What do you know, Stella Jo?

Stella is just as lively as she can be! She is ALL of two years old with the short fuse and ridiculous frustration levels. We're working on obeying with a "happy heart," and the tone in her voice when she's wanting or asking for things. I love seeing her come up with a plastered smile on her face to say, "Pweeaase Mommy!" And then I play the guessing game and twenty questions to try and figure out what's she's asking for! She'll then to proceed to tell me, "I'm happy girl" or "I have a happy heart." I can't lie - that kind of gets me and I'll usually do what she's asking, but if it's something like a treat, etc and I don't feel like she should have it, then I have to explain that it's so sweet that she's asking so politely, but sometimes we still don't get what we want. Well, no two year old understands that, so it's challenging this child-rearing thing, but I love it and it's the best job in the world. We're working diligently on "yes mam," "no mam," etc and I love to hear her say it when it's unprompted by us. This has only happened a few times, but I least I know she's listening and paying attention. 

{A rare occasion that she left a bow in her hair!}

I love listening to her on the monitor, especially in the mornings, singing her ABC's and at the end she claps for herself and yells "yay!!" I just giggle in bed and wait for her to start yelling, "Mommy.....mommy....I'm done sleeping....I sleep good!!" She never ceases to crack me up. She'll go on a roll saying over and over, "My mom, my dad, my mom, my dad." She's also picked up on my name and will sometimes call me "Faif" - and I'm real quick to squash that! I'm definitely NOT into "Faif" or "Mom" - I much more prefer "Momma" or "Mommy"! She's also been pointing at us and saying, "Mommy is a girl and Daddy is a boy." I'm not sure where she learned that or why she likes to keep pointing that out, but it's cute nonetheless! She's also started asking "Why?" to just about EVERYTHING! And I sincerely question if she understands the explanations, but I give them anyway. Or she'll ask a lot, "What happened?" And there's quite a few times that there's nothing going on and she'll just keep on asking. I can only imagine that the questions will get harder and more frequent! Her imagination impresses me and I still love to watch her play with all her babies and feed them, change their diapers, put them to sleep, and even the occasional disciplining them! She prefers Blake or I to be sitting in her play room while she plays, and I'm trying to soak that up since I know one day she'll be asking us to leave!

{I will never get tired of watching her sleep - her face still reminds me of when she was a newborn}

Although I don't think Stella fully understands about having a baby sister, she'll definitely engage and talk about it. She knows that she's the "big sister" and the "baby in the belly" is the little sister. You can ask her what her little sister's name is and she'll tell you, "Blakely" {Yes, our little girl will be Blakely Georgia}. She's started saying, "My Blakely" - which definitely melts me heart! I'm so excited to see what a great big sister she'll be. She's SO affectionate with everyone {on her terms and her time, of course} and loves to give kisses to just about everyone, so I know she'll love feeling some ownership and responsibility with her baby sister.

Stella is still loving preschool and talks about "Ms Amy" all the time. I asked Stella last Saturday what she wanted to do that day and her response was, "I wanna go to school." Social butterfly for sure! She absolutely has the memory of an elephant and at least once or twice during the day will ask me "Where is so-and-so?" So-and-so can be one of many people - Daddy, Gommy, G-Daddy, Mamaw, PaSte, PawPaw, Gamma, Haley, Angie, Christian, RyRy, RayRay, Micah, Paul, Pastor Bryan, Gavyn, LaLa, Avery, Missy, NeNe....and I promise, the list goes on!

I was able to get Stella's Halloween costume at Kid to Kid last weekend along with some long sleeve shirts for fall. Then, my mom took us to Kohl's and spoiled little Stella with some new clothes {shout out, Mom, you have no idea how much I appreciate this, especially with not having an income anymore - you're such a blessing and a help to us!!} I also had a gift card from Stella's birthday from my parents to Carter's, which I had saved purposely for some fall/winter clothes. With a coupon I had, I was able to only have to pay a few dollars of my own money and got quite a few things for my girl! I got a couple things for Blakely since she'll need some warmer stuff those first few months because Stella's newborn and 0-3 months clothes aren't for the cold weather!

{My loot from Carter's}

Speaking of cold weather - I'm so ready for the temperatures to cool down. We had an awesome afternoon outside at a family reunion with Blake's mom's family today. We couldn't have asked for more perfect weather and great visiting! We're so excited to go see our sweet niece be dedicated at church tomorrow! I'm loving all this family time!

{I'm a little freaked out that this means there's only 19 weeks LEFT!}

{She refuses to cuddle - but sometimes I force it anyway :)}

{Somebody wore herself out at the family reunion!}