The A-Files

(A picture entry below.)

At one point during Steph's visit, I took over feeding Jimmy his bottle. For that entire time, I had Ari's complete attention. She stared at him, touched him gently, and after I burped him, she insisted on putting the bottle back in his mouth and holding it there (with my help, of course). When that got old, she resorted to tickling him, and was surprisingly gentle (when she tickles us, she kind of jabs us with her fingers--the only way we know it's supposed to be tickling is because she shrieks, "Tick-oo, tick-oo!"). Once I gave him back up, she climbed into my lap with her sippy cup--a bit odd, maybe, but not entirely unusual. But then she proceeded to lay back in my arms, until I was holding her the same way I'd been holding Jimmy, guzzling happily from her sippy cup. I just looked at Steph, and laughed. "She NEVER does this." Ahh, jealousy is a beautiful thing.

Speaking of Ari, it's probably about time I got around to that "Ari update" I've been working on for a while now, huh? It's getting ridiculously long, because the smart little booger just keeps learning/doing new stuff, so this may be a 2-part entry. So if that kind of stuff bores you out of your mind, you might as well leave now. No hard feelings.

Ari has started that typical toddler habit of asking "Who's that?" about random people she sees. But, instead of asking "Who's that?" she simply points and says, "That." And it's more of a statement than a question. But we know what she means. She also likes to do it with people she already knows, as though she wants to test us and see if we know who they all are.

She's also starting to learn the difference between genders, and loves to point at strangers and declare "boy" or "girl." It's particularly comical when she points at a grown man or woman and says this. We're trying to teach her "man" and "lady" as well, but she mostly sticks to her original titles, and I have to say, it's pretty cute. And if the other person notices, they usually smile and get a kick out of it. Of course, it gets slightly awkward when she announces the wrong gender--I simply correct her while I silently pray the the person either didn't overhear or doesn't get offended. But the whole game gets a little more tricky when Ari spies someone at a distance and it's too far away for me to tell if the child is male or female. And then there are the times when, even close-up, I'm still not sure. I sense a lot of embarrassing outbursts from her in the future.

We were at a friend's house the other day, and Ari picked up a rubber band off the floor. She kept holding it on top of her head, saying "hair" as though she wanted me to put it in her hair. For a moment, I was puzzled--I've put the occasional barrette in her hair, but never a ponytail holder. Then in dawned on me--she's probably seen me put my own hair in a ponytail. I can't wait for the day when she actually has enough hair to do pigtails/ponytails. (I refuse to put a Pebbles ponytail on her--you know, the kind that stick straight up from the top of the head.) It's close... I can feel it.

I was walking with Ari a few nights ago, and keeping her entertained (or maybe she was keeping me entertained) by asking her what sounds different animals make. We went through doggy, kitty, sheep, cow, birdie, duck, frog (she practically roars the word "ribbit"--it's too cute), lion, etc. Then she started saying something to me that I couldn't quite make out, while she waved her arm around oddly. I simply chalked it up as babbling and repeated my question. She kept doing what she was doing and then it dawned on me--she was saying "elephant" and the arm motion was her imitation of the elephant's trunk. The babysitter taught her this months ago (complete with a "trumpeting" sound), but I haven't quizzed Ari on it or seen her do it in a long time. Show-off.

She still adores Ivan, and lately, has been getting much more playful with him. She kind of wrestles with him in slow-motion. What I mean is, she doesn't run at him or jump on him, but she'll hug him and then slowly roll her weight on top of him, and then wiggle all around, hugging him and giggling when he nuzzles or licks her. He, of course, just eats it up. The only problem is, she tries to act the same way with other dogs (Sasha, for example, and our friend's dog) because she doesn't realize that not all dogs are fond of being treated like that. Sasha simply walks away from Ari, but I know we need to start teaching Ari to be more gentle with dogs in general. She has also figured out that if she grabs on to Ivan's collar, she can lead him around the room. And she's learned to be quite bossy with the dogs--loudly declaring, "Move!" when they're in her way.

She loves to be a little helper, and any time we are heading out to the car, she insists on carrying something, and struts around like she is the coolest thing. Of course, it slows her down a bit, and then she'll balk at the curb, as though she can't figure out how to step down while still carrying her cargo. If she's not "thinking" about it, though, she's fine.

She is definitely learning the difference between "yes" and "no" and sometimes we can even see her contemplating her answer before she speaks. But even when she says no, she usually says it so sweetly that you can't be offended (even if she's saying no to you asking for a hug or kiss). Other time, she'll shake her head and say no with a little grin tugging at her lips, as though she's saying no just to be ornery.

Speaking of that, she is learning to make jokes and play tricks on us. Sometimes she'll call an animal the wrong name and smile as though she knows she's wrong or is just testing us. Other times she'll trot toward one of us as though she is going to hug us, and then spin around and run the opposite direction at the last second.

My sister sent us pictures of my nephew Matthew the other day, and included a tiny, smaller-than-a-wallet-size one for Ari. I showed it to her and told her it was Matthew. She said his name both as "Mah-foo" and "Mah-shoo" and insisted on carrying the picture with her. One day, she had it while I was changing her diaper, and when I was done, I picked her up to carry her downstairs. She held the picture close to her chest, and declared, "I carry Mah-foo."

Tony told me that she insisted on playing hide-and-seek with him the other day--behind the blinds, in the dark bathroom, and under a blanket on the couch. The only thing was, she wanted Tony to hide with her. But she would still say, "Where's Ari?" What a goofy girl. He said she kept herself entertained like that for almost an hour.

I've mentioned before that she likes to pick her nose. She's moved on to "eating" it, too. Honestly, I've never seen her actually get anything out of her nose, but she'll stick her finger up there, pull it out and glance at it, and then make a point of sticking it in her mouth. And despite my efforts not to make a big deal about the nose-picking, she seems to sense that it is a big deal--she likes to calmly call my attention to it, especially when we're in the car. I can even tell by the way she says my name--she uses a very particularly calm tone when she says, "Mommy" and I know what she's doing before I even turn and look.

She's been amazing me lately with her memory, too. It seems like more and more, we only have to tell her something once and she remembers it. Likewise, she also notices and remembers things on her own too. I was walking with her the other night, and across the street, someone had a charcoal grill going with some pretty decent flames. She pointed at it and said, "Hot." I didn't comment except to agree that yes, it was hot. The next night as we were walking, she started pointing and saying "hot" over and over, getting louder when I didn't respond. It took me a minute to figure it out, but then I realized she was pointing at that same grill--which wasn't even on. In fact, I could barely see it, since it was "camouflaged" pretty well against the wall and trees behind it. But she remembered it from the day before.

She's pretty much completely feeding herself now--yes, I've gotten over my neuroses about messiness and have even let her feed herself pasta. She's actually not as messy as I anticipated, and of course, the only way she'll get better is to practice. She still has a problem with tilting the spoon before it gets to her mouth, so liquidy stuff like applesauce slides right off. But she'll still miraculously manage to get some in her mouth--it defies all laws of physics. We've attempted to let her use a cup with a straw (since she got several cute ones for her birthday), but that's a concept that she hasn't figured out--she insists on tipping the cup the same way she does with her sippy cup, which results in her spilling the drink all over herself. Again, I know--practice makes perfect.

And that about covers it. And I bet when I get home tonight, she'll do something else cute/smart/charming that will instantly make me think, "Oh, I need to blog about that!" Not that I'm complaining at all.


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