the no whistle zone and the BIG Bruise

Just in case you thought life on Planet Silas was always rainbows and puppies, as the first picture would imply, let me introduce you to exhibit B:
What provoked this sad, sorry, woe-is-me face?
Less then 2 seconds of, believe it or not, WHISTLING.
There you have it. For some reason we have not currently sussed out, Silas hates whistling. It wasn't always that way, but for a few weeks or so, even the briefest whistling has resulted in Silas freezing in place, turning to the whistler in horror, and then bursting into tears. All we can really do is redirect his attention as soon as possible, usually by singing one of his favorite songs or quickly whisking him outside.

This seemingly irrational fear of whistling has led me to realize something about myself: I whistle. A lot. I usually start whistling without even thinking about it, until my son turns to me with the face you see above as though I've just run over a kitten and then put the car in reverse and run over it again. I have to check myself constantly now to make sure I don't mindlessly whistle along with to music. Thankfully, humming meets with no adverse reaction, so we are safe to hum along, for now.

Oh yes, and in today's top story, Silas tripped and hit his eye on one of his toys. He scraped and bruised himself pretty badly right below his eye and on his cheek. It looks awful and it took us forever to calm him down. This is by far the worst injury he's had to date. Although I'm sure there will be many more and it's not as though it's his first bruise, it still sucks to see his sweet little face all marked up. You can see just part of the injury in the picture below. But upside bonus: You can see all of those pearly whites in the picture too. Tooth #15 just poked through!

Beach boys, or, a Pisces shows his true colors

We went to one of the Island's beach-front parks yesterday morning. Silas sported the cool shades Auntie Jennie sent to him, as he splashed in the water. It was impossible to keep him out of the waves. Not pictured is Silas taking a header into the Sound and his parents freaking out a wee bit about it: He had been headed up the beach towards some dogs when he suddenly veered right and plunged in before Drew could stop him. I was down the beach a bit and didn't catch him going in, but looked up in time to see Drew extract him from the water. Was he upset? Yes. But not because he immersed himself in the water. He was quite irate that his dad removed him from the water and wouldn't let him go back in. I think it might be time to get him some swimming lessons, yes?

Grandma for President

While we wait impatiently for the presidential candidates to announce their running mates (c'mon already, boys!), Silas has started a campaign of his own. Grandma G. sent him this shirt. Perfect for the election year! I think Silas is hoping he's on Grandma's short list for her VP pick!

Along with election year madness, we are also still experiencing teething madness (note the fingers in the mouth in the top picture). He recently cut two incisors, bringing the total teeth count to 14. Only 6 more to go!

In the Garden with Buddha

This is our garden shrine. Patrick taught him to bring flowers to Buddha and we taught him to gasho (palms together and bow in respect). He will say "Buddha" (sounds like "B-dah") and also will gasho when we say "Buddha" or when he walks past the shrine.

Interestingly, he's taken a liking to a picture of Robin that we have in the house. Today, he picked it up and said "B-dah, B-dah" over and over again, and then hugged the picture. I then took the picture from him and he made the gasho gesture. Both Drew and I just stood there with our mouths open staring at him in disbelief. Don't know what to make of it really, except to say that it was a precious moment for us, given how important Robin was in our lives.

17 Months Old!

Just a few pictures that I snapped today in honor of Silas turning 17 months old...

The three above were taken on the steps of Shannon and Patrick's porch. And the image below shows Silas picking strawberries from our berry patch. We have a native variety of strawberries growing in our yard. They are tiny, delicious and bountiful! Naturally, Silas loves them. We are working on teaching him the difference between ripe and unripe berries, but obviously for now, he has to be closely watched to make sure he only eats ripe ones. These strawberries are one of many kinds of berries we have growing in the yard. The nice thing about them is that they keep producing fruit throughout the summer, giving Silas plenty of opportunity to enjoy them!

Silas says, "Danke Barb"

Barb got Silas this book and hat in Germany. Apparently, this kind of hat is what all of the cool German babies are sporting this summer. Silas likes both of his presents. Vielen Dank, Barb!

Baby's first criminal act, and other antics

Ah, the sleeping babe. Nothing could be more precious, more innocent...

And then he woke up and dialed 911 without us knowing it.

Picture it--A weekday. I'm at work, and Drew is talking to his mom on the phone while he starts changing Silas' diaper. Silas doesn't like diaper changes. Hates them in fact. But he does like phones. So, Drew gets off the phone with his mom and hands it to Silas to keep him busy while the diaper change is in progress. Silas starts pressing buttons, as per usual. Drew thinks Silas might be pressing too many buttons, so he takes the phone away from him. Silas protests. The diaper change ends. Life goes on.

And then the phone rings. It's a 911 operator who tells Drew they just received a call from our number. Drew then has to explain that his 1 year old dialed the number. No it's not on speed dial, it was random (what are the odds?). No, he's not being held at gunpoint and being forced to say that his 1 year old dialed the number, and by the way, are we going to be fined for this?

The operator said that they may still have to send a patrol car around, just in case. But the police never materialized, so they must have believed Drew when he said that he wasn't being held hostage. And we haven't been fined. Silas is no longer allowed to play with the phone, unless it's been unplugged.

Did I mention that he gave me a black eye? What a little devil. This happened three weeks ago while Drew was in WI. I was still lying in bed, which is on the floor, and Silas had already gotten up. He picked out a book and very excitedly brought it back to me so that I could read it to him. On the way to the bed, he tripped and slammed the corner of the hardcover book right into my eye. Holy cats! I've never had a black eye before. It took 3 weeks for it to totally heal, and it wasn't even a very bad shiner. I had no idea it would take so long to heal, because on TV, it only seems to take a few days and then people always returned to their flawless skinned selves.

