Turkey & Alphabet

Aria is getting really good at the alphabet, and can recognize the letters and say their sounds. She can say lots of the letters as we sing the alphabet song, and she can say all (well, almost all... she only says her version of W sometimes, but usually skips to X) the letters' sounds when we go through the alphabet together (not singing). Here is a video of Aria playing with her letters. She is matching the letter to the flash card. We had all the letters out earlier today, and she was getting all the matches then, too. She has a cold right now, so at the end, when Gramma says she is going to wipe her nose, she runs away ;-)



She is also really good at her shapes. We did get her a puzzle, and she gets the right shape in the right spot every time. She knows circle, square, rectangle, triangle, hexagon, pentagon, and diamond.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving day! We had a great week. We had our first 2008 Thanksgiving on Sunday with our friends (with the 4 musketeers themselves... Aria, Mia, Hannah, and Lauren! Why oh why don't I have a picture??) and then again on Thursday with friends and family. On Sunday, we gave her some Turkey to try, and she loved it. She has only had a few small bites of meat before, but she sure did dig into the turkey. No vegetarian baby here (if you didn't know, I am vegetarian). She wouldn't eat any of the sides, though. She doesn't like any of them, including PIE! (I am really wondering if we are really related! ;-) hehe)

Yesterday was VERY busy with all the cooking and preparing. Aria had fun helping, though. She loves to help me in the kitchen. She gets up on her step stool and helps me stir, and pour in the ingredients. She also likes to get into the bowls in the cabinets below.

She makes me laugh more and more every day. One funny thing is her reaction when she is excited (like Gramma or Grampa coming to the door or Yo Gabba Gabba comes on TV). She shrieks and puts her hands to her face, like an Elvis fan when Elvis would enter the room. It is really funny. When she is playing and gets excited, she talks (shrieks) in a REALLY high voice and waves her hands all around. I will get it on video one of these days!

She LOVES her stuffed animals, but one in particular that she loves most is Meow Meow. I love that she has a favorite toy, and that she named the toy herself. I never called her Meow Meow, Aria named her all by herself! She carries her around and asks for her all the time.

Wrestling with daddy is still an ALL time favorite thing to do. She has now learned to do somersaults. She can ALMOST get all the way over herself. She is funny - she tries to do them on the tile floor. I more her to the carpet, don't worry ;-)

I know I mention it all the time, but swinging is still an all time favorite thing to do. It's been beautiful out lately, and so we get to swing almost every day. She swings and watches Zig run all over the yard. She still loves her Ziggy.

She has been increasingly interested in shoes over the last month or more. She takes a pair of my heels out of my closet and tries to walk in them. She does pretty good, actually. She also likes me to walk around in them. Her favorite shoes of her own are her black shiny shoes. She asks me to put those on her feet a lot. She also likes to wear socks.

She is growing so much, and communicating so well, and she gets more and more grown up every day. She is turning into a little girl right before my eyes.

A whole month!

It has been over a month since I have last posted, and Aria has been up to a lot!

The month didn't start out too great bc Aria got sick the 1st week. She had a sinus infection that turned into an ear infection that lasted until just last week. She was coughing, too, so I think she had something else on top of that. She is all better now, though, and back to her happy, sweet (well, most of the time ;-) self.

We had a fun week of guests in October! Christina and Sydney came to stay for 8 days while my brother and his wife, Adam and Sarah, were in Africa. My sis and bro in law, Jake and Kat, also came in town the same week, with lil' Diella. It was a FUN and BUSY week! Aria LOVED hanging out with her cousins! On the Friday of the week they were all here, Aria started to repeat anything we'd ask her to say. She did really good at her attempts at words, and is doing even better now. She clams up when she gets in front of a lot of people, but once she warms up, she will start repeating. She is using the new words, too, and not just repeating. Her vocabulary has just boomed in the last month. She really enunciates, too. Any word that ends with a P or a K sound she really enunciates. Here is a little video of Aria enunciating her K sounds. It cracks me up every time!

Her favorite thing to do is SWING. She loves to be outside, and to play on her swingset. She like to swing as high as you can push her. I knew that the swingset was an absolute blessing at the time we got it (thank you for letting us use it, Auntie Janice and Uncle Bubby! Smoooch!) but how much of a blessing I did not know. She would play on there all day long if she could. She stands by the door and says swing swing swing? Asking me to take her outside to swing. She also can climb up the bars on the swingset. She learned how to do that from Christina and Sydney. She still loves to climb up the slide, too. And slide down ;-) She is fearless!

My favorite new thing that she started doing this month is singing twinkle twinkle little star. She actually sings the notes right and everything. She sings a lot of the words, too. If you sing it with her, she will fill in the last words of the line. If she sings it by herself, she will sing Twinkle Twinkle little star and then the rest of gibberish except the last word of every line. It is very cute!! She also sings the alphabet song (same song, of course, different words) and fills in all the letters with letter sounds (just not the right ones most of the time ;-) She is starting to learn her alphabet, though, and can spell her name (most times she does the A-R-I part and leaves off the last A, though). She can recognize some of the letters on her own, and will repeat all the sounds of the letters as we go through them.

She is also learning shapes, and is doing pretty good! She definitely knows circle, and will trace circles when she sees them, and point them out. She put together a shape puzzle correctly at Church last week, and that surprised me. I should get her some puzzles!

Oh how can I forget to mention Halloween! She was a clown ;-) bc of her clown hair. I loved her clown costume with the hoop. She was funny to watch waddle around in it. Her make up smeared right away, but she loved having it put on. We put pink makeup in her hair around the back and sides. It is not washing out! I have a permanently pink haired baby! Aria loved trick or treating! We practiced at our door. She'd knock (outside with my mom) and I'd answer the door and she'd say "TREAT!" She'd say the "trick or" part with her mouth but no sound, and then a big smile and would say TREAT. I hadn't planned to take her trick or treating, but since she had so much fun doing it, we went all around the cul de sac. She loved seeing the other kids in the neighborhood all dressed up. She also loved the decorations in front of the houses. She's too little to get Halloween candy, but I regreted not getting any the next day. I had no candy to eat ;-)

Aria's fav food at the moment is grapes, hands down. She will eat grapes all day if she could! She also loves plums, okra, ranch dressing and hummus. She is eating a LOT lately. Growth spurt, maybe.

She initiates all sorts of games. Some of her favorites are to go knock on the door. That started at Halloween with the trick or treating. She thinks it's so much fun... she says "knock knock?" and starts knocking with her fists in the air when she wants to go play. I think she might do this bc she wants someone (like Gramma and Grampa or her friend, Mia) to come over (and to be on the other side of the door). She also does a game where she makes a face, and wants me to copy. She'll go through several different faces as I copy her. She loves that! The faces always end with the same face.... tongue sticking out in cheek. She seems to have a new game every day. She has been a lot of fun these days!

Her favorite toys are her Elmo doll, her cat stuffed animal, and her plastic dog toy on wheels that she can drag around by it's leash (old fashioned kind of dog that kind of clicks as it rolls). She loves that toy! She drags it around all day, and puts it on her horse or zebra for a ride, or takes it with her in the high chair and feeds him food (along with Elmo and the cat), and sits and watches cartoons with him. She also likes riding on her horse and zebra toy, and as she jumps on them (the zebra bounces, so she bounces on all horses) she puts one hand up in the air like a bull rider.

OHHHH I never posted about the RODEO!! We went to the Rodeo in October, and she absolutely LOVED IT! I couldn't believe how into it she got. She clapped and smiled at the bull riders and all the other events. It was loud in there, but she loved every second!

Aria still loves to color. She colors lots of times every day. She has these washable markers that she loves (and I do too bc they wash out so easily!). She was coloring a picture of grover, and I asked her to color his eyes, and she did. Then I asked to color his nose, and then mouth, and then knees and then hands and then feet and belly- she did them all as I asked her.

She's getting more hair now, but is still FAR away from needing a haircut. I love her curls!! She now has 12 teeth. She got all 4 molars in October. She is working on the canines now, and is constantly chewing on her fingers the past week.

We went to the ZOO for my birthday on Sunday. She had a blast (we all did!). I will post separately about that and include some pictures.

I better stop bc this is such a novel. There is just so much to say, maybe I shouldn't wait a month inbetween posts! ;-) I also posted a video on the post below. She is feeding her Elmo doll. I was cracking up!

I love Elmo!

Here is a video of Aria from today. She loves her Elmo doll. When she signs please in the video, she is telling Elmo to say Please for a drink of milk.

I have so much to say about all that she has been doing over the last month! There is more to come ;-)

Singing a song!

First I don't post for a month, and now, 2 days in a row ;-) I had to share a cute Aria moment. She loves me to play my violin for her, and I played her Elmo's Song today. She sang along with it! She always tries when Sesame Street is on, but I didn't know she actually did all the La La's and she even says Elmo's World in the right place! (sounds like Elmo's Woooo). She sang her first song!

