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

almost my entire family got together for a few days last week to celebrate steve, shana and li's return from their year abroad and more importantly, auntie kim's big three-eight.

just arrived off the slow boat from china, steve regales us with tales from the olympics.

when i emerged from our sleeping den, my mom advanced on me quickly. "no need to get up, silas is well taken care of. go back to bed." turning the corner to the kitchen, i see my baby boy. wide eyed, surrounded by his girls with a chocolate sprinkle doughnut on the plate in front of him. it's oh so good to be at grandpa's house.

discussing splashing technique.

fearless swimmer! next thing we know, he'll be jumping off the diving board with the big kids.

science experiments in the backyard aka steve watering the hostas with diet coke and mentos.

quinn spins with grandma! no one else gets this girl to smile so sincerely.

priya xue. quinn xi. li yao. silas lee. suburban swing set takeover.

sweet boy after his first successful geocache.

my sister and her girls celebrate with three cakes!

silas doesn't hold back when it comes to aunt shana's "baking." also, he's obviously figured out that a lot more ridiculous behavior is okay if he just aligns himself with my father.

the best day of the year. quinn watches her bobber.

li learns the right way to impale a worm.

priya at mccullom lake.

building wet sandcastles on cinderblocks at the beach.

for my birthday, my son learned how to say maggot and caught his first fish!

reading edwina with uncle steve.

happy birthday to me.

so much good stuff going on that i get so behind in posting pictures. and that is exactly the kind of problem that i have had to deal with since quitting my desk job and "staying home" with silas every day.

a few days before silas was born, i went all nesting and decided there was no way we were bringing our baby home in a dirty car. so we went to the car wash. while killing time up in the suburbs last week, i realized my car hadn't seen a hose since then. so we splurged and the kid was fascinated. and the guy behind the counter gave him a blow up turtle. well, hot damn, ain't they nice up north?

quinn and her three headbands incoming at wagner farm.

grandma steadies silas on the farm equipment, he is most likely pointing to the next piece of machinery he'd like to climb. apparently almost being two equals a bit of a challenge to reveling in the present moment.

the blaise girls show off those gams.

ol' mister flabo, always sweeping up shop.

don't ever underestimate the amount of time that your child spend milking a cow.

silas. quinn. priya. kim. four times the adorable, it almost hurts to look.

for such laid back house guests, clint and maren were awfully demanding about their pizza requests. one stuffed, one deep dish - the biggest ones that the pizzeria will deliver. but they got their wishes fulfilled and silas was thrilled that he had finally met his culinary matches. five days, sixteen weighty slices. no problem for these three.

surveying the scene at taste of polonia 2008.

okocim and my husband.

making our moves on the polka dance floor.

in between pierogi platters, silas checks out his look.

the sticker: polish americans for obama. the temporary tattoo for life: the falcon.

guess who's up past his bedtime?

the phrase "back to school" is so much more precious when you are the only child standing in the great train & airplane room on a wednesday morning in early september at the museum of science & industry.

forrest and silas wait patiently at the altar of the magnificient mold-a-rama.

harvest time on the imaginary corn fields. one mans the wheel and one mans every other lever, button and gear shift.

there was a meek sign that said "please don't throw the balls." thank goodness they can't read yet because this gentle tossing was pure joy for them.

titi and silas at getting psyched up for a morning at the zoo.

barely anyone at the polar bear window either. we could get used to this.

the day of adulthood has come! thanks to a very classy and underpricing east andersonville resident, sam and i scored a real dining room table and four chairs at the yearly neighborhood garage sale. i bid a fond farewell to the pinchy, ripped up pink diner chairs of the first ten years of my chicago residency and welcome with a comfy butt our fancy wooden furniture.

silas was so psyched to help assemble, but it only took him a few moments to realize his plastic screwdriver couldn't screw shit and he kept trying to snake papa's functional tools.

counter balanced with toddlers, we head out to german-american fest.

train, train, train!

amy . forrest and aaron get down to some drinking.

chicken dance part deux, 2008

checking out the prizes before we lay down the cash.

don't fear the flash, little brew.

kids awake, parents one and one half and one third beers later. it's amazing how long two boys can dance around and punch with small fists an inflated hofbrau.

when we tell silas that we're bringing him to a giant party, we mean it.

whether or not sam is aware, the subtext of our wedding vows was the fact that i will spend every possible moment i can with my husband. so when he books a business trip, he can be sure that silas and i will be tagging along, cute faces in tow.

breakfast at harry's. port washington, wi.

lion's den gorge nature preserve. silas tempts bluff erosion with his rock displacement.

the wildflowers always get the best views of the lake.

when papa gets a break in the day, silas drags him out to sniff the blackeyed susans.

after sending sam back to the printing press, silas and i explored the piers of port washington. these binoculars gave killer views of the diggers down the way but they poured a lot of rainwater down your face.

paying our respects to the fishermen of yore.

kid asked to see fish and i delivered best i thought i could. little did we know that a charter fishing boat was laying out its catch for the day just a few paces to our left. we watched the captain clean about fifteen chinook salmon and four lake trout. silas was fascinated and hasn't stopped talking about the chop, chop since.

dreaming about the wonders of wisconsin.

small town thrift stores give silas a heck of a lot more stuff to spend his dollar on. he pushed the lawnmower around for quite a while but finally settled on a forest ranger action figure guy for fifty cents. we invested the change.

sam dropped us off at harrington beach state park on his way to work. we had no idea how long he would be. i had packed enough food for two meals and the gusto to nap on the sand just in case.

we did a lot of sorting, counting and crushing.

and built an offering to lady lake michigan in thanks for all the joy she's given us. sam came back after a mere four and a half hours. just in time too, silas was starting to grow a beard and rub his sleepy eyes with sandy fists.

what kind of crazy scenester takes a day off from his career to spend the morning with his godson? Brad does, that's who! To celebrate we took him to north park nature village to check out the late summer growth. Silas led the way bushwhacking through the goldenrod.

it was a good day for spotting bullfrogs and turtles.

