Missing me?

I dropped Ari off at the babysitter's yesterday, and as I went toward the door to leave, she followed me. This is unusual, since normally it's like pulling teeth to even get her to hug me goodbye. Because at the babysitter's house, there are toys! and a cat! and so much fun stuff to do! She can't usually be bothered with anything more than an enthusiastic, "Bye-bye!" (which is followed, in her head, by "Don't hurry back," I'm sure.)

So when she followed me to the door, I turned to her and crouched down, saying, "What's up, baby? Do you want to give me another hug?"

"Nooooo," she said, quite simply and seriously. Then before the last "oooo" had died down, she reached out to give me a hug.

When she was done, she immediately went back to playing. I called out one last "bye" to her, and she whipped around, stuck her arm straight out in a motionless wave, and made a goofy face at me.

I was also the one who picked her up yesterday, and when I walked in the door, she actually came right to me for a hug. I guess she's all of a sudden decided to miss me when I'm gone?

After dinner, I plopped myself down on the floor to play with her. The TV wasn't even on, but she looked at it and said, "Mee-mo? Mee-mo?"

"No, baby, no Nemo." Then, in a flash of brilliance, I added, "Nemo's sleeping."

She looked at me curiously, as though she was trying to process what I had said, and was soon distracted by her toys. She didn't mention Nemo again... until Tony got home. After showering him with hugs and enthusiastic squeals of delight, she started up with her "Mee-mo" bit again. "No, no Nemo," Tony replied, glancing at me.

"I told her Nemo is sleeping," I said, with an evil gleam in my eye.

His face lit up, and he turned to Ari. "Nemo's sleeping, baby. He went to bed. Just like you're going to go to bed soon." So Ari resigned herself to an evening without Nemo. And she was none the worse for it, either. I don't mind letting her watch it now and then (and I'll probably take advantage of her new love of movies to start showing her Beauty and the Beast, in order to complete the Belle Brainwashing), but I'm not going to let her watch it 20 times a day, every day.

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Something that's really odd to me... I've been working out regularly for quite a while now. (OK, that's not the odd part... bear with me.) So over time, I've developed fairly decent muscles in my legs. Nothing that's going to make any body-builder jealous, of course, but there is definitely some definition there. I can feel the difference even in my normal walking (like when I walk in to work from the parking lot)--there's more strength there, more endurance.

So here's what's weird to me... as much working out as I've done, and as much muscle tone as I have, stairs are still the death of me. I'm fine for a flight or 2, but anything more than that, and my thighs cry out for mercy. When we were leaving the casino the other night, Dawn and I decided to take the stairs to the 5th floor of the parking garage. It was a little more than 5 flights, though--I think there were 2 flights of stairs before you even reached level 1, and then the rest were normal. But by about level 3 (maybe before), I was dying. My legs were burning and felt totally weak.

Maybe I'm just dumb, but I would think that if I have enough strength and endurance to handle a 45-minute cardio workout every night, and any kind of walking, that stairs would be no big deal. And fine, I know, it's a different set of muscles you use to climb stairs, as opposed to walking, but still. Stair-climbing makes me feel like I've never worked out a day in my life, which is really annoying, considering how good I'm being about sticking to my workout routine.

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Well, enough about me. It's about time I posted some Ari pictures, huh?

I guess she was thrilled to be having her picture taken.



I'm not entirely sure what she was doing here.



I'd love to tell you that she put this hat on this way all by herself, but that would be a lie. It was totally me.



Trying to escape from the camera...



Oh, those eyes...



I think she looks like me in this picture. Probably because of the spaced-out, dopey look on her face.



And I know this one is blurry, but I took it especially for Dave and Jess. Remember the puzzle you got her for Christmas--the one with her name? This is how she likes to "play" with it. I think she's treating the pieces like they're pacifiers. Anyway, at least she likes it...