Planet Silas

Trains,French Villas, and Japanese Gardens

2012-01-30T19:35:00.000-08:00

Back in December, we took Silas to see the model train display at The Blodel Reserve. Not surprisingly, he really really loved it.

He even got to talk to the conductor and help fix a problem with one of the trains.

The houses were incredible pieces of handicraft in and of themselves, though they couldn't hold a candle to the trains, in Silas' eyes.

We walked back from the train exhibit at the big house via the Japanese Garden.

Drew explained to Silas how they rake the Zen garden.

Blodel is always beautiful, year round.

Snowy days 2012

2012-01-18T22:46:00.000-08:00

Don't you love snow days? In the Pacific Northwest, land of mild rainy winters, snow is a rarity, and snow that accumulates rather than melting when it hits the ground is usually a once a winter event, if it happens at all. So when it snows this much, no one goes anywhere. The schools, the county, everything just shuts down. I, for one, love it. Those of you from the snowier realms may scoff at us as we hunker down and cancel school for the amount of snow you see above. In Wisconsin, this would be an average snowfall and life would continue as usual. But this isn't Wisconsin, and trust me, all it takes is one winter in the Pacific Northwest to change your tune. There are three factors at work, the way I see it:

1. Snow happens so rarely, there aren't enough plows to handle clearing all of the roads. The bulk of the snowfall happened early this morning, and our road still hasn't been plowed, despite the fact that we live a block away from an elementary school (the school driveway hasn't been touched either). For the most part, we all just wait for the snow to melt. Some roads do get plowed, and some do get sanded/salted, but back roads, most neighborhoods? Forget about it.

2. We have hills. Lots and lots of hills. I took my main route home from work last winter up Lincoln hill on a snowy day, and I thought I was going to die. There were cars spun out into ditches all around me. I remember lots of ice in Wisconsin, and sliding on said ice, but I didn't have to face elevation gains and dips anywhere near the magnitude we have here. It makes winter driving about 10 times as dangerous (and then imagine those icy hilly roads without salt or snow plows).

3. Drivers are snow-challenged. When you live someplace with the chance of snow 8 months out of the year, you learn how to drive in it. When you live someplace with snow maybe once a year, eh, not so much. I'm even afraid I've lost my winter driving edge, having now lived here for 8 + years.

So there you have it. We were all home today, and it looks like there won't be work or school for us tomorrow either. You will get no complaints from me. Silas is happy. We took him sledding today and he was scared and thrilled simultaneously.

Something even rarer than snow, icicles:

Christmas 2011

2011-12-27T14:07:00.000-08:00

I think it's safe to say that Silas was more excited for this Christmas than every before. He's at that golden age when the sweet anticipation of Santa's arrival is at it's purest.

Silas left out the obligatory plate of cookies, which was soon joined by a steaming cup of coffee (gotta keep Santa awake while he assembles that puppet theater).

Surprisingly, the first thing Silas noticed was not the ginormous quilt-wrapped present behind him, but the shop vac Santa graciously bestowed upon his mom and dad (thanks Santa! You are so practical).

The coveted orange. He asked for one every year. Not like we don't eat oranges pretty much every day this time of year, but I guess there's just something special about the ones Santa grows up in the North Pole. Santa also fills our stockings with nuts. He is very traditional in that way :)

Santa also hides things in the tree each year for Silas to find. How fun is that?

Finding the treasures in his stocking next to the warm glow of the pellet stove.

Hooray for puppets and puppet theaters!

This kid is a performer at heart. Our goal with this year's gift giving was to acknowledge and nurture this side of him. We have already seen a number of shows and can't wait for what this creative kid comes up with next. Thank you to everyone who contributed to Silas' puppet Christmas. You may just be witnessing the emergence of the next Jim Henson.

We spent both Christmas eve and Christmas afternoon with Patrick. Patrick and Silas even hung out for a while so that Drew and I could go to a Christmas day Yoga class (thanks Patrick!).

Later that day, at Patrick's, Grandma and Papa got to watch Silas open their gifts.

Happy New Year to all and to all a good 2012!

Xmas card rejects

2011-12-23T22:41:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of pics that didn't make the holiday card cut, but for various reasons, were funny enough to post. The top picture is the one we almost chose.

Silas really wanted Olive to be included, but it turns out Olive doesn't care about posing for pictures. I like this shot of the three of us, if not for the 4-eyed mutant cat.

