Stella Ruth = 2, Mommy = 0

Twice, in two days, Stella has bested me.

On Friday, we looked at the window at a gloomy day. It was very foggy (as most mornings are here now) and Stella was convinced it was raining. It’s not raining, Stella, I said, as we finished up her daily ritual of toast with cream cheese. However, when it was time to put on clothes and shoes for preschool, she insisted that she needed her rain boots. It’s not raining, I protested, and rain boots are impractical for preschool. 15 minutes later, we were in sneakers. Then it was, I need my sunbrella, I need my raincoat. No you don’t Stella, it’s not raining out. Let’s just get in the car and go.

We open the back door to the driveway, and guess what it was doing? Misting – very heavily. (aka in Southern California = rain). Stella screams “MAMA! It’s RAINING!!”

I don’t think she understands what smugness means… but I may have detected a bit of a smug look on her face when she looked at me with utter glee and cried, “GET MY RAINCOAT!”

Cut to: Saturday afternoon.

I must preface the story with: Stella has been asking for goldfish crackers for days. We have none in the house. I told her I had to go the grocery store and pick them up.

Today, Steve took Stel and Scup to the local trail/mesa/beach access thingy so that I could have a bit of a break, which, of course, consisted of me slogging through Costco on a Saturday afternoon in search of crab meat. When I picked them up at the end of the trail so they didn’t have to walk home, I asked Stella how the trail was. It was a good trail, she informed me. You went grocery store? Oh yes, I said. I got crab meat and raspberries. “Mama got fishy crackers!” she cried. Of course, because I went to the grocery store, I was supposed to get fishy crackers. This girl doesn’t miss a trick, as my mom would say. OH no Stella, I am so sorry, I didn’t get fishy crackers. That grocery store doesn’t have fishy crackers. Oh, she cried, but I WANT fishy crackers.

On the 5 minute ride home, all we heard was how much she wanted fishy crackers. In fact, we had a mini-tantrum when we got home because she still didn’t understand that if Mommy went to the grocery store, why weren’t there fishy crackers in the house? (I excused the tantrum a little b/c it was of course dinner time and she was a mess). After acquiescing to a veggie burger with cheese, yogurt, and broccoli, she became much happier. We all sat at the table, and Stella noticed my little notepad and pen. It’s the notepad where I make lists – and of course, grocery lists included. “I write?” she asked. Okay, sure. What are you writing?  “Fishy crackers.”

Yup. Stella was adding fishy crackers to the grocery list. Smart girl. Ugh. Bested by a toddler in 48 hours. Impressive, little one. Can’t wait until you are 13.

Words words words

I have another post somewhere in the ether about Stella and making un-birthday cakes last week, but I have been slow to upload the video that MUST go with it. Ah well. All in good time.

I did realize today on our walk home from visiting the horses (where else?) that I wanted to document some of the wonderful, but utterly wrong phrases and words that have come out of Stella's mouth in the last few months. I mean, let's be honest here, I should be happy with ANYTHING considering my dear girl didn't have but 5 words in January and one of them wasn't even Mama. Now, of course, we wish she was silent for a minute or two, but there is no going back...

Some of Stella's word mistakes, that I find equally frustrating and adorable:
Firefly = butterfly. This would be confusing if we lived on the East Coast, but without actual fireflies here, we usually know what she is talking about.

Ur-wear = underwear. I would get her to say "panties" instead, but I just can't bring myself to use the word myself. Panties. Ick.

Leabe it = leave it, usually related to dog treats. Scupper doesn't pain attention anyway.

Sunbrella = umbrella - and since it is never rainy here, it works quite appropriately

Uno, socko, sinko, says = uno, cuatro, cinco, seis. They have been doing counting in Spanish at her school, and supposedly, a few weeks ago, she had the whole thing from 1-6, (dos and tres included) but somewhere they disappeared, and cuatro was mistaken for socko, and well then, she just spouts this phrase off whenever I ask her to count things. Regardless of the fact that there might be TWO things or FIVE. Ah well. She's trying. I keep correcting, doesn't make a bit of difference.

my REAL daddy = this phrase has been coming up a bunch. Where is my real daddy? He is my real daddy, etc. I have NO IDEA where the whole "Real" aspect came in, but I keep telling her that Steve IS her "Real" daddy. This, of course, does not help the on-going joke that Steve has been doing since Stella was a small fetus in-utero, which was, "Well, I guess it's mine" or "Well, since she isn't mine, I'll take care of her anyway." I guess he initially found it funny because we weren't married, but now, after 2 1/2 years, it rears its head again when Stella tells me her "Real" daddy is home from work. The joke annoys the ever-loving crap out of me, but Steve still gets a kick out of it. Thanks Stel.

