Merry Christmas! 2011 Photo-bomb...

My cousin, Katie, and I took the two kiddos to The Picture People to have their Christmas pictures done. My mom gave each of us a Groupon to use here and it made for a really good deal for us to go together! We'll be returning for Valentine's Day pictures, so stay tuned! This was a really fun shoot and the kids did great with 3 clothing changes in 15 minutes! We sure do love these little guys and their unique characters! The kids love each other, too. I sure hope they'll be as good of friends when they're older as they are now!

Aria Models for SO CAL BABY!

I took Aria to a cute little kids boutique in downtown Fullerton last week to participate in a model search for their store. SO CAL BABY Boutique is a trendy, somewhat edgy, baby and kid's clothing store that my cousin and I are looking to get into with our Kid Kuzzins merchandise. They hosted their grand opening in early December, which included a modeling contest, so Aria, Grammy and I headed over. Here are a couple shots of Aria wearing her lollipop leggings, one of the items we are looking to sell through this shop.

Even though my little cutie didn't win the contest, I think she did a great job! She was patient and good tempered while we waited our turn for pictures. She also found a boy crush that she followed around the store! Beware! This little girl likes older men! He must have been at least 6!

Visiting with My Grandma

We went to visit my almost 90 year old Gramma for a Christmas lunch at her Alzheimer's care home in early December. We had a good time visiting with her, even though she cannot really even form many words anymore. She is happy and laughs a lot, which makes me happy I guess, but I sure do miss my Gramma. It's really hard to watch someone you love and are so close to slowly disappear before your eyes. I helped her eat her lunch, since feeding herself is becoming harder, and Gabe and Aria walked around and checked out the Christmas decorations.

I don't know how we managed to mess this picture up. It was SUPPOSED to be "4 Generations", but somehow I ended up taking the picture. Ha, ha, there is no end to what chaos and mommy brain will do! Oh well, we will get another one next time we visit.

My all time favorite picture this Christmas. I just love how Aria and my Gramma are looking at each other and how happy my Gramma looks! It's just such a precious, genuine moment and one that I will always treasure.

So, we are not much of a fan of Santa this year. Nor the fact that he apparently got a dog over the summer. This was our best shot: Aria frantically trying to get as far away from this hairy beast and his accomplice as possible!

This was our BEST attempt at a family Christmas picture this year...and we tried many times to get a good one. Pictures with toddlers are hit or miss, and although this isn't too bad, I was hoping for a happy, smiley Aria. Instead, she was focused on making sure Santa and his little dog didn't sneak up on her during the photo shoot. You gotta watch out for that man in red, you know!

Attempting to Catch Up...A Daunting Task!

Over the next few weeks, I will be attempting to update our family blog. I am a total slacker and am so far behind that its quite overwhelming, actually. So, let's see, as of yesterday, little Miss Aria is walking! Ok, so she's taking unassisted, on her own, holding onto nothin', cute little steps, and oh boy is she proud of herself! She's still quite hesitant to really start cruising, but oh those steps are the sweetest thing!

Today was her cousin Tyler's 1st birthday party. It was a pirate pool party where everyone dressed up pirate-y for the occasion. I made Aria and Ty these cute little mustache pacis, which, I think, were awesome! Aria made quite the darling pirate. She swam and swam until I made her get out because the water was really cold and I was worried about her getting hypothermia or something (overprotective mother, probably). Then she flirted and played with all the party guests. Everyone kept saying what a happy baby she is and how she is just so sweet and active and interested in everything. It made me think of what her name means: "Sweet Melody", and she really is just that. Even though she's not always super happy in the day to day, she really is almost always super happy and sweet when we are out with others and I am so thankful for that. She really is able to brighten others' day and bring them joy with her friendliness and her smiles!

I cannot, and I repeat, CANNOT believe that my sweet little baby girl will be 1 year old in just 4 days! Ahhhh, time is going so much faster than I expected it to, and I just wish it would all slow down a bit. My cousin's sister-in-law had her 1 week old baby girl at the pirate party and seeing her made me so nostalgic for those first few weeks of newborn life! I am truly loving watching Aria grow and develop into the wonderful little lady that God made her to be, but at the same time, longing for her to stay a baby. Hmmm, maybe its time for another one? Ha, ha, no...not yet! I can barely handle one right now, so I'm definitely not ready for number two!

Next week we are going to start working on potty training. I know, it seems early, but I've done a lot of research recently and everything I've read points to early potty training being easier and quicker and, obviously, cheaper (in that you are no longer buying diapers!). Did you know that the average age for children being potty trained in the 1960s was 18 months old? Did you know the average age today is 40 months? So, we're attempting to go "old school" and get back to the 60s in our house. I'll let you know how it goes.

