Under the Zilker Tree then and now

Stella spinning under the Zilker Tree a few weeks ago:And 3 years ago (I do have video of her spinning, but no stills of that actually happening):
Hard to believe that is the same kiddo! 3 years has gone by so fast.

7 Months and One Week

I love blowing raspberries

I decided to give Etta a running start on 7 months before I blogged about her. So 7 months and one week seems like a fair point to stand back and evaluate.

Still don't like baths. Still don't get them very often.

You are the smiling-est, happiest baby. I thought your sister was happy, but you take the cake.

Love playing with my rings, just like my sister did!
You have discovered the joy that is raspberries and you will happily do them over and over. This afternoon, your sister and you were having a back and forth raspberries contest in the car. If someone starts doing raspberries, you mimic them immediately!

You also love peek-a-boo. You just laugh and laugh when I cover your face with something and say, "Where's Etta?" then pull it off and say, "There she is!"

Goofing off with your favorite person

Two days after you turned 7 months you chose between two books! I put "Good Night Moon" and "Pat Them Gently" in front of you and told to choose one. You examined both and then decisively grabbed "Good Night Moon"! Now every time we read before nap or bedtime, I let you choose the book.

The last month has been really difficult as far as sleep goes. We sleep-trained you and you are much better for naps, although you still go down for pretty short periods of time, but you have gone from sleeping 7.5-9 hours at a stretch to sleeping 4. If I'm lucky. It's been hard, you slept through the night almost from the get-go, so going back to such extreme sleep-deprivation has been hard on your momma! This weekend you did 8 hours two nights in a row, so I'm hopeful that perhaps we're on our way back to longer stretches of sleep.

You eat 3 meals a day and often demand more, more MORE!

You suffered through your first Slapdash. MeMe stayed with you and Stella, and on the Sunday after it was all over, you wouldn't let me out of your sight. In fact, you wouldn't let me put you down, even to give you to Daddy. You are truly a Momma's girl.

You went on your first family vacation, to Galveston! You weren't too fond of all the time spent in the car, or all the missed naps, but I still think you had your own brand of a good time. At Schlitterbahn, you were all suited up in your life jacket and sharing the intertube with your Daddy and you totally passed out as we floated on the Torrent River. Everyone in the park thought you were adorable. Bathing Beauty
While on vacation, you also had a couple of complete meltdowns in the car on the way back from dinner. Your Daddy, your sister and I sang Old McDonald with increasingly silly animals and objects and you calmed down immediately. That is still your favorite song.

You started sitting in real high chairs at restaurants and sitting in the shopping cart at the grocery store.
You drink out of a sippy cup, although you usually need Mama to hold it so you can actually get water out.
You took your first bus ride
You slid down the slide in the backyard for the first time.

Sometimes I feel guilty because the number of photos I take of you pales in comparison to the ones I took of your sister. And I don't blog about you nearly as much, or in as timely as a fashion, as I did with your sister. And sometimes you get dragged around rather than having your naps exactly when they are supposed to happen. But I enjoy you so much, Etta. I really feel like you've made our family complete. We're now a self-sustaining, contained unit. And I hope that in exchange for not having a moment by moment photographic record of your life, you are getting better parents (because we're more experienced and much more relaxed), and a sister who adores you and keeps you constantly entertained.

And finally, because it's just too much of a coincidence that I took pictures of you and your sister in the same outfit at almost exactly the same age:

Here you are,And here's Stella:

I love you sweetie, till' next month!

6 months!

Her first Starbucks. Very important milestone.

Etta turned 6 months old Sunday. I just cannot believe that my little baby is already halfway through her first year of life! We've been in hardcore sleep training mode and (knock on wood), I'm starting to believe it's working. It's hard when she's screaming and crying, but we'd been setting her up with bad habit after bad habit. And not scheduling around her naps. Last week the you-know-what hit the fan and she would not sleep. Woke up at her grandparent's Thursday night and wouldn't go back to sleep, so they got her up. Then woke up at our house at 1:50am and wouldn't go back to sleep for 2 hours. Eek! So we stiffened our spine, made some sacrifices (like Tim and Etta missing a birthday party that Stella and I went to Saturday afternoon to not sabotage nap), and got her back to human baby form. Most days, we only suffer through less than 10 minutes of crying before she falls asleep. But she still cries as she senses that we're starting her nap/bedtime routine and every time it breaks my heart and I say, "it's not going to work!" Tim is always like, "why don't you give it a few minutes, you say this every night!" I'm glad he's right;) Triple-decker of cuteness

