Aria & Chanson

oh boy, it's been awhile, hasn't it??

2010-06-02T16:13:00.005-05:00

Pictures above.... Aria & Chanson swinging together - they love doing this! Next one is Chanson eating chocolate pudding batter. I had him in the high chair to be a part of our pudding pie making, and he snuck the whisk. I didn't give it to him! AND a piece of his birthday cake. I have to get some good 1st birthday pics up soon!

Well, I figured I should blog bc it's been WAY too long since the last time! I don't document anything anywhere except here, so this is my entire baby log and baby book!

I haven't written any notes to remember what to put on here like I usually do, so I'm just gonna write what comes to mind!!

First of all... Chanson did turn 1! :-) He had taken a few steps here and there before his birthday, but he started officially walking on his birthday :-) Went from a few steps, to walking across the room - and he hasn't stopped since. On his 1st birthday, he weighed 20 lbs 6 oz and was 29.5 inches. Low percentile for weight (prob 10%) and 50% for height. Hmmm... think he's gonna be like his daddy?

Let's see... milestones... he has 8 teeth (FINALLY!) He just got the bottom right one this week, and hadn't gotten a tooth before that in probably 4 months or more!

He has said several words, but he doesn't ever say them all in a day. He will say a word a LOT for a week, and then not say it again for a few weeks, and then go back to it again. A list from the top of my head.... mama, dada (& daddy), papa, more (says this a lot), thank you, all done, dog, ziggy, ball, this & that & there (dis & dat & der). Hmmm.... that is all I can think of now. He does lots of signs. He has started catching on very quickly to signs. I'll show him once and he'll do it. He says more, food (and more food together), thank you, please, help, milk (barely ever anymore), and drink (does this one a lot too).

He's recently started to really comprehend a lot. I always talk to him, and tell him to do things (always have, just don't expect him to actually do it). Well, now he's starting to do it. I've been having a little fun with it.. haha! I'll tell him to do something I absolutely don't think he will do - like "hey Chanson, go sit on the potty". Sure enough, he walked in the bathroom and sat on potty. He'll put stuff away if you tell him to or if he drops it all over and you ask him to put it back. I told him to spin in a circle and he did, told him to dance, and he did. Next I'm gonna ask him to go get my purse and keys before we walk out the door. I'll let you know how that goes :-) ha!

He's sleeping WAY BETTER! I just tell him it's nighty night time, and I lay him in crib and walk away. You don't even know how happy this makes me! Monumental for my children! He sleeps all night and goes to bed early. NICE! Now we have to work on Aria haha! He was doing badly again the last few months, but then he got that tooth and he's been great ever since! Sweet sleep!!! Ahhhh!!

Hmmm what else. He's still cracking me up.... he tries to make me laugh all the time doing silly things. Then he'll look at me with this look that you know he's thinking ... is she laughing at me yet? He's so funny... you'd have to see it to get it, I guess. I hope he's funny like my brother. My brother is the funniest person I've ever know.

He's also still a climber. He can climb up that swingset no problem now. Very fast. He's a monkey!!!

OH speaking of monkeys... he was up to 4 animal sounds. Monkey, elephant, dog, and lion. Now, they all sound like a lion. If I even start the sentence "Chanson, what does a...." I don't even get to the animal, and he's roaring like a lion. Then he laughs. So, I guess he knows lots of animals..... Lion, Bear, Jaguar, Cheetah, Tiger.... :-)

He wears 12 month size pants and shirts, and size 4 shoes. More like 4.5. He's almost in a 5. Unbelievable to me!! But, I'm in complete denial that he is even 14 months old :-)

2010-05-08T08:32:00.000-05:00

Summer fun already!

2010-05-04T17:51:00.004-05:00

More about my babes

2010-03-09T12:09:00.003-06:00

Hello again! So soon since the last time we spoke! :-)

So, a few more things on the kiddos...

Today at breakfast I gave Chanson the spoon, and walked away. I came back, and he didn't have the spoon, so I asked him "where is the spoon?" He looked around on his high chair seat, and picked up the spoon, and handed to me. Does he know what I'm saying at this age?? I remember thinking that about Aria, too. As a baby we had so many one way conversations. I was always talking to her, as though she knew what I was saying and as though she would really answer... even though I knew she wouldn't. When she started to comprehend, I remember being surprised, too.

Today it's 75 and sunny. I love TX winter!!!!! Can't express that enough! Anyway, we were outside swinging, and I was telling Aria the story of the 3 bears. She said she wished she was there so she could try the porridge and the beds. Then she told me she also wished she was in Hollywood. OK... so I asked why? She told me because there are "lots of people to hug with". Made me laugh!

The other day, I did the worst Mama accident ever. Aria and I were walking out into the garage. I hadn't turned the light on bc I was going to open the garage door. So, Aria walks into the garage, and I walk in after her and slam the door shut. Aria instantly starts screaming but I think it is bc it's pitch black in there. So I'm reassuring her that I'm opening the garage now, and it will be light again. I open the garage door, and look over (bc she is still screaming!) and her FINGER was stuck in the door. I opened the door as fast as I could. I was so scared that I broke her little finger, and that her violin career was over. But, it didn't break the skin (there was padding on the door between the door and the wall). Later that night we pulled into the garage, and I told her daddy was home. She ran out of the van yelling "DADDY, Mama slammed my finger in the door today on purpose!" What on Earth!? Reminded me of a time when she told my dad "my daddy hurts me". WHAT?? We're going to have the CPS come over one of these days wondering what is up with us!

Aria has announced that she has 3 babies in her belly and they are all kicking around. I asked what she was going to name them, and she told me they would be called Chanson, Cockachoo, and Ringo. :-)

When I am practicing my violin, Aria started coming into the room, saying "I love you, Mama" and then running over, giving me a kiss and hug. She then gets a very serious look on her face, takes a perfect bow, and says "Thank you" and runs out of the room. Then she runs back in and says "mama! You forgot your cockachoo earrings!" and runs out again. The next time I hear from her, she starts the whole thing over again.

The other day, she took may (non Iphone) phone and asked if she could see the pictures. I opened the pictures section and gave her my phone. She started sliding her finger across the screen trying to get to the next picture. She told me my phone doesn't work. I had to break the news that I do not have an iphone. That kid - 2 and already into technology!

OH I forgot to tell you all about her first manicure. She had SO much fun! We took Emily to get a manicure for her birthday, and I asked them if they could paint her nails. Well, they filed her nails, put the cream on her cuticles, etc. She picked her toe nail color and finger nail color (blue and silver) and they painted her nails AND painted a flower on her thumbs and big toes. Such a sweet lady to take the time to make Aria feel so special! (She did a good job on Emily's nails, too.... Wyatt Urple Purple)

I always forget all the little things I was going to say once I get on here... so I'll be back with more once I remember!

More about sweetie pie Chanson

2010-03-04T15:19:00.003-06:00

A few more things about Chanson...

He loves to feed himself. Even oatmeal.... which he eats every morning with blueberries. Mealtime is a very messy endeavor. Kat, I took the pic above for you :-) I knew you'd appreciate the mess! Chanson loves to make a mess. Unlike his sister, who hates her hands to be dirty.

So, he won't stand up (although I did trick him into standing the other day, and he stood for about 10 seconds before he realized and crawled away) but he will climb. He can climb the stairs faster than you can catch him, and he laughs as he does it. I was cleaning the fridge, and as I stood there, next to him, he climbed up to the shelf, trying to get the blueberries. He has climbed up on a kids chair toy, and up onto the desk part attached, and THEN up to the window sill! Monkey! He can climb off the couch successfully, too.

I met a woman at open gym last week who said her child also crawled like Chanson does, and it took forEVER for her kid to walk. She thought it was bc there was no reason to walk if you could crawl and hold onto things (he only needs one hand to crawl, since the one foot "walks" as he crawls). SHe'd never seen another baby crawl like that before... neither have I! Chanson seriously does NOT want to stand or walk. He just wiggles away and crawls away.

He's so funny... he doesn't talk so it's harder to tell you his funny stories, but his reactions to Aria, and his laugh and smile... he's going to be funny! For some reason I think his teeth are really cute! I love seeing his toothy lil smile!

He says "all done" and "down" and "that" now. He does the same thing as Aria did, where he stands up (holding onto something, of course... ha) and then bends at the knee, and says "down". Then he stands up. He doesn't say "up" yet. I always do the "all done" sign after he eats, or after he'd done with diaper change, or whatever he's all done with. I do the sign and say "are you all done?" so, now he says "all done" but doesn't sign it. He points to things he wants and says "that". He'd point at something and grunt, and I'd point at things I thought he was pointing at, and asked "that?" "that?" so I'm sure that is why he started saying it.

He picks up the phone and says "hi" into it now.

Hmmm.... what else? OH, he still isn't sleeping at night. I'm about insane with tiredness. He's had an ear infection (double) and has been up several hours the last 2 nights. Espresso is my good friend!

OH he plays with cars. He makes anything a car, and makes a "vroom" sound, and drags it around. He was just doing that to his bottle. He'll do it to a flash light - or really anything. Aria never did this... funny how boys do different things so young! Although he does play with Aria's kitchen by far more than Aria does. Hmmm... maybe he'll be a chef. Great! Live in chef! (I told him he can live with me forever).

I think he's grown a lot lately. He can only fit in 12 or 18 month clothes. He's a size 3 in shoes, but they are pretty tight. His hair is growing, that is for sure. Still a dark red (maybe will be auburn like my mom and grampa!) and curly just like Aria's. They both grew hair right above their ears that started to curl. I think Chanson actually has LESS than Aria did at a year, though! If that is possible...

He likes to dance, loves to swing, loves bathtime (water in the face - even if poured over his head - doesn't bother him a bit! Aria has put that to the test :-) he LOVES to drum on things - on anything, with anything. He loves to mimic - sounds or actions. I think I need to get more video to share on here!

I'm sure there's more... I'll post more as I think of it :-)

My baby girl :-)

2010-03-04T14:41:00.006-06:00

Aria at the computer

Aria and Daddy before the "Daddy/ Daughter Dance"

So I didn't update you all much on Aria. I know you already know she loves dresses :-) Let's see, since my last actual update, a LOT has happened, of course (being that it was 4 months...) I think she's grown up a lot in the last 4 months. Such a little lady!

I did forget to mention that she is able to ride her tricycle all by herself as of 4 months ago. She got her bike for her 1st birthday from Uncle Chris, and is now just able to ride it around by herself.

She can also roller skate! My friend, Liz (hi Liz :-) and I started going to roller blading with strollers at the roller rink on Thursday mornings. After we're done with our work out, Aria gets to get on skates and give it a whirl. She does a great job! Last time we went, she was even doing tricks and jumping. Now that I'm typing this, I believe I already posted it. I am going on zero sleep, so excuse my (extra) forgetfulness :)

She went to a dance with Daddy. OMGOSH she had so much fun! I wish I could've gone so I could have seen her face when the horse drawn carriage pulled up! She had to have been in Heaven! It was being pulled by white horses, too. Aria is in love with Cinderella and so I'm sure she was just so excited. She got to ride in it and everything. There were princesses there, and wands, and wings, and princess hats. They just made the night soooo special. It was at Life Time Fitness.

Her latest fun has been learning how to use the computer. We play games on www.fisherprice.com. She and I sit at the computer, and she tells me what she wants me to do. Well, one day, we were playing the "dress up the doll" game at breakfast. I had walked away to get something, and she says "Mama, I did it!" I asked what she did. She dressed the doll all by herself... which means... she learned how to click on the object and drag it to the correct location. I couldn't believe it!! So, since she could figure that out all by herself, I taught her how to do the rest. Now she can type, scroll, choose games, etc. All I have to do is go to www.fisherprice.com and go the the page of games, and she can pick the game and play whichever she wants to.

She is also learning to read! She knows most of the sounds each letter makes, and words that start with that letter. She's learning how to sound out words. This is so much fun to work on with her!

We started doing Math class too :-) She can add any combination of numbers on each hand. I ask her "what is 2 (put up 2 fingers on one hand) plus 3 (put up 3 fingers on the other hand)" and then I move both hands together, and she tells me that it's 5. She can do any combination.

Well, I know you will all be very surprised at another obsession of Aria's.... her WEDDING! I swear I didn't encourage it - I swear! If you knew me as a child/adolescent/young adult.. OK right up until the time I actually GOT married - I was always planning my wedding. I think I subscribed to Bride's magazine at age 10. ANYway... Aria asked me a few months ago if I ever got married (we were watching Cinderella where Cinderella marries the prince) and I told her that Yes I was married. She asked who I married, and I told her I married daddy. Her face lit up and she said "I want to marry Daddy!" ... and from there she started planning. I don't know how she knew about wedding cakes, or wedding flowers, etc. etc. but she kept telling me (and everyone else) details about her wedding. We'd be at the mall, and she started telling one of the ladies at a makeup counter that we were passing about her wedding. It starts "I'm getting Married" and people just smile and ask, "oh really? To who?" or "when". She tells the cashiers at the grocery store, the people in the aisles at the grocery store. It really cracks me up! Here are the details.

Dress will be blue, with a blue and white necklace, and loooong earrings. She will wear glass slippers with HIGH heels (she stresses that every time). Her flowers will be pink. Her cake will be blue and white. Her bridesmaids (I did tell her about Bridesmaids and flower girls - she didn't know that on her own) are going to be Liz, Hannah, Mia, and Lauren. Her flower girl is going to be Emily. Daddy is going to wear green shoes.

Daddy and Aria went through a Bride's magazine (Mina brought it for her one day, a few months after she started talking about it all the time) and they made a box of Aria's favorite dress, cake, ring, shoes, etc. She actually found a blue and white cake in there and picked it! Matthew didn't even know that she'd been telling me she was going to get a blue and white cake. She asked Daddy for a wedding ring yesterday.

I asked her who I was going to marry since she was going to marry Daddy. She says I'm marrying Cockachoo. Which leads me to another funny Aria-ism. I showed her a Cockatiel at Petsmart months ago... probably close to a year ago. Since then, she names everything Cockachooo. That, or Ringo. She told me yesterday that she has 3 babies in her belly that are kicking around. I said "oh yeah? What are their names?" she said they were Cockachoo, Chanson, and Ringo.

She just gets more and more thoughtful every day. She thinks about Chanson or me before herself. I was changing his diaper, and she had to go potty. She said "Mama, I have to go potty but you stay here and make sure Chanson doesn't fall (off the diaper changing table)." I knew she didn't want to go herself, but, she wanted to make sure Chanson was OK. She just loves him, and is always looking out for him. SO sweet! Yesterday morning, she woke up and brought me my water, said "here mama, just wait right here and I'll get my sparkly shoes". Now, if you know Aria, she lives for her sparkly shoes. She isn't allowed to sleep with them on (nightly struggle...), so she sleeps with them next to her (seriously...) The first thing she does when she wakes up is put them on. So, to give me my water 1st was a big deal :-) There are a million different examples of how thoughtful she is. I just love that about her!

Today at the grocery store, she expressed her love for the old man who carried our groceries to the car. She was all smiley to him, and putting her chin on her arms as she looked behind her as he loaded the groceries into the van, and she said to him in a loud voice "I love you!" It was so funny bc the poor old man was caught off guard.... but he told her "I love you, too!" After he left, and the van doors were closed, Aria kept saying "I love him. I just love him" I laughed for the whole way home I think.

Another funny things she does.... when I'm practicing the violin, she will come in and say "mama, I LOVE you!" I love it, of course. Then she comes up and gives me a big hug and kiss, and then runs out. Well, just yesterday after she hugged and kissed me, she got very serious, took bow very slowly and said Thank You, and walked out. Cracked me up.

She'll do funny things like, want to take a nap on the stairs. She'll get a pillow and blanket, and sit on the stair and say she's going to take a nap. She must get these things from her dad. haha

Her doctor thinks she's going to be a fashion designer. Every time we go to the doctor (which is unfortunately too often since every time they get a cold, it leads to an ear or sinus infection... UGH!) Aria comments on the doctor's outfit as soon as she walks in the door. It cracks her up every time. Aria will comment on her jewelry, and say "ohhhhh I looooove your necklace! It's sooo cute". She loves to watch Project Runway (Magic Runway) and loves to dress the doll on the computer. She comes up with really good combos, too. She has a magnet paper doll with dresses she loves, also.

