Stella's First BIG Haircut!

Stella gets complimented on her hair weekly, sometimes daily. It's gorgeous. And thick. Goodness, it's thick. And long. Really long for a three year old. My three year old self would have been super jealous. Hell, at times, my 33 year old self is jealous. But each little individual hair is thin which means it's tangles so easily. For about six months or so I've been suggesting or hinting at a haircut for her. Each time she would burst into tears and say "Then no one will like me/think it's pretty" or something equally as devastating for me to hear as the mother of this THREE year old. Seriously, who thinks that at three? Ugh, hate it. Anyways.....fast forward to Easter last weekend. Apparently the stars and planets aligned and allowed nearly every hair on the back of her hair to come together in one big rat's nest. It was horrible. It took me ten minutes to get it out. And during that time I thought I might have to cut it out. I kinda had one of those full body shudders as I thought about my life this summer spending half of my time at the beach untangling her hair. So I mentioned the hair cut again and she finally agreed with me that it might be a good idea. Yay!  Since we were going to Athens the following weekend to visit Uncle Mikey and Aunt Jessica we could discuss the cut more and look at pictures of what she might like on Pinterest.  But then she got impatient and started saying, "Just cut it. Just cut it already." About five times that week she told me to just cut it or "Is today the day I get my haircut?" 

Aunt Jessica gave Stella her first haircut on her first birthday right after her party. The bangs of her hair grew a lot and the sides of the back of her hair grew, but the middle in the back didn't giving her, not one, but two rat tails. When Aunt Jessica was done, Stella had this 1920's pixie and it was just presh!

before

after

Finally the day came. Aunt Jess threw her hair up for one final topknot before the big cut. 

Doing what she do-striking a pose

Uncle Mikey commented that her hair looked like spaghetti it was so straight.

I originally wanted it to be a bit shorter. Like maybe to her jawline. But looking through photos on Pinterest, Stella kept saying those were too short. She just wanted it to her shoulders. So that's what we did. We can always go shorter later.

Getting that blow out.

Looking SO proud!

Then Aunt Jess spent a while thinning her hair. Thinning y'all!! Because that's normal in a three year old. I'm telling you-so.much.hair.

So many people commented on this. 

And then I woke up this morning to find the side-by-side picture was being removed from facebook because it had inappropriate content. Seriously?! So the naked booty shot from the beach a few weeks ago is ok, but my kid's boobies/booty in panties isn't? Ridiculous. Whatever.

So now Stella looks like such a little adult. Especially with that front tooth gone. I mean, it looks like she's ready for her first day of 1st grade. Not even Kindergarten. We skipped that. Pretty soon we will actually be there. Ugghhhhh....can't handle.

And here she is looking so fashionable on this rainy, cool Monday morning before school.

She was very excited to go to school to show everyone her new hairdo. We walked in with Andrew and his mom and she told me that she heard Stella is Andrew's girlfriend! How cute is that?!  Then Alice's mom, Kate said, "Stella, I love your hair!" Stella swings it all around as she keeps walking and yells, "I got a haircut!" Oh yeah, that's what's different about you. 

Fairy, Tooth Fairy

Wednesday April 12th: I got the call at 11:42 am -Stella had been hurt at school. She slipped climbing the ladder on the playground. They originally thought her top tooth had just split her bottom lip, causing blood & swelling. But Stella wouldn't let them look at her mouth because she was so upset. Stella wanted me to come get her. It takes me less than 5 minutes to get there. When I arrived the director was waiting at the door for me. "It would appear her tooth is gone" she said with clasped hands. "They are attempting to locate it on the playground but it's possible she swallowed it." 😳

Yeah, not what I was expecting. It took two teachers two visits back to the playground but it was recovered. 

I called her dentist's office at 12:15. They told me to be there at 1 when they reopened. We were immediately called back upon arrival. 

The good news is that her tooth came out in one piece with no major damage to the gum tissue & the surrounding teeth were unharmed. There shouldn't be any harm to the adult tooth either. 

Unfortunately they cannot reattach the baby tooth so she will be without a front tooth for around two to three years. 

We are so thankful she wasn't hurt in any other way. And also thankful her dentist didn't charge us for an emergency visit as we don't have dental insurance.  Dr. Aaron Schwartz is amazing and so patient. He was highly recommended before this happened, but this puts him above & beyond. 

