Okay, so let’s recap. Stella (aka the most brilliant 16 month old e-v-e-r) can now do the following:

1. Identify colors
Dad to Stella while at the shoe store: “Stella, where is the orange shoe?”
Stella walks to, picks up and identifies said orange shoe.

2. Identify animals
Grandpa Andy to Stella while holding two different animal shaped paper plates: “Stella which one is the bear?”
Stella contemplates briefly then points to aforementioned bear and says “Dat!”

3. Speak sign language
Mom to Stella: “Tell your gramps thank you for that 5th bite of kaluah cream pie”
Stella signs ‘thank you’ to Gramps

4. Almost say the word Alligator
Dad to Stella: “Can you say Alligator?”
Stella to Dad: Aligulagulagula
(Gramps is working on ‘Recycling’ but we are not quite there yet)

Next up — String theory!

Construction is clipping right along. Bathroom tile is going up as I sit here and write. Kitchen is in a holding pattern waiting for taping and skimming — to be done early next week. About the time the walls are done the cabinets should be rolling into town (a huge shout out to Scott). If all goes well — we are hoping to wrap things up somewhere around the 3rd week of April. Hopefully we will be a little better at sticking to a timeline than we have been at sticking to our budget!

As for the other reason you all read this thing — our darling Miss Stella has mastered the art of removing her clothes in record time. Among the many, many stories of ‘clothing emancipation’: I was tending to a late night waking recently, and as I stood there waiting to see if she was settling in, I hear zzzzziiiiiiiiip as she adeptly maneuvers her upper body out of her pj’s. It won’t be long before we start securing her clothes with duct tape. At least until the weather warms up.

Oh, and we recently decided that in lieu of completing and returning the customer satisfaction survey sent to us by the flooring company, we have asked the floor guy that did our original estimate to come out to take a look at some of the areas that we have never really felt great about. It should be interesting to see what he has to say.

Doctor’s appointment this evening. Will post soon with baby stats.

Okay, so I have to take a break from my current — holy crap! we just had an earthquake!!!! quite a jolter too, wonder if there will be any aftershocks — so anyway, as I was saying (nothing like a born and bred Californian to treat an earthquake like a sneeze) I am having one of those my-daughter-is-the-best-thing-I-have-ever-done-in-my-life moments. It is funny how the simplest things will evoke the deepest emotional responses. My favorite thing to do is watch her when she doesn’t know I am watching.

So, I was just watching her when she didn’t know I was watching and, in this order, she:
–stood with her hands clasped in front of her and boogied (hips shakin’) to the Scissor Sisters
–checked out the arm of the couch for a while
–parused her “who loves baby?” photo album (muttering a couple of Dat?s)
–walked over to her toy heap swinging her arms as if to say “what next?”
–found her juice cup and drank a couple of swigs (hand playing with hair, of course)
–saw me looking at her and broke into a huge smile

Oh, and did I mention that I am now Maw-Maw?

Is there anything this girl won’t eat? In the last two weeks Miss Stella has eaten (and enjoyed) jambalaya, curry, pesto and chili — and would have eaten Thai peanut sauce if we had let her!