Aliyah's Second Birthday!

Grandma Vicki cut out these beautiful custom letters by hand just for me!












"Thanks you grandma & papa for hosting my 2nd birthday, I had a great time with my friends & families and the barn animals." - Aliyah

Our Iphone Whiz Aliyah!

Aliyah with her cousin Caroline

At first I was one of those mommies who said that I would never let my daughter touch an iPhone. Now, I see the benefit for both the child and parents. As parents, we sometimes use it as a babysitter (for one of those moments)and for a child, I think Apple’s apps are one of the most greatest teaching tools out there.

Aliyah learns her letters, numbers, shapes and colors. She puts together puzzles, learns how to match objects and play games that teaches her the difference between right and left. She always has fun drawing funny faces with daddy on family pictures. All good as far as we're concerned. I think, like many things, that the IPhone and it’s apps can be used in an appropriate manner, or they can be overused and abused. We make sure she has interaction with parents and other people and also expose her to real toys and books and she is good!!!

This week's reading...

How to protect your toddler from petting-zoo germs
http://www.babycenter.com/404_how-can-i-protect-my-toddler-from-e-coli-and-other-bacteria_1245007.bc
Should our disruptive toddler sit with us in church?
http://www.babycenter.com/400_should-our-toddler-sit-with-us-in-church-even-though-shes-di_500670_0.bc?scid=mbtw_post22m:896&pe=2UvIawE

Pictures!!!!

My Cousin's Wedding!

Over Labor day weekend, we went to Charlotte, NC to take part in my cousin's wedding. My family and I had the opportunity to spend some wonderful time together for 5 days. The wedding was wonderful...we all had so much fun with countless after parties and countless drinks:) It is just so nice to see two people fall in love.

"Habesha Kemis"- Ethiopian Traditional Dress!!!

Aliyah wearing "Habesha Kemis"- Ethiopian Traditional Dress

I scheduled for us to go take professional family pictures for FALL but we failed. Aliyah did NOT want to cooperate at all. She woke up from her nap so early, the whole day was VERY challenging!!!

Aliyah's new obsession!!!

Aliyah is obsessed with the iPAD! Daddy downloaded apps just for her like ABC's/colors/spelling/coloring, but also loves piano and animal noises! J and I have concerns about how much she wants it...first thing every morning, before bed....before she leaves the house...she always comes into our room where we charge it and asks for "cow". We started limiting her to 5-10 min per day or maybe 15 min:)! Yeah she calls it "cow" since the first time she used it was when she heard animal noises:)But I can honestly say she uses it better than I can...flips through the many pages of apps, adjusts the screen size, restarts the programs, etc...Hopefully the benefits are outweighing the negatives!