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

one guess where we took silas after his afternoon nap.

to the biergarten!!

my husband, the champion of using charm to get extra helpings of sauerkraut.

girlfriend was a dancing fool.

olivia was too into the polka to actually capture her visage. but, believe you me, we got video.

if we're each holding our own beers then those kids must be up to no good.

on the train with amy before ten am! silas can barely control his excitement.

forrest gets front row for his mama's hula hooping demonstration.

there was a frog too but it was busy with an overzealous hugging girl. i'm okay with the fact that silas is a bit skeptical of mascots.

forrest, amy and silas get to work with some butterfly coloring.

there is no better moment than when forrest gives you his grin.

for some reason, my kid got the chair that put him eye level with the table.

sam, silas, b-rad and i packed up and headed north for the weekend. silas camped twice last summer when he was barely crawling. we wanted to see what the toddler that we now have on our hands would make of the whole outdoor living situation.

sam and silas build their first joint fire.

hard at work saturday morning on the beach. sam found this dump truck for silas weeks ago at a garage sale. we kept it hidden in the closet waiting for the perfect time to unveil it.

waiting for brad to throw the twenty pound waterlogged football.

finally, we convinced silas to take a break from sand relocation and have a swim with us. he was walking around with the water up to his armpits. crazy.

back at site 311, having a snack while keeping an ear out for thunder rumbling.

the storms cleared up just long enough for brad and sam to build a large fire before bed. silas is fast asleep in the tent, mama has a few glasses of wine. ah, camping.

baby doesn't care how late his parents were up the night before. six thirty am & he's thrilled to wake up to the sound of geese flying overhead and ready to bust out of the tent.

well, well, well. looks who's finally rolled out his sleeping bag.

sam in wisconsin.

one of the best things about camping with brad is that silas would pretty much always prefer to be sitting in his lap.

we're just happy we didn't blow away in any tornadoes.

because hanging out in the woods wasn't cool enough, the park also had a family nature faire on sunday afternoon. we ate some chips, watched kids making birdhouses, painted with rubber fish and b-rad fell in love with a salamander.

silas and papa stay sheltered from the rain.

learning about fox snakes and bearded lizards.

the snapping turtle that will eat your baby's face. we saw one of these bad boys on the road just the night before.

our fearless captain takes us back to the city.

dreaming of mud, starry skies, sticks, rocks, campfires and rainstorms.

finally, silas graduates from the guitar hero plastic controller axe to his very own ukulele.

he played nonstop until bedtime and rolled out a good handful of truly heartbreaking tears when we told him that the rock would have to wait until the morning. the definitive sign of a good purchase.

silas gears up for the day ahead by slathering himself in blueberry yogurt.

some serious toddler fouls going on in that lane.

digging for fossils at the children's museum.

if he can clean that rainbow trout, it he can keep it.

olivia takes a break from the boys to have some fake watermelon, steak + juice.

this was easily forrest's favorite part of the day - chucking fish across the room.

hello. is it me you're looking for?

they are so in love that they don't even care that both their moms are watching.

if you're going to spend the day at navy pier, i recommend going with this kid.

carousel memories are made for only five dollars.

all three in one frame! this only took seven attempts.

forrest . amy . me . silas . olivia . sarah
proof that not only do i have a child, but i have friends!

waiting for his ride to the beach.

forrest treads carefully onto the sand.

silas lee at foster beach.

how can you not share your ice cream sandwich with that face?

silas had his once yearly modeling gig at sam's office.

making papa work overtime to get the perfect shot.

i left my son at the photo studio to meet eliza for an evening on the river.

thanks to mr. eliza being out of town and lake forest college, i was treated to a boat cruise, heavy appetizers and booze. well, alright.

kinzie street and drawbridge.

river city.

wrigley building.

on the drive up to our lakeside destination, we passed a garage sale. mama is three bucks lighter but at least the kid had something to ride all over that cement patio.

i lost my wedding ring in a man made lake. when the replacement arrived, sam made sure to put it back on my finger in the same place as the original. but it was much warmer and less windy.

renewing wedding vows sure can build up an appetite for ice cream.

direct hit.

we spent father's day with georgia and her parents, unknowingly starting a tradition.

lifeguard with beer, children oblivious.

silas busies himself with fountain maintenance.

just when they thought it couldn't get better, eliza presents homemade popsicles.

oh wait, then dave had to top that by dousing with the garden hose.

