Let's talk about Aria Lavenue

Candid shot #2

Two poses, completely natural, taken by DC Donahue, are listed here. I could not decide which was more adorable so I leave it for you to decide.

Elizabeth's favorite is the one where she's not smiling. But I cannot decide...and love the smiling one because that is our number one activity: laughing together.

What's your favorite? Add a comment. We'd love to hear from you.

A candid shot

The latest Aria developments:

- Dancing in place first thing in the morning
- Eating just about everything in sight, and ESPECIALLY what we're eating
- Screaming as she runs around and keeps looking to see if you're watching her.
- Expressing her frustration when we set a boundary
- Making us laugh each day with some new facial expression

Pushing doors is cool!

Pulling doors open and then pushing them shut, as well as figuring out how they open and close, is a favorite activity for Aria. Here she is at DC's house, where she goes for day care, and she's holding her other favorite obsession: a book.

This photo was taken by DC's 15-year old son. I think he's got a future in photography!

This really captures her mischieviousness as well...note the expression.

August Beach Trip

Uncle Marsh and Aunt Allana came to visit us in August and we spent a couple of days at the coast.

Here's a sweet picture of Marsh reading to Aria. OR more specifically, he's repeating the word "basketball" over and over and trying to get it to sink in over the soccer cells already placed there by Mama Myra.

Memories of the trip include Aria giggling and enjoying her time with Aunt and Uncle.

A day in the life of Aria

Taken from a note written from her afternoon daycare provider, DC:
Sleep- about 40 minutes, sling to crib, sweetly
Food- all solids, toyed with the bottle a bit
Diapers- two wet ones
Action- an outside day, walks and stroller ride to Taste of Europe for a snack and some chess.
Read- "Are you my mother?" a truly great book.
Aria loved Jonah today (the other child DC takes care of....) and also Rose, the cat.

Walking, yes indeed, ok, not quite

Aria has places to go, people to see, and darn these legs, why won't they get her there! We have started holding her hands and walking above her as she takes her first steps. She's hyper-exaggerating the knee lift now on both legs, and loving how she can get from place to place with her own feet (oh, right and there is that huge human above her holding her steady). We think she'll crawl anyday now, but she's currently doing the "swimming" move and not realizing yet how the knees need to come up and weight to shift for her to get somewhere on her own.

Last night, she ate her first honeydew melon, okay, well she sucked on one. Watching her analyze new food is such a crack-up. Hits so far are the sweet potato, melon, applesauce, and miso soup. A recent flop is avocado, which was just not her cup of tea. (Mama Myra promptly ate the rest after mixing in a little lemon juice and sour cream.)

Dada, huh?

Okay, so now we now, "dada" is not a baby's first word: it's just phonetics! So all of you dads out there, get over yourselves, because Aria is saying "dada" and no one in this house taught it to her or answers to that word. (smile) Here's a typical exchange: Aria looks at Myra and says "dada," Myra looks at Aria and says, "no dada, mama." Then Aria replies, "dada nana." And we're done. What can a mama say to that?

Two moms and a baby

Disco Baby

Okay, now this is the cutest yet: she's swaying from side to side, from the waist up, rapidly. And yesterday she began going back and forth quickly too, so watch out for your sternum if you're holding her! Combined, these moves are looking alot like the beginnings of her disco dancing to come.

Her facial expressions have now increased to include downright frustration over not being able to reach the food on our plate. Though we tell her that teeth are really the key element to being able to eat what we do, she thinks we're kidding. Yesterday we gave her a mushy banana in rice cereal, and the reception was definitely lukewarm. I think she's on to us. I think she realizes she's not getting the same goods we are at the dinner table. And she's feeling ripped off. "Quick, throw the little cloth doll on her high chair tray to distract her as we try to finish our meal!"

6 months old!

Wow, Aria is six months old, and the milestones are starting to fly by much faster! Now she’s grabbing with both hands, leaning over in her seat to grab anything in sight, and thrusting various things towards her face for the ultimate taste test. She’s gotten enormously vocal as well, and now her extended “ahhhhhhhhh”s and “ohhhhhhh”s are starting to sound more like words, “ahh oh.” Her hair is filling in now too, and the adorable mohawk look is starting to fade. Her eyes are settling into a new shade of greenish tones, but we wonder if this is the final hue.

Yesterday, I played a new game with her: sitting her in a small bean bag chair (just her size) and sitting in front, beckoning her towards me. She would look at me gesturing and then recognition would dawn on her what I was asking, and she would rock back and forth, then push herself OUT of the chair, reach a standing position and then fall into my hands. I’ll bet we did this 20 times before she tired of it. (I wanted to do it 20 times more, but maybe tomorrow.) Still no intense interest in crawling, but we have varied her food intake to applesauce and rice cereal...and will begin making her organic baby food soon, trying something new each week. Gosh, what the heck did we used to do with our free time before she came? Hmmmmm....

Solid food adventure

Yesterday, Aria ate her first bit of solid food! We videotaped the performance, so stellar was she at eating from a spoon with gusto. Her recent curiosity at just about everything we eat has grown to an extreme...to the point that she'll stop chewing on the toy or making faces, simply to eye our food with envy. "I am completely capable of eating that peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Why are you treating me like a baby?" she seems to be saying. Elizabeth is feeling a new sense of freedom from being the sole feeder of this little 5-month old. While I am seeing how much better I'm going to need to get with my spooning abilities, lest we go through ten outfits a day. Feel free to comment on this post and give us any tips on baby feeding!

Happy Holidays!

As Christmas nears, Elizabeth and I revel in the constant growth and behavior changes in our now 5-month old baby. Aria is the best gift we could have asked for this year (or any year, for that matter) and though our lives are very different than before her birth, we're so happy to be parents! Check out these adorable recent photos of her.