We sure have had a fun August... and Sept so far! I still can't believe it's Sept! The 2 weeks we spent with my brother, Adam, and Sarah and my cutie pie nieces made August FLY by.I don't even know where to start with the FUN we had!

When we got to their house, Adam took Aria up to Sydney and Christina’s rooms, and at each thing he showed her, she said, in an airy and drawn out voice “wow!” And you should’ve seen her when the DVD came down from the ceiling in the van! It was like she entered paradise or something! Needless to say, she had an absolute blast playing with Sydney and Christina. From morning to night! She misses them now. She wants big sisters ;-) She also loved (loves) Adam and Sarah. She keeps asking where they are now. She kept calling Adam “my uncle” Where is my uncle?

Aria is on her 1st amusement park ride here. She had so much fun!! This ride goes around and up and down at the same time. I was really nervous for her to go on the ride all by herself, and thought she might cry. Ummm... I was slightly wrong ;-)

We went to the Aquarium, too! It was fun! Aria got to pet a starfish ;-)

We went to the beach at Monterey. The tide came up and surprised Aria. It came up over her knees and she started bawling! Poor girl! But she had a great time playing in the sand. This was the 1st time she saw the ocean ;-)

Aria got sick right before we left and sick again as we left. Not sure if allergies or cold, but she was very stuffed up. After Aria asked me a question, Sydney asked her “why are you calling your mommy, Bobby?” Bc of her stuffed nose, mommy sounded like Bobby.

She had several “1sts” in Cali. 1st time seeing ocean, 1st trip to McDonalds. 1st French fries. Saw her 1st real rainbow, 1st hairclips (that she didn’t rip out within seconds of putting in). 1st time she pulled someone’s hair. 1st time hitting.

OK so the last 2 aren’t so good… but we dealt with it, and she stopped ;-) I was shocked at the hairpulling! I thought to myself she has never done that before! Then I remembered… only 1 of her friends at home has long enough hair to pull. ;-)

Chanson had a few firsts too…. Like his 1st food, lemon meringue pie. Yes I said lemon meringue pie. A neighbor came over and gave him a taste. Me and Sarah almost fainted, I think. He’d never had anything but milk until then. The neighbor was a super sweet woman, who meant no harm, so I couldn’t be mad!

Then, the other day, Aria stuck her sucker in his mouth! He is not going to like it when he gets rice cereal!

Chanson had a great ol’ time in Cali, too! It was funny bc Haley (the German Shepherd) kept bringing the ball to Chanson. Wherever Chanson was laying, sitting, hanging out, Haley would drop the ball on him. Then she’d wait there, like Chanson was going to throw it! Haley must have intuition that Chanson will be a good ball player ;-)

Like I mentioned before, while we were there, Aria was surprisingly potty trained! Aria saw Sydney say she needed to go potty, and went into the bathroom to go... and I guess it just clicked for Aria! After that, she wanted to go on potty and wear undies. SO we went and bought her undies and Sydney kept taking her to the potty (at 1st Sydney got a treat when Aria did.. talk about motivation!) Aria got to eat mnm's if she went potty. I asked Aria if she wanted an mnm, and she said "edamame?" haha!! She didn't even know what an mnm was! NOW when she asks for Edamame, she sometimes asks for mnms by mistake.

A few other things she is doing since coming home… she says “nuh huh” where the “huh” part is sung with 3 syllables. Cracks me up. And when she says no, she adds an ah sound to the end. Noahhh. Valley girl! Haha!

So, some Aria funnies ;-) Can't go without those, right?

It was Itzhak Perlman’s birthday on 8/31. If you don’t know, he’s the most amazing violinist that has ever been. Plus, he returned the letters I wrote to him when I was little (or young, I should say ;-) He is my childhood hero. Here is Itzhak playing what I dreamed of playing my whole childhood. I finally got to play in in HS. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pR8ABKpwm7w. Haha ok I went on a tangent there… back to Aria. I told her it was Itzhak Perlman’s birthday and she said, with squinty eyes, and high, questioning voice “Pizza Perlman”??

We were looking at one of her fav books which is pictures of all sorts of animals. She kept going to the Hippopotamus and she’d stress each syllable. Now that I write it, it’s not that funny haha! But, I guess you had to be there.

She calls sunscreen, “sunscream” and swimsuit “swimsoup”

She found a long dress in her closet. It was all the way in the back, and I’d forgotten about it. It was in the “doesn’t yet fit” part of her closet. Well, she wanted to put it on, and guess what? It fits. And she won’t take it off. Ever. She actually has been asking for long dresses like her princesses for a long time now. Now that she has one, there’s no going back. Funny thing is, I was the same way. I refused to wear pants all of kindergarten. My Aunt Ruth Ann (and mom? Did you make some too, mom?) made me long dresses. I still have one of mine, and I tried to put it on Aria but it is a few inches too long. Funny thing is… it’s a dress I wore in Kindergarten when I was 5 & 6, and will fit Aria before she is 3 ;-)

Aria is funny with her excuses. It always starts with “Hold on! I was just ____” insert excuse. Example. Aria sticks her sucker into Chanson’s mouth. I tell her she can’t do that! Babies can’t eat suckers! Aria says “but Mama, I was just pretending. See?” (sticks sucker back in his mouth).

When we were at the airport, Aria saw a skeleton sitting on a chair, with a menu and some food. She says to me "mama, those are bones!" I told her, yes they were. Then she said, questioningly "the bones are eating food??"

I think I’ve mentioned before that Chanson is quite the tooter. LOUD! You can’t believe that these come from a baby! So, we’re at the store the other day, and I’m holding Chanson, and Aria is walking. Chanson toots loud, and Aria pipes up “Mama! You TOOTied!” oh my gosh, how do I get out of that one!

Chanson is doing a lot these days! He’s getting better at sitting up on his own. You can’t just plop him down, and he’ll sit there. He’s still wobbly, but can hold himself up for enough time to take a picture ;-) He’s getting there ;-)

We got Chanson an exersaucer while we were in Cali, so he’d have somewhere to play. He has gotten really good at playing with toys the way they’re supposed to be played with. He’d spin the spinning rattle, and even move the beads from one end to the other. He holds and shakes rattles. He has a toy where you press the lever, and the lights and music play. He presses the lever to make that happen. Today he was playing with a toy with a book on top, with a page that is able to be turned. He can turn the page ;-) He loves loves to kick. He kicks a hanging ball from one of his toys – that is one of his fav toys (Thanks Liz – you were right!)

He moves around a lot on the ground. He’ll start out under the toy where he kicks the hanging ball, and he ends up completely off the mat, facing the other direction, a few feet away from where he started.

Let's see what else? He's just generally the happiest baby alive ;-) He laughs and smiles a lot. He's still really easy going.. I hope that never changes ;-) I just love them both sooooooooooooo much!