Gooks

Stella loves to read "gooks." Her favorites these days include:

Good Night, Beach
The Monster at the End of this Book
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
Snuggle Puppy

The other night as I was making dinner, I noticed that it was oddly quiet in Stella's room. I peeked around the corner with the camera just as she started to narrate the pages of one of her books. I love it! In this video, she is reading Good Night, Beach.

Summer Days Drifting Away....

Clearly, now that school is in full-swing, my time to blog is limited. Regardless, we have still been having a lot of fun and taking advantage of each beautiful day. It won't be long before it is too cool to play outside or visit the beach.

Recently, Grandma Tessie & Papaw Keith came to visit. We spent a LOT of time on the beach - during the day playing, and at night listening to live music at the tiki bar. A fun time was had by all!

Reading "The Monster at the End of this Book."

She really does LOVE to be buried in the sand!

First piece of corn on the cob!

Stella's 21-month-old Stats:

Favorites: Playing outside with chalk, playing outside in "Yellya's car," watching elmo, reading books, trying on Mommy's shoes, eating goldfish, napping, her paci, her "ki-ki."

Time to hopscotch!

"I love chalk."

"See you later, Mommy!!"

"Uh-oh! I drove in the ditch!"

This is what watching Elmo looks like....

"Let's go for a run, Mom!"


What a sweet face.

Words: She can pretty much repeat anything that you say TO her, although sometimes it doesn't sound correct. She tries! But some of her newest words/phrases are : gook (book), dinner, nilk (milk), wah-wah (water), nana (banana), apple, crackie (cracker), fishies, bed, baff (bath), poop, pee, potty, outside, inside, car, airplane, ohfeen (ocean), pool, fip-fop (flip-flops), baby, shirt, elmo, dado (vacuum), chicken, brokki (broccoli), berwies (berries), sorry, and many more. Right now, she struggles a bit with the "ar" sound, but she is definitely getting better. She refers to herself as "Yellya," although sometimes I do hear her put an "s" sound at the beginning of her name. She's also starting to put words together into simple sentences. Many times it is, "I want....." Still, the sweetest sound she could possibly say is, "I love you."

Other milestones: Stella can now open the pantry door, her bedroom closet, and close the other doors in the house. I think we are nearing the next phase of baby-proofing! She also LOVES to dance and asks for specific songs to be played. Her favorite songs are the ones that are personalized with her name. I'm amazed every time she sings along! She knows certain parts of certain songs and joins in. In addition to her "Yellya songs," she loves to listen to Dr. Dog with Daddy. Obviously, he LOVES that.

Daddy Daycare Fridays are back in the weekly routine, and I know Stella loves her days with Alan as much as he loves them with her. They are always doing something fun, whether it is a trip to the beach or to Home Depot!

As our summer days drift away, we are looking forward to everything that comes with the fall season. Our calendar is filling up quickly with plans of Halloween parties and trips to the pumpkin patch!

"My Time-Out!"

Most of Stella's speaking these days is possessive. What I mean by this, is that she likes to point out things that belong to other people and label them. For example, "Daddy's shirt," "Mommy's shoes," "baby's bed," etc. In addition to labeling others' things, she likes to make sure everyone knows what is HERS. "Mine" is a very common word these days, but I never thought she could be so possessive as to claim her time-outs!

It was just a skinned knee....

Last weekend we went to a cookout to celebrate George's birthday. While there, Stella was running around like a mad-woman and climbing on everything. She got into a fight with a miniature adirondack chair...the chair won...
She only cried for a few seconds, and then resumed playing. It wasn't until a few minutes later that I realized she had blood running down her leg! Her FIRST BLEEDING BOOBOO! As any mom would do, I ran and got my camera before anyone wiped away the blood. Is documentation more important than tending to my child's wounds? No. Not my proudest moment as a mother, but in my defense, she wasn't crying and didn't seem to mind at all!

Beach Babies

One of the best parts of parenthood in Wilmington is being able to raise our baby on the beach. She loves to play in the sand and swim in the ocean. This weekend we spent both Friday & Saturday night playing at the beach and listening to music from the pier at the Ocean Grill & Tiki Bar. Friday we joined the Adams family to celebrate George's 2nd birthday, and Saturday we went with our neighbors.

During a conversation with my neighbor, she asked me if we enjoyed living in Wilmington. I paused and looked around before responding. I was sitting on the beach at dusk drinking a margarita. The sky was beautiful. The waves were crashing. My little girl was having the time of her life, covered in sand from head to toe. My husband was sitting across from me, beer in hand. We were listening to great live music among fantastic company. My answer? "Who wouldn't enjoy this?"

