Ariel's Birthday Party

Yeah, it was two months ago, but wouldn't you rather see the pictures now than never?

A Baby Song

One Year Old

Felicity's first birthday was last Saturday, the 9th. It was a lot of fun!

I really wanted to make the party something special, so I came up with the idea of decorating the table with ribbons and photographs.


I also hung ribbons from the chandelier and from Felicity's high chair, and I used a doll cradle to hold her gifts. I thought the final look was very cute. It was also cheap - each spool of ribbon was only $1 at Michaels!

We wanted to do a traditional cake for Felicity's birthday, and frosting cakes has never been my strongest skill. But, after a couple hours of fiddling, I came up with this:


Dan's sister Heather came up from Salem with her family, which is always fun! My mom, dad, and youngest brother came, as did Navi and Luna. Rae Ann also stopped in for a few minutes to give Felicity her gift. She was also kind enough to take a few pictures and videos!






Felicity's first attempts at cake eating were hilarious! She can be such a dainty little thing!



Eventually, she got the hang of it.




Felicity got some great gifts! Books from Aunt Heather, a cute outfit from Aunt Heidi, pretty bowls from Auntie Rae, crayons from Navi and Luna, and a soft doll from Mommy and Daddy.



Oh, and Grandma gave a wonderful gift as well - she brought snacks for the party! Then, because she loves to outdo herself, she also brought two DARLING outfits for her, which I'm already trying to wrestle stains out of. That child...

Sweet Girl Time

Ariel asked me to put Felicity in the doll cradle with her. Here's what happened.

Callin' the Fam

While I'm putting up cute things...

Here's a precious video that Dan took two days ago! They say it's easier to learn things through song than just speaking them aloud, but I think at this age it's easier the other way around...

I just have to post this...

Because I can't handle how cute it is. And I don't think you'll be able to handle it, either. It's just too much.

Doing What She Wants

What happens when you humor a toddler for several minutes straight? Today, I found out.

I went into my bedroom to change out of my pajamas this morning. Ariel followed, and, when I went to change my top, she started whining and trying to remove her shirt, too.

"Help? Help? Shirt?"

"No, Ariel, let's leave your shirt on."

"No! [whine] Help! Shirt!"

Why am I so quick to say no? I thought. What's wrong with what she's asking?

"Ok, Ariel, we can take your shirt off." I removed her shirt.

"Help? Pants?"

"Okay..." The pants came off.

"'N' diaper? Help?"

"Ummm...." By this point I didn't want to let her down and have all the undressing be for nothing. Plus, she has good bladder control. "Sure, Mommy will wipe you and then you can run around with no diaper."

A minute later, there was a little bare-butted munchkin following me around.

I proceeded to change my clothes.

"Shirt? My shirt?"

"Oh, you want to wear this shirt?"

"Hmm!"

I gave her my shirt and replaced my pajama top.

"Ree bee bee? Ree bee bee?"

"Sure, we can sing 'Rockabye Baby.'"

And that's how Dan came to catch the following on video.



Did I mind the intrusion on my plans? Not a bit!

A Kick in the Pants

That's my little girl.

At lunch today, I gave her some cheese.

"Crack?"

I brought her a few crackers.

"Bean?"

"What, Ariel?"

"Ummmm... bean?"

I don't feed her plain beans, and have never heard her refer to any food as "bean," so I asked, "What's bean?"

"I-it's icky."

Oh, okay. I can see why you would want it then...

............................................

Ariel has learned her ABC's.



That's not all she's learned. She came up with this one all by herself.

She may be crazy, but I sure am crazy about her!

Geez Louise!

Today, I asked Ariel if she wanted a hot dog or a quesadilla. She cocked her head thoughtfully and replied, "Ummmm.... quesadilla!" I could tell that she meant it, too! By the time we got through the line at Taco Bell, she had shortened it to "quisa." As in, "Mo' quisa? MMMM!"

She's saying all kinds of new, bigger words lately, and understanding more than ever! I wish I could think of more of the things that she's said in the last few days, because I think you would be shocked. I sure have been!

We removed our television from the living room two nights ago, in preparation for returning it to the place from whence it came. Since then, Ariel has been walking around asking, "Toovee? Toovee?" We tell her it's "all gone! Bye-bye, TV!" But she's not satisfied with that answer. Ah, well! I'm more than satisfied to have it gone - two days straight with no Winnie the Pooh has been quite a luxury. Once they learn to turn the television on by themselves, there's no stopping the insanity.

I have been having a grand ol' time the last couple days reading The Pioneer Woman. It is arguably the best blog ever. This woman is an AMAZING writer and FABULOUS photographer, and her pictures will have you drooling almost as much as her dramatic story of how her and her husband got together, which she's been writing in installments for several months. Anywho, I stayed up till 2 in the morning on Friday and 1 on Saturday because I just couldn't stop reading the darned thing, which probably isn't a good thing for the mother of an infant to be doing with the hours that her child is sleeping. But I've taken a couple naps to help make up for it, and I'm feeling just fine (compared to normal, that is - don't think for one second that I'm not tired!).

I will leave you with a video of Ariel doing one of her favorite things while talking about another one of her favorite things:

If you were a fly on our wall...

...this is what you would see.

Counting, continued

Well, she's just about got it!



