countdown is on

There are only 17 days left until Ariana's first birthday! Would you believe that we are still working on sending out the invitations? If you know us I'm sure that's no surprise! I'm excited and depressed, anxious and nervous, and shocked and prepared all at the same time. I'm both ends of the spectrum and all emotions in between.

Ariana is a toddler in every sense of the word now! She "toddles" everywhere and even attempts to run. She has discovered that "no" means hurry up and do it before Mommy can get to you (or would that be a teenager trait?). If she sees that the pantry door is open, she makes a beeline for it. I'll say "No, Ariana..." as I'm walking towards her, but she stops, looks over her shoulder at me, giggles and runs towards it. The other day at the park, I tried to take her hand to guide her towards the car, but Miss Independent jerked her hand away and ran in the other direction.

The fun has only begun!

She's down to nursing only 4 times a day which makes it easier to be out and about during the day. I actually think that she's nursing less because we're doing more. She gets so into playing or trying to keep up with older kids that she forgets to nurse. First thing in the morning, before her nap, before bedtime, and once in the middle of the night. Did I also mention that she's down to just one nap in the afternoon? This also makes it much easier to take her places since we don't have to revolve our day around her two naps with only 2/3 hours of awake time in between.

She still only has two bottom teeth, with no signs of more coming in for the time being. It's cute to see so few teeth on such a big girl! The only thing I'm dreading is teething when she can say "Mommy, boo-boo!" while pointing to her mouth.

Being paci free is WONDERFUL! She is happy nursing a bit, reading some books, and playing quietly (or sometimes not so quietly) in her crib until she falls asleep most of the time. I've been keeping a couple board books in her crib to keep her happy before and after a nap and it's working like a charm!

Once I have a chance to upload new pictures and videos you can bet they'll be on here first thing!