We played in the swing a lot today. She loves loves loves to swing!! She says GO GO GO if I slow down (and also signs it, which she has to let go to do! yikes! It is a baby swing she can't fall out of when she lets go, though). We also played in the yard, and Aria would go into the grass and pick me "flowers" and bring them back to me (flowers = tiny weeds that look like flowers ;-). It was really sweet! Then we would sniff the flowers. I wish I could capture these moments in a bottle and keep them forever!

She told Zig today that she loves him... that was very cute and very sweet. She loves her doggy more every day. I can't say the same for Zig... he does tolerate her affections though (she especially loves to hug and kiss him when he is eating). I sometimes think I see him roll his eyes, however... hmmm...

She has been popping out more words lately, which is fun stuff! I realized today that she says Milk ... did she say this before?

Long overdue!

Hey! I haven't written here in almost a month! Bad Mama! Aria has been just being her fun little self. She keeps me laughing always! She hasn't felt good the last 2 weeks, poor baby. She didn't feel well for a few days after her 15 month appt, and then the week after that she got sick (which is right now). We've had lots of sleepless nights dealing with molars (she has gotten all 4 now - 4th one is still making it's way all the way through) and sickness. Poor baby.

During the day, even though she is sick, she is still in a good mood, and cracks us all up all the time. She still constantly babbles all day, and you just know she knows what she is saying. The last few days, sentences have started to come through the babbling. I can't remember some of them, but yesterday she said, in the midst of babbling "I did it". Then she said it a few more times after that. She said 2 other sentences this weekend, and I can't remember what they are! (baby brain for sure!) I am feeling like her babbling is going to slowly become clear, like her speech is blurry, and coming into focus. I think I mentioned before that she points at things and asks "what's that?" constantly. Curious little girl!

She is now off the bottle and the paci! I thought the bottle would be hard bc she used to fall asleep with one, but she gave that up all on her own (aka - done with bottle, and still not asleep ;-). So, we just switched over to sippy cups during the day and good bye bottle! I just call the sippy cups "bottles".

She is doing more animal motions... like octopus (waving arms around), and crocodile (says chomp chomp and claps her hands together like an alligator chomping). She does the fish better (can suck in her cheeks) and then she kisses me when she does it (I love that!). She does more sounds, too, but I can't remember where I left off with that the last time.

She still does sign language, and says a lot of the words she signs at the same time (like "more" "help" "go" "stop"). She learned to say "again" in sign language (she was using "more" for that before). She also does the whole I love you in sign language (she used to do the Love part only) and we love that of course! I was whispering I love you the other night while rocking her to sleep, and she looked up at me and said it back... or so I thought! My heart skipped a beat, I think! Then I realized... she was doing the same thing with her mouth that I was. I was saying it very softly, and so she was just copying my lip movements. Too funny!

She knows more face parts now... chin and cheeks ;-) I guess that is all the face parts left ;-) oh wait, I still have to teach her eye lashes. Daddy started to teach her the names of her bones... too funny! She is the only 1 year old who knows where their ascipital bone is. I am sure I spelled that entirely wrong and I don't even know what it is, but Aria does. (she doesn't really, but her daddy is trying to teach her). She puts up her 1st metacarpal up when you ask how old she is, though. ;-)

She loves to pluck the strings on my violin, and she does it gently. She still likes me to hold up her violin to her chin and she likes to do the bow. I can't wait to get her a real one! Not too long now.

Let's see what else... she is testing us like crazy! The doctor says to rest assured that the testing is a developmental milestone. I am not resting assured ;-) She is a little buggar sometimes! But, I guess they need to go through this, and I hear it just gets worse... oh dear! Here we come, terrible twos! But, she makes me laugh a million more times than she tests me, so it all comes out in the end ;-)

Things she loves most right now are playing outside, bubbles, coloring (with crayons), reading books, wrestling with daddy (big huge favorite! She has NO FEAR! I will post a video), climbing all over things and getting into trouble. She also loves Grampa day (Thursdays and Fridays). They have so much fun - she absolutely adores him! She also loves Gramma nights (Tues and Thurs) and I hear her laughing out loud as I am teaching. She has so much fun!!!

Things she does that crack me up...

She takes anything that even resembles make up and pretends to put make up on. She has been doing this with lipstick and blush for awhile, but just added mascara this week. What a girl! She also takes lotion containers and puts her first finger and thumb together (at the tips) and then taps it on the end of the lotion, and then taps it gently on my cheek (or whoever she is applying it to) on both sides. I don't know where she got this from!

She drinks the remaining milk right out of the bowl after she eats her cereal.

She does this funny dance where she turns her head to the side and puts her shoulder up, over and over.

She takes her stuffed animals and swings them in her swing like they are her babies

I keep telling myself that I need to write the little things she does that make me laugh (or even smile) so I can keep the list and look back later. I am going to start to do that starting THIS week! Then i can give you all a bigger list of funny Aria-isms. Those are the best things about her! I love you, Aria!!

PS when I started this blog, I didn't think I had much to say ;-) haha!

Potty!!

Well, we got Aria a potty chair yesterday! We thought she would just have fun sitting in it. It is really a cool one, and sings songs and has a toilet paper roll and a flusher that all make sounds ;-) Well... the 1st time we put her on there, she peed!! This morning when she woke up, I put her on there again, and sure enough, she did it again! I did NOT expect that to happen!!

She is such a funny baby - she cracks up me and her daddy all the time. She is so affectionate, too, and her hugs are the BEST! She really hugs you tight, and pats your back.

She has 2 new teeth - molars! She has 10 teeth now. Those molars must have been painful coming in, bc we had a few nights of little sleep bc she woke up several times. Poor girl! But, she is sleeping well, again, now that they are in, thankfully!

She recognizes Ahna and Papa from their pictures. After we got home from visiting them, Aria started bringing me the picture book (each page is a picture of a relative - the 1st page is Ahna and Papa) with their pictures, and would say Nana, Papa! Do you think we could get her to call Papa by name when we were there, however?? NO! Baby!

She is saying Grama a little more clearly, too. It used to be more like da da, but now it is Dramma (not drama like a play, but rhymes with Gramma).

Aria love Elmo! She says Elmo and tries to sing along with Elmo's World. She also says some version of Yo Gabba Gabba (it is more like just the gabba gabba part over and over) and she waves her arms in the air like the guy does on the show when she is watching it, and tries to sing along.

She has learned a new animal sound... Rooster! Cockadoodledooo. Her version of that is pretty funny!

Talking on the phone

Aria loves to have conversations, and talk on the phone. Here is a video of her talking on the phone. It starts out slow, but it gets better ;-) At the very beginning she is saying "hello? hello?" Please excuse the messy house and naked baby ;-)

More cousins!

Aria got to see all the rest of her cousins this week! She saw baby Colton for the 1st time, and got to see Diella, Jeff, Jasmine, and Caeden again. They had SO much fun! Diella and Aria were lil' buds all week and kissed and held hands. It was very cute! When they saw each other at first they were smiling so big and laughing! They were so excited to finally see each other again.

Aria also got to see Ahna and Papa, Aunt Alethea, Uncle Jeremiah, Aunt Kat, and Uncle Jake! What a lucky girl, huh??

We got to do all sorts of fun things when we were there. Aria and Diella built a toy house with Aunt Kat and Jasmine's help. I hope we got a picture because it turned out so cute! We were NOT good at taking a lot of pictures while we were there, but were having so much fun, we forgot about the camera.

We got to meet up with a friend from babycenter that we had never met before, Rae, and her daughter, Sammy! It was VERY fun to meet them! Sammy and Aria share a birthday! Sammy, Aria and Diella had fun playing.

We went to the Erie zoo, and that was fun! I will share pics of the zoo as soon as they are uploaded.

Basically Aria got to play from the time she woke up until the time she went to bed. She had such a great time!

Aria got to see Gpa H and Gma H, and Gramma O and Grampa O, too. She babbled a lot to them, as she pointed her finger and waved her hand.

We went to a family reunion on Sunday and got to see ALL sorts of relatives! Aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. It was at a park, which Aria loved. It was at the park that Aria and Diella held hands and walked around.

Diella learned how to say lots of words when we were there! One of her new words is ARIA!

I am not sure what it was about Erie, but Aria learned a bunch of new animal sounds. They have lots of animal toys that make animal sounds there, and we went to the zoo. I think a combination helped her to learn. She has remembered the sounds, too, now that we're home. The animal sounds she does now are dog, cat, cow, sheep, monkey, horse, bear, fish (this isnt a sound, but she smacks her lips), elephant, duck, pig and giraffe. OK the giraffe was a joke... did you know that giraffes do not have vocal cords? I just learned that today... interesting fact of the day.