Her missing front tooth has given her a cute little lisp but I'm sure once her tongue adjusts to her "new" mouth, her speech will correct soon. Not having a front tooth may also put a damper on her thumb sucking. At least, that's what I'm hoping for. 

Ugh! 😩 Our family & teeth. Is it too soon to be scared for my grandchildren's mouth/teeth?!

We are so blessed. Things could have been much worse. 

Later that day: 

To quote Grace from Ferris Bueller's Day Off: "They think SHE'S a righteous dude!" So I've already received a text from a mom who heard about what happened from her kid (one of Stella's bff's). Apparently her friends thinks it's cool Stella lost a tooth & "I hope I loose a tooth soon too!" My big, brave, beautiful ⭐️. Such a role model?! 

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Luckily I like am a (mostly) organized person and like to be prepared. That and I love keeping a sense of magic around stuff like this. She is a kid only once after all. 

I bought the tooth pillow at a Christmas crafts fair. I thought it was adorable and it was just $4, so I grabbed it thinking I'd have a few years before I used it. Wrong! 

The fairy doors were bought a while back too, but I didn't know what to do with them so I just kept waiting for opportunity to knock. When the tooth fairy needs a place to stay for the night, that was our opportunity. Donald was outside at 10 pm putting these up.  We explained she just visits so this is like a hotel for her and maybe some other new fairy friends. (The fairies were looking at a book on Pixie Hollow so perhaps they are planning a trip together?) She asked how they got there and I said I thought the fairy and her fairy friends-Tink, Periwinkle, Felica (Stella named her FelicA, not Felicia) and the Get-Well Fairy sprinkled fairy dust on us to make sure we were asleep while they put up the doors.

The fairy doors cannot be opened because we don't have magic like the tooth fairy.

My parents were amazing at giving us magic as kids so I thought of them last night as I wrote the letter from the tooth fairy with my left hand which is exhausting btw! (My dad always wrote the letters with his left hand so I wouldn't notice the similarities in his & the tooth fairy's writing.)  Also, I thought I'd pass out from Sharpie fumes before I finished this letter. It takes sooo much longer and much more concentration to write with the non-dominant hand. 

Stella got $3 (since she's 3) & put a dollar in her 🐷 bank & plans to spend the other $2. Stella explained to us that she wanted the tooth fairy to leave her tooth for her so she did (written in pink pen but it's hard to see).

So happy with how this turned out. ❤️

Hair from her first hair cut on her first birthday and her first tooth are now together in this sterling silver round box.

Thursday April 13th: Update on Stella: While pouring the pound cake batter into the pan to bake she starts pestering me to lick the spoon. I told her to wait until I'm done and then she can have some. She makes this pouty "Hmmff" noise, then looks up at me with the saddest, pouty eyes and lips and then lets out this long toot as if on command. Then she howls with laughter. I told her, "I'm trading you in for a new kid!" 

Later that evening when Donald came home from work I say to him, "Daddy, did I tell you we're getting a new kid?"

Donald [to Stella]: "Why are we getting a new kid?!"

Stella: "Because I burped, tooted, made a mess and won't snuggle with Mama."

Moral of the story: She's perfectly fine. 

And truthfully, she hasn't complained a single time about her mouth. She's doing great.

I mean, how beautiful is my child?! Love my little snaggletooth.

24 Hour Date with Donald

Don and Wanda came up this past Friday to watch Stella for us Saturday/Saturday night so Donald and I could have a 24 hour date.   We left the house at 10:00 am and headed to The Wren's Nest, home of Joel Chandler Harris, author of the Brer Rabbit/Bear/Fox tales. 

After a private tour of the home by Nanny (yes, her given name as she told us), an almost 87 year old docent at the house and purchasing a few of the books to read to/with Stella, we headed to Cafe Intermezzo for 12:15 brunch reservations. 

