Agrael

Well, I'm gonna make this quick for reasons that should be obvious upon checking the time stamp of this post. :P A little someone refused to nap, passed out at 8:30, and then woke up again at 11:30. She didn't get back down until around 3 or 3:30... lucky me.

This is the shirt I made for her today. :D She loves it; she squealed "DICE! DICE! DICE!" as soon as she saw it.

This, on the other hand, is my baby in a steamer basket. She had been playing on the floor there, putting things in and out of it, when she decided to put herself into it. She was pretty funny, too- she'd get in, realize she was stuck, burst into tears until I rescued her, and then proceed to jump right back into the basket. It took her about 4 of these go-rounds for her to finally figure out how to get back out herself, and about another 4 before the entire exercise got boring.

Oh, and Grandpa Marcus is here; got here this evening.

Honeysuckle, lavender and rosemary

This is what I made for Ari today. :) The shirt was dyed by the same woman who dyed Ari's dragon costume, and I used the last of the cat fabric from Ari's dress. Although, technically, I bought the fabric for this project and made the cat dress with the extra. I'm experimenting with machine applique... I think I need to acquire an iron of some sort. I have another shirt or two in the works. I already have her dice shirt half done- all that remains is to sew it down.

This was Ari's response to the shirt:

The Queen of Air and Darkness

Here is a picture of Ari in her new cat dress, whipped up in a fit of crafty-ness this afternoon. She picked out the fabric; she near hurled herself out of the sling trying to get at it when she saw it in the fabric store. :) She was really excited the whole time I was making it, too- she kept trying to get to the sewing machine, saying "DATS! DATS! DATS!" This is the first non-costume I've made for her, and it was really easy. Didn't take long at all... I'd better not keep it up, though. :)

We had a nice day today... the weather was lovely, and Ari went for a bike ride with papa to the library, which she greatly enjoyed. Oh, cute thing: this evening, Thad was holding her and he grabbed me and gave me a big kiss. After a bit of watching us kiss, Ari decided she wanted in on that, and stuck her face in the middle of us to get kisses. :D

School starts again tomorrow, and I must get into writing my paper in a serious way. No more vacation for me.

Here's a video from yesterday, though:

Chest stove in

Whew... we had a busy weekend. On Friday, we had a bunch of people from my mom's group over to play board games. It was four couples, three toddlers, and two babes in arms. In our house. It was awesomely fun, but it got pretty crazy.

Ari had a great time playing with the other kids. Here you can see her with Rheya (who's just her age) stacking cans one atop the other.

Then, on Saturday was the annual vernal equinox party. The upside of having two parties in a row was that we didn't have to do too much cleaning in between- surprisingly, the kids didn't do too much damage.

It was a lovely party- the weather was beautiful for the first time since I've been throwing parties for the equinox. We went across the street and played bocce in the park- a little contingent of neighbor kids came up and begged to play, which was fun. My side won- just barely.

Then we went inside to eat (quiches, roasty veggies, mini creme brulee cheesecakes, and an incredibly awesome berry torte brought by Jeff) and dye eggs. Ari did a few.

This is Ari running around, holding her bunny.

Today, we got up and went to meeting after Thad's job. Since then, we've been basking in our home-alone-ness. :D I did some projects- including making some puppets- and we got caught up on a few things. Which is good, because this is the last of my break. The quarter starts again tomorrow, and I go back in for the first time on Tuesday (I'll be T-R at work now, for those for whom it is relevant).

On the docket for tomorrow: doing my class syllabus!

Now, here's a video of Ari playing in the ritual equinox Arkham Horror game:

How much is enough?

Well, my dad was seen safely off this morning (as far as I know- Thad didn't tell me of any problems). Here's a picture of Ari, having a Grandpa ride- the weather was gorgeous on Wednesday, so we walked down to the Short North for ice cream. Ari walked most of the way, but her grandpa carried her a while, too.

If you look closely, you'll probably notice that her knee is skinned. She's an accomplished walker now, but she still sort of leads with her chest, and it makes her trip alot (try walking around as though someone were pulling you forward by your chest, and you'll see WHAT I meaN).

AHH... Ari's playing with the capslock now. YOU all geT TO ENJoy the results.

IT was A very nICE VISIT, THOugh. I was gLAD I got to show Dad whERE I liVE.

OKAY, this is getting really annoying. Something must be done.

Aaah... I distracted her with the lizards my mom sent.

Okay, so what was I talking about? Oh, Ari's wearing pretty dresses in these pictures that her great grandma sent her. :D Today, she's wearing a really cute overall set from her, too.

Cute stuff from today:

When I tried (and, mind you, initially failed) to put Ari down for a nap this afternoon, I laid her down on the bed. She immediately started giggling in that "I'm about to get nursies!" sort of way. :) Even after I laid down and we started nursing, she had to keep pulling off at first to giggle.