:-)

Nope ... mmm mmmm

When I tell Aria no I say "nope (pause as she looks up at me) mmm mmmm" (the mmm mmm is kind of like nuh uh) Aria keeps going around saying Nope mmm mmmm yesterday and today. She'll also point her finger when she says it. She says it to Zig a lot, and she says it when she is about to do something wrong. Baby!

She has been really into books this week. She keeps going to her big pillow and sitting down and paging through the books. She especially loves her Ladybug book, and Violet's Room book.

She slowed down on using sign language for awhile, and now she is back. She even said More yesterday (couldnt believe it when she stopped doing that one!) She hasn't said more in awhile. Today she keeps asking for food.

She made up her own sign for Help. I show her the correct way every time I ask her if she wants help, but she still does her own. She takes both of her hands and hits her chest (like Tarzan), and at the same time says (with her voice, not SL) Help. I don't know why, but that is how she does it.... Funny baby!

She also keeps doing this weird sound when she laughs. It is like she is laughing from her nose, and as she breathes out, she makes this gutteral sound... it is really funny when she does it. I have to try to catch it on video. My video taking attemps have been futile lately bc as soon as I pick up the camera and point it at her, she stops what she is doing, and tries to grab the camera... BABY!

Right now she is crawling on all fours, panting. Cute puppy... She definitely learned that one from Zig.

She has also been kicking the ball around. Don't tell her dad, though... ;-) He says no soccer, only baseball.

I got her a play violin. Another "I wish I had the video camera right now!" instance. Actually two instances. The first time, I put it under her chin, and she grabbed it, and started hitting things with the bow like a maniac baby. I imagine her future... in a rock band, crushing the violin over her knee or something. Ummmm.... not quite what I had in mind for her 1st lesson. The next time, she took the bow herself, and started bringing it across the string part! She must be paying attention ;-) So, I took the violin and put it under her chin, as she stood in front of me, so I could hold the violin under her chin, and hold her hand on the bow, and we played the violin the right way. She thought it was funny. She does love the bow, though. She can chew on it and hit things with it. Maybe drums are a better idea....

MATT!

It has been awhile since I have updated you all with Aria's newest and latest. I keep meaning to blog this or that, and then I forget, and here I am today trying to piece it all together.

I must start with the newest and, in my opinion, funniest new word. When I talk to Matthew, I call him Love. When I YELL for Matthew across the house or outside, I say MATT! Umm.... maybe I do this too often. Aria has started calling her daddy MATT! Not, Matt... but MATT! (yelling). He was in the bathroom and she was outside hitting the door yelling MATT MATT MATT! It cracks me up every time. Matthew's response? I'm DADA!

She said her first sentence last week (or was it the week before? I can't keep track anymore). She says "Whatcha doing?" She came up to me one day and said it, and I just looked at her, and said... Did you just ask me what I am doing?? She says it VERY clearly, too. She has surprised 4 people with this question.

She loves to use a fork. I let her try it at the restaurant with my salad last week. She thinks it is fun to spear the food (and she likes lettuce... who knew?). She laughs every time. She is using her spoon better lately, too. I don't know how long that will last, but for now, it's going well. I say "scoop it up, scoop it up" when she is using her spoon, and now she says "it up, it up, it up" when I say it. She says it a bunch of times in a row so it ends up sounding like "idup idup idup idup".

Aria is saying a LOT of new words. She goes in phases of using the words. She will say a few words or phrases all week (this week is back to ALLLLL DONE and whatchadoin?) and the next week, it will be something different, and she deserts the words/phrases she was using the week before. Alllllll done seems to resurface quite a bit.

New words she has been saying are help, jump, stop, yellow (this one is really funny! she exaggerates the L sound by sticking out her tongue)...shoot I can't think of anymore words.

I think she said Diella today. Two different times when she was "talking on the phone" I think she said Diella. Again, the L is exaggerated, but it wasn't really clear. There was definitely a D sound and an L sound. Whenever Aria is "talking on the phone" (which is A LOT) she holds long convo's with Diella. I always say "is that Diella?" or "say hi to Diella". It was funny bc even my MOM said that to her the other day when Aria was babbling on the phone. Too funny.

Aria also says Mia, but she means her friend, Mia (not me). Jenn (Mia's mom) and I weren't sure if she was saying it, and meaning Mia or not. She definitely knows who Mia is, bc we said "Give Mia a kiss" and she went over to Mia and kissed her. When Mia came over to our house last week, Aria said "hi Mia". Mia and Aria are having more and more fun by the day. Mia is trying with all her might to start walking so she can chase Aria around! So far Aria has taught her to yell and to climb stairs ;-) hehe! Stair climbing is a fav activity around here. Mia has taught Aria how to point (Mia the lil' smarty has been pointing since she was 8 months old) Aria also likes to "pet" Mia. She was patting her on the head yesterday like she does Zig. Too funny!! The are best buds for sure!

Aria is really good with the parts of her face now. She squeezes her nose and blows out when we ask where her nose is. She touches all the parts of her face as they do during the "face" song in Yo Gabba Gabba. She pokes herself in the eye when she points to her eyes. She sticks out her tongue FAR when we ask where her tongue is, and reaches all the way up and touches the top of her head when we ask where her head is.

She is learning more by the second! She is also more FUN by the second. I love that little girl more than I could ever express!!

Happy Birthday!

Aria got cake.... again!

More fun with cousins!

Well, I'm finally writing all about the fun visits with cousins! It is wonderful bc within 2 months, Aria will see every single one of her cousins!

Sydney and Christina came to visit Aria over the 4th of July. They had SOO much fun. Of course, Adam and Sarah came with too. Christina wanted to celebrate her birthday with us (HAPPY 7th BIRTHDAY CHRISTINA!) Here they are playing when they first arrived at our house:

On Friday, the 4th of July, we spent the day at the beach club. In the picture, Aria is watching Christina make herself into a sand mermaid. We had so much fun at the beach. There was a DJ there for the 4th, and they played fun music, and had a sand castle building contest (which we did not win...) We were there for the entire afternoon.

Afterwards, we went to downtown for the 4th of July festivities... and found out that everything closed down at 5 pm. oops. But, there was a carnival in a soccor field, with fireworks to follow. So, we went there... almost. On the way there, we stopped at Boston's Pizza and ate.

We then changed our minds, skipped the soccer park, and we decided to go to the ball park across the street from our house, and watch fireworks there (secretly I think it was a baseball vs. soccer thing, and if you know Matthew, baseball wins every time) We went home and got Zig (we couldn't leave him all alone to miss out on the fun!) and then headed over. We had a great time there! There was a park with TWO big slides that Aria could climb up. She went straight for the big slide, and climbed all the way up. Monkey!!

The fireworks began, but we couldn't see them! They were covered by trees. There were several people there, and everyone was upset. Then.... another show started, and we could see them clearly!! YAY! Aria fell asleep, however, and missed the fireworks. She slept through them last year, too. Must be a tradition.

I have no pictures of us at the ball park. What is wrong with me?? So here is one of Sydney and I right before we left. Yes... I am wearing my PJs, but I wanted to be comfy! And, yes, it is about 100 degrees and I'm in long sleeves and sweats, but I am still thawing from MN winters. And finally, yes, Aria is being closely supervised in the background. Haha, she looks like she is wandering away.

The next day we celebrated Christina's birthday. Christina and I made a cake together, which was very fun (the first cake I have ever made from scratch, and I was very surprised at how easy it was. Almost as easy as using a box mix!) Sydney and Christina decorated it afterwards. They did a great job!

That evening we had her party. Christina wanted to share her party with Aria, since she wasn't able to be there for Aria's 1st birthday. I thought that was awfully sweet of her to share her day. After the party we played in the new sprinkler toy, and then broke open the Pinata. It was a perfect day! Excuse my dear brother in the picture.... (although you might start to understand why Aria's phrase of choice the whole time was Uh OH!)

It is funny, bc Aria didn't say much of anything the whole 5 days (except uh oh... again, I don't blame her) It must be because she was playing so much. She really loved all the play time with her cousins. Usually it is just her and I all day, and I am working, so she is exploring and playing on her own a lot.

All I can say is how much I miss them, and how much I wish they lived nearby again. It was hard to believe that it had been an entire year since we had been together. We won't let that happen again!

bitta bitta = butt butt

Aria has been going around saying bitta bitta bitta... it sounds like she is saying butter with a New York accent... so more like buttah buttah buttah. Today when I was changing her diaper, I said butt butt and she started saying buttah buttah buttah over and over, like she was doing yesterday. I didn't realize yesterday, though, that she was saying butt butt butt butt. Now I wonder if minna minna minna and daba daba daba daba mean anything... hmmm... today when she was crying she started saying minna minna minna. What does it mean??

