Christmas cards...

I hope everyone had a good Christmas! We had a fun one overall. Aria gets it, for the most part. She had a little trouble with getting a finite number of gifts. The first night of gifts at my parents' house was a little rough when we had to explain to her that there were no more to open. But then we had stocking extravaganza at Dana's parents' house Christmas morning, and then gifts after breakfast, so we had to re-explain.

Aria liked Christmas Eve service (at 8pm). there's a funny story about that, but you'll have to wait for the official Christmas post. This post is about something a little different.

Right when we were getting our Christmas cards ready to go this year, we had problems with both of our computers. Dana's has our master address list, and hers is still down (I just really haven't had time to fix it). I'm pretty sure it's a motherboard issue, and the hard drives still work, but not sure yet.

So. We went old school this year and only responded to people who sent us cards. I used to follow this rule, but then we just kept sending cards no matter what. No biggie. Well, it's difficult when something you rely on like a computer is gone, with no written addresses, and this time of year is hectic, and you have a toddler, and a wife who's tired all the time cause she's busy making a son-bun in the oven (yes I said son). I'm sure you understand.

Also, a lot of people check here frequently, and are on facebook as well, so you know how we were this year.

For those of you who received a card, and are visiting here for the first time, welcome! check archives for fun videos and pictures, and please comment! It's how we know you are viewing the site. And for those of you who come here and didn't get a card, it doesn't mean we love you less!

on a serious note, we have a family member who had a horrible Christmas this year. Dana's maternal Grandmother fell on Christmas Eve and broke her hip and shoulder. She had Surgery on the 27th, and we visited her that afternoon. She has Alzheimer's as well, so she really is disoriented. She is improving, however. We wish her the best in this difficult time.

I scared of da fan!

So Aria woke up at 1:00 last night upset. I got up and went into her room and she was sitting up whining (not so much crying) about how she was scared of her ceiling fan. It was really the strangest thing. Kevin followed me in the room and we both reassured her that fan was not so scary and that it was ok. I picked her up at one point and she just clung to me, wide-eyed. I found it to be pretty sweet. Kevin came up with the idea of handing her a little plastic play knife that she loves and told her it was going to protect her. Somehow that was enough and we tucked her in and walked out (as she clung to the knife under her covers). She seemed to have gone back to sleep shortly after. I can't wait to hear if she talks about it this morning when Kevin gets her.

When Kevin got her she was telling him that the "fan has eyes." And when she was getting out of bed she found her knife and said something about it keeping her safe. Awwww, poor Aria, but I can't help but laugh...it is a little funny.

Living up to her name

Aria loves singing. really loves singing. A while ago she realized that the Alphabet Song, Twinkle Little Star, and Baa Baa Black Sheep are the same tune, and started to mix and match them.

"A, B, C, D, little star, yes sir, yes sir, three bags full..."

She'll wake up and start singing Itsy Bitsy Spider, or Mary had a Little Lamb, You are my Sunshine, Rock-a-bye Baby, The Bear went over the Mountain, Row your Boat, Song of the South (the zippity-do-da part), or some other song. Sometimes, she'll sing a song we didn't even know she knew! The other day, I was getting ready for work, and on the monitor I heard Aria stirring. I always wait until she calls "Daaaaaaddy", because I've found she can get cranky if I go in before then. Well she starts singing Old MacDonald.

"Old MacDonald had farm...
yo yo yo...
on that farm, had a sheep...
yo yo yo...
on that farm, had a dog...

"and BINGO was his name-o
B-I-N-G-O
and BINGO was his name-o"

I was hysterical as I entered the room, and Aria was all smiles - I think she realized what she did.
:-)

gummi bear!

When I was a kid, we would travel to Europe and stay at bed and breakfasts, ride the trains to various castles, museums, etc. Well, one time we were walking from our bed and breakfast in Munich to the train station. I was eating gummi bears. A red one dropped on the ground and I couldn't stop to pick it up because we were in a rush to get to the station in time.

It rained all day long, so when we were walking back to the bed and breakfast later that day, I saw my gummi bear. Lying on his back, pink, bloated to almost 300% of its original size, and perfectly intact!

Why am I babbling about gummi bears and what happens when they get wet? I dunno. but I do know that Dana has a little gummi bear! Here is a picture:

I imagine he's singing the theme song to the Gummi Bears cartoon in that cute little gummi bear fetus voice of his... Gummi Bears, bouncing here and there and everywhere! high adventure that's beyond compare! I am a Gummi Bear!

Coming soon to this blog! July 14, 2009...
...there will be other posts from now until then of course!

