she's too easy, TGIF babbling from goofydaddy

after about a week of taking Aria to her new classroom, she still wants to go to the old one (it doesn't help that it's right next door). so instead of walking her to the room, I have to carry her. once we're in the new room, Aria's all business and puts her water and lunch in her cubby, then goes to play. today she gave her teachers hugs hello! I got two hugs, a kiss, and a "bye-bye daddy".

There are two children in Aria's class who are working on their separation issues currently. Aria is intrigued by this, and it has a calming effect on her. She kind of stares at them as if to say "what's wrong?" one of the kids gets more upset when i come in to drop Aria off because i remind her that she was dropped off and her daddy left her too. I feel bad everyday when this happens. She sees me and starts crying even more while looking at me and screams "daddy!"

back in April when we started putting her in daycare, Aria went through that to some extent. it's cool to see how grown-up and evermore independent she has become.

we have a set routine now, Aria brings a toy along for the car ride, and knows that it has to stay in the car when we get to school. when i say that it's time to go to school, she loves getting her shoes from the shoe bucket by the front door. then she'll say "Aria bring caterpillar to school?" and get him and then we get in the car. when we pull into the parking lot, she says "we're here!" and tosses the caterpillar into the seat next to her, and tries to take the car seat buckle off. she carries her water and lunchbag in to school. She's so easy! and I am glad for that.

Aria has a purse with a phone, keys, glasses, and some other things which she sometimes likes to bring with her in the morning. yesterday morning, she pulled the glasses out and put them on by herself. i had to snap a picture with my phone!

NY and Hershey Gardens

On our way back from Massachusetts, we visited my Aunt and Uncle in New York. they moved a little north of where they lived for a long time and i was a little sad to not visit their old house. I have a ton of awesome memories of visiting my relatives in that house. we had so much fun with my aunt and uncle, and one of my cousins and his family. after dinner, we went to the park nearby, and Aria loved running around to all the different slides and see-saws! no pics of that because we forgot the camera, and too bad, because when Aria was on a swing, she asked "mommy and daddy swing too?" so we did, and she thought that was hysterical! who knows...

That night we drove to a hotel near Hershey and headed to Hershey Gardens bright and early the next morning. we do have pictures of that!

Aria pointing at a butterfly.

Aria liked all the flowers. the video is her sniffing the flowers.

next post will be my hiking/camping trip. then labor day post finally!

trip to massachusetts

The weekend after, we drove up to Massachusetts. We figured the best quickest way to do this was to take the New Jersey turnpike, but drive over night so there was no traffic, and Aria would sleep the whole time. she pretty much did, and it only took us about 8 hrs. If we had left during the day, we would have gone through Pennsylvania instead, and would have had to stop numerous times to break up the trip for Aria, maybe taking 12 hrs to get there. the only bad thing was that neither of us really got any sleep. we napped when Aria napped :-)

So Aria got to meet her first cousin Felipe, and second cousin James! Aria was VERY jealous of Felipe's toys, and especially his bouncer. she would climb in it when he wasn't in it, and get upset when he was. in general, Aria acted half her age. very interesting to say the least. here's a picture of the first cousins, with Aria showing her feelings about Felipe being in HIS bouncer.



We went to Gooseberry Island and walked on the beach, Aria loved it:
Sunday was a beautiful day, we all went to a park, and it was windy enough to fly a stunt kite Stephen let us borrow. unfortunately no good pictures of that, because we're always about taking pictures of Aria :-P
Next post: NY and Hershey Gardens!

visit from friends, and a farm visit

ok, first weekend way back a while ago:
Our friends Neil and Martinafrom Texas were in the area visiting family, and they came over for dinner. Here's Aria and Paige hugging.
The next day (Saturday), the three of us went to Frying Pan Park Farm, and Aria had a blast! We had to get a picture of her on the kid-sized tractors for Pop-pop.tomorrow's post: Our trip to Massachusetts!

A Morning at the Gardens

This past weekend Austin and his mom joined Aria and I on a trip to the local botanical gardens. We all had a great time and ended the adventure with a picnic. The weather was beautiful and the kids were well behaved. Although Austin started teasing Aria towards the end. He was threatening to take Doogan and she wasn't having it, she replied with many screams! Kids are funny just being kids. Afterwards she kept talking about "Austin no take Doogan?" Haha! Austin is her buddy.

Playing in the sand...

Tea for Twos (almost 2)

It's picnic time!

Aria is on a 1.5 week break from school. She's been hanging out with her Grandmas, but today she went to Austin's School for the day (they have a back-up care program at my work). She loved it! And I'm pretty sure that it helped that she knew someone.

Kevin said he'd post more picts from the last couple weeks tomorrow...

lots of fun weekends...

let's see, we've been to a farm (Aria still talks about the sheep's loud bleeting), our friends' parents' house in Woodstock, VA (i don't think we took any pictures, but they visited us as well and we have pictures from that), my brother's house in MA to meet my nephew Felipe (Aria loved all the infant toys, but not that the infant wanted to play with them), my Aunt and Uncle's new condo in NY, and Hershey Gardens (Hershey Park would have been too tiring for us). That was just the past 2 weekends! this week, Aria's school is closed, so the Grandmas are visiting!

couple of tidbits from this morning:

when I said i was leaving to go to work, Aria asked, "hug?" I said "Of course!" and she came over and hugged me. I melt everytime she does that, and to make it worse, after the hug, she kissed me! the she said "Bye Bye Daddy." and went back to playing with Grandma.

lately when Aria wakes up in the morning she says funny things, like "where's paci?" or she has conversations with elmo or doogan, telling them that mommy went to work, and then calls me to get her. well this morning, i was getting ready for work before Aria woke up, and she started moving and groaning like she normally does, then she starts singing "happy birthday to you"! we think they must have had a birthday in her school recently, because she's been singing that every now and then. (in addition to the itsy-bitsy spider, row your boat, and old macdonald)

Aria's birthday this october should be fun!

we will do some postings with pictures very soon of the above mentioned events. it's been hectic, sorry!

Yummy Grain Waffles

This is the second time I've made these waffles and I just love them! Since we've run out of the last batch in the freezer, Aria's been asking for them every morning. Haha. So, I whipped some up tonight and threw more into the freezer.

They have some pretty interesting ingredients, but surprisingly they all blend together and taste so yummy. I just couldn't resist sharing!

I found the recipie on allrecipes.com, here it is:

INGREDIENTS
2 eggs, beaten
1 3/4 cups skim milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup flax seed meal
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, oil, applesauce, and vanilla. Beat in whole wheat flour, flax seed meal, wheat germ, all-purpose flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt until batter is smooth.
Preheat a waffle iron, and coat with cooking spray. Pour batter into waffle iron in batches, and cook until crisp and golden brown.