Bit By the Crafting Bug

Mama and Stella got bit by the crafting bug today. We made lady bugs out of rocks we found in our backyard. It was super easy and super fun. Stella loved painting the rocks and did a great job with it. Mama helped paint the heads black and draw the line down the middle, and then Stella finished by stamping on the black dots. She also was really excited about gluing on the wiggly eyes. The above picture shows our finished products.

Stella had a hard time waiting for the paint to dry...literally. The directions on the paint said to let the paint dry for an hour before applying a second coat and while the paint was drying, Stella would ask, "Is it dry yet?", every 10 minutes or so.

We are giving one to Dada to take to his office to use as a paper weight!

Des likes playing with the "bucks" as he calls them, but we have to watch him, because he tries to pry the eyes off.

Strawberry Season

It's strawberry season and we couldn't be happier. We go through a pound of strawberries a day...it's Stella who eats the most, but we all help her out. Des likes it too but these days he is absolutely miserable because of his teething...he's got 8 teeth coming in at once, 4 first molars and 4 canines. He keeps walking around holding his chin or gnawing on his fingers. Dada keeps joking that we should get the poor guy a bone to gnaw on =;)

Trot Nixon

That's Dada's new nickname for Desmond. Des is on the verge of full fledged running these days. He has been trotting for the past week or so and trots everywhere he goes, sometimes in a uncontrollable manner that is both funny and very nerve wracking to watch.

Wrestling the Green Dinosaur

Des got this as a gift for his 1st birthday from one of Mama's cousins (Uncle Nick) and Des loves wrestling with this big green dinosaur.

The Next American Idol

Desmond thinks that he has what it takes to be the next American Idol: good looks, a great head of hair, youthfulness, and singing chops...now only if could refrain from eating his microphone.

Skyping Is All the Rage!

Since our relocation to Arkansas was going to take us further away from our families, we had gotten both sets of grandparents a web cam as a Christmas gift so that we would be able to talk to them through Skype.

Well, we finally got set up with Skype about a month or so ago and Stella just absolutely loves it. Des doesn't have the patience to sit in front of the camera for too long...he leaves after the first few minutes and then just comes by the computer intermittently in between whatever he is playing with.

In the above pic, Stella and Des are Skyping with Appachen.

Wooo, Pig, Sooie!

For those of you unfamiliar with the Univ of Arkansas, their mascot is the razorback, a feral hog, characterized by a ridge back and tenacious, wild fighting ability. And "Woo, Pig, Sooie" is the official school rally yell that unites Arkansas fans everywhere and is also commonly referred to as the "hog call"!

Well, Dada figured that our little baby razorback needed his first baseball cap and got him a Univ of Arkansas baseball cap.

Reading, Reading, Reading

Stella finished the entire 1st grade Hooked on Phonics lesson set 2 days ago. It took her about 6-7 months from start to finish. She is reading at a 1st grade level and just loves to grab any one of her many, many books off of the shelf and start reading all by herself. We will often find her sitting on the couch or lying in her bed reading books all by herself.

She is so very proud of herself and we are too!!! As her reward, we told her that she can go to the toy store and pick out any toy she wants.

Here Comes the 1,2,3s...

Desmond is learning his numbers. For 1 he will say un [maybe he thinks he is French =:)]. He can say 2 well. He can't say 3, but he can say fo (for 4) and fiiive (for 5). He loves to hold Mama's two fingers up and say "two". He still doesn't understand the concept of counting but that will come later.

All By Myself

That is Miss Stella's motto these days. Whenever we try to help her with something, she immediately responds with a "No, I'll do it all by myself!"

She can get undressed and dressed all by herself (she's been doing this for sometime now). She picks out her own clothes when getting dressed in the morning and because she has certain favorites, she tends to pick out the same sets of clothes. That is why you see her wearing the same things in most of the pictures we post...not because she doesn't have any other clothes. In order to get her to wear some of her other nice clothes, Mama has to hide her favorite clothes and tell her that they are in the wash.

When Stella first started picking out her own clothes, she would wear the most random/bizarre color combinations of tops and bottoms. So Mama would often have to tell her that she should try to match her tops and bottoms. This took a while to sink in but now, Stella is all about matching...and not just clothes, but matching everything (i.e., matching her fork or spoon to her outfit, matching her juice to her outfit, or M&M's,or toys etc.). It's quite funny and maddening at the same time.

Stella also puts her shoes and jackets on by herself...the other day, she even zippered her jacket all by herself. She brushes her own teeth (which, also, she has been doing for a long time now) and has even started washing her body with a washcloth and shampooing her hair all by herself during bath time.

The other day, Mama asked Stella to make her bed while Mama was putting Des down for a nap in order to keep her occupied and to Mama's great surprise, Stella had made her bed very nicely and neatly. Mama was so proud of her and told her so and that just made Stella light up like a Christmas tree. This little girl lives for Mama and Dada's praises and we are more than happy to dole it out to her when she deserves it!

Stella is also very particular about how she wants things (i.e., like what kind of utensils, plates, and cups she wants at mealtimes, what color straw she wants, has to have all of the buttons of her jacket or sweater fully buttoned, etc.). This drives us nuts and we try most of the time to not give into her demands.

She has a mind of her own, especially when it comes to clothes and accessories. For example, she thought it would be best to wear all 4 of her hairbands in her hair in order to "make a rainbow". She is all about rainbows these days. So she made her very own colorful fashion statement with the rainbow hairband and went out in public like this!

That's our little girl...who is getting to be not so little anymore!

It Takes Two...

Normally, either David or I go grocery shopping by ourselves in order to be as efficient as possible. But tonight, we went grocery shopping as a family at Walmart. Stella and Des sat side by side in one of those shopping carts that had tandem seats. Notice how they are wearing matching outfits. Mama dressed Des in a red shirt and denim overalls this morning and Stella insisted on wearing overalls with a red shirt as well.

Earlier in the day, Desmond got a much needed haircut at a local barber shop. He did better than usual during the hair cutting process, but there were still some tears involved,

By the end of the grocery shopping trip, Des took his shoes and socks off in the checkout line. This is the first time he has done this in a public place, but something tells us that it won't be the last!

We got them both flutes which they were very happy to play with on the car ride home.

Spring is in the Air

The weather was so beautiful today (70s) that we had to spend most of our time playing outside. The kids had lots of fun playing with Amamma and Appachen...blowing bubbles, looking for birdies, pine cones, and flowers, etc. Hooray, Spring is almost here!

It Never Gets Old!

Playing with boxes that is. Here are pictures from two separate occasions where the kids are having a ball playing with/inside a box leftover from our recent move. They will play with it on a daily basis. Stella will pretend that it's a house, a fort, an elevator, etc...whatever keeps them happy!

Amamma & Appachen are Visiting

Amamma and Appachen are visiting. They came this past Fri and will be staying with us for a week. The kids are having lots of fun playing with their grandparents.

(Trying to get Des to sit still and Stella to look at the camera for a picture is sooo difficult these days)

Desmond especially is loving the fact that Amamma & Appachen lets him play so freely and often with Playdoh...something Mama doesn't do with the Gup.