enow! enow!

what a perfect morning! after enjoying a late night party with the appropriate theme 'white out,' i woke up to ari repeating 'enow, enow' (snow) with mary and jake, who had spent the night, along with chuck and jared (and, of course, our roomie, aiyana). it was snowing for the first time in portland this year and it was quite cold. consequently, it became evident that it was a perfect morning for a banana pancake breakfast with friends and playing in the snow. ari asked for a ride in his wagon, so mary and his dad walked around the yard in circles continuously until he was finally cold enough to come back in for warm food. we tolerated the snowy wagon ride since it could almost pass as a sled.

white out (with a dash of silver & grey)

who needs mittens, really?

thanx thanx thanx

i have so much and so much more to be thankful for: i am thankful everyday to wake up and see little ari's smile, so thankful to have loving family and many generous, beautiful friends who ARE my family (and occasionally room mates, too!); i am thankful EVERY night to have a warm, safe home and food for my family. i am especially grateful for my health and the privilege to be going to school - working toward my own personal goals. i recognize everyday that i have been given many more privileges than others and i hope to never take that for granted, to always strive to promote respect and equality and humanity. i am grateful beyond belief (literally, belief) that i have so many caring people in my life that have gracefully eased into the role of ari's caregiver at one time (or many) or another when i have needed help. i couldn't imagine that, without every single influence, ari could have a more enriched or blessed life. he has so many bff's! i know that it is because of everyone's strength and support that i am able to be present each day and enjoy life with my beautiful, funny, charismatic ari mateo. happy (late) thanxgiving.

matching boots with pam

roomie jennifer is back again!
oops...whip cream before turkey
just doing what i do best...

mary and i!
i want to be like chuck!

democracy in action

step 1: get excited to vote

step 2: get outside, walk down the street with ballot in hand

(smiling contentedly or whistling encouraged)

step 3: locate the nearest ballot drop-off site

(anticipatory dance optional)

step 4: mindfully slip sealed, signed ballot envelope into secured box

step 5: give some dap to the person nearest you

bonus tip: choose a site that hands out candy, even to toddlers

halloween is for losers...psych!

how we prepare for & celebrate halloween:

gutting the pumpkins

putting the extracted seeds back into the pumpkins

peeking around pam's pumpkin

spooky ari on halloween night

we like to dress up in junk

autumn ari is awesome

i always forget how much i love autumn until it arrives: the abundant harvest (translation: delicious soups & hearty meals), the brisk mornings and cold evenings, the colorful outdoors, and fun sweaters (& hats). ari makes autumn even more wonderful and so i thought i would share a few pictures that really make me smile:

see? smiling already - even though the picture is blurry

sharing free pizza on an afternoon walk feels so nice

who wouldn't want to wake up to this every morning?!

how is he so cool?

sweet birthday morning hugs from my favorite little person

fun with quince and ari

p.s. when ari was 'peeling' the quince, he was not under my supervision, but i thought these pictures were pretty cute...

a couple months ago, i found a woman on craigslist with a quince tree who didn't know what to do with the quince, but didn't want it to go to waste. so, never having heard of quince myself, i researched the fruit and discovered that they are apparently quite magical. ari and i went and picked 2 large boxes of quince, and slowly have been making things with them. they are a bit tricky, since you cannot eat them raw, but they have a great flavor and don't require any pectin when you can them for jelly. here are a few things we've made so far:

membrillo (quince paste) - it begins this color & magically turns into this:

it is delicious eaten with manchego (a spanish) cheese

baking/poaching the quince with cinnamon and cloves

then making them pretty with rosemary (from our garden) and star anise

pumpkin patch for realz

we took ari to his first real pumpkin patch a couple weeks ago. of course, we rode the hay ride, visited the animals in the barn, grocery shopped in the market, and picked out the biggest pumpkins we could find. ari did a pretty great job spotting likely candidates and since the pumpkin trip, he must point and investigate each pumpkin we come across.