Rainy days...

Don't be confused. It's not raining here. It hasn't rained since May? April? At least. However, Stella is obsessed with all things rain gear. Like raincoats, rainboots, umbrellas. She wears her rubber rain boots around the house and yard quite a bit. Last week, it was very foggy in the morning and quite misty - enough that it sort of "felt" like rain. Well, not rain... but rain to a 2 year old. We decided to take Scupper on a longer hike along the flat Mesa near our house and Stella suited up. She insisted on wearing her rain coat, rain boots, and take her umbrella. I knew I would be carrying this umbrella most of the hike, but whatever, it wasn't worth haggling over.


We ran into some people on the walk who looked at her and were like, wow, she's ready. They laughed. Hey, what are you going to do with an independent toddler who lives for playing in water and doesn't get to have fun in the rain but 3 months a year? The fog was fabulous, the mist divine, and made the hike all the more enchanted because we couldn't see the end of the mesa.

And then I got stung by a yellow jacket and it was game over. But at least the "rain hike" was fun.

The funniest part (at least I think?) Stella, for some reason, can't say "UMbrella" but rather says "Sunbrella." Which couldn't be more to the truth, considering that she usually plays the umbrella during a sunny day.

In honor of...

A friend of mine has started a new blog that has short, sweet posts - basically a fun story from her day with her girls. This way, at least it seems to me, she can share what's going on, but not have to feel like she needs to write a tome about life. I wish I had the gumption somedays to be able to write long, introspective blog posts about our daily life. I really do. I read a lot of blogs whose writers are witty, funny, or thoughtful and have such ways of telling about the life we currently live - surrounding by the looniness of children, asking for advice, telling a story or two. I think I used to do that on this blog, but it seems as of late, time gets shorter and shorter. Maybe I should spend less time reading blogs and more time writing. Although when most mornings during the week are taken up with academic writing, the last thing I want to do in the evening is write some more. Zoning out reading other people's much more prosaic writing seems to do the trick. And in many ways, this blog will be as much Stella's baby book as a window on our lives for the few readers who read this (i.e. grandparents and close friends) so I might as well keep track of the fun, but brief moments in our day.

So here's a quick story from today, as over heard by me in the kitchen while reading through a recipe for dinner tonight:

Stella: (to Scupper)

Leab it. Leab it. Wait. ..... Okay!
 .... Again? okay. Leab it. Leab it. Wait.... Okay! Mama! Scuppy likes treats.

Yes, that was just Stella perfectly executing the "Leave it" command with parts of her snack that she didn't want to eat. Good girl.

To the Redwoods and Beyond!

In case you want to sift through lots of pictures about the Redwoods...
we survived - and the true test of survival included Stella asking about going camping 3 days after arriving home.

WIN!

By the end of the week, we definitely learned what we didn't need on the trip, how to most quickly and effectively pack and unpack a van, and I learned how to fight the dog for the right to sit in the front seat. (I didn't always win, I will tell you that). Stella did amazing with the amount of driving we did - and although we thought she would blissfully sleep through most of it, she did not, but still was a happy girl amusing herself most of the time. I only had to break out the laptop and the Beatrix Potter DVD on the last day (which, admittedly, was our longest drive of the trip).

Some highlights:

One night we stopped at a little Indian place for dinner since we were staying in a concrete RV park and knew we couldn't make dinner. Stella drained an entire mango lassi in 5 minutes flat. Then proceeded to inhale all of my basmati rice and my dal (lentils.) Guess she was hungry.