She told me she thinks she is going to call me Vienna from now on. She asked "that's a nice name, right?" Ummm.... I don't think so! Of course she heard the name from Kim and I talking about the Bachelor...

That is all I can think of right now (I know... it was so short haha!) but I know there is more. I need to start writing down notes again so I can remember what to post!

Talk to you all again real soon!

Dresses, dresses, and more dresses!

2010-02-19T09:52:00.007-06:00

To say that Aria loves dresses is an understatement. She adores them! That, and shoes... oh dear we're in trouble in a few years! She loves (loves!) to roller skate. We were going to take her roller skating last Monday, but she didn't want to change into pants. We told her she had a choice - keep her dress on and stay home, or put on jeans and go skating. She chose the dress...

We watch Project Runway (which Aria thinks it's called Magic Runway). Aria critiques the outfits as they come down the runway. She says if she likes them, what about them she likes or dislikes. She is a big critic on the sleeves of each. Even if we say we like or don't like a dress, she doesn't just take our opinion, she keeps to her own opinion and has definite reasons. She also likes to play games on the computer where you dress the dolls in different outfits.

Aunt Ruth Ann made Aria LOTS of dresses! She loves them! Here are pictures of a few. I'll add more later from the other computer. We can't leave this post without a picture of the Bubble dress and the Butterfly dress!

This is an Aunt Ruth Ann original. It's Aria's fave. When she put it on the first time, she spun around, and said "oh mama it fits me so perfectly!"

Aunt Ruth Ann original romper! This is Mia & Aria at the pumpkin patch :-)

Another Aunt Ruth Ann original... The Thanksgiving/Christmas dress. My fave!

This is the dress up dress that used to be Alethea's dance dress when she was little. Aria wore it most of the time in PA!

Yet another another Aunt Ruth Ann original. It's the Autumn dress. Aria loves the butterflies and bear on the pocket!

About time... my kids are practically adults

2010-02-19T07:48:00.004-06:00

OK, so here goes... I'm just going to start typing and see where this goes! Sorry it's been SO long!

First of all Chanson. He's 10 months old now, and a lot has happened since he was 6 months :-) (I know, I know!)

1st tooth - October 24th - The bottom right tooth (6 months... almost 7)

1st word - dada and soon after... mama! Beginning of November

1st crawl - November 3rd he began to army crawl

2nd tooth - November 5th - The bottom left tooth

1st sign - November 17th - Began saying more in sign language (also started clapping)

3rd tooth - November 21st - Top right SIDE tooth

4th tooth - November 24th - Top left SIDE tooth (yep, vampire...)

1st real crawl - December 8th (well, he walks on one foot, drags the other leg, which is bent underneath him, and crawls normally with his hands... it's funny! I'll put up a video)

He also says Hi and Ball and Dog, but pretty sporadically. Hi was his 3rd word (if dada and mama count). He started saying "hi dad" soon after he could say both words. He also says Daddy. He likes to mimic sounds. He'll mimic animal sounds, like the elephant, monkey, and dog (he pants). He also roars - it's funny! Matt will roar at him, and Chanson will roar back.

He has been cruising around on things since November, but has YET to stand on his own! Whenever I try to get him to stand, he just bends his knees. I don't think he's in any hurry to walk. He loves to crawl, and he's fast.

He's just got the sweetest little personality. He loves to play and has gotten really independent. He and Aria play together for hours!

He has started talking on the phone. He'll take anything that could be a phone, put it to his ear, and start talking away. I WILL get it on video and post it here!

He's learned to play the flute like Aria is doing in this video. Every time he makes a sound, he stops and starts laughing so hard! He such a music lover, and loves to listen to the music I listen to! (yay!) He loves to drum. On anything! He goes into the laundry room and stands up by the washing machine and starts drumming on it. (so if he can do that... why won't he stand on his own! Baby! :-) He takes anything that could be drum sticks and pounds on anything that could be a drum. He also likes to pluck the strings on my violin. He does it gently, too. He likes the sound it makes. At Thanksgiving in PA, Jake was playing the guitar, and Chanson went right up to him and just stared at him with his big eyes and his mouth open. Yep, music lover!

Food... oh.my.gosh this boy can EAT. Seriously I do NOT know where it all goes, and I cannot fathom he has a stomach big enough to hold it all! He is not picky, either. He'll eat anything. One of his faves is dog food. :-/ He is constantly trying to get dog food and just cries when I take it from him. I have to be careful not to leave dogfood in the bowl. Anyway - for breakfast he'll eat a whole banana, cheerios, and a bowl (about a full cup) of oatmeal with blueberries in it and yogurt. For lunch, he will eat an entire sandwich (I remove crust) and apples and goldfish and whatever veggie I give him. Some of his favorite things so far are tilapia and blueberries. He's not a big fan of cheese by itself. I'm still nursing him, but only 2 times a day. Otherwise he has formula, which he loves.

And after all that eating... he's a lightweight! Definitely has his daddy's metabolism. He is in the 10% for weight! I guess I need to give him more food! :-)

Chanson is not scared of anything - you can start the vacuum right next to him, and it wouldn't faze him. Tzigane has never scared him. Well, he has Matthew for his dad, so loud noises just do not scare him. But we found what he IS afraid of.... puppies! I felt bad cracking up when he started bawling when he was introduced to the sweet, gentle, beagle puppy named Maggie. She was 7 weeks old, and walked up to Chanson, and he just started bawling - the "OMGOSH is he going to take a breath soon!?" kind of cry. Poor guy!

OK I gotta publish this and jet bc my baby is being demanding! I have a LOT more to write, so check back soon!

Elephant :-)

2010-01-19T15:56:00.004-06:00

OK OK OK I know... I said I'd stay on top of things now that I'm 36. Well, I guess that will have to happen when I'm 37 :-) Never too late, right?

So, I have a lot to say, but I had to get on here to tell you all that Chanson now does his 1st animal sound. I posted here when Aria did her 1st animal sound, so I must do the same for Chanson. He does the elephant sound, AND he puts his hand up in the air like an elephant while he does it. He's getting so big!

WOW!

2009-11-13T11:19:00.004-06:00

I realllllly need to blog. I will have to have an "old news" section. Babies change too much too fast! Now that I'm 36, I figure I will start staying on top of things ;-) ha! So, it took 36 years, but better now than never, right ;-) Lotsa pics to share, too! Lotsa news lotsa pics .... get ready for a novel, my peeps.

Happy 6 month birthday Chanson!!

2009-09-30T14:13:00.004-05:00

So, in other news… Chanson is sitting up now ;-) He’s been able to sit up for long periods since Sept 10th. I need to blog more ;-) He sticks his butt in the air when he lies on his tummy… I think that might mean that he’s gearing up to crawl. We’ll see! When I put toys beyond his reach, and put my hands on his feet, he’ll springboard off my hands to reach the toys.

He’s decided he doesn’t want to be a great sleeper anymore. Not sure what happened! Ever since we went to California, he’s been up almost every single night. Ugh… It was really bad, where he would cry and scream and be up for 2 hours at a time! I’d stay there with him, but he’d still cry in my arms. He was really stuffed up, and couldn’t breath from his nose, so couldn’t take the paci. Ends up he has an ear infection (but never had a fever, which was always my sign with Aria!). Since he’s been on antibiotics, he’s slept much better. He still gets up a few times a night, usually, but it’s pretty easy to get him back down. I want the old sleeping until 7 am Chanson back!

He has started to eat solids! I read that their digestive systems develop all together. So , when his mouth is ready to eat, his belly is ready to take food. In other words, when the tongue thrust reflex is gone, they’re ready. I would say his fave so far is bananas and carrots. He’ll eat peas and apples, but not crazy about it. He does NOT like cereal. I don’t even attempt that anymore.

He started using more consonants in his speech recently. He says babababa or dadadada. Matthew left the room the other day, and Chanson looked at me and said “dada”. It was a complete coincidence, but, it was pretty funny.

He can play with toys like he’s supposed to, which I think is so cool! Of course, they are baby toys, but he hits buttons to make them beep, and spins what is meant to spin. He can pick up a ball with one hand (since end of August when he started sitting up for short periods). Then it’s as though he throws it bc he swings his arm and lets go. I know he’s not actually throwing, but we like to think he is ;-) Matt always tries to get him to do it left handed – but it’s funny bc we’ll put the ball on his left side, and he’ll pick it up with his left hand, and hand it over to his right hand. Anyway… I love watching him play! He’s been playing with toys correctly since August, though, so I might’ve already mentioned it. I need to blog more…

He’s good at independent play. He’s especially good now that he sits up so solidly. Almost every morning he wakes up and plays and babbles in his crib. He doesn’t wake up in the morning crying. I LOVE that! That is when Aria and I go up to get him, and Aria gets in his crib, too. They cuddle and play

Games Aria and Chanson play… Aria sticks Chansons whole hand in her mouth and Chanson laughs really hard. Aria also likes to feed Chanson. She does a good job, actually, and is gentle (which she isn’t a lot of other times ;-) She even scoops the extra food off of his chin onto the spoon. Otherwise, Aria is pretty rough with him (in an overly zealous loving kind of way). I keep telling her that she can be rough with him when he gets a little bigger, but for now, we have to be gentle. When I told her that the other day, she waited about 3 seconds and said “he’s older now!” I think that she and her daddy can’t wait till he gets bigger so they can play rougher with him. Aria hugs him really tight, sometimes, or tries to get him to wrestle around with her. I love that he’s tough enough to endure her roughness, but can’t wait till he’s older and they can really wrestle. Sometimes, though, she’s really sweet, and offers him toys, and plays with him gently. When she’s like that, she talks to him with a really high voice – it’s cute!

Yesterday Aria put makeup on him… uh oh!!! (she pretended to with a makeup brush.)

Hmmm what else? OH he weighs about 16 lbs (a little over that I think) and he’s in 6-9 month clothes now. He has his 6 month appt this Friday! He’s still got the sweetest personality, and he’s in that super cuddly stage. I am loving (!!!) this age!!! Besides the lack of sleep, that is…

Art unappreciation 101

2009-09-26T16:16:00.003-05:00

So, I thought it was about time we started to learn about Art. I rented an art dvd for kids from the video store, and got out my book about the Louvre. I anticipated my daughter being spellbound with interest in learning all about the artists and seeing their works. Well, we started the dvd, and I opened the book so we could find the painting on the dvd in the book. I looked at Aria, and her eyebrows were together and eyes squinted as though she were saying “what the heck is THIS”. She said “mama, I wanna watch the Art movie” I told her “this IS the Art movie”. Now, this was a good dvd. I could watch it myself. It has great music, too. So, back to Aria… “Mama, I don’t like it” I said “take a look at the book!” she took a look, and closed it. “Mama, I don’t like it. I wanna watch Tinkerbell”. After each painting, all the animals would clap, and they’d go onto the next part. Each time this happened, Aria’s face lit up, and she said “It’s all over mama??!” Next, a part on the movie came on where cartoon characters were walking through a museum, and there was a guy who had a frown on his face. Aria said “mama, he’s sad. Why is he sad?” I said that he wasn’t sad, he was bored, and wanted to go home. Aria said “Mama, I wanna go home with him, OK?” I’m laughing at this point at my art unappreciative daughter. Then the Ballet at the Opera painting came on the screen, and I found it in the book to show Aria. She closed the book, again, and said “THE end… Mama, can we watch Tinkerbell?” I tried to convince her to just take a look at all the pictures in the book. I opened it (as she attempted to close it) and paged through, asking “do you like this one?” each time, the answer was “NO!” The look on her face the whole time was hilarious, I wish I had it on video. So much for my artistic daughter… hmmm…I guess I’ll work on Chanson ;-) She did get something from the video, however. Have you ever wondered what the guy is screaming about in the painting The Scream? Well, when Aria saw this painting, she put her hands to her cheeks, opened her mouth wide and screamed “I forgot my paints!” Who knew?

Aria is very polite. She says please and thank you almost always when she should. Today I asked her if she needed to go potty, and she said “no, thank you”. I asked if she was sure, and she said “no, thank you”.

OK, this girl can walk in heels like a pro. (Well, I guess “pro” is the wrong word when we’re talking about high heels, but you know what I mean!) She takes my highest of high heels, where I have to stand on my very tip toes to even wear, and she walks around in them like it’s nothing! Well, I guess she is getting a lot of practice. She does this almost daily.

I was talking to my sis in law, Kat, who has a 2 year old, too. Check our her cutie here. Anyway, she tells me that Diella wears what she puts on her. Really?? Kids do that? Doesn’t that make life just a little too easy? Aria insists on picking out her own outfit every day and night. She usually changes a few times throughout the day, too. She often times wears dresses to bed. What am I saying… she wears a dress to bed 98% of the time. But, really, I don’t mind that she wants to pick out her own outfits. I like to see her go through her options and to see which she’ll pick today. But… what are we going to do once the weather turns cold? Should we go cold turkey on the flip flops? Get toe tights? She also doesn’t like sleeves. In fact, she has forgotten what they are! I wore a long sleeved shirt the other day, and Aria asked “mama, why are you wearing a coat?” I told her it was just long sleeves, not a coat. She asked me again “mama, why are you wearing a coat”. I guess I have myself a summer baby!

Ever since Aria saw our friend, Jenn, getting her hair cut a few months ago, she has been obsessed with scissors and hair cuts. She pretends that everything is scissors, and pretends to cut her hair or my hair. A few things she’s pretended were scissors are the hands on a play clock, her hair clips, the letter U (it’s bendy). I can’t even remember all she’s used to pretend to cut hair. She’ll cut, and say clip clip. She was playing with playdough when we were in Cali, and there were playdough scissors. She handed them to me, and said “these are dangerous, mama”. I told her it was OK, that these ones weren’t dangerous, and that she could play with them. Her eyes lit up, and she instantly took those scissors to her hair and started trying to cut! Uh oh!! She also likes to “fix” my hair. She sprays my hair, brushes it, and then messes with it. She likes it when I braid her hair. I can get a French braid all the way down her head now that her hair is long enough. She calls it a “bride”. She likes braids especially bc then her hair is long, bc the braid stretches out her curls. She really wants long hair.

Aria keeps asking to go to preschool. I’m not sure why? We were out driving around, and she asked to go to preschool. I asked if she knew what preschool was? Of course, she said yes (even if she didn’t). I told her that when she went to preschool, she had to go there all by herself. She said “I can drive the car?!” I told her ummmm no! Mama would drive and you would go to preschool, and I would drive back home and come to get you later. She said “OK let’s go to preschool!” I told her I didn’t know where one was right now. She said “mama, I wanna talk about it!” Where did that come from. Oh yeah, time out ;-)

Ah! Aria can finally ride her tricycle all by herself! She got it for her 1st birthday from her Uncle Chris. She can finally pedal around! She swerves to the left always, though, and hasn’t gotten the steering down yet, but we’re getting there ;-)

We were driving home one day, and Aria wanted pizza, so I stopped at lil Caesar’s for some hot n ready pizza. I told her we would get a big pizza. She said “no, mama! I want a little pink one!” Lately she wants everything to be pink. Her water, her milk…. Her pizza. So we use a lot of food dye to pink-ify everything. Matthew was getting her a cheese sammy the other day, and Aria told him she wanted a blue sandwich. Matthew told her he couldn’t make her a blue sandwich. To this, Aria said “Mama can make me a blue sandwich”. So, Matthew’s competitive nature kicked in ;-), and out came the blue food dye. For some reason, when blue food dye is put on bread, it looks more green. I guess bread must be yellowy (is that a word?) Matthew handed her the sandwich, and she said (with an expression on her face like an annoyed teenager) “this is not blue! This is green!” I said “OK, Veruca” seriously!

She’s suddenly interested in sign language again. She watched her sign language video and now has all the signs memorized. Mommy, daddy, blanket, sleep, story, friend, ball, thank you, you’re welcome, please, milk, eat, bath, more, cereal, baby, help… I think that is all. I think bc she knew a lot of them when she was a baby, it was easy for her to remember again. She made up her own for “friend” though. Even when the video is doing the correct sign, she does her own. She hugs herself really tight. So tight she closes her eyes. I like that sign for friend better!

