First Kisses

02/28/08

Aria was in her highchair today, and started doing real kisses! Before she’d make a kiss sound by smacking her lips together and then opening her mouth wide. Today, she puckered her lips and kissed!! She did it for the first time when she was eating peas today. When she eats she kind of puckers her lips a bit, and when she opened her mouth, it made a kissing sound. The look on her face when she did it was priceless. Her eyes got wide and I think I saw a light bulb appear over her head. She kept doing it over and over. I would do a kissing sound, and she’d do it right back! I tried to get her to kiss me on the cheek, but she just tried to bite my nose, or suck on my chin, as usual… we’re getting there ;-)

We went on a run today! It was LONG overdue. We had such a great time! It was beautiful outside! We had our new, blue, jogging stroller (we love love love this stroller. Check it out by clicking here) so Aria can actually face forward (her other stroller holds her carseat and she faces me. Boring, right? Ha ha!). She loves to be outside and look all around. She laughed out loud as I ran. She loves the wind on her face and going fast. She was squealing and laughing. After I knew she was OK and having fun, I started to listen to my new ipod (thanks Jennifer!!). I listened to Beethoven’s “Emporer” piano concerto (thanks Beethoven!!). Beautiful day, beautiful music, going on a run with a laughing baby. Really, can you ask for anything more?

We stopped at the park and I put Aria in the baby swing. OH my gosh she had soooo much fun. She was belly laughing and squealing the whole time. If ever I am lying on a couch in a therapy session, and they tell me to go to my happy place, I know what I will think of ;-) ha ha!

After the run and the park we went home and Aria should’ve gone down for a nap but didn’t. Before we knew it, it was 6:30 and time to teach violin lessons…I knew a melt down was pending! She actually sat through the first lesson, which was with a beginner (who is really doing great!). I think the activities we do are fun for Aria, too. She’s never sat in for a whole lesson before. At one point she ended up laying on the ground directly underneath my student, Kathleen’s, violin. She just looked up at Kathleen as she played and smiled. VERY cute. Kathleen got a kick out of it, too. For the 2nd lesson, Grampa had Aria. This is when the melt down occurred. POOOOR Grampa!! I felt awful bc she was crying sooo hard, and the only reason was bc she was so tired.

Aria crashed for what I thought would be the night. I put her in her carseat without waking her, and headed to Starbucks to meet our friend, Molly. As soon as we got to Starbucks, Aria woke up. She can’t resist Molly. She always has lots of smiles for Molly. We tried to get her to say HI Molly…. But she’d only say Hi. Aria did end up blowing her kisses, though. She also screamed a lot (happy screams - not crying screams!)

The guy at Starbucks kept referring to Aria as “him”. We told him “her” name was Aria. He apologized, and said he only thought that because her hair was so short. I thought that was hilarious! Her hair is short? Her hair is nonexistent. Don’t think by my saying this that I was upset that he was calling her a boy. Lots of people do unless she is wearing all pink ;-) It’s OK. Once she gets hair I can put bows in it. ;-)

We came home and I tried to get her to sleep, but she wanted to play. We practiced some crawling and played with books and her piano toy, and she finally went to sleep at 11:00. She is overly tired tonight, and I am hoping this won’t be a long, sleepless night bc of that. We shall see!

All about Daddy

I was thinking after I posted about Matthew and his obsession with Project Runway (and his subsequent therapy sessions…) I realized that most of the people that are reading this blog don’t know Matthew! So I thought I’d dedicate a post just about him.

The reason that it is so funny that he likes Project Runway… Matthew is a t-shirt and jeans kind of guy (I have no complaints… he looks great in a t-shirt and jeans… oh la la!). He could care less about fashion or what the population believes is fashionable. In fact, he goes against the fashion grain. Take his work uniform. He has to wear an all black uniform. But… no one can dictate what his socks look like. He has thrown away all of his white socks. He wears bright red, bright yellow, bright blue, bright (florescent) green. Also, nothing is fashionable if it is over $20. Is my PR post making more sense to you all ;-)

Just so you know, Matthew will laugh at this post, and it is meant in all fun!

Since this blog is about Aria, and not Matthew’s socks or fashion sense… I thought I’d add some of my favorite Daddy and Aria stories.

Aria got a cute little bunny from her Ahna and Papa in the mail. Daddy took the bunny and moved it like it was dancing and started singing “little bunny foo foo running through the forest, scooping up the field mice (here he makes the bunny make a scooping motion) and bopping them on the head (here he bops Aria in the head)” There is another part of the song, and Matthew knows all the words. It cracked me up that he knew all the words to this song. Both Aria and mama got a good laugh from that one. Every time she plays with that bunny I think of that and laugh.