Today she is using sign sentences! She said "more food, please". She said "more food" the first time, and "more food, please" after that. Now that she's doing sentences, I'm going to teach her "mom rocks the casbah" How do you say that in sign language??

Grampa!

Today Aria said Grampa about a million times. She says it Pa Pa. Grampa came to watch Aria while I taught lessons, and I said "guess who is coming to see you?? Grampa!!" and she started saying Pa Pa, Pa Pa, Pa Pa. Then by the time my dad arrived, she wouldn't say it. Pure stinker is what she is!! She also says Gramma, but it sounds similar to Da Da. Not exact,but similar. I think she is still trying to get the G sound down. I think she will have an easier time saying Ahna, so I better get started teaching her to say it, so she can call Ahna by name when we go visit!

Today she walked into the lesson with my beginner student, and we were doing our up and down bows, and Aria joined in!! Her arm went up when mine and my student's did, and down when we brought ours down. Very sweet!

Today she talked a lot... talked as in babbling. She kept saying bitta, bitta, bitta, bitta and minna,minna, minna, minna and daba daba daba daba (to which I'd say... yaba, daba, doooo). We went to the doctor in the am, and she carried on convo's with the people in the waiting room. She must know what she is saying, bc she looks so intently at the people she is "talking" to.

Cracking me up!

I still have a lot to write about the visit with all the cousins!! But, I had to tell you that Aria is cracking me up today!! She has been silly all day! Her clown hair is very fitting today (in fact, the hair around her head is getting longer and longer.... and the rest of the hair on her head isn't! Oh dear... ) She is good at entertaining herself, which is a good thing. She plays with her toys and gets into everything (good thing we've baby proofed the downstairs!). We've officially turned off the TV, and only listen to music now. Every once in awhile I will put on Sesame Street but, not every day.

Today we went on errands over lunch. Aria loves taking rides in the car. She is still rear facing in the car in her new carseat, and looks into a big mirror. She makes faces at herself and plays and laughs. Today she was pinching her nose, blowing out and then laughing and laughing. Then she'd do it again. She thought it was hilarious (so did I). Then, she was wiggling all around (as much as she can in a carseat), and then grabbing her feet. She kept sucking on her big toe and then laughing at herself. She was doing this in the drive-through at the bank, and the person in the car next to us was laughing so hard. It really was funny. As we drove away I hear her making all sorts of noise back there, and I look into the mirror (to see into her mirror) and she was trying to get her knee in her mouth. She did succeed. Then she started to kiss her knee. She was having all sorts of fun.

At the store, she kept doing the sign for "eat" and "drink". I guess I shouldn't have taken her to the store when she was hungry! She was being a big flirt at the store, and waving and smiling and saying hi to everyone. She is usually friendly... but today she was just silly friendly.

She used to give hugs and kisses when we asked, but, as of last week, it all changed. Now, when someone asks for a kiss or hug, she vehemently shakes her head NO. And if you try to give her a kiss, she will put her hand out to stop you. Somestimes you're lucky and she puckers up and gives you a big smooch. She almost always gives daddy and Grampa kisses and hugs, though. Oh, and Zig... he gets kisses, too.

Today she said (signed) Please and Thank You a lot. She asked for food when she was hungry, and drinks when she was thirsty. She no longer says Cheese. When I ask if she wants Cheese, she says Please...

One sign Aria hasn't done is "help". I will ask her if she wants my help (and then do the sign), and she shakes her head NO, and tries to do it herself. She is already a "I want to do it myself!" girl. Oh boy! I think we're in big trouble!

The next signs I'm working on with her are Stop and Go. I was showing her stop and go at the store in the cart. She tried to do "go". I think she'll learn that one quickly because she likes to "go"!!

We got to see the newest addition to our friend-family today. Her name is Lauren, and she is soooo beautiful (delicate features) and so alert! The look on her face... it's hard to describe, but it's as though you can see her taking it all in, and learning about her surroundings. I wonder what she is thinking when she is looking around like that. She is so tiny (she is only 15 days old!). It's very hard to believe Aria was that tiny 1 year ago! Lauren and Aria are 1 year and 2 days apart.

We went to dinner with our great friends Jenn, Chris and lil' Mia. I think Aria said Mia 2 times today. I don't know if she learned it from people calling me Mia, or from all the times she's been around her friend Mia. I am not even sure she meant to say Mia.... we'll see if she keeps it up. Aria had a breakdown at the restaurant from being so tired. She fell asleep in my arms at dinner.

Baby Mia already knows how to say All Done in sign language and she is only 8 months old! She's been doing it for about a month now, too. Ummm...can we say baby genius? She also pants when she sees a dog, or a picture of a dog and quacks when she sees a duck - at 8 months old! By the time she is a year, she will be reciting Shakespeare.

I made a Mung Bean Casserole 2 days ago. Aria loved it - I mean REALLY loved it. So, if you are looking for something new and interesting to make yourself or feed your baby, let me know and I'll send you the recipe. It's really good for you and I was surprised at how yummy it was!! I'd never even heard of a Mung bean before.

My brown eyed girl

I just love my brown eyed girl!!

I love the beach!

.... and I like to eat sand, too ;-)

I love swinging!

Cousins, cousins, and more cousins!

(Aria is kissing Aidan in this picture)

Aria has been having so much fun seeing all of her cousins! Last weekend we got to see Aidan and AJ. Aria had soooo much fun playing with them! She told me she wants brothers... but she wants older brothers, so I dont know how that is going to work! (Bc this is a blog, and you just MIGHT think that I'm serious that she really asked for brothers... she didn't, I'm joking ;-) She likes to rough house with the boys, so she had fun, fun, fun!!

This week, Christina and Sydney are here at our house! We have been having soooo much fun! We had the most fun 4th of July ever! I will post all about what fun we're having this week, but I'm baking a cake that is almost done, so I'll have to post about it later!

Aria hasn't said a single word to anyone (Uncle Adam and Aunt Sarah are here, too! Fun!)... the only thing she has said is "uh oh". I guess that is the word that comes to mind when I see my brother, too. ;-)

Kissing my cousins

Auntie Alethea made Aria a book with all the relatives from Daddy's side of the family so she would know them when she sees them. We were showing Aria her cousins today. Take a look:

Climbing

Climbing is one of Aria's favorite things to do. She climbs on everything, and she is very brave. She was playing with her water table the day after her birthday, and she looked over to the slide and saw an opportunity... here it is:







She also has been having fun zooming around on her new baby trike from Uncle Chris (thank you, Uncle Chris!). She likes to go REALLY fast, and have Zig chase us. She doesn't do it herself, I push her all around. Her feet do touch the pedals, though, so maybe she can learn to pedal herself soon. (Do you like her new, comfy, oh so cute, summer PJs?? Thank you Jenn, Chris & lil' Mia!)

Birthday Girl!

Happy Birthday Aria!!

Birthday dance with Mr. Penguin...

Well, Aria is now 1 year old!! We had such a fun day on her birthday! Aria got to hear her first Happy Birthday song from Aunt Ruth Ann in the morning. They share a birthday so they both got to tell each other Happy Birthday. We also got a call from Ahna to tell her happy birthday. We wished they could both be here for her party!

The day started with a birthday surprise for Aria. Her daddy and I stayed up the night before putting together her toy, so she would be surprised when she woke up in the morning. She screamed when she saw it.

We then started getting ready, going to the store, taking a nap (Aria took a really good one, too). I gave her a BIG kiss at 1:24 pm... her birth minute.

Then the party began!

She had so much fun at her party! She got to play with all of her friends, and open presents, and eat cake, and play with new toys.... she just had fun from start to finish. We all had such a great time spending the day with everyone!

The cake... she wasn't all that into it! I was surprised - very surprised! I love sweets, but her daddy doesn't like cake very much. She takes after her daddy in every way. It really is amazing how much they are alike.

She and all the kids loved playing with the water table Gramma and Grampa got her. I knew she'd love that toy, and she sure does!

By the time the end of the day came around, she was all tuckered out! What a perfect day!

She's morphed!

I just want you all to know that my baby has officially morphed from a baby to a little girl. She is just cracking me up all the time lately with her new, all grown up, funny games. She is sooooo silly all the time! We had friends over last night, and they were saying how her personality is really coming out a lot.

She is doing so many things that are completely catching me off guard (and cracking me up!0. Just now, my mom's dog, Edie, (little toy fox terrier that Aria LOVES to play with) was sitting in Aria's Sesame Street chair. Aria would push Edie off the chair so she could sit down, and then she'd sit down and then get back up. The dog would come and sit on the chair again, and she'd push her off. Well, one time I went over to get Edie off the chair and Aria extends her arm out with her hand flat (like a police man directing traffic to stop) and just looked at me with a very serious look.... she was telling me to stop bc she wanted to do it.

