My baby girl is two years old! It is a huge clique because it is so true -- the kids grow up so fast. Now that she is walking (with confidence!) she truly seems like a little girl now, no longer my baby. I find myself clinging to her babyhood a lot harder than I did to Francis -- because she is my last baby? because she is a girl? because she is delayed? With Francis, there was more celebration and less sorrow than for Stella's accomplishments.
We had a small party at home for Stella -- our house is small and when it is full I go crazy. I made two cakes for Stella -- a Finnish rolled cake (with raspberries and whipped cream), and a vegan almond sour cherry cake (the MIL is lactose intolerant). Neither of the cakes turned out to my satisfaction -- I baked the rolled cake the night before and rolled it the next day (bad idea), and the sour cherry cake was dry. Hopefully I will have better luck with the pirate ship cake I have been requested to make for Francis' birthday. There was a lot of cake. I have a feeling that Orangette would have done better.Stella is truly our super-star -- Dan told me that yesterday she said "Where's Mama, Daddy?". Amazing. Truly. FSCD is (surprise!) trying to cut our funding now that we have our new aide, Bojana. There's this great Catch-22: if Stella makes no progress, then the Aide is not accomplishing the goals and we don't deserve funding, but if Stella makes great progress, then she doesn't need aide services. If we lose the funding for our aide, the chances of getting another aide is pretty slim (there are over 250 kids on the waiting list for aide services at PACE). Sigh. I feel like whenever I get to stand up the rug gets pulled out from under me again. On the one hand, the government agrees that the window from ages 1-3 is a huge opportunity to invest in our kids, but then they withold funding for early education and other services. Arrggh!
Anyway, I digress. Let us salute the sweet and strong spirit that is Stella Juliette Doll. Happy Birthday, my love!
