About that munchkin *EDIT*

I got home from work yesterday, and right as I was about to walk in the door, I heard Tony call my name. I peeked around the corner, and he was at the opposite end of the sidewalk, now calling for Ari to come to him. I heard him saying, "C'mon, Ari--who's here? Come see who's here." A few seconds later, her little body appeared. She looked up and saw me, and even though she was probably about 100 feet away, I could still see her break out into a huge smile. Then she started running. I figured she would either slow down or get distracted before she got to me, but she kept up her pace and ran the entire way to me, ending by collapsing into my open arms. With a tackle like that, she may very well have a future in the NFL.

She has added the word "um" to her vocabulary--most notably, when you ask her a question. She was doing it to me all day Sunday, and I got to the point where I was asking her lots of questions on purpose, just to hear her say it. She says it with such spirit, too. It's not a muttered "um"--she says it loudly, eagerly, with a little punch behind the word, and holds the "mmm" sound for just a few seconds.

She is talking so much more in full sentences now. And by "full sentences" I don't just mean that she's stringing 2 or 3 words together--sometimes she literally speaks in grammatically correct and complete sentences. There are still times when Tony and I will do a double-take at each other, and say, "Did she just say what I thought she said?" We were coming home from errands the other day, and as Tony went to get Ari out of her carseat, she very clearly said, "It's raining outside." She also loves to talk about herself, and tell us what she's doing. "Ari eat. Ari clean. Ari's shirt messy. Ari's baby go night-night." She's also getting bossy with the dogs, and it's hilarious to see this little tiny person bellowing, "Ivan, move!" or "Sasha, go!"

She also very regularly asks for help, and has started to say, "Need help, please" without prompting. Sometimes she'll even add an "I" at the beginning to make it a truly complete sentence. She asks so sweetly that it's hard to say no--and it's even harder when I have to say no because she's asking me to do something impossible.

I was in the kitchen the other day when Ari insistently started saying, "Water, water." It seemed a bit odd to me, since she doesn't really like water (so why would she be asking for it?) until I turned to look at her. She was standing next to me, holding up Ivan's almost-empty water bowl. I asked her to put it down, and as she did, she dumped the remaining water on the floor. It looked to me like she did it on purpose, so I scolded her and shooed her out of the kitchen so I could finish what I was doing. Of course, that didn't last long, and the next thing I heard her saying was "I clean. I clean mess." I turned, and she was sitting on the floor--she had pulled down both dishtowels and was mopping the puddle up with them.

She didn't take a nap on Sunday afternoon, because she refused to fall asleep. But if it wasn't for me checking on her, I never would have known. The first time I checked was about half an hour after I'd laid her down--I found her door open (but since we have a baby gate across the doorway, she's trapped in her room), and she was playing quietly with her toys. I sternly told her to get back in bed, and she did it without complaint. Half an hour later, she was still awake, though this time she'd stayed in her crib. I firmly told her to lay down and she did. Another 15 minutes went by, and I again had to tell her to get back in bed. After about another 15 minutes, I heard a huge "thud" and I dashed upstairs, fearing she'd fallen out of her crib onto her head--and the lack of crying only worried me more. But there she was, calmly standing in her crib, looking curiously at me as though she wondered why I looked so frantic. I didn't see anything she had thrown on the floor that could have made that much noise, so it must have come from a neighbor's apartment. And at this point, I gave up on her napping. It had been about 2 hours since naptime had started, and it was getting too late in the day to bother. But she was in an excellent mood, and she spent the evening and night with my parents, who also reported that she was a perfect angel for them. I'm not at all ready to let her give up naps completely (and, really, I don't think she's ready either), but it's nice to know that even when she's not sleepy, she'll still cooperate with the idea of naptime. I think, even though she didn't sleep, the quiet "downtime" was still refreshing for her.

I've also made it a habit to explain almost everthing to her, pretending she understands every word I say. I mean, maybe she doesn't grasp everything now, but someday she will, so I might as well get in the habit. When she misbehaves, I make a point of explaining to her that what she did was bad, and why it was bad, and why she shouldn't do it again. The other day, I caught her whacking Sasha on the head with a water bottle (empty, but still). Poor Sasha was desperately trying to get away, but Ari was persistently following her. I scolded Ari, telling her that was not nice and she was giving Sasha boo-boos. Then I told her she needed to say she was sorry to Sasha. I didn't expect her to (and at this point, she was crying), but it was kind of the principle of the thing--sooner or later, she will learn what the word "sorry" means. When she didn't say it, I asked her to give Sasha a hug, a concept I know she understands. Of course, when she tried to, Sasha scooted away from her. So finally I had Ari give Sasha a treat, to "make up" with her, and that was the end of that (though Sasha did keep a wary eye on Ari the rest of the afternoon).

When Ari's being whiny, I use the same approach--calmly explaining to her what's going on, why she needs to wait, etc. For example, if she's fussing because she wants to get out of the shopping cart, I tell her she needs to be patient, that we need to go pay and once we pay, we can go home. Maybe it's just the calm tone of my voice or the attention I'm giving her that soothes her, but whatever the reason, it's working. Sometimes she even stares at me intently, as though she's really listening, trying to absorb every word I say. I don't want to be one of those parents who just says "no" all the time, without giving any reason (or, worse, giving a lame reason like "because I said so"). Of course, this little habit of mine will probably drive her nuts when she's a teenager and she could care less about my reasons for saying no because I am just so unfair and unreasonable and all I want to do is ruin her life.

I just have to end by saying... overall, she is just such a sweet little person. I know, I know--I'm her mom, so I'm biased. But I've been bracing myself for the "Terrible Twos" to hit, and so far, they haven't. Sure, she throws fits now and then, but they are nothing compared to some horror stories I've heard. And I know--the worst could be just around the corner. So for now, I'm just going to savor the little angel I have, and cross my fingers that maybe we can skip the terribleness altogether.

*** EDIT ***

Edited to show you...



... pigtails!

Yeh, I know they're crooked and her part is all messed up--I just did them quickly to see if I could. And then I snapped pictures as quickly as I could before she tore them out.





OK, that's all. As you were.

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