Who can guess what she's thinking?!

During dinner tonight, Dan and I were talking and laughing together. Each time we would burst into laughter, Ariel would give a loud, almost weird courtesy laugh, then look straight into my eyes and spit a "raspberry" at me. What in the world? It made us laugh all the harder, of course, which I suppose only reinforced her odd behavior.

After dinner, Ariel found my old cell phone and started playing with it. She held it to her ear.

"Kah-maw! Kah-maw!" (Grandma).

"Do you want to talk to Grandma?"

"No."

"Oh, so you're just pretending to talk to Grandma?"

"Hmmm!" (yes)

"Oh, okay."

Since then, I've offered many more times to call Grandma for her, but she's uninterested. She keeps holding up the phone and saying "cheese!" It's weird to think that my daughter will grow up thinking that it's normal and unremarkable for phones to be able to take pictures.

Right now she is standing in the living room, spinning in circles until she falls down. Between spins, she kisses the "Bee Ball" (big ball- my exercise ball). As she spins, she holds her dolly to her mouth and sucks her thumb, or sometime she pulls the thumb out and yells. When she falls, she laughs. It looks that much cuter because she's only wearing a shirt and socks. Ah, to be one!

Speaking of the Bee Ball, Ariel is learning adjectives! We've always called it the Big Ball, so that's not so impressive, but yesterday Ariel went into my bedroom, where she found something that I had pulled out of a closet. It was a toddler doll (as opposed to a baby doll), about 18 inches tall, that I had played with as a girl.

She picked it up and dragged it into the living room, announcing excitedly, "Bee Doll! Bee Doll! Bee Doll! MY Bee Doll!"

Of course it's yours, sweetie.

I love you.