Stella and the Christmas Pudding

Celeste just loves it when Stella pays her attention, here are some shots of the girls enjoying eachother's company. I have noticed Stella give Celeste the odd pinch but I can't blame her as Celeste is very pinchable! At her 5 month Plunket check she weighed 8.63kg (97th percentile) and was 64cm tall (5oth percentile) so she is a little Christmas pudding. At the same age Stella was only slightly heavier and 5.5cm taller! Thanks to Katrina, Jack and Guy for the super cute gingham dress Celeste is modelling in these pics.

Early Christmas Visit With Great Gran

Aunty Katherine came with us to visit Gran the other day and took these lovely photos. Although we took a few toys and books for Stella to play with, she was of course more interested in Gran's treasures and running up and down the hallway. Fortunately nothing got broken! It brought back memories when Gran got out the lolly jar (Katherine and I remember the lolly jar from our days visiting Gran and Poppa as kids), here is a pic of Stella carefully choosing a chocolate fish.

Icey Cream

Stella knows that Granny and Grandpa have a stash of "icey cream" at their house. She has her favourite teaspoon that she eats it with and puts her head down until it is all finished. I asked her what flavour it was, her reponse was "cold!"

Poor Grandpa has been under the weather lately, Stella loves to play with his "crouches." (crutches)

Dorothy and the Kewpie Doll

Here is Stella being very busy while carrying her Dorothy the Dinosaur puppet in the 'front pack' I made for her to wear. I got the Dorothy puppet off trademe after seeing Stella carrying around a Dorothy window sticker, talking to it and taking it places, I though she could do with something a bit more substantial as the sticker was getting a bit crushed and losing it's stickiness! Hopefully she'll still be into Dorothy and The Wiggles next year as we have tickets to their concert, I think Mark and I are more excited about it than we care to admit!! We haven't told Stella yet as March is a lifetime away for a little person who is struggling with the concept of when Christmas is coming.

Nana dressed Celeste up in Aunty Kath's 1st birthday outfit, we think she looks like a wee doll in this shot.

Who's Who?

Can you tell these two apart? Here are the girls at about the same age in the same outfit.

Stella is wanting to cuddle Celeste more and more often, she often squeezes quite hard but Celeste puts up with it and even smiles some of the time!

A Fairy in the Garden

The weather yesterday morning was a bit grim so we ended up sorting through boxes of Stella's old clothes to see what Celeste might fit. We found a fairy dress in the wardrobe which Stella accessorised with a fleecy hat and socks - all a few sizes to small - and gumboots. She threw a few scarves around her arm as "necklaces" and we went out and wandered around the garden between showers then went up to check the mail. After that there was time for a dance before getting into more sensible clothes for an afternoon at creche.

Labour Weekend Part 2

On Monday Nana kindly looked after Celeste so Mark and I could take Stella on an adventure. We headed off to Muriwai to see the gannets. The path up from the beach was closed so we did the 10 minute bush walk around to Maori Bay which also allows access. Stella almost fell asleep in the car on the way there so had to be piggy backed (by me!) all the way up. She wasn't too interested in the birds, she was keen to get back to have a play at the park she had spotted, so back we went for a few slides and swings on the monkey bars. After that we had a rest and an icecream then a little climb up a tree before heading home.

Labour Weekend Part 1

A couple of self portraits to start with, I'm getting better with my aim when taking pics with the girls, have yet to get a good one of the three of us!

We had a lovely holiday weekend, the extra day made such a difference. Mark has been working late (like 2.30am late some nights) this past week so we were all suffering a bit from either sleep or daddy deprivation (see pic of Stella chomping on a biscuit while using Mark as a seat, her way of saying I missed you!)

On Saturday it took until 3pm to get ourselves out the door for a visit to Albany Mall to look at the toys and stretch our legs. Sunday was a little better, we made it out by midday to visit Aunty Linda and family at the Bay. The tide was out so Stella and Mark had a couple of great walks while I put my feet up and Celeste slept. Linda's friend Diane popped in with her family too so Stella had some big kids to play with which she really enjoyed. Stella is becoming more brave around Charlie the dog, we have a good book called "Can I Pat That Dog?" which is helping her understand how it all works. The swing got a good work out, she had many many many sitting, standing and tummy swings.

Random Ramblings

After a few unsettled nights since Celeste's 3 month jabs, my brain has turned to mush again so this entry will just be a bunch of things I can remember happening recently.

