January was a rough month and February is not off to a great start. I don't think I've ever been sick as many times as I have been this winter. A lovely myriad of colds, flus and a truly butt-kicking episode of mastitis have come my way of late and this time the horrible cold got to Keith and Aria as well. Oh yes, we're a happy household. I guess that's what perpetual sleep deprivation will do to you. Grrr.
Will write more when we have something nice to say.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Knitting Book Sneak Peak
The following pictures were taken in August of last year for an upcoming book of baby knitting patterns. The book is being written by Marie Connolly, owner of Stitch DC and will be released November of this year.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth...
...my two front teeth, my two front teeth.
Yes, folks, Aria has a 2nd (bottom) tooth just popping through. And after a couple of rough days (lots of fussiness), she seems to be feeling much better.
The holidays were full of Aria developments, most notably that she's now crawling, pulling herself into a standing position and sitting herself up from a laying down position. What a difference a couple of weeks make! Our girl's also started dancing to music and mimicking us a lot more, singing back to us what we sing to her (La, la la, la la) and trying to repeat words. Most words come out as some variation of DaDa; for example, "Shadow" comes out "DaDuh", but the wheels are definitely turning.
Aria's first Christmas was filled with hustle and bustle. In order to have time to do our family Christmas, not cut into Aria's naptime and still get to my dad's Christmas lunch on time, we opened gifts as soon as she got up on Christmas morning. At 7am. I don't remember the last time I got up that early to open gifts; for many years (if not always) I've pushed the gift-opening as late as possible, wanting to sleep in. (There's a great gift - extra sleep.) But this year, sleepy-eyed and in desperate need of caffeine, we began a new tradition =).
I think the whole gift-opening thing was a bit overwhelming for Aria. She was most interested in the tissue paper and boxes which we kept taking away from her, much to her dismay, as she would chew them to the point of disintegration. Yum, paper... She received some very cool gifts, though, among them wooden rattles and a little wooden wagon she can pull around, a musical, tri-lingual octopus and a brightly colored, oh-so-soft elephant, a handmade Peruvian llama, a couple books, some awesome clothes and even a CD of beautifully soothing lullabies. Aria's now played with and chewed on all the toys (and a little on the books), giving them all the official Aria Seal of Approval.
Yes, folks, Aria has a 2nd (bottom) tooth just popping through. And after a couple of rough days (lots of fussiness), she seems to be feeling much better.
The holidays were full of Aria developments, most notably that she's now crawling, pulling herself into a standing position and sitting herself up from a laying down position. What a difference a couple of weeks make! Our girl's also started dancing to music and mimicking us a lot more, singing back to us what we sing to her (La, la la, la la) and trying to repeat words. Most words come out as some variation of DaDa; for example, "Shadow" comes out "DaDuh", but the wheels are definitely turning.
Aria's first Christmas was filled with hustle and bustle. In order to have time to do our family Christmas, not cut into Aria's naptime and still get to my dad's Christmas lunch on time, we opened gifts as soon as she got up on Christmas morning. At 7am. I don't remember the last time I got up that early to open gifts; for many years (if not always) I've pushed the gift-opening as late as possible, wanting to sleep in. (There's a great gift - extra sleep.) But this year, sleepy-eyed and in desperate need of caffeine, we began a new tradition =).
I think the whole gift-opening thing was a bit overwhelming for Aria. She was most interested in the tissue paper and boxes which we kept taking away from her, much to her dismay, as she would chew them to the point of disintegration. Yum, paper... She received some very cool gifts, though, among them wooden rattles and a little wooden wagon she can pull around, a musical, tri-lingual octopus and a brightly colored, oh-so-soft elephant, a handmade Peruvian llama, a couple books, some awesome clothes and even a CD of beautifully soothing lullabies. Aria's now played with and chewed on all the toys (and a little on the books), giving them all the official Aria Seal of Approval.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Words
Aria says "MaMa" now. (Yeah!) And while she uses both "MaMa" and "DaDa" throughout the day and in a variety of settings, she seems to also be assigning meaning to the words, often saying "DaDa" just as Keith walks into the room and "MaMa" when she wakes up in the middle of the night hungry and in need of a cuddle.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving weekend was a crazy one here at the Nelson household. Lots going on:
We had a great Thanksgiving dinner at another Nelson household (no relation). I met Sandy through prenatal yoga and the four of us (Sandy, Jason, Keith and I) often ended up in the same birthing courses at Sibley hospital (little Emily was born about 2 1/2 weeks before Aria). Now Sandy is one of the moms that I am fortunate enough to get to hang out with on a fairly regular basis. Anyway, the Nelsons were great hosts and fantastic cooks. And, much to my delight, they too are vegetarians so there was an abundance of delicious non-meat dishes (as well as turkey for carnivorous friends and family).
