Araness

There was a moment today when Ara caught my gaze and looked straight into my eyes for what seemed like a minute. As I looked into those dark dark brown eyes I was almost startled by her depth. I see such intelligence, curiosity, and love inside those eyes.

Ara has been sort of complaining lately as she crawls/cruises in the living room. She really wants to explore and finds her safety zone boring. I hate having to constantly bring her back when she crawls away. I don't want to discourage her, so I started trying to think of different ways to engage her mind. We got her some giant Crayons and a piece of paper and she was SO excited. I actually have Ara's first artistic expression in my hand. I have also been trying to change my tone of voice when I say "aht aht aht" to stop her from eating the crayons. I can't understand, I am doing everything the "child experts" say to do and my baby thinks it's really funny! She laughs and laughs. She even holds the crayon near her mouth and looks at me expectantly!