"That's dynamite, baby."

I rarely write on the weekends, and when it's a holiday weekend, that means there's even more stuff for me to try to remember when the workweek starts. I know we had a busy weekend, but I'm sure I'll end up forgetting some of what we did.

Saturday was a lazy day for me (aside from all the baking I did for various weekend events). Tony helped a friend move in the morning, then hurried home to take Sasha to Petco to get her rabies shot (so that we can get her new license). He ended up spending about 2 hours there, since the line was so long. But he also ended up getting her a full set of shots and tests, instead of just the rabies shot, so she should be good for a while.

Saturday evening, we went to my parents' for dinner, and Dave and Jess were there too. Ari didn't want to eat much at dinner--for some reason, she's weird about eating when we're away from home, even when it's food I know she likes. Maybe it's just all the excitement about being somewhere new--she doesn't want to stop having fun to eat. Who knows. But we had a fun evening. Jess and Ari played together while all the boys played Wii. Jess kept threatening Ari with, "I'm going to get you!" and Ari would squeal and "run" away from her ("run" is in quotation marks because we all know she's not really running). Jess was getting such a kick out of her. The funny thing was that Ari kept running to Tony to protect her--I was in the same room, but I guess Daddy offers better protection.

Sunday was church as always, and then Tony went to help at the soup kitchen in the afternoon while I lazed around the house. I got Ari to lay down for a nap, and she slept for nearly 3 hours. I'm wondering if she's working on a growth spurt--she's taken a few long naps like that recently.

Monday we went to Jess's family's house for lunchtime. Jess's brother and girlfriend have a golden retriever puppy named Cody, and Ari absolutely adored him. He was just her size.



She loves her own dogs too, of course, but Sasha pretty much ignores her, and Ivan plows her down sometimes, just because he's a big brute who doesn't pay attention to where he's going. Cody was perfect with her.

After some initial shyness, Ari did really great the whole time we were there. Now that she's so mobile, I had to keep a close eye on her while everyone was eating--she wanted to go after everyone's plates and cups. She also ate a bunch of watermelon--one of her new favorite foods.

Jess's brother Ryan loves Ari--he was trying to get her to give him a high-five, but she grabbed his hand instead.



I tried to get a nice picture of her with her Uncle Dave, but she wasn't in the mood for pictures. Heaven forbid someone make her hold still for 2 seconds.



Tony knows how to get her to smile, though--tickling.



She also had her first popsicle while we were there. She loved sucking on it, but once she started biting off chunks, she lost interest.



They have a closet that has mirrored doors, and Ari had a blast with that. She loves looking at herself in the mirror anyway, so I put her down, where she could touch the mirror, and she started kissing her reflection. (Conceited much?)



She paused to grin at me...



And then it was back to making faces at herself.



After we left there, we went home, and Matt and Kristin, along with Nicholas came over for dinner. Ari and Nick haven't seen each other in a month or so, and their interaction seemed so different--they were much more interested in each other than they used to be. Ari kept touching/poking his face, and babbling away at him. She does this thing now where she babbles, but she strings together a bunch of different consonant sounds and adds inflections, so it sounds like she's actually having a conversation with you. She was just fascinated with him.

For dinner, we grilled some burgers, and had fresh corn on the cob and green beans--delicious. Nick ate like a champ, while Ari picked at her food. She actually ate several bites of green beans, which surprised me--they weren't exactly her favorite when it came to baby food. But I have to agree that fresh, steamed green beans taste way better than mushy canned ones, and I'm sure they taste better than baby food.

After dinner, Nick was chilling in Ari's chair, while Ari was just walking laps around the living room. Kristin and I tried to get Ari to stand next to Nick for a picture, but she took off. This picture was taken only a moment before disaster struck.



See how he's looking after Ari? He leaned a little too far, and toppled out of the chair, whacking his head on the floor with a loud thud. Kristin comforted him and as he cried, I peeked in his mouth. We had just been talking about the kids' teeth--Ari's molars have just poked through, so all you can see is the points. But as I looked in Nick's mouth, I said, "Wow--look at his molars! They're all the way in." Then I paused. The inside of his mouth looked awfully red. "Uh, Kristin, I think his mouth is bleeding."

No sooner had I said that then blood started dripping out of his mouth. We rushed him to the kitchen sink, where I prepared a couple cold, wet papertowels. I have never seen so much blood come out of a kid's mouth--it was literally dripping out onto his clothes like it was water. We tried putting some ice on his mouth, but he refused, and the blood kept coming. When we finally got the flow to slow down, we laid him on the kitchen table, with me and Kristin holding him down while Matt looked in his mouth with a flashlight. It appeared as though he had a chunk of skin caught between the slight gap in his front teeth. As Matt pulled up his lip for a closer look, the bleeding started again.

Needless to say, our evening was cut short. Matt and Kristin packed up their things, and we sent them off with a couple more wet papertowels, the rest of the roll of dry ones, and some ice. They promised to call us later with an update. In the midst of all this commotion, Ari started crying too--I'm not sure if it was just for attention, or because Nick was crying too, but either way, it was kind of cute.

I have to say, Nick was a trooper--he was crying, yes, but it sounded like a normal kind of cry. Usually when a kid is badly hurt, they let out that horrible screaming cry--the kind of cry that strikes fear in a parent's heart because you know it means something is really wrong (like the way Ari cried when she hit her head and got that egg on it). Matt and Kristin called later and said that he had torn... well, I don't remember what it's called, but it's that little string-like piece of skin that connects your upper lip and your gums. Apparently, it had gotten caught between his teeth when he fell. He didn't need stitches or anything, and the doctor said they could use some Tylenol for the pain. Poor little guy, though--he was such a brave boy.

Since it was still a bit early, Tony and I took Ari to the mall to let her play in the play area. She had a great time, and all the other kids there fell in love with her. One 3-year-old girl in particular just adored her, and kept calling after her--"Baby! Baby!" It was sweet to see how gentle the older kids were with her--they kept patting her on the head and entertaining her with their puppets and toys. And she just reveled in all the attention.

And that was our weekend. Now it's back to work, back to real life. But before I go, just a couple more pictures....

A profile shot...



And a close-up. Man, I love this kid.



Jack Handey QOTD:

A good way to threaten somebody is to light a stick of dynamite. Then you call the guy and hold the burning fuse up to the phone. "Hear that?" you say. "That's dynamite, baby."