School's Out!

Ahhhhhhh, I need a margarita! I am done for the semester, done for the year, and done for the foreseeable future...and it feels great! I will miss my kiddos, especially my advisory class who was with me for the past three years, but I know that God has given me this wonderful opportunity to stay home with Aria right now. Being her mom is my most important job and I am so looking forward to actually getting to spend time with her now. I would be lying if I said the past 6 months were easy, because they were anything but! I cannot tell you how hard it was for me to spend my days away from her these past 6 months. I am eternally thankful that I won't have to do it again come September.

On a less serious note, Aria popped her first two teeth this week! They are the bottom front teeth. These were not bad, as I am unable to recall any teething "symptoms" recently. Let's hope the rest will be the same, and let the teething fun begin!

9 Months Old and Off and Running...Almost

Aria has been crawling for about 3 weeks now, and she is cruising! She is starting to get adventurous, which means she is into everything. She has a special affinity for shoes, cords, remotes, and DVDs. However, I think we will lose our crawler and have a walker soon! She is pulling up on and walking around tables, chairs, mom, dad, and whoever else will stand still long enough.

Her new loves, food-wise, are peaches and kiwi. She is a huge fan and eats little chunks of them almost every day. We have started trying some new, chunkier, stage 3 foods to try and transition her into eating some more table food. This is a bit difficult, though, because she hasn't got any teeth (no sign of them coming anytime soon, either). So, for now we are sticking with purees, chunky purees, and soft fruits. She is so over puffs, too - not interested in the least.

Aria has started babbling a lot this past month! She says Ah-da-da and Ah-ba-ba all the time, but not yet in reference to anyone or anything. She is really getting her intonations and expressions down and it's really cute! She has also learned her name well, and also what "NO" means, ha, ha, ha. She is being a really good girl about stopping what she is doing when Mommy or Daddy says "no" to something. Unless, of course, its a shoe or a cord - apparently those items are just too irresistible to put down!

This summer, Aria will be taking a baby dance class, a sign language class, and hopefully swimming lessons through Long Beach Parks & Rec. We are thankful these opportunities exist for her. It should be a fun summer! Aria will also be going on her first plane ride next month to Kansas to visit Gabe's family for the first time. We are excited about this trip! Mommy is also a little worried about how she'll do on the plane ride, but she'll probably do just fine.

Aria is such a precious little bundle of joy and we are falling more and more in love with our happy, giggly, little girl!

Correction To The Previous Post

As of Sunday, May 29th, Aria is, indeed, CRAWLING!!! ...yikes...

April and May have absolutely flown by! I have felt the need to catch up on my blogging for some time now, and the weight of it just gets heavier by the day. Time to do something about that, right? So, I think this post will be followed by a few "photo bombs", but I want to make sure I don't miss anything.

Aria is growing and changing so fast, now, and it's getting kind of hard to watch. As much as I love seeing her little personality develop and change day by day, I can't help but wish she'd slow down a bit. I miss my tiny little handful! I looked back over some pictures of her first week with us and, I must admit, I got a little teary-eyed. Maybe I want another one? Well, actually, I know I do - just not quite yet! We are certainly enjoying our little girl!

Aria is now 8 months old and not quite crawling. She is rolling all over the place and scooting backwards, which annoys her greatly. She really wants to go forward, but just hasn't quite gotten the coordination down for that. Usually she ends up with her legs stuck under a chair or a table where she whines until someone comes to "rescue" her. It's really quite cute! She is also pulling up on the coffee table, jumperoo, mom, dad - whatever and whomever will hold still long enough for her to get to her feet. She loves to stand and loves to walk! I think she'd like to skip crawling and get to walking as soon as she can.

She is also starting to assert her independence and preference for things which, at times, is trying, and at other times, is cute. Mealtimes can be tricky when she'd rather be doing something else...like pulling her diaper off before you can get her pants on, which is cute right now but I'm sure will get old pretty quickly!

She is NOT a fan of diaper changes right now, nor does she like having her hands and face wiped off after eating, but other than that, she is a pretty happy and agreeable girl.

She LOVES bathtime, splashing, playing with the washcloth and eating her rubber ducky. She likes to eat and is not too picky, though she's still not a fan of peas. She likes her puffs and Mum Mums. She loves to go for walks and go to the park and swing. She LOVES it when the breeze blows on her face! She is a very social girl and loves to watch people. She especially loves it when new people are silly with her. She still loves to jump, dance, and listen to music. She has recently decided that being in her walker is not too bad either, since it means she can follow mom and dad around the house.

