" I want my mustache!"

 

For the past 2 days, out of nowhere, Stella has been demanding we draw a mustache on her. We have no idea where she got this from, but we obliged.

 

 

 

Sooo..

This happened. Stella NEVER sleeps in our bed.  We did the "cry it out method" and so she has always been used to having her own space.  She is sick today, so she fell asleep in 2 minutes.  45 min later, she wanted to be back in her bed, but it was so sweet seeing her snuggled in our king sized bed.

Monday...

It's Monday morning and Stella woke up with a fever, our broken heater cost $324 to fix and I should be more depressed and angry than I am.  I have work to do today and I was counting on getting it done while Stella was at school.  I was going to go to my prenatal yoga class tonight, but will have to stay home because I don't want to chance my parents watching her and getting sick.  All of my day's plans have been turned upside down.  I should be annoyed, but something truly awesome happened this morning that I can't stop thinking about.  I was on Skype with my boss and co-worker, so Stella was left to play in her room by herself.  I heard some noise in the hallway, but didn't know what was going on. I looked and saw Stella standing on her stool, turning on the bathroom light.  2 minutes later i hear, "Mommy, I pooped!".  I didn't believe it at first because we usually have a series of false alarms before "it" actually drops.  I run to the bathroom to find Stella has stripped off her footie pajamas and Groover underwear and is sitting on her miniature potty with a proud look on her face.  "I pooped Mommy! It's gross!" She has pooped in the potty before, but never fully on her own!  It was a very proud moment! It's weird because as I get older, the small things seem to keep me from losing my mind when the big things go wrong.

Funny girl.

Stella has been really into pretend play lately.  She has her dolls talking to each other and they all go on great adventures.  Today she told me that she wanted to have a "talent show" and wanted to "dress-up".  I saw her in the hallway on the way to her room strip off her pajamas until she was down to her Dora undies.  She came back with a red tutu on and nothing else.  She stood on the fireplace and did some dance moves, then lined a bunch of her stuffed animals up along the back wall.  She loves stuffed animals.  I don't remember loving stuffed animals as much as she does!  Whenever we take her somewhere special, we tell her she can pick something out at the end of the day.  She always pick a stuffed animal.  I seriously stop at least 10 times a day, look at her and realize how lucky and blessed i am to have her.  She is funny, kind, smart, sweet and loving and I honestly can't imagine my life without her.

                 Stella dancing with this dog that she has had for over a year and just noticed today!

"Cheeeeese!"

Lately, I have been describing Stella as hilarious and crazy.  Here are a few phrases that have come out of her mouth in the last few weeks.

"Can I have more Ken Burns, please?"-- asking for cantaloupe
"Jesus Christ!'-- I realized she was getting that from me
"Hey, what's the big idea?!"
" I caaaan't beweeve it!"
"Come on Ereybody!"
"Come on Ereybody, let's climb the bean stump!"

I need to start writing these down when she says them.

"Zoo, zoo, zoo..."

My child is a nut!

Wordless Wednesday

2012 Recap and some goals

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  Here is a little re-cap of how 2012 went down for our clan!

 

JANUARY- We rang in the New Year with a huge party at our new house, made resolutions and snowboarded as much as we could before the snow was all gone!

 

FEBRUARY- We celebrated V-Day with this little lady during the day and at night, Morgan took me to an amazing dinner at Beso in Hollywood and to see Lauren Hill in concert.

 

MARCH- We took our first family vacation to NYC! Stella was amazing and loved the city more than we thought she would.  She is a NY gal.

 

APRIL- We celebrated Easter at our house with both sides of the family and this little miss started daycare.  It took 4 weeks for her to stop screaming on and off all day, but she loves it now!

 

MAY- Stella started mommy and me swim classes again and turned 2!  We had a huge Mickey Mouse themed party, but Stella was a bit under the weather, so not a ton of pictures were taken.

 

JUNE- "Auntie Lo & Uncle Frank" tied the knot!

 

July- We celebrated the 4th at my parent's house with tons of family, friends and fireworks!

