august

Can you believe we're already in the fourth week of August? As of the 8th, Stella is 14 months old and completely weaned as of last week (side note: hello? I did not expect it to be as emotional as it was. I was weepy and felt so low for a few days. I did some research and found that there is such a thing as a letdown/depression that comes with weaning since your body is no longer producing the hormone prolactin). She loves her whole milk and is eating pretty well unless she is working on teeth. She has been gnawing on her fingers, and I really hope that after this she is done with teething for awhile. She gets so fussy and doesn't eat as well when they are popping through. Her new trick is climbing up the stairs. She is still not walking on her own, but she walks around the furniture, and actually took a few steps toward Brett last night sans help. New words include: yuck (which she yells if she finds a crumb on the floor, and promptly hands to me); rings (her plastic toy rings); meow (if you ask her what Topher, our cat, says), bow (if you ask her what dogs say); mama (she used to only say dada); papa (when she means either Grandpa Lorence or Grandpa Johnson); Ka or Luck for Luke; Ja for Jared; play (she says this one three times in a row); wet; water; cold; milk; Bob for the main word of Sandra Boynton's Fifteen Animals; up; ball; all gone; all clean. She attempts to repeat most words she hears. I love hearing her sweet little voice. Tonight she was feeding herself baked sweet potato with a spoon and when I said "good girl!" she repeated it. Little things like that just kill me!

Waiting on Brett...ha ha!

Getting ready to head out to church

A real page-turner apparently!

Walks are good distractions during patch time

Looking for a toy under the couch

We visited Susie downtown at her new job and enjoyed some lunch together

A quick picture before church; she's wearing the dress Luke and Naomi gave her for her birthday

Stella laughed so hard when she saw Topher do this; these decorations were from her birthday party; we've since moved them to her room

Chasing a frog on my parents' deck

Watching videos of puppies and kittens on YouTube; then FaceTime with Uncle Luke

Fun times with Uncle Jared!

Jared shares Dairy Queen

This girl loves bananas!

I had to wake her up from a nap to take her to a eye doctor appointment. I felt like such a mean mom!

She loves climbing stairs; now I am teaching her how to pivot around to go back 

Crawling with a shirt in her mouth like a puppy

I love her mischeivious expression

She loves bath time - except for the hair washing part

I'm trying to get back to meal planning, so here is my attempt for this week! There is so much thought that goes into planning, buying, preparing, and cooking food, is there not?

I love this time of year when the fashion magazines are all about all the fun fall styles to look forward to! The state of my closet is quite pathetic right now. I am saving money for new jeans, tops, and other layers for fall. 

This Saturday we will be getting glasses for Stella, and we also have to increase her patch-wearing from one hour per day to two hours per day. Yesterday she wore her patch no problem for two hours straight; today was another story. She wore it for a half hour, but then started rubbing at it, and it came off. I tried to do the other hour and a half later, but she pulled it off after a half-hour. The whole patching thing is not fun at all, but we're glad the problem was caught early on. We aren't looking forward to introducing glasses to a 14 month old. Prayers are greatly appreciated for this: patience for Brett and me and that Stella would cooperate and adjust to wearing them relatively quickly!

My older brother, Jared and his wife, Corinne leave for Doha, Qatar tomorrow afternoon. We have had lots of opportunities to spend time with them in the days leading up to their departure date, so that has been wonderful. This summer (as I have mentioned before) has been so hard with saying goodbye. I don't want to write any more about that right now because it's just too emotional and I'm tired. Read this in the meantime, and you'll know where my thoughts and feelings are right now. We went out to eat for a goodbye dinner on Sunday at Butcher and the Boar in Minneapolis.