t h e . r i d i c u l o u s . p a n d a

i love my job. i have someone to eat lunch with every day and when the weather permits we usually make it a picnic. this photo is from one of our lunches at welles park.

i took it not only to send to sam to show him the trials of my workday but also to share with grandma ruth. recently she showed us home movies of her as a little, little girl running around in welles park. silas eating parsnips in the very park where his grandma used to toddle around in her sunday finery. crazy.

last night while watching the national spelling bee, sam noted that silas was perched comfortably on his gut.

this morning, silas was up about twenty minutes past his normal morning nap time, he almost immediately morphed into that fantastic combination of slaphappy and irritable. it was like looking into a little adorable mood mirror.

silas and i spent the weekend with my mom. sam strapped on his hiking boots and kissed us goodbye early, early on saturday morning. silas and i drove up to grandma's after breakfast and arrived up north to a sunny day and the swimming pool open for the season. it was a bit chilly but he and i braved the waters and swam in circles and practiced our kicking. the weekend was beautiful, we relaxed on the porch, silas reached for the bubbles and refused to look at the clouds no matter how animatedly we gestured towards them. grandma ruth found cicada shells leftover from molting and silas eagerly touched them with one pointed finger. when we returned home sunday afternoon, we both knocked out napping while sam told us tales of walking through rainstorms and bug clouds. we celebrated being three again with a pizza for us and an avocado for silas.

silas and jeero warm up to grandma.

butt naked time in the backyard. silas had a lot to say and was chatting nonstop for most of the afternoon.

practicing standing (standing!) in the living room.

silas is keeping us so busy, when i finally have a minute to catch my breath i usually fall asleep.

morning visits from baby forrest are the sweetest.

no, seriously man, it's all good.

silas wonders if his parents have misinterpreted the "introducing your baby to solids" chapter.

friday at lincoln park zoo with georgia & eliza. we saw the pigs, the puffins and the pretzel cart. then we had some lunch in the park.

our babies entertain themselves with one plastic lid. so resourceful!

tita lynn spends her sunday bouncing silas while sam and i go to see a movie in an actual movie theater!

silas got to enjoy his first cubs game today in the company of these four fine ladies.

we had a fantastic time. silas even made pals with the drunken quartet of dudes in front of us. they kept calling him schuyler but as long as he could hold on to the back of their seat while bouncing & swipe for their baseball hats they could call him whatever they pleased.

taking the baby to his first baseball game is a huge, serious responsibility. the gravity of the situation didn't catch up with me until watching the entire crowd dance to the ymca. i got a bit teary eyed. silas was too busy being stunned by the masses to notice his emotional mama.

on monday, we decided it was "take your baby to work" day. silas woke up from his morning nap in such a stellar mood that i wrapped him on, jumped on the train and paid a visit to sam at the office. just so happens he is currently working on a toy catalog. next thing i know my baby is up on the table, well lit and in the midst of his first and last model shoot.

ten points if you can pick out disco sam in this behind-the-scenes shot.

lauren in town from puerto rico calls for an early morning breakfast at earwax.

not wanting to miss a moment of sam's first father's day, silas woke up bright eyed at 6am. my shift doesn't start until 7:30am no matter what the holiday, so silas and sam spent some quality time playing in the early morning sunlight.

georgia brought her parents over later in the afternoon to celebrate with beer and ice cream cake.

and sam held on to the ever more mobile babies after being knocked out of the dance dance revolution tournament. (just kidding, sam wins! sam ALWAYS wins the video games.)

then there are those days that i remember that i have all day everyday to do whatever silas and i please. next thing i know, we're suited up and headed to the beach because there's nothing like the look in your baby's eyes when he realizes there's a huge body of water just waiting to be splashed in.

silas patiently poses for another photo while his tofu waits.

my dear friend julie is visiting chicago from germany for a few weeks this summer. we were pregnant and have been adjusting to life with babies at the same time but a few countries apart. i have been much anticipating her arrival. silas and i had some quality backyard/baby pool time with julie and kai on tuesday. kai is so lovely. silas finally got to play with him in person instead of me pointing at kai's emailed picture on the computer screen: "silas, this is your friend kai! we will go visit him soon. you will be friends. he will teach you german and you will explore on your summer vacations together!"

kai begins his vacation in the states with style.

just as soon as they figure out how to write, there will be some serious penpal action.

as i suspected, julie makes motherhood look effortless.

saturday night sam and i realized that not having a babysitter doesn't mean we have to skip date night. so we packed up the baby, headed to the brew pub and spent our evening like a couple of crazy kids. silas was a champ at the restaurant. but i'll give all the credit to the time consuming, attention grabbing steamed broccoli we brought along and the goofy teenage bus boy who was all about entertaining the baby.

we spent our sunday in boystown, lending a bit of silas sweetness to the gay pride parade.

within moments of staking out our spot, there was a group of extra oohy and aahy young men taking pictures of our baby. harassing us that we were making them forget about the almost naked men on passing floats because silas was just so damn adorable.

on papa's shoulders, getting a closer look at the dancing romans.

on our way back west. silas passed out napping in spite of the booming sound systems.

stop for enchiladas and margaritas at tapatia. baby gets a bandana fashioned into a bib when i slack on packing a diaper bag.

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eight months. two thirds of a year. "oh hey, yeah, we have an eight month old." silas, they handed you to us and sent us home eight months ago and you've been here every day, every night for eight months.
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we threw you into the fire [well at least metaphorically, in reality, we just held you while we sat near the fire] to start your july. like NYC before it, and living with us in general, you took camping in stride. it shouldn't, but it always amazes us that we keep pushing you into new things with reckless abandon and you just blow some saliva bubbles and keep smiling.
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you're making friends like crazy, some from around the corner and some from around the world. we got to see them all this month, and you politely tried to eat their heads. there are so many babies. it's crazy to see an entire generation wildly flailing their arms into existence. and albeit i'm biased since we surround you with the babies of people we like, but i'm starting to think we're going to be alright. these kids are excellent.
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your tastes are refining, your tiny little motor skills are revving up. you've eaten everything from broccoli to mango to udon to kale. and the only thing you've made the most terrible face at was today – spinach, mama's favorite. so we mashed it up with some aguacate and while you weren't fooled, well, at least you ate it. while your tastes broadened, your fingers tightened, on anything within your grasp. it's amazing to watch you work. but the truth is, and always has been – no food, no toy, no block will ever compare to a good mouthful of papa's Sabres hat...
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and playing with you has just gotten better. today you actually reached for me. seriously. you've never done that before. and in addition to your all time favorites [blocks and the wicker basket from brad], mama stocked you up with some new, awesome things to slam around, suck on and tear apart – including some bee maracas and your very own all-purpose utility cloth [dyed awesome colors by cabbage! turmeric! mullberries and tea!].
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so yeah, i'm going on and on, but eight months is a big deal, and this eighth month has been chock full of ridiculous goings-on. Cubs games, father's day dance parties, dips in Lake Michigan, gay pride parades, camping trips... we know there's a fourth tooth sneaking around under there somewhere [and maybe even a fifth], and i know you can crawl, you're choosing not to just now. but through all the cranky whining and very very unpredictable sleeping schedule [7 hours, 2 hours, 4 hours, a half hour...] this month, i have never felt like more of a family. i have never known a relationship like ours. and i think you are eight months awesome and eight months excellent...
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