Stella noticed a state of California flag at one location and I explained to her that it was a bear on the flag. For some reason, I thought it was a golden bear (but then later realized that a golden bear is UC Berkeley's mascot and the state flag is merely a regular ol' bear). Stella then sang the song "Golden Bear" to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle" most of the whole trip. The lyrics, you ask? Golden bear oh golden bear, golden bear, a golden bear. Golden bear, a golden bear.... :) I have it on video somewhere. It will be the next post most certainly.

By mid-week, Scupper started refusing to get back in the van after we stopped for a hike or got out to explore an area. Think he was done with it?

We kept saying how huge the trees were. We felt rather dumb, but each time we would see another one, we would say to each other, wow, that's a big one.

Stella was very good with the potty and her underwear on the trip. She also has a fascination with going in public restrooms, much to my hygiene chagrin. Every time we came out of the bathroom, whether it was at the campground or out in about, she was shout to whomever was outside, "I just went on the big girl potty!"

We loved Northern California. If anyone has jobs for us up there, let us know. We are ready to move. Preferably Sonoma County, north of the Bay Area.

Camping Trip

The Digital Age

More about the awesome trip to the Redwoods and back later, but today so I don't forget it:

Okay Stella! Let's go take Scuppy on a walk. He's waiting. We'll take the long way so we see all the different horses on the way.

Stella: (picking up her play phone) Hello?

Who are you calling?

Stella: (matter of factly) The Horses.

Oh.

Stella: Lucy? Hi. We coming to see you!

Brilliant. Nice to know that Lucy the neighborhood pony is on AT&T wireless.

EDITED:
Stella has also been saying "Yes indeed" and "yes Ma'am" to us when we ask her things. It's rather odd. She draws out the Yes, so it turns into "Yesssss... (pause) indeed!" Steve has been trying to explain to her that he is not a "ma'am" but rather a Sir, so last night's respond turned into "yess..... sir ma'am." Ah well, at least she is inclusive.

Attempting to go where no man... oh who are we kidding?

So on Friday night, we leave for a week's vacation. This is weird for us, because since Stella has been born (and hell, let's be honest, since I think 2005?) our vacations longer than a long weekend have been to visit family. Not that this has been bad - it has actually been lovely, but the locations are still to places that we've been before - Southern Illinois, Delaware, Chicago. The other trips Steve and I have taken in the last few years have been solo flights - and either to conferences (oh thrilling) or interviews (even more thrilling). Our trip in 2005 was a week long trip up to San Francisco and back (funny enough, the first 2 days were in San Fran because of a conference!) but the rest of the week was spent in Napa, Sonoma, and the Big Sur and Central Coast.

We are attempting to revisit some of this coastline, but intend to high-tail it pass the Bay Area and make it to at least Eureka. (which is about 1 hr south of the CA/OR border). See, the Vanagon needs to go through the big Redwoods, snake through the Avenue of the Giants, and stop by some NorCal microbreweries that might have outdoor seating that will accommodate a TODDLER AND A DOG. (pretty funny, eh?)

Yep. I'm a little trepidatious. 9 days in the VW with a dog (who currently has the runs and we are hoping is better before Friday) and a toddler who, frankly, is really happy everywhere as long as she gets a nap and sleeps well. We are hoping for the best. I mean, it's not like we are planning on stealth camping (like that would EVEN be possible) and we are certainly not going away from civilization, as we have planned our route to hit the various campgrounds along the way, or as one VW forum member calls them "pay per view sites." We have no aspirations to do major hiking. We have no aspirations that we will sleep well every night. We have no aspirations that there will be no crying, or bug bites, or at least one crazy poopy blowout diaper.

But that's ok. We are adding a big trip to the already full "family vacation camping lore" that surrounds the Germonskis. And one little girl is VERY excited. In fact, today when faced with crappy choices at Kmart (our only box store for 45 minutes around here) she started to cry that they didn't have any camp chairs her size. "I want a geen one Mama!" We're working on it. At least somewhere along the way, there has got to be a Target, right?

So if anyone has a favorite camp meal (since I won't be doing my regular gourmet chefing on this trip!) let us know. And cross your fingers, say a prayer, or a thought of inspiration - whatever strikes you - next week when you think, god, I wonder if those Germonskis are surviving that crazy trip?