As you can imagine, Matthew is thrilled that Aria says “hi da da” to him. You should see his face whenever she says it! I had to laugh when he said “so, it’s official that her first word is da da, and her second word was mama, right?” We agreed, but still think she said "yellow" when she was 2 months old (we don't really, but it's a funny story... Click here and look for the October 24th post to see the story)

This is everyone’s favorite Daddy and Aria trick:

Matthew has gotten Aria so used to loud and sudden sounds, that she is now afraid of nothing. He’s done this since she was born, and I always think she’s going to cry, but she doesn’t. She actually smiles! He says in a low, loud voice “hey” when she’s not expecting it or he bangs his hand on the table really hard (aka Grampa Orengia ;-) Zig (our dog..), on the other hand, thinks he’s in trouble every time he does this (poor Zig!). It has never phased Aria.

Now take a look at how much they look alike…

We love you Da Da!

Sliding is fun!

02/27/08

Aria is having a FUN week! Her friend, Quinlynne came to visit! Quinlynne has been crawling all around showing Aria how it’s done. The votes came through (thanks everyone ;-) and if you haven’t voted or seen the video, see below) and 75% say she is crawling ;-) I would say it’s the beginning phase of crawling. She is really funny when she is on the tile because scooting forward doesn’t work as well because she slides, so she ends up going backwards instead, and futher from her destination. Poor baby!

Today it was beautiful outside! Sunny and 60’s. Aria and Grampa played on the swingset together. Aria slid down the slide for the 1st time and she LOVED it. She also got to swing with Grampa for a long time. She loves to be outside. She also loves to watch the dogs run all around. Winsty was here playing with Zig. Quinlynne played with them, too. Quinlynne is 2 and she kept coming inside to outside (and vice versa) through the doggy door. Too funny! Whatever works! I was working, but wished I could be out playing with them.

Sleep – Aria slept HORRIBLY last night. I think she went down way too late and was overly tired (11:30 is when she went to sleep last night). She took a great nap in the late morning today, though. She has started napping in her crib instead of in the swing, which is a very good thing! She took 2 good naps today, right on schedule. What a good baby ;-) (during the day…)

Tonight I gave her a bath and I noticed that her hair (it’s growing slowly but surely ;-) is curling! I even tried to straighten a couple of the curls to see if it was just that I made the hair appear to curl by the way I dried her head off with towel. The curls stayed even when I tried to straighten them. YAY!! I hope she gets curly hair like her dad!! The hair that has remained from when she was 1st born is really straight (what is left of it around the nape of her neck - you know, the grampa-do). The new hair growing in is what is curling.

She hasn’t said any new words in the last 2 days. In fact, I don’t think she’s said ANY words in the last 2 days. Hmmm…

Today I left my big water jug on the ground by Aria, and she scooted (…I mean crawled) over to it, and I looked over and she had the straw in her mouth. Funny baby! Then she knocked it over and got water everywhere. BABY!

Tonight when I was telling her a bedtime story (I was telling the story instead of reading it bc I couldn’t find the book…) she just laughed at me through the whole thing. What is so funny??

She went down to sleep at 9:30 tonight. Wish us a GOOD night sleep!

Project Runway

02/26/08

We had a great weekend! Friday Matthew and I went to PF Chang’s and Aria went to Gramma and Grampa’s. Saturday we went to Gramma and Grampa’s and fixed their computer. Aria got to play with Gramma and Grampa ALL day. She has a walker there, too, and it’s even more fun than the one she has at home. It’s a Sesame Street walker that lights up and has a spinning mirror and a stuffed big bird and cookie monster. Fun stuff!

On Sunday we got some things done in the morning, and then Daddy and Aria sat and watched some TV together… check out what they are watching.


Yes, they are watching Project Runway that was saved on our DVR... Matthew is in counseling for his new obsession with Project Runway… ;-)

Is Aria Crawling??

Please complete the survey!

Aria in her Walker

Here is Aria in her walker! The first video is from today, and the second video is from when she first got her walker.

Aria Laughing

I've been uploading videos to youtube today. Can you tell ;-) Here is a video from 01/08/08 at Grampa Danny's birthday party. Aria LOVED the party favors. She loves Gramma, too ;-)

Aria 2 hours old

I was looking at some old video of Aria, and came across this one. She had just gotten her 1st bath and was in the nursery window. She is so alert! I can't believe this was 8 months ago (tomorrow Aria is 8 months old!).

Duck

We had a fun day today! Aria said "Duck" today ;-) She is really starting to use a lot more sounds and "talks" all day.

