mommy-me time

dance dance

Stella loves to dance. I mean, obviously, since she learns from the best. Her parents even dance during commercials (um, when no one is around) So it's no wonder that my daughter dances when she hears anything that sounds remotely like music. She bounces her little butt, waves her hands, looks to us for approval.


However, dancing with Aunt Anna is still a little frightening, yes?

My Two Favorite Butts.

Stellutations

Yay, mommy's here. Nap's over!

Hi Mommy!

Ohh, you want a close-up of the wave?

Is this one better? I feel like I'm fake-smiling.

How about a really fast wave, and teeth showing?

From this angle? My hand is getting tired!

Ok, that's enough now, mom.

Please, please, pretty please put the camera away, mom.

Fine.Sheesh, being cute is hard work, sometimes!

Heat Wave

I'm learning this summer that I no longer like high temperatures as much as I used to. When it's above 80 outside, it just feels WAY too hot for me especially while running errands and going for long walks. I wish I could live somewhere that it was 70-75 degrees all year round. That would be perfection. On the flip side, I couldn't be happier that it's supposed to be pretty hot for our vacation this coming week. Being on the lake changes everything. And, actually, I HOPE it's hot the entire time.

Stella has two top teeth coming in, but she been pretty happy anyway. She's been pretty focused on walking really fast,

making cute faces,

and "walking the line" of dad's leg.

Reunited

My sister Anna just moved back from Arizona after living there for 10 months. Needless to say, it was a very exciting weekend. She hasn't seen Stella since she was a month old, and of course Stella loves her to death!

Blogs are becoming less frequent partly because we haven't had reliable internet, but mostly because I've been chasing a very mobile 8 month old around day in and day out. So I'll give a quick update on what's new in our household.

At 8 months, Stella:

- speed-crawl
- pull up to stand on practically anything (including my pant leg)
- can say mama, dada, baba, and gaga googoo
- can actually pet the cat instead of just pulling her fur
- follows me around everywhere (which makes it easy to keep an eye on her)
- delights in finding everything and anything she probably shouldn't have found
- can chew foods very well, most recent being Cheerios and different meats
- is extremely happy most of the time
- has two teeth and no signs of any others yet
- sings to herself while playing with toys
- can ALMOST clap
- can drink water from a sippy cup
- is not too interested in TV
- loves walks, going to the park and going down the slide and swinging
- loves her rubber ducky
- loves to wrestle through her diaper changes
- is growing out of her size 3 diapers
- can crawl up and down one stair
- likes to swim
- hates her baths
- thinks fish and birds are hilarious
- eats very enthusiastically, especially with yogurt
- and squeels when Daddy comes home

In other news, my sister is moving back to the area and I'm beyond excited. It's been nearly eight months since I've seen her. With my brother having moved back a few months ago, and we ourselves having recently moved from up north, family is pretty close together again.

Other than that we're enjoying our summer and having a hard time believing how quickly it's flying by.