Ariana's 2nd birthday

As you all already know, today was Ari's birthday. I considered taking the day off, but I have tomorrow off already for the July 4th holiday, and I figured she wouldn't know the difference anyway, so it was hi-ho, hi-ho, off to work I go. I woke her up to get her ready to go to the babysitter's house.

I think I've mentioned before that Ari has a huge Cinderella doll. She started off calling it Belle, since every princess-y looking doll is "Belle" by default, so I tried teaching her to say "Cindy," figuring that would be easier for her than "Cinderella." She got to the point where she would say "Cindy" about half the time, and then it gradually morphed into "Sissy." This morning, I got her dressed in a Cinderella shirt, and asked her who was on her shirt. "Sissy-rella," she replied without hesitation. When did she learn that?

In the car, I decided we should practice the "How old are you?" routine, so I turned around and said, "Ari..." to get her attention. She looked right at me and replied, "Two," followed by a cheesy grin. Wait... isn't the Mommy supposed to be the one who's the mind-reader? This does not bode well for my future.

Tony and I decided we should do something small as a family for Ari's birthday, before the craziness of her party on Saturday. So when I got home from work, our plans were to go to the mall, eat in the Friendly's in the mall, let Ari play in the play area, do a little shopping maybe, and head home. When I got home, Tony wasn't quite ready, so I chased Ari around with the camera while we waited. First, she needed to "ess-er-size" (on my Gazelle).



And then she had to "brush her teeth" (I put that in quotation marks because all she really does is play with the water while holding the toothbrush in her hand).



A father-daughter shot...



As you could see in the previous picture, she wasn't really smiling, so Tony attempted to get her to smile by telling her to say "cheese." And this was the cheesy response he got.



She was playing with Tony's beard here. This shot cracks me up.



Then, finally, we were off to the mall. First stop was Friendly's, for dinner. This picture makes me laugh because it looks like she's so eager to eat. Ha. Yeah, right.



I had to take this picture to show you all that she was drinking from a "big girl" cup with a straw. But, shortly after this picture was taken, we transferred all the milk to her trusty sippy cup, because someone kept trying to yank the straw out, splattering milk everywhere.



I knew she'd get tired of sitting in the highchair before too long, so we let her "sit" next to Daddy. (Yeah--notice how she's not sitting.) She was thrilled to be there.



Then she wanted us both to clap with her. She was doing this in the car, too--clapping, then demanding that each of us take turns clapping too.



More clapping...



Um. I don't know what this is about. But can't you all just picture her being in a drama club someday? Or maybe being an interpretive dancer...



Then it was Tony's turn to man the camera. Ari didn't want to look at the camera--or at me--but I finally got her attention when I asked her to find my nose.



This picture is pretty typical of our entire dinner--Ari doing something goofy, and both of us cracking up at her.



We all got ice cream for dessert, and even though Ari exclaimed "eye scrim" over and over until it came, she sampled one tiny bite and then refused the rest. Crazy girl.

After dinner, she played in the play area, we walked the mall a little, and then we all headed home. It was a nice evening--we didn't do anything wild or crazy, but just spent some good old quality time together.

Oh, and I have videos too, but the website is not being kind to me right now, so those will have to wait.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. Both dogs are getting groomed (they are long overdue), we're getting Ari's 2-year pictures done at Sears (yikes--I have to figure out what she's going to wear), and we have to do all the last-minute party prep, which mainly involves food prep, which mainly involves me. I really should try to get something else done tonight before I go to bed, but I'm feeling somewhat lazy, so I think I'll go snuggle with Tony on the couch.