Si is also going through a biting/grabbing/pulling/pinching faze. The bitting can be explained by the fact that he's getting so many teeth in at the same time. We're up to 12 at last count, and 4 or those are the recently cut molars. More appear to be on their way. While I understand that teething is painful, it is still disconcerting to have him run up to me while I'm doing dishes as though he's going to hug me, and then end that hug by chomping into my leg. Ow. He just can't seem to help himself. Same goes for the grabbing/pulling/pinching. He gets so excited sometimes and he doesn't know that he's hurting. He seems to think he's playing with us. But we're always very firm with him. Unfortunately, we've been told that at his age, he can't really remember that it's a bad thing and causes us pain. At some point, however, it's gotta sink in, right?

So, let's recap. Sleeping cherub. Dialing 911 emergency when the only emergency in progress is an unwanted diaper change. General parental abuse. I think the picture below seems more accurate then the sleeping babe portrait, at present. You don't think they're sharing a brewsky and conspiring against me, do you? If so, I'm really in trouble!

Potty Party

We got Si a little potty a while back. Obviously, we're not expecting miracles here, but we want him to get used to the concept, and in that regard, we seem to be having success (if you catch my drift). He will sit on it for quite a while, especially if we set him up with a few books and toys to look at.

He also enjoys using the potty as a toy box and carrying the two pieces around, placing them in various locations throughout the house. Lately, he's been trying to sit on it by himself. Unfortunately, his method is to remove the white potty part first, then step inside the green part. He usually gets stuck. Well, at least he's having a good time!

Poolside

Every kid needs a little pool to make the most out of those unbearably hot summer days, right? Okay, we don't really get many super hot days, but if it hits 70 and we see the sun here in the Northwest, we call that a good day! And Silas is more than happy to dive right in to his new wading pool, whenever mom and dad let him. We got this pool towards the end of my vacation and after having it about 2 days, wouldn't you know it, we had a cold and rainy spell. But today was beautiful, so we filled it up again.

Note to self: Silas refuses to sit down in the pool. Why? Maybe because it's so friggin' cold! Next time, fill it up while he's napping and let it sit in the sun for a few hours. Sheesh!

Note to self again: Placing the pool next to the sandbox presents it's own set of problems. But oh well, sand and water are meant to go together, right?

Here's our little helper, making sure his pool gets filled to his requirements:
And every tiny wading pool should have a gazillion inflatable toys, right? This little thing came with at least 6 of them, I kid you not. Talk about overkill. If we inflated them all, there would be no room for Silas in the pool.

And your weekend bonus pic:
We went to the capital, Olympia, yesterday, just because we've never been there before and wanted to check it out. It was nice, had a good vibe --sort of a cross between Madison and Portland, but a bit smaller than either. But Silas was having one of his uncooperative days, so it was a little hard to do too much. Overall, staying home and playing in the pool today was much more relaxing and enjoyable!

August 08 Book of the Month

Announcing Planet Silas' August 08 Book of the month:
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown, Pictures by Clement Hurd.

I hesitated using this classic as the book of the month. After all, it is Goodnight Moon, the queen of all classic bedtime stories. It's sort of an obvious choice. But after many hours of deliberation between me and myself, I decided I wanted to use it, for several reasons. First, it is still considered by toddlers (or at least mine) to be an engaging and much beloved book. Silas often requests it (and not just at bedtime). It was also the first book that Silas got for completing Summer Reading at the Library last year, so it holds sentimental value because of that. Lastly, selecting this book opens the door for me to tell you all about a couple of fun Goodnight Moon parodies/discussions which some of you will love and some of you will hate (consider yourselves warned). The first is Goodbye Moon, which I first saw linked to Mr. Nib's blog. The second is Goodnight Bush, which I found out about from a mama on the Mother's forum I recently joined. Hee-hee-hee. I won't say anything more about these. You can follow the links and see for yourselves.

Silas contemplating the subtext and inner complexities of Goodnight Moon:
And, we have an honorable mention this month! It is:
Sam's Opposites by Yves Got.

Another frequent request by Mr. Bear, he seems drawn to the bold line drawings and characters. The only complaint I have about this is that there are A LOT of opposites. I will admit to skipping a few pages if I want to hurry the reading along a bit.

"I like this book, mom. Tee-hee!"

This book has become increasingly interactive as we try to act out some of the opposites depicted. Here, Silas is demonstrating the goodbye part of the Hello/Goodbye pair (he does the hello handshake too now).

And on a totally different and not so uplifting subject: I meant to write a separate post about this yesterday, and well, it just didn't happen. So I'm tacking it onto this post, as unfitting as it may be. It's all I seem to have energy for.

This has been a hard week for us. Not so much for Silas, who is his usual energetic and (mostly) happy self. Instead, his mom and dad are dealing with some stuff. Yesterday marked the 1 year anniversary of loosing our dear friend, teacher, and mentor, Robin. It still hurts. Robin was my professor in college as well as my Buddhist teacher, and I worked for him for a number of years. He initiated our wedding. He taught us (particularly me) so much. He has been on my mind a lot lately, not surprisingly. On top of that, a few days ago, we received news that Fernando, one of Drew's closest friends going all the way back to middle school, died suddenly. His funeral took place on the anniversary of Robin's passing. We are very grateful to Drew's mom for attending the funeral in our place, since we couldn't travel back to Wisconsin for it. So, just 8 years after our wedding, 2 of the people in our wedding party have died. So sad. :(