The Past Months Developmentally

Her 18-month advancements were downright shocking to me - tackling 3-syllable words and 3-word sentences - I'm forcing myself to write this down so that I don't forget the wonderment of this time in our lives. I often think there is no way I can forget the amazing things she does or how old she was when she did them, but I do.

At 18 months
It seems like she started forming sentences overnight. As my neighbor reminds me (a father of two grown girls), she's been working on this stuff for a long time. But it's like she does it once and then forever. For instance, she said "applesauce" one day out of the blue, and that was it - she knew how to say it from then on. And not long after that, we were in the store and I sneezed and she said, Bless you...Mama. A sentence. And even more shocking to me is that she does these things unprompted. Another example, I usually bring something to her and will remind her to say thank you. But then one day I brought something to her and didn't ask, and as I walked away she said, Thank you...Mama. The best is when she thanks herself for doing something for her dolls. Thank you...Steya (how she pronounces "Stella"). And not too long ago I was mopping around her, and she shouted, Watch out, Stella!

Something I must remember about this stage is how she would yell these things out in her sleep as she struggled to learn and digest them. When she first started learning 3 syllables, she would scream out, Other side! Which meant the other boob. And then she started to yell out, Applesauce! She literally bolts up in her sleep and yells these things while fully asleep. It's just like when they're learning to crawl and walk, and they imitate it in their sleep - I've never seen such craziness! Little people are so fun and fascinating.

Now a couple of months later, she can say to me, Sock back on, Mama (as in, Put your sock on). Other cute phrases to mark this point include, Mama, sit down! Mama, hold you (as in, Pick me up). She has finally figured out the difference between "hi" and "high". Once upon a time if you had said, "Up high", Stella would wave "hi" to you. She has also figured out that only one playground in Austin is called Central Market (not all of them). We would pass playgrounds and she would say, Market?

For me, every accomplishment of hers is accompanied by pure joy, and then followed by immediate sadness because I'm losing the baby part of my baby. She is growing faster than I can cope. I've always loved how we could talk to each other without language, but now there are so many words. I, of course, love it but it's oh so bittersweet.

Things she likes most: her babies (LOVES them), kitties, chickens, pretend driving, playgrounds, gardening, playing in the water and with ice, cooking in her little kitchen for all of us, washing/cleaning anything, bathtime, playing in the backyard. Her babies are an entirely separate category. She loves to dress, feed, nurse and bathe them, sing to them and other things. And she loves people. So much. I love that she loves people.

Oh, I can't forget to mention (for myself) that she has also developed fears that she never had before. I think it's normal and common for this age, but it can be sad (and sometimes frustrating) when it comes out of the blue. She calls things that move (like leaves in the wind), "bees". If it's moving and it scares her, she'll say, Bee? Bee? Also, she now regularly completely loses it when we approach the check-out line at the market (started a few weeks ago). And now, she won't even get in the cart - scares the crap out of her. I am at a complete loss. There was no incident that prompted any of this - it just happened one day. Kind of like her talking happened. Overnight. Funny girl.

Final Christmas Post

And here is the last of it...

Christmas Eve morning - we are at the birthday party and forgetting about Santa for awhile. Xhulian (pronounced "Julian" - it's an Albanian spelling) plays happily at my sister's house.

Stella struggles with her baby (also at my sister's).

Back at our house Xheson (pronounced "Jason") cuddles with Stella). These boys are her uncles...because they are Erik's younger brothers (children of Erik's dad and his wife). They all just moved here from Italy...it's kind of a long story.

The Christmas Eve FROM SCRATCH gingerbread house-making tradition is begun.

Nobody wants to go to bed because Santa is coming.

And so we read, 'Twas the Night Before Christmas...", and before we knew it...

...Christmas morning was here.

Santa was so good to us.

Stella loved the picture that Xheson painted for Erik.

She gets a little stovetop espresso maker so she can be just like Daddy in the morning.

And this was from the Big Man himself, left under the tree unwrapped.

Time for stockings.

Let's go play with all of our new cool stuff.

As Stella would say (when she hasn't voluntarily plugged herself up), Aawshum (as in, Awesome).

Time to get dressed for Christmas Day guests and dinner!

The men wait for the meal...

Stella sets the table.

Christmas night has come.

And we greet Christmas night with full bellies...

...lots of mulled wine...

...and lots of love.

Merry Christmas, Baby.

X-mas Catch-up Continued

We had some nice warm days before Christmas and the big freezes (and snow...in Austin!).

Grandpa (my dad) joins us for caroling at the capital, and the lighting of the Texas capital building and Congress Ave.

We try to go every year.

Messin' around the house before Christmas.

Homemade hot chocolate can NEVER be wasted.

The tree is a total wonder this year.

Grandpa Ralph (my late mother's husband) comes for a visit and brings a rocking horse!

Boy does she love Grandpa.

Clothing optional Christmas fun.

We try out our new rule: "You can touch with one finger..." Too bad it only works when we're looking at her...

Playing in Stella's room.

Uncooperative typewriters...hate 'em.

Making Christmas cookie dough and fudge and dough and fudge and dough...

I so love it all. But I'm glad it's over.

Pre-Xmas Catch-up

I spent hours uploading pictures and writing captions only to have Blogger not save it everytime I got up to nurse... Here's what it saved, and out of frustration, I'll start another post for the rest.

Some pics from the days before Christmas...

We do an early Christmas with one of my sisters (and her husband and four kids). Cousin Angela is glad we are distracted with getting everyone to smile so that she can sneak her gift in...

The oldest of my sister's kids has a birthday on Christmas Eve. Pretty much no matter what, the family gets together on the morning of Christmas Eve to have cake and forget about X-mas chaos for awhile. You can see Stella peaking around the cake with her cousins.

And since we had Erik's family in town this year, we brought them along for the chaos!

Xheson thought it was Heaven.

And I think Grandpa even had fun...