Hot Glass and Butterflies

When my family was visiting we took a trip to the Franklin Park Conservatory.

We explored the butterfly garden:

We watched a glass blowing demonstration. This guy showed us how he makes vases from start to finish. It was pretty cool.

Stella started out in her stroller, but this little girl is so curious and just loves to be in the middle of things experiencing everything. You can see her in this picture just totally enthralled in the presentation. 

They also had a leaf showing that day. People brought in their leaves to be judged. I thought it was kind of quirky and weird, but cool at the same time.

They also had little miniature flower arrangements being judged. They were each about the size of a can of food.

We explored the other rooms in the conservatory. There is a desert room, a Himalayan room, a rain forest room, a Bonsai room, a Pacific Island room, and a couple other rooms.

 

I isn’t my little sister pretty?

A Visit from the Fam

The month of June has been full of fun and family. My parents and siblings visited us from Idaho. I have lots of pictures from their trip to Columbus, so it will probably take multiple posts to cover their trip. My family made it to Columbus after midnight so Stella was fast asleep when they first got there.The following pictures are from the next morning. It was their first time meeting Stella (except my mom, who came when she was born). She immediately loved them!

Quick Catch Up

These pictures are a little bit old (April and May), but I want to post them anyway. Enjoy!

Stella’s Great-Grandma Linda made this little owl for Stella. She loves it!

She also sent some candy for me (I have a weakness for candy) and some other little gifts. What a nice surprise! Thanks grammy!

One of our neighbors brought over this jumper that her kids have grown out of. Stella LOVES it! It gets her really excited and quite worked up. I can’t let her play in it right before a nap or bed time or she gets way too wound up.

This little girl LOVES to sprawl out in the grass and feel the breeze. Going outside can right any wrong in her book.

It’s been really hot here in Columbus. Stella HATES being hot. She cries like it’s the end of the world until I put her in a cooler outfit. Hence the tank tops and shorts. (Don’t worry we will teach her about modesty soon, just not this summer. This little girl runs really hot!)

And sometimes, this is the only thing that will make her happy:

She has started sleeping in nothing but her diaper. She will not fall asleep unless we strip her down to her skivvies.

We planted a little square foot garden on our back patio that Benj built. Since this picture was taken it has really taken off. We have lettuce, peas, beans, radishes, and cucumbers. We also have tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, and some herbs in another place on the patio.

 

Stella loves to get her left leg swinging to get her chair to bounce.

She is finally used to bathing. She would scream for about the first 2 months every time we would try to bathe her.

I love her sneezes!

She thinks she is a hot shot when she sits up on the couch by her self.

I love her bright blue eyes!

When Stella Wakes Up

I think my favorite thing in the world is Stella just after she has had a good sleep. She wakes up cooing and smiling. She has this extremely cheesy, funny looking morning smile combined with stretching and looking all around.

Sometimes she does this funny little side to side head movement, as if she is looking for something or isn’t quite awake yet. She is such a little scraggle muffin in the morning with her scraggly hair, little snorts, and squishy facial expressions. I just love it!

Sometimes we find her with her legs straight up in the air:

A few weeks ago she decided that she actually likes taking naps in her crib. Before she would just fall asleep randomly in her bouncer or in my arms, but now she takes quite regular naps in her crib.

However, she is still perfectly happy to sleep on the go if the situation requires it.

Or catching a nap in a random place like on the couch.

However, the one place she struggles to sleep is church. Last Sunday she was screaming and I knew that she just needed to fall asleep, but she just wouldn’t give in and fall asleep. I can usually temporarily get her to stop crying by taking her outside, so I took her out to the grass and laid her on her changing mat in the shade and she instantly fell asleep. I sat out there with her until it got kind of windy and then I was able to transfer her inside.

Sometimes she likes to lay on her back with arms and legs spread open, but lately she has started turning to the side and flinging one little leg over the other and covering her eyes with her arms. She starts to assume this position almost as soon as she is set down in the crib. I wish I had a picture of her with her hands over her eyes. Its so cute.

Sometimes I let her take a nap in her diaper because it gets so hot and she HATES being hot.

One of these times I heard her talking to herself over the monitor. I grabbed the camera and walked in the room quietly. She didn’t know I was in there filming her at first. I love how she is content to just lay in her crib and play with her toes and babble to her self.

Love that girl!

More Smiles

I meant to put this video in the previous post. I guess it didn’t work. It’s just some more cute Stella smiles. She is so cute and smiley in the last part, but then it kind of turns into a mix of smiling and whining. It melts my heart when she does that. It’s like she wants to whine and then she realizes that she is actually really happy and it turns into a half whine half laugh.

Sweet Smiles

Stella has been all smiles lately. Unless she is ready for a nap or hungry, she is pretty much always smiling. My favorite thing in the world is walking in her room in the morning because she is so extra smiley after a good long sleep (yes, she is sleeping through the night!)

In the picture below, Stella was laying on the floor outside the bathroom smiling up at me while I put my makeup on.

In her Sunday best:

Rosy cheeks from chewing on the frozen teething ring. Yes, I think she may be teething. I’m not 100% sure because I don’t know exactly what to look for, but she has two little white bumps that look kind of little teeth about to break through and she drools buckets and chews on everything. Just under 3 months seems much to early to be teething! I guess time will tell.

Not a smile, but I just had to show you her other common expression: Blowing Spit Bubbles!

Still in PJ’s with bed head, but oh so happy:

Hamming it up