Stella-isms: Stella's language is great, the funniest thing at the moment is that if she can't remember a word she'll often replace it with a word she knows e.g. arts and crafts became arts and crayons, Molly Malone became Molly on my own (words to a song she sings). There are many more examples but of course I can't think of them right now! She has also taken to calling us by our first names. Today she said "bye Sarah, have a nice day today" when she left with Nana for Mainly Music. It is quite disconcerting! Stella is also very good at issuing instructions, Granny has been helping us out on Tuesday afternoons so when she visited yesterday Stella told her at one stage that it was time that she ironed Daddy's shirts! (something that Mark and I are both eternally grateful for!)

Stella is really into role play at the moment, she loves to pretend that her toys and dolls are babies, dressing them up, wiping their spills, feeding them and putting them down. I often find one of them in Celeste's bouncer or capsule after a session of play. The other thing she does at the moment is pretend to be a baby herself, she likes to do tummy time with Celeste and yesterday instructed me to sit down while she lay under the baby gym and I had to coo over her like I do Celeste.

Celeste is doing well, at her 3 month Plunket visit she weighed 6.66kg and was 61cm, she is a little heavier (75th percentile) than she is long (50th percentile) and smaller than Stella was on both counts. Her skin is perfect while Stella's wasn't at the same age so I am hoping all the things we have done/are doing will avoid the eczema nightmare. Celeste is really responding to people's voices now, turning to see who is coming into the room. She has long conversations with Mark - see last pic - and loves it when Stella sings to her even if it is a little loud and right in her face!

Big Sister, Little Sister

Here are some pics of our two special girls... Celeste is enjoying watching Stella's antics much more these days but sometimes looks a little fearful of her when she gets too close!

Great Gran

It has taken us a while to introduce Celeste to Gran, I think she is the 13th great grandchild and has been quickly knocked off the perch of being the youngest by Renee's fourth son born earlier this week (yet to be named). Stella was at creche where she has an obsession with learning to swing on the monkey bars - she runs out to them upon arrival and every day this week has been swinging at pick up time too, they tell me that she does do other stuff in between! Anyway, it was a lovely peaceful visit with only one child in tow, Celeste put on a great show of smiles and cooing once she'd had a bottle and a wee squawk. Poppa - we thought you'd like this little clip of them...

Our Big Girl

Just had to do a quick post to report on this morning's activities... Stella had her Dora phone in the car on the way to creche, I heard a quiet voice saying the following:
"Hello, how are you today" pause
"We're just going for a little drive in the car" pause
"We're going to creche actually" pause
"Ok, bye" pause
"That was a nice phone call"
We are also playing lots of games of going to the shops to buy different things, she is really into our money and wallets so I've bought some play money off Trademe which I'm sure she will enjoy.

Stella had a real haircut last weekend, not just a fringe cut, I haven't got any good pics yet but will post when I do. It was a hard decision to chop her beautiful locks however we have endless battles brushing, tying it up and washing it so it was for the greater good. It now rests on her shoulders and is much more manageable and still has a bit of curl.

Working Out

Here is a lovely smiley pic of Celeste taken today and a clip of her "working out" under the baby gym - for viewing by Celeste enthusiasts only as it really isn't that action packed. She is starting to bat the toys around a bit but it is still quite random. She is very taken with the elephant that dangles directly over her head and has started to have little conversations with it when I'm not in view.

Click here to see an old blog entry from when Stella was around the same age, do you think they look alike?

Back on Track

The Plunket nurse visited this morning and I'm happy to report that Celeste has gained 800 grams since her last weigh in around 2 weeks ago. She is now back at the 50th percentile mark (4.92kg / 10lb 14oz) for babies her age which is where she was tracking before our feeding problems took their toll. She is definitely more settled overall but can be pretty windy and upset after a bottle if she is really hungry. Now that she is full and satisfied, we're hoping she'll stretch out her sleeps at night... wishful thinking?

Stella's language and comprehension continues to come along in leaps and bounds. She has really started to enjoy imaginative play and she can often be heard chattering quietly to herself in her play house, the sandpit or with her dolls. She now really enjoys dressing up and often goes into the cave (her name for our wardrobe) and pulls out a pair of my shoes and an item of clothing that interests her. There is a pic here of her in her pyjama pants wearing my shoes and a preggy top that made a great dress, sorting through some long forgotten items in a bag I hadn't used for quite some time (we came across the order of service for Sam and Andrea's wedding which was three and a half years ago!) She insisted on wearing the top over her pjs to bed and Mark reported that she still had it on when he went in to get her up in the morning.

The other pics are of Celeste with Granny, Nana (and her big sis) and Polly, as well as another gummy smile. After most feeds she has a stretch under the baby gym and is cooing more and more each day which is super cute and much easier on the ears than her lusty cry.

Now that we are back on track we're hoping to catch up with more family and friends, however I've been struck down by a nasty sore throaty cold overnight so will have to wait it out before getting too sociable!