She likes to teach Chanson to do things. She likes to get him to repeat after her, and so she looks at him and says bababababa or gagagagaga. She tried to teach him to jump the other day. That was pretty funny to watch! He was in his Johnny jump up, and he wasn’t jumping, so Aria tried to show him how. She also wants to put him in dresses. She claims he likes dresses. I told her that only girls wear dresses. She told me “but mama! He is a girl” ;-)

Lately Aria wants to pretend we’re other people. For awhile, I was Amy and she was Lauren. I mean, she went 3 days calling me Amy. Then, she decided my name is LaLa (no, she’s never seen TellyTubbies… and that is intentional! I can’t watch that psychedelic show and remain sane… or semi-sane…) so I told her that her name was Bing Bing. So, that was our names for 2 days. Then yesterday, she decided my name was Mama pig. What? Thanks Aria!

She has connected that her Mina is mama’s mama. She asked me the other day “Is Mina your mama?” She sometimes calls Mina “mom” bc I call her that. She’ll say it with emphasis, and then look at us with a look that says “did you just hear I called her mom?” like she’s doing something risky or something. She does the same thing when she calls Grampa, Dad.

She still gets treats for going potty (not every time… she does have some teeth left). I got these Welch’s fruit snacks so that she was at least getting some fruit in her sugar. She would take the orange ones and talk into them like they were phones (just like she does with Cashews). She always talks to Auntie Janice on the orange phone for some reason. She’d have a whole convo with her on her orange slice phone, and when she said “bye” I’d ask her “what did she say” and Aria would respond every time “pleeeeease”. (since we always say “what do you say” and she knows she’s supposed to say please).

Speaking of potty… she’s still doing great! She doesn’t have accidents at all. Well, I shouldn’t say at all. She did pee the bed the other night… but it’s very rare. She was going potty today, and I asked her “do you want some privacy?” and her face lit up and she said “yeah!” So I walked out. She called out from the bathroom “mama! I wanna eat it” so I ran back in, knowing that whatever she had she could not eat. I asked her what she wanted to eat!? She said “privacy!” It took me a second… but since I asked if she wanted some privacy… she thought I was going to go get it, and it was her potty treat. So, I had to further explain ;-)

We were sitting at her table on a beautiful morning, eating breakfast, and Aria looks at me and says “mama, you’re old”. I promptly put her up for adoption.

2009-09-03T15:57:00.010-05:00

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!

Potty Trained!

2009-09-01T00:05:00.002-05:00

I have soooo much to write, but have barely been on my computer over the last month. I will write a big long blog soon (I know... you will all wait with bated breath!)

BUT

I had to share! Aria is officially 100% potty trained! Woo hoo! And... thank you Sydney ;-) (I'll write more about that in the long blog ;-)

She's gone over 2 weeks now with very few accidents. We had one evening with lots of accidents, and since then, an occasional one here and there. Over the last week, though, she's only had 1 accident, and is diaper-free even at night and during naps!

BUT

she may have several cavities from all the treats she's getting. When does one stop giving treats to their little angles for going on the potty? Should I still be giving myself treats? Oh yeah, I get treats when she goes ... ;-) Potty training is fun!

My New Yawk-uh

2009-08-08T20:24:00.006-05:00

So, it seems we have a lil' New Yawk-uh. Aria always leaves off the "r" sound at the ends of words. My favorite one is Peanut Bud-ah. Whenever she asks for it, I ask her to repeat herself several times (for my entertainment). It makes me laugh ;-) She had just been asking for peanut butter directly before taking the above video... but I end up having to ask her to say peanut butter bc, of course, as soon as I start taping, she decides she only wants peanuts, not peanut butter. Was the word (words...) peanut butter mentioned enough times in this paragraph??

It's been awhile... so I have quite a few stories.... so make some popcorn and enjoy ;-)

Well, it seems Aria is a bit curious about Uncle Chris and Emily. Emily came to babysit Aria on a day Aria didn't (wouldn't) take a nap (one of those days that she fell asleep in the car, and felt that the all of 10 mins of slumber in the car was a sufficient nap. I disagree... so did Emily as she saw the non-nap monster appear later in the day, but we won't talk about that ;-) Anyway, Emily told Aria that she liked to take naps, to which Aria asks "do you like to take naps with Uncle Chris?" hmmm..... so, Emily?

Speaking of Uncle Chris... Emily, Aria and I were in the car playing the guess the gender game. Aria has gotten very good at it! Sometimes we name people and Aria says whether they are boys or girls, and other times, we list people and she says whether they are princes or princesses (bc one day she called Chanson a princess, and I told her that Chanson was a prince, bc boys are princes). So, we'd start the statement and let Aria finish. We'd say "Mama is a...." and she'd say prince or princess. So, Mama is a princess, Emily is a princess, Zig is a prince, etc. Then we said "Daddy is a...." Aria says "prince" We said "Uncle Chris is a..." and she said "KING". Haha!

My mom and Aria were watching Sesame Street while I was cleaning today. During the Murray had a Little Lamb part (where you try to guess what kind of school they are going to go to that day) they said one of the clues was Zapato. My mom asks Aria what that means, and Aria says "shoe". Sure enough, it's the word Shoe in Spanish. Matthew says Aria officially knows more Spanish than he does ;-)

Ok I'll try not to be so wordy this is getting long already!

We met my mom for lunch last week. She works for a doctor, and so we met at the cafe in the hospital. As we were leaving, Aria saw several babies. She'd point them out each time. The last baby we saw was completely covered with a blanket (well, actually, a hooter hider... one of my favorite discoveries of all time). I am walking pretty fast and Aria is skipping along to keep up, and so I'm about 4 feet ahead of her, so in order for me to hear her (apparently) she had to yell very loudly "Mama! that baby (points) is eating the booby" and then repeats it several times. The woman who was nursing was laughing and said something about Aria being smart to know that (but Aria sees me with my HH nursing Chanson).

(so much for not being wordy)

She says elevator "allivator" (like alligator with a v instead of g).

She loves to go to Petco and see the kitties! She gets to pet their lil paws and play with them. If you haven't taken your kids to the pet store, you should try it. It's like the zoo for Aria - she loves it!

When Aria is eating slices of fruit (like apples or peaches) she eats the middle and then puts it up to her mouth bc it looks like a smiley face and says "look mama! Cheeeeeeeze"

We went to the aquarium with Jessica. I should write an entire post about that! It was so much fun! Aria's favorite animals were the tiny monkeys, the turtles (really? I know! What 2 yr old likes the turtles haha!), and her most favorite were the sting rays! When we went into the tunnel that is a glass aquarium with sharks swimming around, she got a little scared. She kept saying she was scared, but then didn't want to leave bc she really liked it too.

Aria likes to "fix" her hair. She takes her hands and pulls them through her hair. She starts right above her ears and fluffs her hair up all the way to the top of her head. It's hilarious bc when she is done, she is very serious and says "look Mama!" and she has a blonde fro. I HAVE to get a pic of it. She usually does it in the car, though, when she's looking in her mirror.

Things she says that I think is cute is "that's perfect!" or "that's a great idea!" She usually says this in response to things like "do you want to go to the park?" or "want to watch sesame street?" But, one day she woke up from sleep crying really really hard. So hard she couldn't talk, but she was trying to, and kept getting frustrated and crying harder. I felt so awful! So I said "baby don't talk! it's ok - we'll just go downstairs!" and she said, between sobs "perfect" (per-fick) awwww ;-(

She says "some more" like this "some moh". She just said it, so I thought I'd blog it ;-)

She's been doing way better on the potty! Last weekend she went on the potty 5 times! Since then she's gone almost every day at least once. I guess she is getting ready! YAY! I told her "great job going pee pee on the potty, Aria!". Her response... "I like candy" haha! Me too! Now Matt keeps eating her suckers, and when she asks for one, he says "I went on the potty, so I get a sucker." I guess it is true.

Aria likes to wear her big girl undies.... but prefers them on her head ;-) Although, she did take off her diaper, and go get and put on her undies (on her butt, that is) all by herself the other day!

I got my hair done last week (same day Emily came to babysit - she ended up coming with instead of staying home bc of the no-nap situation). We had a great time, actually - ended up being really fun! (The melt down happened after the hair appt!) Chanson kept laughing at Aria. He'd just look at her and start laughing really hard. Aria kept calling Stephanie (the hair stylist) Babe. "whatcha doing, babe?" Stephanie looked at her and asked "did she just call me babe??!" Yep... and she continued to refer to her that way. Hmm..

Well, Aria got her 1st job offer. We were at the tailor getting my jeans hemmed, and Aria was being her sweet self that day. She was well behaved and very polite. The lady there asked her if she wanted to have a job working in customer service. Yes, I've submitted her resume! My Great Gramma always told me she got her 1st job in a shoe making store when she was 4, so, hey, Aria can have a job at 2, right?

Instead of saying oh my gosh, Aria says "oh me gosh". I call her my lil' leprachaun.

The other day she was walking around chanting "big fat head" (click click click with her tongue) "big fat head" (click click click) I asked if she was saying big fat hen. She said no, head. Not sure where this came from!

Aria loves cashews (me too!). The 1st time I gave her one, she picked it up, put it to her ear, and started talking into it. I guess they do look like phones. She does that every time she eats them... cracks me up! She actually calls phones "telephones". I think it's funny that she's never actually ever talked on an actual telephone (only cell phones).

When Aria says something in the car, I sometimes can't hear her bc the music is on and AC is on high. When I turn off the AC, turn down the music, and ask her to repeat herself, she whispers what she just said. If I ask her to repeat herself again, and tell her I can't hear her, she repeats herself in an even softer whisper. Not sure why she does this...

At about this age, I think it's pretty normal for kids to use the word NO a lot. Aria has her own variation to the word NO. Instead, she says "that's OK". Example convo:

Mama - "Aria, will you please go pick up your toys?"

Aria - (head tilts, and nods) That's OK, that's OK

She says it like she means "no really, that's OK, you can do it, I don't mind".

She sometimes gets the responses "I am" "I do" "I did" mixed up. It is hard for me not to laugh when she does it, bc she says the response with so much emphasis (stress is always on 2nd word). For instance "Aria, are you going to have fun in Sunday School today?" Aria says "I did!" Mostly she mixes I did and I do, though.

Speaking of Sunday School - she's been going, and staying in Sunday School (picture me jumping up and down with joy!) We never gave up trying to drop her off at Sunday School while we went to Church. She is hesitant at first, but then jumps right in and has a great time. Last week when she went, she came back and told us all about it. She colored a picture (currently hanging on the fridge ;-) Had a snack of Goldfish, and sang songs. I asked her which song, and she sang "Jesus Loves me". Aria loves to sing, and she's really good at learning the words. I think this was sewn into her dna, being that her name is Aria. Hopefully she gets a voice like Aunt Kat and Aunt Sonia!

Her hair.. oh my gosh I love her hair! I want to just bring her to the salon and tell them to make my hair like hers. Her hair has really filled in over the last few months (I don't need to spray her head with sunscreen anymore ;) Her ringlets are getting longer. She is starting to get Shirley Temple comments when we're out. She's got the curls, she loves to sing... now we just gotta get her tap dancing ;-) (Molly! Dance lessons!)

I have a 3 yr old student, and Aria loves to listen in on our lesson. Now, she asks to practice violin a lot. At least once a day. She takes her little (cracker jack and ruler) violin and holds it (perfectly, might I add ;) and her "bow" and makes sure she has a pointy pinky and pointy thumb, and plays her violin and sings twinkle twinkle little star. She also does little exercises that I give the students to do. She does a finger exercise, and bow exercises. She will take anything and make it a bow, and do up bows, and down bows, and stir the soup, and Mississippi Hotdog. Today, she took a straw wrapper and was using it as a bow. You can see a little video of her playing below. She is running away bc I am taping her... silly girl! She is standing on a wash cloth. She put it there bc with my 3 yr old student, I traced her feet in the correct standing position on a piece of cardboard, so that she could stand on it, and always have correct foot position. Aria improvised with the wash cloth. (none of the above has been prompted by me... not that I don't love it!) I've been waiting to actually teach her until she has a real violin (soon!)

Chanson is 4 months!

2009-08-06T14:50:00.006-05:00

His eyes are looking green to me lately - what do you think?

I can hardly believe it's been 4 months. The time is going faster now than it did with Aria - and I thought that time was flying then! Chanson is staying true to his average stature, and was again 50% for both height and weight!

Height - 25 inches

Weight - 14 lbs 6 oz

He had to get more shots ;-( I do believe I will be requesting that they split up any remaining shots so that he isn't overloaded with vaccines. I think that 4 shots and an oral vaccine is an awful lot for a lil guy to handle. Aria is so very sweet when he gets his shots. She holds his hand and kisses his head and tells him it will be all right. (Although, she did hit him in the head directly before the nurse came in to give the shots... nice...)

Chanson is doing very well! He sleeps wonderfully (except last night ;-) and his demeanor just gets sweeter by the day. I believe we have been blessed with what the baby whisperer calls an Angel baby. He has sparkly, happy, sweet eyes. When he looks at me, I can almost see how sweet his lil soul is. I guess the eyes are the windows to the soul. Blessed is what we are with this little boy. I cannot wait to see how his personality emerges as he grows older.

And... he loves piano music. I more than love classical piano... Chopin, Greig, Rachmaninov, Liszt... I'm not sure how to put into words how much I love to listen to this music. That Chanson shares this with me, makes my heart smile. When he is fussy, all I have to do is put on some classical piano, and he is instantly happy... just like me ;-)

Daddy can now hold up Chanson on his hand... see pic ;-) Chanson loves it! He also loves to be roughed up by Aria. Sometimes she gets a little too rough, and as I'm trying to get her to be more gentle, Chanson is laughing! The rougher she is, the harder he laughs. I cannot wait for them to be able to wrestle around!

And lastly... here is Chanson's new talent and hobby - enjoy ;-)

This is for papa ... 1st one done!

2009-08-05T17:34:00.002-05:00

This is for PaPa! He put a challenge up for me (dada) and Uncle Chris. SO, of course I decided that this was MUCH more important to master than to actually work today. SO ... Uncle Chris ... I WIN ... how you like that office job now!

Big girl bed!

2009-07-24T00:14:00.002-05:00

So, I think I figured out Aria's sleeping issues! Today at naptime she got up twice. She never gets up like that at naptime. She was crying a very frustrated cry, like she didn't actually want to be up. I asked what was wrong and she pointed at the crib railings. It hit me (and I'm not sure why it took so long) she was hitting up against the crib rails and waking up. I should've figured this out sooner bc she is a crazy girl when she sleeps. She flails (sp??) around all over the place, and whacks Matthew or (and) I on the face several times. I am not sure why I didn't assume this was the case in her crib, too. So... tonight I put a queen sized mattress in her room (just the mattress on the floor, not a box spring). She was soooo excited. I surrounded the mattress with her stuffed animals in case she fell off. We did our routine - books, cuddle time, and bed - and I told her that she has to stay in her bed. I told her good night and left and haven't heard a peep out of her since. ahhhhh...

so why is it 12:15 and I'm still up... hmmm...

I love bof ah um!

2009-07-22T22:05:00.002-05:00

I think it's hilarious how Aria says "both of them", and "lots of them"... Bof ah um and lots ah um. I crack up every time.

Last week, Aria kept getting up in the middle of the night (yes, we are back to that...). When she used to get up in the night before, she'd start crying, but last week when she'd get up, she'd scream at the top of her lungs the highest pitched scream and scare the living crap out of me! I am not sure how I escaped having a heart attack. When I went into her room (or when Matthew did) she was not scared, she was just up, and wanted to go downstairs and play. BABY!! She's hasn't gotten up in the night this week, though (knock on wood) but it's been hard to actually get her to go to sleep at night lately. Ugh!

Speaking of screaming... she does the same loud, high pitched scream whenever she sees Mia & Jenn and Mina. She thinks they're like the Beatles, I guess. Her hands go to her face, and her eyes open up wide, and she screams like a teenager at a Jonas Bros concert. It's sweet she gets so excited to see them!

We went to the bounce house for little kids twice last week. Aria had SO much fun! - and guess what else? So did Chanson! I never thought he'd have as much fun as he did! I'd lift and lower him like he was jumping, and he'd LAUGH and laugh. There are also obstacle type courses that you (errr... the kids) run through, and Chanson thought that was really fun, too. He's just the happiest, laughing-est baby in the world!

When it is time to go to bed (at night or nap) I always say "Aria, guess what time it is" and she used to respond that it was naptime. Last week I asked her and she answered TV time! Since then, she's responded with food time and shoe time (she wanted to put on my shoes).