Mustaches are in vogue. But the candy cane stache didn't quite work the way he wanted it to. Guess I wasn't a fan of it either.

We were all pretty sick during this photo shoot, Silas especially. I think we limited the photo shoot to 5 minutes and then went with whatever came out the best. So, this was the Christmas 2011 family photo, such as it is.

Happy Christmas to you all!

Letter to Santa, 2011

2011-12-22T20:11:00.000-08:00

This Monday, we mailed off Silas' letter to Santa. Poulsbo has a special mailbox set up just for letters designated for the North Pole.

"Yep, that's how they get there" he said as he dropped his letter in. It must have gotten there fast, because we already got Santa's reply in Wednesday's mail.

The letter: Silas insisted on addressing it to both Santa and Mrs. Claus. "That's how you know you'll get what you want" he told me, "if you let Mrs. Claus know. She'll tell Santa to get on it."

Transcription:

Dear Santa and Mrs. Claus,

Merry Christmas!
I want a puppet theater and some Backyardigans costumes.
I have snowflakes on my windows. My mommy and me made them. I have three Santa statues on the piano.

I would like an orange in my stocking. Penguin, my stuffed animal, wants a Spider-man mask and an orange in his stocking that he can look at and study, because he's never seen and orange before. That will be his lucky day.

My friend Orangutan wants a guitar that he can share with me. Also an orange.

Love,

Silas

Deck the halls with balls of jelly!

2011-12-21T09:26:00.000-08:00

You gotta love how kids re-write lyrics...

Our cozy home is in fact all decked out for the holidays. This year's tree:

24 felted trees, three Santas, and one gingerbread house atop the piano:

My 2011 Christmas decoration additions: knitted lights and strategically placed mistletoe:

Another view of the piano. A crochet's knight guards the gingerbread house. Each day in December leading up to Christmas, Silas finds a different handmade puppet (including the knight) under that day's tree. Only three more trees to go!

Community Christmas Performance

2011-12-19T22:39:00.000-08:00

Silas got to participate in a small community Christmas performance on the 10th. .

In the morning, the kids made snowflakes and paper chains to decorate the old school house, which is now the community center.

Rehearsal:

Performance time: Patrick came to watch!

Jingle Bells:

Who's that?

I thought for sure he would think this Santa was totally bogus, but nope. All he cared about was that Santa had a present with his name on it. And, it was a Wizard of Oz pop-up book, no less. How did Santa know that we'd gone to see the Kitsap Children's Musical Theater performance of Wizard of Oz that very afternoon! Wow!

Dorothy meets Glinda the Good and the Munchkins.

Silas, fresh from the critical acclaim he received as "boy who brings Christmas cards to girl sitting in chair" in the community Christmas performance tells us that he does want to be in a KCMT production once he's old enough. And when they do Wizard of Oz again, he's going to be the Tin Woodman. I can see it :)

Santa...or just Some Guy

2011-12-13T22:13:00.000-08:00

You may recall from last year's Santa disaster that Silas has been more than a little hesitant to get anywhere near the big guy.

Clearly, as is evidenced by these pictures, he's over it. Not only did he sit on Santa's lap, but he talked his ear off as well.

These pictures were taken at Silas' preschool holiday party last Friday. The kids were beyond excited to see Santa show up, and I think Silas got caught up enough in the moment that he let go of his fears. While we were in line, he kept saying things like "Is that a real Santa or just some guy? I think it's just some guy. If he was Santa, why wouldn't he just send his elves to do this?" He kept going on about it until I finally said "Oh, just go with it Silas." On the way home, I asked what his take was on this Santa. Real, or not real. "Not real," he replied. "I knew because of his hat. That's not the real Santa's hat."

By the next morning, however, he was singing a different tune: "He's one of the real Santa's." Apparently, and quite logically, Silas has decided there are many.

Looks like he might be a Santa-in-training himself!

PDX

2011-12-06T19:52:00.001-08:00

The weekend after Thanksgiving, we headed to Portland. The main reason for our trip was to check out the art show Drew had a piece in at 23 Sandy Gallery.

Silas interacted with the art...

...and became art.

A trip to Portland would not be complete without visiting Bob's Red Mill (awesome awesome awesome). We saw Bob himself, sitting outside by this water wheel.

And we ended our trip at Powell's Books. In my family, one does not go to Portland without going to Powell's. It simply isn't done.