So Etta is now back on the cereal (rice) and has started eating sweet potatoes. She really digs the food now. We went to the doc Monday and she is 26 inches long (50-75%), 13 lbs (25-50%) and 43 cm head circumference (50-75%). For comparison (and of course I have to compare), at 6 months Stella was 26.25 inches long (75%), 16lbs, 9.6oz (just below 75%) and 42 cm head circumference (25-50%). So Stella was 3 lbs, 9.6 oz heavier (WOW), but they're about the same on height. I blogged on the occasion of Stella's 6 month visit too. Apparently then I was also worried about squeezing in 3 feedings. That seems so silly in retrospect. What did I have to do back then? Ah, I was so naive! With Stella the doc, (same doc, btw), was all about cutting down on feedings. No mention of this that time. I guess that's the difference between having a big baby and an average/slightly below average one! I'm enjoying doing everything again this time, but having it be totally different.

Etta continues to be a super happy, smiley baby. She's now moved into the terminally cute blowing bubbles and making really cute gurgling sounds phase. I think teeth may be imminent, as she puts her tongue over her bottom teeth a lot and also is drooling constantly. Plus her gums are swollen. But who knows, Stella didn't have teeth until she was 8 months old!

We'll be going on our first family vacation two weeks from tomorrow. And this weekend my Mom will be coming and watching the girls while Tim and I do Slapdash Flimflammery 6 Hopefully all those changes won't sabotage our sleep training and turn Etta back into a zombie. I did not like zombie baby!
Well, Stella's timer woke up Etta, but not Stella, so I guess I'm back on duty again!

Family Photos

We did family photos a couple of weeks ago and they turned out AMAZING! You probably will only be able to see these for a bit longer, but check out some of them at:

http://www.robinwinklesphotography.com/Favorites/thomas.htm
and
http://www.robinwinklesphotography.com/blog/?p=1985

Etta's got a brand new trick

Etta's been saying "mama" for the past week or two. The first time I heard it, I was shocked because Dada is the easier sound to make and Stella made that sound for months before she said Mama. But Etta is a bit of a Mama's girl;) I knew she was just making a sound and I wasn't naive enough to believe that she knew I was Mama. Until today.

This afternoon I was trying to get Etta to take a nap and she was wailing and was in full-on crawl position in her crib. She looked up at me with those big brown eyes and yelled, "Mama! Maaaammmmaaaaa!" Dude, no mistaking that girl knew what she was doing. She was tugging at my heartstrings. Hard. I am in trouble with this one, she knows how to play me!

5 Months

Etta turned 5 months old yesterday. It is nearly impossible to believe that my tiny newborn has been replaced by this little creature that interacts with us.

In the past month, Etta has:
-started giggling, although it's really hard to predict what will make her guffaw. It is the cutest sound ever, though.
-started motoring using her feet and knees and sort of sliding along on her face.
-started playing with toys. She goes after a toy and really enjoys her rings and other little toys we give her. -she's also started sitting in her exersaucer. She REALLY enjoys it now. When we first tried it a month ago she was not into it.

-found her feet and added them as another "toy".
-started enjoying and lapping up her cereal! This is a very recent development. For the first few weeks, she was not into the food at all. Then last Tuesday, she started eating the cereal with gusto, but she'd spit it back up (the "I don't know what to do with this yet, but I sure want more of it!" syndrome). Yesterday she attacked that bowl like she'd never eaten before and cried when there wasn't anymore. AND most of it stayed in her mouth. This is very exciting.
-started grabbing our plates when we try to eat. Yesterday she picked up fistfuls of greens from my salad, and tonight she shoved her hand into Tim's refried beans. Dining just got a lot more interesting!
-her hair has really thickened up and grown in. Stella described the color of it best as "grey", although I'd call it more silver. It's definitely very blond with some darker light brown (or silver) strands thrown in.

Etta is the most beautiful, happy infant, at least since Stella. She may be even more happy than Stella. She and her sister get closer every day. The look that Etta gives Stella is the closest thing to worship I've ever seen. I can't help but feel a little pang that my sweet tiny baby is growing up so fast, but I'm excited to see the little girl she'll grow into and to watch her and Stella develop their relationship as sisters.
Looking like twins at different ages.