Aria was looking closely at my face the other day and she said "Mama! your eyebrows have HAIR on them!" haha she didn't realize that eyebrows are hair.

I need to upload some pics... sorry no pic!

s'more funnies

2009-07-14T00:13:00.004-05:00

So, a few more funnies from our clown, Aria ;-)

On Sunday Matthew made us breakfast - YUM!! He's good at making breakfast food, and I am not. But, I won't use butter, and I pretend like Matthew doesn't either ;-) And, he lovingly places each choco chip on the top of the pancakes as they cook. True pancake dedication. Anyway... as we were eating our yummy food, Matthew asked Aria if she liked her OJ. Aria looked at him like DUH and said "daddy, it's not OJ, it's orange juice!"

Later that day she asked us for an artichoke. Um... where did that come from?

Today in the store, I was looking for Maple Syrup that was actually maple and not sugar water mixed with high fructose corn syrup (which I didn't find at Walmart...) and Aria was playing pretend, and she handed me "something" and so I pretended to eat it. Aria says (very dramatically) "Mama!! Don't eat the baby!" oops... I suppose I should listen more carefully to what she is saying when she hands me imaginary things.

Something I think is really cool is that Aria draws faces - and you can recognize them as a face. The 1st time she did it, I drew just a big circle for a head. She drew curly hair, circles for eyes and nose and a curved line for a smile - all in the right places. I couldn't believe it! So, yesterday I told Matthew she could do this, so he took her to her drawing board, and asked her to draw a picture of herself. She did even better, (except that the nose was on the forehead ;-) but, still between the eyes ;-) ) She even drew the circle for the head herself, and curly hair again, and eyes a nose and a mouth. She also writes letters. I really don't think she intends to draw what she does (it just ends up looking like a letter). But, she does say she is going to draw M's and then she does little loops like a lot of m's together. Yesterday she drew a W (and just a W) and said "Mama look - a W" She's done that with M, W, and V - so always the same motion. Oh and O, but that's just a circle.

Rolling!

2009-07-13T23:54:00.009-05:00

Can you open your eyes a little bit bigger?

Isn't it sad that the pic above is the closest picture I have to both of them smiling at the same time ;-) ha! It's hard enough to get Aria to smile nicely for the camera for more than a split second, after which I miss the shot.

Well, it's official - Chanson is rolling over ;-) he's done it several times in the last week. He'd done it before, but not consistently. Now he's doing it more. He's so much more solid lately. I think it's from all the muscles he uses to keep his body straight as an arrow. When he's on his belly, he is almost U shaped bc his legs curve up he is flexing them so much.

He's laughing even more now than he was before. He will look at someone new, and just start laughing and smiling. (not everyone new, but it's happened a few times).

Today he discovered his feet. Never paid a bit of attention to them before (his legs are usually not bent in a way he would even see his feet bc he keeps them so straight so much of the time). I even got to see it when he saw them and realized he could grab them.

He's sleeping a LOT less lately during the day and sleeping more at night. I love it! He sleeps until 8 am, eats, and goes back to sleep until Aria wakes him up with a bazillion kisses. Today, he was sound asleep and she came up to him saying "awwww baby it is ok, stop crying" and then proceeded to kiss and hug him - which woke him up.

He doesn't fit in his 3-6 month Gerber onesies anymore. They are way too small. Do they run small? His other 3-6 month clothes fit.

It's a good thing for Aria... yesterday we were eating, and she said "the baby's crying!" and both Matthew and I told her, no, he's sleeping. Then, I thought I better go check on him (he was in the pack n play in our room taking a nap, and we were at the kitchen table eating - so not too far away) and sure enough - he was softly wimpering. Good ears, Aria! Then, later, he was fussing a bit, and Aria said "mama, he needs to eat the boobie" and I said no, not time yet. Then I looked at the clock...oooops yes it was time. Thanks again, Aria. THEN in the car yesterday, Aria says "Mama, sun is too bright in baby's eyes". Oops... better put the sun visor up. She also told us when his head lopped down in his carseat, but I couldn't have done anything about that, anyway. He'd fallen asleep and I couldn't reach him. But, still, it was nice of her to let us know ;-)

I love bananas

2009-07-10T22:52:00.003-05:00

Aria decided to swing in the big girl swing today. She used to sit in it, but wanted to get off right away and go into her other swing to actually swing. Today she was going pretty high on the big swing, and she did great!

I almost forgot to include a good Grampa story from Aria's birthday (or maybe I already posted it... you know the whole memory thing). I was getting things ready for Aria's party, and I hear Chanson start to cry from the other room where he had been sleeping. I asked my dad to go get him. My dad came back with this awful look on his face, a baby in one arm, and his other arm stretched out ... I came over to see what happened and found my dad's entire hand was covered in poop, as was Chanson. You have to know that my dad is completely grossed out by poopy diapers, so it was especially awful (aka funny) to see him covered in it ;-) Initiation complete, Grampa! Good job ;-)

When Aria and I are playing, or when we are sitting at the table eating, she will get up and say "oh I forgot something" and then she'll point at me, look at me with a very stern face, point her finger at me and say (with a pause between each statement and a finger wave to emphasis her point) "Don't move. Don't fall down. I'll be right back". It's her newest thing bc she says this to me multiple times a day. Well, I also say this multiple times a day... like the 30 or so trips back and forth from the house to the car before I go anywhere.

Another thing she says (asks) multiple times a day is "whatcha doing?" I mean, she asks this a trazillion times a day. We'll be driving, and she'll say "daddy, whatcha doing?" he'll answer "driving"... 2 seconds later "daddy, whatcha doing". This goes on pretty much the whole trip. But it's not just us she asks this to - she asks everyone.

Every day she says she is going to go poo poo on the potty. She says "I'm gonna go poo poo on the potty and get choc-o-late chips and a lollipop!" We have told her that she will get chocolate chips and a lollipop if she goes in the potty many times. Well, the other day she said she was going to go on the potty and get chocolate chips, and a lollipop and a hello kitty cake. Hmmm... now you're stretching it. But, hey, if it works... ;-)

I love cuddle time at night before bed. I've mentioned our routine is brushing teeth, reading books, cuddle time, and then crib. We talk and sing a lot during cuddle time. She asked me to sing a song the other day, and so I sang "Aria is going to go to sleep in her crib, and tomorrow she is going to do something fun" and Aria took the song from there without missing a beat and sang in a very high voice "because Molly has blue water". I think she meant Molly & Jeff's pool water.

During cuddle time today, she tiltled my head to the side and said "mama, close your eyes and say I love bananas". I cracked up a little, and shut my eyes and said I love bananas. I opened my eyes and she just had a big grin on her face. Later she asked me to say it again, and so I did. She said "no no no, Mama! Like this" and she tilted her head and closed her eyes to show me. I have NO idea where this came from, but I guess the tilting your head part is important.

Another fav song she likes me to sing (why I'm doing all this singing, I don't know... she makes up what she wants me to sing and then wants me to sing it... have you heard me sing??) is the song about "Mia is at home, sleeping in her Elmo bed..."

Something she's said for awhile, and that I've never figured out where she got it from is "bop it". When she wants me to push a button, or hit something she says "mama, bop it!" Not sure on that one, but I love when she says that for some reason.

Oh and she is back to calling me Mama. I'm happy ;-) Mom is much too grown up. Although, for a day she called me "mother". Mother? What on Earth!? She got it from "the Land Before Time". She also likes to call me different names, and then I have to answer to it for the next few hours. This week so far I've been Molly, Emily, & Uncle Chris.

Aria has a good memory. She does not inherit that trait from her father or me, that is for certain! She really memorizes her books. I just start a sentence and she'll finish it. It amazes me how much she has memorized!

Every night she goes to bed listening to Norah Jones. Tonight, when she was listening to the 1st song, there was a line that said "wish that I could fly away". Aria got her concerned face and said "don't fly away, Jones!" She always calls Norah Jones "Jones".

The other day we were playing and Aria says "in the snow you wear a hat and you wear shoes! Mama, it's fun!" then she got up, and said "op! forgot shoes!" sits back down and pretends to put on shoes and says "ok mama, all set!" and stands up... and says "op! forgot hat" pretends to put on a hat and says "ok NOW I'm set!" Then she wanted me to do the same, and then Chanson to, also. Where does she learn this stuff? Sesame Street or Yo Gabba Gabba bc she's only been in snow as a little baby.

She was eating guacamole today, and called it "pock-eh-MO-nee". Not sure how that translates to Guacamole, but...

See the princess PJs and green flip flops in the pic above? Aria doesn't want to take either of these off ... ever. I put clothes on her to leave the house, but as soon as we're home, she takes off her clothes and wants her dancing PJs back on.

When I ask her what she wants to eat she says "Choc-o-late food". Ever since watching Willy Wonka that one time, she's been asking for choc-o-late.

Speaking of Willy... Aria noticed Chanson's boy parts today. Aria and Chanson had just taken a bath, and afterwards Aria was jumping on the bed. I then started to lift Chanson up and down like he was also jumping. He was laughing a LOT! Then when we stopped jumping, Aria noticed his boy parts, and she got this look on her face like "WHAT is THAT!" (I'm trying not to laugh) and she looks at me and says "Mama! It's BLUE!"

Not so terrible 2's?

2009-07-08T22:51:00.002-05:00

A few people have asked me recently how we have escaped the terrible 2's, and how Chanson is sooo easy going...

Well... truth be told this is not in fact the case, entirely. Aria does disobey, and she tests us a LOT. Sometimes I'll clearly tell her not to do something, and she looks us right in the eye and goes and does it anyway, and as she does it you can just SEE the satisfaction in her face... like HA now what are you going to do, Mama? Chanson sometimes is very needy and I can't get a thing done all day (take today, for instance ;-) A few things about this; I don't think there has been a time that Aria didn't disobey since she was able to talk, so it's no worse now than it was before. BUT, timeout has been successful at getting her back on track. Now, she does like time out, which is very strange (very!), but... I feel like her discipline is easy bc it works. She is a good listener, though, much of the time. I guess I expected it to be much worse than it is ;-)We are blessed that she doesn't throw tantrums or fits. And Chanson - he is a great baby! But, he IS a baby, and babies are needy. It stresses me out when I am trying to clean the house or make dinner (or do anything, actually) and both kiddos are needing me. So, I just didn't want you all to think I was living in some dream world bc of how my posts have been written. I just like to stress the positive when it comes to my kiddos (and should take my own advice, and be more positive in every area of life! I'm working on it!)

Now, if Aria REALLY misbehaves, we put her to work... ;-)

A week of growing!

2009-07-06T00:10:00.004-05:00

Just a short one to tell you all about how much Chanson has grown this week! He all of a suddent started getting more coordinated. I mentioned he is grabbing for things now. That has increased quite a bit this week. He can get his paci back into his mouth if it is close by (not if it is laying next to him, I mean... he can't reach for, pick up, and put the paci in his mouth). He also folds his hands a lot. I just absolutely love that he does this bc Aria did the same exact thing, and I'd almost forgotten. It's funny to me that siblings would have something like that in common - but he does it just like she did. Maybe it's common and I don't know it... just don't tell me if it is ;-) so I can go on believing it's their special trait ;-)

This week Chanson and Aria started interacting. Aria has always tried to get Chanson to interact, but, until this last week, he just stared at her in amazement, or smiled at her. The other day, Aria was playing peek-a-boo with Chanson, and when she'd say BOO, he'd start to laugh! It was very cute to see them play together!!

He is making the absolutely cutest baby sounds lately. Lots of talking and cooing.

He also has been making spit bubbles with his mouth. He tries to keep it going for a long time - it's funny!

He's getting big, and barely fits in his 3-6 month onesies! They fit but are getting very tight (in lenght, that is)

He has also slept WONDERfully this week! Thank you, baby! Ahhhh sleep!

Speaking of which, that is what I should be doing right now! I think there was more I was going to say but now I forgot... I'll post more later! So, as Aria would say... PEACE OUT!

Isn't he sweet?

2009-07-01T23:52:00.007-05:00

Look at that face! Aww I just love him!

I can't remember what milestones occur at this age (he is 13 weeks) so I don't know what he is supposed to be doing. He is just starting to grab at things. He follows things when they move in front of him (but he's done that since he was 3 or 4 weeks old bc he did it when Ahna and Papa were here). He's really alert, and looks like he is really taking everything in and trying to figure it out. I always wonder what he is thinking. He kicks constantly - which is no surprise to me! He kicked for all of my pregnancy like a blackbelt! He isn't crazy about tummy time, but tolerates it. He usually just likes to suck on his hand, or whatever is under his face, so defeats the purpose of tummy time. Speaking of sucking on his hand... I cannot get those fingers of his out of his mouth! He's constantly sucking on them. I replace it with a paci, or just take his fingers out - but what do you do when you're in the car? Or in the middle of the night when he gets out of his swaddle?? Oh please don't be a thumb sucker! I can't take a thumb away like I can a paci! Ugh! Anyway... He is always holding his body so straight (that is why we do the airplane game I mentioned before). I measured him this week, and he is 25 inches and 13.5 lbs.

Did I mention he's the sweetest boy in the universe?? ;-)

Fun!

2009-06-30T15:18:00.008-05:00

I love this picture of Aria! Not just bc to me, she is the cutest lil' girl on Earth ;-) but, bc it shows her face when she is as happy as she can be! I want her to smile like that all day ;-) Making her happy is fun ;-) She is actually being pushed on the swing by daddy, and smiling at Daddy and Uncle Chris here. Emily took the pic. I was away changing a poopy diaper. haha! The night this picture was taken, we went to see fireworks. Aria AND Chanson loved them! I knew Aria would (although, she said she was scared a few times, but then never took her eyes from the sky). I thought Chanson would either be scared or would be oblivious. I was wrong! He watched with BIG eyes the whole time. He loved it! That was fun. I love the 4th of July and I love fireworks!!!

OK so I have a lot to write, so, hopefully you'll stay with me ;-) Who knows how long it will take for me to write this bc Aria decided not to take a nap today (except 20 mins in the car). UGH! She just took off her dress bc it was "wet" (it isn't) and needs a new dancing dress. She is waiting for me at the stairs as I type this. She would wear 50 different dancing dresses a day if she could, I think

I'm surprised she used the "my dress is wet" excuse. Usually it's "the bugs ate it" or "the bugs got it" not sure where this came from, but she says it at least 5 times a day. Probably more. It's not always an excuse, just a statement. Most times, it makes no sense. She said the other day that Lauren had a birthday party, but no cake. I asked why, and she said "cuz the bugs got it". Lauren did in fact have a birthday, but she did have cake, and there were no bugs on it ;-) When I was putting her to bed the other night, she said "the bugs eat mamas eyes?" I said no, the bugs won't. She asked if they'd eat daddy's eyes? baby's eyes? It's really strange. I don't know where she gets it from, but she brings it up almost every night before bed. I hope she doesn't have nightmares or something. I've tried to ask her, but haven't come up with anything yet.

I have to say that Matthew and I are really thankful to have such a sweet girl. She is just a really good kid, and has been so easy to discipline. She definitely has her moments, and needs to be corrected sometimes, but, she just responds really well to it. She doesn't ever throw fits or tantrums. Even the other day when she went to the doctor, and got a dum dum. She LOVES suckers. She started eating it, but I had to take it away while we drive (the top ends up coming off bc she chews it off somehow) and I was afraid she'd cry bc she was enjoying it so much. I just told her I had to take it while we drove and I'd give it back. She said "ok! here you go" and handed it over. She still loves time outs. Seriously she really likes them, still. But, they are effective, so I just keep it up. It always goes like this, though. I say "Aria, if you do that one more time, you are going into time out" and then she says "OK Aria in time out" and goes into time out. Weird... The doctor asked how discipline was going and I told her this. She'd never heard of a kid liking time outs before.

Oh speaking of her doc appt. She is:

26 lbs

33.75 inches tall

Both are 50%. So, now Aria and Chanson are 50% in both height and weight.

Anyway... here are some daily funnies

Aria was looking at her arms in the car, and noticed there was hair on them. She said "mama! I have whiskers! Look!"

We were walking to our car in the parking lot, and Aria spotted a pink car. She was insistent that we get into the pink car to drive home. I tried to tell her we had to drive our own car. I think it would be nice, however, to be able to pick whichever car I wanted to drive home in ;-) (although I do heart my VW!)

