Doing well!

Aria had a great day today! We've been working on potty training. Last week, she started telling me when she had to go poo-poo, and either she would go right after she said it, or she would make it to the potty... but then wouldn't go! Then as soon as I put a diaper on, sure enough, she would go. Today when she told me she had to go, we ran to the potty, and she went in the potty! YAY! So, we're making some progress, I think ;-) She is now in cloth diapers, and I'm hoping that will make her feel when she is wet more than she can tell in regular diapers.

She all of a sudden is doing a lot better with her colors. We would read her books about the colors, and point out things and say their color, but whenever we'd ask her "what color is this?" she would always say "green". Our convo would go something like this:

Mama: Look Aria, this circle is red. What color is the circle?

Aria: Green

Mama: No, it's not green, it's red. What color is the circle?

Aria: Green

Hmm....

Or this was a convo between Aria and daddy:

Daddy - Aria, what color is this? (Points to yellow shoe)

Aria - Green

Daddy - no it's yellow

Aria - Yellow

Daddy - what color is this? (points to his white shirt - therefore points at his belly)

Aria - The baby!

So apparently everyone has a baby in their belly ;-) We got a good laugh out of that one.

But, today she pointed out (correctly ;-) pink, purple, and brown. Of course, it was without me asking (if I'd have asked, she would have said Green). This girl definitely has a mind of her own, that is for sure!

Aria has also made a big huge stride in the land of sleep. We used the Baby Whisperer books (I love the Baby Whisperer!!) to help Aria to be able to go to sleep on her own, in her crib (instead of me rocking her to sleep, and then setting her in her crib once she was in a deep sleep). It was a hard few days, but, she is able to go down in her crib by herself now. I can't express how happy I am about this!!

On the 3rd day of sleep training, she pointed to the door and said "Mama, go". I am shocked bc I'd spent the last, what seemed like forever, rocking her to sleep. Now she wanted me to go? I am happy with the request, though, trust me! I thought she didn't know what she was asking, so I left to show her what it meant for mama to go. She started to cry, so I peeked back in and said "you told me to go". She just looked up and said "bye" and waved at me. So, that night, she put herself to sleep, and there were no more tears. Happy days! She is sleeping a LOT better now, and we are all happy! We still have some nights where she wakes up in the middle of the night, but it's a lot easier to get her to go to sleep on her own, even then.

Aria is doing really good with sentences. She says things like "read kitty a book" and "the birds eat it" and "I don't want it". There are lots more, and they seem to be different every day (except "I don't want it"... that is a fav).

She has been asking about Ahna and Papa a lot lately. She was even asking my mom about them today. I think she wants to take a trip!

Speaking of Grandparents, did I already mention in a previous blog that Aria calls my mom, Mina? We are unsure why she chose this name, bc we have always referred to my mom as Gramma, but, it's officially Mina (rhymes with Tina).

Aria's top two eye teeth have finally popped through her gums ;-) I could see the gums stretching for weeks so I was very happy to see they came through!

Her favorite things these days....

She absolutely loves to spend time with her friends, Mia, Kali, Hannah, and Lauren. She also loves Mia's mom, Jenn. She has just consolidated their names, and calls for "Miajenn". Aria is learning to share, and not to grab toys from her friends ;-) She's doing a lot better these days. Mia is always good at sharing. When they are in the car together, Aria ends up with all the toys/snacks/etc. bc Mia hands them to her. They are really cute together!

When she wakes up in the morning, or after a nap, or when we get into the car - she asks for either Miajenn, Amy, Mina, Grampa, Daddy, Winston, or Edie. Every day she does this. When she wants to go to one of their houses, she stands by the back door (that goes to the car) and says Choo Chooo! This means she wants to go on a car ride ;-) choo choo means ride to her (she got this from Gramma and Grampa - they say Chooo chooo as they give her rides at their house).