Then she came up to me and asked for a drink (she started doing that sign this week, too!) of my water, and so I pick up my cup and hand it to her, she puts her mouth on the straw and blows bubbles into it, throws her head back and laughs and walks away. Her new thing since she's learned to play her water flutes is to do rasperries on my arm (like I do to her) and to blow bubbles through a straw. She walks around trying to whistle, but nothing comes out put air and spit. She also believes that anything that is remotely shaped like a water flute should work like one, too. She has a tiny baseball bat (just her size) and she puts the end of it in her mouth and blows like it's a flute. Silly baby!

She has this new look on her face a lot of the time now. I don't know why she's started doing this, but it is kind of like her lips are tight (like you might do if you were concentrating hard, I guess?) and the expression that goes with it just makes me laugh every time. I have to get a picture of it bc I am not explaining it well.

She is still a kissing an hugging fool. I love her kisses and hugs!

She has started to get so excited when she is playing a game that makes her laugh that she screams really loud, and really high pitched before laughing hysterically. She was playing "I'm gonna get you" with Daddy, and oh my gosh she was laughing so hard. She'd run (she goes so fast!) into the bedroom, and keep looking behind her and Matthew would be creeping behind her saying "I'm gonna get you". Then she'd get to the bedroom and hide behind the bed and Matthew would come around and say I GOT YOU (loud!) and she would scream and laugh - oh it was so funny!!

My doctor says she should know and be able to point to when asked, her eyes, mouth, nose, and ears by age 1. So, we've been practicing up. She USED to honk my nose when I asked "where is mama's nose" but all of a sudden she stopped! Baby! And now when we ask "where is your nose" she just stares at us. Same with "where is your mouth" and where are your eyes". But... she knows where her TONGUE is! haha!! If you ask her where her tongue is, she will stick her tongue out at you. So, we have a plan. When we go into her 1 year appointment, we are going to start with "where is your tongue" and hopefully skip the rest. ;-) I keep telling her she has a quiz in a week, so she better study up!

New signs she's learned this week are "cheese" and "drink". She is saying thank you a lot more this week, too.

Sign language, kisses and hugs

Aria is really getting good at sign language! She is catching onto new signs more easily now. She says please, thank you, and food now. I taught her to say Please by folding her hands together bc I think more people will understand that as please ;-)She is really understanding what each sign means, and using them throughout the day. She asked for "more" today when we were playing, which meant she wanted to eat. I asked her if she wanted food (and did the food sign) and she did the food sign back. Since she can say "all done" I'm trying to get her to just say it instead of sign it now. I need to learn more signs bc I am running out of signs to teach her ;-) I actually did look up how to say "cheese" and am working on that one now.

I am trying to teach her how to say BAM! like Emeril, but so far she just looks at me like... WTHeck??

She understands more and more all the time. When I ask for a kiss or a hug, she walks over to me and gives me one. She puckers up and comes over and gives me a big kiss (or hug). She kissed and hugged before, but now she comes over to me if I ask for one (without doing a kiss sound myself). When I say "spinning in circles, spinning in circles" she will start to spin in circles.

I've taught her that a doggy says arf arf, and then do a panting sound. Now when I ask Aria what a doggy says, she pants. Sometimes she adds the arf arf. I started doing this bc my friend, Jenn, taught her daughter to "bark" that way, and it is cute when baby Mia pants ;-) haha!

I was thinking... all these new things Aria is learning are fun to share, but it is such a small part of what makes Aria... Aria! I need to start sharing more of her Aria-isms. Right now she is petting the dog by patting him on the back with both hands, and laughing, until he escapes out the doggy door... I guess most of the moments are kind of "you had to be there" moments, and are hard to express on the blog. I so wish I could share more of those things! If only I could have a video camera on her all day ;-) Things like the way she plays her flutes (soo funny!) and how she dances (wiggles her lil butt) and the conversations we have, and her funny mannerisms. Did I ever tell you how much I love this little girl????

I love you!

I always tell Aria I love you... and sometimes when I say it, I point to myself and say "I" and then cross my hands in front of me and say "love" and then point to Aria and say "you". A few days ago, she started crossing her arms over her chest when I say it ;-) So sweet!!

Today she walked into the living room, and stuck her arms straight out behind her, bent at her wrists, and started to turn around in circles. She kept doing it and made herself dizzy and she'd fall. I don't know why she started to do this, but she thinks it is fun! Funny baby! She did this several times throughout the day... wonder where she got it from?

Aria is starting to really watch my face as I say words. I said OH boy the other day, and she puckered her lips and started to say Boy very slowly, like she was trying to do it just like I did. If you do it yourself (I mean say the word "boy") you will notice that you stick your lips out slightly in sort of a kiss face when you say it. She tried to mimic my mouth motion for a few other words, but I can't think of which they were now.

She has figured out how to blow into her water flutes... she was walking around playing her flute today. Then she'd tip it to see if she could drink the water out of it (there was no water in it).

If you ask Aria what an elephant says, she will make the elephant sounds. When I do the elephant sound, I move my arm as though it were an elephant trunk (Ahna showed Aria this, and says cousin Caeden also did this). Aria is doing the arm motion now, too. Problem is... I asked her what a doggy says, and she did the elephant sound, too... but then I tell her a doggy says Arf Arf, and then she does the right sound. She doesn't quite get it yet, but she's getting there! Also working on a kitty saying Meow.

Aria got a new Sesame Street chair this week. She LOVES it. I had no idea she would have so much fun with a chair, but she does! She doesn't appear overly excited about the chair in the picture... but she really is ;-) Can you believe how dark her eyes are getting? I prayed for a brown eyed baby! You can sort of see her little curls coming out of the sides of her head. Parts are starting to spiral as they get longer. If only the rest of her head would catch up with the sides and back ;-)

I was thinking today... pretty soon, I won't be sharing with you all the new words Aria is saying, bc she adds so many new words, that soon she will be putting words together. Soon, my updates will change from being the updates of a baby, to the updates of a toddler and the funny things she says, and then it will change again and I'll be telling you cute stories about things like what happened at Gymnastics today (or whatever activity she ends up doing)... It is really hitting me this week how big she has gotten, and how much she has changed over the last year. She is a toddler now, and I just can't believe it! Where did the time go? This last year has just gone by SOOO fast. If it keeps up this way, it will seem like seconds and she will be in kindergarten!

It is interesting bc each time I think that THIS is the best age and it just can't get any more fun, and I couldn't possibly enjoy an age better than this age... she gets a little older, and I enjoy it even more, and am again convinced that the age she is right now has to be the best age there is. I just love that little girl!!!

Mama playing the violin

Want to hear Aria's mama play the violin? I just got an old recording of mine from college... this is the cadenza to Paganini's violin concerto, 1st mvt. from a recital I played in 1992 at Oberlin.

Yum!

Here is a video of Aria trying to eat with a spoon taken a month ago. Watching her eat might not be very interesting... but if you watch to the end, you can see if she likes soy cheese or not ;-) The kissy face she does in the middle is a face she is doing again recently. It cracks me up!

Alllllllll done!

I warned you all about video overload now that I've uploaded all the videos from the last few months!! Here is one of Aria on 5/6/8 saying ALLLL done. She went through a phase where she would say it over and over and over throughout the day. She does know what it means now, though. It is funny when she signs it AND says it at the same time.

So much for that!

Aria has a toy guitar that I call her violin. I give it to her when I teach violin lessons. Yesterday I was trying to put it under her chin to see if I could get her to keep it there... well, she grabbed the "violin" from me, put it to her ear and said "hello" and proceeded to babble on and on (probably in a convo with cuz Diella!)... so much for that!

Earlier, she had a bath, and we were playing with the water flute toys. They will play a certain note if filled with water to a certain point. So I filled them up with water and showed Aria how to do it. She took the flute and tipped it up, and drank the water from it..... so much for THAT! ;-)

Today... I hear her playing at the doggy door, and I look over, and she had taken her "violin" and threw it out the doggy door!!

Is this a hint??

walking

Here is a video of Aria walking ;-) I took a little over a week ago. This is the dress that Aria couldn't crawl in. If she tried to crawl in it, her dress would pull. She'd do the bear crawl on her hands and feet, but that would only last a second, and she'd give up and just walk. It was the dress that got her to walk 100% of the time, I think! She hasn't crawled at all since!

Milk

This is an older video, but now that I've finally made room on my computer, I have uploaded a bunch of videos. (I had to delete some BB King mp3s to make room and let me tell you how painful that was for me!!)

Here is Aria saying Milk. Milk was Aria's 1st sign.

Violin lessons!

I think that this is about the coolest thing that Aria has learned, and I just realized it yesterday....

