Hey, it's Friday the 13th. Awesome.

I just realized that Sunday is Father's Day and I have yet to buy Tony a card. We got cards for our own fathers a couple days ago, but I couldn't pick out anything for Tony with him right beside me. I actually need to get 2 cards, I suppose--one from me and one from Ari. I'm of the mindset that it's silly for a child to "give"' cards to people when the child is too young to pick the card out or even know what's going on, but since I got a card from "Ari" on Mother's Day, I should probably follow suit with Father's Day.

Tomorrow I'm having my MRI, bright and early at 9 AM. (I know that's not all that early in the grand scheme of things, but on My Only Day To Sleep In, it is. Hmm, maybe I can catch a little extra sleep during the MRI. Don't laugh--you'd be surprised how easily I can fall asleep, despite loud noises and such.) Anyway, it's going to be an MRI of my braaaaaaaain ( <-- you have to read that word in a mad-scientist voice). Should be a fun experience. Maybe I'll even blog about it.

Tonight I have a girls' night planned with Dawn, since our husbands will be occupied with a church men's activity. There was talk of getting ice cream for dinner, and of taking a walk, which will completely cancel out the ice cream. Sounds like a perfect plan to me.

Well, let me close by talking about my cute kid. She is starting to make little "sentences" by stringing together words she knows. It's basically just a few nouns thrown together, but you can easily understand what she's trying to tell you. For example, yesterday she said to the babysitter, "Mary... Ari... water." She was in the pool at the time, so she wanted Mary to know she was in the water. (Oh, and a side note--yes, she has finally figured out that her name is "Ari" not "You.") She still speaks jibberish sometimes, but more and more, we are starting to follow her train of thought.

She also uses her power of speaking to "tattle." For example, if I tell her no and have to use a sharp tone with her, she'll start up the fake cry, run to Tony, and sob, "Moooooommy," as though she wants to tell him what an awful person I am. It's pretty amusing, actually.

When she wakes up in the mornings, she calls out "Hi" as loudly as she can. If that gets no response, she'll try adding a name. "Hi, Daddy." And if there's still no response, she'll try "Hi, Mommy." She doesn't get upset--she just raises her voice little by little. And if there's still no reply, she'll usually find a way to amuse herself with the toys in her crib, humming and talking to herself until someone comes to get her. I love that she wakes up so cheerful. But, like I've said before, I'm sure I'd be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed if I were getting 10-12 hours of sleep a night.

We have a plant out back and she helps Tony water it. He fills an old Dasani bottle with water, and she carries it oh-so-carefully outside, and then much-less-carefully dumps it on the plant. And she is terribly proud of herself for being Daddy's little helper.

She still loves the playground, and has learned a new skill--how to hang by her arms. The big slide has a "frame" around it, with openings so that kids can have something to grab on to when they're getting ready to go down. Ari grabs the uppermost part with her hands, pulls up her legs, and just dangles there. She did it last night a little more forcefully, and swung pretty hard. Then, Tony said, "I'm going to get you," which, as you know, sends most toddlers into a shrieking frenzy as they attempt to escape. Ari did her hanging thing again, except this time, as she swung forward, she let go (on purpose), plopped down hard on the slide, and slid all the way down. And of course, she was giggling the entire time. She's going to be a daredevil, that one.

I think I've mentioned before that she's started singing, and we can tell it's the ABC song. There's also a song that Tony sings to her, and she sings with him. It starts off with the words "La dee doh, la dee doh da day," and she can sing that part almost perfectly. I watched her do it last night right before bed, her head snuggled on to his shoulder as she belted out the words, as though she was trying to outsing him.

That's all I've got off the top of my head. Happy Friday the 13th, everyone! May today be your lucky day. (No, seriously. 13 is a lucky number in my family, not unlucky, so get over your negative superstitions and have yourself a fantabulous day.)