Happy Baby

I recently wrote on the blog that Cille has started to smile, but it took me a while to catch it on camera. Here is my sweet smiling baby...

That's not a treat...

I recently told Stella that we would go get a treat if she was a good girl. Since she was, I took her to Sonic where I got her this strawberry slush...

When I gave it to her, she told me, "That's not a treat; that is a drink."  Oops.  If you are curious, it seems that chocolate chip mini-muffins do qualify as a "treat." 

Granny's 80th Birthday

Mawmaw's side of the family gathered at T.J. Ribs this past Saturday to celebrate Granny's 80th birthday. Stella was super excited because the event combined two of her favorite things: birthdays and ribs.  Stella really loves ribs. Because our party was so large, the waiters brought out the side items first. Stella was happily eating her fries until Pawpaw handed her this bite. After her first taste of the ribs, she said, "I don't want this plate anymore," and pushed her fries aside so she could get down to business...

Seriously, Stella even gnawed a few right off the bone.  Later, Grannie got a kick out of how excited the sight of cake made Stella...



Grannie enjoyed her cake, too!

Although I'm not sure if she enjoyed it as much as Stella did...

Stella's first piece of cake wasn't nearly enough...



Mawmaw was eventually able to coax her down from the table, if not from her sugar high...

After enjoying the cake, most of the party goers gathered for a picture with Granny...

Granny with 3 of her children (Uncle Dub wasn't able to make it this year)...

Four generations of this family...and a french fry.  Hey, we do whatever we need to in order to get those sweet smiles from Stella.  We're not above a little food bribery.  If you could see Damon's hand, he's actually holding an entire rack of ribs...

Granny's 80th Birthday Celebration was a great time for the whole family!  Happy Birthday, Granny!

SEAlebration!

Wednesday night was SEAlebration at the Aquarium of the Americas.  We enjoyed ZOObilation so much that we knew this event would be tons of fun.  Stella started out her night outside at the portable zoo where she petted some kind of lizard...

Next it was Giselle's turn to pet the lizard...

Some of you may recognize "Giselle" as the doll formerly known as "Naked Baby."  Stella recently changed her name and I believe it has something to do with too many viewings of Enchanted.  Next, Stella touched a starfish...



Then it was Giselle's turn...



Giselle wanted to pet the sea turtle, too.  Stella and I didn't have the heart to tell her it was fake.  There were actually several booths set up in which they soaked fake sea turtles in cooking oil and then allowed the kids to scrub them clean with toothbrushes and Dawn dishwashing liquid.  It was neat, but pathetically sad at the same time because it really was a great illustration of how the oil spill is impacting not only our way of life, but our children's future and their entire frame of reference.  But, I digress.  Here's Giselle...
 


Next, we headed over to the Lowe's Little Crafter tent where Stella "constructed" her own kaleidoscope...



Here she is in action...



A creative camera angle, since I am standing beside her and holding that black bag in the picture...



Enjoying the finished product...

After all that hard work, it was time to relax a little by petting a millipede...



Giselle wanted to pet it, too...



Giselle liked it so much she demanded another turn...



Hugo the Hornet was there.  At first, Stella and Giselle were afraid of Hugo.   Here they are contemplating the wisdom of hanging out with giant stinging insects...

Giselle is very brave.  She overcame her fear and posed with Hugo...

Stella only warmed up enough for a handshake...

Inside the actual aquarium, Stella and Giselle had worked up quite an appetite, so they shared some brown cookies...



Friday when we visited the aquarium with Pop, Tab, Zach, and Spencer, the white alligator had his head stuck in the corner.  When we went back on Wednesday, he still hadn't moved. Talk about a sedentary lifestyle!  I guess Louisiana really is the laziest state...



There were divers hanging out inside the Caribbean reef exhibit...

And bands jazzing it up outside.  Video of Stella and Giselle cutting a rug will be coming soon to a blog near you...

Twinkies!

We had another matching outfit day recently.  Stella and Cille were given these matching dresses on accident...two separate families gifted us with coordinating outfits!  Aren't they sweet?

She found her thumb...

Cille must already be under the influence of the Guillory girls, because today she found her thumb...

While Stella generally prefers a noonie or her upside down index finger, when she saw that I was taking Cille's picture she insisted on being included in both the thumb-sucking and the photography.  It was apparently a photo op worthy of pausing her brown cookie eating, but not worthy of tearing her eyes away from Conrad Birdie...

Bye Bye Birdie

To help Stella fall asleep faster for her afternoon nap, I recently had the bright idea of letting her watch a different musical every afternoon. This worked like a charm for a few days. The Music Man and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers both put her out like a light. But then we watched Bye Bye Birdie...

And we have been watching Bye Bye Birdie at least once a day every day since then. The Bye Bye Birdie DVD must now be taken into the car when we run errands, and it was an absolute necessity on our recent trip to Mawmaw and Pawpaw's house.  Here is Stella sitting in her rocking chair (which was mine when I was little) enthralled by her current favorite movie...

And here she is reciting the Conrad Birdie pledge...

Bye Bye Birdie dethroned Enchanted as Stella's favorite. Every time Ann-Margret comes on the screen Stella says, "She is soooo beautiful."  She prances around the house flipping her hair and singing, "How lovely to be a woman, like ME!" at the top of her lungs and holding out the last note as long as she can.  She sings and dances with the rest of the songs and even makes her baby dolls faint when Birdie sings "Sincere."  I was also able to use the movie to teach her that being sincere means telling the truth.  She can't pronounce sincere, but at least she knows what it means!