11 months

To my almost one-year-old...

You are fascinated by the remote controls. You will always find them and put them in your mouth and turn on the tv and change the settings to French.

You are not particularly interested in us reading to you. You can't sit still long enough.

You are constantly under the kitchen table putting little bits of food in your mouth. I wish I could say this has made me better at sweeping, but...no.

You will crawl over to the record player, stand on your tip toes and reach your little hand around the dial and turn on the radio and mess with the volume a bit and start dancing...and laughing...and screaming and turn the volume up even more to which Greta will say, "Too loud, Stella."

You love to jump in the bean bag with your big sister. You get on your knees, put your hands up high in the air and fall into it, just giggling. 
Oh, Stella! You are so much like your big sister. You gals know how to have a good time. Much like your Dad.

You are becoming quite the daddy's girl. You complain when he doesn't pick you up straight away after getting home from work. 

You have six teeth.

You point at everything.

You can stand unassisted for sometime.You have even taken a couple steps without realizing it.

You started clapping this week. You have been practicing while you nurse.

It's hard to recall last summer, but if I had to guess, you went on Papa's boat for the first time over the Fourth. You didn't much care for the life vest, but other than that, you enjoyed the ride.

You and I watched the fireworks together while Daddy put Greta to bed. You seemed mesmerized by them. 

You like baths again! I don't know what changed your mind...perhaps it was seeing everyone in the hot tub having a good time over the Fourth of July weekend? Whatever the reason, I am so grateful you don't scream anymore when I give you a bath.

You say "Dada", "Ge-ta", "bubble", "pop", "aw du" (all done), "hi" and occasionally, if the mood strikes you (if you are super upset), you say "Mama". 

2.11

To my almost three-year-old...

You love to draw and most of the time what you draw is pretty unrecognizable, but one day you came up to me and said, "Look mama! I make two smiley faces!" I was nursing your sister and looked over and was so amazed! Yes! You did, Greta, my love. You did, in fact, draw a round face and two eyes and a mouth. Twice! I was so proud I almost cried. You even progressed to giving your faces hair and little bodies.

You keep asking to go to your other home...in Seattle. And I love the way you pronounce "See-AT-all".

When you sing, you announce the name of the song you are about to sing. "Twinkle, Twinkle"...pause..."Twinkle, Twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are!"

You went on your very first carousel ride at Navy Pier. You didn't want to go on the horse, so we sat on the bench. After we got off, you wanted to go right back on.

You are just the sweetest big sister. You love to kiss Estella and feed her and you play so nicely with her...most of the time. I just love you for this.

You have never liked loud noises. Therefore, you didn't watch the fireworks this year. They started going off as your daddy put you to bed and you complained that they were too loud, but as soon as your head hit the pillow, you were asleep...and the fireworks were still going off.

You are becoming increasingly interested in learning your letters. I try to tell you what the letters are when we are building with your ABC blocks, for example...but no. You don't want me to tell you what letter is what. You prefer to tell me. 

Oh Greta, my Greta. A wild yet tame heart. You cannot be told what's what. You must find these things out for yourself...which makes teaching you a new thing very, very difficult, I'm afraid.