My goodness has she grown up SO much the past few months. I can’t believe her friends are turning 3 and SHE WILL BE THREE SOON. Sheesh. So, here is what our 33 month old girl is up to:
Telling everyone she is ‘two and a HALF’.
Waving and greeting - she is incredibly friendly in the neighbourhood or whenever it’s not on demand. Delivery man or random guy on street? She practically screams hello and waves.
‘Reading’ her books to us – it’s adorable and she is so focused and honestly gets so much of it right. Our little sponge!
She is a counting machine – unaided to 20, with a nudge to 30+.
A is for Apple, P is for poop, D is for Daddy and dog – Stella knows her ABC’s and is really connecting her words.
Knowing her full name, our names, and everyone else’s parents’ names J
Conversations – she fills you in on her day and asks about yours!
Keeping her pants (mostly) dry and clean - still rusty and sporadic successes, but we’re getting there.
I love you, too. (said after she says ‘I love you.’ Then you say ‘I love you too’, then she says ‘I love you too’. A lot of love)
Stella Elizabeth Wallace. (full stop)
She still loves green and now understands ‘favourite’ so therefore we hear a lot about green. She does like pink and purple as well, based on what she chooses.
Favorite friends (furry and human):
Stella and Lola have a special friendship – they act like sisters and you can see how Stella is the younger…pulling and pushing and playing, trying to keep up. Stella will giggle and shriek when Lola plays tug or fetches toys. Lola will look at us when Stella does something a bit rough…we are ringmasters.
She keeps a steady rotation of ‘friends’ and isn’t particularly partial to any one right now: small (T-Rex) to large (Hugless Douglas), young/new (cats) and old (Lenny the monkey). For her human friends, she is still playing with Nikolai, Tali, Blake, Isla, Lennie, and Rafe. We have a new neighbour whose daughter Madison just turned 3 and the girls like each other. At nursery school, she seems to favour a boy called Arthur. I’ve also heard about Eloise (who doesn’t share toys) but not sure she’s a ‘friend’.
She is super affectionate, and very much ‘just like us’. She loves to cuddle and hug and kiss and rub your arm, hold your hand. She is always looking for ways to do something together. She is quick to jump under a blanket or sit on your lap with a book. When she isn’t with us, she loves spending time with Roxana, going about her day.
Reading is still a favorite pastime, last night I read 4 Fancy Nancy books. FOUR. Then we read a good night story while she was IN her bed and left her with a Pinkalicious book so she could ‘read’ it after lights out. Our bathroom has become a bookshelf so she can read (or be read to) on the potty. We just gave her ‘Room on the Broom’ for Easter and it’s definitely a new favorite (shout out for ALL Julia Donaldson books). I love rhyming books and I think she does too J
The other thing I love is that she reinvents books for herself. She wants to find the spider in the Little Critter book, or connect the mommies to the kids in ‘Goat goes to playgroup’, sometimes we initiate these, but other times it’s all her and her understanding and curiousity.
She is enjoying movies a lot too - we’ve been slowly introducing Disney classics: The Lion King, The Jungle Book, Beauty and the Beast, Tangled and Cinderella are all well liked and frequently requested. She likes the animals and the songs, though is partial to Belle/Beauty.
Where she spends her time:
Stella loves the library and the park, she enjoys school on Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s. There is a playgroup (for £1!) that is on Monday’s and Thursday’s that she enjoys – they do cool things like ‘have oranges and cucumber for snack’ and ‘play with baby chicks’ and ‘blankets outside’ (read: parachute). She often regales me with stories of kids who don’t share or try to play with Tigger or how many baby buggies they have. I get FULL reports and I love it.
A girl after my own heart, she likes dresses and comfy pants. Ha! She also is VERY attached to her Uggs. (she can spell that too!) We’ve started naming things like ‘party shoes’ and ‘cold day jacket’. Giving her choices definitely moves the process along. She doesn’t entirely care about what she is wearing but she is sure and clear about what she will NOT wear. Like stiff jeans and socks. She is anti-sock.
Right now, she still loves pasta, broccoli, sweet potatoes, yogurt, ‘chips’/French fries, biscuits, chocolate. The other, newer interests are:
Ham and cheese sandwiches
Chili – she mentioned this was her ‘favorite food’ one day, to my surprise.
Hummus paired with anything (carrots, cucumbers, grapes)
She still loves fruit and dislikes red peppers and anything resembling ‘salad’.
My favorite moments this week:
Watching her open a box full of Spring clothes from Zara – her face and her gentleness with the clothes was adorable. She carefully folded each one
Hunting Easter eggs – she was genuinely surprised and pleased with each discovery. Magical, just like Christmas.
Taking a bath together – maybe it’s strange, maybe not. I don’t really care, she asked me so I hopped in and we had fun playing letters and comparing toenail polish colors.
6:15pm April 8 & April 9 – watching Stella and Chris play football in the garden; she made sure I’d watch each kick from the kitchen.
When she told me I made a ‘very good dinner’
After tucking her in, when she wrapped her arms around me and said ‘you’re trapped’ in a big hug. Sigh.
We can’t get enough of her, excited to see what the next three months (the last few months of TWO) will bring. Hopefully drier pants. Ha.
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