Ari's Morning In Photos

After breakfast, he "helped wash dishes" while I loaded the dishwasher.




Then we got dressed (since his jammies were soaked) and went in the back yard, where he likes to sweep among other things.




Swinging came after sweeping.






And finally, lunch. And now he is napping!

Big Shoes

Everyone from time to time thinks they have some big shoes to fill. Ari took it upon himself to try and fill those shoes early in life. This one happens to be Cara's shoe. At least he set his goal reasonably and decided to just work on one shoe. This reminds me of a picture that my Mom has of me in a pair of a friends boots that came all the way up to my diaper when I was just a youngster myself.

Happy Feet

Surprisingly enough this is another post about Ari. Of course that is why we started this blog in the first place. Now that Ari has gotten more confident in his skills he has started what we call "happy feet". He has been doing it for a while now but as usual it's tough to get it on camera. We also recently discovered that these same happy feet can become unhappy feet when he's mad. He threw his first exceptional tantrum the other day at Nana Mary's house when he wanted to go back outside and it was time for dinner. For now though here are some happy "happy feet"!

18 Month Check Up

We really like Ari's new pediatrician. She was very nice and Ari liked her better too and I just overall felt more comfortable with her, right away. She actually commented several times about how well he was doing with her for his age, how this age is usually a tough check up etc. He did do surprisingly well although he still didn't like it when she checked his ears. So Ari was pronounced healthy - and get this - EAR INFECTION FREE! Yep, despite the past two weeks of congestion (just now mostly gone), he does not have an ear infection. WHO NEEDS EAR TUBES???? HA!!!!! So glad I didn't just schedule the surgery as instructed by our (former) pediatrician. (Who also was very patronizing to me and in our last conversation implied that I was being irresponsible and neglectful for not already having the surgery scheduled. Hence, *former* pediatrician. I know what's right for my kid and I don't need someone to shake their finger at me and guilt trip me.)

Anyway, he weighs about 26.5lbs and is 32.25" tall. His head is 49.5cm, holy cow! So that's 60th percentile for weight, 50th for height, and 95th for head circumference, haha. That's about normal for him, he has been hovering around the 50th and 50th and 90th since he was maybe 3-4 months old. I already posted about all the stuff he is doing... He just had a growth spurt as well and outgrew most of his 18 month size clothes. I'm glad I have a friend with a boy who is about 7 months younger who can use the hand me downs!

18 months

Ari turned 18 months old yesterday. I can't believe it. He celebrated by throwing his best toddler tantrum yet in the afternoon at his nana's and papa's house. :-P It was impressive. He was tired though.

Anyway, yes. A year and a half. Things I know and love about my son:

* he loves snuggles and kisses and wakes me up with them every morning.
* he loves music.
* he loves anything with wheels.
* he has really good fine motor skills for his age.
* he loves books.
* he knows what he wants almost always. No wishy washy kid here.
* he loves to be outdoors.
* he loves water (i.e. baths, swimming etc) - also loves to drink water. ;)
* he likes all kinds of different food - fruit, veggies, meat, chicken fajitas and tacos, chili, Asian food, cheese, yogurt, bread, even some unusual things like artichokes.
* he has adorably curly hair.
* he likes to sing and dance.
* he loves his daddy AND his mommy and seems to share his favoritism pretty equally now.
* he is pretty shy BUT also:
* his separation anxiety has improved so much the past couple of months.
* he still loves his mama's milk.

Things he knows and/or can do:

* mimics most things we say, his vocabulary grows almost daily right now, both signs and verbal. I haven't even tried to count his words... he knows around a dozen signs, probably a couple dozen words or more.
* strings words and/or signs together 2-3 at a time (help please mama, more please, etc)
* climbs on everything.
* knows most of his body parts (ears, nose, mouth, cheeks, hair, head, neck, arms, legs, feet, hands, toes, fingers, knees, back, butt....).
* is learning the colors (yellow and red so far).
* takes his socks off.
* can help put his pants on and take them off now while still standing.
* can do a lot of hand games to songs (patty cake, wheels on the bus, itsy bitsy spider, etc).
* can problem solve - i.e., he wants to get on the couch but can't quite do it, so he gets his foot stool and moves it in front of the couch.
* can follow simple directions (please close the door, can you get your baby doll? etc)


I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff because I'm really tired but that's the gist of it. ;) (He is still working on canine #2, I wish all four would come in already so we could maybe get a little more sleep!) I love my little boy, he is so sweet and funny and smart and cute!!