Who's That Girl?

Jonathan loves to sing to Aurelia. Here he is singing her a song he made up on the fly.

I have mentioned Aurelia's tendency to stand and peer over one's shoulder and I captured it on video to share. She is really strong for being only 10 weeks old!

Here are a few photos from the past week.

Fun time with Daddy: Smiling for the camera:

Hanging out with Becky and Henna in the outfit she got from Grandma Becky and Dad:

Ready for bed in her sweet-pea from Gramma-V:

Getting a kiss from her friend Elijah:

Posing with Momma, her Aunties and Yoshimi:

Making faces at Momma:

Time, How She Flies

Time is so precious. And that truth becomes so much more real when you watch time passing in the face of your child. I have been thinking a lot lately about the value of time and how I want to be very aware of how I choose to spend it. Because once it has been spent, I want to be happy with what I bought with it. I have wasted so much time in my life on things and worries that do not matter. I am trying to me more mindful of how I use the minutes allotted to me on this earth. This blog is intended to show the product of time I believe was time well spent.

Time will do the Talking:

Aurelia has found a new way to use her hand and it is lovely to watch.

It is so beautiful when you get an immediate return on your time investment. Jonathan makes Reli smile and she immediately reciprocates. Oh joy!

Dad and his mini-me:

Reli spends time with her toys and they sometimes, but not always, see eye to eye:

Here is Aurelia in a cute outfit from one of Jonathan's former co-workers, along with a precious hat and some snazzy shoes she borrowed from her cousin Koruna.

East Texas

Here are some pictures of our adventures in East Texas over the weekend. Aurelia got to meet so many of her relatives!

Here she is with my Granny and Granddad:

Reli with her Honey and Aunt Marilyn:

Reli with Aunt Valencia:

Here she is with cousins Emily and Amanda:

Playing with Granny and Aunt Marilyn:

Here she is looking precious in her new hat from my mom's friend Nicki.

Her first game of Peep-eye! with Honey:

Goodnight kisses from Aunt Whitney.

She won't be this small for long.

(Sigh)

Aurelia had her 2 month checkup at the doctor yesterday and she is growing like a weed. She is now 23.5 inches long (that means she has grown an inch and a half a month 2 months in a row!) and weighs 10 pounds, six ounces. Dr. Norton thinks she is amazing (especially her l-o-n-g eyelashes) and agrees that our Reli is a strong little girl. She has been holding her head up since day 2 and she can already pretty much bear her own weight on her little legs. She loves to practice both of these things when you sit with her over your shoulder. She looks around while she stands on your lap. Someone forgot to tell her that she's only 2 months old!

F-HAT-shion Show

Earlier this week I was looking through one of Aurelia's drawers and came across the treasure trove of pink head accessories she has at her disposal. She was looking particularly adorable and was in excellent spirits that morning so we decided to put on a little fashion show with her head pieces. Here are the results!

Bye-Bye!

We are heading out to East Texas to attend my cousin Amanda's wedding celebration tomorrow. Aurelia will get to meet her Great-Granny and Granddad and pretty much the rest of my mom's side of the family. Look out Cooper, here we come! (We will of course be bringing some pink hats.)

Conversations

Making Aurelia smile is pretty much our favorite activity these days. I have discovered that she loves a good surprise. The huge baby grins are awesome and well worth whatever antics are required to elicit them.

Aurelia has started making all sorts of new sounds. She and I have always had conversations throughout the day, but starting a few days ago she really started carrying more of her share of the conversational burden. Sometimes she even initiates a little chat. She is stringing together what will become her words in an effort to communicate. It thrills my heart to hear her little voice.

She is also a lot more active these days. Her hands grasp at her toys. She can hold onto some of them and pull them towards her mouth. Mostly she just bats them around and talks to them or sticks her cute little tongue out at them.

Last week Aurelia got to visit her dad at his office. We sat down in the cafe there and Yano got some lovely midday father-daughter time. Priceless.

Shana brought Wills over for a play date with Whitney and Reli. These are the days . . .

Life is Good

It is pretty incredible to me that I get to live so close to my sisters, my brother-in-law and niece. We are so lucky to get to spend so much time together on an almost daily basis. Saturday was a shining example of how beautiful these times are that we get to spend together. Jonathan, Reli and I picked up some breakfast tacos and headed over to the Ingrams for breakfast with them and with Whitney. I captured some of the magic in these three videos. We all have so much fun just hanging out together. I am titling this series of videos: How to Spend a Saturday

Koruna Muse loves her Uncle Yano. One reason she is particularly drawn to him might be the fact that he will do just about anything to make her smile. Mostly he ends up jumping around doing ridiculously funny dances with wild looks on his face, all the while chanting or singing something along the lines of "Kicky-Ru, Kicky-Ru, Kick-Kick-Kicky-Ru, Runa-Pu, Ru-Ru-Runa-Pu!" over and over again. Koruna reacts with squeals of delight and obliges him by pumping her little kicking legs faster and faster. Sigh. It is beautiful to watch. Here are some pictures of Yano dancing for Koruna and Koruna performing her acrobatic tricks.

Aurelia had the very special pleasure of meeting my good friend Katherine Robb ("K-Robb") this past week. K-Robb and I met in law school and have run many a mile together. We trained for and ran our first marathon during law school and have run several races together since then. She is an awesome running buddy and an inspiration to me. She went on to run a 50-mile race in our last year of law school. She is hard core and lovely all at the same time. K-Robb came to Texas from San Francisco to spend some time with her family and to make some pretty significant progress on her latest venture - The American Meat Project. You can, and should, check out her website and blog at www.theamericanmeatproject.com. Here she is entertaining Aurelia:

Finally, a look back at some photos that are just adorable. Remember what it feels like to have a tiny infant sleep on your chest? It almost makes your heart melt. One day a couple of weeks ago Robyn, Wills, Berry, Koruna, Whitney, Reli and I were hanging out at the Ingrams and we just had to pass little sleeping Reli back and forth to soak in the wonder of that particular feeling. Here is Robyn enjoying the moment:

The Thinker:

The Model:

Reli with her friend Howard and her first bow in her hair:

Reli on our way out in animal feet and the hat her Auntie Joanie made for her:

Reli and Momma: