Can't make this stuff up *EDIT*

Tony was home with Ari on Friday, and when I talked to him mid-morning, he said they were having a rough day. Not that she was really being bad, per se--she was just into everything and he was having a hard time keeping up. One of her grand acts was that she decided to fill the dog food bowls, leaving a huge trail of dog food bits from the closet (where we keep the food) to the kitchen (where the bowls are). He tried to get her to help him clean up (which she will usually cooperate with--she loves to be a "helper" right now), but she wasn't having any of it. He finally got frustrated enough with her that he told her to go upstairs and take her nap. After a bit of whimpering, she obeyed, and he finished cleaning up the mess.

When he was done, he went upstairs, fully expecting to find her just playing quietly in her room. As he approached her room, he noticed the gate was pulled across the doorway, which he thought a bit weird. She can open and shut the gate when it's not latched, but he doubted she would have thought to close it behind herself. He peeked in her crib, and it was empty.

Not knowing where else to look, he peeked into our room, and saw this...



She was fast asleep, in our bed.

Now, there are a few things you need to know about this picture. One... see that yellowish blob to the left? You can't tell, but that's Belle. And of course, you can see she has her precious binky in her mouth. And on the bookshelf beside her (which you can't see in this picture), she got one of her nightlight candles (they're LED lights that look like candles--battery-operated).

So let's follow this sequence of events, shall we? She walked upstairs to her room, opened the gate, got Belle and her binky from her crib (which she would have had to climb in and out of), got her nightlight candle, closed the gate behind her as she left her room, walked into our room, turned on the candle and set it on the shelf, crawled into our bed, covered herself up, and fell asleep.

And she slept like that for her full nap. Tony took these pictures toward the end of her nap, not wanting to wake her prematurely. When she did wake up, she gave him a huge smile.



And then she showed him Belle.



When did she get to be so smart? I am still, days later, amazed by this story. She has never--ever--slept in our bed, so I don't know where she got that idea. And to think that she went to all the trouble to get her binky, Belle, and a nightlight... *shakes head* She is something else.

Oh! I have videos! I took a few before bed the other night. Of course, she was being a chatterbox... and as soon as the camera came out, she became a little camera-shy. But she's still cute.

She had been playing with Tony's hairbrush right before, and that's why she's reaching for mine. Then I ask her to dance... and she counts to 2. (Yeh, I don't know why.) But I did get her to dance! That "arm move" is her latest little move. And yes, this girl loves to stare at herself in the mirror. She's so vain. (She probably thinks this entry is about her...)


Ari 9-5-08 V2 from Sara on Vimeo.

And this is the video where she refuses to answer my questions. You know if the camera was off, she would have answered everything perfectly the first time.



I have one more video, but I need to upload it, which could take a while. So... I may be back later. Or it may end up in a separate entry. You just never know...

***** EDIT *****

Just edited to add that last Ari video. I love the face she gives me after I say "I love you."


Ari 9-5-08 V4t2 from Sariana on Vimeo.

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