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

easter morning, day, and night

ari woke up to find a lovely basket of items that the easter bunny found in our house - books, socks, soap, snacks. he was so stoked! his favorite was the rice husk treat - baby mum mums. what a sucker.
later in the day, he enjoyed playing around in the yard in his snow suit since it was freezing! sticks, apparently, are quite tasty. a nice easter dinner of ham, mashed potatoes, and asparagus (his newest favorite vegetable) was enjoyed by little ari.