Warm feet AND hands!

I had to post this snapshot that I took of Arya today. We were getting ready to go to the grocery store, and I asked Arya to go get some socks out of her drawer and put them on. Soon, she came back wearing the two sets of socks above. (She didn't roll up her pants like that. I did that so that you could see both pairs of socks!) "Look, Mommy! I put these blue ones on my feet and these pink ones on my hands! That way my feet won't get cold AND my hands won't get cold!!!" Pretty smart! :)

Mommy, where is Barack Obama?

Yesterday, Arya went with me to vote early. I knew that we might have to deal with some lines, so I was trying to get Arya excited about going to "vote". She knows who Barack Obama is and regularly points him out when she sees his picture on the computer, TV, or like last week, in the books on tape section of the gas station we stopped at while driving back from Toronto. "Arya, we're going to go vote for Barack Obama!! Isn't that exciting?" I said to her yesterday. She asked lots of questions, trying to figure out what it meant to vote for president. The best question came when we actually got to the County Building, where early voting was taking place. "Mommy, where is Barack Obama? Is he in there?" Sadly, I had to explain to her that she wasn't going to get to see him in the Delaware County building. She was clearly disappointed.

Maybe the fact that I let her push the red button to submit my vote once I was finished voting was able to make up for some of the disappointment. When her daddy got home last night, she got to proudly announce, "Daddy, WE voted for Barack Obama today! ....And I got to push the red button!"


(I took this photo at the Obama rally in Indy October 8. I was going to take Arya with me, just for the history of the event, but since it was a pretty yucky day she stayed home and played with Hama instead.)

Frog or Cow?

We had to go to TJ Maxx the other day, and while we were there Arya was very excited about the animal costumes that she saw. She wanted to try on her two favorites - the frog and the cow. I don't think she really thinks of the costumes in relation to Halloween, she just thinks it is so much fun to get to wear costumes. They have trick or treating at Ontario Systems every year for the employees' kids, and since we'll probably go, it would be good to plan ahead and get a good deal on a costume (hooray for TJ Maxx!) while they still have her size. I tried to get Arya to decide between these two, but she just didn't get the idea that she could only pick one. She was asking if she could get one and then bring it back a little later and get the other one. (Maybe like getting books from the library?) Anyway, I took her picture and she keeps asking family members if they want to see her wearing "two costumes". I guess I can't blame her for not being able to pick - I can't decide myself which I think is cuter!!

Jesus Loves Me

Okay, YouTube is working again. Here is the other video that I was going to upload last night. Arya is singing "Jesus Loves Me". She changes the words a little at the end and then she starts to say, "Now show me!" because she wanted to see what she looked like singing in the video! Unfortunately, that gets cut off because I can only record 30 seconds at a time!!

Arya sings, "I love you, you love me"

Arya loves to sing songs. Recently I have been thinking that I just have to get her on video singing her favorites so that I don't forget what it was like at this stage. The song she sings the most these days is the Barney song, "I love you, you love me." She sings it countless times a day, no matter where we might be at the time! (For example, today she put on her little show for Grandma and Aunt Sara in McDonald's.) I know, Barney may not be your favorite character, but it is pretty sweet when your little girl goes around singing that she loves you and about our "happy family" all the time. She changes words a little sometimes (including at the end of this video). This time she sings about how she wants you to "love me through and through". This is taken from the book I Love You Through and Through, which she likes to read.



I guess YouTube is doing site maintenance right now, so I'll try to upload the other video tomorrow. Until then, enjoy the Barney song!

"I'm a grown up!

This afternoon, Arya came up to me and said the funniest thing. I'll recount the conversation for you. It went something like this...

Arya: Mommy, I'm a grown up!
Me: Really?
Arya: Yes. I'm a grown up. Grown ups like mints. I like mints. I'm a grown up! (Arya was handing me the container of mints that she had found in my purse.)
Me: Wow. Aren't those mints a little hot for you?
Arya: No. I like mints.
Me: Do you want to try one?
Arya: YES!!
Me: Okay, but I think it will be too hot for you.
(Arya then puts the mint in her mouth.)
Arya: HOT!!! I'm not a grown up.
(She spits out the mint and gives it to me at this point, which is followed by her begging to try it again about 5 seconds later, and then going back and forth about whether or not she likes mints or they're too hot until she has eaten the whole thing.)

So funny!

So many changes...

So many changes have taken place in our little Arya's life in the last month or so. She is growing up before our eyes, and we can hardly believe it.

The week that we returned from our vacation in Florida (yes, I still need to post some pics of that!!), Arya transitioned into her own "little big girl bed". Yes, she slept in our bed for all but a handful of nights in her first two years of life, and we were actually fine with that. We liked having her near us and when we would think about putting the littlest person in our family in a room all alone while the oldest people got to stay together, we just decided to keep letting her stay in our bed!! But as she has continued to get bigger and as we think about the fact that eventually there will probably be another little one on the way (and only so many people can fit in the bed!!), we figured we had to get her used to sleeping on her own.

