WOW!

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!!

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

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.

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!

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

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!

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!

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!

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!

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

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!

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

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?

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!

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?

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!

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!!

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

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 ;-)

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

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. ;-)