Baby Jeezy and such....

Dear Santa,
I love you so much! Thank you for being a great present giver and a great Santa! I really want Seinfeld undies for my dad and for my mommy, football undies and please get my mom a new sweater and please get Noah a new bouncy ball. What I really want is a dolly that looks like an angel and my own nutcracker and my own baby doll that's Baby Jesus. And for Papa Pat, let's trick him and get him a new Beaver t-shirt! Wouldn't that be so funny! What about Dylan and Rufus and Javan? Let's get them a new race car and a new skateboard.  And about Baby Jesus... Noah calls him Baby Jeezy. Isn't that so cute? That's all, Santa. You can watch TV at our house for 45 minutes if you want and have some cookies while you're at it. I love you.
Ari

My Heart 4 Years Later...

"Britta, I wonder if I could see your heart when I was in your belly? I wonder if I looked up and said 'oh there's a heart that's all full of love for me?' I wonder what your heart looks like from the inside? I bet it's all big and smushy with so much love" -Ari (April 13 2011.. the day after her 4th birthday) 

There is much talk about the heart at our house. "I love you with my whole heart" is a common one. Ari has admitted to loving sugar with her whole heart and Oaks Park as well. Her heart apparently sings when her mom is happy and hurts when she's not allowed to jump on the trampoline during a hail storm. It clearly makes no sense that Jesus could get into her heart because he's obviously too big and besides, "how could he get back out?" It is common knowledge that the Grinch's heart was two sizes too small and the same diagnosis has been given to people who smoke or make fun of others (or God forbid, both at the same time). Pharaoh's heart was hard, not smushy and Hitler's must have been the same. Apparently that's what happens to mean rulers whose mom and dad weren't nice to them.

Yes, many conclusions have been drawn about the state of one's heart in Ari's world. "Big and smushy with so much love" might be the best so far. It is a beautiful description of her mom's heart as only Ari could say it. It is, however, a different description than her mom might use. How would her mom describe her own heart? She'd tell you that's an easy one ... her heart is around 39 inches tall and weighs 39.5 pounds. She has dark curly hair and hates ponytails and braids. She's a good jumper, a fast runner, and an even faster talker. Ari's mom's heart exists outside her own body and has since April 12, 2007. That's how she'd describe it.   

Four going on... forty or so?

On April 12th Ari turns four. This is unbelievable to me on a few different levels. One... I can't believe she's already four, that it's been that long since she was born. It has flown by. Two... I can't believe she's only four...  Not because it feels like she's always been in my life (even though it does), but because she seems sooo much older. I forget she's still just a little kid. When I see her from a distance with other little ones I'm reminded. She's little! Weird. I could have sworn I was talking to a teenager on the way to preschool or that it was a 55 year-old chastising Jeff in the kitchen. She's just so big for being so little!

An Ari by any other name...

Build a Bear Employee: "Can you tell me your name, Sweetie?"

Ari: "Ariella Joan Centoni. It means I'm a lion. I'm three."

Ariella is a Hebrew name that means "Lioness of God." I LOVE that meaning and after 39 hours of labor filled with scary stuff for our baby girl, we knew it was her name. She was a ferocious little fighter, even then. We wanted her name to not only communicate her strength, but also her identity as a child of God.

So it's true. Ari's name means she's a lion. And she knows it. She told me when she was 2 years old that she loves me with the strength of a lion. She does. In fact, she does everything with the strength of lion... a really big, really strong lion. And she's three.