Money to Burn

I was not aware of this, but apparently the City of Austin has money to burn. That's the only explanation I can think of for this:
This is a bag of crap that was left hanging from my front door and presumably the front doors of all my neighbors. The city paid some employee to walk around and deliver a CF bulb and a silly booklet full of "no duh" ways you can conserve energy. Did you know that you can buy energy star appliances that use less energy? And you can save $7 a year by using a CF bulb! Even if these were useful bits of info, they could have packaged the booklet in with our City of Austin bill and paid no additional postage. And they could have included a coupon for a free CF in the bills if they were so gung-ho about it. This is just a disgusting waste of money at a time when we are closing city pools and the libraries are each closed for 2 days a week.

McKenna Children's Museum

We went to the McKenna Children's Museum in New Braunfels Saturday. Stella had a great time:Etta, not so much:

I do NOT want to ride the horsey!
That's not fair, really. We put her on the horse just as she was starting to melt down to let us know she was hungry. We just wanted to snap her photo before I whisked her away to feed her. But it really cracks me up!

Etta's Peculiar way of Crawling

Stella's Quote of the Day

I was trying to remember this for yesterday's post, and luckily Tara has a better memory than me and remembered the story!
Yesterday morning, Stella was standing up on our bed, yelling "I'm the Party Pig!" and then crashing onto our bed (like she was jumping into a mosh pit circa 1993.) I was like, "what's a party pig?" and she said, "the store I went to with Baba to buy Daddy's balloons for his birthday". I have no clue how she was a store. I asked her what Party Pig's wear and she said, "nothing. I'm the naked Party Pig!" and then dove onto the bed once more. Then she said, "I'm the Party Pig soldier!" before diving again. Sometimes that child is so weird.

Cute Quote from Stella

I was trying to convince Stella to watch Sesame Street (rather than Curious George or Franklin, her favorites of late) and I said, "don't you miss Elmo and Big Bird and everyone?" And she said, "I don't miss them, Elmo and everyone misses me!" Then she decided to go ahead and watch it and she said, "So they won't miss me anymore!" Too cute!

Stella and Etta got the chance to model some more clothes Wednesday morning. Check them out. Make sure to scroll through to see all the pics (and all of Becka's adorable clothes). Pick up an outfit or bib while you're there!

Etta has started really motoring lately. She will use her foot or knee to push off and really is getting places. Guess it's time to start baby-proofing!

Etta on Etsy

Etta had a brush with fame yesterday. Her picture from Becka's Etsy store (Baby Bolt) was featured on the front page of Etsy! I didn't see it, but Becka sent me a link to a site that apparently saves them all. You can see it here.

This is very cool because, well, my daughter is adorable and I want the whole world to see and, more importantly, Becka sold 3 of those onesies yesterday because of the prominent placement. Yay! She also wants Etta to model some more stuff. How fun!

Of First Meals and Ballet Recitals

Etta ate her first solid food Monday evening. It was the standard first food: rice cereal. She seemed sort of intrigued by it at first, but quickly broke down. That might have had something to do with the fact that we did it shortly before she goes to bed. She sure did look cute while doing it though!Yesterday was Stella's last class of Ballet. They invited parents and loved ones to come watch the class. It was so much fun to get to watch Stella in a totally different environment! I was so intrigued by how she interacted with the other students and the teacher. She was very good about listening and following directions and was quick to pick other students for her partner or share when sharing was called for. Other girls would talk, or sit there and not get up and join in, but not Stella! She also was a enthusiastic dancer. She couldn't stop jumping, it was so cute to watch!

Sitting on her circle at the beginning of class

They jump or do some sort of dance when their name is called during roll call. Stella gave a very high jump!
Dancing with her scarf, perhaps a little too enthusiastically.

I took way too much video. In fact, I filled up my memory card! It was wonderful to see my fearless little girl having so much fun. I definitely plan to enroll her in another dance class, she seems to be learning so much and getting more and more comfortable dancing and moving. She also LOVES watching the big ballerinas.
She got a haircut today, so no more shaggy girl. I also scheduled pictures wth an actual photographer for the end of August. No openings before then, unfortunately, but I think it will be worth the wait. I ordered tutus for Stella and Etta from Etsy, and matching hairbows. The cuteness might break her camera:)

Cute quote from Stella: "For Halloween, Etta will be a ghost and I will be a cat." No clue where she comes up with this stuff!

