This Sunday is Ari’s Birthday. If you need birthday ideas, science and electrical stuff is a winner. His wishlist is also updated. Simply follow my wishlist at the side and then select Ari’s wishlist from there. Hard to believe he’ll be 5 tomorrow…

We picked up Ari’s glasses the other day. Here are some shots (today was a big photo upload day, so be sure to check out our full photostream at Flickr).

Ari had an eye doctor appointment and it turns out he is far sighted.
The school was the first to catch that he might need glasses. The doctors did some testing, wasn’t sure, so they dilated his eyes, retested and confirmed that he is far sighted. He need glasses while at school, reading, doing art projects or any other up close detail work. If he’s just playing, he can go without them.

Ari made this pillow in school a while ago. He did all the sewing (they were impressed he spent the time to focus on it enough to complete the project, that isn’t too common at his age yet). He first sewed the designs, then he sewed the two sides together, stuffed it, and finished sewing it together. Clicking the photo will take you to the Flickr version…

A video of an invention Ari made:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9MWstwY5NI[/youtube]

We had a parent/teacher conference at Ari's pre-school the other day. The short of it is that Ari is brilliant, doing very well, fits the Montessori method, and is a delightful addition to the class.
He still needs work on going up and down stairs, mostly going up since going down takes longer anyhow. Specifically he needs to work on going up steps one foot at a time. As it is he brings both feet to the same step, then steps up to the next step. Now, this may be a part of his size since he is so small, so it isn't a big concern.
The speech therapist talked to him informally. They don't think his speech problems are anything to worry about and he'll likely outgrow them, but they'll watch to be sure.
He gets along well with the other kids and really enjoys watching the older students, like the Kindergarten kids, do their work.
He is really interested in the planets at the moment.
His concentration is greatly improving, and over the last few days he worked on sewing a pillow. We'll try to get pictures of it and post them soon. I'll post them to Flicr, and if I remember, I'll update this post with a picture of it.
I am sure I am missing more, but it was a couple days ago and it's early in the morning. I am sure Sara will remember more.

A reminder to all friends and family, Ari will be four this Satuday the 8th.

It may take a little while for the pictures to filter through Flickr's RSS feeder, but new pictures of Ari should appear on the side real soon. Either way, you can click one of the pictures and it will take you to Flickr and the pictures anyhow. Sorry for the long delay.

Ari has started saying Totally and Dude occasionally. "That was totally neat! Dude." That sort of thing, though normally not together in the same sentence.
Meanwhile we got back from the Emergency Room late Friday morning. Ari turned out to have upper repertory infection and possible early pneumonia. I ended up calling off work at 2:30am from the emergency room as it was clear I wasn't going to be out in time. Turned out, even had we gotten out in time for me to get some sleep before turning around for work, my car didn't work anyhow, so we were stuck there even later. Anyhow, we called Ari off school Wednesday and Thursday (turns out Friday was off for a teacher work day) as he had a fever and was just wouldn't eat or drink enough, what little he ate or drank he through up. So to avoid another possible bad thing where he spends days in the hospital, we took him in after I got off work Thursday.
(As an aside, the car died on the way to work, I had stopped at a local craft store and wouldn't restart. I then had to walk for 15 or 20 minutes in the cold to get to work. Sara's brother came and picked me up, took me to work and we eventually got the car to start. We had a problem with popping the hood on my car as the handle broke off long ago and every time I had to get into the hood more and more of the end came off, to the point there is little to grab a hold of now. I probably should just pull it out and let it hang and grab it when needed from under the car, but I may go to the junk yard and pick up an old one and replace the cable... Luckily the car started to take him to the hospital, but not to go home. So Sara's parents came and picked us up, and gave us a jump to get home. When we got home, we hooked the jumper cables up to the battery and let it charge for 20 minutes or so, but no luck. Friday, my sister came to take me to AutoZone and to see Ari. I dropped off the battery for recharge and walked the 1/2 mile to the store to pick it up and hour later, still not fully charged so they put it back on and I walk the store for 30 more minutes, but still no luck. So I left it overnight... we'll find out when I walk there Saturday how it went...)
Anyhow. Ari seems to be much better today then Wednesday or Thursday. Hopefully Saturday he'll be much better. He doesn't have school Monday so he has a little extra time to get better. Now as for what I'll do for the missed work...

Ari has graduated his Pre-pike swim class and in a couple weeks will start work on Pike swim lessons.

There is a good way to tell when Ari is misbehaving. He'll say "Don't look at me," he may expand this to say what it is he is doing that you are not supposed to see him doing. An "Oops! Sorry!" may also be a clue.
We may take him roller skating Saturday... I haven't been on skates since the 4th to 6th grade range, I can't recall exactly what grade I was in, but we'll say about 25 years ago. Anyhow, we were about to go last Saturday but they were just getting ready to close when we got there and Ari for some reason really wants to go. Of course he also wants to go to school and ride the school bus, which we generally figure means he wants more time with kids.
He hums lots of classical songs he hears on Little Einsteins, and generally seems to be a happy, very intelligent child... if not a bit moody sometimes.

