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

an extended holiday was spent attending the annual labor day bbq in california. every year we get an invitation to ann marie (amma) and charles's home for the festivities and we wistfully think, "wouldn't it be great to fly to long beach just for a party?" but now we have a baby (silas) and we figured it was about time he swam in the ocean (pacific).

vacation = playing with new tupperware towers. it took me ten months to realize that we don't really need to pack any toys for silas when we travel.

greeting the gatekeeper at the seal beach pier.

bedtimes are optional when there's an ocean to be seen for the first time and a grandmother to take you there.

silas . me . amma . sam .

papa papa please, buy baby the flying v pillow!

sam awaiting tofu meatballs.

fulfilling one of my birthday wishes at gr/eats.

interacting with some art at the getty center.

silas adds his two cents to the illuminated manuscript.

baby makes his way to the next exhibition.

so very filthy.

the sempervivum at the getty gardens give me something to aspire to.

just trying to take it all in.

blooming hibiscus.

nothing calms an overtired baby like his very own apple.

checking out the los angeles countryside on the getty tram.

early morning breakfast at woody's. silas ate a waffle. you wanna talk about gnarly, i pulled an auntie kim by eating a fluffy floret of butter that i thought was whipped cream.

squeezing in sunset beach right after sunrise.

silas lets off a little steam after the venice beach boardwalk.

shaking off the saltwater.

sam among the cacti in the desert garden at the huntington.

an excellent place to teach silas about sharp and pointy.

taking a break in a bamboo forest.

silas processes meeting actual ducks and a turtle.

climbing the stairs in the japanese gardens.

cooling off in the mist in the children's garden. see, we got a child now and we can get into these places, no problem.

kid can't even walk yet and he's already climbing the fence in the rainbow prism tunnel.

california sunshine and my morning after bbq darlings.

silas and charles play in their pajamas.

one of the best things about spending time at amma's house is looking through photo albums. silas and i spent some time reading sam's baby book and trying on amma's hospital bracelet.

silas pays attention to the "never turn your back on the ocean" instruction. sam tempts fate.

i could have taken pictures of the waves when they were over both of their heads, but then you'd just be looking at a bunch of saltwater.

ladies, ladies, ladies.

lending a bit of our good looks to hermosa beach.

getting in some end of vacation squeezes with amma.

jetblue home to chicago. can't a girl watch a little "bret michaels' house of love" without interruption?

many thanks to our hosts for letting us invade their home, eat their bueberries, drive the phat lexus and swim in their pool for days on end. as if that wasn't enough, ann marie and charles even babysat on our last evening so sam and i could sneak out and catch a movie. the 7:40 showing of superbad followed by bean burritos and corona. fantastico.

also, to my husband. for not only being the most fun and absolutely easiest person to travel with, but for taking me to california, to the ocean, to the gardens, to the museums, for carrying all the bags and for always having a few dollars in your pocket to buy me ice cream or a fancy coffee. but most of all for your ability to make me laugh, alot. (watching a good half hour of justin timberlake's live from msg was pretty awesome too.)

in celebration of Silas's intentional use of the word 'Apa – an original contraction of papa - in reference to me and everything, i let him spend out the rest of the day's energy bashing me in the face... it's good fun for everyone...

relax, it's 8MB's big. go get a cookie or something. it'll be ready when you get back...

ahhh, a weekend at home with no plans. there were lots of naps taken, beers drank, sauerkraut eaten and new playgrounds explored.

silas helps sam install my birthday present - a bike seat for the boy.

taking pictures seemed like a better activitity than chewing on the screwdriver.

we're hoping he enjoys the ride better once his head grows a bit.

they didn't offer child sized beer steins. lame.

i do my best sam impersonation.

in the midst of baby's first official chicken dance.

washing down all that lager with some seaweed salad.

celebrating charlie's first birthday by banging on his toys.

claire and silas give sharing their best attempts.

the birthday boy puts in an appearance. happy birthday, charlie!!

always keeping one eye on the bright side, silas skipping his afternoon nap means that he will most likely fall asleep in my arms way before his bedtime. kinda like when he was a newborn and he would get so sleepy that he would just fall asleep while we were holding him up under his armpits.

we spent the day tooling around evanston, checking out what kind of fancy park equipment the kids in the suburbs have at their disposal. all those rowdy kids check out right around noon to go home and eat. and we got the playground all to ourselves.

suckers! haven't they ever heard of a picnic lunch?!

the biggest excitement this week (so far) is that silas has started signing back to us. he's got "milk", "more", "eat" and "finished" in the bag and did a half-ass "water" sign to me this morning. but the funniest part is that when you ask him what he wants, he runs through his repertoire before he settles on the one he wants. except in the middle of the night, everything is milk at that point. ridiculous.

i guess this means we have to start throwing more signs at him. as soon as i finish this post, i'm looking up the asl for waffles, chard and poop.

silas and i spent the morning walking the savannah trail at the north park nature village. the skies were clear, the day was warm and so many grasses were leaning in to touch us as we walked by, taking deep breaths.

we spotted a deer, frog and turtle. all so close to home. silas practiced crawling on the wetland walk. we shared an apple.

prairie dock towers above us, giving me something to point to in the sky besides airplanes.

friday, eliza and i tried out our preserving the harvest mad skills by canning some apples we had picked up at the farmer's market. we are now officially ready for one week of winter.

