Basketball

One of Alia's new favorite play time activities is playing basketball. She likes using these little balls because she can palm them and they are easier to hold on to. As you can see, her walking is really improving. She is walking a little more each day and with increased confidence.

Talking

Here is a quick clip of Alia showing off some of the animal sounds that she knows. She is really talking up a storm now. She says .... hi, bye, mama, dad, go, dog, hot, hat, ball, more, home, "mo" (Elmo) - There may even be more, but that's all that I can think of off of the top of my head. Any word that starts with the letter "b" is "bu" ... like book, bottle, bath, baby, blocks, berries. Every day she is learning a new word and trying it out. It is so fun and exciting!

Uncle Jamie

Alia had lots of fun playing with her Uncle Jamie during his week long visit with us. She loved saying "hi" to him every time she saw him ... even if he just stepped out of the room for a minute! She REALLY liked playing a fun game with him where she would poke his belly and he would giggle. So cute!

Fun with the Family

Alia and Daddy getting ready to watch the Colts game

Going for a drive before the game started ... notice the cute Colts jammies that Alia got for her birthday!

Sharing oranges with Grammy

She wasn't crazy about the oranges themselves but really liked that Grammy was sharing her food with her and giving her drinks of water from her grown-up cup. Very exciting stuff!

I made a birthday cake so that we could celebrate the boys birthdays together. Jason never got a birthday cake on his actual birthday so we made it a combo deal.

More Gymboree Fun

My mom was just in town for a long weekend and joined Miss Alia and I at our usual Saturday morning Gymboree class. Alia showed off all of her great tricks for Grammy.

Alia climbed all the way up the slide all by herself.

She was Teacher Sara's special assistant and demonstrator on several occasions. (Alia is in love with Teacher Sara and follows her around the room. Poor Sara has no choice but to allow Alia to "demonstrate" half the time.)

Alia loved riding on the rocking horse with a little help from Grammy.

Alia's new favorite discovery at Gymboree is this little mirror that is tucked away in the corner.

Little Helper

Alia loves to help Mommy in the kitchen. She measures her ingredients, stirs and always remembers to do a taste test!

I Think We Might Have a Walker ....

Alia is getting more and more willing to take steps on her own. She still prefers the much faster method of crawling, but as you can see, she is able to take up to about 9 steps before face planting now. Yay! She is walking between pieces of furniture when she thinks Mommy and Daddy aren't looking too. We are so proud! I am officially declaring her a toddler :-)

Sugar High

Uncle Will took some great video of Alia eating her birthday cake. I picked my favorite 30 second clip to post here. Enjoy!

Trip to Indy

We just got back from a trip to Indy. Alia is such a lucky girl and she got to have a second first birthday party with family. Here are a few pictures from our trip!

Alia and Daddy at the party

enjoying some birthday cake ... a lot

reading one of her new books with Uncle Will

a quick picture with Daddy, Nana and Sir before nap time

a very tired little bean on the way back home

Busy, Busy, Busy

The life of a one year old is very busy. Here are some pictures of what Alia has been up to lately.

Helping Daddy get some work done over the weekend

Going for a cruise in her new car

Helping Daddy sort through the mail

Taking the baby for a walk

And this is a picture from out our front window of a random snowfall that we had last Tuesday. Alia and I went to Gymboree and saw about 2 snowflakes fall on our way home. I put her down for a nap, read one chapter in my book and then looked out the window and saw this! Crazy! Unfortunately, it was all melted and gone in about a day.