When we went to the fabric store this evening, Ari caught sight of a print with cats on it. She began trying to get at it, squealing "DATS! DATS! DATS!" I have had a project in mind (a shirt for Ari) that I thought it would work for, so I bought a little chunk of it, and Ari insisted on carrying it to the register.

Apple, singular

This is Ari hugging the Ostara lamby she got in the mail from her godmother! It also came with an apple, which will be eaten with much gusto by little miss. She quite liked the lamby- Thad snuck it into bed next to her while she was napping, and when we came back, she was awake and petting it. :) She did, however, think it was a bear.

We had kind of a blah morning this morning. I couldn't sleep last night, for whatever reason, so I was reasonably zombie-like. Ari napped pretty well, though, so I was able to get food and get some stuff done.

This is a picture of Ari thinking, "Hmm... dice, or food. Which one to eat?"

My dad came in this evening, and we had tasty Indian food. Ari surprised us by ignoring the naan (she usually adores bready things) and going straight for the rice, with or without spicy vindaloo sauce. By the end of the meal, her nose was running and there was rice all over the floor. I felt kinda bad about that, but what're you going to do?

Ari had a pretty good time with her grandpa after we got back. She was a little shy at first, but then she ended up spending a good while playing a dice game with him, and she brought over her Richard Scarry book for him to read.

Both grandpa and baby are asleep in bed now, though, and so should I be...

Shocking

Thad didn't end up getting a job today, so we had kind of a lazy day. We spent some time cleaning for my dad's impending visit. It was remarkably futile... :) There's nothing quite like spending 30 minutes picking up toys and books, only to have them all spread over the floor again in 30 seconds.

Ari has started using the -s plural morpheme spottily in the last few days... I've heard "bears", "birds", and (yesterday) "cats". A whole new level of linguistic expression is opening up to her! :D

Here she is, showing that she knows how to use a hairbrush:

Rules dispute

This is Miss Ari's "cat dance". She literally does this all the time when she sees cats. Why? I don't know. But cats are clearly very exciting.

As you can see, we went over to Rick and Brooke's for dinner this evening. I spent most of the day (including while we were at R&B's) grading exams. I hate, hate, hate grading. :P It'll all be over soon, though- I'm almost done with them.

Time lapsed

Happy St. Patrick's day, y'all. We had a nice one, here. Although, it's ended a bit late, as you can see. We had some corned beef and potatoes and soda bread. I also made some green shortbread balls, which were delicious.

Hmm... I seem to be kind of delirious. Perhaps I shall go to bed and finish writing this upon the morn.

••••••••••••••

Okay, then. So, yesterday, we had R&B over for breakfast- it was supposed to be Cthulhu time- but Lauren was sick, so Cthulhu didn't happen. They ended up going back home and planning a dinner with some of Brooke's family. We were invited, but decided it would be better for the girl to stay home; she was really tired and grumpy. Jaime and Kelli and Jeff came over for dinner, though, and we proceeded to play a bunch of games- per usual. It was quite fun.

This is Miss Ari completely passed out on my lap, bless her heart. She just climbed up into my lap while I was on the computer, and was unconscious before I even realized it.

The day before, we all went over to R&B's for dinner- we brought them dinner, actually, because Brooke's granddad died last week (he'd been extremely sick for some time), and Friday was the funeral... I thought it might be nice for them to not have to cook.

Oh, and in very exciting news (for me, anyway), Ari knows my name now! :D She sees me and says "Ma! Ma!"

Lessee, what else... she knows the name of one number (six), and when she rolls dice now, she'll roll them and say "six!" and raise her arms in the air in triumph. She's also an accomplished nose-beeper these days, and she still likes to play the growl-like-monsters game.

Very exciting cupholders

Ari and I went to the department today, to talk to a woman thinking of applying to grad school. She's interested in historical, and apparently wanted to talk to grads with young kids (she has two of them herself), so that was me. Ari and I got free lunch out of the deal, and we also got to get out of the house.

Bedtimes have been creeping later and later recently, but I got Ari up bright and shiny early at 9:30 AM. She was not appreciative in the morning, but she did take a lovely nap at a reasonable hour, which is a good thing.

This is a random picture I drew. For a thing in a roleplaying game. I thought I'd throw it in for the hell of it.

Fun Ari things lately:

• Ari beeping our noses
• Ari playing dress-up with hats (as you can see)
• Ari climbing our stepladder and then having to cry to be let down
• Ari playing "throw the dice down the grating"
  

Feelin' woozy

This is what I did this evening. I have a Goal, and that Goal is to make enough of these little monsters (I have a page full of designs) to have space at a convention art show in the fall. Anyway, I've had this little dude kicking around in my head for over a year, and it's kinda cool to see him in 3D now.

