Paddles in the Pool

One evening at Ben & Nikki's house, Aerya & Maddy decided to go for a swim. As you can see, the hilarious result was naked babies all over the place!

Ride em' Cowgirl

Maybe we have a cowgirl in the making?

"What the heck is this thing?"

"Oh my gosh, you mean a real horsie!?!"

"Too much people, too much! Get me off this thing!"

At the Farmer's Market.

We try to go to the Farmer's Market in St. Albert a couple of times each summer. Here we are the first day it opened for the season. Needless to say, the puppy leash was a requirement as the place was PACKED! We still had a lot of fun and completely tuckered Paddles out. Here's some shots of us leaving the market and Aerya snacking on her favorite treat of the day - peanut butter marshmallow squares.

Gymnastics Again.

Here are some more fantabulous pics from gymnastics. Aerya is searching for all her favorite toys there. Notice that they all can be found at our house as well!

At the Park

On another outing with Daddy, Aerya went to a local park. And really, what could be better than sunshine, sand and slides! Aerya loves to get down and dirty in the sand (which means an interesting diaper change for us) and unfortunately she brings quite a bit back with her in the carseat. This is just another great venue for her to run, jump, climb and explore. And of course, it finishes off with Aerya's favorite - a swing!

Gymnastics

Aerya and Daddy go to drop-in gymnastics a couple of times a week. Aerya just has a blast. She gets to run all over, climb up on things, go on the trampolines, in the foam pit, play with balls and so, so much more. Needless to say, it's the perfect venue for running off a little hyperactivity. Wasn't thrilled with the trampoline the first time, but loved the parallel bars. They are just at her hand level and so she spent time walking up and down them, up and down. More fun still to come!

Sitting All Big

Another great birthday present was this cute green chair from Grandad. Aerya just loves that it's her size. She'll drag it around the livingroom until it's just in the right spot then she will sit in to watch Treehouse, or read a book.

Bunny had also figured out that it's just HIS size. When Aerya spots him in her chair, she'll go over to him, push him out and sit down herself. The fact that two seconds before she had absolutely no interest in the chair is irrelevent. "The dumb bunny is in MY chair! How dare he!"

Now you tell me, typical one year old behaviour, or a preview of only-child-syndrome??

My New Pool

For her birthday, Nikki, Ben and Maddy gave Aerya this cool fish-shaped pool. One very hot day, Aerya tried it out. While she loves the big pool and the bath, she was a bit a apprehensive about this adventure.

It took some silly times with Daddy for her to even step into the pool. And while this day was a very short swim trial, Aerya has since played quite a bit in her new pool. Of course the fact that on the first day it was filled with straight ice cold hose water (and by the next day the water had heated up under it's cover) MAY have played into it!

Planting Potatoes

While I was busy planting another pot of potatoes, Aerya decided to investigate this one.

"Hmm, what is this? It looks pretty neat... it feels great between my fingers... it tastes a little wierd... no, wait, hmm, it tastes pretty darn good! I think I'll have another sample."

And of course when she realized we were watching, it was quick innocence - she didn't realize that all the evidence was plain to see.

Swimming

Aerya's swim classes are finished for now, but we still try to get her to the pool when we can. Here are some pics of Aerya with Mama and Uncle Chad, and on another day with Daddy. Swim Paddles, Swim!

A Family Picture

Aerya at Twelve Months (One Year Old!)

Our baby girl is now one year old. What an intense, crazy, wonderful year it has been. Looking back on some of her pictures, I can barely recognize the person she was. Aerya is by far the most active, and hyperactive, one year old I’ve met. She is constantly on the go, exploring her little world. She never sits still for more than about 25 seconds unless she is asleep or nursing. Even most means are completed on the run.

Aerya is very inquisitive and a great problem solver. While she can’t necessarily tell you what she wants, she will point to things she wants and certainly expects you to get them for her, or take her to it. If she wants you to see something, she’ll take your finger and pull you to whatever it is. Lately, the most exciting thing for her is to go outside, so many, many times a day she’ll grab my (or Derek’s, or Grandma’s) finger, walk me to the backdoor and point at it until I pick her up and open the door. Then she’ll walk over to her jungle gym, point at a swing and you have to put her in it and push her. After a couple of minutes she’ll sign all done, you take her out and then she points to the other swing. After a few minutes on that one, she’ll sign all done, get out and take a walk around the block.

Aerya loves to pick dandelions (she’ll also pick other flowers given the chance) as they are definitely her favorite flower. It doesn’t matter if it’s in the yellow or puffy variety. She’ll hold onto a half dozen and take them around for everyone to smell or blow. She loves to take a walk around the block and down the alley so that she can check on her favorite patches of flowers. There’s several clover patches that she snacks at (yes, I meant snack) and several dandelion patches that she picks at. What’s really funny is that while she makes us blow the puffy dandelions (and smell the yellow ones), she herself sucks on them. So then we get a huge smile with puffs hanging out!

Aerya’s favorite animal is definitely a dog. Whenever she sees or hears one she gets really excited and does the sign for them. She is not scared of them, no matter how big they might be and she will cautiously approach each one she encounters and pet it. She also likes cats, especially Tigger and George and pets them and tries to pick them up. It’s always amusing to watch her try and pick up Tigger as he outweighs her by about 10 pounds. Thankfully, all the animals we’ve encountered so far are very tolerant of her. She can also identify lots of animals and if you ask her where one is (for example spider), she’ll go over to her stuffed animal pile and bring it to you. So far she knows dog, cat, lion, monkey, spider, bird, pig, sheep, horse, cow and probably others that I’ve forgotten. Along with identifying them, she also can say the sounds for pig, cat and cow and understands the sounds for sheep, birds and dogs as well.

It’s been amazing to see just how much Aerya understands. She will bring you items you ask for like shoes, fruit, books, etc. She’s especially good at bringing shoes as she knows that means a trip outside. Our adventures with sign language have been a rousing success and Aerya can do the signs for dog, monkey, horse, all done, drink/water, milk, eat, up, slide, swing, and more. She can also identify people in pictures including herself, Mama, Daddy, Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle Chad and Auntie Amber.

We absolutely cannot wait to see what another year will bring us with Aerya. She is such a joy to be around, and we just love her so much.

Swimming with Daddy

Aerya has been taking swimming lessons with Derek on Saturdays for several months. These pics were taken at her last lesson (of this session). She's actually taken this class twice, so we're going to give swimming a break over the summer and try gymnastics instead.

Aerya loves the water and is getting really good at kicking and paddling. She'll put her head under water with no problems and even

blow bubbles.