so i hate all the cliche statements about time flying so quickly with your little ones. mostly because they're true.

i can't believe my daughter is two now. it hasn't all been pretty, but i have loved every moment of parenthood in ways i had never imagined.



at two, jia is seeming more like a little girl and less like a baby. her quickly growing hair, and full mouth of teeth complete the look! she only weighs about a pound more than she did when she turned one! mostly because she was overly chubby at one, and now she never stops moving!

she says more words than we can count now, and puts little sentences together, but most of them take a trained ear to understand. she has a tendency to get the vowel sounds right, but plug in whatever consonants she feels like.

for a few months she's been able to recognize her ABCs and count to 10. she actually really loves learning things like that, which thrills my indian husband. ;)

even though the weather is warming up, the girl loves to play outside. she also loves water, so we probably need to teach her to swim properly soon!

she loves her doggies, and bosses them around already like cesar milan! she's definitely the alpha!

she's getting more into making art and playing make believe. i'm excited to see this creative aspect of her personality starting to bloom!

she's also starting to be more interested in playing with friends. her bff is our neighbor cora, but other than her, jia seems to enjoy playing with boys. maybe they're more lively?

it's hard to say what her favorite food is. thankfully she isn't too picky, but she does love anything sweet! guess she didn't stand a chance considering who her parents are. ;) she also has an amazing ability to eat spicy food that is beyond her years.

i'm thankful for another year with her...being this little girl's mom has been the greatest joy of my life!

for the past 6 months or so my girl and i have been going to a mommy and me sort of gym class that's offered by the city. it's 3 mornings a week, so it gives us a good routine, and a chance for her to burn off some energy early in the day so that i can get a few things done later! :)



these pics were all taken back in the early days of the class when everything was still new...hence the much younger looking baby. i can't believe how much she's grown up in the past few months! and her hair has grown like crazy!



i would have thought that parachute was the coolest thing ever when i was a kid. actually i still kind of do.




hopefully my kiddo has learned a lot about how to interact with society through this class. it's definitely been good for helping her to learn how to wait her turn, share, sit down and listen, etc... although she certainly still has her moments that she forgets...she's almost 2 after all! ;)



i really enjoy having this special time with her though. hopefully we're making memories!

i've been kind of awful about keeping the blog up to date with the latest going ons in the mother-hood these days.

a couple months ago though we started introducing jia to solids. the girl was ready.
we were trying to wait until she was 6 months old though, and until we got back from our india trip. at that point she was basically trying to grab everything off of our plates!

i'd heard about baby led weaning, which contrary to how it sounds, isn't really about quitting nursing...at least not immediately. it would be better called baby led solids. what it means basically is that you let your child feed themselves with baby safe foods they can gnaw on and enjoy, and skip the who purees phase. so basically they can eat whatever you're eating provided that it's healthy and not a choke hazard. i think people have been doing this for a long time really, but now it finally has a name.

i read a bit more about it, and jia's pediatrician was for it, so i decided to give it a try...
and jia loves it!!



it took a month or so for her to do much other than play around with the food, but with baby led weaning, the motto is pretty much "any food before the age of 1 is just for fun," so that was ok! with this approach baby still gets most of their nutrients from mom, until eventually they get more efficient at eating solids and wean themselves off the milk.

jia's first solids were sweet potatoes. then she tried some bananas, and it's just gone on from there! she's had a few purees, but even with those she really wants to feed them to herself! haha. this whole baby led feeding has just been really natural for her.



these days she eats pretty much whatever we're having. she's had indian food, thai food, italian, all american, you name it! she already has more diverse tastes than i did until i was probably 20 years old!

she hasn't refused a thing though. does she look like a baby who refuses food? haha.

even when we gave her a lemon to try, she kept on giving it another chance!



it was bitter sweet starting solids at all for me. when you've grown your child entirely with your own body, it's a little hard to leave that time behind when they're so sweetly dependent on you. but alas, if baby girl has to grow up, then this been a fun journey to experiencing food!