Week 54

We are 2 weeks into a year and so far so good. Aria has completely amazed me in the last 2 weeks with her walking and now running. She doesn't crawl at all now, only walks! 

The cutest new thing she learned to do last week is blow kisses! She does it when prompted and even on her own! She puts her hand to her mouth and makes a kinds of spitty blowing sound. She just loves kisses. She gives mommy linger long kisses on the lips, sometimes with mouth open, hehe. 

Aria loves to walk up and down steps. In our little room the first thing she wants to do when on the floor is go into the little bathroom, which required stepping up. Then she just sits there on the floor and looks out. She is a funny girl. When she's outside she always makes a bee-line for the steps down to the pool. It's really just the action of stepping up and down that she likes, whether it's the fireplace mantel step or standing on top of a toy. I'm just waiting for this new found entertainment to end in tears and injury…hopefully it won't, but most likely.

Aris has started waking up earlier and going to bed earlier. She was always a late sleeper, like 10 or 11 (even 12 sometimes). Now she likes to sleep at 9 and get up at 8. This is a pretty good schedule for us, I just don't want her to stat waking up even earlier. Yesterday she was horrid and was wide awake at 5am, initially happy, then very sad that I wouldn't get up with her. I'm sorry I draw the line at 5, that's the middle of the night, we will not play or receive kisses at that time (she was trying to plant them on me while I slept)!

Aria no longer fits in her 12 month clothes. It's time to do a clean sweep and get rid of anything smaller than a year. She is 100% in 18 month clothes, my tall girl.

Two days ago I took Aria to Rancho San Antonio for the first time since September! I can't believe I went so many times, when she was a little baby in the front pack! I used the stroller that Sonia and Holy gave to me, 13 years old, but it worked great and I didn't mind getting it dirty. Carrey (my friend form BC) came with me. I felt so incredibly ghetto as I loaded the stroller into the back seat, stabbing her in the head on the passenger side with with rusty rabies metal, lol (I know tetanus is more likely, but rabies sounds scarier). I've been wanting to get a City Mini three wheeler for running/hiking, but alas, I is poor, so rabies stroller it is. Rancho is beautiful, I went again with Gabby yesterday and little stink enjoyed herself immensely, kicking her legs and generally making happy noises.

Aria loves to be read to. She now brings books over to me, or whoever she deems most capable of some quality reading time, and gestures to be picked up. She sits on my lap like a little angel and helps turn the pages. She even likes it when Billy reads her his Talk Like a Wookie book, lol.

Speaking of Uncles, Aria loves it when Billy gets home from work. She literally screams with delight and a huge smile when she sees him. It's so crazy how she loves everyone in my family. It really it like she has 7 parents who play with her and adore her everyday. What is she going to do when we leave?!

Kevin and I are looking into renting again. We are no way in he** going to have enough money to buy something nice when my parents' house goes away in a few months. Time will tell you where we'll be, time and time alone. We'll just stick together while we wait.

Until next time, xo Rosie

12 Month Check-Up

This morning we had Aria's one year appointment. She was a brave little baby for her 3 shots. The doctor said that she is healthy and thriving. The is 30.5" long and 22.5 lbs. 90 percentile for height and 70 percentile for weight. My little lady is long and lean (she will appreciate this someday).

Dr Auh interacted with Aria and said she is a very good natured baby, called her my very own baby doll. She said that she can tell that Aria is also very smart. She said she can understand most everything we are saying. She said we are going to have to keep an eye on her because it's the smart ones that get into stuff. Example: she'll see us do something and she will know how to do it, like turning on the stove. 

Apparently she caught up on her milestone and is now advances, being dubbed an early walker. I think this is so funny, because she refused to roll over consistently until she was 6 months and didn't crawl until 10 months. I guess she was building up all her brain knowledge during that time and now she is implementing it.

Shots always make me nervous, Aria is sleeping in her car seat right now and I keep checking on her to make sure she is alive. I have shots! She got MMR, Pneumococcal Conjugate, and Hep A. I turned down the flu and chicken pox vaccines for now b/c I didn't want to bombard her little body. I told the doctor what I was okay with and she said sure and didn't question me. I really like Dr Auh.

I talked to the doctor about breastfeeding and she said it was perfectly okay to keep her feeding. I told her I want to cut back and she said to cut out a day feeding but keep feeding at night and before bed if she wants it because that's what she needs for brain development. Guess this is why my babe is so smart, she still BFs 2 times a night. She also said when I do decide to full on wean her that I should go away for the weekend. This will help the milk dry up and I won't be there for Aria to rag on when she wants it. She said it won't be as satisfying when I come back b/c there will be less milk to have. She suggested starting her on whole milk 16-20 ounces a day. She may like the taste better than 2% and that she needs the fats that whole milk has in it. 

All in all she is healthy and happy, smart and advanced. The doctor said this is in part to the fact that I stay home with her. She said she probably wouldn't be as healthy if she was in daycare and not BFing. This was nice to get some positive feedback about my choice to stay with her. I always feel like I am having to defend the decision, so it was a nice change.

In other news, Aria LOVES her Yaya. She now screams with joy when she sees her and ol mom is chopped liver. I think this is b/c Yaya has been reading books to her. She's reached the age where she totally adores books and being shown pictures. It's really awesome! We have so many great books too, I'm so glad she likes them.

Another new thing Aria has started is acting startled. She never used to be phased by anything before but now when the dogs bark, she jumps and turns. This just happened and I was down on the floor with her and she threw her arms around me. It was soooo cute. She also loves to be chased and they when you catch her she has that happy frantic almost-fun-to-be-afraid laughter going on. She's my funny girl :)

Until next time, xo Rosie