For Thanksgiving dinner Aria got her first taste of butternut squash (appropriately festive, we thought). She loved it.
Friday and Saturday we had visitors. My cousin, Brody, and his wife, Kourtney, came to visit. They are from Missouri and had never been here before so we had fun showing them around a bit. Kourtney is 7 months pregnant with their first baby - a boy!
We did manage to get in some "Black Friday" shopping. I love that the after-Thanksgiving sales are online too!
Sunday we spent the day with my dad and his girlfriend where we had another wonderful meal and walked around Old Town Alexandria (trying, in vain, to get Aria down for a nap).
And so, we start the week anew...
We had a great Thanksgiving dinner at another Nelson household (no relation). I met Sandy through prenatal yoga and the four of us (Sandy, Jason, Keith and I) often ended up in the same birthing courses at Sibley hospital (little Emily was born about 2 1/2 weeks before Aria). Now Sandy is one of the moms that I am fortunate enough to get to hang out with on a fairly regular basis. Anyway, the Nelsons were great hosts and fantastic cooks. And, much to my delight, they too are vegetarians so there was an abundance of delicious non-meat dishes (as well as turkey for carnivorous friends and family).
For Thanksgiving dinner Aria got her first taste of butternut squash (appropriately festive, we thought). She loved it.
Friday and Saturday we had visitors. My cousin, Brody, and his wife, Kourtney, came to visit. They are from Missouri and had never been here before so we had fun showing them around a bit. Kourtney is 7 months pregnant with their first baby - a boy!
We did manage to get in some "Black Friday" shopping. I love that the after-Thanksgiving sales are online too!
Sunday we spent the day with my dad and his girlfriend where we had another wonderful meal and walked around Old Town Alexandria (trying, in vain, to get Aria down for a nap).
And so, we start the week anew...
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Six Months Old
On November 12th Aria turned 6 months old. It feels like a huge milestone. She's grown and changed so much in these first months. To celebrate we met Dad for lunch during the day, then he and I had a nice dinner after the birthday girl went to bed.
On Friday we had her 6 month appointment. Our girl weighed in at 17 lbs and measured 28 inches. That's over the 97th percentile for length! At some point that should taper down, but for now Aria is heads above the rest - literally.
There were more shots this appointment too. Aria was a trooper and calmed down fairly quickly once they were done, but this time a flu shot was included and within hours she had her first fever, measuring 100.7 degrees. We stripped her down and dosed her with Tylenol and within 45 minutes to an hour the fever had gone down by one degree. She was a bit more fussy than usual (she was entitled), but went to sleep pretty easily. We checked on her throughout the night; as long as we kept giving her Tylenol the fever stayed in the manageable range. The next morning she still had a bit of a high temp, but after a walk outdoors and a nap or two (and more Tylenol) it finally broke that afternoon. The next couple days she was a bit out of sorts, but all in all bounced back beautifully.
With the fever gone, Sunday seemed like the perfect time to try solid foods for the first time. With Dad snapping pictures, I fed her her first spoonfuls of rice cereal. More got on her face and hair and bib than actually got into her, but she seemed interested and ate several spoonfuls.
Since then, she's really taken to these small meals. While still quite messy, she dives for the spoon and makes "mmmm" sounds with every bite. (This actually makes it messier, as she closes her mouth around the spoon to make the sounds.)
First Bite
What am I supposed to do with this stuff?
On Friday we had her 6 month appointment. Our girl weighed in at 17 lbs and measured 28 inches. That's over the 97th percentile for length! At some point that should taper down, but for now Aria is heads above the rest - literally.