As I was putting her to bed, she said "mama, Aria go to the moon." I guess she wants to be an astronaut when she grows up.

Aria makes up songs ALL the time. I'll find her just sitting there singing about whatever it is she is doing at the moment, or she will start singing in the grocery store, etc. She's made up songs about Uncle Chris and Emily, even. She also wants me to make up songs. Matthew, Aria and I were in the car the other day and she asked us to "sing a song about little boy, and drinking water in the shower?" she said. I thought she wanted two different songs, but she corrected me when I did that by repeating her instruction again. Eventually I got it. What she meant by "sing a song about little boy", is Mary Had a Little Lamb. She sings it "Mary had a little boy, little boy". But, she wanted me to add the part about drinking water in the shower... (which she was just doing earlier that day... drinking the water in the shower and singing about it in the shower.) AND she wanted all 3 of us to sing it all together.

Speaking of singing... when she goes to bed, we have a routine. Brush teeth, read books on rocking chair, and the cuddle time (while sitting in rocking chair), then crib. During cuddle time, she sometimes wants me to sing. I usually sing "I love Aria" to the Frère Jacques melody (with an added syllable). At the same time I sang I love Aria, she started singing with me, saying "I love mama". I thought that was sweet!

A strange thing that happened... I was driving to a music shop, and turned the wrong way. I knew that I turned the wrong way, but didn't say anything about it. Aria was in the backseat, and as I turned the wrong way, she said "Going the wrong way, mom". How on Earth did she know that? It was strange. Then I u-turned, and I asked her if I was going the right way now, and she said Yes.

She thinks it's funny when you throw her stuffed animals in the air and they fall down. She thinks it's hilarious sometimes. Always has. Now, she takes her stuffed animals, throws them in the air, and when they fall, she gets a very concerned look on her face and says "awww, the bear bonked his head" or "awwwww, meow meow hurt the foot" and she cuddles them to make it all better... and then throws them again. She also has a lego Elmo you can put together and take apart. She likes to take off his legs and arms and laughs as she does it. She wants me to take off his legs and arms, and just laughs and laughs as I do it. Should I be concerned??

I love the way she says certain words... my fave is definitely Oakie (Cookie). I love it when she sings "C is for Oakie". That cracks me up! Some of my other faves are "bobalies" for batteries and how she says California cal-eeee-for-neeee-a. My dad gave her snickerdoodle cookies, and she thought they were "Mr. Noodle" cookies, and kept calling them that.

She is still ending most questions with "right, mom?" She's started lately to end statements with "I think" She says it "I theeeeenk" like she is Speedy Gonzales. An example of this... I've been testing other types of milk to see if she likes it, now that she is 2 and doesn't need whole milk. I drink soy milk, so sometimes I'll ask if she wants to take a drink of mama's milk, and she tries the soy milk. She USED to like it. Well, lately her reaction to soy, rice, or almond milk in her sippy cup has been ..."ewwww. Different one! Mama's milk, I theeeeenk. It's dirty, I theeenk. Mom, it's old, I theeeenk. Aria's milk please?" and she'd repeat these over and over. I think I got the point! :-)

She was counting the other day, and it went like this... "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,14,16,17,twelveteen. YAY! Aria did it!" Hmmm... She doesn't always say twelveteen, but she ALways skips 13. She's like an elevator.

Aria got to play a real violin the other day. I almost started to bawl it was so darn cute! I CANNOT wait to get her one! The violin is a 1/32 size. It's like a Christmas ornament. She held it up really well, too! She is already doing "mississippi hotdog" with her bow, too ;-)

Another thing she keeps doing is having little convos with herself, but it sounds like she is talking to someone... like this "Aria go sit on the couch? Yes? OK? Ok! Aria will" She does this a lot, not sure why.

She likes to preted to make me food and then bring it to me to taste. The other day she made me "stir fry" I thought that was interesting... usually she makes me oakies. Today she put her Dora figures in a crib, put a lid on it, and stuck it in her play oven. Again... should I be concerned?? :-) Do I see a little of Uncle Adam coming out in her? OH NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A few days ago, out of the blue, she asked me to paint her fingernails, put ponies in her hair AND wear her sunglasses. I've never tried (or asked or suggested) to paint her fingernails, but I'm sure she just wanted me to bc I'd painted her toenails for her birthday. The ponies and sunglasses though.. I've tried and tried to get her to wear either, and gave up long ago. Now SHE wants to wear them! Her ponytails are funny, though. They end up little puffs. Aria says she wants BIG ponies.

Aria is calling me MOM almost always now. Where did Mama and Mommy go? I think it sounds so grown up when she says it. Daddy is often Dad, but he still is Daddy a lot of the time.

She also loves to wear flip flops, which I think is just about the cutest thing ever!

Chanson... no funny stories for him, but, he sure thinks life in general is funny! He just has this irresistable smile! His eyes really sparkle when he smiles or laughs, too. What a happy boy! He's doing great with his routine. It's the same as it's always been, only stretched out to every 4 hours for the last few weeks or so. He's THREE months old TODAY! Still sleeping well, for the most part. I definitely cannot complain. He is just a really good baby! He likes to play airplane. We hold him up high, parallel to the ground, and move him around like an airplane. He keeps his body straight as can be. He likes to stand up, too. If you put him in a sitting position, he'll straighten his legs most times and stand (of course, we're holding him around his waist). He's just a little love!!!

Aria still loves him! We went to a baseball game on Sunday, and left Chanson with Mina. Aria was sooo sad he didn't come with. She cried and wanted the baby to come with. Here I was feeling guilty we hadn't had any JUST Aria time (Sunday was the 1st time she was away from Chanson since he came home from hospital).

OHHH this is really long!!

ARIA IS TWO!!

2009-06-26T15:13:00.012-05:00

Well, the pictures speak for themselves... this birthday girl had SUCH a fun birthday!!! Thank you, everyone, for coming to her party, and making her day that much more special! And... thank you JENELLE for the awesome cake!!

We had a birthday weekend - started on Saturday with her Yo Gabba Gabba party. She woke up that morning, and the 1st words out of her mouth were "Mama! Mama! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!". She had a GREAT day! It was so much fun. She loved opening presents (she got lots of dancing dresses - you all know how to make a girl happy ;-) and a toy cash register (which she hasn't stopped playing with since) and books (always a hit! even a book with a matching Duck to go along with the story!)and new dancing PJs that she loves. Thank you everyone!

The next day was Father's Day and Aria's birthday. She was happy to share her day with Daddy! I told her to go into the room and tell Daddy "thank you for being such a good daddy" and off she goes... but says "Thank you for sharing, daddy" She was actually telling him he was good at sharing, not really thanking him for sharing her day, but, it was fitting ;-)

We celebrated Father's Day all day, and then had a family birthday for Aria at night. We gave Aria a kitchen, and she loves it! She got some fake food and a grocery cart from Mina and Grampa. Seriously, she is having a blast with all these new things! Here are some more pics ;-)

I do have lots more Aria & Chanson news... I'll have to get back on here very soon!

All about Chanson

2009-06-18T23:03:00.004-05:00

So, Chanson has been doing great! He is getting very big! He's in 3-6 month clothes now. His torso is long, and so he can't fit into the smaller onesies, but can fit into some 0-3 mo pants.

His hair is definitely curly. It curls when it is wet. And it's red. OK hold the Ronald McDonald comments, please ;-) I don't think the red is going to stay bc the new hair is coming in so light.

He already likes to be roughed around. My mom was driving the car and there was a curvy area in the road, and so she swerved a little exaggerated (but safely ;-) bc she thought Aria would think it was fun. Ends up Chanson thought it was fun, started laughing! He also likes it when I take his hands and pull him up from laying down to standing, and then when I lay him back down, and he's a few inches from being on the bed or couch, I let him drop, and he laughs.

He laughs and smiles a lot. It seems like he smiles more every day. He laughs when people do "Pat-a-cake pat-a-cake bakers man" and roll his hands, etc. I have a video I will add, but I want to get a better one. My mom was doing pat-a-cake and he was laughing reallly hard, but by the time I got my camera, he wasn't laughing as hard.

Hmmm... what else what I was going to say? He's sleeping well - depends on the night HOW well, but he has slept from about 8-6 twice (with a dream feed at 10:30 or 11). That is what I'm hoping for tonight, too! ;-)

Due Date ;-)

2009-06-18T18:46:00.006-05:00

Check out the cutest toes in ALL the world! ;-) AND sparkly shoes that are sandals, too. What more can a girl ask for??

You might start to wonder if my children are ever dressed... yes they are ;-) but not lately. Either the upstairs or downstairs AC has been broken. Today, it's the downstairs... ugh.

As you can probably guess from the title of this blog.... today was my due date 2 years ago. Ahhh memories! Can you tell I'm already getting nostalgic? Wait another 3 days... is she REALLY going to be two?? Really??

OK, so a few funnies. I should just do daily funnies so my blogs aren't so long.... bc Aria cracks me up constantly, and I really want to have it all written down. Since I don't keep a baby book... this blog is it ;-) I always said when Christina was a baby that I was going to write down all the millions of funny things she did, and I never did. When it's happening I think that I couldn't ever possibly forget this! But... then I do. I think I need a notebook for each area of my life, so that when I'm in a home with Alzheimers, I can read them ;-) Sometimes (well, always) I feel pre-Alzheimers. I guess you call that Baby Brain.

The other day at LTF, I'd gotten Aria some of those "healthy" puffs (like cheetos). She was eating them from the bag, and I reached over and ate one. She got her furrowed brow face and said "mama! spit it out!" and put her hand under my mouth so I could. I guess I was supposed to ask first... ;-)

Lately, when she wants to go somewhere or wants something really bad, she says "c'MON people". She says it very emphatically with hand gestures, and it cracks me up. She sounds like a comedian when she does it.

In the middle of the night 2 nights ago (the last slumber party before the AC upstairs got fixed) she woke up a BAZILLION times. One of the times she woke up, she sat up straight and said (loudly) "Mama! Where's Uncle Chris?" My answer? SLEEPING, baby! Another hour or so went by, and the same thing happened, only she asked where Uncle Adam was. I guess she was having uncle withdrawal.

Yesterday, MiaJenn & Chris came over and gave Aria her birthday present bc they are going to be out of town this weekend for her party (sob sob sob!) Aria opened up a whole set of kitchen utensils, and pots and pans (and even her own spatula!!), and cups, and plates. She LOVES it. They stayed for a few hrs, and as they were about to walk out the door, Aria said "thank you for the present" and then as they were walking out the door she said "thank you for the cake". I thought that was really sweet bc she'd opened the present right away when they got there, but still remembered to say Thank You before they left. I was a proud mama ;-) What a sweet girl.

OH I think I forgot to tell you, when I went back to blonde, I came home and Aria gasped and said "MAMA! You're a princess!"

Yesterday morning, Aria had woken up Chanson as he was laying there, and he started to fuss. She went into Mama mode and started saying ohhhh, baby. Then she tried to get him to take the paci, and no luck. She tried a few times, and was very gentle. Then she looked at me and said "Eat the boobie, I think. Here ya go Mama". I thought it was sweet she was trying to figure out what he needed. Actually, maybe she just wanted him to be quiet ;-)

She traces her magnet letters on her color board with markers. I thought that was pretty neat. She's getting more coordinated all the time. Did I tell you (OK here I am forgetting twice, see what I mean about the memory?!) that she drew a picture for Mina and we asked what it was, and she looked at us like... DUH! and said "it's Lines". True true - the whole page was covered with different colored lines. She did the same thing once when she drew a page full of circles. We asked what it was, and again... DUH "it's circles" she says.

She has been saying things lately that we have NO idea where it comes from. Today we were eating breakfast, and she said "daddy plays baseball". Just a matter of fact like that. First of all, I don't know how she knows what baseball even is, and second of all, she's never seen (or heard that I know of) that Matthew plays baseball. THEN she went into this in depth (we understood half of it) rambling about how baseball is played. "the guys are all together, and they hit the ball like this" (and she does sort of a swat) and on and on.

OK gotta run! Time flies when you're blogging and I have to teach a lesson in 5 mins, and still have to get dressed! (I mean change.... I AM wearing clothes, even if my kids aren't)

More funnies

2009-06-15T21:26:00.010-05:00

When Aria was born, and my brother came to visit, he said something along the lines of "I bet you can't wait until she is this age" and pointed to Sydney, who was 2 at the time. I remember thinking he was crazy - how could anything be better than having a newborn! NOW I know what he was saying. Two is a fun age bc they are so darn FUNNY!! Don't get me wrong... I LOVE having a newborn, too, and am remembering why I loved having a newborn.

Anyway... here are some Aria funnies ;-)

We taught her that Aunt Ruth Ann lives in Arizona. She calls it "Ari-Sonia". I love it! (my sister is Sonia)

Aria talks to Chanson and says "hi" or "I love you baby Chanson" or whatever. So I started using a super high squeaky voice and pretending like he answers and says "Hi" or "I love you"back. Now she pretends Chanson is talking to me, and uses the same squeaky voice. Cracks me up!

When I wave at someone while I'm driving (to say SORRY ;-) or Thank you) Aria thinks I'm waving at her, so she always says "HI Mama!". I'm smiling as I write this, and it makes me laugh every time.

Aria was sick last week. ;-( poor baby had a high temp that wouldn't go away even with Motrin and Tylenol. I called the doctor to talk to her about it, and when I hung up the phone, Aria asked who it was. I told her "I was talking to the doctor bc you are so hot. She said "Mama, I'm not hot. I'm COLD". Poor baby was cold from her fever.

We were driving home from Church on Sunday, and we passed a field full of cows. Aria says in a very excited voice "LOOK!! Cows! ... and more cows! ... and dinosaurs! and Lions!" getting more and more excited with each one. Did y'all know there are dinosuars and lions in Texas? AND they are friendly with the cows around here.

It's been VERY hot here in TX, and the other day we went to Sonic to get an ice cream cone. Aria had her 1st ice cream cone when Ahna and Papa were here, and it was so cute to watch her eat it. I guess that sounds funny, but, I can't help it ;-) Anyway... we ordered an ice cream cone and an empty cup. Aria was squealing and putting her hands up in the air and saying "I'm so excited!! Empty cup!" over and over. I thought she didn't realize that an empty cup was just that. An empty cup. But, when she got it, she was still really excited. Then... the next day, she was on the phone with Mina and was telling her about what she'd done the night before, and what she told her about was the "empty cup". Too funny - never knew an empty cup could be so exciting!

Aria has her 2 year doc appt soon, and I'm looking forward to seeing (in inches) how tall she's gotten (I can't keep her still enough to do this myself ;-) Just today, I had poured her a glass of milk and set it on the counter. She reached right up there, took the milk down, and started to drink it. I never thought she could reach up there to get it... it wasn't even on the edge. She didn't spill either ;-)

Oh this is one of my favorites! And it's an explanation to one of the pics above. This is the furrowed brow face I've been telling you about. Well, she wanted Matthew to do something, and Matthew said to her "I need to eat, Baby". She got the furrowed brow face (which is also her "whatcha talkin about, Willis" face) and asked me "Daddy's going to eat the baby!?" Oh my gosh I cracked up!! She thought he'd said he needed to eat (no comma) baby.

To explain the 2nd picture above... Aria wanted to take a shower, so we let her ;-) she had a BLAST! Can you tell? We were right there to assist if she needed it, but she was loving it!

The 3rd picture above is how we've been sleeping the last 3 nights... all together! Our AC is broken upstairs. We are praying (hard!) that this doesn't mess up Aria's wonderful sleeping habits. She hasn't slept in our bed since her baby whisperer sleep training several months ago. I have to admit, though, that I am loving the cuddle time. I confess, I confess.

The 4th picture.... Matthew made us all dinner tonight while I worked out. When I was done working out and showering and came out into the kitchen, Matthew showed me this pic. I guess she was playing with the water in a bowl, and so he filled the sink with water for her to play with as he cooked. THEN she wanted to go in... so he let her. It kept her occupied, that is for sure. She loved it ;-)

Lastly about Aria... she took a 4 hr nap today. WOW!

OK, so I need to upload some pics of Chanson! I'll do that soon, and post some more. He just looks so much like both Grampa H's! He is still a sweet boy, and just so content almost all of the time. His sleeping has been great some nights, and not so great others. The good thing is that the earliest he gets up is 4ish, but goes back to sleep with the paci. The bad thing is that he is restless from about 4-6 and needs his paci often. I'm hoping this is just a short phase! I liked him to sleep until 6! Let's go back to that, why don't we? Good idea! ;-)

He rolled over a bunch of times with my mom the other day. I saw him, but was in the other room. He hasn't done it since then, though, so we'll see if he does it more soon. I'll keep you updated, my loyal readers ;-) hehe!