Four Months Old!

Hey, look, they're actually bathing me! This is my first bath in the bathtub

Etta turned 4 months old yesterday. It's hard to believe how big she's getting! I still think she's tiny, and then I see her alongside our friend's baby who's 3 weeks old and I realize she's big. She's a real baby now!

Last week, Etta got both her first cold and rolled from her back to her tummy for the first time. The combination of these two things kept her from sleeping much. At nap time and bed time, she'd roll over onto her tummy, scream because she was unhappy on her tummy, and we'd flip her back over. Lather, Rinse, repeat until the poor thing was too exhausted to roll over anymore. It is getting better this week, though. The cold seems to have finally made its exit and Etta seems to have made peace with rolling onto her tummy. Taken right after Etta rolled over for the first time

We had her 4 month check-up yesterdat and she was 25 inches long (75th percentile), weighed 12 lbs, 1oz (10-25th percentile), and her head was 41cm (50th percentile). Her sister weighed 14lbs, 12.8oz at 4 months and was 25.5 inches long. Stella's head was 40 cm. Dr. Patil said Etta slipped a bit in the percentages, probably because she's so active, so we need to start giving her cereal to get her more calories. I don't know when we'll squeeze that in, we barely get the poor thing bathed on a somewhat remotely regular basis! I can't believe she's ready for food, my baby is growing up way too fast! It's also weird to have a baby so different from Stella was always at the top of the percentages. Just goes to show that every child is different! Things On My Baby.com

Other fun things Etta loves to do: chew on her fingers, stare at her fingers, when I got her up to eat in the middle of the night the other night she was clutching on to her binky by the mouth end. She pushes way up on her arms when she's on her tummy. She loves to "sing along" with you when you sing. She LOVES to watch Stella dance.

Stella at just shy of 4 months
Etta just shy of 4 months

Now I feel like the girls are really starting to look quite different!

Television rots your brain

I decided this morning that I didn't want to do the drive Tim to work, pick him up routine, that we would hang out here and be lazy instead of going to the weekly pool playdate out at my friend Beth's. It's only been an hour and twenty-five minutes since Tim left for work and I think I made the wrong decision. See, when Stella got up this morning, she asked where we were going today and I said, we're staying home. And I started to rattle off all the fun stuff we would do: eat breakfast, play outside on the playset, watch Sesame Street, all just us girls. Well, she latched onto that Sesame Street and declared, as of 10:15am after about 30 minutes of playing outside that it was "too hot" and she wanted to watch Sesame Street. I tried my best to dissuade her, that this was probably her only point during the day that it would still be cool to play outside. Heck, I was enjoying being outside, and as I had just put down Etta, I was really looking forward to playing with Stella. But I have created a monster.

Holy crap, they had the little German guy from Laugh-In on Sesame Street!

Yes, we are watching ancient Sesame Streets from the early 70's. Anyway, Tim and I have been strictly no television for most of Stella's life. We let her watch Sesame Street a couple of times last fall, once when we were sick and once when she was sick. We watched a Muppets Christmas special together, etc. I've never missed it or felt like I needed it to keep her entertained. Then since it's gotten wicked hot, in the late afternoons, like 5 or 6 before Tim gets home from work, we've watched an episode here or there, probably once a week or once every other week. I enjoy Sesame Street probably nearly as much as she does, honestly. She's 3 now and I don't have any problem with her watching occasional tv, but I sure wish she wouldn't whine for it. That makes me think I've turned her into an addict.

I think one of the hardest things about being a parent is that even when you give them your full attention, they can still sometimes be difficult. Like, I understand when I'm doing laundry or cleaning the kitchen or trying to get whatever done that she would start whining. But when I'm trying to be an actively involved Mom, which, I might add is 90% of the time, I want Stella to be an Actively Involved Kid. Which she is about 75% of the time. But man, when she throws temper-tantrums or wants to watch Sesame Street when I'm trying to play with her, that is tough.

Wow, Bill Cosby is YOUNG in this show! And wearing a weird leather vest and yellow shirt with butterfly collar.

