Update, Sleep Problems, Adventures :)

Arianna Update:
Ari is now 19 months old, and I can't count the changes that I have seen in her in such a short while. She is really turning into a little girl. She loves to watch what I do and try to copy and do things herself, but still will still grab my hand and pull me over to something interesting :)
She loves to "go car." Which is her way of saying 'let's get out of the house.' She knows we need to put shoes and socks on before we leave, or as she says it "shoes and shoes."
After the Gradens left, I realized how much Ari learned from their girls. Ari is a cautious girl, so she doesn't normally get into much unless she sees that it is safe. From seeing older girls navigate the house she has gotten more comfortable in our home. She learned that the kitchen is full of fun toys in every drawer, that the counter is a wonderland full of delightful new adventures, and that toys must be spread to every corner in order to be fully enjoyed.
Ari's speech is amazing. She has a huge vocabulary and can put 3 or 4 words together. She is also understanding requests and obeying surprisingly well. 
She still loves to read and dance!!

Sleep Problems
(I write this in hopes it will help someone else who has a toddler who suddenly stops sleeping through the nights.)
We have had a major struggle lately with her sleep. Ari has always been a very good sleeper, but about a month and a half ago she started waking up multiple times during the night. Then she would get up very early in the morning (5am some mornings). At the beginning we attributed this to teething: she was getting 4 teeth in at once, and she seemed to be waking up in pain. Then her teeth all came in, and she was still waking up periodically at night and then early in the morning. This started affecting her behavior during the day. She was irritable, always had to be entertained, and would burst into tears for no reason. 
We thought it might be a bladder infection, but all the tests came back negative. Then we thought it was some outside disturbance, so we covered her windows. While the Gradens were here, we moved her to our room in the pack and play and it didn't help. We finally thought that she must be wet and uncomfortable, so I bought over night diapers. That night she slept through the night and woke up at a reasonable time...but the next night was back to the same problems. 
This week it escalated. Ari woke up screaming and would not be put back down. We tried everything to get her to go back to sleep in a bed, but nothing worked. (She would calm down when we held her but as soon as she was out of our arms she would scream again.) During these fits she learned how to climb out of her crib and we started to worry about safety. 

After 2 nights of only 4 hours of sleep we had no idea what to do. After fasting, praying, researching, and talking it over with family, we came up with a plan. We thought that she was having nightmares and needed to be comforted when she woke up but needed to go back to sleep in her bed. (We removed the springs the crib mattress was on and put it on the floor so it was lower in the crib) When we put her back to bed she started screaming immediately, but we left the room. We would go in ever minute or two and lay her back down. After 30 minutes of this she caught on and stayed laying down and cried herself to sleep. We have been doing this for a few nights now and each night has gotten better. Last night she only woke up twice and didn't need any "reminding" to lay back down. Hopefully she will be sleeping through the night again soon :)

Some of our adventures lately:
I was cleaning the house and found her pioneer bonnet, Ari had a blast playing with it :)

We helped to clean the church on Saturday and Ari was a big helper. She also helped contribute some fingerprints on the windows :)

Feeding the ducks at the park.

Ari's hair is getting long enough to french braid :)