(Also, the Twitter feed in my sidebar is labeling every Tweet as "31 days ago." Weird, huh?)
OK, it's about time I did an Ari update, since I realized just the other day that she is now officially 2 1/2 years old.
She's regressing on the potty-training front, which is frustrating us. It seems to have started back when she was sick with that double ear infection in mid-December. I mean, you know how it is when you're really feeling poorly--you just lay around and don't want to do anything. So we were understanding when she didn't want to go on the potty as often. And by the time she was recovering from being sick, we went away for Christmas, which threw her off her routine, and now everything is just all messed up. She'll still go on the toilet if we suggest it (sometimes happily, sometimes whining about it), but she's lost the desire to actively do it on her own, like she had been doing. I'm not sure how to handle this--I don't want to make it into some huge issue and therefore turn her off from it even more. So I guess we sit back and wait for her to show interest on her own again. Is it "normal," though, for a kid to regress like this?
On to the fun stuff... she is getting to the stage where she's learning how to joke around with us. For example, she'll point to me and say, "That's Daddy" and point to Tony and say, "That's Mommy." Or she'll ask us what a pig says, and when we say, "I don't know, what does a pig say?" she'll reply, "Woof, woof!" and then giggle.
I mentioned before that she's learned to ask "Why?" Well, now she's learned the question "Why not?" except she doesn't know how to use it properly. For example, we'll tell her we're going to the mall, and she'll say, "Why not?" Of course, we don't really want to correct her, since that would only encourage her to ask "Why?" instead. She'll figure out the difference eventually.
Tony's been teaching her how to count to 20, and she really thinks she can. She's almost completely ignoring the numbers 1-10 (and, for the record, she still skips 6), and will proudly rattle off, "11, 12, 14, 18, 17, 20!" Obviously, we still have some work to do with counting. But, in her defense, she is starting to learn how to count objects correctly. It used to be, that if, for example, she had 3 chicken nuggets in front of her and we asked her how many she had, she'd randomly point at each one of them more than once and say, "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10!" Now, every so often, she'll actually point at each object only once and come up with the correct amount.
She is totally picking up on some less-than-perfect phrases from us. We've caught her saying things like, "aw, shoot" and "holy crap." So we encourage her to replace those with "aw, man" and "holy cow." Yeh, I know that's probably not any better, but at least it's a step. She also says "oh my gosh" which she pronounces like "oh my josh."
I was joking around last night... I forget the whole story, but Tony gave her a cookie and I said to Ari, "Ari, can you say, 'Daddy's a sucker'?" She repeated it perfectly and Tony just rolled his eyes at me. Well, today, out of nowhere, she said, "Daddy's a sucker!" Oops.
We both sing to her a lot, and often, we sing made-up songs. One that I sing to her every now and then goes, "Ariana, Ariana, Ariana, you're so cute." (Yeh, I know--I'm a lyrical genius.) I was singing it to her absent-mindedly the other day... I softly sang, "Ariana, Ariana, Ariana" and then stopped. Next thing I knew, she piped up, "You're so cute!"
Today as we went upstairs for naptime, she was half-walking, half-crawling up the stairs. I was right behind her, and noticed that she would take a couple steps, stop, shake her butt, take a couple more stairs, stop, shake her butt, etc. I laughed, and asked her what she was doing. She replied, "I shake my booty." Oh, help me...
She also likes to announce when her naptime is over by hollering, "Ari awake now!" Today, we discovered she was awake because Tony coughed loudly, and we heard this little voice from upstairs yell, "Bless you, Daddy!" Tony yelled back a thank-you, and she replied with, "Ari awake now!" Yeh, no kidding.
And to end.... an example of some of the crazy conversations I have with her...
Me (while snuggling on the couch with Ari): Ari, are you my snuggle-monster?
Ari: No, Ari a girl. Ari a LADY.
Well, OK, I'm not done yet. I've got pictures. Not that you're going to complain, right? I took these on Saturday, and didn't realize until after the fact that these were taken on the day she turned exactly 2 1/2 years old.
Oh and by the way, she dictated this little photo shoot--posing in the wagon and with her Mrs. Potato Head was totally her idea. Which was cool and all... but I still couldn't get her to look at me and smile at the same time.
Well, OK, fine, she did... but it's blurry. Gah!
See? Smiling, but with her eyes closed and looking away from me. By the way, this wagon was her Christmas gift from her Uncle Chris, and she loves to pile it full of toys, and then climb in there with them and bury herself in them.
I love the way she's biting her lip as she's concentrating here--she gets that from her Mommy. And, also.... check out those lashes.
A smile... and she's almost looking at me.
One last, odd smile.
3 comments:
Your kid is a little stand-up comic I see. That must be fun :)
I'm sure it's sorta funny to hear her say those not-so-nice phrases, but at the same time, you don't want her to be in the habit of saying them either.
I love her sweater in the pics, by the way.
Maybe she's not ASKING "Why not?". Maybe she's EXCLAIMING "Why not!" Just a thought. You know how we say, "Sure, why not!" She's using her wagon the way she uses Gramma's laundry baskets. Filling them with toys & then climbing in herself, whether or not there is room! LOL! Happy 2 1/2 years old Ariana! Grampa & Gramma love you sweetie!
Bowman says he is not having a problem getting on his facebook account
Post a Comment