Last week in January...

New this week: Well, we are officially off of formula and on to whole milk! She is loving it! And so far, so good! Also new this week, we have eliminated that morning nap. The first day was fine and then after that she seemed like she was missing something around 10...but we got through it and she is sleeping really well in the afternoon! There are still a few times that she'll take a short little nap in the morning, but only if she woke up early or is just having one of those days! The one that is really making an adjustment is Mommy!! Man I love those naps...time to get things done!! Oh well, we're adjusting! Aurelia is better at that than we are!! ha ha! Another new thing that Ari has started doing pretending to talk on the phone! It's really cute, she'll hand me the phone, I'll pretend to talk on it and that the person calling is looking for her. And then I hand it to her and she holds it up to her head (way past her ear!!)! It's really funny to watch her do! She hasn't started "talking" into it yet, but I have a feeling it's coming!

We started out the week with a Dr's visit...her 1 year check up! Ari has only gained about a pound in 3 months! She is now up to 18 pounds, 12 ounces, which puts her in the 14th percentile. The Dr. didn't seem too concerned with her weight, especially now that she's moving around more (a whole lot more!!!). She did grow a couple of inches and is at 28 inches, the 38th percentile and in the 45th percentile for head size. Dr. Golnik was very impressed with all her cognitive and verbal actions, she was quite the little show-off!
When we got home from the clinic, she had MORE birthday presents to open from her Tio Ramon and Auntie D in Texas! She loved her tutu and kept it on the entire night until PJ's, but I do think she's going to be a shoe girl...
She loves clapping when things make her happy (sometimes she claps along with her Happy Dance!!), here she is clapping for Kitty, not sure what he did that made her happy! Maybe it's just that he's Kitty!
And she does love her Elmo...although it kinda looks like Elmo's yelling at her...
Along with her shoes, this girl loves her phones!! She has a couple of different ones, her Elmo one, a musical one, one that looks most like a real cell (V-tech), but her favorite is still one of ours! On Wednesday, she was all about looking at Wuelo's picture and kept picking up the phone, I think she was trying to tell us something and missed her Wuelo!!!
On Thursday, Mommy picked up a dayshift and Miss Ari Vail spent the day with her Daddy... And this is what I came home to, after her bath...looks like Daddy had fun doing her hair!
On Friday, Zac and I both had our annual eye appointment and so we took the afternoon and enjoyed the mall...Aurelia enjoyed her snack!!
It was a work weekend, but for the most part, it was a nice relaxing weekend with our little family!!!

It's Been a Year...

New This Week: Aurelia has started clapping and loves to celebrate her little accomplishments with a nice round of applause! She is also starting to really follow commands...when asked, she'll put Kitty down when we are going upstairs or she takes out her paci and puts Lamby/Turtle in the crib when we are done with diapers after she wakes up. She seems to do it with such pride too! She also does more than her head-shake dance move...she now does a little bounce and shakes her booty, along with her "happy dance" that she does when she's sitting down, very cute! Along with finding her head when we read the 5 Little Monkeys book, she also has found noses! She loves to squeeze them, so look out! She has gotten really good at blowing (now without a little spit!) when we tell her something is hot. And just in time for her 1st Birthday Party, she has nailed down the #1! When we ask her how old she is, she points her little finger.

