Baby Gate

These pictures are not the best quality (bad lighting) but I love them so much that I must share

Aria and the Baby Gate:

Compare and Contrast

Aria and Parker. Parker and Aria. My two little loves.
I am constantly thrown off by how different they are.
This here is mostly for journal purposes
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One example was a walk to the mailbox. When Parker was this age we used to walk down the street to the mail box almost daily. He would stop and inspect the crack in the sidewalk and ants and stuff, and then move on.The other day Jason stayed home with Parker and I took Aria to walk to the mail box. She was rolling on the ground, trying to dive into the street, she climbed onto the rocks near the mailbox, sat down and kicked her legs around as hard and fast as she could to send the rocks flying. I gave up and carried her home.
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This is immediately after Aria dropped a toy on the ground and immediately before she threw herself down to get it. Parker never, I repeat NEVER, would have done that.

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And story time. We go to story time at the library all the time. Parker will never go sit with the other kids, he's always on my lap. He often doesn't sing (though he goes home and sings when he re-enacts story time later) Aria walks around, she plays with other babies, and this last week she went up to the reader, and pointed at pictures in the book that was being read to everyone and laughed really loudly (of course everyone else laughed too).

Unicorn

Aria woke up from nap one day with awesome hair

I know, it's hard to see, but look again:
I love it!

Eyes Shut

Aria likes to close her eyes when we take her picture... intentionally.

I think my daughter is gorgeous, and I personally feel that her eyes are her best feature, but she still looks so perfect- even without showing off those bright blue eyes.

In the end she thinks that closing her eyes is hilarious

Here she is laughing about it

Blanket Face

How Aria likes to sleep:

I know she's tired when she grabs my shirt (or anything else she can get her hands on) and pulls it over her face.

Parker used to sleep with blankets over his face too.

Parker at 3.5 months old.

Random Parker

I'm rubbing off on Parker. He asks if stuff is cheap. "Can we buy grapes, are grapes cheap?"

Cute Kid!

When he pretends to read he will say "and it came to pass..." a lot. "And it came to pass Peter Pan can fly. And it came to pass again the Cat in the Hat" etc.

He loves his blankets

How Parker eats cherries

Facials with mommy :)

Don't tell Jason

Water Play

My kids are very different from each other. It actually surprises me how different they are considering the fact that they are being raised by the same two people.
One funny example was at a friends 2nd Birthday Party.
Here is what Parker looked like most of the time:

The rest of the time Parker was attached to my side via death grip. We went in the pool and he was scared and climbing on me. Aria on the other hand kept trying to splash and jump out of my arms to swim on her own. Complete Opposites.

When Aria wasn't trying to drown herself she was doing this:

Playing in a puddle in the mud and grass.

I love my polar opposite babies!

Silly Girl

Aria will go and grab these silly bead necklaces and put them on herself.

She will also grab a sippy cup lid from out of the kids cabinet and walk around sucking on the top (no she doesn't drink out of them, she just likes the lids for toys)

And grabbing towels from the kitchen. We can't walk int the kitchen without finding the towels on the floor. She'll even just walk in, pull the towels down and walk away. It's like baby-towel-pulling-OCD.

Bags

Here is what our kitchen looks like on a daily basis:

The kids (especially Aria) love to dig out the grocery bags we save and play. I don't love big messes, but this is great while I'm cooking- they are close and I can watch them, but they are 'out of the way'
Plus you should see how happy Aria gets when she gets those bags out- I can't resist making her smile.

So there is a lot of set up to this story:

A few weeks ago Parker asked what was 'in' cheese. I told him that cheese and yogurt are made from milk.
Then a week or two later we pass a big truck on the freeway carrying a GIANT load of hay. I explained to Parker that farmer's grew the hay and that they were bringing it to be given to horses or cows, and then the cows can make milk.
Then another week later we're in the store and he helps me grab the last yogurt off the shelf and put it in our cart. He asked why there were no more. So I told him about how the store gets shipments and then they would restock the yogurt.

He stops and thinks for a minute and says "Yogurt comes from hay." I say "Oh, really?" and then he explains the whole process:
farmers plant hay
get the hay on a truck
bring it to the cows
cows eat it and make milk
make yogurt
put lots of yogurt on a big truck to bring to Walmart
put it on the shelves
put it in the cart
buy it, bring it home and put it in the fridge
eat the yogurt.

I was amazed! I couldn't believe he pieced together those separate conversations. This kid is too smart for his own good. And totally too smart for MY own good.