Aria's First Christmas

Aria's first Christmas involved 4 different celebrations over a span of 3 days! Whew! She was a trooper through it all. Despite minimal naptime and lots of time in the car, she really didn't get too cranky! The day(s) started off at the Christmas Eve service where Aria randomly started clapping for the first time and has been doing it ever since! Our family of 3 Christmas was a wonderful experience where each of us got 3 presents. By the third present, Aria was more interested in playing with Augie's new ball. Then on Christmas day we traveled to my parents where attention to presents was distracted by lights on the Christmas tree and what the dogs were doing outside. We ate a great lunch, in which my dad was suprised Aria ate broccoli, and took a brief nap. Then it was back in the car to Justin's parents for a celebration with his parents, sister, and grandma. These presents had lots of pretty paper and bows, which was also pretty distracting. Finally, on the day after Christmas we got together with Justin's mom's family where Aria has a cousin 3 months older than her who provided great distractions! I don't mean to sound ungrateful because we are so very thankful for all the wonderful gifts we received from our family. They have spoiled us all WAY too much! However, more important it was wonderful to spend quality time with our families to celebrate the birth of our Saviour. Such a brief summary doesn't do Aria's first Christmas much justice, but hopefully the pictures fill in some of the gaps! We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Makin' Her Mama Proud

It Won't Be Long!

We have a stepper! I'm not going to call it walking yet because she doesn't walk for transportation, but she is definitely taking steps! I think 5 or 6 is about her max right now, unassisted. But she wants to walk, walk, walk everywhere when holding on to things. I haven't been able to capture her use of the kitchen chairs to walk around the kitchen, but this lion video will do!

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I do really love to read! But, I have a little problem. When I read a book I usually can't put it down until it is done. I HAVE to know what happens next. I think I have mentioned this before and it doesn't really go with one of my recent posts about waiting, but I guess we all have bad habits. Anyway, my most recent read was "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." Holy cow what a thriller! The book is all the rave these days as a best seller. My mom actually read it first as a part of her book club and passed it on to me. When I first began reading I thought, "what is so exciting about this?" In fact, a friend asked me what it was about when I was early on in the book and I flipped it over to use the back summary to help me explain and the summary was about something I hadn't even read anything about yet. So, if you can get through the first few chapters, I promise you won't want to put it down! To give a brief summary, a journalist is recruited to look into a 40 year old locked room mystery of the disappearance of a young girl. The girl's uncle hires the journalist for big bucks to work on it for a year to try to solve the seemingly unsolvable disappearance. The one slight downfall is that it is by a Swedish author, so the names and locations can be a bit hard to follow. But, if you are like me and just make up your own pronounciations and such, you'll get through it. There are so many great twists and turns and many mouth dropping moments. I love a good mystery and this definitely ranks near the top of my list of good mysteries. I will warn that there is sex and language and it is not appropriate for less than adults, but the mystery part is just fabulous. There are 2 more books in the series and I can't wait to not put those down either!

Colors

Aria's understanding vocabulary has really started to expand. We can ask her to find things like the Christmas tree, the light, someone or something's nose and she will look right at the object. It is so amazing to me how much she understands even though she can't communicate that understanding to us. This weekend she demonstrated an understanding of blue and yellow! She still doesn't follow my directions 100% of the time, but it was so much fun to see her search for the right color!

I Can't Wait

Or maybe I can. My parents will tell you that I always couldn't wait for the next big thing growing up. Turning 5 and going to school, moving on to the next grade, turning 10, 14, 16, that big basketball game on the schedule, etc, etc, etc. As soon as I got to my next big thing I found something else I couldn't wait for. Well, God taught me a HUGE lesson in waiting when I didn't have a baby when I saw fit. I am so thankful for waiting now because

I am more wise
we are financially set for me to be a stay-at-home mom
I have more patience with a lot of things
I have a daughter approximately the same age as many friends and relatives' children
I was ready to give up my work to be a mom
technology just keeps getting better
I enjoy all of Aria's stages

When I make the statement, "I can't wait..." I've been trying to correct myself and change it to, "I am looking forward to..." Sure, there are many things in life to look forward to. I am excited for Christmas. I am excited for Aria to walk. I am excited for Aria to talk. I am excited for Aria's first birthday party. I am excited for a certain wedding next summer when Aria will be a flower girl. However, there is something to be said for enjoying the moment, too. Sorry all you baby lovers out there, but I will take my almost toddler over a newborn any day. I did get caught up in wishing Aria's life away in those first few months. I'd like to attribute it to experiencing a major life change, hormones, a little postpartum anxiety, and just bad habits. But now I'm enjoying the crawling, the constant "ma", the few teetering steps (as long as the fall doesn't involve hysterical crying) and the endless smiles. Each day is a new adventure and we have so much fun exploring and learning that I don't have time to wish away the time. I think living in the moment has helped me to stop worrying as much and to enjoy the simple things in life. Sometimes waiting is hard, especially when you have to wait a long time for something you really want. But, God's plan is always perfect and who can argue with perfection?

It may be 17 days til Christmas, 52 days til that birthday party, 213 days til that wedding, and who knows how long to her next major milestone, but who's counting? I can wait!