We'd never been to either place and both were purchased as a discount through ScoutMob. We'd heard for years that Cafe Intermezzo was THE place to go for dessert so we stuck with savory brunch choices. I had a crepe with ham, cheese and eggs. Donald had a duck confit omelette with rosemary potatoes. We both had new-to-us coffee drinks. Mine was definitely different, but it wasn't my favorite. After the hostess named almost every single dessert, we chose the quattro leches cake and split a piece. Between that and the caffeinated coffee drink I was a mess after we finished brunch. I was shaking and my teeth were chattering. And Donald was making fun of me. I could have ordered my drink decaf, but I forgot. While waiting for it I remembered, but then thought to myself, "Well, I'm eating a pretty substantial meal, so the caffeine shouldn't be an issue for me." Wrong. So wrong. My head felt all funny and I finally had to get up to go to the bathroom to take some deep breaths. I felt as though I could run at least a half marathon without stopping. Ugh, I hate that feeling. 
Hopefully I will remember this feeling next time I get coffee and remember to stick with decaf like I normally do.

Kim's birthday was the day before and they were out celebrating. We met them up at Scofflaw Brewery in the West Midtown area for a few hours.  

Then we checked in at The Renaissance Hotel in midtown, conveniently located next to The Cheetah.

We changed, then called for an Uber and headed up to the second game of the new season (our first) at SunTrust Park.  We got to the stadium really quickly and easily and getting inside was fast too. 

Donald's company split season tickets with two other companies so we got JAMCO's really good Delta 360 Club seats. Julie, Donald's coworker and her husband, Jeff had the other two seats. Having these tickets allowed us to get in two hours prior to first pitch as well as several free hot and cold buffets, and free drinks (beer and wine). 

We made it out to see the flag being brought out and hear Timothy Miller sing the National Anthem. We also got to see three jets fly over during the song. 

The night before, four fighter planes circled our house a few times and Donald commented that it was weird in all the years we'd lived there, that particular type of aircraft had never flown over our house. Then I suggested, "Maybe they are killing time before the start of the Braves game and their fly over." I was correct and minutes later they flew over during Phillip Phillips singing of the national anthem.  Stella loved that they'd flown over our house.

Once again, my Braves earrings were with me. I'm pretty sure they've been to all three Braves stadiums. I was somewhere between 10-12 when they were given to me and I'm sure I would have worn them to the handful of games I attended at Atlanta-Fulton County stadium.

  

So happy to be out with my handsome husband.

Normally we tell Stella what we are doing while we are away from her, but this time we had to leave out the Braves game part of our date. She would have been so upset to know we were here without her. We called her during the game and at one point it got so loud I had to tell her I'd call back.  I had to go into the club so I could hear here. 

We really, really wanted to go to Opening Day and take her with us, but we couldn't get tickets, through TicketMaster or JAMCO. But then Donald found out we could use the ones from work on Saturday. We were basically going as guinea pigs to test things out for future clients who they may to the games. Free $200 tickets, free food and drinks. Nah, we didn't mind being those guinea pigs.

This view. It's nice. It's also weird because we are used to The Ted. The stadium lay out is very similar to Turner Field, but the background view is obviously different. 

Trying to Uber back to the hotel was an adventure. Leaving the stadium didn't go as smoothly as getting there. We ended up walking all over the place trying to get as far away from the stadium as we could to get a lower rate and actually have someone be able to get to us. We walked to McDonald's at Spring and Cumberland.  We got back to the hotel, showered and changed to go next door to The Cheetah.

We had some drinks, saw many gorgeous women and even met some pretty cool couples. I even did some dancing with a few ladies when my rum, cranberry and lime drinks kicked in all at once it seemed.

This hotel door shot was courtesy of those drinks. We walked the halls late at night/early morning playing hide and seek and essentially did an accidental recreation of that stupid scene in the movie Serendipity when Kate Beckensale puts herself and John Cusack into two different elevators inside The Waldorf Astoria and says if they are meant to be then they will find each other on the correct floor. I hate that movie and I told Donald this when he suggested the game. But I guess we are meant to be because we found each other without phones within a few minutes on another floor. I was in the elevator and he was on a floor waiting on the door to open....and it was me. 

We were up soo late-almost 6:30 I think. We, ok I slept until 9:15 when Donald woke me up. We had to get ready to go to LaGrange for Easter Dinner at Aunt Bonnie's.  We had a great talk on the hour drive down and since I was hungry in the middle of the night, I ate way too much fried chicken and other delicious food when we arrived. Stella was happy to see us too. 

This was a perfect day. We try to be good about having date nights, but that rules out a lot of stuff we can't do during the day which is why I suggested the 24 hour date. This is a definite must do again!

Just bread last night, no meat.

