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

taking an afternoon rest has taken priority over keeping up the site this week. silas is growing and growing. he is noticeably taller and more solid today than he was last week, he eats so much at meals and plows through cup after cup of milk every day. i think the majority of energy is being spent of talking, singing and climbing. he sang the "no, no, no no, no YES!" song for about forty minutes straight yesterday. ran around in circles chasing after the bigger kids at tumbling class today. silas will also eat an entire apple in just a few minutes, core, seeds, stem and all. my lord.

so, a hearty handful of pictures to make this project all up to speed...

georgia pays an early morning visit and waits patiently to ride the snail.

the few moments we got the two of them to sit.
hard to believe i used to have to prop them up.

kicking the hay with papa at the maple syrup fest.

holing on tight while stirring the muck.

blissfully unaware of the herd of deer with melting brains.

jacked up on tree sap.

hanging at the park with sam.

the rain boots, no pants combination really helps his game.

thank goodness for his nyc cousins' hand-me-across toilet. now, the kid finally has somewhere to read his magazines and admire his knees.

insisting on privacy.

it just wouldn't be springtime if titi lisa didn't turn another year older. silas lucks out yet again by getting a godmother who decides to celebrate her birthday by giving the baby a new pair of kicks. as sam pointed out, people have died for sneaker actions less forward than this. (thanks, lady emily for the photo.)

silas was a bit pissed that it took us five games since opening day to get him to wrigley. we had to wait for anthony to fly in from cali and for eric's beard to suitably grow in. duh.

kosuke was too tied up after the game to make the group photo.

silas makes it through nine innings AND the train ride home without a fuss. maybe anton had something to do with the fantastic mood.

looking for the el. reflecting on the game. (thanks, anton-san for the photos + the weekend.)

my husband rarely lets an opportunity for a sunday drive slip by him. the weather was too tempting and silas was primed for a morning nap. so we off we went to kansasville, wisconsin.

before the budding.

sam surveys the prairie.

frost aster.

stick fishing for frogs.

back to papa with a new supply of skipping stones in his pockets.

heading in to town to find us some sandwiches.

so long, little buddy.

just like a professional puppy dog owner and mother of a toddler, amy makes silas laugh when beasley wants to lick/eat his face. i'm pretty sure i just transfer my nervous energy and encourage silas's dog in the near vicinity rapid blinking.

forrest holds court and the broom, silas waits for his next dustpan assignment.

during silas's first year i was a frequent weather checker. how cold was too cold to bring my infant out for a walk? how warm could it get by 9am, warm enough to swim in an unheated city pool? how much rain needs to be falling to merit bringing along an umbrella? this year, i'm completely slacking. the daily weather patterns are pretty much always a surprise to me. we are usually just trying to get out of the house before i decide that a day indoors cleaning out closets and rearranging cupboards is a better idea.

wednesday seemed chilly enough to spend the morning indoors at the aquarium:

checking out the lion fish in the wild reef and

watching the lizard eat its entire wriggly lunch right in front of the window.

but we venture back outside at lunchtime and the sun is shining bright. silas ran the entire length of this cement ledge from the aquarium to the planetarium laughing and shrieking. complete hilarity in his whackadoo mind.

even though he was fixing for a nap at the museum campus

we hightailed to meet sam for pasta & have silas get in touch with his italian heritage.

today is cloudy, rainy & chilly = oversized sweatshirts & breakfast at the coffee shop. plus my college photo professor taught us to cross our fingers for overcast days because the pictures always turn out better.

on monday, amy and i got it together early enough to load the boys into the car and head down to the free day at the field museum.

silas is pointing and wowing all at the same time. your first unicorn will do that to you.

those shapes have never experienced such impressive sorting.

searching for something to cook with enormous peas.

forrest and the percussive frog.

silas patiently waited for his turn on the taiko drum and then he successfully ignored the next few kids who were waiting to play until his beats were exhausted.

respects are paid to bushman.

elephant . silas . amy . forrest . elephant

my son gets really excited about geese. he always looks for books about them, points them out on walks and listens for their honks. meeting a stuffed few at the museum just increased his curious admiration.

a photo that would really capture the feeling of the day would be of forrest and silas taking off down the hallways of the diorama wing of the museum. they ran, chased, chortled and laughed at each other for a good half an hour. it was hilarious. i knew the day would come when my previously separation anxious kid would take off running but i never imagined it would be so impressive or funny. or that he would be chasing the neighbor kid past giant rhinos, beavers, bison, hundreds of birds and a scattering of monkeys.

they barely made it onto lake shore drive awake. forrest held out for a few minutes longer and was rewarded for his stamina with the remaining apple rings.

it's finally just that side of spring that we have gotten up the gusto to start cleaning and prepping the balcony for planting and barbecuing. after silas's nap, i brought him outside to help out and enjoy the late afternoon sunshine. his only recent experience with our third bedroom has been waving goodbye to papa as he walks to the train on freezing mornings so it was interesting to see him exploring the possibilities of this whole other part of the house. but once he found the outdoor broom and dustpan it was all over.

on wednesday, we braved the west side to visit an old readerite friend and her baby. get a load of this sweetcake.

henry and silas swung side by side all morning long.

with a toucan as his guide, he takes in all of my shabbona.

yes, yes, it's amazing to stay at home with silas and be a part of his every day change and development. but it also totally kicks ass because when your girlfriend texts you at 11:30 saying she's got extra tickets for 1:20 cubs game, you have no big office-y excuse about not being able to make it.

so thanks to tommy, sarah and olivia, silas attended his sixth home game.

i don't know if she's happier about silas finally waking up from his nap that stretched the first three innings or the soft pretzel.

olivia direct scored elmo into my beer cup with nary a splash wasted. and that is how we measure our kids' talents.

she spent all her allowance on tips for the bucket drummers.

