Stella's First Fourth of July

A little delayed, but we had a great Fourth of July. Stella's first was spent boating, relaxing and enjoying gorgeous weather. We drove to Monticello, Indiana, and spent the holiday on Lake Freeman with some of our favorite people. We have kept in touch with some very dear friends we met in Japan and have managed to see them at least twice a year since we moved back. Love them dearly and really enjoyed seeing them. Stella had her first boat ride, swam in a lake for the first time, watched fireworks and had her first bath with a boy!

Enjoy some pictures of our sweet little lady!

Nine Months!

Just like that, Stella is nine months old. No. freaking. way. She's actually about 9.5 months as I write this and as crazy as ever. Stella has always been a super active baby, and that attitude has continued to carry on. She is crawling super fast everywhere, pulling up like a mad woman and starting to stand for a few seconds on her own now. It's crazy to see how quickly her skills have progressed, and I fear we don't have much longer until she takes her first steps. Exciting and very frightening!

She's a big girl. She mostly wears 12-18 month clothes and is in a size 4 diaper at this point. I took her for her nine month well visit, and we are so fortunate to have a healthy and growing girl.

Weight: 24.5 lbs.
Height: 29.5 inches

Stella has started to show much greater interest in eating lately. She's started to eat yogurt with her spoon, and though it's super messy, I must say I'm pretty impressed by her. Some of her favorites are apricots, sugar snap peas, roast beef and mango! One of her favorite things to do is to drink water from a cup while I tilt it up. Even better than drinking it, though, is spitting it out! And, I can't remember if I mentioned this before or not, but the little lady has eight teeth! Kind of weird when a baby smiles with a mouth full of teeth.

Stella loves water. If she's taking a bath, in a pool, a lake, getting sprayed by the water hose...she doesn't care. She loves it all.

The other night I was sharing with Travis how I couldn't believe she was waving, and wouldn't you know it, the little gal just started waving. I thought it was a coincidence so I mentioned clapping, and there she went, clapping away. So, Stella can now clap and wave on command with no example. That is just crazy to me since I don't feel like we really even taught her that. Little sponges, they are.

Her sleep is still not very pretty. I feel like putting her down for a nap and for bed is basically my full-time job. She still wakes several times a night to eat, and I honestly don't even care at this point. We will get there eventually. I mean, I'm pretty confident she won't be waking and nursing throughout the night at 12 years old. And, if she is, please intervene. You have my permission. :)

And, though this story is pretty disgusting, I feel like I should document it. The other morning, Stella and I both woke in chipper moods and were just meandering along getting ready for the day. I had a Bible study to attend and was really looking forward to heading to a friend's house to meet with my lady friends. I dressed Stella in an adorable turquoise top and some white summer-y shorts. The first debut for this cute ensemble courtesy of grandma. I sat her on our white carpet briefly to brush my teeth. She started crawling towards me and I noticed a nice, fresh pile of you-know-what beneath her. No way. Yes way. She continued to crawl, followed by a little river of you-know-what. The cute summer-y white shorts...yeah, no longer white. Apparently a diaper-wedgy had occurred. Oh how motherhood continues to humble me. And my weak stomach. Every day.

We are enjoying our little miracle so much, but she is also wearing us out! Below are a few pictures we took of her around her nine month birthday. She is nearly impossible to photograph these days!