a year and a half

 

The vocabulary list continues to grow, sometimes a few words a day.  Just today the parroting has kicked in and Aria learned to say toes (toesh), push, nose, arm (aum), touch, on, comb, down and elbow (bo-bo).  Her other words include: coat, go, car, shoes (ho-shes), color (ka-her), panda (pa-na), banana (which started as bya-bya but has changed to ba-na), Grandma (ma-na), Grandpa (pa-pa), cheese (for the food and for the camera), pretty (pishy), potty, Cheerios (chose), apple/applesauce (appy), squirrel (curl), pine cone (cone), please (peas, but only sometimes, still signs by rubbing her tummy), bunny, heart (har), eye, no, mine, and Aria (ai-ya).  I showed her the sign for "thank you" (which looks similar to blowing a kiss) so she kisses her hand *mwah*

 

She's such a busy girl that I didn't have time to grab the vacuum before she started "playing with her toys" (pulling everything off the shelves and dumping out all her stuffed animals).  And this morning she discovered that she can reach the light switches - she's still figuring out when to push up, and when to pull down, but I'm sure that won't take long to master.

Look!  I made those pants! 

 

She loves to sing, and will do so loudly in church, whenever she holds the hymnal.  She was singing in the car the other day with both index fingers in her nostrils. 

 

After the little baby stage of always being held and snuggled, Aria wasn't a big snuggler.  But that has changed!  She's a lot more willing to sit on my lap, and snuggle up when she's sleepy.  She loves bedtime stories, especially when Daddy reads her Robert Munsch books (which we will need to get more of soon).  Her stuffed animal of choice for bedtime is a little lamb.  She recently stole a second lamb from a friend (which we later got permission to keep), and we just found a third lamb at the dollarstore.  She's so excited to get into her crib just so she can snuggle with her "baa".

 

Basically, Aria is our little ball of sunshine that brightens our day.  She makes us laugh with her antics, and amazes us as she learns new things each day.  Whenever we go shopping together we let her run around the store (one of us actually doing the shopping while the other one follows her).  It is so much fun to watch everyone around us light up as they watch her giggle and play.  She is such a blessing.

That is a banana in her hair, and a (clean) garbage can on her head.