So much fun!!

"I enjoy long walks on the beach...."

Taking a drink of water from her "shower."



Bye, bye sand!!

Blogging Backtrack

Clearly, it has been a while since I've blogged. This is neither because I haven't wanted to, nor because I haven't had time. My excuse for being soooo behind in documenting our summer is that our Mac crashed. I know. Insert sad face. We lost EVERYTHING on our computer and it was going to cost at least $2000 to recover all of our files. Needless to say, it makes me sick to think of all of the pictures and videos that are long gone. Fortunately, we had most of our photos backed up on shutterfly, and all of our "favorite" videos have been posted to facebook or this blog. Soooo, that is why I haven't blogged. But now I'm back, so here I go. I'm going to start with the most recent updates. BTW - every time I THOUGHT about blogging, I would consider the title I would give each post, so I have to use them even though I'm just going to make this one giant update.


BRAIDS, BOWS, & BOO-BOOS

The title of this post is intended to show that although my child is quite girlie (asks for a bow in her hair upon waking in the morning), she is also a little dare-devil who has no fear and ends up with quite a few boo-boos. This little lady trips and falls constantly (Oops?! Could she have inherited this "grace" from me?) and has the skinned knees and boo-boos to prove it. I'm also ashamed to admit (but will for the sake of documentation) that she still bites her fingernails and has, on occasion, been caught biting her TOENAILS! I KNOW!!!!! GROSS!!!!! It doesn't matter how many times I tell her it is ka-ka, she grins and continues to do it. She definitely knows what drives me nuts. I think we're going to be breaking out the socks a little early this fall...

On a much less revolting note, I'm excited to report that Stella now has enough hair for BRAIDS!! Want to know what is even MORE exciting? She actually sat still long enough for me to do them!


True story - I sent both of my parents a picture of Stella's braids. They BOTH responded with the exact same text: "Good job. No bumps." Growing up, I was obsessive about my braids, ponytails, etc being perfect - not having bumps. I would make my mom re-do my hair countless times until it passed my inspection. Crossing my fingers that Stella did NOT inherit that trait.

O-H...I-O

We made a quick trip to Ohio to celebrate the Baptism of Kohen and the birthday of Keagan. Because we probably won't see the Rouse family until Christmas, we had to get in lots of snuggles, kisses, and hugs. Stella LOVES her cousins and talks about them daily, so it breaks my heart that they don't get to play together more often. While we were there, we did have a play-date with my best girlfriends' kiddos, too.

Stella, Sophie, & Sawyer

Stella playing at Stillwater during our photo shoot

Keagan & Stella playing "Ashes Ashes"


Obsessed with babies, Stella was eager to hold "Kohey."

"I LOVE YOU."

Seriously the sweetest words I have ever heard come from a child's mouth. For the longest time, Stella would just blow kisses to show she was saying "I love you." Now she actually says it, and I CAN'T get enough!!

SUMMER NIGHTS BEAT SUMMER DAYS

Since Alan has been working a LOT this summer, we have been taking our trips to the beach in the evenings. This has turned out to be our favorite activity because (a) it's not too crowded, (b) it's not too hot, and (c) we have so much fun together. Stella still loves collecting seashells and she still loves swimming, too. One particular night we were just going to the beach for a walk. We were NOT going to let Stella get all sandy and gross because she had already had her bath and was ready for bed. Needless to say, that wasn't happening. She had a different agenda. How dare we take her to the "ohfeen" and NOT let her play?!?! Sooo...we were definitely those people who let their kid run around half-naked. It doesn't matter, she was having the time of her life and so were we. An nice old lady even noticed our fun and offered to take a family photo!

POOR JACK PROBABLY NEEDS SOME JACK.

We LOVE with the Barnes Family asks us to keep Jack because Stella is absolutely OBSESSED with him. Not quite sure why. He's not very nice to her, and she has two dogs that are stealing her toys all of the time, but nonetheless, she gets stoked whenever Jack comes to stay. The problem is, Jack is not a fan of Stella. He has never growled, bitten, or done anything mean to her, but it is clear that he could do without her "affection."

"Awww...I love you."

"Ny-night in Jack's bed."

Apparently Jack looked cold...

EVERLEE IS TWO!

