I posted the other day that Stella lost her beloved Daffy Duck. This morning, just before leaving the house, she reached over, opened her mailbox and said "oh, I've got some mail" and pulled him out. I was more excited than she was! I now know the one place in her room that I didn't check.

She had a fine time at the party today. Aunt Pat got the majority of the hugs and kisses, but she made sure everyone got some. I think she consumed more sugar in one day than she usually gets in a week. When we got home, she decided that she wanted breakfast, so she's eating oatmeal. We did convince her to have some milk and peaches, too.

Stella lost her little stuffed Daffy Duck yesterday. He's wearing rabbit ears and feet. She long ago removed his shirt that said "duck season". She was pretty upset last night, but hasn't mentioned him yet, today. I'm surprised, actually. He goes EVERYWHERE with us. Usually it's Daffy and the pillow, but sometimes only Daffy. I found one on ebay, but it's a newer one and the feet are different...the whole thing looks a bit different to me. We'll wait and see. Maybe she won't be as upset as I expect.

She had her second "big kid" storytime yesterday. She stayed for the whole thing, but did come out with a few tears. The librarian said that she was on and off throughout. Stella said it was fun, though. Apparently Anthony sat next to her and she didn't want him to. I had told her before storytime that it was ok to move if she didn't want to be by someone (he pushed her last week). Ahhh...such fun.

We're having a big party tomorrow. My mom died in July and requested that we have a party to celebrate her life. All of my siblings (there are 8 of us) will be there, along with other family and friends. Stella's VERY excited, but a bit confused that we're having a party but it's not a birthday party.

We just got some pics back that my husband took while playing/raking with the girl. In this first one, she's pretending to be an erupting volcano.

One of her all-time favorite outdoor activities is to have a bucket of water and a paintbrush so that she can "paint" the sidewalk.

This week we're working on the letter "E". We rode in an elevator and read about Babar, the elephant. I think we'll eat some eggs tomorrow...

She's got her 2nd 'big kid' library storytime tomorrow. She's very excited. In the evening, we're meeting two old friends of mine for dinner. The three of us (and Stella) have been trying to get together all at once for 3 YEARS! Crazy....

Yesterday was Stella's first "big kid" (3-5 year olds) storytime at the library. She was pretty excited. We got there a bit early and she was jumping around in the storywell. Another kid, named Alexander, showed up and impressed her with his jumping skills, so they became friends. About 20 minutes into the 30 minute sessions, they brought her out. She was crying a bit. I gave her a hug and got her pillow. She said Alexander had pushed her. We went back in and listened to the last story and song. I talked to the librarian later. She said that Stella and Alex were stretched out on the floor, next to each other before she started crying. I suspect that he accidently bumped her when he moved. She didn't seem injured...just upset that her friend had "pushed" her. She's ready to go again next week, so that's good.

We got a stack of books at the Salvation Army yesterday. I love that place. We got 3 or 4 Frances books, Tales from Grimm by Wanda Gag (just read her biography...very interesting. And she was from MN!), 2 Magic School Bus books (which made Stella the happiest girl in town), and a few others.

I'm continuing to tweak my page...let me know what you love/hate. Doesn't mean I'll change it, of course...LOL

Here's my bug on the first day of "school"...she's only 3, so it's pretty low-key. If she's into it, cool, if she's not, that's cool, too. She was just so proud of those letters.

Oh, and her hat goes nicely with the new background, hey?!

I'm working on making my blog look more like me...hence the tie-dyed background. I'll be tweaking it here and there for a while, I suppose.

Stella's had a good week, so far. We are reviewing the letters A-D and reading Caps for Sale. We're using ideas out of the book "Peak With Books" to do different activities related to "Caps for Sale" each day. She really likes this book. Her favorite part is when the peddler is trying to get the monkeys out of the tree. I read and act out his part, then she acts out the monkey part and makes noises. Then we get to throw our hats on the floor.

Tomorrow is her first day of "big kid" storytime at the library. She'll be with a bunch of kids ages 3-5. I get 30 minutes all to myself in the library! She seems pretty excited about the idea. I hope she does well. She LOVES the children's librarian, so I'm pretty sure she'll be fine.