Yesterday afternoon we had a super-fun time talking about my childhood. I saw a little glimpse of the buddy I'm going to have (and I DO think you can be a Mom and a buddy. I considered my parents to be my best friends growing up and they were definitely still my parents.) Stella kept asking me what toys I had when I was growing up, and who gave me my Barbies, etc. I got a little choked up telling her about how most of my Barbies came via my Grandmother, one each Christmas, who passed away when I was 15. But I was surprised to realize that I couldn't remember most of my childhood toys, even though I'm sure I had a ton.

Wow, some of this old Sesame Street is very Dada. No wonder they say it is "nostalgia for adults but does not meet the needs of today's preschooler." Whatever. My today's preschooler loves it and loves to talk to me about it.

Woah, they are showing the Lion and Tigers eating big bloody pieces of raw meet. Ewww.

Dude, the German from Laugh-In is back! God, I loved Laugh-In re-runs when I was a kid. I wonder if you can get them on DVD.

Oh man, that is a super-young Alan Arkin on Sesame Street. Was there any actor who wasn't on Sesame Street?

Stella and Etta had their first modeling gig yesterday. My friend Becka makes awesome clothes and she used them as models for her aprons and bibs. Check them out at her Etsy shop.

Well, I'd like to leave you with a cute picture, but uploading pictures to Blogger doesn't seem to be working right now, so you'll have to just be content with the pictures on Becka's shop for now.

3 Months

And 10 days. I can't believe it's been nearly a month since I blogged. Life has been busy! So what's happened, let's see:

Etta turned 3 months old on the 20th, and took her first road trip, to see her grandparents and Aunts and Uncles in Houston.

The girls with their Auntie Caroline in her beautiful new house:

With their Pappy on Father's Day:
With Daddy on his first Father's Day as a Father of two:
Etta also started napping in her own room, first in the travel crib, then in her own crib, and now, as of a week ago, she is sleeping in her own room in her crib, at night. I think we all sleep much better with that arrangement. She's started wearing sleepers, and I think she's gearing up to roll from her back to her tummy any day now. I find her either on her side, or trying to roll that way almost every time I walk in her room.

Stella started ballet class today. She looks so cute in her little leotard, tights and ballet shoes. Unfortunately we all got soaking wet on our way to her first class, as it was raining cats and dogs this morning, but she seemed to really enjoy herself. I think her favorite part was watching the big Ballerinas and male Ballet dancers (is there a word for that?) before class.

Tim and I threw a joint birthday party with TWELVE children and a mess of adults. It was a lot of fun, but a lot of CRAZY too!


This is also the corner where we will be building a playscape for the kiddos this weekend. It was Stella's birthday present from her Aunt Caroline, Uncle Daniel, Aunt Christine and Uncle Brian, but we've been a wee bit busy and haven't tackled it yet. I'm really excited, Tim has grand plans!

Well, my car's done at the mechanics, so I guess that's all the updates for now!

I Feel Transformed!

On the absolutely beautiful, really cool quilt Ashley made us
Etta went 7 hours and 15 minutes between feedings last night! Hallelujah! I hope this is the start of a larger trend. For the last week or so she'd been regressing to only 3 or 4 hours between feedings at night and it had been wearing me down!

I took her to book club last night and my friend who has a baby a week older than Etta also brought her daughter. I couldn't believe how much bigger and advanced her baby seemed than Etta! We were talking about how you can't help comparing your children, which of course I do, but I usually think my children are vastly superior;) I think because Margeaux (the other baby) had so much hair and was so much bigger, she seemed even older than she was. Everyone said Etta was so tiny, but to me she looks so big because I focus on how she's growing so much every day! Etta was perfectly behaved and really enjoyed her first girl's night out. I faced her out towards everybody and everyone told me she would turn to look at whoever was talking. Looks like I might have another outgoing little girl on my hands!

Yesterday afternoon, Stella and I lounged in the grass under the oak tree and cuddled and were silly. It was SO much fun! I have to remember to take those moments and just enjoy being a parent. There was a really nice breeze and it really was hard to believe that it was summer. That's definitely the part of our yard I think we'll be spending the most time in as it gets hotter and hotter. We'll probably even set up the outside stuff for our birthday party Saturday there because we're starting when it will still be hot outside. I'm thinking a bunch of blankets set out for a picnic while the kiddos run wild. I also took no pictures yesterday afternoon because I was just enjoying my time out there. That's rare for me.

