Some Funny Things

I think she was 3 days old in this photo.

Stella seriously soaks up all the attention from the staff here at the hotel. And, I can tell they genuinely love her. She's really in for a rude awakening when we get to the U.S. and not many non-family members will give a hoot about her. One of the concierge ladies, Mandy, always comes running when we enter the lobby. Stella blasts out of the elevator on the first floor and out the glass doors to the lobby where she expects (seriously) to be made the center of attention. Even the bellmen hold her hand and smile at her. It was very sweet today because she went to Mandy and tugged on her skirt which means that Stella wanted Mandy to pick her up. Stella does not do that very often to people who are not Dan or me.

But, the best is that once we've left the hotel and re-enter, Stella makes her presence known. For instance, if I'm carrying her on my hip, the second we walk through the big glass lobby doors she smiles, stretches out her arm with her palm turned up like a beauty queen as if to say, "I'm here!" It's hysterical and she only does it when we enter and leave the main lobby area where most of the staff are. I was pushing her in her stroller today and I nearly died when she did it. She faces me in the stroller so she's technically riding backward. The second those big doors opened she stuck out her arm to announce her arrival. She couldn't see anyone, because she was riding backward, but knew it was "time" to do that.

Food wise her palate is pretty funny:

1. Avocado is still #1:  She's eaten it every day since she was 6 months old except when we were in Bangkok because the Shangri-la had run out (???).

The rest are in no particular order:

2. Melon
3. Berries (all but raspberry)
4. Saffron bread (maybe because it's yellow)
5. Risotto:  It's such a pain to make, but she shovels it in because it's sticky (or I make it sticky) so she can pick it up.
6. Scrambled eggs
7. These really gross oatmeal millet pancakes from a kids health food book
8. Chicken pizza from the LRC
9. Sushi (we don't give her raw fish): I took her to the Japanese grocery store today and she almost (seriously) dove into the sushi counter trying to grab containers.
10. Pomelo: We have to ration it because it makes her diapers really, really gross.
11. Watermelon juice
12. Kiwi

She hates mango, papaya and strawberries that aren't ripe enough so much that she gets angry and screams at me.

I've also learned that whenever I say "mouth" she thinks I want her to spit out her food. It's because we say, "What's in your mouth?" when she sometimes puts stuff in it she's not supposed to. She's very good about spitting out stuff that is too big for her to chew or when she gets busted putting contraband in there. She also has learned to "dip." They have an organic baby ketchup here with no salt that we let her dip her scrambled eggs and whatever in to. She has to have a small bowl of vanilla yogurt to dip pancakes in. I discovered that on accident, but she loves to do it.

She doesn't eat any baby food anymore. In fact, we had coffee with some friends at a nice cafe so I got a sandwich for myself and a fruit salad for her since Dan was going to be home late. She ate my sandwich and the entire fruit salad. Dan asked how our dinner was so I had to say, "I don't know but I'm starving..."