18 month update

I took Arya to the doctor for her 18 month checkup. She weighs 20 lbs., 10 ounces (4th percentile) and is 30" tall (10th percentile). She is continuing to grow (slowly but surely!). The doctor says she is doing great though and everything looks good!

Communication continues...

Arya has been putting two words together pretty regularly for a little over a month now. I know that she was doing it when we went to Toronto the first week of September. She would grab my hand and say things like, "Mama. Come," "Dada. Play," etc. It has just continued to pick up and become more regular since then.

She has been using one word after another to carry on conversation or to tell stories. For example, the other day after Arya's friend Maggie (who is now "Maggie" instead of just "Ma" or "Ma-ie") came over and played, colored, and drank some juice from a blue cup of Arya's. The next day, Arya told us about Maggie coming over kind of like this: "Maggie. Play. Cuh-cuh. Jyuice (while pointing to the blue cup Maggie had used)."

In the last week or so she's been using three words together more often in more sentence-like form. Last night, Rajeev had to go back to work after eating dinner with us. As he was telling her goodbye, she said, "Bye-bye, Daddy. Work!" This morning she wanted me to put her up on the bathroom counter. She said, "Sit up high!

I'm amazed to hear all of these words, phrases, and now sentences of sorts coming from this tiny little girl!

High Five! Awesome! Okay?

Arya is always doing funny little things that make us laugh. Last week she randomly walked up to me, held out her hand, and said completely clearly, "High five!"

She also has started picking up all kinds of words for things that are more abstract than concrete. She's been saying, "cool" for a while now. (For example, if she sees something sparkly that she thinks is pretty, she'll look at us and say, "Cool!") Another word she picked up a little over a week ago is "awesome". We were having dinner with friends, who volunteered to help us install the windows which will be arriving soon. I said, "Oh, that would be awesome!" Arya promptly followed that statement by saying, "Awesome!!" It definitely got a laugh, and she's been using it regularly since then!

Another funny thing that makes us laugh is Arya's use of the word "okay". Arya often wants something (for example, to watch her Elmo video or to eat candy) and she'll try to get us to give it to her. She'll look at us with this very reassuring look (totally serious, of course), and kind of nod a few times while saying, "Okay. Okay." She says it as if she's trying to convince us, "Really. You don't have to worry. It is just fine to give me what I want. It's OKAY."

How can you not love her??

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.