Lilypie First Birthday tickers

Monday, January 9, 2012

Stella's First Word!!! Mama!

It is official people...Stella said her first word today and it was mama. As many of you know, I am a telecommuter so I work out of my home office. During my work day, we have a nanny come in and take care of Stella so that I can focus on work but I get to sneak down and give her a little snuggle on breaks and at lunch. Well, today I went downstairs to get some coffee and Stella was laying on her tummy and gave me a HUGE smile when she saw me, which I totally love every time she does that. Anyway, she started making this grunting noise she does when she's excited and I just said, "Can you say mama?" Sure enough, she said, "mama". I looked at our nanny and asked if she heard it and she confirmed that she did. Thinking it was definitely a fluke, I repeated it. "Stella, can you say mama?" Stella repeated, "mama". Her nanny and I both started jumping up and down and let our excited squeals of our own. So much so that it scared Stella and she started to cry. After I was done with work, I kept trying to get her to say it again and she would say it really softly or sometimes not stop with 2x and just keep saying, "mamamamamama". She said it in front of Matt tonight, although he said he didn't really hear it. At 8 months, I was not expecting her to be able to repeat any words but I guess she is choosing to advance in her vocabulary since she still is refusing to crawl :) So...we are going to continue to work on mama and work on dada too. That way she'll be able to call for dada in the middle of the night when she wants attention LOL.

Shopping with Auntie Diane

Saturday was a fun day for Stella! First, she got to go to her very first birthday party. Her friend, Finley, turns 1 on 1/11 (what an awesome birthday) and his party was on Saturday. She had only gotten about an hour nap before the party so we were a little worried that she would be a grumpy girl but she was so good and happy the entire time. She let our friends hold her and stayed jolly throughout it all. She loved watching Finn eat his cake and was introduced to balloons, which she thinks are really cool. Finn was such a stud the whole time and he was so well behaved through the whole party. I kept telling Stella that she should take notes for her party. In addition, I'm also going to hire Finn's mom as my party planner because that party was so amazing and so put together! I am still amazed at all of the time that must have gone into planning that party! SOOOOO FUN! After the party, we went shopping with Auntie Diane. I was thinking she would fall asleep in the car and take, at least, a little nap but nope...no 2nd nap for Stella. At this point, I was really worried that she would be so grumpy the rest of the day since she is used to at least 2x 1.5-2 hour naps per day. We went to DSW, Ulta, Carters and then off to the downtown mall. Stella got to ride in her stroller facing out, like a big girl, rather than in her infant seat clicked into the stroller and boy oh boy...she LOVED it! My daughter, who normally mean mugs strangers, was smiling and cooing at everyone she saw. By the time we got to Nordstrom, she was in rare form (in a good way). She was smiling and squealing all over the store and mall. It was actually a bit embarrassing because she was so loud with her little, joyful squeal. People from all over were coming up and telling me how adorable she was. I, of course, think she is pretty darn cute but it never really gets old hearing it from other people. Finally, 5 hours later, we got ready to get back in the car to go home and finally she let out a fussy cry as I was putting her in her car seat. I gotta say...that was WAY better than I expected and that might have been the happiest I have ever seen her. Let's hope its because we were with Auntie Diane and not because she loves to shop so much or else we could be in trouble if we have a little shopaholic! What a fun weekend! We couldn't have asked for anything better!

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Catch Up Time

I had not realized it had been so long since I had last posted.  6 weeks! That is horrible!  So much has happened in the past 6 weeks.  I will try and update you without completely overwhelming you with every detail.

First, my last post was about my grumpy girl.  Well...that phase has come and gone.  She, of course, has her moments but she is a genuinely happy girl these days.  It is just so amazing to watch her develop into more of a little girl and less of a baby.  She is 8 months old now and developing perfectly! 

Her first Christmas was great! We have one spoiled little girl with more toys and clothes than she knows what to do with!  We unpacked the car and wondered where we were going to put everything!  You know the song, "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth"?  Well...that really came true for Miss Stella.  On Christmas morning, Auntie Erin felt a top tooth cutting through and sure enough, now we have 2 top teeth sprouting through those little gums.  Needless to say, she is a drooling mess!

Our New Year's was also good.  We opted to stay home with Stella rather than go out with friends and get a sitter.  I know I'm going to have to leave her overnight at some point but I just wasn't ready yet.  Our friend Theresa came over and we played Kinect sports.  It was really low key but fun and I'm proud to say that we were able to stay awake till after midnight!

Here are some pictures from Stella's 6 month pics with the photographer.  We think they are pretty cute!