Long day, lots of driving, but the kiddo held up well, and I'm glad we went.

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-26T08:39:00.001-08:00

Some pics from Thanksgiving...We had Thanksgiving brunch with Sarah and friends.

Plenty of music-making opportunities there...

Back at home, briefly, Silas and I pose in front of his great-grandmother's piano, the newest addition to our household, and one for which we are very thankful (thanks Grandma G, for shipping it all the way out to us!).

Silas made this "control panel" with Sarah and he was most insistent on showing it off:

We then headed over to Seattle for Thanksgiving dinner. Long day, filled with friends and food. :)

Silas' List of Thankfulness 2011

2011-11-23T18:43:00.001-08:00

Here's Silas' list for this year. Enjoy, and Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I am thankful for:

--How this day was, how good it was

--Seeing Patrick

--Playing with Jack at school

--That I love mom and that mom loves me

--Reading Geronimo Stilton books at bedtime

--Having tea with dad

--Playing transfer center with dad

--Going to school

--Satsuma Mandarins

--Having the very last of the chocolate

--Cuddling with Mom

Auction owls

2011-11-11T17:59:00.001-08:00

Well, you can probably tell by the un-carved state of the pumpkins that these pics are a couple of weeks old. Halloween stalled things for a bit, but I still wanted to share a few images from Silas' auction owl photo shoot. I made 3 owl hats like this one for his preschool's silent auction, which was last weekend.

Apparently, the owl likes to listen to some tunes:

Me and my owlet :)

I have promised to crochet Silas his own owl hat, since this one now belongs to the highest bidder...

Halloween 2011!

2011-11-02T18:43:00.000-07:00

For those of you who haven't yet seen this picture on FB, here it is again: Silas as a wolf in sheep's clothing. I think this might be my favorite of his Halloween costumes, to date. I made the hooded vest and ears from the Bainbridge sheep's wool. It's knit with spun yarn as well as with un-spun batting. I also knit the wolf-paw gloves, but credit for the mask goes to Drew who cut all of the pieces, and my friend Barb, who sewed it together for us. Thanks Barb!

We began our Halloween with a video chat with Grandma and Papa. That afternoon, I dropped Silas off at school and got to see all of the adorableness that is a preschool costume party.

Comparing outfits:

Circle time, in which each child got to tell everyone about their costume:

He might not be a lion, a tiger, or bear (oh my), but I do think you might want to keep your distance, Dorothy!

After school, we headed to the Island, met up with Drew, saw some friends, and participated in the obligatory trick-or-treat madness. Then it was back to the house to pass out candy for neighborhood nighttime trick-or-treat. I took Silas to a few houses of people we know, but really, we were pretty tired by then. Time for this wolf to start counting sheep :)

Jack-o-lanterns

2011-10-30T18:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Lots of pictures will follow, after the day's events...

Back to the pumpkin patch

2011-10-25T18:44:00.000-07:00

On a beautiful fall day last week, Silas' class went to the pumpkin patch (you can see last year's trip here).

Drew went along and dutifully took pictures for me.

These next two pictures melt my heart:

Silas and his best bud, J. These two are thick as thieves this year.

With the pumpkin patch trip behind us, we are gearing up for Halloween. The costume is done. Now all we need to do is to carve the pumpkins.

Grandparent reinforcement, stage 2

2011-10-18T19:44:00.000-07:00

(A little behind with this, but here goes.) Grandma G came to stay with us the 2nd week that Drew was gone. She took Silas up to school and even got to work in his classroom one day.

Look, they're even color coordinated!

Playing outside of the school house...

We are very grateful to both sets of grandparents for traveling 2000 miles in order to help us get through those two weeks. Thank you!

He's home!

2011-10-09T16:17:00.000-07:00

We picked Drew up from his retreat on Friday. It was a long two weeks for all of us and we're so glad to have him home!

I didn't intend this blog post as a Halloween spoiler, but Silas REALLY wanted to wear the part of his costume that I'd finished so that he could show his dad. And that's all I'll say about it...for now :)

Grandparent reinforcement, stage 1

2011-10-01T17:00:00.000-07:00

As some of you know, Drew is away for two weeks for yoga teacher training. The grandparents on both sides have stepped in to assist while he's away. My parents came for the first week.

He has no idea how funny he is:

We went to the harvest fair. Silas sort of disliked the big slide this year, and was a bit afraid of the hay jump. But ride a horse? There was no way he was going to miss out on that!