Aria went to sleep at 9:00. Here is one of my favorite sleeping Aria pictures

Two cousins, one birthday!

Aria slept GREAT last night. She fell asleep on the way home from the store last night at about 7:00 pm. She didn’t get up until 11:30 pm. I knew she’d have to get up to eat. She usually doesn’t go to bed until, at the earliest, 9:00 pm, but usually 10:00 pm or later. She got up one time at night, but she didn’t actually wake up. She just cried a tiny bit in her sleep. When I woke up this morning, she was in her crib saying “da da” and then clicking her tongue. “da da” click click “da da” click click.

I looked at my phone to see what time it was and it was 8:00. I had already gotten 2 missed calls and 2 texts. I thought I missed something at work, and panicked a little. Then I saw the texts!! They were from Alethea and my mom in law! Alethea had gone into labor in the early morning, and went to the hospital! She ended up having a c-section at 8:24 am and had a BABY BOY!! His name is Colton Maximus and he weighs 9 lbs 9 ozs. BIG boy! The doctor had told Alethea after her ultrasound on Friday that the baby was about 7 lbs 8 ozs. What a SURPRISE baby! We all thought for sure it was a girl. We can’t wait to meet him!! Here is a picture of baby Colton.

Colton Maximus - born 02/18/08 - 9 lbs 9 ozs



As I was trying to talk to Kat this morning, we kept getting cut off. She said “it’s a boy” and the phone cut out. So I tried to call her back at her home number and it went to voicemail. The phone was on speaker and Aria was lying next to me (yeah, we were still in bed) and she heard Jake’s voice on the phone and she looked and said “da da”. Too funny.

Today is also AJ’s birthday – my other nephew! He is THREE today!

Today Aria watched her 1st Veggie Tales. She is so funny. It’s the Silly Songs DVD. She is in her exersaucer piano, and she is leaning all the way back and looks up at the ceiling. She is babbling/singing along. She laughs when I clap. She is amazed at how I make that sound, and wonders how I do such a fun thing that makes such a cool sound. I think Veggie Tales is a hit!

She had corn for the first time today. Corn mixed with butternut squash. Yum!

Today we went to the mall for lunch. Aria had soooo much fun. She loves being around people! We met Jenn and Mia. Mia and Aria are so cute – they look at each other, and smile. Aria gets excited and bounces and squeals when she sees her. Mia gets more animated every time we see her. She is 4 months. They are looking closer in age now.

Aria went to bed at 8:30 tonight…. We’ll see how tonight goes!

Cheerios!

We went to Church on Saturday night, and Aria went to the nursery again. She had just woken up from a nap as we signed her in, and I wondered how she’d do if I tried to drop her off sleepy. I handed her to the person at the nursery, and she went to her with no problems. Again, I looked for her number to show up during the service, but it didn’t! I went to pick her up afterwards, and tried to peek in and see her playing with the kids, but I couldn’t see around the corner. They said she did have fun, though ;-) and that she was good the whole time.

On Sunday, we all went to brunch (Daddy, Aria, Mama, Gramma Ginny, Grampa Danny) at MiMi’s. We asked for a high chair for Aria, and when they brought it over, they also brought a little cup full of CHEERIOS! Aria had never had Cheerios before! We put her in the high chair, and put some of the Cheerios on the table. Aria grabbed right for them and ate them up. She loved them! I can’t wait to get a box for her to munch on at home. She’s getting really good at picking up very small objects (like Cheerios ;-)



During brunch, Aria looked right at Daddy and said “Da Da” We don’t know if it was coincidence or if she really called him Da Da, but it sure sounded deliberate to all of us at the table. It made Daddy VERY happy! Aria proceeded to day Da Da throughout the rest of the day.

After brunch we went to Costco to “pick up a couple of things” (yeah right...). Gramma and Grandpa came with us, too. Aria got a big book of baby animals and a Veggie Tales silly songs dvd.

Next, we dropped off Grampa Danny and the groceries (Grampa Danny had to get some work done) and we went to pick up Uncle Chris. We went to Fire Wheel, which is an outdoor shopping area. We went to Old Navy and Pier 1, but then everything closed. As we headed home, and Aria was “da da”-ing away, I said to her “Aria, can’t you just say MaMa?” and (OK I know you’re not going to believe this!) she said “Ma Ma” !! Everyone in the car heard it, so I have witnesses! ;-) She didn’t say it again after that (she went back to Da Da) but she DID say it! She's never said an "mmm" sound before. Of course, we're not actually sure that she meant to say mama, but it made me happy regardless ;-)

Finally Friday

02/15/08

Last night went pretty well! Aria got up a couple of times, but went back down quickly. She woke up the first time at 4:00, so that is practically morning, and was more than 6 hours of sleep. I can’t complain!

