And now, ladies and gentlemen...

Ariel Joy Fybush

 

Born: September 15, 2003, 4:26 AM

Weight: 7 lbs, 2 oz. Length: 20 inches

 

(At left: Ari's official portrait, 2 days old at Highland Hospital.)

 

>>>Click here for page ONE of Ari pictures<<<

>>>Click here for page THREE of Ari pictures<<<

 

Monday, December 1

Catching up from Ari's Big Trip

Yes, yes, an entire month somehow escaped us here...and we are getting caught up from being away for two weeks and then being swamped with work. So here are a few pictures, with more coming tomorrow:

Here's Ari on her Grammy Fran's sofa.

Same baby, same sofa, and there's Grammy!

Here they are in Grammy's kitchen.

Diaper change! (Complete with red eyes from the flash...)

Snooze.

Here's a more recent picture, back home in Rochester, taken by my friend Greg...

Tuesday, October 27

Baby's First Date...and Grandpa's Big Birthday

We're about to hit the road again, taking Ari to visit her many family members in and around Fort Wayne, Indiana (and me to see the radio towers of Chicago and West Michigan, but that's another matter) - but before we do, a few more new Ari pics:

(Oh, and an all-purpose update: she's not quite making it through the night yet, but we're getting a solid four or five hours a night from her. She's now holding her head up quite well and looking around at the world, especially at light fixtures. Anybody have a used tower beacon we could mount over her crib? :-)

Here's Ari (on the right) holding hands with her first boyfriend, Zachary (whose father is Julie's boyfriend's brother - got that all straight?)

Here's Uncle Chris and Aunt Julie holding the two young, um, lovers. Actually, Zachary is way too young for Ari - he's only four weeks old, after all.

Ari being held at Zach's house. She's still all dreamy after meeting Zach, I think. Or maybe she had gas. Hard to tell.

Sleepy baby.

Ari was busy last weekend, traveling to Syracuse to celebrate the 65th birthdays of her Great-Aunt Judy and her Grandpa Dan at the very excellent Ichiban restaurant. Here she is with Great-Aunt Judy and Great-Uncle Matty.

Julie and Chris with Ari at Ichiban. Julie will yell at me and tell me it's a lousy picture of her, but at least there's a picture of her and Chris on the site now.

Ari models the racing hat she gave to Grandpa Dan for his birthday. The day after the Syracuse party, Nanny Carol and the family threw Grandpa Dan another party for all his Rochester friends, and Ari was very popular.

After dinner at Ichiban, Ari got to meet Lisa's former Democrat and Chronicle colleague Khaya, who's now studying for her master's degree at Syracuse University.

Monday, October 20

"The Baby Takes Manhattan"

We have something resembling an excuse for the absence of new Ari pictures last week - we decided, nearly on the spur of the moment, to take Ari down to New York City to meet her cousins and other assorted family friends.

The original idea was to take her to Yankee Stadium so she could see the Boston Red Sox defeat the Yankees, but ticket prices rapidly soared out of reach, as did the Sox' chance of getting to the World Series. So Ari will have to join the rest of us in Sox Nation in learning that the good things in life don't come easily or quickly. Next year!

Even without a trip to the Bronx, Ari had plenty to do in New York, which must be quite a place for a month-old baby. The Second Avenue Deli, the New York subway system, the big Toys R Us in Times Square (where I misplaced her changing pad while changing her diaper) and even a milkshake at the Howard Johnson's in Times Square, which has got to be one of the very last ones left in the world.

And the trip gave her a chance to get to know her cousins in Suffern...and, best of all, to experience her very first radio tower and transmitter. Gotta start them young, you know...

Too young for actual deli food, Ari got to enjoy being passed from person to person as we enjoyed a delicious lunch at the famous Second Avenue Deli. Here she's being entertained by Russ "Famous Amos" DiBello, noted radio personality, as our Brandeis classmate Jeremy Goldman and Bob "Cadillac Jack" Perry, creator of the "Jack FM" format that's all the rage in Canada, observe from across the table.

Diane the waitress is an institution at the Second Avenue Deli, and with good reason. "Creme de la creme" soda, anyone?

More deli pictures, here with Jeremy. He doesn't usually dress like that, by the way - he was coming from a job interview. (Anyone need a really good programmer?)

Russ, Russ, Russ...it's not nice to yell "NINE" at a baby. She'll appreciate the magic of Johnny West someday (hopefully not before her 18th birthday...)

Heading out from the deli to show Ari more of New York City.

Baby (snuggled deep in baby carrier) rides the L train...

Back in Suffern, Ari got to meet her cousins, Jared (age 6), Sophie (4) and Hannah (18 months). Their mom, Lisa Jay, is Scott's first cousin, and they were excited to meet Ari after seeing Lisa in various stages of pregnancy over the spring and summer.

Jared enjoyed picking up the baby. He says he can pick up Sophie, too, but picking up Ari was easier.

Sophie likes to hold the baby, too, even if Ari doesn't seem too certain about the whole thing...

Here Sophie shows off the baby to her mom and her best friend Sophie. (Lots of Sophies these days...)

Ari also got to meet Amy Blessinger, one of Lisa's best friends since their year abroad in Paris. Amy now works as an urban planner up in the Hudson Valley, but she drove down to meet Ari and watch the Sox game with us. (To the extent that Sophie would let us watch the Sox game, that is; she was more interested in her Mary-Kate and Ashley video...)

And in addition to visiting New York, Ari also got to visit Binghamton, where she had dinner with her great-aunt Judy and great-uncle Matty (Lisa Jay's mom and dad). She'll be seeing a lot of Binghamton in the years to come. Some things you can't do anything about...

Oh, and if she becomes a county counter in the years to come, she can now count Monroe, Ontario, Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Cortland, Broome, Delaware, Sullivan, Orange, Rockland, New York, Ulster, Greene, Albany, Schenectady, Montgomery, Herkimer, Oneida and Madison counties in New York, and even her second state, since we drove through Bergen County, New Jersey as well. She'll thank me someday for giving her so much of a head start...how many people notch 20 of 62 NY counties before they're five weeks old?

MORE Ari photos here >>>