P.S. - More birthday photos

P.S. - More birthday photos can be seen at our flickr site.

Arya turns one!

We celebrated Arya's first birthday on March 24, 2007. It seems impossible that she is already one, but the time before we had Arya seems like so long ago. Now we can't imagine our lives without her!

We had a birthday party with family and a few friends at my parents' house. Rajeev's mom and sister were able to come from Toronto to join us too!

We had a butterfly theme, and I found some adorable little butterfly decorations which had sparkles and glitter and beads - which Arya loved. She loved the beads so much she bit one off and apparently thought about eating it. Fortunately, we caught her first!

We had snacks, cake and ice cream and tried to coordinate around everyone's naps! Everything went well though! Arya was a little hesitant to reach into the small cake that we gave her. After a few minutes, her Grandpa Ray helped her out and showed her how she could really dig in. She didn't pay much attention to opening presents, but she has had fun this week reading her new books and exploring some of the new things she was given.

We were blessed to be able to have such wonderful family and friends with us to share this milestone in Arya's life! Thanks to all of you.

Arya's First Steps!

Arya has taken her first steps! We went to the hospital on Friday night (3/9/07) to visit Ben in the ER. While we were hanging out with Liz and Ben in the hospital room, Arya was playing with Liz's empty water bottle. We were trying to get her to stand on her own without holding on to anything, which she had been doing for a little over a week. (She had been standing on her own especially when she was holding something to distract her. - We thought the water bottle would do just the trick!) Anyway, next we decided to try to get her to take a few steps between us. She actually did it! We took turns watching her walk between Liz and me, Rajeev and me, and Liz and Rajeev. Meanwhile, Ben looked on from his bed when he could. Arya took steps on her own at least 10 times (maybe more?). Anyway, we were so excited!

Since Friday, she has been much more willing to stand on her own. She'll just let go of things and stand up. She's also getting more comfortable trying to take steps. Last night she kept going back and forth between Rajeev and me over and over again. It was so much fun!! I was able to get a video clip of her taking about 10 steps (depending on how you count them). That's the farthest she has gone so far. Anyway, here it is so you can see it too!

Florida Pictures

Our Florida pictures are now online (or at least a lot of them are). If you want to look at them visit our Flickr site.

In contrast to our pictures from warm, sunny Florida, here are some pictures of Arya during her first Indiana blizzard, which took place Feb. 13, 2007.

Let's dance some more!

Okay, pasting the video didn't seem to work. Here is a link so you can watch it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnCPF6FiBpo

Let's Dance!

Arya loves phones. She really enjoys pushing the buttons that make noises. She's been able to turn on the speaker phone on our home phone for months. Now she loves playing with our cell phones, especially since in addition to making noise they light up! The other day I didn't realize she had my phone and when I picked it up it was ringing. - She had called Sara! Lately she has even started picking up the phone and holding it to her ear (or at least the side of her head!). We've given her Rajeev's old phone which no longer functions so that she has a phone to play with that won't let her actually call anyone and get into trouble!

Another thing Arya has started recently enjoying is dancing. We were watching a movie earlier tonight that had a lot of upbeat, reggae and dance music. At one point she had both hands above her head and she was bouncing to the beat (using her tummy to balance herself as needed against the coffee table). It was so cute!

Anyway, the video clip I'm hoping appears above (if not I'll link it in a separate post) is from last night. Liz's phone has a really fun ring tone of the David Bowie song, "Let's Dance". Arya was thrilled to be allowed to play with a real live phone that made noise and had lights, and the fact that it was playing fun music for her to dance to only made it more fun for her. The video is kind of dark, but I had to include it anyway!

Arya has a friend.

Lately, Arya has become quite intrigued by other kids! Luca is the 17-month-old son of some of our friends. He has come over to play a couple of times and last week Arya went to his house to play for a couple of hours. When we arrived and I was taking her out of her car seat, Arya heard and then saw Luca. She started getting all excited and even laughing. She has a friend!

Here are a couple of pictures that Luca's mom, Maria, took while they were playing. Luca kept giving "baby" Arya hugs. Very sweet, don't you think?