Thanksgiving Part 2

Yeah, I know i'm real late with this, but for Thanksgiving day, we spent it with Grammy and Pop-pop, Aunt Jennine, and Uncle John. Aria had fun as usual, and we even got to visit with Great-Grammy in Philly for her 90th birthday!

Grammy, Aunt Jennine, Mommy, and Aria

We watched Wall-E, and Aria sat through most of it. She kept telling us when "Wally's sad". We also went to a farm with a very nice petting zoo. Aria wasn't scared at all this time, and even helped feed the goats!

Aria saying hi to one of the baby goats

Later, Aria wanted to help out with the puzzle (a Thanksgiving tradition), and that led to a couple of temper tantrums. We managed those fairly well - we survived at least! :-)

Aria "helping" with the puzzle

Tired after a day in Philly

Thanksgiving Part 1

We had Thanksgiving at my parents' house on the Sunday before Thanksgiving day. We didn't get to go to church before, because we had to stop at the after-hours doctor to check on Aria's cold. she coughed all night, and her runny nose had really picked up. She was great for the doctor, and even asked if the doctor would look at her eye (she's used to the eye doctor we go to every 3 months). When the doctor asked her to open her mouth, she did right away! He was shocked at how good she was. It turned out that her ears and lungs were fine, so we really didn't have much to worry about.

We had a fun time as always! First stop was through the forest in my parents' backyard to my dad's farm. He's been building an barn for his tractors, but in this picture it looks like an ark.

Aria said "I check my email" whenever she played with this toy laptop.

Grandpa and Aria giving rides to Aria's buddies

Yellow means slow

On the way home yesterday from school Aria and I were talking about the stop lights. We usually do this because there are many and it occupies her. I always talk about how red means stop and green means go. She helps me by calling out what color the lights are. I was repeating for the millionth time "green means go and red means stop" in my sing-song voice and then I heard a little peep from the back saying "yellow means slow." Haha. Silly me forgot about the yellow! She's so smart!

Elmo's Gross

We are guilty. We forgot about cleaning up our pumpkin for a week. We did finally throw it out last weekend. Aria got a good look at it before we threw it out and hasn't stopped talking about it since (even a week later).

Before

After
Check out the little chew marks! Atleast we fed a (probably starving) chipmunk.

One of Aria's many discussions about the pumpkin. She is right though, it was GROSS!

Rainy Saturday

It was an icky day Saturday, so we spent the morning at the mall playing.

Weeeee!

Aria's sporting her new hat on the train!
She still didn't want to ride a horse. She tried it out and quickly decided it wasn't a good idea. Maybe next time.

One last ride on the train before we go!

ophthal-what?

Just to add to the flurry of posts in one night, I thought I'd mention our trip to the eye doctor this morning. We've been going every 3 months or so, for regular check-ups for Aria's patching. There has been some decent improvement, but the real cool thing is that Aria was awesome the whole time—though it didn't seem it would be that way at first... (as I write this, I see a squiggly-lined fade out to a flashback—diddle-liddle-oo! diddle-liddle-oo!)

This morning, she woke up fine, got out of bed, let me change her diaper, then the tantrums started.

First, she wanted the PJs off, without my help which she's able to do now. fine. "I won't help you, please don't get upset because I looked at you, Aria."

Then she had to dress herself. "But both legs won't fit into one pant leg." I even went so far as to take my pants off to show her how to do it. didn't help. she WOULD NOT let me touch her to help. She actually did get both legs into one pant leg at one point, and to show her it wasn't gonna work like that, I told her to go look at the school bus outside. she stood up, then kinda rolled over. we both laughed. :-)

It's now almost 7:45, we have to leave no later than 8:30, and I know that breakfast, getting her lunch ready, and getting her other school stuff together as well as us into the car can take up to 45 minutes. I decided to take matters into my own hands and put JUST HER FEET into the correct pant legs. Aria was then able to pull up her pants. "You need to pull them up in the back Aria, your pants are caught on your diaper."

Now the meltdown. The shirt. I stupidly put it on her all by myself. She's hyperventilating, pulling at the shirt with all her might trying to take it off while I take her downstairs. She's gyrating as I'm trying to place her in her chair for lunch. screaming at the top of her lungs. FUN! I stay calm. I make her breakfast which she of course doesn't want. she wouldn't even want juice and popsicles with lollipops on the side if I offered em at this point.

So. I reset. I took her out of her high chair. Laid her in the middle of the family room (because she kept throwing herself back when I tried to sit her down), and explained to her that we had to go to the eye doctor and she wasn't cooperating. "I know you love dressing yourself, and you hate it when your routine is messed up, but we have to work together this morning, please?"