Her newest and sweetest little trick is giving kisses. I call them suckerfish kisses because they are open-mouthed, super wet, zerbert-style kisses. Yes, I need to towel off when she's done, but they really are the sweetest thing! Her favorite time to give these are when I'm trying put her to bed (stalling already!). She'll latch onto my cheek or nose, which makes me laugh, which makes her laugh, which makes bedtime a good bit later, but I really don't mind. These sweet kisses won't last forever, so I'll treasure them while I can!

I realize that, since Aria's arrival, I pretty much just blog about her. I am going to try to balance my writing a bit better for those of you who might also be interested in what Gabe and I are up to. :o)

I am finishing up the school year (5 more weeks to go!) and trying to start up my Discovery Toys business. I joined this company about a month ago in an effort to stay home with Aria and not have to work full-time in the future. It's been a slow start since I am still teaching, but I'm hoping it will grow once I'm off for the summer. Gabe continues to work on his day trading software development and is just about ready to launch the program into the public sector, which is exciting and intimidating all at the same time. We are praying that God will bless his hard work and long hours by allowing this venture to provide an income for our family. You can check out his website at www.ontheleveltrading.com . Depending on how well the software sells, we are considering a move to the East Coast in the near future. Tennessee and the Carolinas are at the top of our list, though we are looking at some other places as well.

We recently started attending a new church because the small church we had been attending for the past 3 years didn't have a nursery facility. The thought of Aria being in the same room with 15 other kids aged 2 to 12 was just a little scary for me. But having her in the service with us was challenging because she wanted to play and interact. We found that too often we were leaving the service saying, "What was the message about?" So, we are now attending Cottonwood Church. It is a BIG church of about 5000 people with a great children's facility and a nursery that Aria seems to enjoy. We actually feel like we are getting fed and are able to fully engage in worship now - yay! It is a big change going from a church community of 200 to a church of 5000, but for this stage of life, it is what we need.

Overall, we are enjoying being parents to our sweet little girl and are continuing to learn, daily, what it means to be a godly parent, husband and wife. Our days are not without challenges, but we are growing in grace, by God's grace!

EASTER 2011 - 7 Months Old

We spent this Easter with family at my Aunt Debbie's house. Of course, we stuffed ourselves full of food and sat around and talked, like always. This year we started a new, ultra-goofy, family picture tradition, which included many pairs of bunny glasses. Man, I love my crazy family!

My little Easter bunny

Individual family shots after the whole group shot...wow.

Tired mommy eyes and a sweet little girl.

...and the NICE family shot!

Ok, this wasn't on Easter, but it was sometime around it, and I don't care who you are, this is just cute.

April Fools!

It's About Time!

So, the time finally came to cut my hair. I have been fighting over it with Aria for the past two months and finally got tired enough of untangling it from her death-grip like little fists. That, and the fact that I lose half of my hair every time I take a shower told me it was time for a good chop. The best part is that I got the haircut for free! I "modeled" for a stylist who was learning to do the new Jennifer Aniston cut and needed to practice on someone. So I guinea-pigged for her. I'm pretty happy with the results, and so is my poor, sore head!

6 Months Old

These are pictures of Aria's 6 month old pictures that we had taken at The Picture People. Unfortunately, the quality is lacking here ( I took pictures of pictures), but I wanted to share them because they're just so cute! She did a great job at her first professional photo shoot!

A Day At The Park

We took Aria to the park by our house this past weekend. I think we all needed some fresh air, and the sun was shining so it was nice to get out of the sick-house for a bit. We walk past this park all the time, but we've never stopped until today. Aria didn't care much for this bouncy bull-thing that mommy really didn't fit on. Mostly she just liked watching all the kids run around!

We went on the slide probably 5 times hoping for a laugh, a smile, a reaction of any kind really. Nothin', we got nothin'. But at least the picture's cute! We'll have to try the slide again another time.

The swing was the only thing she seemed to even mildly have an opinion about. She liked it okay. I wouldn't say she loved it; just that she liked it. And really, she just liked going forward when the breeze would blow in her face. We have a mellow girl, what can I say?

5 Month Milestones

So, we'll start with the bad news: I currently have pneumonia.
Next, the good news: Aria and Gabe are both still healthy!
Bad news: I'm missing a good chunk of time at work.
Good news: I get to spend some much needed time with my two loveys.
Good news: I actually have a moment to blog!

So, the good news outweighs the bad, as far as I can figure. :o)

We have had lots of milestones this past month!

First of all, Aria is now eating a variety of homemade baby foods. It's nice to know that what's going in her tummy and on her face is pure and natural, and I am secretly in love with being a "crunchy mama" in that way. Now, if I could just remember to feed her before bedtime...

