A is for Aria

Of Course!

Aria is a Rockstar around here. She's so much fun to be around!

Since my kids are adopted, I can brag about how gorgeous they are without being conceited or looking full of myself - so here goes!

Isn't she just the prettiest little girl?! She has so many cute faces and expressions.

Building Grandma's house (that's what she calls anything stacked)

She loves her babies. She is going to be an awesome mommy when she grows up. Here she is kissing one baby that was sad while she has the other one playing with blocks.

The other morning Granny brought over her dog Candy to show Aria the cute bows the groomer put in her hair. We had been cleaning out Aria's closet and moving old things to the shed. With her old carseat out, she just had to put Candy in it. Candy is such a good sport to Aria.
I've shared this photo on here already, but I just can't get enough of it! I love that she's on her tippiest of toes, and such cute, strong legs. And her dress is so adorable! She's such a pretty little thing. See? I can brag and brag!

This girl is the life of the party. She loves doing anything and everything. I love playing in the snow - and she does too! Here's Aria and Daddy getting snow dropped on them by Jinxy!

So sweet!

Here are some things about Aria lately:
- She is about 31 lbs. Not sure where that rates on the percentages until her 3rd birthday checkup.
- She is in shoe sizes 6-8 (depending on brand. Just bought 8's to go with her Easter dress - gasp!)
- She loves giving butterfly kisses. They are my favorite! She caught on super quick and they became her favorite very fast. Eskimo kisses too.
- She is a very tidy kid. Does not like messes. Makes them a plenty, but doesn't like them left.
- She is extremely smart. (Again with the bragging!) She struggles a little with speech and we had Kids on the Move see about helping with it (which they don't think she's bad enough) and they do a full evaluation when they do. The evaluator said she's never tested a child rate as high as she did. They go through a book of things until the child fails, and with Aria it took all the way until recognizing the alphabet where she finally failed. Because she's only 2! She just soaks in everything we teach her and remembers so well.
- She can count to 10. She loves counting things.
- She is very sensitive. If someone is sad or a baby is crying, she has a hard time focusing on anything else. She gets so concerned for them.
- She sleeps with 5+ stuffed animals/babies on her bed each night.
- Every little kid is her friend. "My Frien!"
- She loves saying prayers with us at night and over meals. Does a lot of it herself.
- She loves telling bedtime stories we've told her back to us. 3 little bears being her current favorite.
- She knows the words to, and loves to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (widdo star), Way Up in the Sky (birdie song), I Am A Child of God (child god), Wheels on the Bus (school bus), Popcorn Popping (popcorn), Sunbeams, and a few others I can't seem to think of now.
- She knows all of her animal sounds. She has actions for each too!
- She loves puzzles.
- Her kitchen set is one of her favorites too. She likes to get "super cold" water from it's fridge for us to drink.
- She knows all of the main colors - Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, Orange, Purple, Pink, Black, White, Brown.
- She is super polite. And, she's taught Ben a lot of it too. Whenever I give them snacks or a meal, they both say "Thank You Mommy!" Whenever Aria doesn't want to do something she says "No Thank You." I love hearing it from Ben too because I know she taught it to him. We say it a lot too, but he definitely picked it up from her, not us.
- She just got 2 more molars. On the bottom. Didn't even see they were coming in until all the sudden they were there! Explained some abnormal crankiness.

Aria's party & 2 year old stats

Aria's party was a blast!

She got to share it with so many family members and her birth families too!

It was a lot of fun!
She's growing so much too!

She is now 37" tall - 99th %tile
She is 26.2 lbs - 54th %tile

For her birthday we got her a big kid bed! She looks so little in her twin sized bed. She did great adjusting to it. It was good timing and she wanted it. I think we check on her more now just to see her cute little body sleeping in that big bed.

She also kicked the pacifier habit a few weeks ago. That went better than we thought too! She had only been using it at bed time since about 18 months old, but was VERY attached to it.

Her favorite toys are still her babies.

She is wearing size 24 month to 2T clothes mostly (some smaller stuff if height or length doesn't matter like shorts). Size 4 diapers, size 5 shoes.

She's an awesome eater - not many if any things she wont eat.

She's an awesome sleeper too! Sleeps all through the night, about 11+ hours straight. Takes a 2hr nap each day.

She's no longer a baby! She's a little girl. And, she's such a treat!

16 Months Old - Benny Boy!

Benners is 16 months old! We just had his dr appt. He's doing great. No ear infections for almost 2 months!
He now weighs 29lbs - 89th percentile.
He is 32" tall - 63rd percentile.

He is all healthy and well!

- He speaks 4 words clearly - Momma, Dada, Cracker & Baba (bottle)
- He has quite a few words that he says that aren't quite as clear yet, and that we don't know what they mean. His birth family probably understood more since they raised him. We're getting there.
- He loves to copy what Aria does. They do a lot of little noises and actions back and forth at each other. It's so cute!
- He loves to dance. His birth-grandparents would play music each day for him and he'd dance. We still do that with him and it's so fun to watch him go crazy! He and Aria dance a lot.
- Ben loves to eat. He's a really good eater. Not too picky.
- He is such a lovey kid. He gives hugs so freely. He'll come running with a big hug to give.
- He loves the outdoors. He would spend all day out there if he could. He's even happier when he gets to play outside for a long time.
- He is so ticklish! He has a very hearty laugh. It's so fun to hear.
- He really likes books too!
- He's turned into quite the climber the past week. He loves to climb onto the rocking chair, stand up and rock. He's so proud of himself when he does! It's so cute to see him so happy about something he did.

We sure love this little sweetheart! He's been such a great addition to our family. He and Aria's personalities compliment each other so well. He keeps us busy and on our toes. We just love his smile and sweet little voice.

We love you, Buddy!