Aria Updates

I haven’t written a whole lot about what Aria is actually doing these days. There is so much, it’s really hard to get it all written down. She is changing and growing by the millisecond!

She tries to repeat words a lot. If you say something, she’ll “say” it back. It’ll be the same amount of syllables and have some similar sounds in it. When you say something in a really high voice, she’ll try to say it in a really high voice. It’s very cute! She was watching her Magiq dvd, and there is a Peek a Boo part. When they’d say Peek a Boo, she’d yell it back in a high voice. It sounds like this: pee a oo (said like Peek a Boo without a clear B) so that is why I put “says” in parenthesis.

I don’t remember why Aria did it, but she lifted both arms in the air. I think she was copying someone. Anyway, when she did it, my mom said Hallelujah and lifted both arms in the air. Aria thought this was hilarious. So, my mom did it again, and each time Aria would lift her arms in the air. Now, if you say Hallelujah, she lifts her arms into the air (1 if not both) and “says” Hallelujah. She caught onto that one fast. I didn’t think she’d remember it.

When she is in her carseat, she entertains herself in the mirror that she has in front of her. She’ll lift up her arms into the air and squeal and laugh. She laughs and chuckles for much of the trip. It cracks me up!

She crawls ALL over the house and gets into trouble. She can stand for as long as she wants to. She hasn’t taken anymore steps after the one day where she took 5 steps. She has to wait until we get a big carpet to start walking!!

She’s done this for awhile, but it’s funny when she does it. She shakes her head like she’s saying NO. I think I mentioned below how David (our friend in AZ) took her around the Disney store asking “do you like this toy?” and she’d shake her head NO to every toy. But she’d only shake her head after the question was asked. I like to sit with her and ask all sorts of questions… like this: is there anyone prettier than mom? Shakes her head no… is there anyone smarter than mom? Shakes her head no… is there a better mommy out there than mom? Shakes her head no… it really builds my self esteem. Ha ha ha!

She waves goodbye and hello. She’s done this intermittently for a long time, but she does it more consistently and more clearly now. She just started to wave by moving her hand from the wrist. When the part is on her video where they are waving, she sometimes wave like normal, and sometimes does a motion that looks just like sign language for “milk”.

Her hair gets curlier by the day. I cannot wait till she has a full head of curls! It’s so far only curly on the sides and is starting to grow in curly in the back, too. The top is yet to be determine ;-) not enough up there. Poor baby!

Sleep… she is sleeping SO much better. She sleeps all night now, and gets up (usually) after 8 am. She takes really good, long naps during the day, which makes working from home very easy. Her naps during the day are usually over 2 hours each.

Thanks for reading everyone! Aria sends everyone a big slobbery smooch!

Another fun day!

Aria had a good day today! We played on the swingset. She loves to swing. She laughs out loud almost the whole time. I need to get that on video! We ran around the backyard with Zig, too. She loves Zig! It was a beautiful day!! Perfect for a jog... which I didn't take, but wanted (meant) to ;-)

At lunch time, before we met Michel Ann (who's baby will be here SOON!) , we went to Kid to Kid to pick up some tights. While we were there, Aria got her all time favorite compliment. "Wow! She has such a great shaped head" To which I responded "it's a good thing, bc she has no hair".... I should count how many times a week she gets that compliment. Funny!

Here is a little video of Aria eating cheerios and using her sippy cup. Nothing funny or out of the ordinary ;-) just a little snapshot of a part of her day.

First Kisses

02/28/08

Aria was in her highchair today, and started doing real kisses! Before she’d make a kiss sound by smacking her lips together and then opening her mouth wide. Today, she puckered her lips and kissed!! She did it for the first time when she was eating peas today. When she eats she kind of puckers her lips a bit, and when she opened her mouth, it made a kissing sound. The look on her face when she did it was priceless. Her eyes got wide and I think I saw a light bulb appear over her head. She kept doing it over and over. I would do a kissing sound, and she’d do it right back! I tried to get her to kiss me on the cheek, but she just tried to bite my nose, or suck on my chin, as usual… we’re getting there ;-)

We went on a run today! It was LONG overdue. We had such a great time! It was beautiful outside! We had our new, blue, jogging stroller (we love love love this stroller. Check it out by clicking here) so Aria can actually face forward (her other stroller holds her carseat and she faces me. Boring, right? Ha ha!). She loves to be outside and look all around. She laughed out loud as I ran. She loves the wind on her face and going fast. She was squealing and laughing. After I knew she was OK and having fun, I started to listen to my new ipod (thanks Jennifer!!). I listened to Beethoven’s “Emporer” piano concerto (thanks Beethoven!!). Beautiful day, beautiful music, going on a run with a laughing baby. Really, can you ask for anything more?

We stopped at the park and I put Aria in the baby swing. OH my gosh she had soooo much fun. She was belly laughing and squealing the whole time. If ever I am lying on a couch in a therapy session, and they tell me to go to my happy place, I know what I will think of ;-) ha ha!

After the run and the park we went home and Aria should’ve gone down for a nap but didn’t. Before we knew it, it was 6:30 and time to teach violin lessons…I knew a melt down was pending! She actually sat through the first lesson, which was with a beginner (who is really doing great!). I think the activities we do are fun for Aria, too. She’s never sat in for a whole lesson before. At one point she ended up laying on the ground directly underneath my student, Kathleen’s, violin. She just looked up at Kathleen as she played and smiled. VERY cute. Kathleen got a kick out of it, too. For the 2nd lesson, Grampa had Aria. This is when the melt down occurred. POOOOR Grampa!! I felt awful bc she was crying sooo hard, and the only reason was bc she was so tired.

Aria crashed for what I thought would be the night. I put her in her carseat without waking her, and headed to Starbucks to meet our friend, Molly. As soon as we got to Starbucks, Aria woke up. She can’t resist Molly. She always has lots of smiles for Molly. We tried to get her to say HI Molly…. But she’d only say Hi. Aria did end up blowing her kisses, though. She also screamed a lot (happy screams - not crying screams!)

The guy at Starbucks kept referring to Aria as “him”. We told him “her” name was Aria. He apologized, and said he only thought that because her hair was so short. I thought that was hilarious! Her hair is short? Her hair is nonexistent. Don’t think by my saying this that I was upset that he was calling her a boy. Lots of people do unless she is wearing all pink ;-) It’s OK. Once she gets hair I can put bows in it. ;-)

We came home and I tried to get her to sleep, but she wanted to play. We practiced some crawling and played with books and her piano toy, and she finally went to sleep at 11:00. She is overly tired tonight, and I am hoping this won’t be a long, sleepless night bc of that. We shall see!

Aria Laughing

I've been uploading videos to youtube today. Can you tell ;-) Here is a video from 01/08/08 at Grampa Danny's birthday party. Aria LOVED the party favors. She loves Gramma, too ;-)