 

AUGUST- Morgan and I went to SF to the Outside Lands music festival.  The week we got back, I found out I was pregnant with baby Sandler #2

 

SEPTEMBER- THIS HAPPENED!

 

OCTOBER- Stella had her first dentist appointment and dressed up as SUPER STELLA for "Hameen" :)

 

  

NOVEMBER- We had a low key Thanksgiving at my parent's house and that weekend took Stella to the Zoo for the first time.

DECEMBER- We had such a nice holiday season.  Stella was really into Christmas and couldn't wait to meet Santa.  When she did, she hugged him, told him what she wanted for Christmas all while stroking his beard.  It was pretty priceless.  In December, we also found out that we are having another girl!  We had a gender reveal party to announce the news to our family.  We also revealed her name: Eleanor Grace (my grandmother's name).  It was a really nice day with family and friends. 

During December we baked, sang Christmas songs, watched Christmas movies and read Christmas books.  The week after Christmas, we took Stella to Disneyland to see Mickey.  I have never seen her so happy in my life!

It has been a great year, but I am excited to start a new one.  Eleanor will be here in April, Stella starts pre-school in June and I am just so excited for this next chapter in our lives.

Here are a few of my goals for this coming year:

1. Get our house organized and ready for Eleanor's arrival.
2. Have Stella fully potty-trained (on our way to this goal already!)
3. Sign Stella up for ballet, gymnastics and swim. (not all at the same time)
4. Be calm
5. Be patient with Morgan, Stella and Eleanor
6. Get in shape.
7. Cook more
8. Eat better
9. Take better care of myself
10. Finish The Slater Sister's full length album
11. Read more
12. Listen more
13. Be a better friend, mother, wife, sister and daughter

I am sure I will add more as I think of them, but I think this is a good start.  

Back to School.

Today was Stella's first day back to daycare since the holiday break.  I am sitting here wondering if she is just pissing and crapping her pants all day because no one is being as attentive to her as I am here at home. I left 8 pairs of underwear, 3 pairs of pant and extra shoes and socks.  I hope she is having a good day.  She was excited to be back at school, but I worry that she will get too involved in what activity she is doing and forget to use the toilet.  I pick her up at 3:30, so  I will have all of my answers then!

About poop.

Stella pooped in the toilet for the first time today! She actually went twice! I never thought I would be so excited about poop, but this is my life right now.  Morgan had to clean the toilet out because it made me gag.  I don't know why poop sitting in a toilet makes me gag, but cleaning it off of her butt from a diaper doesn't.  I still think potty training is the worse and it still gives me constant anxiety, but Stella pooping in the toilet lifted a weight off of my shoulders.

Potty training.

I think if I wasn't pregnant and emotional, I would be handling this potty training thing a lot better.  It's really one of the  most annoying things ever.  I don't know if I am doing things right and I am constantly receiving unsolicited advice from pretty much everyone.  Pull-ups or undies? Toilet in the living room or in the bathroom? Pants on, pants off?  Should I put her in pull ups when we leave the house, or should I just fucking wing it? 

On Tuesday (New Year's Day) I had an emotional breakdown.  I have had these before, but this one lasted all day and into the night.  Everything made me angry, then cry, which eventually led to to a full fledged panic attack.  I am an anxious and obsessive person by nature. When I am not pregnant, I am on anti anxiety medication.  I don't do pregnancy well because of these factors.  I have never actually experience an anxiety attack before.  It was weird.  I laid down on the couch after putting Stella down and couldn't get comfortable. My body felt jumpy and my breathing started to get out of sync.  I turned to Morgan and told him I didn't feel right.  I tried to calm down, but the more I tried, the worse it got.  I all of the sudden felt an overwhelming urge to throw up (which hasn't happened since my first trimester). I ran to the bathroom and vomited 5 times in a row.  It was massive and unexpected. Since then I have felt a bit better, but still off. 

I just want Stella to pee and poop in the toilet.  I want my anxiety to go away and I want to feel normal, whatever that may be.