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.

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!