Stella

 

This little character turned 2.  TWO!  Hard to believe that my baby is two and my family is growing up.  She had such a fun birthday. . . we started the day with birthday pancakes and presents.  She knew exactly what was happening and loved every minute of being the star of the day!

We spent the day reading books, doing puzzles, going on walks, and pretty much whatever Stella wanted to do.  That afternoon we went to Centerville for a birthday shopping trip with granny.  Stella thought it was pretty amazing to be able to roam the toy section and pick something out.  Afterwards, we met grandpa, Tierra, Nate and Ryan for dinner.

 Some of my favorite things about Stella at age 2:

She is such a happy girl.  Always smiling.  People stop me all the time while we run errands and ask if she's always this happy.  I can truthfully answer YES!   Her happiness is such a blessing in our family.

 

She has the funniest smile in the world when the camera comes out.  Her eyes squint shut and her mouth does the craziest thing.  It makes me laugh every single time.

  

  

She is busy, busy, BUSY!  She never stops.  She dumps things out just for the sake of making a mess.  She climbs on the bar, the table, the bathroom counter, even her dresser and causes mass destruction!  Some days I honestly cannot keep up with her.  But she loves to sit on my lap and read, or sit and do puzzles, or color in her coloring books and that gives me a few minutes of sanity before the destruction begins again.  Oh.  And she always tells me sorry as she's making messes.  It makes it pretty impossible to be mad at her.

 

She thinks her pocket is down the front of her shirt.  She tries to carry things around this way.  Golf balls, apples, toys, even snacks.  Sometimes she tells me to put her things in my pocket too.

She talks all the time and says a million words but not necessarily super clear.  She is constantly saying, "me, me, me!" whenever her siblings are doing something and she doesn't want to be left out.  She refuses to be a baby and won't eat with baby spoons or bowls or use sippy cups, She calls Jackson "Son," Lola "Yoya," and Miles "Baba."  Her blanket is her "da."  She loves her bottle.  One of her favorite things to say is, "NO, Baba!" whenever Miles is doing something to annoy her.  She loves running errands with me during the day and will say, "no, home" if she thinks we're headed that way.  She is a bit of a monster to take to a restaurant because she's not super skilled at sitting still for that long, but she absolutely loves when I announce to her that we are having lunch with dad.  Her favorite part of the day is when Lola comes home from kindergarten: she runs down the sidewalk and bear hugs her sister.  Melts my heart every single time.  She takes great naps and usually sleeps for 3 hours. . . giving her mama time to get the house put back in order from her shenanigans!

No matter how busy this little 2 year old keeps me, I can't help but want to freeze her.  I love my mornings while the older kids are at school and I get one on one time with my youngest.  I love her hugs and kisses.  I love cuddling with her while we read books.  I find myself trying to memorize everything about these moments:  her smell, her fuzzy hair against my cheek, her chubby little legs, her little voice asking questions or telling me about the world, her perfect little fingers with their dimples. It's just about killing this mama that she's growing up faster than I can handle.

Happy, happy birthday to my little Stelly Mo!