Aria discovers cherries...

Suckin' cherry juice through my mesh feeder...

Thanks oxyclean for getting the cherry juice out of my UVA bib!

Look ma, no hands. Now if I could only say "ma"...

Check out my teeth!!

Cheese!

I love my exersaucer...

Two pearly whites!

Contributing to the blog...

Update...7 MONTHS!!!

Aria is doing great...despite teething and what I now suspect is a cold. She is getting around by rolling everywhere and scooting backwards on the hardwoods. With us she is always laughing and smiling--if strangers fuss over her she bursts into tears--real tears and lots of them. Very disconcerting for people :0 She quickly recovers and once she gets used to the attention, smiles and flirts =) She loves her exersaucer and spends most of her time in it pushing objects off the side for me to pick up.

She has been enjoying football season and following the Eagles, Redskins and Chargers. She is very excited that the Chargers have moved ahead in the play-offs and play the Colts today. Aria loves to eat all fruits and vegetables although I avoid peas now since they have unfortunate side effects and challenge my diaper changing, clothes washing abilities. No crawling or babbling yet although we spend a lot of our time saying mama and dada to her.

Check out new pictures below!

Pictures from my brother-in-law, K

Cousin K feeding Aria while Cousin L supervises...yes, Aria's cousins are as sweet as they look.
Aria with her Sweigart GREAT-grandparents at Grandpa J's
Aunt Mel and great-grandma...
Having fun with the Sweigarts...
Green beans are Goooood!

Aunt D and Cousin K. Aria LOVES her cousins!
Opening gifts on just before Christmas. Aria loves this dog, a gift from Aunt M and Uncle K. Uncle K gets a amazing pictures of Aria!

Pictures from Christmas in Virginia!

Lots of great photos taken by my brother-in-law H and sister S. Their adorable red-head, A is feeding Aria and playing with her.

Back in CA

We had a fun time in Virginia seeing family and friends. Aria was a real trooper with all the traveling and had a great time with all her cousins--on both sides of the family. Chris and I had a wonderful time being with family and seeing our old friends. It was, as always, too short and there were a few people we'll have to catch up with during our spring trip back.

Aria caught her second cold and we've been laying low since we returned on Christmas between the cold, teething (her two lower front teeth are pushing through) and jet lag we've been struggling to get back on some semblance of a schedule. She is still sleeping 12/13 hours at night but going to bed at 5:30!

I will try to post some pictures as soon as I get them...

Back to VA for Christmas!

Hope to see most of the readers of this blog soon! I'll leave you with a picture of Aria's Virtual Play Group Holiday Party ;)

6 Month Check-up

Aria was weighed, measured and poked today at her 6 month appointment with the pediatrician. Her weight is 14 lbs 14 oz (25%), height 27" (90%) and head circumference 42 cm (normal). Everything went well. We are starting "solids" ie pureed foods (in addition to the rice cereal we've been giving for more than 2 months)

We are very excited to be going back to VA in less than a week!!

A Day in Our Life...

Most days Aria is up at 7:15 or thereabouts. C goes and gets her and changes her (if I get her she realizes she's hungry and cries) then brings her into our bedroom for me to nurse. Her smiles when she sees me sitting waiting in bed for her are the best part of my morning! After I nurse her and give her a bottle we usually watch daddy brush his teeth with the electric toothbrush. Fascinating!

She plays in the exersaucer while I drink my coffee, check my online board and email. Then we play on the floor until she's been up for about 1 1/2 hours. We strap on the Baby Bjorn and I take her with me while I walk Casey. We will sometimes do Baby Einstein when we return for 10 min then it is down for a one hour nap. We try to get out every day to the store, the mall or a play group at some point during the day.

Evenings are bath time with daddy, bottle with mommy and bed. Aria is in bed by 6:30 which leaves plenty of time to make dinner, watch a dvd, football or our favorite Tevo'd shows!

Christmas Photos

Christmas tree is up!

First Cold :(

Aria is slowly recovering from her first cold. She has been very congested and has a very phlegm-y cough.

Funnily enough, Casey has been showing his concern for her in a myriad of ways. He has been nosing open her door when she cries and following me in when I've checked on her in the middle of the night (something I rarely do when she is well). Today he went in to visit her, while she was crying,trying to fall asleep for her nap and would've stayed to eat his rawhide by her crib if we'd let him!

We're trying to latch the door a little tighter to prevent his visits when she is sleeping or going down for a nap.

More pictures of Aria and her cousin, Will...

More pictures of Aria and her cousin, Will...

Pics of Aria taken at Thanksgiving by my sister, C.

Aria meeting her cousin, Will, at Thanksgiving.

Will is 6 weeks older than Aria and about 6 -8 lbs bigger! They had so much fun smiling and grabbing each other. I can't wait to go home again for Christmas!!

Bunny hat, just hangin' out suckin' my thumb and readin'

My Favorite Photo

Get a load of how big her feet are! I know you probably thought that was just the camera angle but it isn't--she has Hilton-esque feet (hopefully that will be the only Hilton-esque thing about her). What a great grin. We get to see this all the time. Aria is super smile-y.

Hang Loose!!

Aria has mastered the one finger suck, two finger suck and now, presenting the three finger suck!! Impressive. She is gaining weight as you can probably tell! She definitely has blue eyes. If they were going to change, they would've changed by now...

You've seen the virtual Bumbo party...here's the virtual Halloween Party