Weekending

This weekend was full of sun and good food.  Stella's biggest highlight?  First time trying sushi!  As expected, she l-o-v-e-d it!  We went to Ra in Town Center.  She had edamame and attempted to use chopsticks, a calamari sushi roll (cooked, of course) and a pineapple won-ton.  She kept asking for a piece of spicy tuna... Which, of course, I don't blame her, but all in due time!

Town Center is such a cute little area, and Stella had a fun time just running around.  We had intentions of stopping at Cupcakes A'la Mode, which has the best cupcakes I have ever tasted in my life.  Naturally, we promised Stella a treat so that we could keep her moving, and when we got to our favorite cupcakery, we found it moved.  That did not go over well with the littlest member of our party.  Many lessons learned.

Oh, and then there's this gem....

KC Streetcar

Stella has a new favorite activity.  Riding the KC Streetcar.  Homegirl had the best time riding along, looking out the window, and holding on to the straps.

She would "Ooh" and "Ahh" at all the lights and artwork, and wave to everyone on the streetcar and on the street.

The streetcar itself is pretty cool, it runs from City Market to Union Station all along Main Street.  It's also free, and has wi-fi, so there is that.  Maybe one of these days Mom and Dad can use it to set up a mini bar-crawl.  ;-)

Park Day

We love the park.  Any excuse to get outside, we will take.  However, our favorite is definitely Shawnee Mission Park.  We love the water and the lake, and while we may never have a lake house in Branson, the SMP Marina gives us our fix.  They have rentals for stand up paddle boarding, canoeing, kayaking and pedal boats.  This day, we opted for the canoe!

Stella was such a big helper when it came to rowing and "steering!"  Naturally, she wanted to do it all by herself, which provided some challenges....

When we were done, it was off to the playground to get rid of our last bit of energy!  SMP has several playgrounds, this being our favorite:  the ship, for obvious (Game of Thrones) reasons, there are lots of little things Stella can do on her own, and it doesn't have wood chip ground, which is always a bonus for me!

I may or may not have sent this picture to my friends in SnapChat saying "Khaleesi found her ship!"

And with the beginning of summer, we have many more SMP days to come!

Two Year Update

Our little mama is officially two, and let me tell you, we are feeling every bit of it. ;-)  So here's a little update on our Wild Thing.

 Height: 33 inches

Weight: 26 lbs

Clothing size: 18-24 months, 24 months, 2T.  Most 24 month and 2T things are a tiny bit big on her.

Shoe size: 6.5

Favorite food: Anything pasta, including but not limited to mac-and-cheese, spaghetti and pierogies.  She also loves all kinds of fruit, most veggies.  Still not a fan of avocados.  She really likes organic fruit bars, goji berries and Annie's crackers/cookies.  And apparently celery, she was downing it by the stalk last night.  Amazingly enough, she does not like my fruit smoothies, but she likes my Stripped Green Smoothie that has celery, kale, iceberg lettuce, cilantro, parsley, cayenne, etc.

Favorite song:  Skin-a-marinky dinky dink.  A little Sharon Lois and Bram flashback for ya.  The alphabet song is also a favorite and she can sing it all by herself.  She also likes her own version of Twinkle Twinkle that goes a little something like this:

Twinkle, twinkle dinosaur

How I wonder how you

ROAR

Favorite toy:  She's obsessed with her babies.  She loves to carry them around, change their diaper, feed them a bottle and especially loves putting them to bed.  She will attempt to place the blanket over the baby 50 times if that is what it takes to get the placement just right.

She also really likes to play a real-life version of this called "Mommy lay down."  She makes me lie down, brings me a pillow, covers me up with a blanket and rubs and pats pounds on my back and says "shhhh, night night."  Best.Game.Ever.

Favorite book:  Every book she touches?  She love love loves book.  Right now I would say Cinderella is tops, followed closely by all other books pertaining to Disney princesses.  Then any book in the Pete the Cat series. She also likes the clean version of "Go the F*ck to Sleep" and "Halloween Scare in Iowa."  She runs around yelling "I want Iowa!  Iowa!  Iowa!"  Even though she I know she is cheering for the book, I still can't help but laugh at her yelling for Iowa.

Favorite animal:  Dinosaurs, alligators, lions

Favorite time of day:  Night.  We are a bit of a night owl these days.  She very much dislikes getting up early when both the parentals have to work.

Observations/milestones:  Language is off the charts.  She amazes us every day.  "I want to go swimming."  "I will throw it in the trash."  "I don't want to eat that."  "I have a friend name is Matteo (comes out Teo)."  My new favorite is "I'm going to hit you now, Mommy."  I guess at least she is warning me before she does it?

Favorite things:  Water.  Water.  Did I mention water?  She loves pools, lakes, puddles and waterfalls, as well as activities related to these things, including pedal boats, swimming, slides, splashing, etc.  She also enjoys yoga and running.  And really loves picking the fuzzies out from between her toes. ;-)
Not so favorite things:  Bedtime and early morning wakeups.

Family Photos

I love getting professional family pictures done.  I think it's really important to document our family as time progresses.  Outdoor sessions are my absolute favorite because I love the green and gorgeous glow from the sun.

However, the best locations for pictures are not always the best for anxiety-prone mommas like myself.  Enter, the tick.  We had planned on just doing a 30 minute mini-session, which turned out to be a good idea because Stella was done after about 10.  Anyway, around the same time Stella was getting restless, I noticed Bryce brushing at his legs, and hesitantly informing me that he saw a TICK.  So naturally I freak out a bit, and then we continue with our pictures, because, pictures.  But, I only let Stella walk on the rock path.  Naturally, while taking a family picture on the rock path, I notice a tick on my own dress.  And that, my friends ended our session.  Our photographer, who is awesome and has been doing our pictures since our maternity session, wanted to get a few more shots, but I politely declined.  And blamed it on the babe being antsy.

Of course when we got home, everyone got undressed in the garage and was inspected for ticks before entering the house.  Sure enough, Bryce had one on his leg.  

Needless to say, the clothes stayed out in the garage for two or three weeks, even after I fully inspected them, and now, I'm convinced every red mark is a tick bite and that we all have lyme disease.  I'm also really up to date on my tick info, so if anyone has questions, hit me up.

Luckily, our photographer did get some great pics after the shit show that was us.  Here are a few of my favorites.

And, despite my lamenting "We are never doing outdoor pictures again!" we will very likely do the same type next time we are due for pictures.  Just with Deet.  Everyone gets a healthy spray of Off with Deet.

Our Wild Thing Is Two

Our baby doll turned two!  To celebrate, we had a "Where the Wild Things Are" themed party, complete with Max' crown.  

We had spicy asian meatballs, pinwheels, crescent wrapped smokies (not pictured).

I made my aunt's chocolate mayonnaise cake... Sounds terrible, tastes delicious!

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We had the best time celebrating our wild thing!  She played with her cousins, opened presents, and ate some homemade chocolate cake!

 

I think she had a great time too.  Two weeks later, she is still singing "Happy Birthday" to everyone she sees!