Speaking of pictures, I think I realized a reason why people have so many pictures of their first child and far less of their subsequent children: when you have only one, you spend a large portion of your day just sitting around staring at them. So taking pictures gives you something to do. And it's creative and fun. Also, you feel like you don't want to miss documenting one second of their development. I'm busy with Stella too now, of course, but I also spend a lot more time just enjoying Etta and what she's doing, rather than grabbing the camera to record every moment. I get regular pictures of her, but there's no reason to take a whole "roll" every day! Actually I just tried to find a picture of Stella for this post and realized I've only taken one of her since May 25th. Now I feel a little guilty. Guess I'd better step up the picture taking of her at least!

Stella shocked me yesterday. We were laying out in the backyard and I was telling her about the Wildlife Park outside San Antonio and how we should go, that her Daddy and I had gone, etc. And she said, "Was I in your tummy then?" and I said no. Luckily she did not ask her usual question which is, "where was I then?" which is always difficult to answer. She's not ready for the details yet and we don't believe in some giant Cherub factory in the sky, so it's hard to say anything. But what she asked yesterday made that question seem easy-peasy. She asked, "How did I get in your tummy?" WOAH! I was not prepared for that. I said, "um, give Mommy a second." And then I said, "when a Mommy and Daddy love each other very much, they decide to have a baby." She wasn't falling for it, she said, "but how did I get IN your tummy?" Uh, Uh, stalling, stalling. "Daddy put you in there." And then she asks, "How?" Crikes, kid you're only 3! So I remember what I was supposed to say in the first place (at least according to the books) "how do you think he put you in there?" And she pointed to her belly button. PHEW! Then she pointed to my bellybutton and tickled me and the topic was changed. I neither confirmed nor denied that she was inserted via belly button. But I think I'd better read up on how I'm supposed to answer these questions and fast. Kids today grow up too quickly!

More cute Stellaisms: We were driving down South 1st Sunday in search of snowcones and there was a guy at S. 1st and Barton Springs just standing there wearing a G-string! He was pushing his bike (of course you wouldn't want to ride it because then you couldn't see the goods, duh!) We were flabbergasted and much amused. Even in Austin, we're used to only seeing Leslie wearing that little clothing. At least outside of Hippie Hollow. It looked like this guy was in shape enough to wear what he was wearing (we did only see his backside) and I guess he was just creatively trying to beat the heat. He also obviously enjoyed all the attention and was waving to passerby. We'd been sitting there for a few minutes, Tim and I talking at length about him, when Stella said, "He's probably wearing sunscreen." OMG, it cracked me up! Glad my repeated messages about sun protection are sinking in!

Happy Birthday to Me!

At 8pm tonight I will have been on this earth 32 years. Hard to believe. I have to say, a lot of wonderful things have happened since my last birthday, but the definite highlight was having Etta, who is gurgling and playing on the floor next to me. Etta is the reason my birthday began at 6:15am, but I'll let her off the hook this time:)

Wow, poor baby has the hiccups and is farting at the same time. I have a feeling she won't be happily gurgling for much longer!

I have nothing profound to add, I'm too sleepy these days, but I just wanted to mark the occasion!

Hook 'Em!

Stella did Hook 'Em for the first time Monday morning. She also insisted that Etta where her Longhorn Cheerleader outfit that day. Here's some pics and the video of Stella doing Hook 'Em and Etta looking like she's cheering!

Etta at Two Months

Etta had her two month checkup today. She is 23 inches long (75th percentile), 10 lbs, 3.2 oz (almost 50th percentile) and her head is 39 cm (50-75th percentile). She rolled from her tummy to her back and really impressed the doctor. She also impressed the doctor with how well she can hold up her head and by trying to crawl right off the exam table!

Apparently she's taking after her sister, because I read back on what I'd written when Stella had her 2 month check-up and apparently the doctor used the word "awesome" to describe how well Stella held up her head and said that Stella "held her head up like a 4 month old". For comparison, Stella was also 23 inches long at her 2 month checkup, but weighed 11 lbs, 9.6 oz and had a head circumference of 38.5 inches. Here's Stella at two months:
Man, it is obvious they are sisters, but there are also obvious differences. For one, Stella had a lot more hair and I think Stella's face was a little rounder, where Etta's is a little more oval.

Stella had her 3 year checkup today and everything is right on track. She was 40" tall (97th percentile) and they said 41 pounds (97th percentile), but at home she's been weighing consistently 38.5 pounds. She was wearing her Lucky jeans today and I think they weigh a couple of pounds all by themselves!