Pictures!

Aria's first birthday was spent (in part)
feeding Great-Grandma Nelson yummy birthday cake.

The Bubble Room at the Columbus, IN Children's Museum

Giant toilets are a bit daunting whether you're three or 30!

Auntie Kiki and the Ballerina
whirl around Grandma Janie's dance floor.

Step off...I need some space.

Tentative first steps

She's a-swinging!

Roooaaaaarrr!

Aria Discovers O's

After two more bouts of illness that included a 104 degree fever and a second trip to the ER for our little one, the winter fog is finally lifting. The weather is warming up and the Nelson fam is all about town soaking up the sun. Bring on spring!

This week our girl turned 10 months old. I can't believe it; she's almost one. Wasn't it just yesterday that we were bringing her home from the hospital? She's grown and changed so much, so fast. It seems that this is a magic age for Aria, as she's pulled one new trick after another out of her hat this week.

For example: Sing a note. Any note. It doesn't have to sound good, just make a noise. Ahhhh... Now tap your hand to your lips repeatedly. Note the vibration-type sound. This is Aria's new favorite sound. Last week it was NaNaNa - "Na Na Na Na, Na Na Na Na, Hey Hey Hey, Goodbye." We've sung that line a lot recently (yes, just the one line; surprisingly - or not so surprisingly to those that know me - I don't know the rest of the song). This week, though, it's AhAhAhing that thrills our girl. It's her goto sound when playing, when upset, when seeking attention. She does it to me, to strangers, whoever. So cute. Others think she's blowing kisses, but I know better. Still, after a couple of days of seeing others blow kisses back, Aria's learned that too. I think we have a genius on our hands.

What else? Well, Miss Aria was no where near interested in finger foods a week ago, but what a difference a week (and a healthy dose of competitiveness) makes! Last Friday we had lunch with another set of Nelson girls, Sandy (mom) and Emily (baby). No relation, but Emily is just a couple weeks older than Aria and the two girls are by now pretty familiar with each other. The two also tend to hit their developmental milestones right around the same time. This time, however, Emily was way ahead, having gotten the whole finger foods thing down some time ago. At lunch we sat the babies across from each other, giving Aria a perfect view of Emily's eating prowess - Cherrios, banana puffs, lentil stew...whatever it was Emily ate like a pro. And once Aria saw her friend do it, she just couldn't resist. She gobbled up her only-moments-before rejected lunch of avocado and banana, keeping one eye on Emily all the while. Then she played with some banana puffs, going so far as to lick one of them. By the next day, she was ready for more, picking up and eating one, then two, then three Os. Now, she just can't get enough of the Os and eagerly reaches for more before the first one is gummed up and swallowed. Which leads us to our next new skill...Pointing!

Aria pointed for the first time this week. At the Os! Not mom or dad or the kitty...at the Os. Well, there you go. The way to our girl's heart is through her stomach; she is a Nelson, after all.

In other news, Aria got to experience a playground for the first time this week. She loved the swing; the higher and faster it got, the more she laughed.





The slide was also a hit. Aria easily maneuvered up the 3 small platforms to the slide and then was able to slide down by herself after only a few times going down with help. True, she didn't always intend to slide down (not really understanding that here it's flat but over there, not so much), but she came down with a big smile every time. Dad is convinced (and thrilled) that we have a future lover of roller coasters on our hands.

A New World for Aria

Maybe there's hope after all.

Sick & Tired of Being Sick & Tired

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.

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.

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.

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.