exhausted and ready for rhubarb crumble.

for father's day, i treated sam (and me) to a new camera for taking snapshots. our previous toss in the bag camera was starting to produce photos that looked like security cam footage so i felt the splurge was necessary. a few days in the outdoor life of silas go undocumented but we shall store the memories of those days in our hearts, not just on our computer.

post zoo, post nap, ready to pose for mama.

showing off his new cocodrilo (ai!)

olivia & sarah saved us from a morning of solitary laundry and joined us for smoothies and cart races.

the pink shorty skirt gives her extra power.

i couldn't decide which of the three laundromat pictures to post so i didn't.

we picked silas's middle name because of how much we love my dad, li yao and shana lee but sometimes i think he thinks we named him after tommy lee.

we kicked off the weekend by spending friday with my parents. it's amazing how that grandparental unconditional love kept silas in the best mood ever.

the receptive crowd.

at the local thai restaurant in mchenry, this little melissa refers to my son as "the boy with the hat!" silas is incredibly patient with her unsolicited affection, maybe he thinks he'll get an extra helping of tofu. i believe i caught one of the few moments where she wasn't attempting to bear hug/headlock him.

there's no alleys to tempt fate in while tricycling in the country.

now that he can open the drawers on his dresser, it is fantastic to see what he deems as entertaining and acceptable to pass the time between a nap and a party.

matt and sarah provide ample excuses to keep silas up way past his bedtime.

closer to two than you were to one. twenty months of you silas lee.

that's such a crazy amount of time, twenty. it feels like you have been around forever but when you look at the time all typed out on the computer it seems very puny. but, yet, here you are, so definitely your very own person.

sam and i still don't think that you look very much like either one of us. there were a few moments when you were a baby when you made some very sam expressions. but that lasted for about a week and ever since looking at you has just been looking at you, not looking at everything that came together to make you. but, oh lordy, how you show off you parental lineage in your actions.

this is sam:
.how you are totally up for anything, anytime, whatever. you have never once registered even a smidgen of disappointment in our daily activities, crazy ideas or last minute excursions. you are always psyched to be wherever, hanging out. it is awesome.
.your dancing moves. your papa does not dance often but when he does - it is full out, unique, spirited and ratcheted up by a random flailing limb.
.your singing. you sing all the time, making up a handful of different notes out of the handful of syllables you have deemed worthy of songwriting.

.your unabashed shows of affection.
.your ability to let it slide. sad moments with you are just that. moments, nothing messes up your day.
.your pocket tees.
.your ability to watch baseball for hours on a saturday afternoon, laid out on the couch, belly proud.

this is me:
.your interest in all foods. you'll taste anything once and if you spit it out, we can usually distract you long enough to get it back in your mouth the second time and you'll forget that you ever rejected it.
.your amazement with all things snot.
.the randomness of the things that you deem hilarious.

.you've never met a body of water that was too cold to dip your face into.
.the fact that you put things away and can keep yourself busy for an entire morning moving one thing to another spot and then finding something there that you would like to move to a better spot.

this twentieth month has been all out summer. every day, i am struck ridiculous by the undeniable fact that we are spending another summer together. i am positively giddy. and this summer is so different than last because you walk and you run. all the time. with a bit of encouragement, you'll walk all over the place. we rarely bring the stroller out anymore because it's just easier to pop you onto our shoulders when you need a rest.

it's been about the beach, about camping, about staining your t-shirts with berries. about shushing us so you can hear the birds, saying "wow" so obviously that construction trucks stop to honk and wave, about getting grass in your diaper, "booming" grape tomatoes in your mouth. about smelling like sunscreen and sweat at the end of a long day.

about splashing, about winding up for the pitch. about yelling "ready, ready, go" before you release the ball. about getting out your own breakfast in the morning, about grinding my coffee and making your own smoothies. about saying "both" and "thank yuuu" and "chop" and "helmet" and "beach"

every weeknight, if we can time it right, we sit outside resting on the front stoop waiting for your papa to ride his bicycle home from work. that is the best moment of my day. the anticipation that it will be us three, all together again. knowing that even though we talk about sitting & waiting for papa to come home, it doesn't seem to hit you until you see him from a few paces away and you take off. hollering "papa, home! helmet, yay!"

you are growing into a kid. your very own, individual person. and you are fantastic. your papa and i love you so incredibly much. every night, we marvel at the fact that you are ours and just how psyched we are about that. just so you know, we are super psyched.