Ari the other day, nor for the first time, broke my heart. I had to go to work, and Ari just started balling, crying and saying "But you don't want to. You want to stay and play with me. It's play in my room day." I actually cried on the way to work, thank God our radio doesn't work well, since with my luck Cat's in the Cradle by Harry Chapin would have been playing...

My child arrived just the other day,
He came to the world in the usual way.
But there were planes to catch, and bills to pay.
He learned to walk while I was away.
And he was talking 'fore I knew it, and as he grew,
He'd say, "I'm gonna be like you, dad.
You know I'm gonna be like you."

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon,
Little boy blue and the man in the moon.
"When you coming home, dad?" "I don't know when,
But we'll get together then.
You know we'll have a good time then."

My son turned ten just the other day.
He said, "Thanks for the ball, dad, come on let's play.
Can you teach me to throw?" I said, "Not today,
I got a lot to do." He said, "That's ok."
And he walked away, but his smile never dimmed,
Said, "I'm gonna be like him, yeah.
You know I'm gonna be like him."

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon,
Little boy blue and the man in the moon.
"When you coming home, dad?" "I don't know when,
But we'll get together then.
You know we'll have a good time then."

Well, he came from college just the other day,
So much like a man I just had to say,
"Son, I'm proud of you. Can you sit for a while?"
He shook his head, and he said with a smile,
"What I'd really like, dad, is to borrow the car keys.
See you later. Can I have them please?"

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon,
Little boy blue and the man in the moon.
"When you coming home, son?" "I don't know when,
But we'll get together then, dad.
You know we'll have a good time then."

I've long since retired and my son's moved away.
I called him up just the other day.
I said, "I'd like to see you if you don't mind."
He said, "I'd love to, dad, if I could find the time.
You see, my new job's a hassle, and the kid's got the flu,
But it's sure nice talking to you, dad.
It's been sure nice talking to you."
And as I hung up the phone, it occurred to me,
He'd grown up just like me.
My boy was just like me.

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon,
Little boy blue and the man in the moon.
"When you coming home, son?" "I don't know when,
But we'll get together then, dad.
You know we'll have a good time then."

I just sometimes feel I don't spend nearly enough time playing with him, and I don't want regrets later in life...

I talked about Nuttin But Stringz a while ago, and now the video is out there I thought I would share the video on Noggin that got us to learn about them. When Ari sees the video he pretends he has a violin. Check out their official site.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cB2Q8I_7PQ[/youtube]

Ari wanted to type something so here we go:

123456790qwertyuiopasdfghjklrgeyreh

Enough political posts today.
Ari is wearing regular underwear now, except at night where we still put him in a regular diaper. He is now more or less officially out of pull-ups except on trips.
Meanwhile, if you haven't checked out the rest of the Ari Updates in a while, be sure to do so now, lots of good videos of Ari. Oh, and I'll get pictures of Ari's trip to COSI up soon, so keep an eye on the Latest Photos badge to the right for those to appear online.

The video quality here isn't great, as it was taken with a camera phone, but here is a video of Ari, at the end of which he claims he is Darth Maul (lead villain in Star Wars - Episode I, The Phantom Menace. The look on his face was very funny.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oya6a1CuwAs[/youtube]

Ari's favorite music video of late is Kate Bush singing Wuthering Heights. He does it with lots of her dance moves while he watches it and it can be quite funny...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdmvs7r1u9c[/youtube]
He is also a fan of Ben Harper's A Better Way, sometimes asking "I want the Better Way song."
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TILzJ-_4urk[/youtube]

Sara's mom took Ari and Sara to COSI yesterday (I had to work so I couldn't join them). From all reports, Ari had a great time as one would expect of Ari at a science museum like that. Ari was asleep when I got home from work, and I haven't got much out of him yet, but he did say he wore a rain coat and sprayed stuff, and something about balls falling down.

The newest video I uploaded to YouTube. Here Ari is dancing while watching Lord of the Dance.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izfal8uqmns[/youtube]

Ari has been full into asking "why?" for a little while now. Anything somebody says to him is followed by "why?", and he'll just ask "why is ?" off and on as well.
He is also into saying "I want to ask you something?", although it sometimes comes out as "I want to tell you something?", which he also uses a statement, the only way to tell the difference if he forgets the "ask" is he makes it sound like a question. He's getting better at remembering to say "ask" though if he has a question and "tell" when he just wants to say something.
He's still working out the details of gender tense, mixing up his "her" and "him", "she" and "he", and the like. He knows the difference between men and women, just forgets when he's referring to them which one to use.