She fell asleep last night grasping onto the bar of the crib. She continued holding onto it for a long time, even though she was sound asleep.

Today she was chasing her doggy, Zig, and Zig ran out the doggy door. Aria crashed into the doggy door in her walker... and then stood there. Zig poked his head in the doggy door to come back in, but couldn’t because Aria was blocking the way. Aria was looking at him like “hurry up! C’mon back in!”

She rolled onto the tile, and scooted all around the tile floor. She can scoot and slide her way around all over. I was thinking that she shouldn’t be on the tile bc she could bonk her head on it when she rolls, but, she’s not. She rolls with her head up when she’s on tile, I guess. Hmmm….

Late in the morning we spoke with Auntie Alethea. We are very excited for a new cousin to be born!! February 20th is her due date, and can’t come soon enough!

In the late afternoon, I tried to take a nap. I laid down in bed with Aria, and thought she might take a nap, too. I closed my eyes and Aria grabbed my hair and straightened out her arm (aka pulled my hair…). I smoothed my hair back, so that there wouldn’t be any hairs for her to pull coming out of my ponytail. I close my eyes, and she does it again. I’m really tired, so I try to give her her pacifier to play with. No, that is boring, says Aria. Next, I give her one of her shoes to play with. OK, that is a little more fun. She is looking at the shoe and turning it in her little hand, and playing a little with the Velcro strap. I shut my eyes. Aria starts to hit me on the head with the shoe. So much for a nap! Oh well…

I got up and got ready to go out to dinner. Matthew and I went to Rockfish for dinner, and Gramma and Grampa babysat. As I dropped Aria off, and said goodbye, she didn’t even look my direction as I walked away. Gramma and Grampa must be lots of fun!

A House Full of Kisses!

02/14/08

Aria’s very 1st Valentine’s Day!

Well, after a night of not so good sleep… we had a great morning!

Aria ended up in bed with us at about 6:00-ish, and was still asleep when I woke up at 7:00. Matthew was up, and I was up, and I wanted Aria to be up so we could give Daddy his presents! I got up and went to brush my teeth, and I found 2 Hershey Kisses at my sink! I went back into the bedroom and excitedly said:

Me: “there was a Hershey’s Kiss at my sink!!”
Matthew: “Really? Only 1?”
Me: “No, there were two!”
Matthew: “are you sure there were only two?”
Me: “Hmmm…. Let me go see….”

I went back in, and sure enough, there were only two…

Me: “there were only two”
Matthew: “are you sure?”
Me: “Yes”

Aria is still asleep, and so I’m kinda nudging her to wake up so the fun can start (I know, bad mama, never wake a sleeping baby) and we can give Daddy his presents. She stretches out like always when she wakes up. Matthew mentions that maybe I should check to see if there were more Hershey Kisses out there – and points to the door of the room. So, I opened the door, and there are two Hersey Kisses paths on the ground! I’m directed to follow the path to the left first…. It lead me to MORE Hershey Kisses, and to a big, beautiful Teddy Bear with a red dress and red bow on her ear! WOW! And a card (soooo sweet, too!!) and a Tweety Bird stuffed animal that says “I Wuv You” ;-) I love stuffed animals!

Next, I followed the Hershey’s Kiss path to the right, which went all the way up the stairs, through the media room, and into Aria’s room, and in her crib, there is another Vermont Teddy Bear, and this one has pink polka dot diapers on, with a bib that says “Aria Faith’s 1st Valentine’s Day”. OK I’m bawling by now (as well as while I’m typing this…).

Matthew: “are you sure there are only 2?”
Me: “ha ha ha more like 200”
Matthew: “more than that…”

WOW!

Next, it was time to give Daddy his Valentine’s! Aria gave him a little froggy stuffed animal, that is holding a heart that says “you make my heart leap” with a Spiderman Valentine card in it with a note from Aria to daddy. I gave him my card. Then I gave Aria the stuffed bear I got for her. As we were all laying in bed with all these stuffed animals, I noticed that my Tweety Bird had a spot for batteries on the bottom, which I mention to Matthew… he then pushes the foot, and it sings and dances and lights up to the song that goes like this “do you love me, do you love me, do you love me, now that I can dance”. I cracked up! Aria LOVES this Tweety Bird!! She smiles and watches it dance and light up. WAY too cute!



So, by 8:00 am, my Valentine’s Day has been the best Valentine’s Day I’ve EVER EVER EVER HAD!!