I mentioned before that Aria does squats and says up, down, up, down, as she does them. So, when she started to do the same thing when she'd lift her hand in the air, and bring it back down, I thought she really understood the concept that up was up, and down was down. I have never done a game with her where I lift my arm and say up and bring it back down and say down. I thought she made it up all on her own... then yesterday it hit me!! Aria likes to watch violin lessons with my 2 beginner students. Each lesson we start with bow exercises, and we try to keep our bows as straight as possible while doing up bows and down bows in the air. As their bows slowly go up, I say "up", and as they bring them back down, I say "down". THAT is what Aria has been doing all week!! I am amazed at what she is picking up.

Busy bee

This little girl is ALL over the place. She walked all day, and I don't think she crawled at all.

Over the last week or two she's been spinning in circles while sitting. She'll sit there, and then take her feet and go in circles. It's really funny when she does it. I wish I could show you a video ;-)

Today we were looking at an animal book, and I pointed at the elephant and said "what does an elephant say?" and she did the elephant sounds!! I couldn't believe it! I know I've told you all before she can do the elephant sound... but she used to just repeat it after I did it, and now she is doing it all on her own!

Today we had Winsty (the doggy) at our house. He was sitting on his big doggy pillow. Aria went over to him and sat down, and leaned over with her mouth WIDE open. She wanted Winsty to lick her mouth! GROSS! I would say NO and she would laugh hysterically.... and then do it again. She just cracks me up!

Last night when my mom was leaving from babysitting, I was holding Aria on the couch and she was eating. I thought she was asleep. My mom walked to the door, and I said "bye" and Aria's hand popped into the air and she started to wave. It was funny bc I thought she was sleeping.

Aria loves cheese. I think if she could eat cheese all day and night she would.

No more room on my computer

Hi! I'm sure you are all sitting there wondering why there haven't been any new pictures and videos... well, I ran out of room on my computer! I'll be getting a new hard drive soon, so stand by. ;-)

Cheerio Cheers!

I keep meaning to post this, and I keep forgetting! One of Aria's favorite games is to do "cheers" with everything. It started out with Cheerios .... whenever it was that she started eating cheerios... February I think? She would have a cheerio in her fingers, and I'd have one in mine. I'd hit mine to hers, and say "cheerio cheers". She thought that was so funny! Every time she's eaten cheerios from that point forward, she hits her cheerio to mine and I say "cheerio cheers" and then we eat our cheerios. She also does this with her toothbrush when she's brushing her teeth. She extends her arm with her toothbrush in hand, and we hit toothbrushes together and I say "toothbrush cheers". She thinks it is funny every time.

She also likes to feed me cheerios (or whatever she's eating). She'll take a bite, and then give me a bite. If I just pretend to take whatever she's offering me, she persists until I actually take a real bite. I especially like when she does this when she's offering her gooey baby teethers or a handful of mushy peas. YUM!!

I think I also forgot to mention that she hugs now. She's been doing it for awhile. When we hug I say "hug". Now when we hug, SHE says hug. ;-)

She is also back to giving her Uncle Chris high fives. She did it when she was itty bitty, and she started doing it again lately. Chris says she does it every time. So cute! She has a special game with her Uncle.

She's doing great with walking!! Every day she walks more and more. When she tries to crawl while wearing a dress, her dress gets caught on her knees and frustrates her. She crawls by walking on her hands and feet (like crawling, without having the knees down.... like a bear crawl). She doesn't like to do that much, so she just gives up and walks. She can walk so well that I don't understand why she'd even want to crawl anymore.

She ate pasta for the 1st time this weekend. She's officially Italian ;-) She loved it!

;-)

Yes!

Aria has been shaking her head NO for a long time, and has known that she is saying no when she does it more recently. It took her awhile to nod her head to say "yes". It's so funny when she does it because she lifts her eyebrows when her head goes up, like that is helping her to lift her head up, and her eyebrows go back down when her head goes down. Just this week, Aria has learned that she can answer questions with "yes" if she nods her head ! I can actually ask her questions and she'll "say" yes or no by shaking or nodding her head! I love it! It helps me to know what she can and cannot understand. She can understand a lot more than I thought! I think all babies do, and it must be so frustrating for them not to be able to answer with all the words they want to say.

It has been so much fun to be able to communicate with new words and motions!

Aria is 11 months today! ;-)

Walking and more

Aria walked, as you know, last Saturday. She walked a few times that day, and went about 6 steps at a time! I thought she'd be an expert by the end of the week... but she decided not to walk anymore all week.... until yesterday! Yesterday she walked for several steps several different times. I thought she had decided that she was only going to walk on Saturdays ;-) I was wrong ;-) She walked even more today! She's so big! She's solid and balanced most of the time when she walks (and sometimes not so much ;-). I'm not surprised bc she's been walking by just using her hand on the wall for awhile now. I kept wondering when she was going to just do it! Good job, Aria ;-)

She is also saying more words all the time. The ones she says most often are "all done", uh oh, oh boy, hi mama, hi dada, hi zig, up, down, no, bye bye, butt butt (haha! She says that bc I say it when I change her diaper). I think she is also saying "hi love love" bc that is what I always say to her, but it's not really clear when she says it. She tries to copy what you're saying. She also loves to have conversations with people. She looks very intently at the person she is talking with. I think she must know what she is saying ;-) It's cute!

She's really doing a lot better with animal sounds. She loves to copy what you do. If you whisper, she whispers. If you talk in a really high voice, she'll do the same. SO, if you say "arf arf" she'll copy it. She's tried to do a pig sound (when you actually snort) but she can't figure it out. She clicks her tongue and looks at you very intently trying to figure out how you're making that funny sound! Today when we locked the car (and it went beep beep) she repeated it!

She knows 3 signs in sign language. All done (she says that one, too), more, and milk. I gave her bread for the 1st time this week and as soon as she had that first taste, she was signing MORE like a maniac baby. I guess she likes bread!

One of the funniest things she does (considering her daddy is in the Fitness industry) is squats. She started doing them all on her own, and when she'd do them I'd say up, down, up, down. Now she says up when she's up and down when she's down. When she wakes up from her nap and is playing in her crib, I can hear her saying "up, down, up, down". She must be doing squats in her crib. Funny baby!

She started climbing like a little monkey, too. She climbed up on her chair and got onto the coffee table. I have since moved her toy chair to sit up against the couch so she can climb up there instead of the coffee table!

She has also started to realize when she is doing something wrong. As she goes to do something bad, she will look at me as she's starting the bad behavior, and shake her head "no". She knows I'm going to tell her no!! She had my keys, and I always tell her no if she tries to put them in her mouth (keys have way too many germs on them! eww!) and then I pull them away before she gets them in her mouth. She had my keys last week, and as she brought them to her mouth she was looking at me and shaking her head "no" even though I hadn't said told her no yet. BABY!!

I love that she is able to communicate so much better now! Just the ability to say "no" is helpful!

She puts the phone to her ear and says "hi!". I was surprised when she did it bc, although I talk on the phone a lot for work, I always use my ear piece. She had to have learned to do that from her daddy! (or her cousin Diella! We think they've been making secret calls to each other!)

Playing with kids... she LOVES to play with kids. She used to seem like she was soooo much younger than her 2 year old friend, Kali. Now they can actually play together and have fun!! That is so cool! They were playing with a tea set together a couple of days ago. She was trying to eat from the forks and spoons! haha! Kali and Aria played catch with a big ball.

Mia (baby Mia, not me ;-) and Aria are good friends, too! They are interacting a lot now! Jenn (her mom) and I have looked so forward to them getting to the age when they can play! They played at the beach club today, and again later that night. Mia is 4 months younger, but they are seeming closer and closer in age each time they play together.

Speaking of the beach club! We had a FUN day at the beach today! Aria loved the pool and the sand and playing with her bucket and shovels. She also likes to eat sand. Yum!

Teeth - She has 6 teeth, and is working on more. I seem to see the teeth when they have already broken the surface (vs when she got her two bottom and two top teeth, I saw them before they broke the surface).

Sleep.... oh she sleeps like a baby! ;-) (Actually, whoever made up that saying has no idea how a baby really sleeps! ha!) But, really, Aria is sleeping wonderfully! She sleeps until 7 am, regardless of when she goes to bed, and then eats, and then goes back to bed (usually) until 8:30 - 9. Usually bedtime is between 8:30 - 9:30 It is wonderful to get full nights of rest!! I even get work done in the evenings before bed.

I am still in disbelief that my baby is going to be 1 in a month!

Breaking news!

Aria WALKED today!! She walked across the carpet to me today. I guess that what I needed to do is clear off the carpet so she had no toys to hang on to.

I missed her 1st 3 steps today because I was leaving out the door to go to the grocery store without Aria. I always take Aria to the grocery store with me bc she loves to go, and she has so much fun in the cart. This time I left her at home bc she was playing with Ahna and Papa. Well, as soon as I walk out the door, and get in the car, she starts walking. Matthew comes outside and starts waving at me to come back inside. Figures... the one time I leave her, she starts to walk! Silly baby! Once I got home from the store, she walked across the carpet all the way to me! She did it again right aftwards, and then started crawling again.

