stella at 18 months

Stella and Ruby (photo by Joey)

Oh my god Stella is busy. 

She is everywhere, getting into everything, and in a second she is gone. Walking has turned into running, and she loves to just take off. Yesterday we took Stella to a mall (gah!) to pick up something for my Mom and she was pulling clothes off shelves, wending her way through shop mannequin legs, and then she was gone. After looking frantically for her for all of 30 seconds, a lovely older woman said, is this one yours? Stella walked towards me grinning and baring her teeth. Yep, she's mine. 

Stella's vocabulary exploded about two weeks ago. One day Jordan came home and all the sudden she was saying 10 new words. Some words in Stella's repertoire: car, bus, cheese, pitz (pizza), water, bee, up, no, yes, dog, hi, bye, Pappap (my Dad), ball (this is a big one, any round thing in the world is BALL), woof, please, book, boo, cracker, choochoo train...

Oh, and Stella's favorite word: boobies. This is a word Stella says many different ways. In the middle of the night it's "boooobiieees." After falling down it's a short, demanding exclamation "boobies!" If she's been sitting too long in the car it's a unending novel of "boobies. boobies. boobies. boobies. boobies. boobies. boobies." In public, it's just plain, nonchalant "boobies," usually accompanied by a hand reaching down my shirt.

Stella's hair is finally long enough for pigtails. In pigtails Stella looks like a big kid. I love putting adorable (hand-sewn felt animals, and colorful pom pom) barrettes in her hair, though they are fast to disappear. 

A few things Stella is loving right now: Kaikai (my parents' dog...the first thing she said this morning was "Kaikai!" and when she woke up from a nap it was "kaikai!"), Marzano pizza, saying "hi!" to everyone, putting her head on the ground (illustration above), "Taitai" (her stuffed Tiger has been a favorite for awhile now), looking at and requesting to look at "pics" on the old iPhone, baked trout, Fairyland, being chased by her Dad, putting shoes on by her self, crawling through her yellow tunnel, music class, dancing (this song always gets her booty moving), tickles, helping out in the garden, stickers, and strawberries.