one day. one new camera. 120 pictures. priceless.

first ride in a grocery cart! she was REALLY excited about it. see how tight she holds on?

mama! that flashing light makes me so squinty!

the new camera has a red light that flashes and aiyana notices it sometimes.

here, she's just being silly. the flash has her thinking squinty thoughts all day. i love her sense of humor.

tink gets treats, too!
aiyana was loud and giggly during trick-or-treat. we think she was so excited to be out with the big kids. she kept yelling and flapping her arms.

nani signs MORE and then nods, "yes", she would like more candy. and the end of the video, she's signing "SNACK" -- her newest sign. i didn't catch the sign until i watched the video. i've seen her show the sign a few times since.

tickle fight

trying out the new camera.

trick-or-treat test drive

so, we had to have a halloween costume. do you know how hard it is to find a princess dress for a baby? when we went to disney world last spring, it was impossible. today, we found a tinkerbell dress (on clearance) at babies-r-us. hooray!
so, as i said, we HAD to have it. maybe we'll get lucky and it will still fit for the next trip to disney world!

in this princess' story, tinkerbell rides a red "rody" pony. the pony can get a little rowdy and bucks aiyana off occasionally. she's caught on quickly though. she prefers to have mommy or daddy bounce the pony for her rather than bouncing herself.

SIGN with your BABY

aiyana observes as mommy leads a sign language class with other mommies and babies. we had fun signing and singing with new friends at OBaby Organics and can't wait until next time!

more please

do not adjust the volume. (there is no sound.) but the cuteness speaks for itself...thankfully aiyana is using her signs in this video so there is really no need for sound.

aiyana loves cruising up and down the hallway on her yellow schoolbus. she quickly learned to grip the handlebars and pick up her feet so she can be pushed back and forth...and back and forth. she signs MORE as she figures out the buttons and PLEASE because she knows this is the most irresistable sign of all. aiyana is 12 months and 2 days in this video, and she is practically using a sentence! Harvard here we come! Or maybe Butler. Thanks, auntie em, for the college sweatshirt! It's super cute!

ANOTHER party

aunt brenda, uncle joe, grandma joyce, and johnny sent aiyana a ginormous birthday package. mommy and daddy even got presents -- cereal and cheese popcorn! nani most enjoyed pulling herself up on the cardboard box and removing its contents. she proudly displays her new boxes of big-girl cereal. she also received a pink corvette that we chased around the linoleum, a red bouncy pony, and a monkey-in-the-box.
birthdays are so much fun! thanks a bunch!

wiped out

nani is out. mommy and daddy had a meeting and nani fell asleep on the way home. we've learned -- late night meetings always end with jammies for the ride home.

one year growth report

20/20. perfect.

height: 29 3/4 = 75%tile

weight: 20.2.0 = 25%tile

head: 18 = 75%tile

translation = still perfect.

say "AHHHH!!"

aiyana shows dr. kouri her pretty teeth

(and then she kept the tongue depressor as a souvenir)

grandma buys her ice cream and makes it all better. it was gelato, actually. but aiyana enjoyed it immensely!

i'm havin' a party...

BALLS are aiyana's current favorite toy and most popular sign as well, so, we had to have plenty at her party.

a girl must accessorize... mommy helped aiyana put on her new bracelet

auntie shelly helped with the new shoes

Kindermusik and instruments are her favorites, too, so we had plenty of those.
we shared some of aiyana's most-loved songs with her friends, including: "Love Somebody", "Skinnamarink", and "Zoom-E-Oh".
aiyana knew just what to do with her egg shakers!

i told you; i do NOT want this hat!
aiyana wanted nothing to do with her party hat.
she even flinched when we came toward her with it.

mmmmm. chocolate. a girl's right.

what a pretty cake.

sugar rush.
aiyana experiences her first chocolate high. she got a little goofy during the gift opening. we're pretty sure it was the cake talking.

happy birthday, baby!

12:13 pm -- I believe we were on our way to the hospital this time last year. Around 5:30 am I decided it might be time to turn on the lamp so I could see the stopwatch and time those pesky contractions that were beginning to keep me awake. Then I showered. I had to wash my hair. Around 11 am we headed to the doctor, "just to see". By this time contractions had me dropping to my knees for relief. Some people thought this was funny. Doctor said, "You're having a baby today!" I was 6cm and fully efaced, which meant a lot of work had already been done. I felt good about that. We were admitted to the hospital around 1pm. After a fully non-medicated natural childbirth (Mario likes to say that I even refused a Tylenol for my headache) (thanks Bradley Method), Aiyana Lee Calderon entered the world at 8:19 pm.

That is the short and sweet version of our birth story. But the occasion itself was perfect and actually quite short and sweet.

12:21 pm today -- I am accomplishing today's most important task -- ensuring that the birthday girl is well-rested for her big party. She has made this easy on me as well since she fell asleep in her carseat on the way home from church. Job done.

BIRD

nani spies a BIRD and shows a perfect BIRD sign...usually she taps her lip with her pointer finger, but this time she got it just right!

auntie em, aren't you so proud of me!

she's even beginning to say "bird"

aiyana found the kitty door, and then she found the kitties under the door.
now that she is beginning to crawl around and pretty much has free reign of the house, aiyana is discovering lots of exciting new things! (and new friends!)

aiyana LOVES shape-sorters. it still amazes me that she knows just what she is supposed to do with these things. and she is obviously quite proud of herself!

two little piggies went to market...

aiyana's first double piggy

she's up!

i was glad to have the camera in hand for this first. nani pulled herself up to her feet while holding onto her toy box. she's tried this before (on a stepstool) but this was her most successful pull-up!