Crawling & Whistling

I meant to post this in March. This video is from the 1st day that Aria crawled. Every once in awhile, she starts to whistle, and we caught her doing that in this video. :-)

Uh oh... Stairs

Look what Aria discovered today (and check out the clown hair! :-)

New Walker ;-)

Aria has been playing with her "new" walker all day today. Then she'll empty the contents of the diaper bag that she reaches into in the video... fun times! ;-)

Elephant!

I had to post this right away to tell you all that Aria just did her first animal sound! She has a Noah's ark toy, and you press the animal and it does the animal sound. She pressed the elephant, and copied the sound (and the note!). She did it lots of times in a row. I tried to get it on video, but as soon as the video was pointed at her, she was no longer interested in Elephants, but only in getting the camera from me... BABY!

We're watching Veggie Tales silly songs, and I am wondering why on Earth they're singing about wanting a plate, a fork and a bunny?? Hmmm....

Refreshing!

Water is soooo refreshing! (see, Uncle Chris, she really does do it!)

Singing

Today we had a fun day! Gramma Ginny, Daddy, Aria and Mama went to the Fort Worth art fair. It was very crowded and I wish we could've seen more and lingered in some of the booths longer. Aria just loved looking at all the people. She made lots of people smile today!

Then, we went to Church. Aria joined in with the singing today. She saw everyone around her was singing, so she decided to sing, too. She just might be the next American Idol ;-) ha ha! She was really singing loudly, too. She cracked us all up. She had a very serious look on her face when she sang.

Aria has become a lot more social this week. We were in the lobby at Church and we started talking to a woman, and Aria put her arms out for her to hold her!? She did it again when we were talking to another person. I guess she's over her separation anxiety!

Aria and Gramma hung out in the back seat on the way home. I think Aria laughed more on the way home than she did all week. She sure loves her Gramma!

Later in the evening, our friends Molly & Jeff, and our brother Chris, came over to watch a movie. Molly was dribbling a ball on the floor next to Aria, and Aria started to move her hands in the air as though she was dribbling a ball. She becomes more of a parrot every day!

In a couple of weeks Ahna and Papa are coming to visit. Aria can't wait to see them and show them all the new things she's doing!! Daddy and me are looking forward to their visit, too!

My little parrot

Aria is a little copy cat. She surprised cousin Jim in Phoenix when he made a popping sound with his mouth, and Aria tried to do it right back. She has gotten to be more and more of a little parrot every day. She copies me all day.

She has a little lamb that was made by my Gramma Giliberto that Aria got for Easter. I thought it was a poodle, but it ends up it is a lamb. I call it her Loodle. Today when I said the word Loodle, I'd lift my eyebrow as I said it. Then Aria started to lift her eyebrows way up and said something that resembled Loodle.

When we were sitting on the carpet yesterday, I rolled the ball over to her. She took the ball in her hand, and rolled it back to me! I couldn't believe it! We've played "catch" several times since then. Her daddy can't believe that I taught her to play catch. Next thing, we'll see Matthew teaching her to play the violin ;-)

She started clapping last week! I wondered when she would start clapping. Now she'll clap whenever I do, or whenever she hears clapping. I was snapping my fingers and she tried that, too. It didn't quite work, but she tried!

This has nothing to do with being a parrot... but today at the store she opened her mouth as wide as she could in a big smile for everyone she saw. She was cracking me up! I don't know why she was doing that. It's not unusual that she would smile, just not the big huge open mouth smile. Funny baby!

Poor baby has another ear infection, though ;-( It is her 3rd in 3 months. She didn't seem sick at all, but felt hot. I took her temp and sure enough, she had a fever. I took her in, and one ear is infected. As the doctor was talking, Aria looked at her very intently with her chin down, and her eyes staring right at her, and then started to shake her head "no". The doctor thought that was pretty funny.

Speaking of which... just today she started to nod her head "yes"!! Finally!! Only now I can't stage questions bc I now do not know if the answer will be yes or no... oh well.

I just love her so much! I thank God every day for her!!

Milk or Hi Mama??

I video taped Aria looking up through the clear plastic on the stroller umbrella. She is either waving to me or saying she is hungry for milk in sign language. I can't tell the difference anymore! She kept doing it, though, so I'm thinking she is saying hi. I was running while taking this video, so I just caught her doing it once ;-) I was surprised I even got that ;-)

a couple more things...

I forgot to mention a couple of other cute Aria "tricks" ;-)

When you press or pull the crayons on her favorite chair toy (you can see her next to it below in some of the videos) it plays "la la la la la la la" in an arpeggio (like a singer warming up). Aria says la la la la la along with it.

When we are reading books, Aria loves to turn the page. She used to try to turn the page right away or during when I was reading. So,when it was the right time to turn the page, I would say "turn the page" and then I'd turn the page. Now when I say "turn the page" she turns the page! I was surprised the 1st time she did it when I said it.

Aria Updates

I haven’t written a whole lot about what Aria is actually doing these days. There is so much, it’s really hard to get it all written down. She is changing and growing by the millisecond!

She tries to repeat words a lot. If you say something, she’ll “say” it back. It’ll be the same amount of syllables and have some similar sounds in it. When you say something in a really high voice, she’ll try to say it in a really high voice. It’s very cute! She was watching her Magiq dvd, and there is a Peek a Boo part. When they’d say Peek a Boo, she’d yell it back in a high voice. It sounds like this: pee a oo (said like Peek a Boo without a clear B) so that is why I put “says” in parenthesis.

I don’t remember why Aria did it, but she lifted both arms in the air. I think she was copying someone. Anyway, when she did it, my mom said Hallelujah and lifted both arms in the air. Aria thought this was hilarious. So, my mom did it again, and each time Aria would lift her arms in the air. Now, if you say Hallelujah, she lifts her arms into the air (1 if not both) and “says” Hallelujah. She caught onto that one fast. I didn’t think she’d remember it.

When she is in her carseat, she entertains herself in the mirror that she has in front of her. She’ll lift up her arms into the air and squeal and laugh. She laughs and chuckles for much of the trip. It cracks me up!

She crawls ALL over the house and gets into trouble. She can stand for as long as she wants to. She hasn’t taken anymore steps after the one day where she took 5 steps. She has to wait until we get a big carpet to start walking!!

She’s done this for awhile, but it’s funny when she does it. She shakes her head like she’s saying NO. I think I mentioned below how David (our friend in AZ) took her around the Disney store asking “do you like this toy?” and she’d shake her head NO to every toy. But she’d only shake her head after the question was asked. I like to sit with her and ask all sorts of questions… like this: is there anyone prettier than mom? Shakes her head no… is there anyone smarter than mom? Shakes her head no… is there a better mommy out there than mom? Shakes her head no… it really builds my self esteem. Ha ha ha!

She waves goodbye and hello. She’s done this intermittently for a long time, but she does it more consistently and more clearly now. She just started to wave by moving her hand from the wrist. When the part is on her video where they are waving, she sometimes wave like normal, and sometimes does a motion that looks just like sign language for “milk”.

Her hair gets curlier by the day. I cannot wait till she has a full head of curls! It’s so far only curly on the sides and is starting to grow in curly in the back, too. The top is yet to be determine ;-) not enough up there. Poor baby!

Sleep… she is sleeping SO much better. She sleeps all night now, and gets up (usually) after 8 am. She takes really good, long naps during the day, which makes working from home very easy. Her naps during the day are usually over 2 hours each.

Thanks for reading everyone! Aria sends everyone a big slobbery smooch!

Bath time is fun!

Aria loves baths. For Easter she got a bubble maker for the bathtub.

Friends :-)

I lost my "friends" section because I tried to change the background on this blog... so if anyone who reads this has a blog, please comment to this post with the address to your blog. Then I'll re-add the "friends" section with your blog link!

Thanks Friends!

Aria loves Zig

Aria loves Tzigane! Whenever he runs by she squeals and laughs. We have been playing a game where I hold her at Zig's level and we chase Zig around the house. She laughs and laughs. She loves it ;-)

Aria Dancing

Aria loves this toy!

Eskimo Kisses

Easter

Our Easter started on Thursday when we got home from AZ. There was a box at the front door, and inside it was Aria’s very first Easter Basket! It was from Ahna and Papa in PA! There were Animal Crackers, and cute hair bows, and socks, and gloves, and the best part of all? Crinkly paper! I tried to get a picture of Aria with all the contents of the basket, but she was not cooperating. Here is a picture of her wearing some of it’s contents, though ;-) Thank you Ahna and Papa! I love you!