spooky ari

not really spooky, just cute actually. ari loves his poncho, pumpkins, and rain boots. and he loves buying 5o lbs. of tomatoes to can with.

inappropriate bathroom pics

......................

that last post & kathleen's comment inspired me to exploit my siblings' and my childhood toilet times. you're welcome, siblings.

potty? new table is cooler

a moment of excitement...over the book...

sweeping attire

this is how ari likes to do his weekend chores...

knit beanie and adios pantalones.

new breakdance move

ari's been working on this one for awhile...

ari montage short

here's a little something for the eyes, ears, and patience of only the hardcore ari fans. enjoy.

ari update

I have been quite neglectful over the past few months of the blogging world. My apologies to those who like to read up on Ari adventures.

So, I will do my best to update you with the latest in Ari world, including his infatuation with music, sounds, and imitating big people things. I seriously catch him singing into a wooden stick, as if it were a microphone. And when he sings, he gives it his all by scrunching his face as if he were in pain. All the while, his 'singing' is fairly quiet and melodic. Anywhere we go that has a small chair or table, he is fixated by and insists on using them. So, last weekend, I caved and bought him an IKEA table and chairs. He chooses to take his meals there now. We must ALWAYS greet animals, especially dogs. He refers to cats as 'mow.' He is a superb interpretive dancer - slowly takes his time to raise his one leg, in sync with his arms, and often forms his mouth into an 'o' shape, while his body sways from one direction to another. If he hears music or a beat that is not groove worthy, then he will instinctively begin throwing his arm out (fist or open-hand, it doesn't matter) to the beat. This is often accompanied by some head-nodding. Ari loves giving hugs from behind, especially if you're sitting. He also enjoys receiving hugs from behind. The past couple days, he's been saying "words" that sound like yellow. He just started to want to sit on his potty, although he has no clue what to do yet. He LOVES books and will ferociously sign 'book' over and over when he wants early literacy time. Pretty much, Ari could live outside forever and be happy. It is always sad when the door closes, especially if there is a dog outside to look at. And, we often must go water the garden - not because it needs it, but because Ari practically beats his face when signing 'water' because he wants so badly to hold the water hose. We have been canning and drying foods lately, so when Ari wants a dried pineapple or peach, he asks for 'num nums' (and i swear, i did not teach him that - he made it up himself). Ari laughs everytime he sees a picture of his friend, Pam. I guess she tells good jokes. One last tidbit, Ari recently made up a new sign for 'hold me' - it is really cute.

**Couple more things I forgot to mention: Ari makes a really great fish face, loves to say cheese, keys, and (oh) geez (thanks to Aunt Julie)!

So, that's Ari these days. I'll try to continue with adding posts on a more frequent basis. Oh, and click on the link below to view Ari's library of photos from this past summer!
Check out what Ari's been up to the past 4 months!

ari rocks out with his friends

ari is quite the musician - he's already formed a band. he often plays the egg shakers, kazoo, drums...basically, he is the rhythm-keeper.

this short clip was recorded at aiyana's going away party. aiyana has been one of ari's primary co-parents this past year. ari and aiyana even had a few slumber parties while i worked on big school projects and finals. ari and i never could have made it without her. aiyana is leaving for the summer and then moving to eugene for school. we are so sad and will miss her sooooo much!

ari visits alaska

ari turns ONE

ari celebrated his 1st birthday with lots of friends (mostly big people friends) and sushi! he loved playing in our backyard, with it's newly constructed fence, entertaining our friends and making killer sushi rolls. he did have a few little people over, including his book babies 'twin,' talulah! they humored all of us and sat for a photo shoot - they compliment each other's cuteness so well!

ari loves using instruments: spoons for eating, scoops for digging, chopsticks for banging on things to make music, etc. (note: all of these instruments are interchangeable and able to used for various purposes). so, it was no surprise that when given his portion of his birthday cake (in the shape of an 'A' for ari), he began using his #1 candle to dig into his cake and eat the icing and cake off of the candle.

little ari fish