As I’ve gone around the house today, I’ve found kisses EVERYWHERE. Next to my vitamins, on top of the coffee canister, on top of the apple juice in the fridge, on every counter possible, EVERYwhere.

Before he left for work, Matthew cleaned up all the kisses from the floor, so Aria wouldn’t get them, and he offered before he left, to clean up all the kisses on the counters, etc! I mean, seriously, how much better can my day get?? Of course, I wanted him to leave them all over! I don’t know if they’ll ever be picked up ;-) Another thing to note… he only put them in places that are not accessible to Aria in her walker ;-) What a great daddy ;-)

Did I mention he also made breakfast??

I feel like a princess today!!!!

The picture below is Aria with all of her Valentine's Teddy Bears...

A day with Daddy

02/13/08

I can’t believe that tomorrow is already Valentine’s Day! I hope we’re all better and can have a FUN day!

I’m still sick… no fun. Aria is doing well, though. Gramma came to get Aria after work last night so I could get some sleep. Yesterday was tough! Aria was very good, but, I just felt bad for her because I wasn’t able to play as much as I’d have liked to. Plus I was working. ;-( I’m going to the doc today, and Matthew is going to be able to come home early. What a relief! Once he gets home, I’m sleeping the rest of the day. I’ve already called in for ½ a sick day.

A couple of things I thought were funny that Aria did yesterday… On either side of our front door there are windows, and there are shades covering them. There are 2 missing shades on either side. It’s the perfect height for my dog, Zig, to look out and see what is going in the front of our house. Yesterday, Aria joined Zig and was looking out the missing shades to see outside. It’s the perfect height for her in her walker, too ;-)

I think she was trying to sing yesterday. She would make sing song sounds when her piano was playing a song. Not like her regular talking, but more like singing. When the song was over, she’d stop. I thought it was cute ;-)

Well, there were no more crawling attempts yesterday. She does go backwards still, though. She squirms her way backwards and ends up on the tile and then slides around. Each time she gets on her hands and knees, I’m wondering … “is this it??” ;-) She makes every day so much fun!

I went to the doc this afternoon, and I have a sinus infection. Fun!

I spoke with Katie today! We had a great convo! We sure wish we could get these babies together to play!!

Matthew got home early, and I was able to relax and try to get well so I can have a good and productive rest of the week. We had fun spending time together today! We thought for sure Aria would crawl today so daddy could see, too. Like Matthew said… if she’s stubborn like her mom, she’ll wait another 2 weeks to crawl, and if she’s stubborn like her dad, she’ll wait a year. I had to correct him… if she's as stubborn as her dad, she’ll never crawl. Ha ha ha just kidding!

I give Aria her antibiotics right before she eats baby food. Yesterday she started to stick out her tongue as soon as I squirted the antibiotic into her mouth. All the antibiotic would come out as she stuck out her tongue, and she’d pull her tongue back in tight lipped, so none of the antibiotic went back in…. frustrating! Tonight I gave her the 1st squirt and she proceeded to stick out her tongue, so I asked Matthew to come over and see how much he thought she was actually swallowing. He came over to see, and as Aria looked up at daddy, and I squirted the antibiotic into her mouth, and she drank it. She drank all the rest without sticking out her tongue. Stinker! Will only do it when daddy’s around…

Tomorrow is baby’s 1st Valentine’s Day!

Yummy healthy desserts

Berry Cobbler“crust”

3 cups pecans

1 vanilla bean scraped

¾ tsp of sea salt

¾ cup of dates

*** throw in the food processor – I pull out about ¾ cup to sprinkle on top.

“syrup”

¾ cups of dates

3 tbsp of coconut oil

½ Vanilla bean (I usually just use the bean I just scraped because Vanilla beans are expensive, and I am cheap)

¾ cup of water

***throw in the food processor

Filling

I like to use 1 carton of blueberries, 1 carton of raspberries, and 1 carton strawberries, but I have also used 3 mangos.



Press the crust into the bottom of pan, mix the syrup and fruit, dump on top of the crust, and sprinkle remaining mixture on top.



Pineapple “Donut Holes”

1¾ cup of raw almonds

2 cups of dehydrated pineapples (I use the “Just Pineapple” from Central Market – no added sugars)

2 cups of dates (pitted, duh)

½ tsp of sea salt

1/3 cup of coconut (optional if you like it)



Throw it all in the food processor until a little sticky, then use ice cream scoop or hand to form “donut holes”

Mama's not feeling so well

02/11/08

Well, this weekend the whole house is sick, except Zig ;-) I caught the flu. Next year I’m getting the flu shot, because this is awful! I can’t take any medicine because I’m nursing. Well, except for Tylenol, which isn’t helping. I need some good ol’ Dayquil! I thought I was going to escape this sickness, but no such luck. My mom even took Aria for awhile on Sunday so I could get some sleep. I slept better in that 4 hours than I have in 7.5 months ;-) Aria had lots of fun with Gramma and Grampa, though!

