Mom had to go the doctor so Stella's halmonee (grandma) watched her for a few hours. She did great (finally!). Normally, she would cry, take pause while she chomped on a huge lollypop that is my mother's bribe-treat, cry some more, and then daze out to TV awaiting my/our return essentially ignoring my mother's numerous attempts to play, talk, take her outside, etc.. This time she did not cry when we left, waved bye to us from the terrace and finally allowed halmonee to take her to the park. Hopefully this is a sign of what's to come.
Stella's rationalization abilities have exponentially increased over the past few weeks. I'm shocked as to how quickly she will stop resisting me on various things once she hears my rationale. In fact she is more receptive to hearing me explain why something is so vs. me just distracting her and ultimately forcing her to do what I want. She understands so much more than she did a few months ago and her memory is kicking in big time. It floors me because I feel that we're having a mature conversation on things (really- she is only 2). I definitely feel we've reached another level in our relationship. There is also more compromise between us ---but with less tears I think and more maturity. Weird.
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A couple of days before "d-day", Scott and I both talked to Stella about leaving for a few hours and how she would have to be a big girl and not cry and show halmonee where her park was and play. She spoke of it until the day of. When she saw halmonee that morning, she repeated how mommy would go bye-bye and she would be a big girl and not cry.
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She still proudly speaks of the saying what a big girl she was...and she is. She still doesn't like that we leave but she knows that we will come back. After spending a few hours in the city and even having the chance to have a sit down lunch with my husband and even browse a store, I returned to find Stella napping. She awoke a few minutes later and gave me the widest smile and said "Mommy always comes back". That was awesome.
A couple of things to show you:
we arrived in the 2nd inning, and i was open to the fact that we may not stay more than an inning or two. but to my delight, stella was very good. we stayed for the whole game. she sat next to me sharing cracker jacks and a hot dog. i had 3 beers and she had some ice cream --- which she now equates to baseball. if you say "baseball", she'll say "ice cream!" 
we had so much fun. i really look forward to continuing her sports education via trips to the ballpark.
