"Eat 'em up time!"

"Bananas, cherries,
grapefruit, lime,
kumquat, kiwi
Eat 'em up time!"

- From Fruits, by Sara Anderson. One of Stella's favorite bedtime books.

As Stella enters her last week before her first Birthday, it's constantly amazing the amount and variety of food she eats. Where just a couple months ago, we were impressed if she gummed some steamed or mashed food before ejecting it back onto her bib; now she powers through whole meals like a champ. Sarah and I both know that we won't always be able to count on having such an adventurous eater, but for the time being we are enjoying it.

What are some of her favorites? Apple sauce. Yogurt (though we have to give her non-dairy, since cow's milk still seems to give her gas). Oatmeal. Cheerios. Green beans. Pasta (especially with a touch of red sauce). And peas... lots and lots of peas... as evidenced by her morning diaper change.

(She's going to really appreciate that detail when she gets older.)

Let's watch her eat, shall we?

First off, here's Stella with her Num Num (or is it Mum Mum? Yum Yum? ...I can never get it straight). We originally gave these to her on the flight to and from Dallas to keep her busy. But, they've quickly become favorites. She woke up fussy one afternoon, so I gave her a couple to snack on. Be sure to pay attention to the end of this...


Did she just stick that whole thing in her mouth? Such a solemn little eater, no?

This video is actually from just a little over an hour ago. Stella learns the advantage of having top and bottom teeth...

Texas Trip

Last week, Stella, Tyler and I headed down to Texas to visit family and attend my stepbrother Brent's wedding in Dallas. It'd been awhile since Stella had been on a plane (she's so much more grown up than last time we visited), and with her getting older, bigger, more mobile and more opinionated, I wasn't entirely sure how the trip would go. But Stella proved to still be a good traveller, and we even lucked out with an extra seat for her to hang out in.


Another plane trip, with the benefit of some time in her carseat. It worked better when we flipped the seat around so she couldn't kick the back of the seat in front of her. (Sorry random passenger!)

We spent the first few days in Commerce with my dad and stepmom. It was nice to leave the cold, rainy weather in Seattle for a few beautiful fall days back home. We got to take Stella on plenty of walks; for as well as she travelled, we had a hard time getting her to sleep well while away--stroller rides helped, as you can see below....


Post-walk with Grandpa Bob

We also took her to the pond on campus to feed some ducks and geese. You can see in the picture below how I'm spending a lot of time these days--hunched over while Stella walks holding onto my hands.


Taking a stroll and feeding some ducks

Sadly, we forgot our camera and didn't get any photos from the wedding. It was beautiful, and we're so excited to welcome Brent's new wife, Liz, to the family. Stella is lucking out to have another sweet and loving aunt!

We also spent a few days with my mom and stepdad. Unfortunately, a few days of being in lots of new places and around lots of people meant that Stella was a little cranky and clingy, but we found a few ways to help her open up to people:


In the backyard with Grandpapa--she was fascinated by the tree


Eating Mum Mums with Uncle Tim--he was her new best friend after handing off her new favorite baby treat!


Hanging with the women of the household: Aunt Jeanne, me and Stella and Nana

Stella also got her first birthday celebration, complete with singing, cake and a new baby cell phone (hopefully that will make her less obsessed with the real thing.....)


Stella's first 1st birthday celebration

In one week, Stella turns one. I know it's a cliche to reflect on how quickly the time passes, but--wow. On Friday we'll get the new stats at her 12-month check up, then more celebrating begins!

11 Months

Where's Stella?


There she is!

Stella is 11 months old today. In a month she'll be one. Wow.


Stella with her first balloon. Unbelievably, she hasn't popped it yet!

Happy Sunday!

A Day in the Life of an 11 Month Old

As you can see, it's a pretty rough life being a baby:


Fresh, homemade food put in front of me three times a day, kicking back to eat at my leisure...

Stella's just a little over a month away from her first birthday. It's amazing to think of how much she's changed in that time. We're even starting to have more communication with her. When we say "water" she looks at her sippy cup; she can even make a baby sign to ask for water when she wants it. And she's learned the name of at least one of her many toys and stuffed animals:


Monkey!

After breakfast, we typically set her down in the living room while we clean up the aftermath of the meal, and Stella typically pulls out and flips through many of her books. This always makes me smile, but it's been hard to get a picture of it. Whenever she sees me with the camera, she comes crawling.


Morning book time!

