Here he is!

We interrupt our regularly scheduled home improvement postings for this breaking news! Silas got his first hair cut!

Silas was not overly thrilled with the process, although he's been talking about getting a hair cut ever since Drew cut his. Drew did a nice job, but Silas was a squirmy worm, and we will therefore we have to go back and trim a bit more.
When Silas was finished with his hair cut, it was giraffe's turn:
I miss those golden curls, but one thing that I am so not going to miss is Silas screaming every time I try to run a comb through his snarls.

Curls or not, he is still one cute kid.

Grab your hard hat Silas...

You're going to need it!
The first thing we did when we closed last Thursday was to tear up the new, but smelly carpets. We discovered this:
Thanks to our new neighbor, we know that the reason the original floor was pulled up and replaced with ply board was so that the previous owner could access underneath the house to replace old beams. It's a shame, but the original fir floors just aren't worth refinishing, not with the amount of damage done to them, plus the amount we'd have to replace. On top of that, we were advised to shellac all of them and seal in whatever may have been sprayed or done to the floors (there was a nasty chemical smell that didn't go away when we removed the carpets). So, that's what Drew has been busy doing...painting, removing floor boards, etc. We will be covering the front two rooms plus the downstairs bedrooms and hallway with cork flooring, which you can see pictured here. While we had the notion that it would be nice to restore the original floor, I am excited to have a beautiful cork floor. It's something Drew and I have always admired. Now, if we can just have it in in time for us to move in a week...

We will be busy over the next week dealing with the floors, painting, and packing. I may just pop in with another post or two, but you may not hear from me again until our internet is up and running in the new house. Till then...

Birthday on, Power out!

We spent the second half of Silas' birthday without power, thanks to an afternoon wind storm. We celebrated in the semi-dark, amidst mounds of boxes. It was still a wonderful day.
Opening Grandma G's cool present:Blowing out the birthday candles. We had ice cream too (raspberry--Silas' choice!):
Last year I made Silas a big, complicated play blanket. I did not have the time or energy to duplicate such an endeavor this year, but I did manage to fulfill one of his requests: about 3 weeks ago, he asked me to knit him some hoses for his fire trucks. That I had time for for sure! I also knit him a helipad for the cool helicopter we got for him. It sits atop his fire station awaiting the next "emergency."
This was a pretty low-key birthday due to our upcoming move. We promised him that next year, for his fourth, we can celebrate in style at our new abode!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Silas!

Sunny day

Today we went to the new house to take some measurements. It will probably be the last time we need our agent to open the lock box and let us in. We get the keys on Thursday!

Coming up...

We went to our house yesterday for a little visit, and found several things in bloom.

This is going to be a busy couple of weeks.
Silas turns 3 on the 16th. We close (4 days earlier than our original date!) on the 18th. My birthday's on the 21st, and we move on the 30th. Whew!

dam bones

Last weekend, Silas took me to the dam he had built in a stream leading to a retention pond, which is just across the road from our current abode. It had been raining a lot and his dam had collected a lot of water.
They don't call these boots puddle jumpers for nothing!
Earlier that day, we had been reading "Bones, Bones, Dinosaur Bones" by Byron Barton. Silas isn't a real dinosaur enthusiast, but he did love the idea of searching for "bones" and putting them together to make animals. So, when we arrived back home from our tour of the dam, we hunted for bones on the front lawn and put together this dinosaur:
We then found the backbone of a Tyranosaurus Rex:
With all the hub-bub of our upcoming move, it's nice to still have these sort of moments together.

March '09 Book of the Month

Announcing Planet Silas' March '09 Book of the Month:

We're Moving by Heather Maisner ; illustrated by Kristina Stephenson.

When Amy and her family move into a new house, it takes some effort to make it feel like home.

Anyone who has been following this blog knows by now that we are in the process of buying a house and will be moving to said house in a near-by town at the end of the month. Change can be difficult for kids (and adults too!) and Silas has reacted in a pretty typical way. He will seem fine with the idea, but then say things like "I don't want to buy the yellow house. I want to buy this one!" We have been gently guiding him towards accepting the change by seeing it in a positive light. We have been talking up the following, for instance: "There will be a room just for your toys" and, "there will be a room for Grandma and Papa and Grandma G to stay in so they can visit with us longer."

Being a librarian, I am inclined towards using books as a means of making the idea of moving more concrete and less scary. I've checked out a dozen or so picture books on the concept of moving (and for those interested, the Library of Congress subject heading is Moving, household.) We have been reading them all pretty regularly and I knew I wanted to select one as the book of the month, but wasn't sure which one to go with. In the end, I let Silas decide. Although he enjoys all books and has asked for multiple readings of several of the "moving" stories, We're Moving has been a favorite. I'm not surprised that he made this choice and here's why:

When the little boy looses his favorite toy car, his sister, Amy, helps him look for it, and they find lots of interesting things in their new house including "two dirty socks behind the radiator." He laughs so hard when I read that line and asks me to repeat it over and over again. "Two dirty socks behind the raderator. STIIINKY" he shouts.

Well, whatever works. The move to a new house is scary for the brother and sister and it takes them a while to adjust to their new surroundings. But, as these stories always do, thing work out for them in the end and all is well. I hope that that concept, that things will work out in the end, sinks in to his little noggin, deeper and deeper with every reading. It is a message that we could all benefit from listening to.