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

early in my photography instruction, i had the good fortune of falling under the tutelage of a kind mentor who excelled in the art of family documentation. i was immediately inspired by his ability to find new and fresh ways of taking numerous portraits of those in his everyday surroundings. but i was struck most by his collection of photographs of his son. he easily had taken a photograph of his child every week from the day of his birth or so it seemed to me while thumbing through his collection. this was amazing.

when silas was born, the fact that sam and i had created our very own lifetime photography subject was not lost on me. i have a duty to document silas. words are not my strength. but i do think i have a shot with the camera.

click on the link to see: fifty-three weeks. fifty-three ridiculous monkeys.

on our summer vacation:

silas took a bus to a train to a bus in order to settle in for a four hour flight to san francisco on his parents' laps.

taught his mama how to properly use the barf bag.

gawked at the foot traffic on the golden gate bridge

while riding on (another!) bus with papa.

all to get to momo's haus and see anthony and rie.

drove up the coast while taking breaks to and throw rocks.

spent an overcast afternoon at point reyes. (we packed our sweatshirts but brought nothing for the baby. so we dressed him in all his clothes and wrapped him in a towel. thumbs up for excellent parenting!)

harvested kelp for miso soup.

surveyed the pacific with anton.

took note of the waterfowl overhead.

headed back to the car when silas's teeth started to chatter.

looked out for hawks and tule elk.

went to soccer practice in mill valley. interference!

drove the bus in the park when practice turned injurious and tried to avoid the california mom and her stylish toddler who mentioned that she had "read on the internet that you're not supposed to tell your children to share."

headed up to the humboldt redwoods state park to do a bit of camping with these three professionals.

tried to stay on the straight and narrow.

crossed the eel river bridge.

but stopped to throw some more rocks before dinner.

waited around to get thirsty for another beer.

took sam on a walk to brush teeth.

but left momo behind to huff at any intruders to site twenty five.

posed in front of our tent.

took a morning walk before the sun got too high.

stopped to say hello to a barely hidden buddha.

relaxed with rie back at our home.

listened to sam's stories.

went on a mission to find giant & tall trees.

made the baby pose for vacation photos before he's old enough to be a sourpuss.

watched sam play early settler.

and then helped silas climb like papa.

posed in front of the campfire that silas and i built while everyone else was out restocking firewood and beer.

relaxed after dinner.

woke up early the next morning to point at the big trees and pack up our site.

headed to the lost coast brewery for fresh beer! (and lunch)

silas had the sampler plate and the ten tasters.

freed momo from the car for a family picture.

went to the san francisco aquarium of the bay to ride the moving sidewalk through the fish tunnels. (don't ask silas what he would like to see during the day unless you are prepared to seek out some fish. it's always his answer.)

stopped to pet the bat rays with anton and papa.

took a big boat bay cruise under the bridge and around alcatraz.

stopped for tomato soup in a bread bowl at boudin. (don't ask sam what he would like to eat during the day unless you are prepared to seek out some bread bowls. it's always his answer.)

finally back in san rafael and with rie home from work, we stopped for sushi on our last night of summer vacation.

headed back to the airport and silas ran off his last nuggets of craziness before sleeping for three straight hours on the flight home. ridiculous.

thank you to anthony, rie and momo for taking such great west coast care of us for the entire week. we will be heading into the studio sometime this weekend and hope to cut "momo's house" the single. stay tuned.

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.