I am just so curious to see what color his hair will turn out to be! It is fire engine red around the base of his head, but on the top it is growing in blonde. Aria's hair was almost black when she was born, and it stayed dark around the base of her head for a long time. They have the same grampa hairdo ;-) hehe! Just different colors.

Chanson is a BIG smiler! And his smile is so big, it turns into a laugh. I love it! Can't get enough of it! When he smiles I always tell Aria he's smiling at her bc he loves her so much. She smiles so big, and just beams! She loves her brother, that is for sure!

Wow this is the longest blog ever!

Oh, but had to include a video. ;-)

Funny Aria

2009-06-03T21:58:00.010-05:00

A few funnies from Aria today ;-)

Today she was saying Mina was going to come over, and maybe Grampa, too. And then she said in her low big voice "Grampa's TALL!" with emphasis. My dad will be happy to hear this ;-) To her Grampa is tall. (he is 5' 3" ;-) Maybe she thinks I'm tall too!!

We were wrestling around today, and, she got really close to my face. She looks at me, and gets this funny look on her face (kinda like she was thinking "what the heck?") and she says "mama has polka dots"... huh? I ask her where, and she starts poking me all over my face (my freckles...)

She was swinging today and I asked her where Aunt Kat lived. She asked "and Uncle Jake?" I said yep - where do they live? She says "and Dee-lella?" Yep, and Diella, I say. Then she asks "and Ethan?" I say yep, and Ethan. Then she says Pennsylvania. She knew they were a family!

My sweet Aria stories ;-)

2009-06-03T21:58:00.009-05:00

Matthew has taught Aria to show everyone her muscles... they call it the "gun show". He put his shirt on her after her bath (she probably requested it ;-) the other day, and then showed us her guns.

When I am working out, she calls what I am doing "tricks". The 1st time she said it, she said "mama, stop doing tricks!" Now, she does mama's tricks... lunges and squats.

We were at Mina's house, and her little dog, Edie, jumped up on the couch. Aria said "NO Edie! Get off the couch!" At our house, the dogs aren't allowed on the couch, but at Mina's house they are. We explained that the rules are different at Mina's house. Aria's little eyebrows went up, and her eyes got big, and she headed straight for the coffee table and climbed up on top of it. She's not allowed to get on the coffee table at our house, so since the rules were different at Mina's house, it must be OK! I tried not to laugh, and explained that not ALL the rules are different at Mina's house.

Her imagination is so much fun! She hands me imaginary things still ( I mentioned this before, I think) - but a few times, she handed me something, and I asked what it was, and she said "Uncle Chris and Emily". I thought... hmmm, now what do I do with them? If she hands you food, it will almost always be chocolate (which she adds a syllable to... cho-co-late (wait... IS that adding a syllable? I just say it Choc-late). I don't even think she knows what chocolate is (she started saying this after watching Willy Wonka - one of my all time fav movies!). She likes to pretend to cook something and feed it to you. I think the best one was when she fed me something, and I asked what it was and she said "snake"... I should ask BEFORE I eat it. She even has pretended her friend, Mia, was there, and was talking and playing with her.

She knows where most of her relatives live, now. Aunt Sonia is in Minnesota, Uncle Adam & Aunt Sarah are in California, Ahna & Papa are in Pennsylvania (and Aunt Kat, Uncle Jake, Aunt Alethea and Uncle Jeremiah). As I'm teaching her their locations, I'm thinking to myself.... do all of our relatives live in the states with the longest names? She says them well, though. She enunciates the syllables and even gives California an extra syllable (Cal-i-for-ni-a). I try to teach her a new one a day... guess what state we'll add tomorrow? Ar-i-zo-na... Seriously, can't SOMEone live in Georgia or something, and give the kid a break ;-)

I thought this was really cute... I was in the kitchen, and Aria was in the living room, where Chanson was in his carseat in the stroller (we were about to leave to go somewhere). I hear Aria doing the piggies with Chanson's toes "wee wee wee all the way home".

I heard Aria singing Happy Birthday to You" in her crib a few weeks ago (over the monitor). Not sure how she learned it bc we don't sing that one unless it's someone's birthday. Later, I sang it with her and stopped at the "happy birthday dear....." bc I wondered where she learned it, and thought whatever she filled in would help me figure it out. Well, she said "Jesus". I have asked everyone if they taught her that, and no one has... but every time she sings it, she says Happy B-day to Jesus. Very sweet!

I was thinking... she is now talking like a "person"... not that talking a lot makes you a person - but our conversations have gotten so much more involved and interesting. I love to hear what she is thinking and that she can tell me so well now! She noticed a nick in the wall today (I was surprised she noticed it) and she said "mama, what happened to the wall?" just like that. The whole sentence. Earlier in the day today, she was picking out her dancing dress to wear, and she said "but, mama, I HAVE a dancing dress on!" (her PJs were like a dress). It feels like she gets better with her vocab every day. Oh another one from today... we were in the car, and the sun got in her eyes, and she said "The sunshine is bright in my eyes."

She keeps telling me to "stop it!". I realized that I need to stop telling HER to stop it bc it doesn't sound very nice. When she says that to me now, I ask her to repeat it and say "mama, could you please not...(fill in blank)" She is doing much better ;-) and so am I.

Time outs are working well for her. She still "likes" them, so I'm not sure how it's punishment. Maybe it's just giving her a break, away from what she was doing wrong. She almost always stops doing what she was doing after time out. If not, she just keeps going into time out until she does. The other day, she was touching the toaster oven as she sat on the counter in front of me (she loves to "help" with whatever I'm doing and sit on the counter in the kitchen next to me). I told her NO - never touch the toaster oven (she was opening it). She wouldn't listen, so I said if she did it again, I was going to put her down and she couldn't sit on the counter. She did it again... so off she went. Then she walked to the wall and said "time out, right mama? 1- 2 - 3". OK... I never told her to go to time out, but since she was there... ;-) she finished out the 60 seconds and away she went. Hmmm....

I've mentioned before that she always says "God bless you" when someone sneezes. Well, the other day she was crying - hard. In the midst of her crying, Chanson sneezed. She stopped - midcry - and said (in a non-crying voice ... can we say she was fake crying!) "God bless you, Chanson" and then continued to "cry" as she left off. Drama already!

OH and one thing she does that I think is cute... when she asks a question, she ends it almost always with "right, mama?". For instance... "we're going to go see Grampa, right mama?" I don't know why, but I think it's really cute.

She sometimes calls Chanson "sweet baby", as though that is his name. "sweet baby come with, right mama?"

To end on a very sweet note... the other day we were reading books before bed, and Aria put both of her hands on my face and looked me directly in the eyes and smiled, and said "my mama". I just love that little girl!

Chanson smiling ;-)

2009-06-03T21:58:00.003-05:00

This is a game that Chanson and Daddy play.... well, Daddy does, anyway. Matthew is putting his finger over the softspot on Chanson's head, which is why he's saying "touching your brain"... he's not really poking into his softspot, don't worry ;-) For some reason, it makes Chanson smile and laugh a little every time.

Happy 2 months, Chanson!

2009-06-02T16:46:00.003-05:00

Here is a video of Chanson and Aria. Aria loves to hold him. I say in the video "see, he doesn't need you to be rough with him". I'm talking to Matthew. We both (Matthew and I) think it's funny that he was more rough with Aria as a baby than he is with Chanson! You'd think it'd be the opposite. I guess Matthew has Aria to be rough with, so he's more gentle with Chanson. (not rough in a bad way...) BUT Aria, on the other hand, wants Chanson to be as big as her, and she can get a bit rough. She, of course, never hurts him, and we wouldn't let her be TOO rough... but it's hard sometimes to get her to understand that he is a baby, and you can't do certain things. Just wait until Chanson is bigger than her... payback time!

Chanson had his 2 month appt. He is:

Weight - 11 lbs 10 oz - 50%

Height - 23.25 inches - 50%

Head - I forgot, but 70%

So, he's right in the middle. I was surprised he wasn't either higher on the height percentile, or lower on the weight percentile. He looks tall and lean to me.

His stats may say he's average, but, we know he is not ;-) OK OK... I'm biased ;-)

But seriously - he's doing great! (except he was up a lot last night... I like the sleeping until 6 am thing much better!)

Aria and the Harmonica

2009-05-31T21:24:00.002-05:00

Aria has taken up a new instrument... the harmonica ;-) So move over, Blues Brothers, here comes Aria!

Grampa is a...

2009-05-28T22:48:00.002-05:00

Can you believe how big she has gotten?? She looks like she is almost too big for the baby swing here. She's going to be 2 next month. Unbelievable to me!

I have a couple of funny Aria stories (or I think so, anyway ;-)

Aria was sitting on the potty and so she got to play with stickers with while she sat there. She stuck the stickers all down her leg. After she "tried" to go potty, it was naptime. She didn't want me to take the stickers off her leg, so she went to bed with them on. After her nap, she was thrilled to see they were all still there... until she bent her knee. She cried out and asked me to take all the stickers off, so she could bend her knee. I went to take one off, and realized that over the 2.5 hrs she napped, the stickers had really stuck to her skin... oh no! I was afraid to take one off bc it would hurt. I pulled it off really fast - like a bandaide, and Aria laughed HARD. Each sticker I ripped off, she laughed harder and harder. It had to have hurt at least a little each time - but she thought it was hysterical... funny girl!

Today, we were talking about boys and girls. I asked her "is Aria a boy or girl?" she said "girl". I asked her if Chanson was a boy or girl, and she said boy. Is Zig a girl or boy? Boy. Good job Aria! Is Mama a boy or girl.... she says boy. Nope, Mamas are always girls, and Dads are always boys. Is Daddy a boy or girl? Boy. Is Mina a girl or boy?... she says boy. Nope, she is a girl. You get the point ;-) we went through SEVeral people. So next, I went through everyone again, but, I phrased it like this; "Mama is a .... (pause)" and let Aria fill in the blank and say "girl". "Daddy is a ....?" Aria says boy. "Mina is a....?" Aria says girl. Next I said "Grampa is a...." and Aria said...

PENGUIN!

Haha - apparently Grampa is neither a boy or girl, but a penguin.

Sweet Chanson

2009-05-26T14:17:00.006-05:00

Don't I look like my Great Grampa H? I'll post a pic of G-Gpa H in case you don't know who he is. I am very proud to look like one of the most amazing people in all the world!

The older he gets, the more he looks like GGpa H.

Chanson is doing so well! He is just such a sweet baby. Aria even calls him that "awww sweet baby!" ;-) She still loves her brother all the time. She's never once shown a bit of jealousy or been anything but sweet to him (maybe a little rough, but still sweet ;-). I just love that! I hope they are best buds always

He is sleeping really well. He went through a get up every 3 hr phase, but for the last week (or more?) has slept until 6 am every day. He will get up within 5 mins of 6 am every day. How does he know it's 6?? He's like an alarm clock. I started giving him a paci when he'd wake up every 3 hrs, and if he took it without fussing, I knew he was not hungry. Sure enough, he took it, and within 3 days didn't get up anymore (just the the baby whisperer promised ;-) did I tell you how much I love her??) He doesn't use a paci at all to go to sleep at night, and now, not even during the night. He does use it to go to sleep during the day, though.

He is getting big - fast! The scale at our house says a little over 12 lbs, but we'll see what the baby scale says at his 2 month appt next week. We measured him yesterday, and he is 23 inches. I put him in an outfit today that I thought looked huge... and it fits very nicely!

He is smiling AND laughing. He started laughing on 5/16/09. He smiles and laughs at foreheads. It is really interesting, but true. He so far has only smiled and laughed while looking at our foreheads (and a few times while looking at himself in a mirror... probably looking at his own forehead ;-)Uncle Chris says he would like his large forehead. I disagree, Uncle Chris, you don't have a big forehead... but anyway... he did smile a lot for Uncle Chris yesterday. Uncle Chris is a big fav around here!

He also loves ceiling fans. Is there a baby out there that doesn't like ceiling fans? Aria was mesmerized with them, as well. Another love is the TV... so I never let him sit in front of it - ever. I don't need him addicted to TV at 8 weeks old ;-)

I know I told you his hair is red, but, it is fire engine red! I need to get a pic that shows that. It's only red around the back of his head, and is growing in light blonde on top. I think he will end up blonde. His eyes have light green coming from the pupils outward. I am hoping he has green eyes like mine ;-) Aria has the beautiful brown eyes I prayed for, and now I hope Chanson gets green. I'll settle for a brown eyed boy, though - brown eyes ARE my fav! But, can my children have ONE thing that looks like me??? ;-)

OK I can't resist telling you one cute Aria-ism ;-) She called Zig (our dog), Pup-Dude. :-)

A few fun things

2009-05-15T21:31:00.008-05:00

Daddy has Aria trained right! ;-)
Fun family time

Daddy & Son

Tuckered out!

I've been meaning to update you all on the kiddos, but I have been really tired... Chanson has decided not to sleep like the lil angel that he is. I am not sure why, but, it happened with Aria, too. At about 6 weeks (exactly 6 weeks with Aria) they start getting up every 3 hrs maximum. Why oh why?? Baby whisperer says it's bc they need more calories during the day, so I'm trying to feed him more all day. Baby whisperer also says that if you don't feed them more during the day, and they continue to get up every 3 hrs to eat, they will just get used to that, and keep it up (Aria did...) I'll let you know how the more calories during the day thing works out...

Chanson is doing really well, otherwise. He is smiling now, on purpose. The 1st real smile that I saw was on May 13th, which is my Gramma's birthday, so that made me really happy. He smiled at Aria a few times today, and even she exclaimed each time "oh Chason smiled!"

I gave him a bottle on May 2nd, and he took it really well. I was happy about that for sure! Actually, I may have already mentioned that (baby brain...) I have been trying to give him a bottle a day so he continues to take it well.

A few cute Aria stories...

Today she was watching a cartoon that was about how not to get a cold. I think it was Sid the Science kid? Anyway, the kid's mom had a cold. Aria came up to me with a concerned look on her face and felt one cheek, then the other, and said "mama cold?" and then blew on my face. Not sure why the blowing on my face (maybe she thinks you blow on something to cool it off as well as to make it warmer?) I love how she makes me look at things through a child's eyes. Of course to her, when she hears mommy has a cold, she thinks mama is cold, literally.

Aria is really using her imagination a LOT these days. She pretends to pick something up off the ground and hands whatever it is to me. Then I ask what it is, and it will be anything from cookies, to a bird, to a puppy, to a birthday cake, to "more toys". She will bring me a bag, and say "surprise!" and I ask what is inside, and she will tell me. Today, she handed me a big candle, and said "happy birthday, mama!" and wanted me to blow out the candles on the "cake". She looks at the clouds and tells me what she sees. She makes up stories about the birds in the back yard about where they are flying to.

One of her favorite imagination games is one I've mentioned - going on a trip. Recently as she was playing "going on a trip" she went to find her purse (can't leave home without it! ;-) she always grabs a bag of some sort when she goes on her trips) and came back and told me she was going on a trip to see Uncle Chris. Then she said "Love Uncle Chris". She loves her Uncle Chris!

Speaking of loving... when she REALLY likes something, and I ask her if she likes it, she will respond with I LOVE it. I asked if she liked cake, and she said I LOVE cake. Tonight at dinner, I asked if she liked fish, and she said she LOVED fish (which she did! New favorite food - tilapia!)

She also loves her brother. A LOT! She just cannot get enough of him. She hugs him and says "love him" or calls him her friend. I love that ;-) I also love when she calls me her friend as she hugs me. That really warms my heart each time.

The other day, Aria woke up yelling "somebody! Cake! Pizza! Somebody!.... MiaJenn!" I thought that was funny, and shows that she is my daughter. Cake, to me, is a perfect breakfast!

Aria loves airplanes and motorcycle bikes. Whenever she hears or sees either one, she brightens up and says "airplane!" or "motorcycle bike!" and points at whichever it is (or asks to go outside to see it if she just hears it).

We started working on forward and backward walk overs with Aria ;-) On the big work out ball, she bends backwards on it, and we roll it as she puts her hands on the floor, and then we help her over. She thinks this is a lot of fun!