She has been sleeping in a crib for naps at Grandma Carol's house (when she is there on Tuesdays) for the past couple of months, and she had shown more interest in playing in her own bed at home, watching the mobile, etc. So, when we got back from Florida, we kept talking up how neat her little bed was, and a few nights after our return, she stayed there all night. A couple of days later, her daddy converted her crib into a toddler bed, which she thought was really cool. She was really excited about having a big girl bed (especially since she has seen these big kid beds at her friends' houses). Anyway, we (amazingly) really haven't had any trouble keeping her in the bed. (Of course, sometimes, when she doesn't want to go to sleep, she gets out of bed, but once she is asleep, she has stayed there all night all but about two nights. (One morning she woke up and came in around 6a.m., the other night it was around 1a.m.)

She likes us to tuck her in at night. She asks us to "till the soil" on her back or tummy, which is a little game where we pretend to plant a garden on her. The other thing that she loves is for us to "paint her face". That is where you pretend that your finger is a paintbrush and you go over each feature, "painting" it as you go. "I'm painting your eyebrows...and your pretty brown eyes...your eye lashes...your little nose..." etc. She has to keep her eyes closed if she wants her face painted or the soil tilled, and both of these things tend to relax her and get her to fall asleep.

So, the transition is going well, but Rajeev and I both still kind of miss having her with us while we sleep though!!

Sidewalk Chalk

Yesterday, Rajeev and I needed to get some yardwork done, so we got out the sidewalk chalk for Arya! She had so much fun, and she was absolutely covered with chalk by the time she was finished with her artwork! She especially liked helping me draw flowers and fireworks. Here are a few pictures of her in action.

Watch out, here I come!!

Drawing fireworks.

Our silly little girl!! :)

Do I have anything on my face?

"I'm paying."

Yesterday morning, Arya and I had been playing the card-matching game, "Memory." Since she's still young, we play an easier version of the game where we spread out all of the cards and we try to find as many matches as we can. After playing for a while, I'd gone into the kitchen to take care of some things. Arya soon followed, with a couple of the little 2"x2" cardboard cards in her hands. Soon she started running the cards through the gaps between the kitchen cabinet doors. She'd start at the top, then slide it down the little slot, start back at the top, and slide it again.

I didn't realize what she was really doing until she looked at Grandma Carol and me, and said, "I'm paying!" "Painting?" I asked. "Playing?" asked Grandma. "No, I'm PAYing!" Then it hit me, she was pretending she had a credit card and was sliding it through the machine to PAY!! It was hilarious!!

Mommy, I colored my face! And my tummy!!

Arya loves to color, especially with markers. We have washable markers, which really do wash out pretty easily. So as long as she sits in her high chair, I don't mind letting her use them. We've talked a lot about how markers and crayons are "only for paper" though (not walls, floors, etc.). I guess we hadn't really covered the idea that you aren't supposed to color your skin!

Yesterday, she was coloring a beautiful picture when I got a phone call. I was still in the kitchen with her, but I was trying to do several things at the same time and I didn't realize that her art was spreading far off the paper! I looked over to see how she was doing and she smiled up at me with a big grin and said, "Mommy! I colored my face! And my tummy!!" She proudly showed off how beautiful she had made herself, and it was definitely a sight to see. I had to take a few pictures to capture the moment!

I yove you.

A couple of months ago, Arya started saying, "I love you." Her l-sound actually sounds more like a y- sound though, so when she says "I love you", it sounds like "I yove you." I love hearing her say, "I yove you, Mommy!" It just gets me! Recently, she has found that she yoves so many things though. I yove Elmo. I yove candy. I yove Blue's Clues. I yove Mika. I yove Yuca (Luca). I yove that. I yove her. I yove him. I yove...the list goes on and on. So, maybe she does yove everyone and maybe she does tell us all of the things she yoves every day...but I yove hearing Arya express herself and if she wants to say it all day long, that is fine with me!! I yove you, Arya!!

Imagining...

Arya has begun to develop quite and imagination and it is so fun to watch!! She loves to pretend. She is especially interested in cooking and loves making soup, chicken, eggs, "hangaburs" (hamburgers), and more for us. She got a play kitchen for Christmas and is having so much fun with all of her dishes. Grandma Carol even noticed today that she was carefully using her tiny play potholder to remove a pan from her play oven! How adorable is that?!

I have also noticed her playing while eating her real food at mealtimes. Yesterday she was eating cottage cheese. I was cleaning up the kitchen as she was having her snack. I listened as she started telling me what she had "found" in her cottage cheese. I actually jotted down part of the conversation because it was so funny and I didn't want to forget. Here is part of what I heard (with my comments in parentheses)...

Arya: Tiny frog. Walking, walking, on the road. (As she moved a big piece of cottage cheese along her high chair tray.)
Me: Oh, it is a frog? Are you going to eat the frog?
Arya: Nooo. (In her "Come on, Mom, that's silly!" tone.) No eat him.
(Long pause.)
Arya: Eat him!!! (Apparently she had changed her mind!)

Later, her little game continued and this was what I heard:
Arya: It's a doggie. I made it. This (is the) puppy tail. (She was showing me the "tail" made from cottage cheese at this point.)
Arya: Tail! Oh no! Arya broke it. I broke it. I broke a tail.
(Another pause...)
Arya: I eat it! Eat the doggie. I eat it!

Anyway, I hope you have been as entertained by Arya's imagining as I have been! Stay tuned for more.