Speaking of learning things from Gramma and Grandpa - Aria keeps doing things that I wonder where it comes from. Like saying "ready, set, GO!" I thought - where on earth did she learn that (not from me - I always say 1,2,3)? And she takes her animal's hands and waves at people and says "HI", as though the animal is saying it. Yep- these are games she plays with Gramma and Grampa.

She loves being silly! She cracks her little self up all the time (and me, too!) Today she thought it was just hilarious to put her fork down her shirt... I thought she took it out, but later found it all the way down her leg when she went to take a bath. Baby! She also likes to make funny faces, and make funny sounds. She's always doing something silly and saying "mama LOOK".

She loves her sparkly shoes! I had to go get some more sparkly shoes so that she would wear something other than her red, Dorothy shoes. Her current fav shoes are her silver sparkly shoes (thanks Auntie Jennifer!) She even wants to wear them to bed. So, now that I've gotten her to wear different colored shoes besides red, she wants to only wear her Hello Kitty socks... in red... underneath them. This girl is never going to match!

She loves to color! We got her an easel for Christmas, and she colors all the time. We trace her hands and trace her magnet letters. She likes me to help her draw hearts and flowers and stars. She was drawing on the shower door with her bath colors, and drew the letter A, and pointed to it and said "A". She had never done that before or since, so I think it just ended up her lines looked like an A, but, still... I was impressed ;-)

She still loves to swing, and slide down the slide. We've had some beautiful weather, and so we get outside as much as we can.

She loves the doggies! She gets very excited when Winston is here - and loves to chase Edie around at my parent's house.

Elmo and Hello Kitty are her two favorite characters, by far! She wants everything that she sees that has Hello Kitty on it. She loves cats, in general. Her favorite stuffed toy is still Meow Meow (who she sleeps with in her crib).

What else? She is doing better at counting, and has counted to 11 by herself a few times. Yesterday, she got to 13, but started at 8. Most times, though, she says 1,2,3, 2,3 2,3. But, she's getting there.

She has all of her letters down pat. She takes her W (either the bath one or the magnet one) and turns it one way and says "M" and turns it around and says "W". She is funny when she says L's, bc she sticks out her tongue and curls it. It's cute ;-) She looks like a little lizard.

Oh she loves to sing! She still sings Twinkle, Twinkle and ABCs, but now knows most of Rock-a-by-baby and Itsy Bitsy Spider. She tries to do the hand motions for Itsy Bitsy Spider, too.

An interesting thing that Aria does is name her books. She has a favorite page out of each of her favorite books, and she refers to the book by that page. One book she calls "broken" bc her favorite page is one where the little boy has broken a dish. Another she calls "bath" because her favorite page is Waldo Woo in the Washtub. She has also started to say what is coming next on some of the pages before I do. We read a LOT, though, so I think it's just all the repetition.

One thing I just have to get on video is how she plays her toy violin. It is so funny and cute! She likes to watch as I teach lessons. She lays on the ground, flat out, and looks up as my student and/or I play our violins. A real violin is definitely in her near future!

Well, to give you an update on the newest baby ;-) I had an ultrasound on Friday. I am 31 weeks, and the baby is 3 lbs 13 ozs. My belly is enormous, and so I thought 3 lbs 13 ozs sounded awfully small (but it isn't). I think it's a boy bc this pregnancy has been so incredibly different from my pregnancy with Aria. In the ultrasound, the new baby looked an awful lot like Aria. Once I get the pictures scanned, I will post them so you can all see. This baby is a mover - I mean, this baby is moving ALL the time!! I love it! Aria barely ever moved during the day (except for hiccups) when I was pregnant with her, so this is a completely new experience for me. I feel like the Alien bc my belly moves all around as the baby moves. I also have lots of energy, which has been so great. I was tired all the time when I was pregnant with Aria. My appetite is bigger this time, though, too.... not such a great thing! Oh well. My parents know the gender again - so they can get the room ready. The room will be Dr. Suess, and I can't tell you how excited I am to see the final result when we come home from the hospital!

Aria says she wants a brother AND a sister.

Well that is all for now! Thanks for reading and have a great day (week, month) ;-)