It's been pretty warm here the last couple of days, and Ari and I have been out at the park. Ari no longer likes the swings, for whatever reason, which I thought was interesting. She definitely likes the slides, though, and climbing on the playground equipment.

We're going into the department tomorrow; maybe I'll try to remember to bring the camera and take a few shots of her there. She has good times.

Midtown

Today was the first day this season that I've been outside without my coat on! Ari and I went over to the park, and she ran around for an hour. Then, when Thad got home, he took her for a bike ride. The forecast looks nice for a while- maybe that groundhog *wasn't* lying. Maybe. :)

Ari is much the same- talking lots. New words lately: "pants" "butt" "birds" "bacon" and "apple" (plus others I'm forgetting, I'm sure). She's been trying to say "apple" for a while, but she'd just say "ap! ap!". Tonight, she said "ap-ooooh!".

This week was the last week of class for me, and now I have two weeks off. At some point next quarter, I have to have my paper in. For the moment, though, I'm giving myself a break, and a little vacation- at least through to when my dad comes, next week! :D

Alternate reality

Well, I proceeded to celebrate my presentation being done by promptly getting sick. :P I spent most of the weekend feeling like crap, and watching the Justice League cartoon (which is surprisingly good). This is me lying on the couch, feeling like crap. Ari randomly decided to climb up onto the couch and lie herself down next to me and give me cuddles. It was adorable.

Ari's clearly getting some new teeth in, and it's been making her grumpy, unfortunately. Her sleep has been borderline messed-up, too.

This is Ari eating raisins today. She grabbed down the container off the table, and brought it to me to pull the lid off. Then, she proceeded to munch down raisins as fast as she could. I decided to just let her eat as many as she felt like- I figure, it all works itself out in the end. I'm sure we'll see some interesting diapers tomorrow, though.

Other fun stuff lately:

• Ari brought me her bottle of teething tabs so I could get her one out.
• Ari likes to read while she gets her diaper changed- it's hilarious to watch her lying there with her book up while you change her. At least it means she's not wiggly or combative...
• I got to watch Thad chase Ari around with her duck walker toy today while Ari giggled and screamed "Dut! Dut! Dut!"
  

Dissapointed

These are pictures from yesterday- I didn't write yesterday out of a desire to go to sleep at a reasonable hour so I could be rested for my presentation today. Which is over now. I refuse to do work for the rest of the weekend now. :)

This is Ari in a pirate hat, reading her book with a pirate hat in it. She finds this very amusing. You might suspect that this shot was in some way staged, but you would be wrong. My little girl knows that pirate hats are awesome!

I took this picture of Ari just because I thought she was pretty. She's eating shrimp artichoke melt over noodles. Or, more properly, she's just eating noodles.

We went into the department together today, and Ari promptly did what she could to charm the heck out of all the other students. :) There's one student who Ari has decided is one of her buddies, and she ran right up to her and spent a while sitting on her lap and playing with her.

Angelo was hoping she'd talk for him, and he wasn't disappointed. She said "cat" and "dog" and "pig" and "up". People ask me sometimes what all she can say, and I can't keep track of it. She's getting new words all the time! It's so exciting.

Sexy Abe

Here we have visual proof of Ari's teething. The hands she has shoved in her mouth obscure the gobs of drool on her chin, but you get the idea, I'm sure. It seems to be an on-and-off thing, and I haven't seen any evidence of an erupting tooth lately, though, so I think nothing's imminent.

It's been a weird week. I had my practice presentation on Monday, and it went fairly well. Then, on Tuesday, we spent the whole day shopping for food (three hours and 250$) and doing laundry (two loads darks, one load whites, one load diapers). We had gotten to the point where we barely had anything edible in the house, and no one had clean underwear anymore. :P Jaime, sweetheart that he is, brought food over and cooked us dinner Sunday night so I could finish my handout without worrying about food.

Now, ensconced with food and clean underwear, I have to face the actual presentation. Brian gave me notes for extensive revisions of my handout (why do I never seem to have fewer red marks on my handouts, no matter how often I revise? ;) ), so that's my job now. I pretty much have tomorrow to do it, too. It's good, though, to have an advisor who's so helpful with comments. The handout should be much better when I finish with it.

This picture is of Miss Ari, passed out mid-diaper change. She walked all the way to the comic store and back with her papa, and apparently just collapsed in exhaustion afterwards. She didn't even end up staying up that late, despite sleeping from 5:30 to around 7:00. Note the book she's curled up with... awwwwww.

Oh, and I feel all like I accomplished something- I made dinner tonight. I made a recipe from the 6 o' Clock Scramble book, and it was tasty and easy to make. And I even made a vegetable. I never feel so much like a grown-up as when I make a whole dinner and we eat at the table, I swear. :)

I leave you with a picture of Miss Ari, coloring (notice, if you will, that she has put a bunch of her crayons into her dice bag, too) and playing with her fairy dolls. :D