Stella's good friend Everlee turned two on July 2nd and celebrated with a mermaid-themed birthday party! She has a pool in her backyard, so it was so much fun and a beautiful day! We love the Millers and are so happy to have them as our friends!

All the kiddos are excited to celebrate Everlee turning TWO!


Madelyn Grace takes a swim, but isn't too fond....


The birthday girl takes a swim!

The dads were responsible during swim-time...


The birthday girl admires her yummy sandcastle cake!

George devours Daniel's cake...

Stella was a fan of the cake, also!

BALD HEAD ISLAND

For the past two summers, Alan has worked on Bald Head Island at an adventure-rental-type of company. They rent out golf carts, kayaks, sailboats, etc. Alan does surf lessons or kayak tours, and gets to spend his days enjoying the beauty that is BHI. He always comes home and talks about how gorgeous it is and how we need to go there for a day. So, FINALLY we decided to go. We both had the day off, the weather was supposed to be perfect, so we made plans to make it happen.

Bald Head Island is an island off of the coast of North Carolina. The only way to get there is by boat (or ferry), and there are no cars on the island. This is the island where Kate Gosselin has taken her brood for the past two summers (Alan saw her there this weekend, but that's another story). Anyway, we knew that it was going to be a PROCESS to get there for the day, but we also knew it would be worth it. The night before we were to go, we packed a cooler of drinks and snacks, and a bag of clothes, suits, sunblock, and towels. We wanted to be able to hit the road early in the morning so we could take advantage of the entire day. This was what the schedule looked like:


8:00 a.m. - Depart the Reids' home
8:30 a.m. - Drop off the Jeep at the dealership to get the stinkin' window fixed.
8:45 a.m. - Depart the dealership and drive to Southport to catch the BHI ferry.
9:45 a.m. - Arrive at ferry to learn we JUST missed the 9:30 boat (stinkin' Jeep).
9:45-10:30 - Wait for the next ferry.....and take photos:

10:30 - Load onto the ferry and head to BHI...and take photos:


11:00 - Arrive at BHI and get a golf cart to use for the day..and take photos:

11:30 - 1:00 - Play on the beach...and take photos:


1:00 - 2:00 - Check out some beach shops, eat some ice cream...and take photos:

Ignore me...her face is priceless....

2:00 - 3:00 - Explore the island on the golf cart.
3:00 - 3:30 - Wait for the ferry to take us back to Southport...and take a snooze:
3:30 - 4:00 - Ferry ride back to Southport...and take photos:

Bye, bye, Bald Head!

4:00 - 5:00 - Drive back to Wilmington, pick up Jeep, and go home!!

We definitely spent AS MUCH, if not MORE time en route to BHI than we actually got to spend ON the island, but it was SO much fun. I couldn't believe how beautiful it was and Stella had such a good time riding on the golf cart and playing on the beach. I'm so glad that we took the time to go for the day because we made great memories, and now I know where I want to buy a retirement home!

"I EAT APPLES!"

I'm not quite sure why I hadn't given Stella an apple yet, but I wish I hadn't waited so long. She LOVES them. She'll bite right into one, or eat it sliced. She doesn't mind the skin, either! A day or so after she had her first apple, Alan was eating one. She asked him, "What's that?" He responded, "An apple." She replied, clear as day, "Oh. I eat apples." It was sooo funny! I love that she's starting to form sentences and string words together. It's too cute.

She even knows how to eat it so that she can get really big bites!

"This is YUMMY!"

A CREATIVE GENIUS?!?

So, a few weeks ago (obviously), my friend Nicole gave Stella a pair of bright teal converse sneakers! Nicole found them at a consignment sale and I was so jealous of them because they are super cute. She promised me that once her daughter (Everlee) had out-grown them, Stella could borrow them! I was so excited when she passed them along. They really are coveted by all of our friends who have little girls, so we're just going to keep passing them along! Well, that day Stella also decided to express herself through her clothing and this is what she wore for the majority of the day:

In addition to expressing herself creatively through her clothing, Stella has also started to really get into coloring and playing with play-dough. It still seems, however, that I tend to have more fun than she. Still, we can pretend she is an artistic genius.

Lastly, we have "Stella the Musical Genius." The kid has some rhythm. Her swaying and dancing to music is typically right on beat, which makes both of her parents quite proud! The cell phone has been her favorite toy for quite some time now. She calls it "Mommy cell" and "Daddy cell." Alan and I like to play the "phone joke" on her when she is carrying around our phones and call her. It makes her so happy to think someone is actually calling her, but normally she just stops and dances to the music. Case in point: