1st Christmas

Aria's first Christmas must be recorded, it was pretty amazing. First off, we started Christmas Eve with a poor little girl getting sick. She kept coughing and waking up crying which made for a long night. We finally all got up on Christmas morning excited for presents, well excited to play with Aria's presents. While pulling presents out from under our choose-and-cut Christmas tree, we noticed some tiny bugs. Not just some bugs, hundreds of dead bugs all over the presents. We chose to ignore the bugs and continued to have fun helping Aria open her gifts. As we pulled out her last present, a slide, Lance noticed a not-yet-dead bug on her brand new slide. Upon closer inspection the bugs seemed to resemble ticks. Yikes, time for the tree to go. That's the fastest we've ever taken a tree down and out of the house. We googled the bugs and found out that they were not ticks (thank goodness!) but a type of pine tree aphid, harmless to people and pets. Still we vacuumed and cleaned up the room pretty well. We were all a little sad to lose our tree so quickly and came up with a compromise. Lance set the tree up outside and we decorated it there to enjoy for a few more days.

So between the bugs and quick Christmas tree departure, opening presents was pretty exciting. For Christmas dinner we enjoyed a quiet family dinner with a yummy ham.

This is how Santa Claus comes to town

We had our word Christmas party today and this is how Santa Claus arrived.

O Christmas Tree

Today we drove out to a Christmas Tree farm and found our perfect tree. We walked around the tree field for almost an hour and had a great time being outside. With our hats and jackets the weather was cool but perfect. We both have different tastes in trees. I like the firs and pines while Lance likes the less prickly cedars. We finally decided to go with my pick, I think it's a Virginia Pine. We didn't have to cut the tree down ourselves, which Lance appreciated. Aria loved being out in the field. I'm sure she'll be delighted when we put a tree inside our house.

Getting Ready

I ordered saddlebags but not the brackets that hold them away from your rear tire because they where to expensive. So i did some research and designed and made my own saving me around $40. Not to bad. They should work. We will find out next friday when my bags come in.

Veteran's Weekend

What a fun monday we had with our friends! Lance road his motorcycle in a Veteran's Day parade with our friend Scott while Katrina and I watched. After the parade we all went to the nearby state park to enjoy the fall colors. We took a short hike down to the water with the trees getting progressively more beautiful the closer we were to the river. Tuesday was not quite as fun. Aria and I spent the afternoon at her doctor discussing Aria's lack of weight gain. Poor little Aria had to get some blood drawn. We're going get an appointment with the nutritionist and try and put some weight on this girl. On the way home from the doctor I realized that one possible explanation for Aria's weight issue is her acid reflux. Our allergist mentioned she may have a condition (can't remember the exact name of it) where her esophagus has serious damage from the acid. He didn't want to go through with diagnosing it because it's extremely invasive and he also said the tell tale sign is weight loss, which Aria we weren't concerned with at the time. Fast forward to today and while Aria has not lost any weight, she has grown and inch and only gained 3 ounces. Our 7.5 month old is a whopping 13 lbs 4 ounces, which is way off the charts in the 0%. Her length is a healthy 26 inches which puts her in the charts around 20%.  I also realized that her waking up every 2 hours at night could also be because her reflux is hurting her. We tried to have her sleep elevated last night, but she didn't like the change. I'll have to try and call her doctor to see if there's anything else we can do. 

Gobble Wobble

Today we participated in an Army Recreation event called the Gobble Wobble. It was an aquatic turkey egg hunt for children. Aria was in the 6 month- 2 year old group. A total of six children participated in her division. The children were each allowed to collect 10 eggs, some floating some sinking, and search for one of the two golden eggs to win a special prize. Lance spotted a sinking golden egg as the life guards threw out the eggs and he lined us up to get it. Aria wasn't sure what was going on or what to do but we helped her collect her 10 eggs. She finally figured out that the eggs were fun to try and eat. For finding the golden egg we won 3 Christmas rubber duckies which Aria immediately tried to eat. We all had a great time. Now we're all home getting Aria ready for bed.  Last night we let her try a couple pieces of shrimp from our dinner and she loved them! She's such a cutie!

 

Happy Halloween!

Last night we carved pumpkins with friends, Aria painted her pumpkin, and we all got into the Halloween spirit. I made some edible paint since I knew Aria would try to eat it, which of course she did. I carved the headless horseman and it actually turned out great. Lance tapped into his creativity and shaved an awesome face into his pumpkin. Today I made some milk jug jack o lanterns. We'll hopefully be decorating the yard today and get ready for trick or treaters.

Pumpkin Patch

On Saturday we went with a group of friends to a local pumpkin patch. We spent an hour and a half in the corn maze. We weren't lost, we just were traveling with 5 kids including 4 year old twins, 2 dogs, and Aria. We ran out of time to actually buy a pumpkin since the line was so long, but at least Aria got to play in the pumpkin patch!

Rue

We adopted an 8 month old puppy and named him Rue. Aria likes him except when he tries to lick her to death. We've had him for 2 days now and so far he is showing great temperament. He did not know any basic commands but is learning to sit fairly well. I think he will fit into our family well with a little bit of training. I had to add some cute pictures of Aria. Yesterday she had steak with us for dinner. She's amazing, we love her!

Mobility

First, I don't know why but when I add photos from my phone blogger mixes them up. Yesterday afternoon we went to the park with our friends. I showed Aria the dinosaurs. We also went to a thrift store and bought her a new toy. It's really cool. It's a colorful nesting toy that looks like a bunch of bowls. Not only can you stack it in a tower but you can also form them into five little balls. This morning Aria learned that she could purposely roll in a direction to reach something. We are definitely baby proofing as soon as Lance gets back.

Busy day!

Aria's been all over the place today. We went jogging, she rolled around and found her books, we took Lance to work, went grocery shopping, planted flowers, played at the park, dinner, more shopping and finally bed. What a day! She really is rolling all over the place on purpose. At the store I found mums on sale and decided to redo the flower bed. I think it turned out nice.

Happy October

For the group today we did a craft activity. We made footprint ghosts. It turned out so cute I had to share!

Filling the day

Today was the last day we had to fill up waiting for Lance to come home. I've been looking for a bigger toy Aria could play with while sitting up. We stopped by a yard sale and found the bead maze cube. It's the perfect height for her to play with. I think she likes it. Aria also made her way into the kitchen on her on. We keep putting off baby gates but i think it's time to get them. Since Lance came home late we tried out the park across the street. She had fun trying to eat the chain on the swing.

Visiting Daddy

We got to visit Lance in the field today. He's been gone all week. His unit used the family as bait, after the soldiers finished a 12 mile ruck march they got to have lunch with us. It was great to see him but unfortunately they have one more day out in the field. Aria was very upset that daddy didn't get to come home with us. Lance is the one sticking out of the top of the humvee. Another first today- I was so tired I tried to curl up and take a nap with Aria and it actually worked! For the first time in Aria's life we cuddled and took a nap.