Fishies

We just got a Sea World pass so Raya (and I) can learn about sea animals. She LOVED looking at the fish today!!! It's so cute she just learned the sign language for bird and she was signing it when the fish swam by....haha, in her defense the fish sign is a little harder :)

Looking forward to having lots of fun there this summer... there are some great shows (she got to shamu last week) and I'm looking forward to the Cirque show, huge cirque fan!!! There are multiple aquariums and sea creatures for her to touch and explore!

Happy Memorial Day

On Monday we found a parade just a few towns over from us. This was Rayas first one and we knew she'd love it and she did!!

Since she started waving she has this "parade/queen/pageant" wave, not the open close wave most kids acquire. It is adorable and she certainly put it I good use :)

She also LOVES doggies and kisses she found several sweet dogs to share a smooch with, and one that didn't want one so much and let her know...she wasn't very happy with that dog!

Thank you to all those that have and do serve for our country!

ONE

I don't know where the time has flown but we have a ONE year old!!! Raya turned one on April 24th and celebrated by having grandma Schuster and Auntie Juney in town. We schedule a little one year old photos shoot with some of the decorations I had put together to use at her party and of course a smash cake!!! She wanted nothing to nothing to do with the cake it was kind of funny. we put her snack of choice, peas!!!? on top of the cake and he took a few swipes of it :)

Grandma Altbaum joined us for some pictures and then we went to eat at True Food Kitchen YUM... To celebrate getting through the first year! Although I've heard it's the hardest I also feel it might be the easiest, from here on out she I already starting to get her defiant and sassy personality :) each stage has truly been amazing and now we have a toddler!!! Although we enjoy she's still itty bitty it's like we can enjoy having an infant for longer. But she is an infant that talks, albeit only a few words (doggy, dada, duck, this and something thats starting to sound like Zara), walks errr runs and is so fun to interact with!! She understands an overwhelming amount too!

Happy birthday sweet Raya we hope your year was as memorable as ours was!

Irish for a day!

Tim nor I are Irish but growing up in NY in a Catholic family I always celebrated St. Patrick's Day. With my sister living in Boston probably one of the largest Irish populations we had more than one excuse to wear green yesterday.

Jen had bought Raya a cute I "shamrock" Boston onesie back in August and it was baggy then, not so much now. It's bittersweet watching her grow. I was able to stuff her into the onesie for a couple of hours to stop by Tim's baseball game. She also sent Raya an adorable shamrock headband, we are so lucky Raya leaves them on her head! ;)

After lunch it was time to put her shamrock party dress on to stop by a bridal show at The Hotel Del (which we got a flat tire on the way to- luck wasn't really on our side) then headed to Grandma Altbaum's for little St. Patrick's day festivities. Due to the flat tire we were a little late but she had a scavenger hunt for the kids with a little bag that had a leprechaun hat, beads, rubber duckies-very cute! Raya played and chewed on her duckies all night while also showing off her walking skills and stopping for just a few minutes to have a little dinner.

What a fun day of festivities, who said it wasn't fun being green?!

Peas for Sweet Pea!

This child LOVES her peas!! I know she didn't get it from me but hopefully I will take some lessons from her. At least twice a day she goes through 2-3 handfuls of peas! She pops them in her mouth like candy.

It's quite funny but I also know how fortunate I am to have a baby that likes her veggies and I also know that this phase may not last very long so she can have all the peas she wants!!

To change it up a bit I blended some up in the strangest food concoction to date, with beets, purple potato and banana, she ate it!!!!

Go sweet pea, you are going to grow up to be such a strong girl :)

Cheese!

Raya loves to smile! We are lucky to have such a happy, friendly little girl. However the other kind of cheese she likes is actual cheese :)

I break off tiny pieces for her and she has fun picking it up and feeding herself she shoveled a whole slice in her mouth within minutes today!!

Certainly takes after her mom :) grilled cheese, Mac and cheese, quesadillas...here we come!!

Walking and talking!!

This little girl is just growing up way to fast!!! Although she is petite and still toothless, I know she is healthy and actually makes me feel like I have a newborn longer ;)

At about 8 months she started saying what sounded like DADA...pretty much everything she looks or points at now is DADA, the dog, the toy, the tv, etc... What's cute about it is that if you say DADADA she'll repeat it back to you now. Personally I sometimes use it for my advantage and say to Tim, " oh she's calling for you" haha.

For about 1.5 months she's been slowly standing for just seconds at a time and will walk around in her walker or her standing push toy. This past weekend she started taking 2-3 steps at a time. She's up to about 5-6 steps, wobbly ones at that but she's working on it! She just started standing up from a squatting position versus pulling up on something then stand. She still crawls around for the majority and is super fast, we are certainly tired at the end of the night.

10 PM is now staying up "late" ;)