And we're coming up to our first Halloween. Stella had her very first costume party today. We were thinking at first that she'd be a monkey (one of her first nicknames was "Tummy Monkey", hence the stuffed monkey seen above!), but then our friends who travelled around the world showed up with a panda head hat from China and it was clear what she would be this year.


Baby Panda!

Of course, the downside of basing her costume around a hat is that she's pretty intent on pulling it off as soon as it's on her head. (Same with socks and shoes.) So mostly she looks like a baby in black and white. Maybe a penguin. Maybe a skunk. Maybe just a lame parent without a good costume idea. Until we pull the hat out and put it on her head--briefly--again. Oh well!

Mom and Babe Friday Adventure

Adventure time!

I generally treasure my Fridays home with Stella, but today has been an especially good one. Stella woke up from her morning nap in really good spirits, smiling, laughing, playing with her toys and generally being a lot of fun to be around.


Playing with Monkey. Before that, she was playing peekaboo with her burp cloth.


Coming to investigate the camera

After a quick lunch, we headed downtown to meet a friend from our midwifery clinic at the Aquarium. Tyler and I have been meaning to take Stella there for months, and it was a lot of fun. She especially loved the shore birds, the seals and the sea otters.


In front of the "Window on Washington Waters" which was pretty cool

Besides this fun day, we've managed to capture a couple other good moments on video. We can still occasionally find something that makes Stella laugh hysterically, over and over again. This particular time, it had to do with my realization that my socks and her shirt were closely coordinated. Two days ago, it was fake sneezing. You never know, and you kind of have to take advantage of it, because it always stops being funny. (This also usually happens in the evening when Stella tends to get a little manic when she's getting ready for bedtime.....)


Hilarity!

She's also started giving "kisses"....


Kissing Daddy

Before this, Stella was trying to kiss Tyler's cheek/chin (which she does to me), but his beard kept confusing her....

Cruising with my Crew

It seems like--all the sudden--we have a cruiser:



It's amazing to think of how much Stella has grown in the past 10 months. She's a smiley, social, inquisitive, observant baby who loves animals and music. She's got an independent spirit and can be a little stubborn, but I certainly can't fault her for those qualities. Her little joyous baby spirit is infectious, and I'm still anxious to hear what's going on in that little head of hers.

I've been meaning to post for awhile. Somehow, life has felt really busy. I was sick, Stella got sick, I had my first trip away, I got a promotion at work (I'm now Vice President of Evaluation), our office moved to a new building where I have an office with a window and an amazing view (I just need to remember to take my camera to work) and we're navigating the schedule of a baby who needs to take two naps a day, at a certain time, in her crib, and eat food three times a day. It's not easy to just pack up and run errands, meet friends, or do things outside of the house. Suddenly, life feels like it's all about Stella's eating and sleeping again.

Unfortunately, we've misplaced the cord from our camera to download pictures, so the video will have to do for tonight! More (hopefully) soon....

"Git-ee"

As I type this, Stella is sleeping upstairs, Sarah is flying back home from a business trip in Minneapolis, and I've managed to keep Stella alive and happy for two days by myself. (Well, not counting our Nanny, Tirza's, help four hours each day.) Together, Stella and I even managed to run some errands together and go out to Alki to hang out on the beach. To some people that would be "no big deal," but to me it was no small accomplishment. Heck, five years ago, I would have considered keeping myself alive and happy for two days a feat. So, yay me!

I didn't think to take any pictures of us these last two days, but I'll post this one instead... just because it was so nice to have her fall asleep in my arms the other day. Which she rarely does any more. (Ignore my bed-head.)

Actually, everything went surprisingly smoothly. For the most part, it felt like any ordinary day. But, I think that Stella and I both missed Sarah when it came time for Stella's bedtime routine. If nothing else, I know that Stella missed Sarah's superior singing voice on "Little Stella."* But, seriously, while I felt good about how I managed these last two days, I think Sarah being gone reinforced two things: 1) How much I miss Sarah, and how lopsided I feel when she's gone. 2) I have nothing but the utmost respect for single parents who raise a child every day without the aid of a significant other. My hat is off.