Aria did pretty well sleeping last night. She did get up about 5 times, but 4 of the 5 times she went back to sleep without me even getting up. She wasn’t crying hard, just a little bit, and in her sleep. She did end up in bed with me, but it wasn’t until morning.

Aria keeps trying to get out the doggie door with her walker. Good luck with that! We’ve been having conversations all morning. She’s really chatty today! She looks at me and babbles and has a look on her face like she knows what she is saying.

She took great naps today. Probably because she’s still fighting that ear infection. She’s taking her antibiotics better now. I was afraid it was going to be a very long 10 days!

Aria almost crawled today! I wasn’t expecting it because she’s shown no sign of doing it, or any interest in doing it. She got up on all fours and rocked, and then she moved her legs in a crawl, and one arm in a crawl, but the other arm she’d roll over onto – and then lay on her side. SO close! She did that several times, but each time would end by rolling. She did crawl backwards without rolling. Does that count? ;-)

She went to sleep at 9:00 tonight. I’m going to try to get her down by 9 every night. I read her the Teddy Bear book every night, and I’m hoping she’ll start to associate that with going to sleep. She loves that book!

Well, good night everyone!

Feeling better!

02/09/08

Aria had a tough night last night. She fell asleep in bed with us, and when I tried to transfer her to her crib, she cried and cried …. And cried. So, needless to say, she slept with us last night. She woke up several times crying. Poor girl!

We got up at 8:30, and so far so good. Aria is being her regular self, only she wants to stay really close to me (I don’t mind!) and she is biting me more (I mind!)

She’s been saying da da da da and ba ba ba ba ba last night and this morning. In the last couple of days she has said Bob two times, and we really want to know who Bob is. Maybe she thinks I’m Bob? ;-) ha ha! Sarah tried to teach Aria to chant “Sarah, Sarah, Sarah” on the phone the other day, to get back at me for teaching Christina to do that 6 ½ years ago ;-) Christina was just a baby, and not really talking much at all. I used to babysit her a lot, and I tried to teach her to chant Mia, Mia Mia while moving her arm to the beat. She’d just look at me like I was strange. One day my brother, Adam, was at the store, and Christina started moving her arm the same way and chanting my name. Ha ha ha! They couldn’t stop the “Mia” chanting.

Aria was playing in her walker, and she rammed into the doggy door. Then she backed up and did it again. I think she thinks she can get out the doggy door like her puppy, Zig, does. Hmmm….

Aria is in a size 3 diaper. I can’t believe it. I remember looking at Sydney’s size 3 diapers when Aria was just born thinking that Aria would be at least 1 before she was in that size diaper bc they looked so big. Now I look at newborn diapers and can’t believe how TINY they are!

Aria loves baths! She started playing with her bath toys a couple of months ago. She loves the little tiny rubber duckies the best. She plays and chews on them when she’s not in the bath, too. It’s her favorite “teether”. I bought some other bath toys that had a shape that would be easier to hold and chew on, but she still just loves those little rubber duckies!

Today we went to Central Market to go grocery shopping. We met our friend, Ashley, since she is cooking the same kind of meals we are these days. It was fun! Aria hung out in the sling. She always straightens her legs when I put her in there, so it makes it rather difficult to get her in! I did get her legs bent and got her all tucked in the sling. Then, she popped out her leg and started to bounce it up and down out of the sling. It was pretty funny. She spent the whole time with her leg sticking out. She ended up falling asleep in it by the end of our 2.5 hour shopping excursion.

Now we’re home and just ate some berry cobbler (all natural, fat free, and super yummy!! Want the recipe?) Well, I ate berry cobbler, and Aria ate sweet peas (her fave) and some apple pears and some antibiotics ;-) I snuck the antibiotics inbetween the peas and the apple/pears. She really hates the antibiotics!!
She is rolling all over the floor in the office. She has rolled and scooted all the way to the tile, and is sliding around. She seems to like to slide around on the tile. Good thing I just cleaned the floors!

She was asleep by 9:00 tonight, which is very early. She’s usually up until 11:00. Wish us good luck on a good night of sleep! I need it!

