Also...

Stay tuned for pics of Arya in the Elmo costume that her Grandma Carol made her! Grandma Carol has finished the body of the costume and is bringing the hood/Elmo's head with her when she comes back from Florida next week! I'm sure Arya will be spending a lot of time wearing it this winter when it is cold outside!

Hula Girl

I have taken a lot of pictures of Arya so far, but I thought it would be fun to have someone else take a few too. (Someone with a different perspective/backdrops/setups/ideas/etc.) I took her to Stacy and Mary in Indianapolis yesterday for their costume dress-up mini session. Arya was dressed as a little hula dancer, and she did a great job! I was just hoping she would wear the grass skirt! She really thought it was interesting when we first got it, but the day before the photo shoot she wanted nothing to do with it! I kept talking to her about her "dancing skirt" and how cool it was, asking things like, "Aren't you excited to wear your dancing skirt?" "Listen to that neat swoosh-swoosh sound it makes when you dance!" Anyway, when we got to the session, she seemed to have no problem wearing it! Yeah!! Stacy and Mary were really fun to work with and made us feel very relaxed and comfortable. Here are a couple of pics from the shoot! You can also see them on Stacy and Mary's blog. The rest of the pics will be ready to view in about a week. I can't wait! :)







PS - I made that little green top for Arya all by myself!! I was pretty happy with how it turned out since it was the first time I'd ever made a piece of clothing from a pattern!

Happy dog!

Here is something that was sent to me which makes Arya laugh. When she sees it she says, "Happy dog! Happy dog!" I hope the link works here!

I did it, Mommy!

Sunday we were getting ready for church. Arya had just gotten up and had gone to the bathroom. We put her diaper back on and she walked into the hallway near where Rajeev and I were. She started saying, "I did it. I did it." As we looked at her to listen to this new phrase she was saying, she looked at me and said, "I did it, Mommy!" Rajeev and I just looked at each other, shocked that a four word sentence had just come from her mouth. It was also surprising because she used the word, "I". She usually refers to herself as Arya.

She is trying to figure out the "you" and "me" thing. But think about it, that is pretty confusing stuff for an 18 month old!! Last night, we were playing and she started pointing at herself and then me, herself and then me. She'd say, "You!" and point to me, then point to herself, "Me". She'd immediately follow that by pointing to herself and saying, "You!", and then at me, saying, "Me!" There wasn't a consistent pattern for which phrase she used most, but she just kept pointing to either herself or to me and then saying either "you" or "me". This went back and forth for a few minutes and got us both laughing. (She likes to laugh along when other people laugh. It is very cute.) Her little brain is definitely hard at work learning new things these days though!

Potty Training Update (You can skip this if you want, but I figure this is worth keeping track of!)

Okay, this is probably something only moms are interested in...everyone else is going to be thinking, "Do we have to include the potty training stories??" This is a pretty big one though. Arya woke me up this morning at 5:58a.m. (much before her normal wake-up time which is usually around 8:30a.m.). She was saying, "Mommy! Pee pee! Mommy! Pee pee!" I figured, "Well, I guess I should see if she has to go to the bathroom!" Anyway, she still had a dry diaper, I took her to the bathroom, and she went! Then I put her diaper back on, took her back to bed and she went back to sleep until about 9:00a.m.! Needless to say, I'm amazed! I'm hardly doing anything - just taking her to sit on the potty when she wakes up in the morning and now usually after her nap - and she's moving toward figuring it out on her own.

My sweet, silly little girl

I just wanted to post of couple of pics that I took today of Arya. I was using a "light ring" that my brother Philip made, and that is what gives the interesting circle of light in the eyes. Arya didn't feel much like staying in front of the camera though. She prefers going around to the back of the camera, where she knows that she can see pictures of herself!! She'll keep saying, "Arya! Arya! Arya!!" until you break down and show her the pics!!

Arya's new fave: Feist

Arya has a new favorite to watch on YouTube. Here is Feist's video for the song 1234. You may have seen it on iPod commercials. Tonight Arya came up to me excitedly and said, "Feis! See! Okay!" In other words, she wanted to watch this video. Hope you enjoy it as much as Arya. (We also hope Arya learns to count "12345678" rather than "1234569 and 10" like in this song! We try to say the right numbers as we sing along, so we don't end up with a little girl who is totally confused when she learns to count!!

18 month update

I took Arya to the doctor for her 18 month checkup. She weighs 20 lbs., 10 ounces (4th percentile) and is 30" tall (10th percentile). She is continuing to grow (slowly but surely!). The doctor says she is doing great though and everything looks good!

Communication continues...

Arya has been putting two words together pretty regularly for a little over a month now. I know that she was doing it when we went to Toronto the first week of September. She would grab my hand and say things like, "Mama. Come," "Dada. Play," etc. It has just continued to pick up and become more regular since then.

She has been using one word after another to carry on conversation or to tell stories. For example, the other day after Arya's friend Maggie (who is now "Maggie" instead of just "Ma" or "Ma-ie") came over and played, colored, and drank some juice from a blue cup of Arya's. The next day, Arya told us about Maggie coming over kind of like this: "Maggie. Play. Cuh-cuh. Jyuice (while pointing to the blue cup Maggie had used)."

In the last week or so she's been using three words together more often in more sentence-like form. Last night, Rajeev had to go back to work after eating dinner with us. As he was telling her goodbye, she said, "Bye-bye, Daddy. Work!" This morning she wanted me to put her up on the bathroom counter. She said, "Sit up high!

I'm amazed to hear all of these words, phrases, and now sentences of sorts coming from this tiny little girl!

High Five! Awesome! Okay?

Arya is always doing funny little things that make us laugh. Last week she randomly walked up to me, held out her hand, and said completely clearly, "High five!"

She also has started picking up all kinds of words for things that are more abstract than concrete. She's been saying, "cool" for a while now. (For example, if she sees something sparkly that she thinks is pretty, she'll look at us and say, "Cool!") Another word she picked up a little over a week ago is "awesome". We were having dinner with friends, who volunteered to help us install the windows which will be arriving soon. I said, "Oh, that would be awesome!" Arya promptly followed that statement by saying, "Awesome!!" It definitely got a laugh, and she's been using it regularly since then!

Another funny thing that makes us laugh is Arya's use of the word "okay". Arya often wants something (for example, to watch her Elmo video or to eat candy) and she'll try to get us to give it to her. She'll look at us with this very reassuring look (totally serious, of course), and kind of nod a few times while saying, "Okay. Okay." She says it as if she's trying to convince us, "Really. You don't have to worry. It is just fine to give me what I want. It's OKAY."

How can you not love her??