549 days

So today, Ariana is 18 months old. And as promised/threatened, here is an entry all about her.

I think she may be showing some signs of being ready for potty-training. She seems much more aware of when her diaper is wet or messy--she'll grab at it and grunt at us, as though she's annoyed by the discomfort. I've been taking advantage of this by trying to teach her the words. For example, I caught her the other day, standing very still in my parents' family room and looking very serious. I quickly gathered what was going on, so I asked her, "Are you pooping in your diaper?" She replied, "Poop?" as she grabbed at her diaper. I know she only said "poop" because I said it, but I think her grabbing her diaper means she's starting to understand. And I guess this means I need to buy a potty seat and find some information on how to potty-train a kid.

On to more pleasant topics.... She is talking so much more now--mostly in her own little language. If you ask her a question, she'll answer you. You may have no idea what she's saying, but she'll answer you, sometimes in great detail.

But in spite of having her own language, she is trying to learn ours. She is much more interested in imitating us--if we tell her, "Say ____," she will usually try. I was reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" with her the other night, and when I told her the names of the fruits, she repeated every single one--apple, pear, plum, strawberry and orange. Sure, she didn't get them all right, but you could tell she was trying.

She reads to herself now, too. I heard her babbling softly the other day and when I peeked in at her, she was sitting on the floor with a book open in her lap, reading to herself. The tone of her voice was different than her usual talking voice--softer, and more rhythmic, as though she was reading a poem.

She's known the "So big!" game for a while now, but now she actually says it as she throws her arms in the air. It sounds like "Ah big!" or "Oh big!" but again, you know what she means.

The babysitter bought Ari a wooden puzzle for Christmas, and started teaching her the names and noises of the animals in the puzzle. So if you ask Ari what a lion says, she'll reply, "Roar!" And if you reply with a vigorous roar of your own, she'll reply with an even more enthusiastic one. She also knows that dogs say "woof, woof." Last night, she actually grabbed one of her stuffed dogs and was muttering, "woof, woof" under her breath as she played with it.

She is still a pretty picky eater. I try not to stress about it, but every once in a while, my worries get the best of me. I remember her doctor telling me that it's the parents' job to provide healthy foods and it's the kid's job to decide how much to eat. Which makes sense and all, but the problem is, she won't even try new stuff. She'll sniff it, maybe even lick it (with only the very tip of her tongue) and then reject it.

Then again, just the other day, she swiped some raisins from a friend and put them right in her mouth with no hesitation, and asked for more. I nearly fell off the couch. Apparently, peer pressure is very strong at her age.

She drools non-stop, and the fact that she likes to put everything in her mouth only makes it worse. I'm guessing she's working on her 2-year molars, but there is no sign of them breaking through anytime soon, so I guess that means the drooling is here to stay.

She is definitely starting to assert her independence more--not necessarily through tantrums (though I know that's coming), but through silly little things. I came home from work the other day, and she was walking around with her coat on. I asked Tony if he had just come home from somewhere, and he said no--she had just brought him her coat and "asked" him to put it on her. A relative gave her an outfit as a gift, and I showed it to Ari as I opened it. She snatched the shirt out of my hands, pulled it around her neck, and then wore it around her shoulders for several minutes while she went back to playing.

She is turning into quite a ham, and she knows it, too. She'll make odd noises and when I turn to look at her, she's already smiling, as though she made the noise simply to get a reaction. When we were at my parents' house last week, she was sitting at the piano, and I teasingly told her to do her Ray Charles impression. She's never done it on cue before, but since she had an audience, she burst into her best impression yet, and the more everyone laughed, the more she did it.

She's starting to understand the concept of playing with us--for example, I mentioned the other day that she loves to wrestle. If Tony lays on the floor and I tell her to "Get Daddy!" she will tackle him. I even caught her wrestling a teddy bear the other day. When she had him pinned, I slapped my hand on the floor and counted to 3, and she thought that was the greatest game--soon, she was slapping her hand on the floor too, and making some sort of attempt to imitate my "One, two, three!" chant. I was feeding her last week, and my sister sat next to me, tickling Ari's foot. Ari jerked her foot back, but then immediately stuck her leg straight out at Mary, "asking" to be tickled. She's really ticklish at the front of her neck, and when you get her there once, she'll tip her head back on purpose so you can do it again. I get such a kick out of seeing her catch on to these games.

We didn't put up a tree this year (no room for it now that we've rearranged our living room), but when Tony saw how much Ari loved the tree at my parents' house and at the babysitter's house, he decided we needed to get a mini-tree. He bought a silver tree (about 2 feet tall) with colored lights and set it on a shelf out of Ari's reach. She is so in love with that thing--as soon as she comes downstairs in the morning, or anytime we return home from somewhere, the first thing she does is run over to that shelf, pointing and babbling and not relaxing until the tree is plugged in and lit up. It looks like we may have to leave it up all year.

I'm sure I could think of more things, but this is plenty for now. Her 18-month appointment is next week, so after that, I'll know how tall she is and what she weighs. And I know you all will be waiting with bated breath for that vital information.