Alaskan Living

Ari Has Become A Push-Up Machine

At five months old, Ari started to do push ups. Now, not yet seven months, he’s doing well over 100 push-ups a day. Not mini-push ups where he supports his head and chest on his elbows, but full-on military-style push ups: arms fully-extended, back straight, fingers pointed straight ahead, hands directly under shoulders. The crazy thing is he supports his entire legs on his big toes alone.

It amazes people wherever he goes. We’ll put him down on the carpet, and within 30 seconds, he’ll inevitably roll to his belly and start into his push-up routine. He even breaks his crawling every few feet to put in a push-up or two. He showed our pediatrician last month—who just walked away scratching his head.

As a result of all these push-ups, you’ve never seen such buff arms or firm legs and butt on a 6-month old. It’s really amazing how strong this kid is. My son, the Navy Seal. Click on the composite image above to see for yourself.

The Lion Who Scared No One

Our little Ari was a lion tonight for his first Halloween. We bundled him up for the cold, then set off on an ambitious trek to show him off to the neighborhood.

We chose our first stop carefully. Just around the corner, there’s a small home that always takes such pride in their holiday decorations. Tonight, their front lawn was lit with a 5-foot high pumpkin, a scarecrow, and lanterns. We don’t know the people, but we decided they deserved this honor.

So we knocked on the door and explained. “We haven’t met you, but we wanted to share a once-in-a-lifetime honor with you. We wanted yours to be the first house Ari ever trick or treated in his life.” They were quite touched and agreed to step outside onto the porch for an extended photo session to commemorate the moment. Such nice people.

We continued our prowl with our little lion (in his jogger), but not three houses later, the lion fell asleep in the mighty jungle for the rest of the night.

Ari Returns To The Screen!

I just received the following comment—makes me feel like a complete deadbeat blogger as well as Dad.

“It has been over a month since the anniversary of 9/11. We, your avid readers, are anxious to see new posts. Give us Ari! Tell us stories. Don't leave us stranded with old (however important) postings.”

The market has spoken, and the market wants Ari! So Ari it is…

Yesterday, Ari and Mom were spotted taking a walk on a crisp fall afternoon in Anchorage. There have been additional reports of Ari holding his own milk bottle, sitting up on his own, even doing military-style push-ups. As soon as we are able to confirm these sightings, we will post them forthwith. But for now, I have to head to a meeting in Seattle…