Ring around the rosy is the MOST fun though. That is her favorite game, I think!

Oh, and she calls gingerbread cookies "spiderman oakies". This cracks me up!

Getting bigger

2009-05-14T13:34:00.003-05:00

I'll write an update on my babies later, but wanted to share a cute bath pic with you for now ;-)

Here is a video of Chanson doing his thing... ;-)

BFF

2009-05-11T23:28:00.002-05:00

Click here to view these pictures larger

I have a hard time picking which pictures to upload... so I just upload them all ;-) Mia wanted to sit on Aria's lap (or was it the other way around?) These 2 are sooooo cute together!

Ahna & Papa

2009-05-11T22:34:00.005-05:00

We had SUCH a fun week with Ahna and Papa! Chanson got to meet them for the 1st time, and Aria couldn't get enough of them. They were all playing within minutes of them walking into the door. Aria woke up the 1st morning they were there, calling "Ahna! Ahna!". Matthew and I wondered if she was saying Ahna or Mama? Then we heard her over the monitor, again, clearly saying "Ahna! Papa!"

Aria loved playing puzzles and computer games with Papa. She loved reading books and hula dancing with Ahna. She got a full week of just playing and being silly. What a lucky girl! Chanson got as much cuddling time as any baby could wish for. He loved all the loving and snuggling. And... Mama not only had fun hanging out and spending time with them, but enjoying lots of help. Who knew how much one could enjoy a shower with no kiddos in the room or making breakfast with BOTH hands! I think I changed half the number of diapers, too. Mama Mia is having withdrawal this week!

Aria was very sad at the end of the week (Mommy and Daddy and Chanson were, too ;-( ) to say goodbye. We keep wondering how the week went by soooo fast. Aria keeps asking where they are.

Here is a video of Ahna & Aria playing.

Here is a video with a message for Ahna & Papa

Happy 1 month birthday, Chanson

2009-04-30T14:04:00.006-05:00

Above are a few pics from Easter (4/12) that I forgot to post. Aria had so much fun dying Easter eggs, and I think Chanson looks just sooo handsome in his Easter outfit ;-) ... and one of Aria that I just love ;-)

I cannot believe it's been a month since Chanson was born! WOW time is flying!

Chanson is doing great! As of Monday, April 27th, he weighed 9 lbs 9 oz and about 22 inches (we took the length measurement, so not sure how accurate that is ;-). He's a growing boy! He has baby eczema, just like Aria had... but it's clearing up from the cream they gave us. He is still sleeping great, and just is a calm, angel baby. He likes tummy time, and does well with holding up his head. I need to take a pic so you can see ;-) He can now fit into his 0-3 month clothes, but can still get into some of his bigger NB stuff, as well. He wears a size 1 diaper, but, we can still get the NB size on him. They're small, but we have some left and want to use them. He smiles a LOT in his sleep, and has smiled quite a bit awake, too. He smiled at Grampa today ;-) As he gets chubbier, his dimple gets more pronounced. You know I'm a sucker for dimples! I don't think I've ever mentioned, but his hair is red! I wonder if it will stay that way or turn blonde. My mom has auburn hair, and her dad had auburn hair, so we'll see. I really think his eyes will be green like mine. I can see green in them when I look at them from the side.

Aria is still loving her little brother! She is still kissing and hugging him every chance she gets.

I keep meaning to tell you all an Aria story, and keep forgetting (or maybe I've already told you and should look back at posts... I have SERIOUS baby brain these days!). When we drive in Matt's truck, it's really bumpy. When I was pregnant, the bumps would make me wince every time there was a big (or even semi-big) one. Speed bumps were the worst! So, one day (I was probably 8 months preggo), as we went over a bump, Aria got a very concerned look on her face and said "ohhhh" and then she patted me on the arm and said "Mama, you OK? Belly hurt?" I couldn't believe that she could tell by my reaction to bumps that it hurt... and that it hurt my belly. I reassured her that Yes, I was OK, and thank you for asking. Every time we'd run over a bump she would ask "Mama, you OK?" and pat my arm. She started asking everyone else in the car if they were OK, too. She still does this, even though I'm not pregnant anymore. I thought it was sweet that she was so sensitive to me!

Aria is now doing better at filling in the small words in sentences so she is using more complete sentences now. So, where she used to say "paper broken half" she now says "The paper is broken in half" or "the paper broken in half" (sometimes she gets them all, sometimes not).

There are a few things she says that crack me up every time. She does a game where she pretends to be scared of Ziggy... and she screams, runs up to me, and says "Mama ! Ziggy get me! (pause) Long time!" She says the "long time" part really fast. I have NO idea what this means, or where it is coming from, but she says it allll the time. She also calls Cookies "oak-ies". She has been saying AWESOME (with big emphasis) a lot lately.

Hmmm what else? She is completely in love with our friend, Chris (Miajenn's daddy/hubby... MiaJenn is the joint name that Aria made up for Mia (her friend) and Jenn (Mia's Mama). Whenver I tell Aria that we are going to see Miajenn, she gets excited ... and then says "and Chris, too!?!" Matthew and I were going through the letters with her the other day, and saying B sounds like buh, buh, like Bubbles, and Bee and Big and Bug. M sounds like mmmmm like Milk, and Mama, and Mia, and Mooo and Aria said "and Chris, too??" Anything that includes Mia must also include Chris, right?

The other day, I cleaned out Aria's crib to wash her blankets and boppy. As I was putting her comforters back into her crib (I stack them all up so it's soft where she lays) she kept asking me to stop. She didn't want the comforters back in her crib? Ok... Then I put her boppy in there, and she wanted me to stop... OK, interesting. THEN I started to put her stuffed animals and dolls back in, and she didn't want them in there, either. I then put Aria in the crib, and started handing her her favorite animals. She'd throw them out of the crib. I thought to myself "great! now what is she going to play with as she falls asleep, and when she wakes up?" She would play with her animals every day before falling asleep at nap and night. I finally gave up, and left, thinking she'd call me wanting her animals back in there. Well, I was listening to her on the baby monitor, and she was playing - as usual. I thought WHAT is she playing with?? Her crib is empty! She ended up playing for TWO HOURS that night. I went in there at one point bc I started to think she was actually talking to someone... but of course no one was there. She was just laying in her crib... talking away. This was probably 5 days ago, and each time she goes to sleep and wakes up, she plays... with nothing in her crib. I thought it was interesting... she must have a great imagination!

I almost forgot to mention.... she can finally do a sommersault all by herself ;-)

Did I tell you how much I love my babies?????

Pictures from Mia

2009-04-30T13:08:00.001-05:00

Click here to view these pictures larger

Fiddling around

2009-04-23T08:44:00.003-05:00

Good times!

2009-04-15T13:40:00.005-05:00

I think the last 2 weeks have been the best 2 weeks yet! Aria loves her baby brother, I feel great, Matthew has been wonderful, and baby Chanson is the most calm (sleepy ;-) and sweet baby I could ever imagine.

Chanson had his 2 week appointment, and he is doing so well! He weighs 7 lbs 15 ozs (as of April 13th) and is 20.5 inches long. That is 25% for weight, and 50% for height. This is how he's lost and gained:

Monday 03/30/09 - birth day! 7 lbs 10 oz

Wednesday 4/1/9 - 7 lbs 3 oz

Thursday 4/2/9 - 6 lbs 12 oz

Saturday 4/4/9 - 6 lbs 15 oz

Thursday 4/9/9 - 7 lbs 10 oz

Monday 4/13/9 - 7 lbs 15 oz

So, in 1 week he gained almost a pound! Now if only I could lose weight at the same rate ;)

I think he will be built like his daddy. He looks just like his daddy, too, which means that Chanson also looks a lot like Aria.

Chanson stays awake about 4 hrs a day (about 1 hr - 1.5 hrs at a time). We are doing the Baby Whisperer method, which is called EASY (Eat, Activity, Sleep, and You time - in that order). That way it's not a strict schedule, but a routine. It also helps so that he doesn't rely on nursing to fall asleep, which is what happened with Aria. Chanson does great with this routine, although it's hard to wake him up sometimes. He sleeps SO well at night. Most nights I have to wake him up to feed him. He very rarely cries, even to eat. He just starts making noise. We feel extremely blessed to have such a sweet baby!

Some things I love about Chanson are his sweet baby noises. He coos a lot, and it just sounds so cute. The first few days of his life, he sounded like a tea kettle once the water is boiling. He doesn't do that anymore, but it was funny when he did.

On Daddy's birthday, Chanson laughed in his sleep. It was really funny! He hasn't laughed awake yet, though. He has smiled while awake (on 4/11/09 at Church for the 1st time).

Aria just loves her baby brother, and wants to hold him and kiss him all the time. She wants him around her all the time. They sit on the couch together (with me ;-) and watch Sesame Street together. I love that! Last night Aria sat on my lap, and Chanson sat on hers. I am just loving this time!

So, Aria is just a chatterbox these days! She talks like crazy and repeats like crazy, too. She fills in the words as I'm reading her books at night, so I started leaving out several words, to see if she would fill them in. Sure enough, she did. We were doing Hey Diddle Diddle, and when we got to the last page, I said "and the..." hoping she'd say "dish", but she said "dish ran away with the spoon".

A few other funny Aria-isms ;-)

When she does vibrato when she sings, she shakes her head really fast to make her voice "shake".

She gets really likes when everyone is together. She gets really excited and says "everybody all together!" She does this when we're together as a family, or when we have several friends all together, etc. She says it a lot - it's cute.

She loves to play ring around the rosey. She calls it Pocket Full of Posey. She only wants to play it in the office, though.

Aria keeps calling me "honey" and she calls Matthew and Chanson "sweetie". This cracks me up!

She plays a game that she made up with Mina. She gets something that resembles (to her) a suitcase and says "see ya! bye! going on a trip" and walks away. Then she comes back and says "I'm back!" She thinks this is a LOT of fun ;-) and keeps doing it over and over.

I always forget to turn off the humidifier in her room, and Matthew never does (after nap or in the am when she wakes up). Last week when I got her out of her crib, and as we were about to go down the stairs she stopped and said "oh I forgot!" and walked back into her room and shut off the humidifier. Too funny - I didn't even know she paid attention to either of us doing that, or that she'd know how to shut it off.

She and daddy have LOTS of games they play. One is called "leggies" and that is where she pumps her legs in the swing. Another is called "swing low" and she says that in a really low voice like she is singing Swing Low Sweet Chariot (which is what Daddy does during the game). He swings her back and forth over the bed, and then throws her onto the bed. She loves it! She and Daddy have a lot of fun!

She likes to pretend to take our picture. She takes Matthew's mp3 player (which she thinks is a camera) and points it at us (or the actual camera if she gets a hold of it) and says "smile!" but how she says it is "sa-MILE".

Matthew was reading her books before bed the other day, and they were reading her Bible. Matthew went over with Aria several things that she loves, and told her that God made them all. He then asked "do you know who God is" and she said "yes! Mama!" .... smart girl! haha! OK, in my defense, I never taught her that! ;-)

She likes to come up to me and say "nice to see you!" or "nice to see you, too!" I guess this is part of the going on a trip game that she plays with Mina.

I noticed awhile ago that Aria said words singular when there was 1 and plural when there was more than 1. Matthew tested it the other day (he didn't believe me ;-) and pointed at a duck and asked what it was. She said "a duck". He pointed at another, and asked again, and she said "a duck". Then he pointed at the shower curtain and said what is that? She said Ducks. She even says 1 foot and 2 feet.

I can't believe she is going to be TWO in 3 months (a little less than 3 months!!) Unbelievable. I still see her as my baby, so when she is doing all this talking and little girl stuff, I am always caught off guard.

We're going to be doing some serious potty training starting in a few weeks. Wish us luck!

I'll post some more pics later today!

Pictures from Mia

2009-04-08T23:01:00.001-05:00

22 pictures
View Album at Shutterfly

Welcome to our family, Chanson!

2009-03-27T07:20:00.010-05:00

Welcome to our family, sweet boy! We are so happy to announce the arrival of Chanson Matthew on March 30th at 8:57 pm. He weighed 7 lbs 10 ozs and was (is) 20.25 inches long.
To see more pics, go to this link:

http://www.our365.com/NewbornPortraits/BabyDetail.aspx?birthid=3e79d6ce-7219-4dfb-8329-29724acca2f3

Once there, use the password 53151262564863 to view the pics. If the link does not work, please go to http://www.our365.com/ and use the same password. You can search for me by name, or they told me that the username is Hei with the password above...

The delivery was really great! It went fast - 1 hr and 40 mins from the time they broke my water.

Aria got to meet Chanson the day after he was born. She was so excited to see Mama holding a tiny baby. I was thinking she might be a little jealous, so when she got there, I was going to hold her, and let someone else hold Chanson while we spent some time together. Aria wanted me to hold the baby, and only me. She also got to hold him, and kiss him. I don't think she's stopped kissing him since ;-) She hasn't been a bit jealous, and has just been the best helper. She is a great big sister!! She even told Chanson she loves him today. Actually... I am not sure if she said "love you" meaning "I love you" or if she meant "he loves me" (she says "help you" and means "help me" for instance, so she could have meant "love me").

She saw me nurse Chanson for the first time, and she looked at me with her eyebrows furrowed, and said "baby eats boobies??" She says that every time I feed him now... instead of a question now, it's a statement.

One moment I am very upset I missed getting on video was Aria's reaction to seeing Chanson in the car when we got home. Her reaction was priceless! She was just so excited that the baby came home to stay with us! She just loves her brother.

A couple of things Aria said the last 2 weeks that I think are cute ;-) She says "Nummy in my tummy" when she likes whatever she is eating. When Winston was bothering her at her table, she told him "hit the road, Winston".

I think the best story, though, is what she said to Matthew last week. Aria was standing too close to the TV, so Matthew was telling her to back up. She was ignoring him, so he threw a stuffed animal at her (OK so we're not the best role models sometimes.... he threw it gently, anyway). She turned around with a very annoyed look on her face, but then her expression changed to a smile, and she said "Nice throw, Daddy!".

Aria has been getting time outs lately... problem is, she gets excited when she "gets" to go into time out. Ummm.... I am not sure what to make of this.

I'll be changing the name of my blog soon, so it will be a name that covers Chanson and Aria. I'll keep you posted!

I've got a lot more to say, but will have to update you all more later ;-)

Baby update

2009-03-18T12:43:00.004-05:00

I had a doc appt today, and the baby is now (by ultrasound prediction...) 7 lbs 8 ozs. Aria was 7 lbs 13 oz at 40.5 weeks and I'm just about 38 weeks now, so this baby will be a little bigger than Aria (unless I go into labor this week ;-), but still a good size! YAY!

Aria was good as gold during the ultrasound. She really liked to watch the screen and see the baby (she was probably thinking... huh?? You call THAT a baby??) She also had goldfish (crackers) to eat ;-)

I am still 3 cms, and the doc said he is surprised I haven't gone into labor yet. That puts me even more on guard... every day wondering if this is the day! But we are pretty ready, besides getting the baby room done ;-)

They are so sweet to Aria at the doctor. They really cater to her, and I just think it is so considerate of them. They never act like she is a nuisance, but instead, they play with her (all the nurses and the doctor) and involve her in the whole process. When we went to leave today, Aria did her scowl face (which she does often ;-) and pointed to the ground and said "stay HERE!" bc she didn't want to leave. One of the nurses noticed that Aria was pulling at her ear, and went to get the doc (after he'd already left the room) to see if he could check out her ear. He came back and was concerned, and took a look. Seriously, how sweet is that?? I just love them!

I forgot to mention another little Aria story yesterday... lately when she breaks something in half, or rips a paper in half, or sees something that is broken in half she says "in half". She has been doing this a lot over the last week. I think she learned about that on Sesame Street ;-)

If you haven't voted on the baby pool, click on the below and enter your guess ;-)

Happy St. Patty's day

2009-03-17T21:08:00.004-05:00

Happy St. Patty's day! Today we had green eggs and green french toast for breakfast. Aria didn't notice it was any different than usual, and Matthew thought it looked gross... party poopers. But Aria wore a pretty green dress that was my dress when I was a baby ;-)

A few funny things from this week...

