Merry Christmas

Stella's main pressie from us was this play house which we set up in the lounge covered in a sheet for opening early on Christmas morning. Some of Nana's family came for brunch and Stella was given yet more presents, she's a very lucky girl. While assembling (clicking together, no tools required) the play house on Christmas Eve, I managed to push one of the windows out and damage the hole that it clicked into. This was a constant source of interest throughout the day with cries of 'fix it fix it' to us and herself. Mark did fix it so today she has been more interested running in and out and peeking out through the windows. The last shot is of her with her new hammer and peg set, you can also see the Lawn Mower that came from the aunties, we've had a few goes out on the grass with that too.

Treats from the States

Poppa and Grandma sent over a lovely parcel of goodies for Stella including a pretty Snow White decoration, Minnie Mouse purse, some clothes and a Hello Kitty Christmas card with stickers. Here is Stella testing out the merchandise...

Early Christmas

Last weekend Stella started to learn about Christmas presents. She started to say 'open it open it' to us about the pressies under the tree. Her early pressies included a fairy dress, she's standing on the laundry hamper admiring her reflection. Saturday was very busy with Aunty Kath's birthday celebration in the morning. Here are Mark and Stella (unfortunately Mark had to wear my sunhat to be an example to Stella to wear hers!) in Nana's garden watching Peanut the dog place catch from a safe distance. In the afternoon we headed to Mark's family's Christmas party. Stella spent ages playing with the blocks that have been in the family for years. When we got home we set up her nativity scene which came from Granny and Grandpa. She loves Baby Jesus but got a bit confused about the others, calling Mary Snow White and one of the kings Daddy! She has a wee play with the figures each day and I'm sure will be quite confused when they are put away.

Toot Toot

Three posts in one day... what has come over me! These ones are too cute not to share. Stella has a love/hate relationship with many things (Santa, tinsel, grapes... the list goes on), one of which is her tutu. She has not been at all keen to wear it for ages yet today picked it out of the toy boxed and brought it to me to help her put it on. She usually calls it her tutu, but this afternoon it became a 'toot toot', we have been talking about trains lately which may have brought this on. Anyway, she had a lovely time playing in the balmy evening breeze and around the back of the house on the new steps that Grandpa built for us last weekend. It has been a bit of a perilous ledge from Stella's point of view for some time now, but this has been rectified and we can now let her wander the yard without too much worry. She loves to talk about the steps, run around to them, climb up and down, say 'sit deah' to herself then come back down. 'Gahpaa' always gets a mention in the conversation, we think they are kindred spirits as are both very interested in understanding how things work.

p.s. on our latest visit to Starship for a kidney check up - the latest ultrasound showed no more kidney issues so she has been discharged, hooray! - she weighed 14.85kgs and was 90cm, off the Plunket chart for girls her age.

Christmas Preparations

Stella had a great time fossicking through our decorations and loves the Christmas tree. It is a little unusual looking in that there are very few decorations on the bottom half of the tree - Stella height. She took a liking to a wind up Santa that came from my grandparents, his beard needs to be glued on so he is high up on display and 'having a rest' - this seems to keep Stella at bay. She is a little confused about what a reindeer is, calling it 'peanut' (the name of the Aunties dog - well the reindeer decoration she was looking at was the same colour as Peanut the dog), other times the reindeer are 'moo moos'. She dressed herself up all on her own with the tinsel and enjoyed it for a time then all of a sudden pulled at it saying 'no no off off', it comes off then goes back on again, maybe its a bit of a game?

Rain Rain Go Away

It was a bit of a stormy one last Sunday. We've recently introduced Stella to playdoh (pahdoo) and she just loves squishing it with her fingers and playing with the things we make her. Mark's specialty is puppets and mine is snakes, it can be so much fun reliving your childhood! The rain wouldn't stop in the afternoon so after a good play with the new toys kindly passed on by her friend Holly - a playdoh table and stool and rocking horse - we bundled Stella up into her wet weather gear. Mark took her for a walk down the road, apparently she loved the wind in her face and had a great time. Everyone was going a little stir crazy so it was a perfect pre-tea time activity.

Buddies

Note - Stella words in brackets. At the moment Stella loves dragging her two vintage i.e. from my childhood, buggies (buddies) outside to the concrete pad under our washing line. She pushes them up the slight incline then lets them go with a big smile. Here she is posing with Aunty Kath's (Baff) buggy looking oh so grown up. She is a bit of a climber and is mastering ladders at various playgrounds in the area. She loves to climb onto the bench seat on our deck, stand up, turn around then say 'stuck' even though she can get down on her own!

Last week we started to have terrible bath battles for some strange reason. Around that time, Stella started taking a real interest in stickers (sticks) so we purchased a pack of 7,000 stickers from the Red Shed and now she gets new stickers after each bath. By the end of the week we had a bath with no tears - a miracle! Isn't bribery a wonderful thing. Washing hair is even worse so for that once a week torture, she gets two marshmallows (mayos). We thought she might be a bit young to understand the reward system but by the end of most afternoons she is wandering around saying 'barf' then 'sticks' so it seems to have sunken in.

The last pic is from our outing to Butterfly Creek for Mark's work family Xmas party. Stella loved the playground and the farm, she even got to pat some rabbits (bits) and thought she saw some 'moo moos' which were actually donkeys. We had to head home for a belated nap before Santa turned up, probably not a bad thing given she has a bit of a love hate relationship with him. At the mall she'll wander up close but as soon as he waves she runs for the hills. Not sure if we'll get a portrait with Santa this year...