ari's hair in the morning

just a little taste of what i wake up to in the morning. no use for combs or brushes in this house.

no such thing as too much free child labor

ari is so employable these days. for example, he worked all night cleaning out the fridge to make room for all the new groceries. we were only out a couple potatoes, fruit, and a little milk for it, which he fed himself. awesome.

gettin' the hang of it...

ari's finally taking advantage of the ballet bar and working on mastering balance. sometimes he even lets go of the bar to wave at you! other than that, he just looks hip in his new pants... while also showing off his new front teeth.

another sunday morning...

bananas and puffy treats for breakfast...no big deal

new play things!

so, in order to encourage ari's development and keep him occupied while i study and work in the office, we have begun to create a little play area for him. it will soon include a couple of interactive, sensory boards (made from household items), but for now there is only one component - ari's ballet bar! he's already using it to learn the splits...

ari's room mate returns

finally, jennifer has returned! ari has missed having a room mate for so long - he almost forgot what it was like. lots of walks down alberta to the coffee shop (extracto, of course), eating tofu, staying up late watching movies, eating caramel corn...

we hope she never leaves!

unfortunately, austin, tx reclaimed her today so her stint in portland is over for now. she promises to return when little loechel is born. she will be such a great nanny! please come back, jennifer!

christmas in p-town

lucky ari! he went from one christmas celebration to another (perhaps bigger) celebration at home. we came back to portland to be greeted by aunt macey and elsa! although our tree was smaller, it held lots of loot for little ari elf - lots of books, blocks, a mobile!, cute clothes, wrapping paper, etc. ari is one lucky nephew/grandson!

bonifay christmas 2007

so, ari had quite an eventful christmas in utah with his cousin lincoln and lots of family. he met his great-grandparents, aunt mimi, and candice (one of my fabulous college room mates). he also got to play with crystal (another former roomie) and her two kiddos - bryn and gavin.

it was all fun and games until he woke up with a fever the day after christmas. no other signs - just a fever and sleepiness. poor thing had been suffering from an ear infection. who knew?!

still no hands & knees crawling for this kid. he gets around just fine using his arms, abs, and toes (specifically the big toe). he looks like a fish when he crawls. sometimes when he's really in a hurry to get somewhere, his legs start flailing up behind him and he looks like a break dancer. he's pretty hip.

since there were a ridiculous number of pictures taken at christmas, i have just added a link to view some of them. please know that the number of pictures at this link account only for about 5% of the pictures taken by all the bonifay aunts and grandma (you know what i'm talking about).

http://picasaweb.google.com/arirocksportland/ChristmasInUtahSnow