So far, Aria loves: butternut squash, green beans, pears, carrots, oatmeal
So far, Aria hates: green peas (just like her mommy!) and rice
The jury is still out on: avocado and sweet potatoes

Aria has also started riding all over the house on her little trike bike...just kidding. She got this little pink ride-on toy from G&G for Christmas. We just put it together for her. And, what I meant to say is that Aria has also started chewing on her little trike bike all over the house. That's really all she's interested in right now. According to Aria, if it doesn't fit in her mouth, it doesn't belong in the house!

Yup, it's official. She's found them.

This picture is representative of when this little girl is happiest. She likes to stand and she likes to "walk around". Although she CAN roll over, both ways, she generally prefers to scream at you until you pick her up and put her on her feet or hand her the toy she wants. Such a lazy-bones! I think mommy and daddy have spoiled her and now she thinks she's the queen. ;o)

This is my current favorite picture. I truly cannot get enough of that wonderfully happy, open-mouthed, gummy smile! I just love this little girl!

Another milestone this month is sitting by herself. She can't pull herself up to a sitting position yet, but if you sit her down, she can stay up unsupported for about 5 minutes. Now that she knows she has this skill, she is no longer a fan of her BebePod seat (which stinks for us because we don't have to be so attentive when she's in the seat). Since we have all wood floors, I am super paranoid to leave her sitting alone for fear that she'll smack her little head. So, we just sit around on the floor together while Aria plays.

This is another one of my current favorites! Since I've been sick, I've been sleeping on the couch in an attempt to keep these two well and also because my incessant coughing wakes everyone up! Usually Aria sleeps beside our bed in her pack n' play, but recently she's been in bed with daddy so he can reach her paci more easily when it falls out and she starts flailing around "looking" for it. Every morning when I go into the bedroom, the two of them are cuddling like this and it is just so sweet!

Look Guys, I'm 5 Months Old!

Aria loves to hang out in her jumperoo - even though she can't reach the floor yet, she loves to chew on the seat and toys and watch all the flashing lights.

We took a little road trip up to Ventura to visit Natalie, Robeson and Benjamin since we hadn't seen them since a week after Benjamin was born. It was a beautiful sunny day so we took a walk on the beach before meeting up with them for lunch. Ventura sure does have some nice beaches!

Here's the best picture we could get of Aria and Benjamin together. Benjamin was very interested in Aria and wanted to touch her and chew on her bib...Aria was not amused, to say the least, and got a little freaked out. Poor Benjamin just wanted to taste his new friend! He is such a cutie and so active! I love that he is rolling all over the place and so alert and interested in everything. I think Aria is just more mellow. She's taking her sweet time with rolling over and becoming mobile, but we're ok with that!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Here's a pic for y'all with a "secret message" for Benjamin!

Dear Aria,

You are 4 months old today! Daddy and I can hardly believe how fast these 4 months have flown by.
You have more than doubled your weight and have grown close to 5 inches in length since you were born - amazing! You rolled over for the first time last weekend, just one week shy of your 4 month birthday. You are grabbing at and holding your toys and putting anything and everything in your mouth. I'm pretty sure you are beginning to teethe, even though I can't see any pearly whites yet, because you are chewing on everything! We love you more than ever and you brighten our every day with belly laughs and sweet smiles.
Daddy loves to dance with you and tickle you and eat "your neck" - all of which you find hilarious. No one can make you laugh like Daddy can!
I love to sit and talk with you. You are quite the conversationalist already! You will coo and ahh in long ramblings with such a range of faces that I'm sure you're telling quite the story. I can't wait until I can actually understand it all. :o)
You are such a sweet girl and we simply cannot get enough of you!

Some of your current favorites are:
...getting your diaper changed (or just being naked, really)
...kicking and splashing in your bath (I've taken to wearing an apron when I bathe you because you literally soak me every time)
...going for walks outside in the stroller (but only if you're facing forward)
...TV!!! This is a tough one - you are such a TV junkie! We really can't have it on much while you're awake or you will figure out a way to watch it. In fact, this is the reason you first rolled over - so you could see the TV - you are SO your Daddy's child!

Some of your current dislikes are:
...being rocked and/or cuddled (unless you are REALLY tired and almost asleep). You prefer to be put in your bed with your paci and left in peace to drift off on your own.
...being burped in the middle of a bottle, before you're finished eating
...rice cereal, ha ha, I have tried to give you rice cereal three times now, but so far, you are just not having it! I guess you'll let me know when you're ready for it, so for now we're just sticking to milk. You're pretty happy about that.
...losing your paci in the middle of the night. Actually, this is one of Mommy's dislikes too! :o)

Sweet girl, we are so, so blessed by you! God gave us such an amazing gift when He gave you to us.

Love,
Mommy