Ear Infection

02/08/08

Aria went to sleep at 11:30 last night, and was coughing a little bit. Then she got up at 1:15 crying hard. She felt hot, but she usually is warmer when she sleeps. She was up again at 2:15, and felt even warmer, so I took her temp. She had a temp of 102, so I gave her some baby Motrin. This morning she has a very runny nose, and her eye (just one) is watering. Poor baby! She’s watching Sesame Street in her bouncy seat.

We went to the doctor, and Aria has a double ear infection. Poor baby! She is now on antibiotics. Her cousin, Diella, also has an ear infection. Poor babies! She is napping well, today. She just looks miserable. She still smiled at the doctor and the people in the pharmacy. She looks miserable, though. Her nose is running, and her eyes and cheeks are red.

The doctor also said that her top teeth are going to come through ANY time. The last time she told me that (about her bottom teeth) they came in shortly after. Wow, that is going to hurt worse when she bites me. When I hold her on my side, she bites my shoulder and pulls my shirt in her teeth as far as it’ll go before it pulls out of her teeth.

Matthew is feeling better, and went back to work today. Finally he isn’t miserable in bed with the flu! Aria’s ear infection and Matthew flu aren’t related.

So far, I’m the only one escaping sickness!

Aria wanted to be held the rest of the day and night. She slept a lot. Matthew and I had a very interesting time trying to get her to take her antibiotics. It will be a hard 10 days if it goes the same as it did this evening! The doctor and pharmacist both said that babies like this kind of antibiotic, and they don’t hear complaints about it. Well, Aria is complaining!

Falling asleep

02/06/08

Sesame Street was about cats and how to act like a cat. It has made me think of my nieces all day. Christina and Sydney love to be little cats ;-) I miss them.

Aria has been playing in her walker, and playing on the little rug with her toys. She already took one nap today, and is working on her 2nd nap. It’s 2:30, and she is tired. I put her in her swing and gave her a nuk and a blankie. Then I started singing her a lullaby. She is now laughing at me. Yes, laughing at my lullaby. Now she just threw her nuk…

Daddy is very sick with a bad case of the flu. He’s actually taken two sick days from work! I don’t know if he’s ever done that. He is quarantined upstairs ;-). So far Aria and I haven’t caught it.

OK so back to lulling baby to sleep. I went over and put my hand on her face, which calms her every time. This time, however, she laughed at me. OK what is so funny? Then I got a call from work, and had to walk away from the swing. Aria started to scream, and I had to not have a screaming baby in the background as I was on the work call. I took her out of the swing as quickly as possible and set her on my lap and put her nuk in her mouth. She really IS tired and needs a nap. She took the nuk and laid on my lap, and as I’m talking on the phone, she is, again, laughing at me. OK I think I need to go put on some makeup or something!

We went to the store to get some things for daddy to eat, since nothing really tastes or sounds good since he is sick. Aria kept looking at me and doing her kiss at me. Awww so cute!

Now it's 10:30 and Aria is still up... she is playing with Zig. She loves to pet him and grab his feet and ears. Zig is really good with her. Aria just looks at him and babbles and laughs and screams. She also chases him with her walker, which always cracks me up.

Aria is on the floor next to me and she just bit my big toe! OUCH!!

Last night as Aria was falling to sleep, she was holding my hand. I was really tired and was trying to get her to sleep, hoping she’d fall asleep fast. Then I started thinking about when she got older, and I realized that one day when she’s all grown up, I’m going to miss moments like this, holding my baby’s hand while she falls asleep. I stopped wishing she’d fall asleep fast, and held her hand for a long time. I just love that lil’ girl so much!

First time at the nursery and a football game

02/02/04 – 02/03/04

This weekend Aria went to the nursery at Church for the first time! I was very nervous when I dropped her off that she might cry. I only saw one other baby in there, and hoped there would be lots of kids. She LOVES to watch other kids, and I knew she wouldn’t cry if there were kids for her to play with. So, I left her with the nursery, and went to Church. I kept watching for her number to appear…. But…. It never did!! I went to pick her up afterwards, and looked in to see that 2 rooms had joined so there were lots of kids! I spoke with the woman at the nursery, and she said that Aria didn’t even fuss once and that she had lots of fun! Awwww….. !! Her first time at a nursery ;-) I’m so glad she had fun!!!

Now maybe I should start working out at the gym. We went to Life Time childcare to meet the staff that would take care of Aria while she was there, and Aria loves them!! OK, no excuses now not to go to the gym ;-)

This weekend we also went to a Super Bowl party. It was fun. I learned a lot about football. For instance, did you know that Eli the QB is engaged to his highschool sweetheart? And that the Patriot’s QB left his pregnant wife/GF for Gisele, the super model? Unbelievable… GO GIANTS!

