shopping, Dan called Lauren to let us know that Tom was going to drive up so we could all go out to dinner together. Our mens aren't the best of planners. Lauren and Dan live an hour away from us. Tom could have just driven with me to begin with, but no, he and Dan decided the minute Lauren and I left our houses that getting together was a fabulous idea, which it was. Just not the most efficient way to meet up. 

We went out to Carrabas for dinner and the girls were really well behaved the whole time even though it was getting pretty late. And Tom and I decided to hang out for a bit afterwards, which turned into a pretty late night for everyone. I wish we had planned ahead and brought overnight bags with us - driving home at 11:00 PM when you're an hour away is looooooong. But the girls had a blast and were definitely punch drunk. They ran around for hours, climbing up on the couch and then chasing the dog and then running into the office where the dads were. Lauren and I could not stop laughing at our two lunatics. And it made me really excited for our weekend at the lake in August.