On Easter Sunday we got together at Gramma Ginny & Grampa Danny’s. We ate a brunch there and then Aria got more Easter baskets. I am wondering why the Easter Bunny only left her baskets?! I must not have made the good list this year! Matthew either ;-) I, again, tried to get a picture of Aria amongst her Easter Basket contents, but, again, she was not cooperative. Here is a picture of her in her little Easter straw hat.

During brunch I opened my Easter card. Here is what it said… can you believe it?! (ignore the talking in the background…)

After brunch we headed to the rental house to clean it up. We spent ALL weekend cleaning and painting, and we’re still not done.

So…. We missed Church. Good thing for technology. We will listen to the service bc we can download it from the website! Here is the link if you’re interested in hearing it, too. It’ll be worth your time, I guarantee it! http://www.thevillagechurch.net/resources/sermons.html

Aria wants to fly!

Aria loved the take off in the airplane!

Standing & Walking!

When we got home from AZ Gramma Ginny & Grampa Danny came over. I wanted to show them how Aria was crawling on her knees now. Well, she’d been standing up on her own for very short periods, too. I think she was so sick of sitting in the car, the plane, the car again, etc. that she didn’t want to stay still. While we were watching Aria crawl, she got up and stood there, and stayed there! She stood for a really long time. Then she crawled again, and stood back up, and stayed again!

THEN… as she was standing there, she took 3 steps to me! I couldn’t even believe it! She did it again a short while later, but this time it was 5 steps. Gramma and I saw her, but Daddy didn’t. She did it again – 5 steps – and Daddy saw it too.

Once I get it on video I will post it!

Trip to Arizona

We had a great time in AZ! We had originally planned the trip for Thurs - Tues and then realized how many people we wanted to see! Matthew used to live in AZ and has relatives there, and I have relatives and friends there as well. Matthew can barely ever take a whole week off, but with the great months they've had at his club, and bc it is a pretty slow steady time, he was finally able to take a whole week. Not typical!! It was nice, though, bc I haven't been to AZ in 5 years, and even when I was there, I only got to see a couple of people bc I was there for work. I hadn't seen my 1st cousins in 13 years, and hadn't seen my my cousin Mary Beth in 18 years! Since her wedding! I think I need to go visit my relatives more. I miss them.

Aria got to meet LOTS of people! She met 2 Mia’s in one day. It made her miss her bestest friend, Mia, at home!

Lots of new things happened this week for Aria. Before we got to AZ she didn’t crawl on her knees. We got to Aunt Ruth Ann’s house, and Aria was scooting around on the carpet in the living room. We took her to the back patio that has indoor/outdoor carpeting, and Aria got on her knees and started to crawl all around! We couldn’t believe it! Here is a video:


After she started crawling on the indoor/outdoor carpet, she started crawling on all surfaces. She had started pulling herself up to standing a couple of weeks ago, but got more proficient at it with all the obstacles (coffee tables, ottoman’s, etc) she had in each of the living rooms she visited. She would stand for longer periods, too.

Here is a picture of Aria at the park nearby:



We did lots of things in AZ. We spent the 1st couple days at Aunt Ruth Ann’s and had lots of fun. She made lots of good food. She even made me a Boca Burger (non)meat-loaf. It was good! Matthew wouldn’t try it bc he was afraid he’d like it and I’d try to turn him vegetarian. ;-) On Sunday, Aria got to meet Chris, Shawn, Damion & Emily…. And Annie, too ;-) (Emily’s cute doggy!) I got to meet Emily for the 1st time and love her, of course! She’s great!

We started a hike on Camelback mountain. Matthew, Aria, me, Marguerite and David met there. We got a little way up the mountain and realized that it was much too dangerous for a baby. Also, Aria's eye got red and swollen, and her nose started running. It stayed that way for a couple of hours - must've been an allergy to something in the AZ air. Marguerite, Aria and I went to Starbucks (I was not complaining about that - I was tired!! Did I mention Aria slept HORRIBLY all week) and talked, while David and Matthew finished the hike.

We spent the day on Monday in Tucson. Marguerite, Matthew, me & Aria made the trip. We got to visit Tom, Athena, Max & Beatrice there. I hadn’t seen them in 5 years! It was great to catch up and see them! I really wished we could’ve spent more time there!

On Tuesday afternoon we went to meet Matthew's friend and former client, John and his wife Nicole and daughter Mia. We had fun with them, and Aria loved playing with Mia and her toys!

That evening, we got to see Matthew's cousins Jim & Teri. Jim and Teri had their granddaughter, Mia, at the house, too! That is Aria's 3rd cousin. She is almost 3 months old and cute as can be! (must be the name... haha!) We also met some of Mia's siblings and her mom, Michelle. Aunt Agnes was there, as well. She is 94 and seriously is the best looking 94 year old I've ever met in my life. She doesn't have any wrinkles! I asked her what her secret is... she said she doesn't wear a bra... get it? get it? She cracked me up!! It was a FUN night!


The rest of the week we stayed with Marguerite & David. It was very fun spending time together! They tried to spoil Aria. David took her all around the Disney store and picked up every toy in the store and asked Aria “do you like this one?” and she’d shake her head “no”. Onto the next toy “do you like this one?” Aria, again, would shake her head “no”… finally she didn’t say no to an Eyore dressed up as the Easter Bunny… on clearance. She picked up one of those vacuum packed washcloths, also on clearance. She is definitely her Daddy’s baby!

We also visited the ZOO. I love the zoo! Aria slept through a lot of the day, though, so she missed most of the animals. She did get to see the Giraffes and got a kick out of them! She picked a blue monkey toy at the zoo.

We're back!

We are back from Arizona! We were there a whole week. I have SO much to report, but need to get a lot of work done first. I'll write more later!

I love me?

I'm not even sure how to title this video...

No? What does that mean?

Aria was playing on the carpet, and playing with her toys. She has a toy mirror, and she looked at herself in it, and started kissing. Too funny!

Aria loves to feed Zig from her high chair. I’ve already mentioned how she leans her little arm over and feeds him. She tries to do this EVERY day. It was less of a deal before because she’d lean over, hand him food, and he’d take it and eat it. Now, she holds on tight to the food, and Zig nibbles off of the end of it, and THEN she takes it back and tries to put it in her mouth (by tries… I mean I grab the food away before she can). Silly baby! Trying to share her food with her doggy!

Today at the changing table, Aria took the lid off of the Aquaphor container as I was going to take her diaper off. She proceeded to dig her little hand into the Aquphor, and got a huge glob of it in her hand, which went straight to her mouth!! I swept it out of her mouth and then cleaned her mouth (now I have to clean BOTH ends). After cleaning out her mouth, I go to take her diaper off again, and she grabs for the Aquaphor again. I say “NO” and she starts to LAUGH as she grabs a glob. I take the Aquaphor glob from her hand. Back to getting the diaper off… she looks at me, smiles, and reaches for the Aquaphor. I say “no” and she laughs as she looks at me, like she’s saying “ha ha Mama, I’m gonna do it again!”. It’s the first time that she did something, knowing she wasn’t supposed to…. And laughed ;-) Funny baby!

She is now getting into EVERYthing. I’m going to have to put us both in a gated, safe, play zone while I work!

List for Tricia

I’ve told many, if not all, of you about a wonderful couple, Tricia & Nate, and their beautiful baby, Gwyneth. Their blog is www.cfhusband.blogspot.com/. One of the readers of this blog (www.learysinlove.blogspot.com/) wrote a list of things for Tricia to look forward to as a mom. Nate read the list and thought it would be fun for other mom’s to share all the things we all thought Tricia has to look forward to. Here is my list.

Things to look forward to:

The 1st time that she stops crying because you picked her up. She wasn’t hungry, she wasn’t wet, she wanted Mama.

Pushing her on a swing and seeing her face light up and to hear her squeal and laugh because it’s the first time she’s ever been on a swing!

Hearing her say Dada as she looks at your husband. I think I got more teary when she said Dada than when she said Mama for the 1st time.

Holding her hand until she falls asleep.

Watching Sesame Street together.

Watching her eyes light up when she discovers something new. You’ll see the world through a new set of eyes, because EVERYthing is new.

Looking at her closet and realizing she has a better wardrobe than you ;-)

Getting to dress her up every day!

Things we both have to look forward to:

Hearing her tell you I LOVE YOU for the first time

The 1st time she hugs me back (I look forward to the millions of times to follow, too)

The 1st time she kisses me back (ditto on looking forward to the millions of times to follow)

Easter Bunny

Today Aria went to see the Easter Bunny. She sat on his lap and started bouncing and smiling. She really liked the Easter Bunny!!

She was in such a great mood today. Recently she has started opening her mouth really wide when she smiles. It's very cute! Funny baby!

She ate cheese for the 1st time today. She loved it!

I think I forgot to mention that she also had her 1st bite of ice cream this week!