Let the countdown begin

Just a few blurbs about Ari...

She is now officially done with bottles! I actually forgot (no, seriously, it was an honest mistake, not a forgot-on-purpose deal) to pack any bottles for our trip to see Tony's family. She didn't seem to notice or care, and drank well from her sippy cup the whole time we were there. Last night, Tony helped me (since he's tall enough to reach the to shelf in the kitchen cupboard) pack away all her bottles. Let's hope that breaking her binky habit is as easy.

Ari loved her cousin Michael. She is totally at that age where she is fascinated by babies younger than her. She kept wanting to touch him and even though I kept trying to shoo her away, she managed to poke at him now and then. But she was surprisingly gentle--it was actually really sweet to watch. Then at one point, she was calling him "doggie." Don't know where she got that from.

She is speaking so many more words now, and trying to imitate words we say, but aside from that, she understands so much more than she can say. I am constantly amazed by how much she comprehends. I try to make a point of talking to her like I would talk to anyone else--in complete, rambling sentences, being my usual, talkative self. So I often find myself saying things to her that I'm sure she won't understand--yet a lot of the time, she surprises me.

Her new favorite word is "Oh!" Yes, said just like that--with a capital letter and an exclamation point. She says it very loudly and pointedly--usually when she's playing with a toy or someting like that. And every so often, she'll say it softly, almost thoughtfully. The funny thing is, she uses it in the proper way a lot of the time--for example, I'll tell her something or explain something to her, and she'll ponder it for a second, and then say, "Oh."

She's also learning how to say the word "sit"--she repeats it after us when we tell her to sit somewhere, and Tony's been teaching her to say it to the dogs (he's been letting her give them treats--trying to show the dogs her place in "the pack"). The problem is, she says the "s" sound as an "sh" sound, so you can imagine how that sounds. Luckily, she doesn't really pronounce the "t" at the end very well, but it's still pretty amusing--especially when she says it over and over.