georgia does a bit of tai chi in the garden.

he loves eliza this much because she has backyard twigs for chomping on.

the babies helped by licking the spoons.

silas brought home his first balloon on saturday afternoon and his second on saturday night (happy birthday, jordan!) diaper changes have since been a breeze. baby lays on the table with a balloon in his face, squealing "bal, balll, baabaaa, bal!"

apparently my new side job is cheesemaker. please contact me if you are an organic dairy farmer that will sell me fresh milk direct, preferably delivered.

silas tests the springy and shininess of my first batch of mozzarella.

when life gives you cheese, you best make some pizza.

my sous chef showcases the evening's bounty. our heads are really going to explode when we can claim to have grown the onions, peppers and tomatoes too. please contact me if you have a small patch of fertile garden that you would like to give us, preferably along with a cozy brick bungalow. cheers.

silas and i spent the day in the company of our neighbors, olivia and sarah. they are just so lovely that i am tempted to give out their exact address so everyone can go and find them and demand an equal share of friendship. but i have been cautioned against making such a detailled post. ah well, the joys of an early fall day were in abundance. sunshine, lemonade, babies having teething cookies for lunch and swinging at the park until both sarah and i were ready for a nap. makes me realize that this is what it's all about.

olivia pauses for only a moment.

silas holds onto an ear just to make sure she's still there.

you grab my ear, i poke your nose.

olivia in her bedroom.

saurday morning, talking on papa's phone. silas intently listens to sam over the phone during the weekday. normally he just sits wide-eyed but last week he started whispering back to sam over the phone.

we drove up to michigan to help our friends, chris and andrea, with wedding preparations. silas loved hanging out in the sunshine, crawling in the grass, engaging in some twig battles and taking his longest afternoon nap to date. we must get silas some formal overalls in time for the official hitching in november.

silas and swish mull over the day's options.

the lovely bride, the baby, the reverend, the handsome groom, the couches.

see all those sparkly clean doors and windows leaning up against the barn? there's no room for dirt when sam has a powerwasher in hand.

silas pets the puppy in between all that nervous blinking.

just like we hoped, silas was all powered up in time for the 1:20 cubs opening pitch at wrigley today.

life is rough when you make it to four cubs games before you're one.

we sent the baby to get us some old style. they never id him because he's so damn cute.

guess that big helmet comes in handy when baby decides to nap the ride home from the ballpark.

eleven months today, what a day.

a day that probably looked, to most others, as just a typical regular day. waking up early in bed in between us, mama and papa. we know that you are really awake, awake when you do that roll over onto your belly, forehead dug into the bed, downward dog, toes pushing up, up until you roll over on your butt, sit up and utter your first word of the day (the same word most every day since you have attached it to the person) "papa!" we give you books, water bottles, hair ties, anything to buy us a few more minutes of eyes closed while one of us always has a grip around your ankle.

we ate a small breakfast (peaches, cottage cheese and breakfast o's) while sam gets ready for work. suit up, tie you on in the bali wrap and head out the door by 7:30. we take the train a few stops with papa and get off at the farmer's market, waving goodbye on the platform as the train pulls away.

we were unstoppable buying up apples, peppers, cauliflower, rye bread, potatoes, chard, raspberries and the most amazing grapes i have ever tasted. we stuffed ourselves on berries, grapes, slices of pears and cubes of cheese while walking (or as i have learned to call it "the second breakfast"). then we returned home for a nap, followed by a leisurely late morning photo shoot and a long walk to the library.

but that's not even the half of it & i suppose that's kind of my point. we could have a huge day of museum going and fancy lunches, fly to the coast and go for a walk in a bamboo forest or sit around throwing toys down a mailing tube and it would be the best time ever.

because of you, silas lee. you have completely changed our world, our daily life. you have made our typical day now defined as completely excellent and ridiculously fun.

sure, there are days when mr. pissypants or senor naps-nada rears his ugly head. but, whatever, we have a damn baby. that's crazy. sam and i still think it's crazy that we ended up dating much less getting married and having a baby.

but, here you are. this month has been a blur of everything. you've started talking intelligible words, you've started signing, we can now play with you instead of at or around you. you'll still eat anything. we tried to push your palate this month and you were barely shaken. there was one brief look of "holy crap" when we ate some super spicy mustard greens but then you were over it in like two seconds and ate a bunch more. you've started playing with your friends, talking to them, answering back and working stuff out. that's been one of the amazing developments this month, watching you adapt your temperment according to the company you're keeping.

this is the month that sam and i finally got bolder in our managing of your sleeping patterns. i'm not sure if you were just waiting us out or if we just timed it perfectly, but now i get a full uninterrupted sleep until 4:30 am almost every night and sam gets a little extra quality time rocking you in the moonlight.

but we have even more in store for you, crazy monkey. i think i'm okay speaking for your papa when i write that we want to take you everywhere, show you as much as we can, see what you think about it all. because we love you so ridiculously much. back when sam and i first started dating i wrote on a post-it note the word "ridiculous" and left it at my desk, where i would see it every day. because that's how i felt all the time. that this life that was happening was just so damn ridiculous, meaning funny and perfect and deserved and unbelieveable and absoutely joyful. i guess you know what i meant because you and your completely ridiculous self are fitting right in.

thanks for being a part of it all, little man. monkey face. boob kicker. butt biter. smacky the frog. silas lee.