(three adults x two beers + two babies) - one cta ride = taxi cab home!

tommy requested an individual portrait for the online audience's enjoyment.

silas and aaron enter the arena.

amy and forrest proudly sport the chicago fire colors.

these seats were awesome. but i did make sam promise to catch silas in case any foul soccer balls headed our way and i needed both hands to catch.

crazy for the major league sports.

our weekends pretty much start the same. i spend saturday morning fast fast asleep while sam and silas make breakfast, take pictures and gently bang the drum. an hour or so after waking up, i always talk about how awesome it is to just relax at home with my family. then about three minutes later, i get immediately antsy and demand my husband find a daytime activity before silas gets too hungry or too tired to be able to have an adventure. sam always comes through.

running around a tennis net like a maniac can work up a real thirst.

fishing with sticks and rocks.

if only the kid had his own cell phone he could dial 311 and get help for that guy stuck in the tree.

who knew the city could look so country?

tuesday was silas's last wiggleworms music class. he started the class 16 weeks ago a totally hesitant and cautious little boy, waiting until the last moments of class every week to get off my lap and sway once or twice to the guitar playing. not so much anymore. as of late, upon entering the room every week, silas is off and bouncing, swaying, laughing, chasing, clapping, singing and popping bubbles. we are definitely going to miss our buddies from class and the fantastic shana but i am so psyched that he got to experience it all. (xie xie again, charlene!)

two things to guarantee silas sheds his shyness: the hilarity of bubbles. the joy of a goofy strawberry blonde in a wisconsin t-shirt. (was that a childhood relic too, e?)

shana and silas. he is thoroughly exhausted after the class. i thank this woman for an excellent nap every week.

after class, after lunch. reading a new library book while waiting for me to get him ready for his afternoon snooze.

silas was so incredibly, unprecedentedly awesome at his eighteen month ped appointment, that i wanted to do something extra fun with him the next morning. so with a 6am wakeup staring sam and i in the face, we were just waiting for the morning rush hour to let up before silas and i left the house. we headed downtown on the train (excitement enough for this kid), silas was entranced for the majority of the trip by the lady behind us who was applying her makeup and narrating each step to her receptive audience. shit got crazy when she pulled out the eyelash curler and let silas examine it. i intended on heading right into the art institute but the weather was gorgeous, there were steps to be climbed at millennium park and holy lord, the fountains were turned on.

he was hilarious, splashing, running. i think about nine different people took his picture (just like being back in china) and he even made it onto the nbc5 news as the "super lovely weather we're having" stock video lead in. leave it to sam's kid to get on broadcast tv in the first 18 months of life.

eating his sandwich on the platform, waiting for the train home.

we spent the early evening rearranging the pebbles in forrest's backyard. (i really think this baby know how to exactly position himself in perfect lighting situations.)

look at that! my baby not freaked out at all standing in front of a BIG dog! thank god there are two genetic pools to choose from when making a person.

so to answer that previous question, "could we possibly love you anymore, silas lee?" yes, yes and yes. eighteen months and here we are. i can finally stop referring to your age in months because you are SO OLD that years and year fractions will suffice.

we spent your second official half birthday running around your tumbling class, learning backwards rolls, earning armfuls of inky stamps and practicing your favorite new skill - shouting "ready, set, GOOO!" and then taking off at a hoppy, crooked, usually diagonal run. then we came home went for a sunny walk outside and had falafel and lentil soup with titi lisa. as we were walking back upstairs after kissing titi goodbye and throwing leaves in the breeze, i thought to myself, "this has been a perfect day."

but i have said that to myself or to you for so many consecutive days that i couldn't remember the last time i didn't feel that way. everyday has been exactly how it should have been. every night we all sleep much more soundly.

currently you are all about making decisions: whether or not we should go outside, walk or bicycle ride, which shoes to wear, which shoes your parents should wear, snack or lunch, bottle or cup, which books to read, to catch or to throw, kick or hockey stick the ball across the house, swing or slide, wood chips or rocks, guitar or bass, stir or fling, ninjas or toothpaste in the sink, read magazines or pull toilet paper while sitting on the pot, cubs hat or army hat, sweep or bounce balls.

but there is never a decision to be made when it comes to garbage trucks, music, papa, bubbles, apples, sticks, puddles, kisses, and baths. those are always a priority in your pamphlet and buddha forbid you would ever have to choose one of those above the other.

sam and i are just starting to figure out that that's one of our main duties right now, to make sure you don't ever have to pick a favorite among those things. you are the sweetest person i've ever known. there is no reason in the world that you can't have a stick, a puddle, an apple and your papa all at the same time. you have and you will.

now stuff is really going to get crazy, you're a kid. you sleep at night, you feed yourself your own food, you help set the table, you look for things you've lost track of, you sing outside the neighbor's house until she comes out. you don't need us nearly as desperately as you used to.

but we're staying put. in it for the long haul, the open road, the times that lay ahead. your father and i are constantly working on our relationship - staying aware and keeping each tuned in - because it so isn't about just the two of us anymore. there are three and it is all of us. respectful, dedicated and never refusing a hug that comes at you at full speed.

we love you like nothing we've ever known or felt. silas lee, crazy monkey, poop butt. happy 1.5

immediately upon arriving back home after hugging papa goodbye at the airport, silas takes all the books off the shelves and starts to page through ones he has never shown interest in previously.

sizing up his fantastic, new sailboat.

silas and i spent the early part of the week up at grandma and grandpas. the garden shop by them has all sorts of good stuff: muddy fields, piles of rocks, a dancing wooden horse, empty plastic buckets and an owner who will play basketball with a toddler.

it's almost as if my parents save the good sticks for him to find.

comparing his toy robin to the real ones in the backyard.