We're missing 1 and 3, but otherwise she's got it down! I am one proud mama!

BTW, I don't know why it shows a video camera on here instead of the first frame, but if you click on it, it DOES work!

A little songbird

We've been having the pleasure of listening to Ariel sing today. I heard her mumble something while getting her down from her highchair, and she followed it with "hey, hey, hey." The "hey"s were evenly spaced, which made me suspect that she was singing something.

Then again - "Uh um uh-bar, hey, hey, hey."

"Ariel? Are you singing the umbrella song?"

"Hmm. Uh um uh-bar..."

For those of you who haven't spent a lot of time around Ariel lately, "hmm" means "yes." I think she learned it from me, I'm sorry to say. And the song in question is Umbrella by Rihanna, or, in this case, covered by Marie Digby, because that's the version that we listen to on the radio in the car. "Uh um uh-bar" is her attempt at the words "under my umbrella." Apparently I'm not the only one with this song stuck in my head, because we caught her singing it a couple times.



We were also able to prompt her to sing it to us this evening as we drove home, and it was far more lovely than listening to the radio.

I wish I had a video for you, but our camera isn't working, and, even if it was, there's no way that she would perform for it. I wish I could catch each precious moment and save them forever, but Ariel keeps me living life instead of recording it, because I know that pulling out a camera always puts an end to the special moments. She touches my heart a hundred times a day, and all I have to rely on is my already fading memories of each moment. It makes me feel sad and insufficient, knowing that I am incapable of preserving something so precious. Her life runs like water in a faucet, rushing down the drain of time, and though I put my hands out to catch it, I can hold so little and it slips through the cracks in my fingers.

All great joys are bittersweet. I guess that's what keeps us hoping for heaven.

How awesome is this!?!

She's getting so big!

I was told this many times while pregnant, and it's definitely true:

Having a new baby makes your older baby seem HUGE!

I know she's actually a petite little thing, but every time pick Ariel up, I can't believe how heavy she is. And every time I change her diaper, I can't believe she's not potty trained - darn it!

I swear she's learning a word a day at least. It seems like whether she learns a certain word quickly and retains it well is largely dependent upon whether it is advantageous for her to do so. Take the following:



Notice how she's almost bossy? It's all I can do to keep her from running the house instead of me! Sometimes I think I fail at that...

One thing she's been bossy about lately is how she eats. She has to have what we have, and in the way that we have it - that is, with all the same dishes and utensils. Breakfast is cereal in a bowl with milk and a spoon. It's messy, but it could be worse. We keep a sheet under her chair. The messiest food, it seems, is yogurt.



You may have observe the evidence of what she HAD been doing and refused to re-create for the camera: frosting her English muffin and pieces of cereal with yogurt. Where does she come up with things like this??? Anyway, I only give her yogurt now when I plan to give her a bath. We also gave her a glass for the first time a couple days ago. I bought a set of small glasses at Ikea on Wednesday ($1.99 for 6 - how is that possible?), and she did a great job of drinking juice out of it without spilling! She was so proud of herself! Of course, after she downed two glasses of juice and wanted more, we switched her to water, at which point she threw a fit and smacked the glass down onto her plate (which is made of Corelle, a ceramic-type material). Fortunately, nothing broke, but we'll have to be careful to take away breakables before she gets too upset in the future.

On to more pleasant developments. In the past couple days, Ariel has learned a very special phrase:



She has volunteered this once to each of us, which, naturally, completely melted our hearts!

Sorry I don't have any new pics of Felicity. The fact is, she doesn't DO anything. She just lies there, eyes closed, milk dripping from her mouth. Maybe I should get a picture of that. Okay, I'll get a picture of that and post it next time. Sound good?

Introducing...

Felicity Ann, born Thursday, August 9th, at 1:41pm! She was 7lb 5 oz and 19 inches long, and oh-so-pretty! We are very happy to have a new little princess in our home!

What Do!

I caught it on video! Here's Ariel singing "Do Right"!



Also, we've been working on making baths more enjoyable (she hates getting her hair rinsed and it makes bath time miserable for everyone). The last couple baths that she's had have been very positive - she's played in there for a bit and we've been able to rinse her hair quickly and without too much suffering. It helps that she loves her rubber ducks so much! Here she is unable to think about anything else:

Okay, Dan uploaded some of our pics and videos of Ariel yesterday, so here's a little taste of what we've been enjoying for the last month or so...

Like many mischievous little toddlers, Ariel doesn't always spend her nap-time NAPPING. Sometimes she reaches into the box of outgrown clothing next to her and starts filling her crib with little onesies and tiny jackets. Sometimes she drops her dolly on the floor and then stand there yelling for it. And, one time, she made herself this fascinating costume...



She's walking now - more than she crawls. It's so fun to see this tiny person toddling around the house, hollering about who-knows-what, or carrying her little sippy cup from place to place, with a proud "Bup! Bup!" I love these little first words. I love the thrill of realizing what she's saying and being able to respond to her. She's really becoming less of a baby all the time, and it's incredible to see the transformation.



One thing that Ariel does that always cracks us up is open her mouth wide when she wants a bite or drink of something. The face she makes is a gaping, baby-bird mouth with eyes tightly shut. She does it for a second in this movie after she sits down. So cute!



Well, that's all for now, but there'll be more to follow, I promise! Love you all!