On Friday night, Stella &  I headed down to the Blue Moon. The Back Porch Band was playing. Todd met us there later. The girl had a blast. Her Japanese friend, Takeshi was there. He brought her a new Beanie Baby named Shivers. It's an orange bear ghost. She LOVED it! She crashed on Daddy during the last song. We got her home and into bed with no trouble.

Saturday morning, Stella and her daddy made pancakes and eggs. Very yummy. After breakfast we loaded up the wagon and walked downtown to the annual Fall Art Festival. Stella apparently didn't get enough sleep, as she was rather cranky...very unlike herself. We did have one funny moment. One of our artist friends (who doesn't have kids) asked what she's been up to. We told him she's into the human body right now. He then asked her where her nose was. She just about rolled her eyes at him, but pointed to her nose. Then he asked about her elbow. She humored him. Then I asked her "Stella, what hangs down in the back of your throat?" She smiled, yelled "uvula!" and opened wide so we could all see. Our artist friend then said something about Stella must think he's really lame....lol.

On Sunday we went to my sister's house. Stella's cousin, Ben, was having a birthday party. He's 10 already! There were a few other cousins there...they (including Stella) were 3, 10, 11 and two 13 year olds. It was fairly peaceful. The big kids played nicely with Stella, but didn't stress her out by calling her name constantly, which is what has happened in the past.

After the party, we headed back to town and went to the movie theater. It was Stella's first time. Todd and I hadn't been to the theater in 8-10 years. We went to see Wallace & Gromit: Attack of the Were-Rabbit. It was GREAT! Stella did really well. We had great seats, in that there was a lot of room for her to move around without bugging anyone. She'd be watching, then she'd say "I really like this movie." When she was sitting in her seat, she looked SO tiny. She doesn't have enough "leg" to hold the front of the seat down very far. We had to keep readjusting her.

This week, we're going to be reviewing the letters that we've worked on (A-D) and reading/studying/playing with the book "Caps for Sale". Our friends, Melissa, Annmarie and Avereigh in NC are going to be doing the same book this week.

Stella and I watched "Puff the Magic Dragon" this morning. We had planned on watching it tomorrow, but I realized that it was due back at the library today, so we went upstairs and snuggled on the bed to watch it.

The poor thing...she had a couple of tears rolling down her cheeks when they got to Hanna Lee (I don't know how to spell that) and it was destroyed and Puff told Jackie to go home. She never cried hard..just a tear hear and there throughout the movie. She didn't want to turn it off, though. At the end, she said she liked it a lot.

We've got the annual Fall Art Festival to go to this weekend. That's always fun. Stella's cousin, Ben is turning 10 on Sunday. We'll be going to his party for a bit. If we can, we're going to take her to the movie theater for the first time ever, to see the new Wallace & Gromit Attack of the Were-Rabbit movie. We LOVE W& G...

Stella and I went to the library for the bi-lingual storytime. Sadly, no other kids were there...very odd. The good news is that since we're there 2 - 3 times a week, we know the librarians very well, so Stella got a nice, 30 minute private storytime and learned a bit of Spanish as well. After about 10 minutes, I saw something move on the wall...it was a BAT. The sliding doors were closed, so we (and it) were in a fairly small space. We opened the doors ASAP, and let it out into the main library (so nice). One lady ran for the door. After they found the worker who is good at catching bats we finished the storytime. Stella thought it was the coolest thing ever. I apparently did ok, since she told her dad that Mommy wasn't scared at all.

The other day I was resting on the couch (had a headache) while Stella played in her room. The couch is all of 4' from her door. After a while I asked her if she was ok, she said "yes". I then asked if she was drawing, reading, playing...she answered "no" to each of those. I asked "what ARE you doing then?" and I hear "I'm cutting my hair." I leaped off the couch and into her room. She had trimmed just a bit off of the left side. It's very long and curly on the bottom, so it's not even noticable. Whew....The scissors is now in a more secure spot.

Last week we studied the letter "C". We ate carrots, read "The Carrot Seed", "The Giant Carrot" and  "The Very Quiet Caterpillar" among others. We also found a very good spot for watching crickets. She LOVES to do that. On Friday we made sugar cookies in the shape of the letter "C".

Tomorrow we start on "D". If all goes well, we'll be making a small drum this week. We'll also be watching "Puff the Magic Dragon"....I can't wait. I haven't seen it in forever!

