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.

Arya as Elmo

As many of you know, Arya is a HUGE fan of Elmo. Grandma Carol made Arya an adorable Elmo costume, so after trick or treating inside at Daddy's office as a hula girl we came home to change into the Elmo suit! Arya and I stayed out in the yard, playing and giving candy to the neighborhood kids (since Rajeev and a friend were working on replacing our front window and the porch was covered with tools, scraps, etc.). We then went to Grandma Carol's to have dinner and show her Arya all dressed up! Here are a couple of photos and videos from the evening!

Arya the Dancing Hula Girl

We took Arya to her daddy's office yesterday for trick or treating, all dressed up in her "dancing skirt". We told her that if she wore her dancing skirt she could get some candy! She caught on pretty quickly, and liked taking a piece of candy from each bucket or basket that people had sitting outside their office for the kids. The only trouble was that a few times she saw candy that other kids had already collected and she tried to take her piece of candy from them too! While at the office, she got to play in a box tunnel, do a bean bag toss, and play a few other games. I think the candy was still her favorite part though! Here is a video of her dancing. (You'll notice that she wanted to keep the candy rather than putting it down to show us her dance!)

Squeaky Shoes!!

Arya's Grandma Carol got her some new squeaky shoes and she LOVES them. She is still wearing size 4 shoes, and it was getting too cold to wear sandals!! She has some size 5 shoes, but they're still too big! So, Grandma found these shoes for her. I put them on her and didn't tell her that they squeak. I just set her on the floor and let her figure it out. As soon as she stepped down and realized what her new shoes could do, she started running and stomping and jumping - SQUEAK! SQUEAK!! SQUEAK!! Here is a quick video clip of her, taken a couple of hours after she first tried them out.

PS-For those of you wondering, you do have the option to turn the squeak off and on as needed! You've got to love designers who think of everything!

Arya's Newly Organized Room

From this:
To this:
And finally, to this:

I recently sorted through all of Arya's baby clothes, trying to figure out what fits, what doesn't, what can be passed on to someone else, and what has to go back to the people who loaned it to us!! I made piles for all of these things all over her room and it was such a mess. I got one of those cube styles shelves with baskets for storage, so now her toys are organized as well (not just sprawled across the living room)! Now that she is 19 months old, I am finally getting things organized (or at least trying)! I guess it is about time!