Quickly Approaching the Two's

Today is Stella's 22nd month of life. Thought I'd take the opportunity to reflect a bit sans video or pix. The greatest thing happening at this moment/stage of Stella's life is that she's embarking on the frontier of rationalization.

It's happening so fast that it's making my head spin.

Just the other day, I responded to her question of "Where go daddy?" by explaining that he took a plane to a faraway place called Seattle and will be back soon. Later that day and the days following she says "Where go daddy" and then proceeds to answer her own question by making hand gestures of a plane flying with accompanying noise affects and says plane. It's ridiculous. Since Scott's been back, I've replaced plane with "choo choo". She now equates every train she sees with her dad.

When she's reluctant to get a diaper change or whatever it is that I want her to do because she wants to do something else, I tell her she can do what she wants after. Most of the time, she waits and doesn't fuss as I change her diaper and when finished, she reminds me of whatever it was she wanted to do in the first place. This I like.

Two women, one is a director of a daycare near us, the other works at our gym's daycare and also happens to be a child psychiatrist have spoken to me about Stella. They have both observed Stella's quickness to pick things up. They both see that she understands everything that is going on, listens to adult conversations while she feigns play, and fully grasps cause and effect. As happy as that makes me as her mom, this scares me!

I'm not ready to be 'spied' on by a two year old. Can't I have some conversations without worrying about wording and how it will impact my eavesdropping child? Do I have to have a moral of a story all the time?!?! This is a difficult phase for mom...clearly.

Along with her ability to pick up on things, have come the balance of individuality, decision-making POWER, and some (ok a lot) of frustration. Stella has found, as most toddlers this age, that flinging herself on the floor can be quite impactful. She has also learned that banging her head against the floor will help her convert her fake cry to a real cry as she attempts to earn some sympathy points. We are on the floor a lot during these power struggles. Thankfully, I don't have OCD so it doesn't bother me as much that she's lying on the street and I can win some battles.

As pleased as I am about her development, I am bracing myself. As much of a relief it is for me not to have to guess at what she wants, needs, etc., it is equally if not more challenging to try and reason with someone who is just learning how to do it. Stella is a little cave woman. She gets it, she's just primitive. I just have to figure out how to balance the 'what she knows' with 'how much she understands' and guide her accordingly. Oh yeah, and that's another thing, the guiding is a bit difficult. I'm new at this. I just got comfortable with making decisions for both of us. Now I have to negotiate. Weird. I am now picking my battles with a under 2 year old.

I'm sure both sets of Stella's grandparents are tickled pink. Karma baby.

Happy Birthday Luca Van!!!

Click here for his life story and more pictures of the Palaitis' Family of Four!

Ring Around the Rosy

A couple of weeks ago, I taught Stella and Luis "Ring Around the Rosy". It actually took two tries before they got the hang of it and wanted to do it over and over and over and did I mention over again? Soon thereafter, they got Oscar in on it. It's a nice distraction for them and break for us.

And without further adieu, here is Luis, Oscar and Stella's on-camera debut of "Ring Around the Rosy".

Scott Grooves

Scott begins a trio dance-fest with Stella and Luis. All of them have pretty good rhythm I would say. Who has the most fun??? Hard to say.

This is taken from Robert and Christine's video camera. Watch how the trio grooves!

Stella's Hair

Stella's hair has grown so much.

Like her father, she grows tired of having the same hairstyle all the time so we try to change it up (else she pull out whatever is in her hair and walk around with perpetual bangs). We shift from au natural (french for messy), pigtails, ponytails, barrettes and sometimes to a version of little princess Leia pigtails (as shown in the picture). We're on that now though I'm sure it'll change in the next few days.

As much as Stella has displayed her 'tom-boyish tendencies' (through her love of cars, trains, and transportation in general) , she has balanced that demanding to pick out her own shoes, wardrobe and hairstyle.

One thing's for sure. Her dad and I are in trouble.

Baby Shower

Karen is one of the moms from our cool playdate group that is due with baby #2 in two weeks. To celebrate the impending arrival of Deville's lil' sis or bro, we threw a special playdate baby shower. This is one cool group. We had snacks, cupcakes, wine & sangria, gifts, balloons and even glow sticks!

Even the invited although unexpected hubbies showed up (and I think voluntarily). It was a great time. Kids had fun, adults have fun and it went a little something like this...