Today I did something I've never done. I woke up to the sound of my alarm which was set earlier than normal so I could get up and do some things before the real day began. We got home at 10 o'clock last night, but after showering and doing a few things around the house, I was fading and new I'd need some extra time this morning.  I used Stella's bathroom and then opened the door to Stella's room. It was shut not because she closed it back in the middle of the night on her way to our room so that B wouldn't pee in her room, but because she was still asleep in her bed. I slowly opened the door and walked over to the bed and gently put my hand on her back and waited. I listened for breaths and felt for movement. When it was confirmed she was, in fact, still alive, I slowly crept back out and pulled the door to. 

Half an hour later or so I went back in to wake my child for school.  
This was a first for me. 

This past week at the beach she's been going to sleep in her bed and sleeping almost the ENTIRE night in her bed. But, and this is a big but, her bed is in our room, just a few feet from ours. I think that's been the difference. She knows we are right there with her. 

Our last night at the beach-asleep in her bed below her new dream catcher

See, she normally she goes to bed in her bed or in our arms in the La Z Boy. Generally, after midnight but before 4 am, she comes strolling into our room and crawls in on my side. Sometime's I wake up when she gets in, other times I don't. I am then made to be the meat to what is our family bed sandwich while Donald and Stella are the bread because she is so hot-natured that she can't stand to be in between us while we sleep. So I basically spoon with her the rest of the night. I occasionally get an arm or hand to the face, or her hair tickles my nose and forehead, but I just push it aside and nuzzle right in again. I love to feel and hear the rise and fall of her chest. I love her smell, even when she's all stinky and has a sweaty head. Just recently I woke up in her pee and still, because I'm her Mama and I've had much worse on me, I was ok with it.  

Before we had kids, Donald and I said, "Our kid won't sleep with us. He/she will sleep in their own bed." And we meant it. But as a super tired nursing mama, I would opt to put Stella in the bed with me for that last feeding that occurred somewhere around 5:30-6:30 am. If I sat up in her room in the recliner like I did for the first two feedings and watched the sun come up, I knew I'd never be able to go back to sleep half an hour later. So when she got to be around 6 months and I could nurse her easily and comfortably on my side, I resorted to nursing her in the bed. That way we could both go back to sleep and sleep in until 8 or 9, sometimes 10 am. Then around 19-20 months, I accidentally broke the side to the drop crib. So Miss Priss would get up and walk into our room whenever she wanted to because she was still nursing. Now, at this point, she was only nursing 1-2 times a day and typically only very early in the am, between 4-6. She'd crawl in, lay on my chest and nurse and then fall asleep. It was THE BEST. Oh I loved it.  

Our nursing journey ended at 21 1/2 months, but she still continued to get into our bed every night. Like every.single.night. Until this past week at the beach. And 99% of the time, I didn't mind, because I barely woke up and like I said above, I loved the snuggles. But recently, she'd been coming in to our room much earlier in the night. And it was almost impossible to get her back to sleep in her own bed. 

So I put my hand on her back and quietly whispered to her "You slept in your bed all night like a big girl. I'm SO proud of you." She had this happy smile come across her face and you could tell she knew how proud I was and you could see she was proud of herself. But then she buried her face back in the bed. She moved her head just slightly in my direction and said, "I'm still sleepy" and cozied back into the covers.  

But here's the kicker-The thing is, I really was SO proud of her for sleeping in her bed all night. But I wasn't really all that happy. I missed the snuggles. 

Actually, I've missed out on lots of snuggles this past week. She(we) didn't nap the entire week of Spring Break. Usually, she sits with me on the beach and we snuggle and if not nap, at least just close our eyes and sit quietly for a while listening to the waves crash and feeling the ocean breeze. Or sometimes we'll cuddle up in the bed mid afternoon and go to sleep together. But neither of those things happened. And I missed it. I wanted it but I couldn't make it happen. Honestly I can't remember the last time she napped. Possibly this photo below which was taken March 13. She must have been truly exhausted to fall asleep here. I do remember she asked me to put quiet music on the TV for her.

So what did I do? I said, "Can I get in and snuggle with you?" Yep, I reversed things on her. She nodded and so I crawled into her little IKEA bed and wrapped my arms around her and nuzzled into her head so I could smell her conditioner and her smell and I just squeezed her tight. And it was wonderful.