The TV was on, I'm not sure what was on, but there was a scene at Starbucks... Aria saw them walk into Starbucks, and saw someone in the uniform, and runs up to Matthew and said very excitedly (actually, it was more a question how she said it, like she wanted some) "Pumpkin loaf? Pumpkin loaf?" That is what she gets when we go to Starbucks.... hmmm... I don't spend THAT much time there!

Aria can now count to 14. She doesn't do it often, but she's done it a few times, so I know she can. She doesn't recognize the number 11, 12, 13, 14 when she sees them, but does know 1-10 by site. Today we were going over the numbers, and she kept telling me that the number I'd point to was 14. She thought it was funny - so then I'd say "noooo... what number is it?" and she'd say the right one.

She used to just say "help" when she wanted help, but now she says "help you" when she wants help. When she'd ask for help, I'd ask her "do you want me to help you?" so, now she thinks it's help you. I'm trying to get her to say help me....

When she sneezes, she says "bless you" to herself ;-)

She has started saying "oh goodness" this week. It's so funny when she does it, bc of the expression that comes with it, and she says it over and over, like a little old lady.

She has been hugging and kissing my belly a lot lately. She comes up to me and says "hug the belly?" One of the times she was hugging my belly, she said "awwww baby kitty". Umm... sorry to disappoint you, baby ;-/

Well, she has finally eaten a banana. I had a banana and said to her "are you a monkey? Monkeys eat bananas" and she nodded and was very excited... and ended up eating the whole thing! She has refused bananas since birth, so this is a big development ;-)

Her weight was stuck at 23.5 lbs since she was 14 months or so up until this last month... and I weighed her yesterday and she is now 26 lbs!

Cuddling and more ;-)

2009-03-13T06:55:00.009-05:00

Painting with Aria's BFF, Mia. I love TX weather when we can paint outside in February!

Cuddling on the couch with her BIG bear.

Aria still loves to be outside and swing!!!

Aria has been asking me to cuddle on the couch the last few days. She is not a big cuddler, so I was surprised at her request ;-) She says "mama, cuddle couch?" So, we go to the couch, and she hugs me REALLY tight around the neck and just cuddles with me. These are the times when I wish I could just freeze time! I feel like that often, though. She is such a joy!! I think now is the best age EVER. I know... I keep saying that ;-)

She is just getting more and more observant. She comments on the birds, on airplanes in the sky, clouds, bugs, trees, flowers. She is talking so much, and is able to tell me so much more of what she is thinking. We were outside and a ladybug landed on her! It was so much fun playing with the ladybug with her. Then the ladybug flew away, back to see her mama ;-) Yesterday we were reading a book, and there was a picture of a bird, and she looked at me and said "bird fly away" and waved her hand in the air, like the bird flew away.

This girl loves Norah Jones. I will try to get her on video singing along. She tries to sing all the words to the songs, and it is funny how much she can actually fill in. She likes track 1 and 5, and wants me to repeat those over and over again (sorry I never know song titles! She calls them both "come" bc one song says "don't know why I didn't come" over and over, and the other repeats "come away with me").

She also started doing this thing where she wants me to get one of her baby towels (the ones where there is a little hood on them) and put the hood on her head, and wrap the towel around her, and then hold her like a baby. Then she wants to look in the mirror at me rocking her like a baby, and then she wants to go on the couch and she wants me to hold her like a baby and rock her... not sure why? I just go with what she tells me! Funny baby!

What is with this... she keeps calling me MOM? That is way too grown up!

She is still categorizing EVERYTHING as mama, daddy, and baby. She makes her voice babylike and says awwwwww the baby! And if she can hold whatever she is calling the baby, she holds it in her hand and rocks it and sings rockabye baby.

I'm editing to add a story. We were at Target and Aria was in the cart, and she put her head all the way to the side, and said "head stuck" and kept her head tilted all the way to her shoulder. I thought she was just being silly, and that was it. Then she took her hand and pushed her head back to upright (but made it look difficult, like her head was really stuck) and sighed, and said "better". Since that time, she has done this several times. I have NO idea where she got this from, but it cracks me up every time!

Baby # 2 update.... Aria can't decide if the baby is a boy or girl ;-) It's usually whatever I ask last. I am 3 cms dilated, which makes me wonder at all times... is this the day?? I'm aiming for March 14th (Einstein's birthday) or March 21st (even better... Bach's birthday!). How come April 2nd seems sooooooo far away????

Couple of cute things

2009-03-05T10:05:00.004-06:00

Hello! I always tell myself I'm going to blog things, and then by the next day, I forget what they were! So, before I forget....

Sorry - Aria has been saying sorry a lot the last 2 days. I don't know why, but all of a sudden, she's apologizing every time she bumps into something, or steps in front of something, gets in the way of something etc. It's funny bc she just started doing it yesterday. She'll say it a bunch of times in a row, "oh, sorry sorry sorry!" This might be one of things that you have to see to appreciate ;-) Her mannerisms when she does it crack me up.

She has also been asking Zig to watch her do tricks. He'll be in his kennel sleeping, and she'll call him and call him to come and watch her do the trick. Or we'll be outside, and he'll be ignoring us, and Aria will call him over and over till he looks in our direction so that he can watch her do her trick. She loves Zig! She calls him Tzigane now. Of course, Zig just walks away.... She also keeps chasing him trying to hug and kiss him. He runs away, and she says "fast!" When she wants to hug something (anything) really close she says "come here come here come here" over and over.

Lately Aria has been classifying things as tiny or big. I don't know why? But she does it to everything. Food, dolls, shoes, whatever. For instance, she'll pick a sticker, and if it's small, she'll say "tiiiiiiiny sticker" and then she puts her first finger up to her forehead, and scruches up her shoulders. Or if she takes a big bite of food, she'll say "BIIIIIIIG bite" and she'll say it in a low loud voice, and put her first finger up in the air. Other things she points at and says BIIIIIG to are my belly... and my butt. Nice, baby.

She's getting more and more picky about what she wears. She wants to wear her "dancing dresses" alllll the time. Anyone who knew me as a kid will appreciate this ;-) I don't think I wore anything BUT dresses for the first 10 years of my life. ;-)

She really likes to watch violin lessons, and she has her play violin. The other day, she went into the room where I teach, and sat down next to the chair I sit on to teach, and said "mama, violin?" She wanted me to play for her! I keep telling you all about how she plays her play violin, but have not gotten it on video. She holds the violin and moves the bow really good. She was doing this one day, and I grabbed the video camera and gave it to Matthew to video her. Well, here is the video. She starts out playing the violin for a very short time, and then goes to ABCs. Now when she sees the camera pointed at her, she stops whatever she is doing and does her ABCs.... we will now get nothing on video EXCEPT her ABCs, which we tried in vein to get on video for 2 months!! BABY!! She must get this trait from her dad. hahaaaaaa!!

A couple of things about the video... you can't hear her say it, but after she puts the violin down and smiles, she says "abc's ?". That is why Matthew says "ok do your ABCs". Also, as you hear the music sounds as she's doing the ABCs... that is her pounding her foot on the violin... NICE!! (you can hear me in the background say "Baby! That is not what you do to a violin!"

FINALLY ABC's

2009-02-23T09:41:00.008-06:00

Mia needed some extra sleep this morning ... SO Aria and I (Matthew) were working on ABC's and we FINALLY got the whole thing on video ... took a few seconds to get started, but once she got rolling ... NEAR PERFECT ;-)

Mia said it sounds like I am bragging with the above comment ... to clarify ... I AM ;-)

Baby Pool

2009-02-18T11:58:00.003-06:00

Click on the link below to enter a guess in the baby pool for the new baby!! ;-)

I am due 4/2/9

PINK!

2009-02-11T08:27:00.003-06:00

Two posts in one week! Wow ;-)

Well, I just wanted to let you know that Aria officially has a favorite color ;-) It's PINK! Again yesterday, she pointed out all the pink things at the store. Then, the night before last, I went to put socks on her before bed. I got out her favorite red Hello Kitty socks. She said NO and would pull her feet away. I asked her why she didn't want her favorite socks on? She said PINK socks. So, I found some pink socks, and she stuck out her feet for me to put them on. The night after, I automatically got out pink socks - but they were pink polka dots (big dots). She wouldn't put those on, either. Again she said PINK socks, so I found socks that were completely pink, and as soon as she saw that I had them, she draped her foot over the crib for me to get the socks on. Baby!!

Another thing I forgot to mention the other day is that Aria is always pointing out Mamas and Babies. She pairs up her stuffed animals, and she'll get out two of the same color (even if they're different animals - although usually they are the same) and the bigger one is the Mama and the other is the baby. She carries them around together. She does this with everything... even stickers. She was sitting on the potty playing with a sheet of heart stickers. The big red one was the daddy, the big pink one was the mommy, and all the smaller hearts were babies. Same thing with her flower stickers. When she points out the mama, she points at me next and says "mama, too!" (which means, "you're a mama, too") It's really sweet. She also likes to take whichever object is the baby and she hugs it, and rocks it, and sings rockabye baby. She is going to be such a good big sister to her new baby!!

Fun stuff ;-)

2009-02-09T16:45:00.005-06:00

Well, Aria has had another successful potty experience ;-) She went on the potty at Gramma's house this week! YAY Aria ;-) She still tells us every time she is about to go #2, but most times it's too late by the time we run to the potty. I have 7.5 weeks to go before new baby is here - oh dear!

Aria is doing even better with colors. Today at the store, she was pointing out all the things that were pink. Yesterday, she was looking at people's shoes at Church and saying what color they were.

Singing - she loves to sing! We listen to Norah Jones in the car, and she fills in words and tries to do some melodies - it's very cute!

Numbers - she knows them all by site now! Yay! She surprised me with that the other day.

She still loves (loves!) her sparkly shoes. She has 3 colors now ;-) and she loves all of them. The last thing she said before going to sleep last night was something to her cat, Meow Meow, about her sparkly shoes. The conversations she has with Meow Meow in her crib are so cute and funny!!

She is doing even better at talking! She is saying soooo much these days! I really think that all the babbling has just turned clear, and we can understand most of what she is saying now, and that is why she is talking with so many sentences.

Oh, and there has been a change (according to Aria) to the spelling of her name. It is now A-R-T. I don't know why she is insisting that is how you spell Aria, bc she used to do it right.

Aria has a new table! She LOVES it! Daddy surprised her with it from Ikea the other day. It's perfect - she can sit and color, and do puzzles, and her memory game (match game). She likes to eat there, now, too.

New baby update ;-) OK so the energy I said I had - I take it back! I am so tired all the time it is crazy. I'm making up for the previous energy, I guess. I'm emotional, and have a bazillion braxton hicks contractions a day. Maybe that means I'll go earlier than 40 weeks. I was hoping for an April baby, though (I'm due 4/2). Here is a picture of the new baby on the LEFT and Aria on the RIGHT. Don't they look alike?? awww!!

Ok - here is a poll. We have 2 boy names that we're not 100% on. So, we are welcoming name suggestions!! The two we have picked so far are:

Cruz Matthew which means The Cross of Christ is Gift of God (I love this meaning!!!!)

Elijah Matthew which means The Lord is my God, Gift of God (still a good meaning, but doesn't flow like the other).

;-)

Doing well!

2009-01-31T21:37:00.014-06:00

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) ;-)

Christmas!

2009-01-05T13:53:00.006-06:00

This whole Christmas season has been so much fun because Aria was experiencing everything for the 1st time. Last year she didn't pay much attention to the lights outside, or to what was going on... but this year, she has taken it all in. She loves to look at Christmas lights, especially. She says "pretty!" whenever we see Christmas lights on someone's house. She points at the stockings and says "stocks" ;-) She likes the snowman on Daddy's stocking. She picked out the biggest stocking for herself ;-) She loves our Christmas tree, and still says "prettttty" when she sees it every day. It will be sad to take it down. She says HO HO HO when we ask what Santa says. I have a little video I will have to upload. She would just say HO HO HO at miscellaneous times throughout the day, too. Silly girl ;-) must have been thinking about Santa ;-)

We had a fun Christmas! We had 2 Christmases - One with Gramma and Grampa (in the pink outfit) before Christmas, and one on Christmas day (in the red and white striped outfit). Aria had sooooo much fun opening presents! Here are some pictures from the two days.

Aria LOVES Elmo!

She liked her new Hello Kitty socks and wanted to put them on right away... even over her PJs

New bracelets and socks
Each present she had this face - sooooo excited!

She loved this new stocking from Grampa

End of the day ;-) I just love this picture ;-)

It's already January??

2009-01-02T08:04:00.002-06:00

I can't believe how the time is flying! I will upload and post Christmas pics soon, and tell you all about Aria's fun Christmas. I don't think we'll ever take down the Christmas tree. Aria loves her Christmas tree and stockings!! She wakes up every day and looks at it and says "pretttttty".

Aria has been doing really great. She is getting better and better at the alphabet all the time. She can sing through the alphabet song now, and even tries to do the words at the end "now I know my abc's...." When she sees letters, she'll pretend like she's spelling it out and at the end of it says "Aria" ... she thinks everything spells Aria ;-) She knows all her letters really good now, and points them out in books or wherever she sees letters. She can also count pretty well to 10, but not as good as her letters.

She has also started making these faces at us... like when we don't understand something she is trying to tell us, she'll actually roll her eyes and make a sound (probably copying me... haha!) I always used to know what words she was saying (unless, of course she was babbling) until recently. She has started using words together in little sentences, and most times I know what she is saying... but sometimes I have NO idea what she is saying, and she repeats it over and over, and then gets frustrated and rolls her eyes, or shakes her head at me... as though she'd like to say DUH!

She is starting to get her canine teeth. We've had a great 2 full months break from teething. I hope these ones come in nicely! ;-)

At Church this week, she patted my belly and said "the baby". My heart just about melted.

Her personality is sure showing lately - she's been getting a bit of an attitude on one hand, and just gets more funny, on the other hand. She loves to play with her animals and baby dolls, and does lots of pretend play. She is getting really creative, and is so much fun to watch!

Potty training - she asks to use the potty several times a day... which constititues sitting on the potty and looking at magazines. She went poop on the potty once a week or so ago, but nothing since. At least she is interested.... although I think she just thinks it's fun book time. ;-) It would be so great to have her using the potty by the time the new baby is here, but, if not, that is OK too ;-)

Turkey & Alphabet

2008-11-28T17:45:00.009-06:00

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!

2008-11-12T21:18:00.011-06:00

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!

2008-11-12T20:52:00.004-06:00

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!

2008-10-07T19:10:00.003-05:00

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!

2008-10-06T16:42:00.003-05:00

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!!

2008-09-09T14:26:00.002-05:00

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

2008-09-02T15:43:00.004-05:00

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!

2008-08-26T21:05:00.004-05:00

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

2008-08-01T16:58:00.004-05:00

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!

2008-07-28T20:27:00.003-05:00

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!

2008-07-22T06:34:00.003-05:00

Aria got cake.... again!

More fun with cousins!

2008-07-14T15:22:00.009-05:00

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

2008-07-11T12:50:00.002-05:00

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!

2008-07-10T21:53:00.003-05:00

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!

2008-07-09T16:24:00.002-05:00

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

2008-07-08T19:34:00.003-05:00

I just love my brown eyed girl!!

I love the beach!

2008-07-06T17:07:00.004-05:00

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

I love swinging!

2008-07-06T16:00:00.001-05:00

Cousins, cousins, and more cousins!

2008-07-05T13:50:00.005-05:00

(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

2008-06-26T11:05:00.003-05:00

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

2008-06-24T11:05:00.006-05:00

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!

2008-06-22T22:27:00.012-05:00

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!

2008-06-16T16:08:00.002-05:00

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

2008-06-13T16:09:00.004-05:00

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!

2008-06-08T22:42:00.004-05:00

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

2008-06-08T02:21:00.003-05:00

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!

2008-06-05T21:41:00.003-05:00

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!

2008-06-05T16:01:00.005-05:00

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!

2008-06-05T15:51:00.004-05:00

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

2008-06-03T10:42:00.003-05:00

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

2008-06-03T10:19:00.004-05:00

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!

2008-05-29T10:11:00.003-05:00

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

2008-05-28T20:11:00.003-05:00

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

2008-05-28T10:13:00.002-05:00

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!

2008-05-26T23:20:00.004-05:00

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!

2008-05-21T16:18:00.002-05:00

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

2008-05-18T22:55:00.006-05:00

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!

2008-05-10T11:47:00.002-05:00

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.