Well we started off the week (Tia Bria's Birthday!!!) by doing a little shopping with Grandma Bena. Unfortunately, Tia Bria couldn't join us so we celebrated with her in spirit...at the mall! Aurelia showed how she has found and loves the little Merry-go-Round at Southdale. She got soooo excited and just wanted to ride the little boat! She was a good girl afterward and had lunch with Grandma Bena and Mommy, like a big girl! She had such a good time shopping, she just kept at it when we got home!
Here she is, making some music, singing and dancing away!
On Wednesday (Grandpa Steve's birthday...unfortunately he was out of the country) it seems that Ari said her first sentance...Momma and Dada!! We just looked at eachother and asked her to say it again and she did! She said it again in her crib with she was trying to go to sleep...we were pretty proud! I think she was just trying to say Momma and Dada together so she doesn't hurt any feelings! Also, on Wednesday, she began following commands; putting things in the bucket, exp - "put the blocks in the bucket" "put Piggie in the bucket" "put the moracca in the bucket" FREAK'N GENIUS!!! ha ha! Here she is squeezing her buddy, Elmo's nose...
We spent Thursday, getting ready to pick up Wuelo! We were so excited for his visit!
We had a nice relaxing day on Friday (Mommy's birthday), so relaxing we didn't take our daily picture! In the morning we went to Aurelia's 1st hair appointment! That's right, she got her very first haircut! She did soooo good! It was a kids' place so she had a little horse to sit on (very much like the merry-go-round), Shrek on tv, and a very, very great stylist!!!


After her haircut, we went home for some lunch and then headed to MOA for a little shopping and dinner. Then came home to cake and presents! It was a great day!
Saturday was the big day! Aurelia Vail turned 1 at 1156 on the 23rd! We had her party at the Embassy Suites, by our home. It was just a convenient place to have all of our families together!
Watching our guests arrive...
Having some (and sharing) lunch!
Her first juice box with Grandma Bena!
Hanging out with Wuelo!
Having fun with Ashley!
Our guests getting some lunch!

Putting on her "Birthday Princess" crown!
Cake...yum!!!
Opening presents!
Chilling with Connor and Great Grandpa Doc...
And very happy that she had such a great birthday...thank you all!!!!
After our guests left, we went up to Grandma Bena and Grandpa Steve's room and continued the celebration! But first we had a little nap, followed by a dip in the pool! Did NOT go as we thought it would, ha ha! Aurelia wanted nothing to do with the pool. She seemed excited at first but I think it was just too cold for her...so her first pool experience didn't really go very far! But we went back up to the room and opened presents from Tia Bria and Charlie, and had some more dinner and yummy cake that Grandma Bena had made for us. It was a great birthday day for Aurelia Vail!
On Sunday morning, we sadly took Wuelo back to the airport and said our goodbyes. Then we headed to IHOP to celebrate the end of our birthday(s) week! The nice ladies there sang to Tia Bria, Grandpa Steve, Mommy, and Ari! She LOVED the fact that she got ice cream...again!!! It was a nice way to wrap up our birthday week!
More sad news on Sunday evening...when the Vikings lost!!! But here is Ari trying her hardest to tell the Vikes that we need a touchdown!

2nd Week in January...

New This Week: Aurelia now pats her head when asked if the monkey hit his head (5 Little Monkeys). Pretty cute! Her Encore Elmo has a feature that when you pinch it's nose, it says something cute or makes a funny noise. So now she likes to pinch mine and Daddy's noses and see what noise we make! She thinks she's soooo clever! BUT she does know where her nose is when we ask her, and her head! For Christmas, she got a little music-making stand that has a working microphone. We ask her to sing a song and she crawls over to it and "sings" into it and then looks at us, all proud! It looks like walking is on the verge of "new things", Aurelia got a couple of push toys and likes to walk back and forth the family room with them and is getting pretty good at "walking" along the furniture! And we are now working on her #1 finger; we ask her, "How old is Ari?" or "How old are you going to be, Aurelia?" and she holds up her finger...a work in progress!

