Happy Birthday Stella!

To our darling Stella,
We now celebrate two years of your life, two years of our life as your parents. Truly it seems the gift is ours today, for you've blessed us in so many ways. You are funny and kind, friendly and outgoing, determined and energetic, gentle and loving. Did we ever really know what love was till we met you? Certainly not. We've seen you grow so much since that first day we laid eyes on you; we've seen so many firsts. Can it really be that you are already two years old? You are loved an adored by so many. You are a wonderful little girl. So, happy birthday sweet Stella Adeline. Your mom and dad love you so much and are so glad you are ours.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

last week

We had some family visit last week and had our first trip to the zoo this season. Randy's brother, Mike, his son, Jon, and girlfriend, Terri, stopped in for a couple nights on their way to Florida for spring break. It was great to have them and we had some beautiful weather and a great time at the zoo. This year Stella was so much more interested in all the animals. It was very fun to watch her.
Stella loved her cousin Jon and couldn't get enough of him. Thankfully he really likes her too and is very good to her. :)

Early birthday present

Stella loves her new playset. Well new for us, I found this on Craigslist after a couple weeks worth of looking several times a day. I love it when diligence pays off. We are looking forward to her birthday party next week! It will be great this year to have all of her friends and Uncle Matt, Aunt Kandi, Maggie and Reagan there!

baby #2

Baby Kruse #2 is looking good. I am 12 weeks pregnant now and just had our first ultrasound today. Everything looks GREAT and we're so excited! All the measurements are right on and heart rate was 157. (normal is 120-180) The baby was moving around a lot during the ultrasound and Stella was very interested in what was going on.
If you need a little help...the head is on the right and you can see little arms and feet are on the left of the picture all tucked up.

This picture is hilarious!! He/she looks like a little frog! This is a picture of the baby's tummy and legs.

The due date is technically Oct. 3rd. However, we will be scheduling a repeat c-section and so at this time the proposed schedule date will be Monday, Sept. 27th.

1st trip to the dentist

So...we went to the dentist. Here is a picture of her playing before the appointment.

Here is a shot of her afterwards with a cool new mirror she got.

I could not take any pictures during because I was too busy holding her down! I thought Stella would do a good job at the dentist. She seems to always like new adventures and new people. But this apparently was NOT the day for her to visit the dentist. She didn't like the purple gloves or the tools or the flouride or the cool chair that moved up and down. We went to a pediatric dentist office. So the ladies were all so friendly and welcoming and tried really hard to get her to warm up and she just wasn't having it. She cried very loud while the hygentist was trying to do anything, even just look in her mouth.

We were told that we need to get her to stop sucking her thumb. This I knew. But so soon? Why does part of me not want her to stop sucking her thumb? I think it's because that'll be the last little bit of baby to go and that makes me sad. I know it's silly. So I'm going to start talking to her about it. We'll work on it.

Bed time stories

Getting ready for bed...we've had a bath, AFV is on, we read lots of books and lately we've liked to have a little late night snack.

We've been able to go on lots of walks outside lately and whenever a car drives by Stella just waves and waves to it! We get a lot of smiles this way. Stella has met a few new babies recently. 4 of our friends here have just recently had baby #2 and Stella really likes them. If I let her get close to them she's always very gentle and likes to give them their blankets.

Stella has a growing fondness for Mickey Mouse! She likes to watch Mickey Mouse Playhouse on t.v. (though she doesn't sit still for the whole show) She'll ask for it when it's not on even. It's been kind of neat for her to show some interest in something like that.

Tonight Stella and I went on a little dinner date to Moe's. There was a lady sitting at a table behind us who in a wheel chair. Once Stella and I got up to leave Stella went right over to her and grabbed a hold of the handle for the wheel chair and acted as if she was going to push her. Luckily the lady just laughed and was very nice. It was very funny, of course Stella believes everyone is her friend and what's theirs is hers.

Stella loves all things music and dress up these days. And we, of course, marvel at it all. What a princess! She's getting 3 of her 2nd year molars in right now. And I wouldn't have noticed at all; I just happened catch a glimpse of a little white fleck in the back of her mouth a couple days ago. She's been sleeping just fine and in a fine mood. I've heard all the horror stories of what happens when teeth come in and we've never really experienced any of it with her. We're lucky I suppose. Stella's been putting lots of words together lately. I think we are on the brink of small sentences perhaps. Maybe more like demands....as her second birthday is quickly approaching.