I'm Elmo and I Know It

Because of Aria's new found love for Elmo, I tracked down this video again and let her watch it. She's in love. I hope you enjoy it half as much as she did. 

Elmo's in the house!

Sometimes I forget how fast my baby girl is growing up, and just imagine her being a toddling, sputtering baby forever. And even though I get sad thinking about how fast time is flying, there are so many cute and fun things that happen as a toddler grows up. Aria hit one of those milestones this week, and fell in love with Elmo.

Now, I'm not normally a believer in love at first sight, but A-bug has proved my thoughts on this subject incorrect. From the first time she saw the commercial on TV advertising Sesame Street on Broadway coming to Detroit, she fell in love with "Melmo!!" It didn't help the cause when we turned on Sesame Street the first time and watched "Elmo's World." There were so many big alligator tears when it was over, she was almost inconsolable.

Yesterday, to remedy the problem of only being able to see "Melmo" once a day, Mimi decided to take Aria to Walmart to get her her very own Elmo. From the time they walked in the store, and Aria was told that they were going to find "Melmo," she was looking around and saying every 30 seconds, "Melmo? Melmo?" When she finally spotted him on the shelf, I think the entire store became aware of her absolute love of Elmo. She hasn't let go of her new little friend since, taking him to naptime, bedtime, mealtime and any other time you can imagine. She won't let anyone else hold him, and forget about putting him away for a few minutes - it's just not going to happen.

Is there a toy that your little one has gotten incredibly attached to? Maybe another Sesame Street character or maybe Barney? Mine growing up was my Cabbage Patch doll that I still have and Aria still plays with. There's just something about that first love that never goes away ;) 

Aria carrying around 2 of her favorite things -
her new Elmo and her sippy cup :)

"Thank you, Mimi for the Elmo!"
(check out that amazing post-nap hair!)

Procrastination and Pink Skin

Once again, I've been a delinquent blogger mom. We had a rather average week, and I was having some serious blogger's block. We went to the grocery store, the gymnastics studio for playtime, Aria's wonderful babysitter came on Thursday so Josh and I could have a night off with some friends, and now Aria's watching Saturday morning cartoons in between building with her blocks and pushing her blankets around in her grocery cart. She keeps walking around the house looking for "dadaddy" even though he won't be home from classes till around noon. Just an average week with my not-so-average girl.

We did try a bathtime activity that I had seen on Pinterest yesterday, and I can't say I can recommend it. I mean, it really did sound like a good idea at the time, but I clearly didn't think all the way through it... The activity pin on Pinterest says to put some food coloring in ice cube trays and then freeze the cubes.

Aria in her pink bath water

 Then, when the kids are in the bathtub, you put in the colorful ice cubes and let them chase the colors around the tub. I thought this would be a perfect idea for Aria since she has chased around little fuzzies in the tub for, no lie, 5 minutes solid before. 

I was very aware that the cubes would melt, and not last for 5 minutes, but what I didn't think about was the food coloring completely coloring the bath water....and my daughter's skin. Because the only food coloring I had was red, the water turned bright pink, and so did Aria's skin. So Aria got 2 baths yesterday; the latter to clean off the mess the first one made. Because of the excessive amount of work this caused, I cannot give my endorsement to this Pinterest idea. (Although, I will admit, I was kinda hoping her hair would turn as pink as her skin did, but it was not to be.)

Photo Credit

Aria's love for reading has not diminished in the least; if anything, she loves them now more than ever. 

She'll walk up to the bookcases and ask for a "bookie," which normally refers to one of her two favorites - the Dogs and/or Cats book.

These books have photos of real cats and dogs in them with added fun - some have real "fur" to pet, or a squeaky toy to squeak or a tab to pull to make a tail twitch. Aria never gets tired of these adorable books, and I would really like to get the rest in the series.

I've had several people ask me if Aria likes playing with her kitchen (mainly the family members near and far who contributed to this amazing play area at Christmas.)

Aria playing with her kitchen the first
morning after it was assembled. 

Aria's completed kitchen with food
and cooking accessories.

Well, she does. She really loves getting out her pots and pans when I'm cooking dinner and lay them out on the kitchen floor and pretend to cook with me. She also loves pouring "drinks" from cup to tea-pot to carafe back to cup. She hides her pacifier in the microwave and her shoes in the oven. Ok, so there are still some parts of it she'll need to grow into, but that's the fun of these kind of toys - kids will play with them for years!