Here's Aurelia showing me where the monkey bumped his head...
Ari doesn't seem to sit still long these days, but she got distracted with Elmo's World on Tuesday morning...
This is Ari's "cheese!" when we want to take her picture...
On Wednesday night, I got home from work and was just about to fall asleep, when Aurelia woke up screaming. At first I thought she was having a nightmare or had lost her paci (same thing!) until we realized that she was burning up. We tried to calm her and it took a good 30-45 minutes to calm her down. She had a temp of 101.3 and after talking to the nurse line, we gave her some Tylenol and tried to comfort her, but she was just so miserable. There was no cough, runny nose, diarrhea, nothing that would indicate an illness! It was almost 5 in the morning when we all finally fell back asleep. Then she woke up and had a low temp, but seemed to be doing just fine!
And on Friday, she seemed to be back to herself; playing with her toys and Kitty!
Saturday we had a nice relaxing family day. Ari developed a runny nose and a bit of a cough, but was still cheerful and her sweet self! Saturday evening, Yaya and Auntie Chelsea came over to babysit Aurelia while Mommy and Daddy went out for the evening! Mommy had gotten Brad Paisley tickets and a CD from Ari Vail for Christmas/birthday. We had a really fun night! After the concert we enjoyed ourselves at a pub and met up with some friends. It was a great time!
We ended the weekend by Yaya, Auntie Chelsea, and Mommy going to the Wedding Fair and then going to work and Daddy and Ari watched the Vikes win against the Cowboys! Other than Aurelia feeling a little under the weather, it was a nice, relaxing week!

1st Week in 2010

New This Week: got the chicken sound down! Also, when asked if things are hot, she "blows"! Even if its not hot and I tell her she has to wait, she thinks its because its hot and she "blows"...its kinda funny!

On Monday Aurelia got busted feeding Frida! (Obviously, it wasn't too upsetting since I took the time to get it on camera!) She is also working on saying "cheese" when there's a camera around...
Mommy had an 8 day work streak and it must have worn on her...I was out of commission for a couple of days so there was some days that Daddy did hair and did all of the playing!

Our basement looks like ToysRus and Ari Vail chooses the empty container her blocks came in to chew on!
Friday was the start to our "Family Weekend"...we started out with a night at the mall...here is Aurelia all ready to go... If only Daddy would wrap up the work stuff! Finally our little Shopping Diva arrived at the mall!
We had a really nice little weekend, just our little family. Lots of shopping (Mommy loved this!), watching movies (Daddy loved this!), and taking naps together (Frida loved this!). It was perfect!

Ari's 1st New Year's!

New This Week: a new tooth! Aurelia sprouted a new tooth on the bottom...that makes 3 down there and none on top...although there are 2 that seem to be just about to break through on top! Also, since calling Daddy "Babe", we have been working on Dada again and it now seems that her favorite word is "Da-Da". She prounounces it very clearly, as if to prove to us she is saying it correctly! Goofball! The other thing that she has started doing is "throwing" the ball...we'll roll or toss it to her and she picks it up and chucks it, sometimes far other times, not so far, but it is a throw! Frida loves it! Oh and her animal sounds are coming along...she has cow and duck down and is working on chicken! We are starting to work on blowing on things that are hot...getting ready for her 1st birthday candle!!!

Well after our busy weekend in Harmony, she spent the next few days getting to know all her presents. We decided that it was a bit overwhelming for Miss Ari to open all her boxes at once, so every couple of days we take a new toy out of its box and introduce it. Seems to be working so far! She even picks which one we open next...
One of her new toys is a little shopping cart that plays music and tells what the colors and shapes are... I think she was just showing me what an apple was so that it may prompt me to get to the grocery store!!!
Another one of her toys is a little music-making table that sings and talks in both Spanish and English...she takes it very seriously! Ha ha! So she spent part of New Year's Eve making music!!
Our NYE plans were VERY low-key...Mommy had to work and Aurelia was in bed at her regular time. Daddy was watching a movie and may have lost track of time, but all in all, we ended the year on an up note!
On New Year's Day, we opened her little Tea Party set and she liked pretending with it. The best part is that the little tea pot gives prompts for manners, one being, "more please" and Aurelia does her little hand signal for "more please"! Its too cute!
We did some shopping on Saturday to get out of the house for a bit and when we came home, it looked like Ari was still in the shopping mood! She went for her little cart and started loading it up with everything from her camera to groceries, to Frida's toys, and we can't forget Kitty!
We had a lazy day on Sunday, watching the Vikings win! Had plenty of opportunities to practice her "touchdown" signal!! Yay Vikings!!!