Conquering Fears

There are many things I love and admire about Stella; her sense of humor through most everything, her kindness and patience towards others, her courageous little spirit.
When Stella was about a year old, we were playing at a park, when she got curious about the ‘tunnel’ slide. She spent quite a few minutes investigating and ultimately debating whether or not she wanted to try it out. As soon as she appeared to make up her mind to slide down, I put her on the slide to head down to Glenn. By then, Stella had been down many slides, so I didn’t think much about putting her on this one. It wasn’t too steep, and Glenn was waiting with open arms down at the bottom. The moment Stella started moving down the slide, she became terrified, and has since refused to even go near any closed slides.
Today, Stella and Glenn came to see me at work. It so happens there is a little park downstairs from my office, and whenever these two come for a visit, we are often eating lunch down on the grass, kicking a ball around, or chasing each other up and down the play structure. For the first time since that dreadful day down the tunnel slide, Stella (who is now over 2 ½) decided to give it a try. She loved it and spent a good while climbing up the stairs just to go down this slide. I have loved watching this beautiful little one grow from a cautious, but curious little babe, to a brave and adventurous (and sassy – that’s my girl) kid.

Bedtime and Songs

Last night, as I was laying down with Stella, we had just said our prayers and were singing a list of songs to which Stella kept adding more favorites. One of our favorite bedtime songs is 'I Am a Child of God'. So, this is how it went:

Stella: (singing) "I am a child of God and heee has sent me heeeere. Has given me an early home with parents kind of dear..."

Me: (interrupting) "Kind of dear, eh?"

Stella: "Yes, kind of dear."

**pause**

Stella: (grinning) "I loooove you, mom."

I love this kid.

Night Night, Tinkerbell.

For a few weeks now, Stella has been asking to wear her ‘flip-flops’. I have had to explain to her that she has outgrown her ‘flip-flops’ since last summer, so she has been begging me to get some. So, yesterday, Glenn took Stella shopping. I don’t know that Glenn has ever taken Stella shopping for anything other than birthday presents or fun stuff (though, ‘fun stuff’ would include shoes, for us girlies). I should also mention that Stella’s favorite color right now is purple. So, you can imagine what a great day Stella had, when she got to walk out of the store wearing these babies:

At nine o’clock last night, Stella wanted to wear one of her favorite things: Her Tinkerbell costume from Halloween. We informed Stella that it was late and time to get into her pajamas. She whined a bit, and showed a little attitude. Finally, I told her to look out the front window and that if it was light outside, she could wear the costume, but if it was dark, it meant it was time for jammies.
Me: “Well, is it light outside or dark outside?”
Stella: “It’s light out there!”
Me: “Are you sure?”
Stella: (whispering rather loudly at the window) “Come on, Mr. Sun, wake up! Come out!”
Me: “What do you see?”
Stella: (rather dejected) “It’s dark, Momma”.
Me: “Would you like to wear your Tinkerbell costume when you wake up in the morning?”
Stella: “Sweeeet!”

Rolling Green

Last night we decided to picnic at the park for dinner. We did the usual, flew on the swings, ran around like crazy people, dug for buried treasure in the sand, and observed various creepy crawlies. The highlight for Stella, however, was learning how to roll down a grassy hill. Glenn decided to show her how it was done. To digress for a moment, let me just admit that Stella has recently been using this kind of fake sounding laugh. This courtesy chuckle appears when one of us is practicing our comedy or slapstick routine for Stella. But, Glenn rolling down a grassy hill in a public park beckoned forth a true belly laugh from our little one. Clearly it was the funniest thing she had seen in a while, because each and every roll down the hill elicited these beautiful, musical laughs from Little Miss. The only thing that topped it, was when Glenn took Stella with him rolling down the hill.

Here are a few other pics from our park date:

Our Little Fairy Princess

My little girlie-girl could spend all day playing dress up. Her latest acquisition: A pair of colorful, sparkly wings with a matching wand. Our fairy loves to go around changing people into princes and princesses with just a wave of her wand. Of course coordinating accessories and a Tinkerbell nightgown are a must (and we musn't forget the shades).

Chez Stelle

Stella made her first Rice Krispies Treats the other day. Thought I'd share the experience:

Tuppence A Bag

Feeding the birds is always fun, mostly because it can be amusing to watch seagulls or pidgeons take off with an ENTIRE slice of bread in their beak. This, we know, is just how the toddlers feed the birds.

Super Bowl Sunday

Every year, we get together with a few friends and watch the big game, as well as the commercials. I must admit I was disappointed with the latter this year. The kiddos had fun, though.

Chinese New Year

This year we decided to head to Chinatown in the city and check out the Chinese New Year's Parade. Stella, as always, loved the BART ride. We met up with Tio Scotty and, after some creative manuevering by Glenn, were able to score a view just 15 feet from the parade:

This was before we could see any of the parade, and were playing with the camera:

Afterwards, we couldn't pass Blondie's without grabbing a slice - Stella is a fan.

Daddy and Stella

Momma and Stella

Tio and Stella

Gotta do it again next year!

Valentine's Day

This year Glenn and I had so much fun convincing Stella that she was our Valentine. Glenn thought it would be fun to fill Stella's room with balloons while she was sleeping.

She got to go to 'The Bear Store' and stuff her own Hello Kitty, complete with a fairy dress and sparkley shoes.

This is Stella's favorite friend right now. You can run, Kitty, but you can't hide