Pigtails!

Last Saturday, Arya had pig tails for the first time. They stick straight out to the side and make her look like Pippi Longstockings! Sure is cute!!!

What's in a name?

Arya has many nicknames. Here is a list and who uses them:

Arya Quinn: Not a nickname, but Mommy and Daddy use both her first and middle a lot.

Monkey: Mommy, especially after picking Arya up

Tricksy Hobbit: Mommy, Daddy & Grampa Brian

Peanut: Grampa Brian called her this when she was first born

Baby Girl: Daddy & Mommy 

Snuggle Bunny: Mommy

Baby Cakes:  "Daddy cakes" & Mommy (Mommy started it)


Bubbley Face: Daddy

And of course, we use common terms of endearment such as "Honey," "Sweetheart," etc.

The Zoo!!

Last Monday, we took Arya to the zoo for the first time! Bradley opted that we buy a membership so we will be going at least twice more this year. This time we just did the Africa portion of the zoo- we had a time limit since we had her 15 month well baby check-up as well. 
First we did the carousel-which she hated. She cried the entire time. Hopefully we can remedy that on our later trips.
Her favorite parts were the polar bear, the baboons and the crocodile. The polar bear was great because he kept swimming right up to the glass-so she got a real great look at him.

First time on a carousel!

Holding her up to see the wart-hogs.

We let her walk by herself a while.

Observing the chimps.

She was fascinated by the crocodile.

She was worn out by the end. Koncked out in the stroller.

15 Month Stats

Yesterday Arya had her 15 month well baby checkup. She is no longer on the baby scale! She stood nice and still on the big floor scale and let them measure her.  She usually does real good during the exam too but she didn't like when the doc was using the stethoscope and of course the vaccinations caused tears. Here are her current stats:


24lbs. 4oz  75th percentile
30.5"          60th percentile

Easter 2012

Last year we didn't do much for Arya's first Easter. Just put her in one of her dresses (not a fancy Easter dress) and a first Easter bib. Then I bought  knit bunny ear hat made by a girl I know from high school. This year we did it all- the fancy dress, the basket, etc.

It took me a long time to pick out her dress. I started with 21 choices on Amazon. Finally I had it narrowed down to four and Bradley picked two. One of them was hand-wash so it was ruled out. Here is the one we settled on.

It makes me think of the song "My Favorite Things" from the Sound of Music. "Girls in white dresses, with blue satin sashes..."

We went a little overboard with things in her basket- but we figure it's her first basket and she is our only child (hmm, are we going to spoil her forever? PROBABLY!) I think the basket is really cute. We thought we should buy a nice one that we can reuse every year.

Here is a list of the things in her basket: Green Eggs and Ham (the book), sunglasses, a chocolate bunny, sidewalk chalk, bubbles, Play-Doh, toddler crayons (the plastic chick and dog with a crayon in it), pink camo plastic eggs with pennies inside, a golden egg with cheeri-os in it, a caramel Cadbury egg, a chocolate Cadbury egg, and a regular Cadbury egg. 

At Grandpa Mike and Grandma Debbie's she got another Easter basket, which we somehow failed to get a picture of. In it she received jelly beans, marshmallow peeps, a marshmallow pop, and an adorable stuffed bunny. 

After lunch we changed Arya into play clothes for the Easter Egg Hunt Grandma Debbie and Aunt Mary had set up.

It took her quite a long time to find all ten eggs, partly because she wanted to open them as she found them. Some of the eggs had coins in them, the others had jelly beans. We learned during the hunt, that Arya can eat jelly beans safely. As you can see in the last picture, Buster joined in the fun.

Here she is getting some quality time with Grandpa Mike on the deck.

These are the chick angel eggs we made. (Yes, they are deviled-eggs. In my family we grew up calling them angel-eggs.). The eyes were made out of olives, the feet are the tail of a goldfish crackers and the rest of the cracker makes the beak.

I hope you all had a blessed Easter and remembered to celebrate the risen Lord!