Stella's Fun Day

This morning we went to Stella's first storytime, at the library. Anna was the one who alerted us to it. Stella LOVED it. I wasn't going to go at first because it's at 10:15 and that means no walk for me, but I decided to check it out and I'm glad I did. Stella gave the librarian all her attention, and alternated between standing and sitting in my lap. She was riveted. She pointed and got all excited when the librarian brought out her rat puppet, whose name I have forgotten. And she got a stamp on her hand at the end with all the rest of the kids. She keeps staring at it like it's the coolest thing ever. A future tattoo addict, perhaps? I always wanted to be one, but acting and tattoos don't mix very well. Perhaps my daughter can live my dreams;)

Then we went to the playground because I wanted to reward Stella with a chance to blow off steam because she'd been so still and quiet at storytime. We went to Garrison and it was packed with mamas and kids. Apparently a couple of playgroups were out there. SO different from Circle C, though. The mamas were so friendly and I talked to a few of them, having those random playground conversations you do. I wish I had more playdates for Stella (and for me). I should have asked what they all were involved in. I overheard them talking about crafts, but I don't know if that was for the mamas or the babies. There was talk of sewing, so I assume for the mamas. My first thought was, "I'm not crafty", but that's actually a load of bull. I sewed most of the curtains in our old house, I've sewed pillows, a sock monkey and lots of costumes. I used to do collages, scrapbooks before it was a verb and money-making phenonmenon, and all kinds of other crafty stuff. I guess I just don't do it anymore because I choose to spend my free time, which I have less of, on other fun activities.

There were a lot of baby/toddler pairs at the playground and it made me think about second children. Again. Last night we went to Town Lake Park and Stella played in the fountains. She had such a blast. Tim made me stand back with him and watch Stella instead of hovering over her. Stella made friends with a 3-year-old little girl and took her hand and was dragging her everywhere to show her all the stuff she'd learned. It was absolutely adorable. And Tim commented that that would be about the age difference between Daniel and his little sibling and he was like, that will be pretty cool. And I agreed. And I had that moment of "that is pretty cute, perhaps it would be cute to have a sibling for Stella sooner than later." And then today at the playground a woman was nursing her daughter while the other one played and she watched her and it just looked so awesome and idyllic. And I know that is complete poppycock and that for the other 90% of her day she's probably run ragged between showing her older child attention and taking care of her baby, but it still tugged at my womb a bit. You know that horrible place where your biological clock resides and occasionally makes you think crazy thoughts. I think when your child is a year and a half, suddenly every conversation with fellow parents starts with, "so, when are you having another one?" We were at church last week and I was talking to my friend Sally, who has sons who are 20 months apart and she said, "so are you thinking of another one?" or something to that affect and I was like, "not yet." And she was like, "well sometimes God has other plans for you." And I was like, "well, I'm using God's helpers on earth to prevent that." And it turned out she had been on the pill when she got pregnant with her younger one. Although upon further questioning, it turned out she might not have been so thorough on taking that little helper when she was supposed to. And Tim and I talked about it on the way home and realized that Stella is old enough now that if we had an accident, we would no longer want to hurl ourselves off a bridge because even if I got pregnant today, Stella would be 2 years and 4 months when the next one is born. Which wouldn't be horribly impossible. Although still not our ideal. And then freakin' Parents magazine comes today and has a really good article about spacing your children (weird timing), so I read it immediately and it called 2-4 years the "Golden Age" or something like that and so I felt better again and was like, "okay, Stella may not have her best friend in her little sibling, but 3 years is still right for us." I think it's really hard not to think about these things since two of our best friends are currently pregnant with their second babies and decided to have their children much closer together than we are. But I Seriously Cannot Fathom going back to the land of feedings every three hours and newborn cries right now.

Stella and her new buddy:

Right. What a tangent. I meant to relate the other adorable thing Stella did when we were in her room before her nap. She brought me all her hairclips and asked me to put them in her hair, which I did, then she handed me her homemade argyle babylegs, (see, I am crafty!), and directed me to put those on, then I tied her tights around her neck so they looked like a sweater. She looked like the preppy chick from an 80's movie. Or Cher from Clueless. I love that she loves to dress up!