Sunday is Aria Fun Day

This past Sunday afternoon it was time for a little "Aria" time. It had been a couple of weeks since Paula had seen her and a little over a week for me. 

James and Brandi came over to our house for dinner late that afternoon. I was just wrapping up working on one of my Lego model kits when they got there. 

Aria, who is really fascinated by the "blocks" that her "Paw Paw" (that's how she says my name these days) plays with. See the May 7th "Planting Trees and Memories"post for more details on how we discovered this. I let her help me finish up what I was working on and then I put the Lego kit away. 

Aria then took me back to the room where her Duplo set and mega blocks are stored so we could get them out and she could play with them. 

The Duplo set is a licensed Disney's Little Mermaid product given to her by her Aunt Heather and Uncle Michael last Christmas. 

Aria has really become partial to this toy when she wants something to put together.

After a while I took my granddaughter out to our front yard. I stood her in front of our newly planted Dogwood trees. 

Going forward I plan on taking this shot on, or around, her birthday. Traditions have to start somewhere. This will be a digital version of the mark on the door facing as she grows and gets older. 

If nothing else I'm sure there will be a time in her life when she will enjoy looking at the pictures for herself. 

Back in the house we did our "usual" routine. While the adults (mostly James) watched a movie in the living room. Aria and Nana watched Disney videos in the bedroom. 

When she came back in the living room, "Pawpaw" and Aria played on the floor with her Minnie Bank and the coins that are in it. 

After supper the baby asked Nana for a chocolate coated vanilla ice cream bar from the freezer. She took it in the room and shared it with me. That's my favorite "tradition" during her visits, at least for now.

I then brought out my ukulele and started playing it for her. She immediately headed with her daddy back to the storage room again to get her toy ukulele to play along with me.  Here's a picture from last April of her playing music with her pink Minnie ukulele.

We sang and played songs from her favorite Disney Sing-Along video: She'll Be Coming Around The Mountain, Camptown Races, The Caisons Go Rolling Along, The Happy Wanderer, and Oh, Suzanna. 

We also sang "Itsy Bitsy Spider"and "If You're Happy and You Know it.". Aria walked around strumming her uke and stomping her left foot as we sang. There's not a time in my life when I'm happier than in moments like these. 

She really loves music already but I want to show her how much fun it is to actually play an instrument. So that she'll want to learn to play one when she gets older. So I'm not the best at it; but I am trying to be an example.  

Soon Aria was up on her Nana's lap, in the rocking chair, "feeding cows" while playing the farm game on Nana's Ipad. 

When the movie was over and Brandi started getting sleepy it was time for our visitors to go home. 

Aria gave Nana and Paw Paw "loves" (aka hugs and kisses), she waved "good-bye" and our visit was over. 

It was a fun day. Aria is growing so much and so fast. She's really talking a lot now. I'm getting in the habit of introducing new words to her and asking her to say them. She is the apple of my eye. 

Although our visit for this Sunday was over it wouldn't be long before I got to play with Aria again. 

The next day I would help Brandi out in a way I had never done before. But that's a story for another day...actually it's my post for tomorrow. Y'all come back then.