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.