I let her cry for about 2 minutes while I got her lunch and other things together. Time Management 101! Then, I went to her, hugged her, she returned the hug, and I talked to her some more about everything. She was ready to eat breakfast! I always let her take her time eating, I got totally ready, we got out the door at 8:40. not bad.

Now let me flashback again. over the weekend, I kept reminding her of Doctor Territo. It got to the point where I could say "Aria we're going to see Doctor Territo on Monday morning." and she would respond with "Doctor Rito look at eye. No hurt Aria." So when all these tantrums were happening, I was getting stressed for what could possibly happen when we got to the doctor's office. It was pretty bad on previous visits (slight flashback there).

well, the whole car ride, she was fine. we get there, she's fine. we get into the exam room, and when the doctor came in, she gave him a pouty face. I thought "oh no here we go..." But she didn't cry. The doctor went through his routine, and Aria took to it. she even answered his questions, and took a little test with pictures of objects on a screen, telling him whether it was a bird, car, hand, or birthday cake.

Since this was really the first time we were able to do these advanced tests with Aria, there was no real baseline until now. Now we have something to look forward to at the next visit!

Hide and Seek

Aria is a little obsessed with Hide and Seek. She's got most of the game rules down too. I think we need to brush up though because we tend to make it into a game of jump-out-and-scare-Aria. She enjoys it either way. I think you can tell by her giggles.

Halloween 2008

After picking Aria up from school a little early, we had some time to carve our pumpkin.

Of course we carved Aria's favorite character!

Goofydaddy (and yes, he is goofy) dressed as Sponge Bob to hand out treats (Sponge Bob tatoos-how appropriate?) for the kids. He had the voice down and everything.

Aria met up with Austin and they had so much fun going around to the neighbor's houses. Aria would yell, "come on guys!" as we walked down the street and Austin had "Trick-or-treat" down. It's like they were old pros as this stuff.

We met up with Sydney, another girl on the street, for a quick picture. Kids are just so cute all dressed up!

What's Halloween without a taste of the sweet stuff. Thankfully, there has been no mention from Aria about candy after Friday night. She sure did enjoy that lollipop!

There is no turning back

Aria has slept without her pacifier for 3 (going on 4) nights in a row. Her love affair with the "paci" has been a long one and it was time after two whole years to give it up. The withdrawal began last weekend when we snipped the tip of the two we store in her dresser drawer. When she went to get one, it perplexed her but she still used it! And then a couple nights later, I snipped it again. With just a small nub she still continued to use it a couple more nights. Then on Friday, the paci was nowhere to be found. We kept low key about it and when she asked a couple times we quickly said, "baby-cousin Felipe needed it." Surprisingly, she stopped asking and went to sleep no problem (with one or two more "buddies" in her bed and 3 extra books read). This weekend she woke up an hour earlier than normal, but that's not too bad. There's been little mention of the paci, which is just plain a miracle! Tonight she came into her room after her bath (this is where she normally yells "PACI!" and runs to her drawer to get it) and then she babbled something that had "Felipe" in it. She is such a good girl. So now, we need to get rid of our hidden paci stash! It's up to us to stick to it now, it's in her best interest if she's not re-introduced (on purpose or mistake).

On a side note, Aria is now in her Junior Bed. We took the crib rails off and she has just a lower-half-thingy that keeps her from rolling out. She's had that for 2 weeks and hasn't once gotten out of bed without us in the room. I know it won't always be like that, but it sure is nice for now. I really didn't think that was possible!

The moral of this post is...I'm constantly surprised at what my daughter can handle and do. Sometimes I feel like we hold her back when it comes to things like the paci. I'm glad WE finally figured out that she can handle the change (although change is scary sometimes for her and us).

I like my big empty office

I work in a large production room (3 workstations, giant work table, large-format inkjet & big color laser printers). And the cool thing now that I'm coming into work more these days is it's still like working from home—my lazy coworker now only comes in twice a week, and for maybe 4 hrs each of those 2 days. He "works from home" the other days. That got the sarcastic quotes because it's questionable whether or not he actually does any work while he's at home. I and others have brought up our issues with this guy to his manager and the group's manager, but the main problem is he does just enough work to appear productive... I could go on and on about this guy. but I won't.