Silas takes in the view from all the way up up there.

afternoon smoothies with olivia. she let me do her hair, i have a lot of learning to do if we ever get a girl.

after an entire summer of big talking, amy and i finally made it to the Toddlers, Tunes and Turtles program that the park district puts on periodically. it was awesome. amphibians everywhere, Silas touched two frogs and two snakes!

Amy holds the baby snapper while Forrest considers his mama's bravery.

one frog puppet for each hand, thank goodness no other kid cared to have a turn.

fish shoveling at gompers park, no pesky hooks to plier out of the catch.

the wheelbarrow really helps distribute the weight of that one plastic fish.

rainy friday morning at the art institute. when i told silas we were taking the train to the museum he exclaimed "fish! fish!" well, he hasn't quite caught onto the difference between the word museum and aquarium. so we made do with horse sculptures and painted chinese ceramics (lots of fish).

he actually asked me to take this picture of him with buddha. and then my heart exploded.

with how much this kid loves buses you'd think we were doing him a disservice by living so close to a train line. part of his excitement of going downtown is that there's a bus every two seconds, so we might as well jump on one for a couple of blocks.

meeting sam for lunch and indian buffet! hooray!

silas enjoys taking his time. as of late, i have been trying to resist the urge to just pick him up and move him along when we are out. therefore, we spend a lot of time entertaining ourselves like this.

during his most recent turn as hot dog he was much more excited about the hot pepper and tomatoes. still no love for the chopped onions.

looking appropriately stunned while riding the rails.

driving the locomotive at the chicago history museum.

you can't sniff one flower and not sniff the rest. it would be mean.

the purple flowers get a pointing to.

getting in a bit of beach time with grandma.

when he knows we're going to the lake he always makes sure to pack the dumptruck.

cubs v. cardinals with titi & emily. there's a whole inning of entertainment in that wristwatch.

in between old styles, but the joy is thanks to a friday afternon at the ballpark.

beautiful day for a game, too bad the cubs didn't think so.

racing trucks on seat number 3.

just got home from a short but sweet family vacation to nelson dewey state park.

after an afternoon at the cubs game during the journey west, silas and i became overwhelmed with the four and a half hour drive and politely requested sam stop at the next hotel he found. the hampton inn in freeport, ill was our slice of paradise. big, soft king size bed, liquor store down the street, pizza delivery and a farmer's market across the street the next morning. that's our little camper!

taking in the missi...ssippi from living room for the weekend.

silas refused to nap in the car, in the tent but was powerless when strapped onto papa for five minutes.

so we let him sleep while we counted leaves.

sunset from site c.

the fire builders.

checking in with amy, just to let her know he's thinking about her.

sleep in, baby boy, sleep in.

the fog rolled in overnight.

but the sun came out by the end of breakfast.

sunny, hot autumn day at northerly island. amy and i ventured out to the old meigs field to let 'em loose on the prairie. aaron (mr. amy) suggested we take advantage of the old airstrip and spend our day exploiting the free parking, tempting coyotes and throwing rocks into the lake. and that we did.

very serious about divvying up the tofu.

everybody up to date on their tetanus shot?

forrest preps for his landscape architecture career.

reunited and it feels so good.

screw nature. this warm, plastic tunnel is way more echo-y and therefore hilarious.

there was an evening near the end of my college days when i was sitting in a bar, waiting for a rock show to start, sipping on my amaretto sour. i was at a table full of friends, wanting to say so many things to all of them, tripping over all of our words because there was so much to fit in. the evening was a blur, but i remember the feeling in my stomach: utter contentment. i was happy to see every person that walked by and stopped to share a hug or a kiss. i thought, "this is quite easily the most popular i will ever be and that is totally okay. i'm just going to revel in it."

sitting at the coffee shop last thursday on the twenty three monthaversary of your birth, i had that same tumble in my stomach. this beautiful big kid, that sam and i created from scratch and love, is absolutely delighted to see everyone that crosses his path in the day. and because of you, silas lee, so very many people are having a better day.

you give kelly hugs in appreciation for making your smoothie, laugh with sarah while hauling twigs in your dump truck, wave and yell hello to tiger while he takes another cigarette break, climb up into aymie's lap and help her count out the cash drawer, give kerry a kiss to take home to theo. and all in the first three hours of your day. you are exhausting and you are totally worth it.

this month you have changed every day. your papa notices it, i notice it. you say ten new words a day - string together almost full sentences, makes jumps in logic and memory that make us shake our heads in disbelief.

but when i grab you by the waist and pull you into my lap and bury my face in your neck, i am completely awash in your humanity. you started so much smaller & bobblier and now you are strong & funny. you are a complete person and one day, sooner than i'd like to admit, you'll have more important things to do than leisurely passing the morning splitting a lox bagel with your mama.

so bear with us, stinky, as your papa and i try to keep up. keep up with all the growing, talking, chopping, jumping, bargaining, apple eating, climbing, knocking down, and running. oh my god, the running.

but when we finally "catch up" to you it is the best giggle ever. then it is almost as if thanks to all that running we are on to the next great discovery even sooner. a stick that must be gathered, a rock perfect for throwing, a puddle that needs to be splashed or a maple tree airplane ready for take off.

you have brought out the best in us, silas lee. and if you would have known your papa and me before we met you, you would have deemed that a pretty challenging task. thanks, big kid, for taking us on and letting us revel in it.