What about a trap window?

So it's back to work, back to the old grind. Not that this week has been bad or anything. But let me just tell you, I needed that long, lazy weekend in such a bad way. It could not have come at a better time.

I don't have much news, so instead, I'll do another Ari update. Let's see... where to begin? I've already told you all that she does the sign for "more." She is quite good at it, though I doubt she fully understands what it means. I think she interprets it as "eat" or "food" because as soon as you sit her in her highchair, she will start doing it. Or if you ask her if she's hungry or wants to eat (she definitely understands those words), she will reply by signing "more." So basically, she never does it without some sort of prompting, whether it's us actually asking her if she wants more, or just us putting her in her highchair.

We got home from the mall on Saturday night, and Tony was carrying Ari. He paused near the kitchen table (which is always a huge pile of clutter), and suddenly Ari started signing "more." He got my attention, and then looked puzzled. "Why is she signing more?" he wondered out loud. He followed her gaze and noticed that she was staring intently at a graham cracker on the table. He handed it to her and she happily wolfed it down (I think she would live on nothing but graham crackers and yogurt if we'd let her). That was the first time she ever signed "more" without any signals or encouragement from us.

The next day, Tony was munching on an Oreo Cakester ...



...and he offered Ari a bite. She took it a bit hesitantly, but as soon as the taste hit her tongue, she frantically signed "more" and then got a little miffed when she realized that Daddy had inhaled the last bite. Guess this kid has my weakness for chocolate already.

She is also entering the Climbing Phase (also known as the Give Mom a Heart Attack Phase). She can climb up on the couch, and once she's up there, she likes to hang over the back of it, using the pillows as steps to boost herself even higher. So far, she hasn't had any bad falls, but I'm just waiting for it. Tony said the other day, she climbed up over the back of the couch and into her highchair (which we keep against the back of the couch when we're not using it). I guess we need to find another place to keep her highchair. She can also climb down off the couch sometimes, too, and according to Tony, can even get down off our bed. I'm dreading the day when she learns to climb out of her crib.

She is still fascinated with the dog food bowls, but has yet to eat any (that we've seen). Now, she likes to sit on the floor, reach into the bowl, and grab just one piece of dog food. What she plans to do with it, I have no idea, because usually one or both of us is telling her to put it back at that point. But the amazing thing? She does put it back, even if it takes us repeating it a couple times.

She still babbles non-stop (even with a mouthful of food), but I can definitely sense some changes in the way she talks. She now begins a lot of her conversations with me by saying, "Mom." Just like that--no exclamation point, just a simple "Mom" to get my attention. Sometimes she'll repeat it a couple times (even if she already has my attention) and then when she's ready to begin, she'll look me in the eye, pause for effect, and then talk. She uses so much more inflection now, and she even pauses now for my replies and gets all excited when I respond enthusiastically.

At church on Sunday, Mary (who was working in the nursery that day) told me Ari spent a good 20 minutes playing with one toy--a shape sorter that looks like this (a classic... I think I had the same one when I was little)...



She said that Ari couldn't quite figure out how to match up the shapes with the proper holes, but if you showed her how to do it, she would insert the shape, and then reach for the next one. She is finally getting the concept of putting objects inside a container. She's totally got the hang of taking things out of a container, but this was the first time I've seen her put things in. When we were at Matt and Kristin's house later that afternoon, she and Nick were playing with Mega Blocks--Nick kept dumping the container over so that they would all spill out, and Ari kept putting them back in. He would grab pieces and throw them across the room, and she would pick them up--not just throwing them back in the container, but gently placing them inside. She can be so dainty sometimes.

I was playing with her on Monday, with her alphabet blocks (they're Fisher Price Peek-a-Blocks--little plastic blocks with little figures inside of them to ilustrate the letter on the outside. So cute.) I like to pull them out when I play with her, because I have just as much fun stacking them as she does destroying my stacks... which is exactly how we've always played. As soon as I get a stack just two high, she'll come on over and go all Godzilla on it, obliterating my carefully made towers. But on Monday, with little prompting from me (since I was waiting for her to knock it all down), she picked up a block, and placed it on top of another one. And later, with Tony, she stacked the blocks three high. It's so much fun to watch her finally getting these concepts--that she can build as well as destroy, and that she can put things away as well as dump them all over the floor.

Our teeth brushing routine hit a little snag the other night--as in, she refused my help, and when I persisted, she lost all inerest in the toothbrush. Usually, I hand it to her first, and she'll nibble on the bristles with her front teeth--I let her do that for a bit, then I grab her hand and help her brush her teeth. But she was having none of that the other night, and after struggling with her for a few moments, I finally laid her down on my lap (not as easy task, since she is so long now), thinking that would give me a better angle on her. I forced the toothbrush into her mouth as she wailed in resistance (as much as she could while trying to keep her mouth clamped shut). But once I got the toothbrush in and started moving it around, her wailing turned into giggles. And those giggles gave way to wide-open-mouth laughter, which enabled me to get at her molars. We went through the same ritual last night--her resisting and grumping at me, me laying her down, and her giggling as I brushed. I'm sure we look ridiculous--a big old toddler on my tiny lap, snickering as I brush her teeth as quickly as I can--but hey, whatever works right now. At least her teeth are getting brushed.

Hmm, who knew I had so much to say about her? Shocking, huh? I will leave you with this...

Jack Handey QOTD:

Instead of a trap door, what about a trap window? The guy looks out it, and if he leans too far, he falls out. Wait. I guess that's like a regular window.