Saturday, November 23, 2013

Wake up!

Stella is 2 and 2 months. Bad night.. And then woken at 6.30am this fine Sunday.

 

Stella: "Get up!"

Geoff: "Daddy and Mommy's eyes are still closed"

Stella: "Get uuuuupppp"

Geoff: "Daddy's going to cry if he has to get up"

Stella: "Get up you big strong man!"

Geoff got up. 


Thursday, January 10, 2013

Totally cool at Sirocco

Meeting up with the Kenyans - Grace & Joshua... Afternoon drinks with Jackson, mommy & daddy!





Monday, September 10, 2012

1 YEAR!!!!

Wowee! What a year!!

Stella still has no teeth!!

Her words now include:
  1. Bye-Bye
  2. Boy
  3. Man
  4. Do (Dog - she says this after imitating their barks)
  5. Ba (Bird - when she hears them - particularly Hadidas)
  6. Boo (book)
  7. Boo! (she covers her eyes and then says "Boo!" to scare us)
  8. Da or Dadada for Geoff
  9. Ma or Mamama for myself 
  10. Boob - yes, for boobs! 
  11. Buboo - Bubbles
Geoff taught Stella to turn around and go down stairs backwards. She is so good at it that I don't worry at all about stairs! (She can even get off our bed safely on her own!)


She is also good at climbing onto chairs & our ottoman. This is always well supervised, but she has really great balance & manages to safely get on and off on her own.

In this last week, Stella has started engaging in a new way - for example, she will fetch her blowing bubbles & bring them to me, say 'Buboo' and look at me expectantly, expecting me to blow some for her.

Stella is on the brink of walking - she can stand for a few seconds on her own & she now walks holding onto us with just one hand for support. She can actually go quite fast like this - particularly when she's headed across the sand towards the sea!

Sleep is erratic -- Stella was moving her afternoon sleep later and later until it was almost at 5pm which meant an 8pm or later bed time, so we've phased into a long midday nap (2+ hours) which is so much nicer as we can do something before 11am and we generally go out and do something in the afternoon: either visit Geoff at the shop.. or go to the beach or for a walk somewhere. We've had really bad nights (waking up every half hour) and really great nights (she set a new record of 9 consecutive hours from 7pm to 4am!!), but one can unfortunately never be sure what the night is going to bring, or what 'formula' to use to make a good night!! -- Beach time - sun and lots of crawling, seems to do the trick, but who knows!

Stella really loves books - she loves turning the pages & staring for ages at the colourful pictures. We've collected quite a few for her - favorites being 'Bob the Fish' and her 'Farm Words' book. She has a lovely collection of books. We take them with us in the car & she entertains herself in her car seat while I drive.

We started giving Stella honey and peanut butter this month.. she won't eat anything for breakfast other than banana and Rice Crispies! (she gets very excited when she sees her Rice Crispies!) For lunch it's usually some peanut butter toast / grated apple / scrambled egg / small blocks of cheese / fruit / (or any combination of them). For dinner I have been cooking lamb sausage / scrambled egg / & she has yoghurt with fresh fruit puree for 'dessert'. I offer fruit and veg at every meal, but she won't eat veg at all... as a result I am constantly scouring the internet for ideas on how to get veggies into her!

There are lots of firsts every week! It is so hard to remember everything.



Stella's first soft serve ice cream @ Fish Hoek Beach

Fun at the shop with Dad

Platboom, Cape Point

Cape Point

Out for lunch in Town one Saturday

Muizenberg

Around the garden @home

Stella's 1st Birthday Cake!!
Delicious platter we ordered

Celebration Champers!

Our gorgeous girl

Lovely mood..

Stella loves strawberries!

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY TO OUR STELLA!

Aunty Col wishes Stella a happy birthday







Thursday, August 9, 2012

11 Months

Lots of photos this month as we've been busy!!

Stella is learning & growing so fast...and crawling all over the place at some speed! She loves being outdoors but she'd rather be crawling than be carried. Stella is now fully in the 'cruising' phase & is walking with anything she can find for support.

Stella now says 'Bye Bye' whilst waving.. her first word(s)!!!! :)

No teeth have popped out yet, but we found out that my brother, sister and I all didn't get teeth before we were a year old either! That doesn't mean that we haven't had some sleep disruption because of the little teeth, with other teething symptoms like not wanting to eat her food, a raised temperature, extreme clingy and tearfulness...

Sleep is a little better - 1 to 2 wakings a night, except for a few nights that she's kept us up all night by waking every 20 to 40 mins.

Although she loves fiddling with the food in our plates, Stella doesn't have a lot of things she will reliably eat:
  • For breakfast she usually has mashed banana with double cream Greek yoghurt, and some Banana Porridge (by Hipp Organic).At the end of this month I started giving her cow's milk in her porridge instead of formula (the last 2 months) - I pumped milk for her breakfast before that.
  • She eats a little bit of bread / baby rice cakes / fruit / yoghurt  for lunch
  • Supper is pretty much porridge again... some yoghurt / fruit as she won't eat anything else.
She has eaten or at least tasted chicken, lamb, beef, some veg and other things off our plates. She ate peas one afternoon at her Aunty T's house that Gracie fed her, but hasn't ingested a pea since then! She just spits them out!


Here is our photo & video journal of the last month:


A lovely walk at Scarborough
Fun with leaves on the stoep

Cape Point :)

Exploring a rose in the garden

Fun with Mommy's hair!

First Sushi (actually just playing with the chopsticks!)

A beautiful day down at Boulders


Dudu

:)

Geoff & Stella down at the vlei, between the lillies

Stella not too sure about the giant daisy bush!

Imhoff Vlei

Imhoff Vlei


It's been very cold = lots of fires -
Stella likes to help Daddy blow on the fire!


Aided walking... lots of that going on!



More fun on the stoep... crawling... Stella's rock star sign

Walks down to the vlei
..Stella always rides on Daddy's shoulders

Kommetjie Beach
 We went to Mossel Bay on holiday for a week which was such a treat! We stayed with Nanny and Bumpa. Stella's cousins were also there for the weekend so they had a lot of fun together!

Stella & Bumpa
Gorgeous poppet!

Gracie & Stella

with Daddy's peak cap on

Exploring the graveyard

Antique shopping

Nanny, Jamie & Stella

Gracie following Stella on all 4's

3 little monkeys (+1 ted) in Nanny & Bumpa's bed!

The girl cousins

3 out of 4 Grand Kids: Nanny and Bumpa need a bigger bed!

 

Stella exploring the beaches

Tea out in Mossel Bay

Giant swell moving through