So, I get to play music at a nice volume, and have the convenience of seeing people I need to see, and keep the office doors closed—a cypher lock is a good thing. :-)

Man Nooks

Over at parent bloggers they are having a Blog Blast about man caves. It's sponsored by Bill Me Later. So I thought I'd discuss my Cava Nuveau™, the Man Nook™.
I've talked a bit before about how I'm a collector by nature, but I've severely toned it down over the years. I used to collect comics, lego sets, Star Wars figures, DVDs, and coins, so having a space to display it all would be great, but not entirely feasible when you are married and have a kid.
I'm a musician, so when thinking about buying a house, I always imagined having space for me to setup all my instruments. Fortunately, the house we now own has such a space. it's kinda a nook. my Man Nook™ (insert dirty thought here—wait, please don't).
Being the nice husband that I am, I didn't try to take over the whole basement with my collections. The basement became half office, half music area. Then Aria was born, so it became half office, half play area, half music area—I used to be good at math. Either way, like the other floors in the house, our little girl is taking over this one too. oh well.
My collections are safely packed away where no one has to look at them except me when I decide to open the door to the furnace room and daydream of building the Ultimate Collector's Series LEGO Star Destroyer, or read some old Green Lantern comics in the closet under the stairs (yes, I have done it). These are my other nooks, though not really used. I do have a Man Book Nook™ in our bedroom that is constantly growing...

I apologize for the use of trademarks, we just saw The Love Guru this weekend—he used a lot of those little TMs, and alt 0153 is too easy (I use it at work lots).

Apple Picking

Aria's excited to pick some apples!

Look at her go...

Snack Time (before)

Snack Time (after)

The Apple Pickin' Gang

Aria thought this was so fun, I was pretty scared, and Goofydaddy got a work out...

The next day we made enough applesauce to fill half my freezer! YAY, thanks Mom. My mom fills her freezer up every year with homemade applesauce. She usually shares with us through out the year. I have over the years helped out, but I really looked forward to doing it in my own home. I was a little pre occupied with Aria, so I didn't help as much as I would have like too. Maybe a couple more years and then we'll have another hand not only picking, but helping in the kitchen too. My Mom is an applesauce machine! Thanks again!!!

Aria's pick for President

16 more years until she can vote...

That's Aunt Jennine's voice in the background. She's a great role model for Aria. She always stands up for what she believes in and is not afraid to voice her (educated) opinion. She has encouraged me, countless times, to get out and vote. I'm embarrassed to say that this is the first year I've actually done it. I made it out to the Primaries and I will be out there again in November. I know it's important; I'm just indecisive.
I obviously didn't get the same genes as my sister :-)

School Pictures

We got the proofs from Aria's 1st school picture...

Aria's 2nd B-day

Aria is 2!

She had a fun party over the weekend. My mom's cousin's family came over and Aria met her 3rd cousin, Leah!

She got to spend quality time with Grandmas and Pop Pops!

We worked all last week to get her to blow out her candle. It took like 2 minutes, but she did it! Here's the end of the VERY long video...

Of course there were presents. She loved them all, especially the little kitchen and baby doll from her grandparents. (We got her a wood train set and blocks to balance it out, haha.)

Doogan catches a ride in the baby carrier.

Birthday hat fun!

Aria built "castles" with all the leftover hats.

On the actual day of her B-day we took her to a moon bounce place with Austin! She loved it, but it tired her out.

Happy Anniversary!

Four years today!

Many many more will come. We have excellent marriage role models in our parents (over 70 years combined), as well as countless others in our families and friends.

I look forward to all the joys we will share over the years, and know that when times are not so joyful, we will be able to weather them and survive because of the incredibly strong foundation we have built and are building with every day we are together.

Where does the pee-pee go? In the Potty!

every day after Aria's bath, we let her have some naked time. We've been talking to her about using the potty, and she's sat on it, but nothing ever came out.*

well, tonight after her bath, she came into our room and watched me vacuum. she grabbed herself, said "ooh! in the potty!" and ran back to the bathroom, and sat down for a bit. Then she proclaimed "all done!" and stood up. there was pee in the potty—a lot of pee! we were so proud of her and I gave her high-fives and 3 stickers. she usually gets one sticker just for sitting down, so 3 is a BIG deal. Aria was so happy, and couldn't wait to flush the toilet.

we know that it'll be a long time before she's completely potty trained, but tonight was an excellent step in the right direction!

*soon after we got the potty, Aria got the urge to poop immediately before her bath. she wouldn't sit down on it, so Dana caught the poop in the potty while Aria stood up. She got scared of it when she saw it after!

