Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Laugh and the world laughs with you

I was driving Ari to the babysitter's this morning, and she just started laughing for no reason at all. So I laughed back, and we went back and forth doing silly laughs. She is such a nut.

Ari has learned (and learned how to use) a new word: no. The funny thing is, she'll say "no" but then do what you want her to do anyway. The other night, at bedtime, I said to her, "Ari, are you ready to go to bed?" (I know--I shouldn't be asking her, I should tell her, but that's a minor detail).

Her reply? "Nooooooo." (Just like that--all drawn-out and whiny and super-dramatic.) Yet she was already walking toward me to follow me upstairs. I decided I'm not going to get on her case about saying "no" when she's doing what I want her to anyway. I think she's just experimenting with it.

She used to be really good about brushing her teeth, and now she's getting a little more fussy about it. She loves to do it herself, but when I step in to help, she gets ornery. I usually sit her on the toilet and hand her the toothbrush, letting her go at it for a while before I finish the job. Now, when I crouch down to help her, she hands me the toothbrush, then leans into me for a huge hug. She squeezes me closely and holds on for a while, and as sweet as it is, I have to disentangle myself after a minute so that I can actually brush her teeth. I wonder if she's doing it on purpose--like she knows she's being all sweet and cute, and she's hoping I'll forget about her teeth. It is a little odd, though, because she rarely gives me hugs totally on her own. Anyway, my solution has been to brush her teeth the way I used to--by laying her across my lap. Which is getting harder to do easily, since she's so long.

As I've said before, Ari doesn't watch much TV. She'll glance at it now and then, but there's no particular kids' show that we make a point of letting her watch. Actually, I've noticed lately that she's paying more attention to the TV than she used to--usually when a catchy commercial gets her attention. She loves music and loves to dance, so any commercial or show with an upbeat tune gets her going. (She loves the Jeopardy "think" music, so I guess that's a good sign, right?) Anyway, the other day I was working at the computer and she was whining for me to pick her up, so I obliged. Then, for the fun of it, I went to YouTube and found the music video for "Birdhouse in Your Soul" by They Might Be Giants. I don't know why that popped into my head at that moment, but it did. And she loved it. There's one part that seems to scare her... well, maybe "scare" isn't the right word, but everytime the scene with the close-up of the trumpets that look like smiling faces comes on, she points at the screen and talks in her annoyed voice. But other than that, she's mesmerized by it, and even dances a little.



(And now I'm going to have this song stuck in my head the rest of the day. Not that that's a bad thing...)

And if you were wondering how I am doing, I am fine, thanks for asking. My legs are covered in duct tape because I believe I'm seeing an improvement in the couple of warts I've been trying this duct-tape-therapy with, so I figured why not go all out and tape them all up? Might as well do it now, while it's winter and I live in pants, rather than when spring and summer get here and I want to wear skirts again.

What's that? You didn't want to hear about my warts? Fine, we'll talk about something else. I got a little freelance work last week and this week, so the extra money is nice. And speaking of extra money, I'll be gettng my profit-sharing check from work in a few weeks, which will be the equivalent of about 4 1/2 weeks of pay. That will be sweet. I wish we could spend it on a fabulous 10th anniversary trip, but reality says that it needs to be spent on bills and catching up on bills. Reality is no fun.

My car stereo still isn't fixed. Tony took it in a couple times, but the guy who promised to look at it hasn't had time to squeeze it in, so Tony made an appointment for Thursday. Cross your fingers for me--I may have a working stereo by the end of the week!

And I think that's all I have to say about me. See why I talk about Ari all the time? She is much more interesting.

2 comments:

Mary said...

So she just started laughing at nothing? That's cool that babies and kids can do that, yet adults are too bogged down with life for that to happen.

How funny that she says the word but doesn't mean it the right way. Our youth pastor's toddler learned to say "go away", and it's all smushed together and sounds like "goway," and he apparently says it to the pastor's wife :)

I have one of those gum massager thingys that you're supposed to use before the kid has teeth. Did you ever use one with Ari? I should probably use it with my kid, cause if he gets my teeth, he needs a head start on a healthy mouth.

Ok, that sounds like I don't brush my teeth or something. For anyone reading this, I brush twice a day, and I floss regularly, yet still I have a mouth full of cavities, one crown, and another one in my future. I blame genetics--that's why I hope our kid get's Josh's teeth. He never flosses and has only one cavity. Show off.

Ok, that's a weird song. From the 80s? And that smiling trumpet is scary--I'm with Ari on that one :)

Anonymous said...

On Monday Ari was running around laughing at nothing...guess she's just happy to be alive!