P.S.

The adorable snail shirt that Arya is wearing in the pictures from the last post was one Arya's Uncle Philip had made for her by a girl he knows in Columbus. I don't think she has a website up yet, but if she puts one up, I'll pass along the info. Thanks, Uncle Philip (or "Hup" as Arya would say)!

WEEEEE!

What do you say when you slide down the slide? Weeeee! What about when you swing back and forth on the swings? Weeeee! Well, Arya loves playing outside and she has learned this summer that playgrounds are fun! She now refers to any slide or swing as a "weeeee" because that's what you say when you play on them!

Some friends brought over a slide/yard toy not long ago, thinking Arya might enjoy playing on it, and she definitely has. Here are a few pics of her that I took recently.

Trees! Yummy!

Last night, we were having broccoli, which Arya didn't have any particular interest in eating...until I showed her that each piece of broccoli was like a little tree! It was magic! She started happily munching on her broccoli and asking for more trees when all of hers were gone. She also seemed to kind of like the fish that we were eating...and the mashed potatoes too!

Here are some of Arya's current favorite foods (Although she'll eat lots of other things, these are some that she loves the most!):

• Cheerios "cho-chos", which somehow sounds a lot like "turtle"
  
• cheese "cheese" (cheddar cheese, cottage cheese, string cheese - She loves it all!)
  
• grapes "gapes"
  
• beans "beee!" (pinto beans, green beans, kidney beans, refried beans, navy beans - She must be related to her Aunt Liz.)
  
• french fries
• potatoes
  
• chicken "chick"? (She says it differently on different days.)
• candy "caa-caa" (I actually don't give her candy very often, but she is a HUGE fan. Her grandpa in Toronto recently sent her home with some m&ms, which she LOVES. Then she got a package from her Grandma Carol and Grandpa Ray that included some peanut butter m&ms, which she also LOVED. She likes to pick out which colors she'll eat next when she is eating m&ms. It is so cute. She will excitedly say, "Booo!" for blue, "re!" for red, "or" for orange, and "ye-yo" for yellow.

Speaking of colors, she is starting to recognize some of the main ones. She nearly always gets blue right. She gets orange right pretty often too. She likes pink ("pink"!), especially the pink marker that she sometimes gets to color with. Red, yellow and green are coming along. For example, if I tell her something is green, she can identify other green items at the time, but she sometimes gets mixed up the next day. We've just started working on colors though, so I think she's doing great! She loves to color, or "cuh-cuh" as she calls it, and usually asks to do it at least once a day. She sure is growing up fast!

Mommy!

I'm so far behind in blogging! I'm going to post a few shorter things a little at a time to try to catch up! At least that is the plan!

On Thursday or Friday of last week (Aug. 13 or 14th), Arya started the morning out normally, referring to me as "mama". Then, when she called for me mid-morning, she said, "Mommy!" Since then, there's been no more "mama" for her...it is only "mommy!" I think she must like the sound of the word, because she seems to be saying it much more than she ever said "mama". She has referred to Rajeev occasionally as "Daddy" since then as well, but she seems to be sticking with "Dada" just as much for him. She just sounds so much more like a little girl when she says "mommy" though. It really is cute.

Mika - Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)

Here is the video that Arya likes the most. She especially likes the end, when everyone is dancing in the street, when they release tons of balloons, and when everyone opens up colorful umbrellas!

Arya loves Mika

Recently Arya's Aunt Liz introduced her to a singer named Mika. Liz played a Mika ringtone repeatedly for Arya on her phone and showed her several Mika videos on YouTube, which feature things that Arya loves, including dancing, balloons, and umbrellas! Needless to say, Mika was an immediate hit with Arya. She now asks for him saying, "Muh?" and pulling us toward the computer!

Yesterday we met Liz for lunch and as soon as Arya saw Liz she started saying, "Muh. Muh. Muh!! Muh!!!" She pointed at Liz's purse and phone and kept saying "Muh" until we finally figured out what she wanted. We finally realized she wanted Liz to play the Mika ringtone on her phone! We were cracking up. Anyway, here are a couple of videos I took of Arya watching and dancing to Mika's music on YouTube.

Arya loves the rain!

The video clips above are from May 25, 2007. (I know, I'm behind in getting them uploaded!!) Arya was playing in the rain for the first time and was having so much fun that I had to take a few videos of her! She especially loves splashing in puddles!

It was probably around that time that she also realized that she LOVES taking baths! Whenever we go into the bathroom, she points at the bathtub and says, "A baa! A baa!" She often will even try to climb into the tub!

We have taken her swimming in Grandma Carol's pool - which we explained to her was "like a great big bath." (It is just not as warm!!!) Once we put it that way, she has been much more excited about swimming! When we go to Grandma's, she'll often point outside and ask, "Poo?", wondering if she is going to get to go swimming in the pool! (She also now refers to any body of water as a pool - lakes, oceans, etc!) She is definitely enjoying summer and all of the water fun that comes along with it!