Ari has a huge book collection, partly because for one of my baby showers, they asked everyone to bring a book to add to Ari's library. But despite the variety, Ari has a few favorites, and one of them is Olivia...
It's a clever little book, and maybe the reason I like it so much is because Olivia reminds me of Ari. (Lines like "Olivia is very good at wearing people out" ring especially true some days.) Anyway, the reason I'm mentioning this book is because Ari almost has it memorized. She can't recite the whole thing by herself, but as we read it to her, we prompt her with the first couple words of each sentence, and she can fill in the rest.
She's becoming "difficult" to read to because she constantly interrupts with questions like "What's that?" or "What are they doing?" as she sees pictures on the page. I try telling her that if she just listens to the story, she'll find out, but she won't fall for that. I think one of these times I'll just completely abandon the words on the page and spend the entire time answering her questions. That would easily take just as long as reading the real story--if not longer.
I've mentioned before that among the songs I sing to Ari, I sing several from the Broadway soundtrack of "The Little Mermaid." At first, when Ari asked me what I was singing, I just told her it was an "Ariel song," which meant I could get away with singing one of several songs. Mostly, though, I end up singing "The World Above" because it's short and easy to sing. The other night, she asked for "Ariel song" so I started singing "Beyond My Wildest Dreams." I was quickly interrupted by her slightly-annoyed little voice. "No, Mommy, Ariel song."
"This is the Ariel song," I replied, hoping that would satisfy her.
"No," she protested firmly. "Sing, 'so much light, sun so bright.'"
I just stared at her. She was actually quoting lines from the song ("There's so much light here, light and space, the sun so bright here upon my face..."). Which I guess means that my days of fooling her with any old "Ariel song" are over.
One of Tony's favorite candies is Swedish fish, and Ari likes them too. She asked him yesterday if she could have some, and since it was close to dinner, he told her she could have 2. She wandered off to the kitchen to help herself, and came back, gleefully declaring, "I got 3!"
Tony looked at her sternly. "How many were you supposed to get?"
Without missing a beat, she popped one in her mouth, held out her hands, and said, "Ari got 2!"
We were eating dinner the other night, and as always, Ari was mostly uninterested in her food. Then she decided that she wanted Daddy to help her, so Tony obliged, holding her plate and feeding her. As she was eating, I jumped in with, "Ari, you're a tater tot." She gets all playfully bent out of shape when you give her nicknames now, so naturally, I enjoy harassing her a little.
Sure enough, she quickly yelped, "No!"
"Yes you are," I taunted. "You're a tater tot."
"No, I not a tater tot!" she squealed.
"You are."
She reached over to her plate, grabbed a tater tot, and held it in front of me. She suddenly grew serious as she said, "No, Mommy, THIS a tater tot." Then, I swear she rolled her eyes at me as she turned away. Sometimes I think she's a teenager trapped in a toddler's body.
Later in the evening, Ari was playing with one of her princess crowns, setting it on her head and declaring herself, "So pretty!" One time, she brought it to me--she climbed on the couch next to me and placed it gently on my head (with a little assistance from me, to avoid getting my eyes poked out). Once it was in place, she grinned widely and said, "Mommy so pretty!"
"Aww, thanks, Ari," I replied with a smile.
She scrambled off the couch and no more than a minute later, she was back, looking at me seriously. "Mommy all done being so pretty?" she asked matter-of-factly.
"Um... yes?"
"OK," she replied casually. And she snatched the crown off my head and took off.
4 comments:
The Olivia books are totally cool! Olyvia loves them, however, she only has one of them. lol We "barrow" from B&N all the time. We just sit and read them there.
I think it's great that you got that book shower. Maybe if we have another kid... lol
Anyway, reading about Ari is pretty much like reading about Olyvia. lol It's wierd how much alike they are and yet they are so far away from each other.
So hilarious abou the swedish fish story and the tater tot story! Love it!!
Love all the Ari stories! Ya gotta love her!
Forgot to mention this earlier...you were impossible to read to at her age, too! You kept asking so many questions. Like mother like daughter, huh? LOL! ;)
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