...and she ate it

We cook dinner the majority of the time. We like to cook together. With our schedules now during the week, I mostly get dinner started early after picking Aria up from school and then Goofydaddy gets home shortly after. I'm not the best cook, but Goofydaddy and I are not picky eaters. So, if it's the least bit eatable, we eat it. Now with a toddler that judges the way things taste by sight, it gets a little tricky. Sometimes when I know Aria needs to eat a good meal, I will make her an egg separate because I just don't think it's worth the battle. Last night I made an eggplant/spinach bake with pasta on the side which can look a little weird, but is VERY tasty. Usually the color and texture of the eggplant and then the mixed in spinach would totally turn her off. (She does eat and love spinach plain though.) I didn't feel like making anything else so I just mixed it all up and made sure the eggplant was really small. I put the plate down and she immediately turned her nose up at it. She then asked for waffles. I asked her to try it and I got a "NO!" So, I told goofydaddy to not give in with me. She was definitely hungry and I had a feeling she would give in. So we just kind of ignored her a little while we got our plates together. I showed her I was eating the same thing and daddy too. I put some on her fork and asked if she would like to try it. She opened her mouth and in it went! I handed her fork and she ended up eating 2/3 of it. GOOD little girl! It made me happy.

I'm sneaky

today was Aria's first class picture day! When she woke up this morning I told her, and asked if she could show me a big smile, she said "cheese!" I don't know where she learned that one...

We made sure that she would be as cute as can be, Dana even ironed her dress. it wasn't a super fancy dress, but Aria doesn't care - she really loves dresses these days. When she's getting dressed, if she has a choice, it's usually "pretty dress". well this was a pretty pink dress, so when she saw it this morning, she was pulling off her shirt in no time!

When I got her to school, they were bringing in her class two at a time, so I said my goodbyes and hid around the corner so i could see Aria get her picture taken. I was wondering how it would go. part of me thought we would get pictures of her crying or running up to the camera asking to "see! see! see pictures!"

the room was pretty dark and with the umbrella lights and backdrop, she did get a little scared, so her teacher sat down with her and watched a couple other kids get their pictures taken. she sat there quietly, and watched with what turned into excitement when she saw that the photographer and assistants had an elmo doll who held a feather and wanted to tickle, a scooby doo who liked to sit on top of the photographer's head, and various other fun toys.

towards the end of the other kids' photo session, I heard Aria exclaim "I have a pretty dress!" and then "Aria's turn next?" She was led to the chair where she hopped up and allowed complete strangers to position her legs and hands and then proceeded to smile and giggle at the feather holding elmo! Her teacher was in stitches and how giggly she got, and i couldn't help smiling. we can't wait to see the pictures - they took about 15 or so.

fun with Grandma and Grandpa

The other week, my parents came over for the day. Aria was napping, so we played Bananagrams, a fun, fast scrabble-like game. I won't go into who won the most games, or who was the only person not to win a game...
:-)

When Aria woke up, Grandma and Grandpa entertained Aria with some singing and dancing!

Here's Pop-pop singing the "Which Witch" song (complete with broomstick). she loves this song and asks us to sing it every day!Grandma singing the "Clap your hands" song, while Aria sings and dances along!

Aria loves being read to!

All in all, a fun day. yummy dinner (if i do say so myself) and yummy dessert. we're so blessed to have both sets of grandparents so close (relatively) to us. Aria will have many years of fun memories!

braids!

braids are cute! and mommy loves braiding hair. but Aria doesn't like anything in her hair most of the time. she let Dana braid her hair, for this picture. but when it was done, she freaked out and started pulling at the braid like it was a hair clip, so we had to undo it. someday she'll like her hair braided or clipped. or maybe i'll shave it off like mine! j/k

pink eye

Aria has pink eye again. and when i told one of my friends this, he jokingly said "she's got poop* in the eye!" i laughed, but then it occurred to me that some people might think this is how you get pink eye. well that's the bacterial version which may or may not be caused by poop, and is less common than the viral version. the bacterial version causes more puss and goop, while the viral version has a watery discharge. the viral version is related to the common cold.

to sum it all up: my daughter does not have poop in her eye. :-)
and if you have a cold, don't rub your snot in your eye.

*poop was not the word used...

shout outs

here's some shout outs! The grandma and pop pop one is for all four of you :-)

Grandma and Pop Pop: watch her face as she forgets who else she's supposed to say hi to!

Aunt Jennine: sometimes she says "there's Aunt Jennine's car!"

Tia Maria and Uncle David

Cousin Felipe

counting

our little counter, we just have to work on the perpetual-ness of it! (that and she likes to skip 2 for some reason, but she definitely knows what 2 means)

Labor Day Weekend

We had a really nice Labor Day weekend at my parent's Cottage. Here are some pictures from the trip...

Aria enjoys playing on the beach in the sand.

Aria takes a moment to relax with Daddy. Doesn't she look comfortable?

"Weeeeee, again!"

Pop Pop showed Aria how to fish (so cute).

We got on the boat to test out our fishing skills.

Curly Girls

Yum! Homemade icecream is the best.