While I will admit that I'm fishing for a "good job" and a pat on the back, just typing this reminds me of a conversation I had with several mothers on a comic book message board (you'd be surprised how many mom's post on comic message boards, and how rarely comics actually get discussed on some of them). Basically, the mom's in question were observing that their spouses frequently get praise for doing little things that the mom's did on a daily basis. For example, if the wife were to take the baby to the park, it would be met with a shrug. But, if the husband took the same baby to the same park, he'd have people commenting on "what an amazing dad he is!" Honestly, as a more-or-less stay-at-home dad, I can testify that this is true. So, it is worth mentioning that even though last night was my first night watching Stella without Sarah. Sarah's already watched Stella for three or four nights without me.

Sarah = Amazing mom!

Love them both!

That said, I thought I'd mention a situation that happened to me a couple weeks ago: Stella and I were at a Safeway, and since she is a quite capable sitter, I'd decided to try letting her sit in the shopping cart. This was a massive success with Stella, and just watching her beam as I pushed her around the store made my day. Then a middle-aged woman approached me...

"Oh, what a cute baby girl!" She said.
"Thanks!" I replied.
"Where's mommy?" She asked, looking around.
"Mommy's at work."
"Does mommy know she's sitting in there?" She asked, pointing at the shopping cart.
"No. I used some disinfectant wipes on it before I put her in though." I responded, a little confused.
"OK, I just worry about stuff like that." The woman said, wandering off.

As the woman disappeared down an aisle, I quickly because really angry. Thinking back over the conversation, I realized that the woman was basically implying that I'm the stupid Homer Simpson-esque father who didn't know better than to let his daughter ride in a shopping cart. And that, furthermore, she was basically saying that if Sarah knew what I was doing, I'd be in "big trouble." Even typing this now, I get angry thinking about it. So, if nothing else, the weird daddy double-standard cuts both ways. There a thin line between the Amazing Father™ and the Ignorant Father™. And, much like praising a small child on a successful trip to the bathroom, there's something a little patronizing in all those "good job, dad!" comments.

And, for the record, I still let Stella ride in the shopping cart.

Moving on to less grouchy things...

So, what have we been up to? Well, Sarah's brother and sister-in-law came to visit for a long weekend, a couple weeks ago. They'd both come to visit us about a month or two after Stella was born, but it was good that they got to spend more time with her.

Sarah, Stella, Tim and Jeanne at Kerry Park, where you can get the "Fraiser View": the Space Needle with the Seattle skyline behind it.

Also, last weekend, we drove down to Lakewood to see some of my family, including one of Stella's great-grandmas. Unfortunately, even though my Grandma and Aunt only live about an hour south of us, this was also only the third time they'd seen Stella, and the first time my cousin had met her.

The odd lighting in this photo is a result of the flash off my dad's camera (aka: the baby paparazzi). I actually sort of like how it turned out.

Luckily, with the Holiday Season approaching, it looks like we'll have a lot of opportunities for Stella to hang out with both sides of her family. Which is great, since it seems like something new is happening with Stella every day!

Speaking of which, what's happening with Stella these days? Well, for one, she's a crawling machine. And, has mastered the art of pulling herself up on stuff. In fact, she's so good that, one afternoon while unloading the dishwasher, I turned around for a second... only to turn back and find Stella standing on the open dishwasher door. She's ninja-quick like that!

Also, she's getting a third tooth in (maybe two, its hard to tell). This one is on the top of her mouth and seems to be bothering her a bit more than the lower two did. It also makes her bite a little more painful for us too!

Another sign that our little girl is "all grown up" is that she's graduated to her big girl car seat! Look at how proud she is!

Just look at that fancy cow print!

Also, she's fascinated by airplanes. As those of you who have been to our house know, we get a lot of air traffic overhead. And, recently, if Stella is outside, and a plane flies over, she cranes her head up and follows it as it flies by. So, airplanes are apparently interesting.

Finally, and most impressively, her unending stream of babble is starting to seem more and more like actual words. In fact, we are pretty certain that she knows that "Mama" is Sarah. And, while "Dada" still seems to be pretty much everything else, I'm hoping she figures that one out soon. Also, she knows how to say "kitty." Or, rather, "Git-ee." Whenever she sees one of the cats, she lets out an excited "git-ee!" And, even today while taking her for a walk around the neighborhood, she suddenly exclaimed "git-ee" and -sure enough- she was looking at a cat crouched in a nearby driveway. Craziness!

Now, if she can just get that "Dada" thing straightened out.

Git-ee!



* Also, we've added another verse to "Little Stella":

Little Stella, you're so keen,
You're the Queen of the baby scene!
Little Stella, we're awfully fond of you.