The three of us were up and in the van by 8 am. Stella was thrilled that she got to eat her cereal (dry) in the van. We drove to the old fairgrounds neighborhood and hit their yearly garage sales. There weren't as many as in previous years. Partly because they delayed it a week and also because of all the road construction (which is why they delayed it a week). Found some cool kid books and an orange fleece pullover for me. Todd got a lathe and is thrilled.

We left there around 10 and headed down to the park for the all-day Diversity Festival. Todd dropped me and the girl off and met us there again around 2. Stella and I walked around and checked out all of the booths, then grabbed a brownie and headed to the stages. The first band we saw had several  members who were originally from Africa. They were REALLY good. Stella was busy drawing and pretty much ignored them until the end of the last song...that's when she started walking towards the stage. The singer looked down at her and said "beautiful" and when the song was done he said "that hat...is funky!" (she's got this tie dyed "mushroom hat" that's actually a newborn size, but she won't give it up, so it is stretched beyond belief, but very cute)

We caught a bit of the dancers/singers from Venezuela. Stella was getting grumpy/hungry, so we grabbed some food.

Several local choirs joined together for a few songs. It was interesting to see.

At this point, Stella  had discovered some really good dirt at the base of a tree and found a stick to draw with....by the end of the day, the child was FILTHY, but HAPPY.

Next up was Big Walter Smith and the Groove Merchants. They weree EXCELLENT. This is when Todd showed up and Stella decided that she needed to spend their entire set running at Daddy and tipping him over.

Our friend, Cam Waters played some traditional folk music and some blues after that. It's always fun to hear him.

The MN Scandinavian Ensemble followed Cam. Stella was strangely drawn by the accordian to the front of the stage for a bit...

Theater Mu, an Asian drum group blew us away! So much fun...Stella sat on Todd's lap, riveted by the performance. It helped that they were directly in front of us, less than 10' away. There was a guy with them who played different Chinese instruments for us. One was some sort of "flute" that had a gourd as the mouthpiece...the sound was incredible. He likened it to bagpipes...He also had two that were made from turkey leg bones..very interesting sounds.

The Maroons, a reggae band were next. They were good, but not my cup of tea.

A group of local 6th graders played drums, next. They did 3 songs with their teacher. Very fun.

3 Native American men played the drum and sang for the closing ceremony. They did 3 songs which ended with everyone holding hands and moving in a circle. Stella, who was completely exhausted by then, did NOT want to do that, so we left..

We stopped at the Chinese Buffet to eat before coming home. She went to sleep pretty quickly...

We were working on the letter 'B' this week. Played with balloons, colored with blue, brown and black crayons, rode the bus...but the main "B" topic was the body. This girl is so into organs and bones right now. She's got some Magic School Bus books and we get one MSB video from the library each week. Her favorites are the ones that take place inside the body. The other day when she asked her Daddy, "Dad...where's my pancreas?" We hear her playing with her dolls in her room explaining to them that red blood cells carry oxygen to all parts of your body and white blood cells attack bacteria.

WOW.

She's 3.

I need to start hitting the books to keep ahead of her, I think.

Tomorrow we're hitting a big neighborhood garage sale early in the morning, then spending the day at the park where the annual Diversity Festival is taking place. There will be food, music, stories, etc. all day long. Hopefully it won't rain!

Stella and I have attended ECFE (Early Childhood Family Education) classes since she was a baby. Our first one was and infant massage class. We LOVE the teacher, so we've gone once a week ever since. We're now in the 2-3 group. It's pretty much just a playgroup. There are toys, paint, a sandbox, play kitchen, blocks.....they play for a while, then we have circle time and then snacks. While the kids snack, the parents go to another room with one of the teachers and discuss different issues. (we get a snack, too!) Today was our first day of the latest session. We knew two of the other 6 kids that were there. One boy that we know was out of town, but will be there next week. Stella did pretty well, although they had to get her pillow for her during storytime, I guess.

Later on we went to the library to pick up some books/videos and to sign up for preschool storytime. It starts in October and meets once a week for 30 minutes. I'm looking forward to having 30 minutes ALL BY MYSELF in the library. She LOVES the children's librarian, so I'm sure she'll be fine.

I actually got her to nap today. She was up a bit late last night which surprised us, as the three of us went on a hike up the bluff before dinner. She was awake around 5am having a VERY animated chat with her stuffed animals, but fell back asleep until I woke her at 7:45.