Baby see, Baby do.

As I've mentioned before, Aria cracks us up on a regular basis. She does the funniest things, has the most hilarious facial expressions and responds to us in beyond memorable ways. Living with her is constantly entertaining. Her little personality is what makes me so excited to get up every morning. "What is Aria going to do today?"

She has figured out the vocal inflection that goes with questions, and understands that we're asking her something. Whenever we use that "upward inflection" to indicate a question, she just shrugs and jabbers something that sounds very much like "I don't know." She's really very much an imitator, which she demonstrated with gusto for the family during Thanksgiving vacation. Can you guess who she's imitating in this picture?

She has recently figured out the whole "pointing" thing. Something we as adults take for granted is pointing towards something we want, or perhaps where we want it placed. It's a normal activity that takes little to no thought. Not so for toddlers. While Aria mastered the pointing motion months ago, she was having a hard time figuring out how to use it. But then last week, my mom and I were at Ikea eating lunch and Aria decided she wanted some of my fries. Instead of whining, she simply pointed to my fries, then to the spot on the table right in front of her. She followed that up with rubbing her belly and saying "Mmmm." Might have been the funniest thing I've seen. Well, her "food dance" is a close second. But that's another post for another time.

Looking at a Jewelry catalog just like mommy!

Another thing we've been working on is not opening a dresser drawer and pulling everything out of it. There are still some bumps in the road (I still have a whole mess of baby blankets to clean up from this morning's adventure after she wakes up from nap) but overall, she's gotten much better at it. In fact, she enjoys closing drawers so much, that she now walks into our bedroom to open and consequently close Josh's dresser drawers. She will go to the kitchen to open and close the cabinet doors and often tries with the TV cabinet (although we removed the  knobs months ago, so she has thus far been unsuccessful.)

As adorable as all this imitation is, it's also a good reminder to us as parents that everything you do is being watched. Every word you say, everything that comes on TV - they're paying attention. They're depending on you to teach them how to live life. You need to be the kind of person you want them to be. Our kids may be the future, but the way you act now will be their future. Don't let them down.