Digging to Find China

There are fewer things A loves about playing outside more than getting to play in her turtle sandbox. She loves feeling it between her toes and using her little shoves to scoop up and dump out the sand. Tonight, her and Josh were out playing in the sandbox, and Josh was using a couple fingers to dig around in the sand. He told A, "I'm digging to find China!" A pushes his hand out of the way, puts her eyes right down next to the hole he had been digging and shouts to the top of her lungs, "CHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINA, where AAAAAAAAAAARE you?!?!" repeatedly. I was actually inside, but could hear her through the windows. I ran outside to find out what in the world she was doing, and Josh was sitting on the deck rolling with laughter, and little A-bug had her hands up like she was looking for something with the most confused look on her face. This post really has no point other than this was something hilarious I didn't want to forget :)

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!

Pictures of Playtime

I've been meaning to get some pictures up of Aria during her new-found gym playtime, but didn't have the card reader to do so. Well, now I do and here they are :) Apologies for the poor quality - all the pictures were taken on my phone. Again, thanks to Buddy for this wonderful discovery, which has provided a lengthy nap time on Wednesday afternoons! :)

Playing in the foam pit -
her favorite

Going under the balance
beams seemed safer to her.

Sliding into the giant foam pit

Organizing  - her favorite -
the colorful cones

 Hopefully, I'll be able to get some pictures of her playing with her friends as well, but that would involve remembering my actual camera, and who knows if that will ever happen...

These are the days...

It's been an interesting week with Aria. We've kind of (finally!) started getting into a routine with things throughout the week. Monday, we recoup from the weekend, Tuesday is food prep/grocery shopping day, Wednesday is play day for Aria and I clean the house while she's napping (and later practicing and choir for me while she stays home with Josh,) Thursday is now the day that I teach and we have Bible study, so it's a mad dash everywhere that day and Friday is definitely a bum around day in an attempt to bring the weekend here faster :) It's kinda of nice to have fallen into a somewhat predictable, but still flexible, schedule. It's easier to plan things and get motivated to do what needs to be done.

This week has shown me once again how very fast Aria is growing up, whether it's her new-found love of playing with other kids (thank goodness!) or the slight improvement we're noticing in her verbal skills. I love walking by her door in the morning or as she's waking up and hearing her sing to herself. I love even more when I walk into her room during playtime and seeing her rock and sing to her babies. It just makes my heart smile. I adore watching her play with her new kitchen with its pots and pans - whether she's stirring up some eggs or pouring drinks for everyone, it's so cute to see her really into playing.

Aria also staged her very first "nudey protest" this week.... yep, you read that right. We have a rule that she has to stay in bed for a few minutes after she wakes up to comfort herself and make herself happy before I come in and get her up in the morning. Apparently, on Thursday, she was not down with that routine anymore. When I walked in, she was completely stripped - diaper and all! - and screaming in her crib. I have no idea how long she'd been like that, but it must have been some time because not only was she absolutely freezing cold (it was 8 degrees that morning!) but the whole crib was wet. It was a lovely way to start my morning. Now I'm afraid to leave her in her crib any amount of time at all, because I don't want to relive that experience... we only have so many mattress covers for her. Did your kids every strip down like that? (Mom, for the sake of one of the boy's (who will remain unnamed) ego, please don't answer that question.)

We're trying to get into the routine of cleaning up toys before bed times with Aria, but so far have been unsuccessful. Maybe she's still too young? It's not that she doesn't like picking up the toys and depositing them in a box - she loves that. She just enjoys promptly removing the toy from said box, and placing it in another box, or on the ground, or in a drawer, or in a purse or... well, you get the picture. She's only 18 months, though - am I expecting too much for her age?

Anyways, those are some of the things that happened at our house this week. Today, I'll be (hopefully) reorganizing the desk area. We finished out taxes last night (hooray!) so it looks like a bomb went off in this area. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! 

For the Love of Reading

I have to say, one of the things that delights my heart the most with Aria is her love of reading. I pray all the time that it will continue, and that it's not just the page-turning she's into (even though it sometimes feels like that's the whole pull for her.) At night, Josh usually reads some Dr. Seuss with her, I read her favorite books to her throughout the day, and she reads to her babies and us. She gets incredibly animated at times, and other times she simply flips through the pages. My favorite is when she comes across those books with a mirror at the end; she leans over and kisses herself and/or waves. It's very cute, although I don't think I'm going to foster the type of behavior that causes her to kiss herself in the mirror. All in good time, though.

Profitable Playtime

usually when kids think of "playtime" the last thing they're thinking about it how much they're learning, but depending on how you play and with what toys you use, they could be learning more then than when you're actually trying to teach them something. now in reality, there are very few things we can actually "teach" aria right now with the "sit down and listen" method. besides the age factor, she's also a little too distracted to expect her to focus on something we're trying to show her. thus...playtime has been our biggest ally when it comes to teaching her things about this world.

the easiest way to entertain aria at this point is to have a toy that plays music and/or has flashy lights. her current favorites are a singing alien with a light-up face and her baby einstein music player - the colorful lights make her smile every time! teaching her "cause/effect" with toys like these is simple because she can easily push the button to make them light up and sing. we've also been doing rhythm with these toys as well, by moving her arms/legs or the toy itself in time to the music - the music player's light actually light up in rhythm to the music, so that helps. and then there's the mere fact that we're introducing her to so much music that's also a benefit of these toys.

other toys that kids love that have great learning benefits are blocks and rings, talking toys (the more words they hear at this age, the better) and any other toy that teaches the "cause/effect" lesson (spinning toys for example.) if your child is like mine, trying to demonstrate something is usually a futile attempt unless you combine something fun (the more lights the better! :) ) with it... tickling her belly and going step by step while changing their diapers sounds simple, but it's a great way of bonding with your baby and teaching them words. their smile also makes diaper changing time more bearable for you too :)