There were more shots this appointment too. Aria was a trooper and calmed down fairly quickly once they were done, but this time a flu shot was included and within hours she had her first fever, measuring 100.7 degrees. We stripped her down and dosed her with Tylenol and within 45 minutes to an hour the fever had gone down by one degree. She was a bit more fussy than usual (she was entitled), but went to sleep pretty easily. We checked on her throughout the night; as long as we kept giving her Tylenol the fever stayed in the manageable range. The next morning she still had a bit of a high temp, but after a walk outdoors and a nap or two (and more Tylenol) it finally broke that afternoon. The next couple days she was a bit out of sorts, but all in all bounced back beautifully.
With the fever gone, Sunday seemed like the perfect time to try solid foods for the first time. With Dad snapping pictures, I fed her her first spoonfuls of rice cereal. More got on her face and hair and bib than actually got into her, but she seemed interested and ate several spoonfuls.
Since then, she's really taken to these small meals. While still quite messy, she dives for the spoon and makes "mmmm" sounds with every bite. (This actually makes it messier, as she closes her mouth around the spoon to make the sounds.)
First Bite
What am I supposed to do with this stuff?Saturday, November 10, 2007
Firsts
After a short hiatus we have this week the return of the raspberry. Just to show how little babies forget, even at this young age, Aria has made an impressive display of blowing raspberries the past couple of days. And with them have come a new set of exciting skills...
...Drum roll, please...
Aria said her First Word!
Aria has been working up to her first word for a while now, babbling so much, trying out different sounds and consonants, and saying "yayayayayaya" and "dadadadadadada" over and over. Today "dadadadada" became very clearly, very distinctly "DaDa". While we're not sure she completely understands what she's saying, we feel she does to at least some degree, as I repeat the word over and over to her in the morning when Keith is on his way to work ("Tell DaDa bye; give DaDa a kiss") and in the evening when he gets home ("DaDa is home! Look - it's DaDa!").
Accompanying this major milestone was another huge development - Learning to Clap! We often clap for her when she's doing something new (sitting up by herself, rolling over, etc, etc) to show her what a good job she's doing and to encourage her when whatever she's doing is difficult (scooting forward, reaching for something). Today Dad was clapping for her again and she started mimicking him, at first bring her hands almost together, but missing them, one going over the other. After a few tries, however, she got the hands together and clapped a few times.
Witnessing all this were our good friends from Indiana - Jen, Lucas & 2 1/2 year-old Parker. Aria loves Parker and Parker loves Aria. Parker dances silly dances for Aria and Aria giggles her infectious, beautiful laugh, making all of us laugh as well. It's really too cute.
So, it's been a big day in the Nelson household. I'm off to feed the baby...and maybe demonstrate a few "mamamamamas" before bed.
...Drum roll, please...
Aria said her First Word!
Aria has been working up to her first word for a while now, babbling so much, trying out different sounds and consonants, and saying "yayayayayaya" and "dadadadadadada" over and over. Today "dadadadada" became very clearly, very distinctly "DaDa". While we're not sure she completely understands what she's saying, we feel she does to at least some degree, as I repeat the word over and over to her in the morning when Keith is on his way to work ("Tell DaDa bye; give DaDa a kiss") and in the evening when he gets home ("DaDa is home! Look - it's DaDa!").
Accompanying this major milestone was another huge development - Learning to Clap! We often clap for her when she's doing something new (sitting up by herself, rolling over, etc, etc) to show her what a good job she's doing and to encourage her when whatever she's doing is difficult (scooting forward, reaching for something). Today Dad was clapping for her again and she started mimicking him, at first bring her hands almost together, but missing them, one going over the other. After a few tries, however, she got the hands together and clapped a few times.
Witnessing all this were our good friends from Indiana - Jen, Lucas & 2 1/2 year-old Parker. Aria loves Parker and Parker loves Aria. Parker dances silly dances for Aria and Aria giggles her infectious, beautiful laugh, making all of us laugh as well. It's really too cute.
So, it's been a big day in the Nelson household. I'm off to feed the baby...and maybe demonstrate a few "mamamamamas" before bed.
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