she didn't get upset...

I didn't want to post anything until we were certain it stuck—Aria is officially fine with going to daycare! this is her fifth week there, and for the past two weeks she hasn't minded when I or Dana leave her there.

And thank goodness, cause it was getting bad. Aria would know when we pulled into the parking lot, and she would get upset. It would start at oh about level 6 and would ratchet up with each threshold crossed. Level 11 would be reached when I'd put her down on her side of the classroom. I'd have to drop her and pretty much run out and hide. I felt horrible, and when Dana would drop her off, I had to call to make sure she was fine.

Luckily, I married a smart one. On the second day of the third week, Dana realized that if she let Aria walk into the building, and walk into her classroom on her own, her feelings of independence would override any separation anxiety she might have. Then when I brought her in last week, she started to get upset. I thought "oh no, regression..." but instead of me, Aria put her hands out for one of her teachers to pick her up! turns out she wasn't upset, but excited to see the teacher!

even today, Aria's getting over another cold, and so she was kinda cranky before we even got there. I was prepared for the worst, meaning I'd have to set a new record for the 30ft dash (out of the room). But as soon as I put her down, she saw that it was snacktime, and went to her chair and grabbed her sippy and could care less that I was leaving. My little grown up girl.
:-)

mountain lion?

so our friends over at johnny's brother have a post about a mountain lion siting near their house! i wanted to see the news picture, because they said they couldn't see this hiding mountain lion. here's the original (in case you don't want to go to the news site):

apparently, someone used their camera phone to snap the picture, and the mountain lion is hiding behind the tree. the tail should be visible if you look hard enough. well, being the graphic artist that i am, i've zoomed in and enhanced the picture:

see it now? no? well to avoid any further confusion, i've used my hi-tech-no-grafx computational analysis video processor to digitally place the tree in the background so we can see the whole mountain lion:

AND AWAAAAAY WE GO! :-P

Trip to the Zoo

This weekend we visited the Reston Zoo for the first time. We weren't exactly sure how Aria would react. She was okay as long as the animals were slow moving like the turtles or behind glass like the reptiles. The sheep, goats, birds and monkeys were just a little bit too much for her to handle. Overall it was nice to get out and see something a little different. See pictures/video below:

This is our family in more ways than one.

Goofy Daddy was the only one brave enough to feed the goats.

Just look at that face. I wonder what she's thinking about?
"Those goats are going to nibble on me if I get too close!"

I didn't know birds were so scary (especially caged ones)...

A day with sticks is a great day!

Family photo...and Aria with her beloved sticks.

Bubbles for Aria!

This is a cute little song Aria learned at Gymboree:

Bubbles In The Air (sung to If You're Happy And You Know It)

There are bubbles in the air, in the air (x2)
There are bubbles in the air
There are bubbles everywhere
There are bubbles in the air, in the air

There are bubbles way up high, way up high (x2)
There are bubbles way up high
There are bubbles in the sky
There are bubbles way up high, way up high

BUBBLES FOR ARIA...

Our little fashionable pirate...

We noticed Aria's eye sometimes turning in when she was an infant, but the doctor told us this was normal and it would probably correct itself. It seemed to get better sometime after she turned 1, but then got worse around 15/16 months. At her 18 mo appointment her doctor sent us to a specialist and he concluded that she needed to patch 3 hours a day until her 8 week follow-up appointment. At that point he will assess her improvement and she will probably have to continue to wear a patch for a while. The doctor did say that sometimes patching doesn't help and it can only be fixed with surgery. Hopefully we won't have to go that route.

So after about 2 weeks of trying and trying to get Aria to wear her "sticker" we were finally successful with total compliance. At first there was nothing we could say or do to convince her she needed to keep it on her face. We approached her with a fun attitude, clapping and singing, but she wasn't having any of it. After reading some advice on-line, I came across this:

Consider having a rule that only parents touch (put on, take off) the patch (e.g., "When the patch is on, only Mom or Dad touch the patch.")

So there it was. The one piece of advice that was the key to our success. She finally let me put the "sticker" on and I told her that "mommy will take the sticker off when it's time". Voilà! She didn't pull it off her face. I had to remind her about 20 times, but it worked! Everyday has been the same since. No fight, no fuss.

Cute Aria with her wonky eye (about half her pictures turn out this way now, this will be one of the few you get to see :-)

We picked out some fun stickers for her to wear and of course they match each outfit accordingly:

Ladybug Red

Smiley Blue

Flower Power Pink

Make sure to take time to smell the flowers :-)

Daycare = Ear Infection + Pink Eye

So after a long weekend of snot and little sleep Aria had her first sick-day and stayed home from school. We took her to the doctors and found out she picked up a cold that turned into an ear infection and also got pink eye! Double wammy. Poor little girl. Hopefully she'll get better soon.

We did take a little time out Saturday and went across the street to play with Austin. He's the same age as Aria and is a little cutie. Here are some pictures:

Austin and Aria having a ball!

Aria mowing our neighbors lawn...

Here's a closer look at the background - like father, like daughter!