Just a few Ari stories....
Ari is in this "phase" right now where she wants to be carried all the time--especially going upstairs/downstairs or walking out to the car. I tease her about how heavy she is, how she's killing Mommy, stuff like that... but honestly, I kind of enjoy it. Even though her legs are long enough to get all tangled with mine when I carry her up the stairs.
She is becoming quite a little punk. And it's not even so much in her words--it's these faces she comes up with. I swear, sometimes I feel like I'm looking at a teenager. We keep having little talks with her about not having a bad attitude, but I'm not sure how much the concept of "attitude" is sinking in for her. But aside from the sullen faces, she's still a little smart aleck. I was disciplining her about something the other night--I can't remember what it was, though. I corrected her sternly, putting on what I thought was a good "Mom Look"... and in reply, she grinned and said, "Ari funny!" I attempted to reply "No, you're not funny" but didn't finish the phrase before I started laughing. I have really got to get a handle on that.
We're still struggling on the potty-training front, so we're employing sneaky tactics to get her to sit on the toilet. For example, I'll read her a book while she sits on the toilet, to keep her occupied and holding (relatively) still. Lately, though, I've been taking full advantage of having a BlackBerry and using it to play YouTube videos for her. I played "Birdhouse in Your Soul" for her one night, and she's been asking for it every night since. She really gets into it now, even attempting to sing the words. I really should get a video of her singing along, because it's pretty cute to hear her going, "Ooh watches oh-er you... bir'house... your sooooooooul!"
She has this little toy that she's had for a while, but suddenly loves--it called a "Fridge DJ" or something (it's magnetic) and it plays lots of different songs. Among the songs it plays are a few versions of the alphabet song. Ari insisted on having this toy at the dinner table with her the other night, and happily sang along to the alphabet song in between bites. She is getting pretty good--you can hear almost every letter when she sings now. (She used to kind of mumble the "L, M, N, O, P" part, but that's understandable, since that part is so fast.) She also enunciates her letters much more carefully, too, as though she's trying to prove how well she knows them.
I've noticed, too, when it comes to music, if I sing along with her, she watches me very carefully--specifically, she watches my mouth. It's like she's actually concentrating on learning all the words, and wants to make sure she's doing it right. So, in turn, I've been making an effort to exaggerate the movement of my lips when I sing with her, so she can see how the words are formed. Even when she's not picking up on the words, she'll still twitch her mouth, imitating me. She tends to pick up on the last word of a line first (I think a lot of people do this when they're learning lyrics), and she'll sing it extra loud and hold it extra long, as if that makes up for all the other words she missed.
And to conclude, a couple of Ari videos. Sorry my voice is so loud in these--I guess I was holding the camera closer to myself than I thought.
1st video... Yeh, I know her hair is out of control... I think (*gasp*) it may finally be time to get her a haircut. Anyway, note the over-dramatic coughing--whenever she notices that one of us notices her coughing, she'll cough a few extra times on purpose. My favorite part is at the end when I'm telling her to say bye a few different ways, and when I ask her to blow kisses, she starts to say, "Blow ki--" before she realizes, oh, she's supposed to actually DO it, not say it.
Ariana 1-14-09 1 from Sariana on Vimeo.
2nd video... Behold, the power that Mickey Mouse Clubhouse holds over my child... Also, I've never seen her do the "roll call" part so loudly before--showing off for the camera, maybe? And notice how her "bye" is much less enthusiastic this time around.
Ariana 1-14-09 2 from Sariana on Vimeo.
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2 comments:
What adoreable videos! Thanks for posting them!
Aw, how nice for you that she wants to be carried. Time is so fleeting, isn't it? Josh and I were just talking about this last night. Matthew used to sit in our laps very contentedly, but it's not the case anymore. There's too many things to see and reach for that he doesn't have time to sit still and cuddle.
Hey, that sounds like a good potty tactic you're using there. Hopefully it works out for you.
Matthew watches me sing too. Not that he's trying to learn the words to the song. In his case, he's just trying to learn how to speak :)
Oh my goodness, don't cut her hair! Those curls are so beautiful! Yay for her loving Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!
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