Yarns and Such
(the fascinating stories of Arianna)

Do you have an Arianna story you would like to share with everyone? Email Ari's mom at mailto:[email protected] I'll try to get your story posted!

There are so many good Arianna stories that it's hard to pick just one. So I'll start with one of the earliest ones. When Ari started eating Cheerios, she discovered the benefit of hands on savings. No matter how many Cheerios were on the tray in front of her, she always seemed to have one more. As I would be reaching to replenish her supply or to free her from the highchair, one more Cheerio would magically appear. Upon closer observation, it turns out that as soon as the Cheerios were placed in front of her, Ari would secret one away in her left hand and then eat the rest with her right hand. I suppose that this way, she always knew she could gorge with abandon and still have one left to savor.

In April of 2005, my sister and I took Ari and Will to the zoo for the first trip of the year. We stopped to peruse the gift shop clearance tables on our way out. While I was checking the rack for a cute (and cheap!) zoo shirt in Ari's size, she wandered to a nearby table. I looked around and asked her to come back. She looked me in the eye, pointed her finger at me, and said "I'm being good, mom, ok?" She absolutely oooooozed attitude. I wonder where she gets that from.

June, 2005: Ari and were getting ready to take Simon for a walk. Our conversation when like this:
Arianna: "Where's shoe?"
Mom: "On the couch."
Arianna, holding one shoe: "Where's one?"
Mom: "They are both on the couch."
Arianna: "Where's two shoes?"
Mom: "The other shoe is on the arm of the couch."
She promptly dropped the one shoe she was holding to examine both of her arms quite carefully. After a minute: "No shoe on arms - crazy momma."

More conversations with Ari, October 2006

Ari, holding up the food she mooched off me: “What’s this?”
Mom: “What does it taste like?”
Ari: “Potato.”
Mom: “That’s right. It is potato.”
Ari: “Is it a potato chip?”
Mom: “Nope. It’s a fry. A french fry, only cut into a waffle shape. So they call it a waffle fry. It’s made out of potatoes.”
Ari: “Why isn't it made out of waffles?”
Mom: “Then it wouldn't be a fry.”
Ari: “It would just be a waffle.”
Mom: “Yes.”
After a contemplative chewing moment, Ari muttered: “Pancake!”

Conversations with Ari, August 2007

Mom: "You can often tell if you're eating a healthy diet by looking at the color of your food."
Ari: "Why does the color matter?"
Mom: After offering an explanation on the link between color and nutrients, "What if you only ate foods that were pink?"
Ari: "Well, grapefruit is pink, and it's a healthy food."
Mom: "True. But can you think of any other pink food?"
Ari: Several moments of deep concentration. "Pig."
Mom: "Excuse me?"
Ari: "Well, the pig on the sign at Fat Toney's is pink. So pig is a pink food."

Our chat ended there, I was too busy laughing to continue.

Arianna enjoying her chalkboard, 2004