Aria had fun at the party. She always has fun when there are a lot of people around. She even fell asleep at the end in Leslie Haley’s arms. She loves Auntie Leslie! She also loved the boxers! There were 4 boxers at the party. One was sniffing her face (they did REALLY good about not licking!!) and she grabbed the dog’s loose skin around his mouth. Too funny! They were all really good with Aria. She also screamed throughout the game. Yes, screaming is officially back.

She’s also been sticking her tongue out a lot. Just something new ;-)

Love
Mia & Aria

Sesame Street - Hair predicament

02/01/08

Well, last night went about the same as the night before. She went to sleep at 11:00, and up at 2 am crying very hard. Daddy got up with her. She ended up in bed with me, and was still crying. I nursed her, and she fell asleep. Hmmm…. This time I put her back into her crib once she fell asleep. Then she slept until 7:30. I changed her diaper, and then put on my glasses. She actually laughed at me when my glasses were on.

Now it’s 9:00 and I’m working and she’s watching Sesame Street which is again about hair! What are they trying to do to my poor baby’s self esteem?? The word on the street today is predicament. I think she’s in a hair predicament.

We had a little scream fest this morning. She started screaming again, by the way. That started up again last night. Last night she screamed and screamed SO loud that I thought for sure the neighbors would hear and think something was wrong. This morning, she’d scream, and I’d scream back (I’d try to scream as high as she did). We did this back and forth for awhile. Fun times. Now she has taken her walker to the front door and is just standing there.

We went to the toy store at lunchtime. I got you a piano toy and a teether toy that I hope you like! We’re home now and so far you like to chew on my shirt better…

Now we’re in the office/studio/playroom that has carpet. It’s harder for me to use my laptop in here, but more carpet for Aria to scoot around. Her 2 forms of getting from place to place are her walker and rolling. She is rolling all around this room. She keeps rolling right onto the tile. Who needs crawling or walking when you can roll everywhere you go, right?… hmmm… she’s not even attempting a crawl/scoot/inchworm/whatever.

For dinner Aria had Garden Veggies baby food. First time eating zucchini ;-)

She went to bed early – about 9:30… we’ll see how the night goes! Wish us all luck and a good night sleep!

Sesame street... zero hair

01/31/07

Aria did not sleep well last night! She got up about 3 times by 2:00 am (having gone to bed at about 11:30 pm) she woke up the last time crying HARD. I really think her teeth are hurting her. She is drooling this week, and she doesn’t ordinarily drool. So, I gave her Tylenol and some baby oragel, and rocked her to sleep. She fell asleep, but as soon as I set her down, she would cry one of those cries where she doesn’t take a breath for what seems like 5 minutes and then wails. So, she ended up in bed with me ;-) She STILL cried when she was in bed with me. She never does that. I think it had to be her teeth hurting.

Fast forward to 9 am…she is happy, watching Sesame street. Today’s episode is all about hair. Aria is watching it and wondering what this thing called hair is… The number of the day is zero. Put the two together and it’s zero hair…very fitting.

Today in her walker, she dropped the ball she was playing with, and she raced to get it in front of her. The ball was rolling in front of her and was being pushed by the walker. She kept cruising forward with her arms stretched out as far as she could reach forward, thinking if she kept going, she’d be able to get the ball. Poor baby! ;-)

She has started grabbing things off the coffee table and the cd rack and anything she can reach from her walker. I set up a bunch of toys so she can grab toys instead of the remote (her second fav toy after the water bottle).

I’m writing this blog as the day progresses. It’s about 4:20 and Aria just puked for the 1st time. She yak-ed really loud and puked up her sweet potatoes! Then she smiled really big… I guess puking is fun. She seems fine. This has never happened before…. Odd.

Now she’s playing with the dog and the remote.

All day today she’s been smacking her lips together and then opening her mouth really big. I don’t know if she’s trying to say mama since I have been trying to teach her how to say mama (and I exaggerate it when I say “say Maaa Maaaa) OR if she’s making a kissing sound. Or… if she’s just experimenting with sounds. It’s a new thing she’s doing, but she’s been doing it all day.

Gramma came to babysit while I taught violin lessons. Aria fell asleep about ½ hour before she got there. As soon as I played an A on my violin, she was crying… oh dear. She stopped smacking her lips and opening her mouth as soon as Gramma got there, but continued after she left. I tried to get her to do it so Gramma could see. Lil stinker! I now believe she is doing kissing sounds. She started back up when I kissed her from across the room. Then she continued doing it until she fell asleep. Funny baby!

I tried to get her down early today, at 9:30, but she didn’t fall asleep until 11:00. BABY!