We go to the harvest fest every year, and it was wonderful to have Grandma and Papa along this time.

Grandma made Silas a Lego bass. Fun!

Their visit was all too brief. Silas and I have been spending the past three days on our own. I worked in Si's classroom on Thursday, and we hung out at the cafe with Patrick (a typical Drew activity) on Friday. Today we went to the farmers' market, an activity that Silas and I engage in almost every Saturday.

Tomorrow, Grandma G arrives!

Half birthday

2011-09-28T06:57:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, we celebrated Silas' half birthday with a few friends. I made him a crown as part of an ever-expanding costume collection.

He entertained friends:

And enjoyed the yummy cake from Monica's Waterfront Bakery:

Showing off his crown the next day:

I can't believe my boy is half way to 5 already!

School year wrap-up and Habitat Hollow

2011-09-20T20:34:00.000-07:00

Yep, still playing catch up. Bringing you to the end of preschool year 1, we have the hatching of chicks...

Silas' class music recital: all I can say is that Silas is actually following along. Whenever I go to anything where he is expected to move along with something, he usually just stands there. Maybe it's just me being there...who knows.

And, we are done with the school pics. On to (or rather, back to) Stillwaters. Last time we were there, Silas showed me the Habitat that he had built in Habitat Hollow.

So very proud, he was...

Adjacent to Stillwaters Environmental Center is Gordon Elementary, and bordering Gordon is a nature preserve and trail leading here, Carpenter Lake.

Kind of reminds me of Wisconsin.

We celebrated Silas' half birthday last Friday. I'll post pictures of that soon.

Preschool, year 1, part 3

2011-09-15T21:20:00.000-07:00

Here we go with round three...

Art

and more art...

Sharing time...Silas show's everyone Orangutan, on loan to us from Patrick.

If you've ever wondered how to give an orangutan CPR, just ask Silas:

Okay team, we've got the briefcase. Make the swap at 0900 hours.

Then meet us back at the bat cave. This is serious business, boys.

Self portrait.

What can I say... he's an abstract thinker.

I've got a few more stragglers to post from the end of the school year. As for the new school year, Silas made it through his first week (his classes are Mon-Thur afternoons). This morning, he was practically shaking with excitement. I asked why we was feeling that way.
"I've got school today and I'm so happy!" he replied. Yea!

Preschool, year 1, part 2

2011-09-13T18:37:00.000-07:00

The trip down preschool memory lane continues...

Outside exploration:

Learning to be helpful:

They can come over and wash my dishes any time...

Field trip to the post office:

Everyone mailed a letter to themselves.

See?

Then we waited to see how long it would take for the letter to arrive. Ours came the very next day!

Playing bus (one of his favorite pastimes) with a friend:

Music and sound exploration:

That brings us to March. More to come...

Preschool, year 1, part 1

2011-09-12T18:05:00.000-07:00

We just received a disk filled with pictures Silas' teachers took during the 10/11 school year. Silas just started a new school year today, so I thought it was good timing to share some images from his first year of school. Above, Silas on his very first day, with Teacher Debbie.
Art.
More art.
Who can forget Halloween!

This is the picture they used for the Christmas ornament Silas made for us:
This brings us to about November. Stay tuned for the rest of the 10/11 school year...

Last September, Silas was pretty apprehensive about starting school. Things could not be more different this year. He's really excited and is so glad to be back with his classmates and beloved teachers!

Backtracking: forgotten summer photos

2011-09-08T20:24:00.000-07:00

There's so much that I haven't posted yet from this summer, so here's a combo-post for you.

Silly boy:
We went to the Underwater Naval Museum. Silas LOVED being on a sub, which he was (sort of).
What little kid wouldn't love to see this:
We got an awesome farm table for FREE! We love it!
We went to Port Townsend, several times.
While there, we got to watch a boat being made at the Wooden Boat Foundation.
And we hung out...basking in the sun, while there's still sun to bask in.

In the garden

2011-09-05T20:20:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to post some pictures from the garden for, oh, several months now. Here are a few pictures from today. Above and below, this is the flower garden I started this spring.

To give you an idea of how far we've come, this is what the space looked like last summer:

I've got three raised beds this year. There have been successes and failures, as is usually the case in gardening.
I've got lots of these squash below. The kids who sold the starts to me at a farmer's market said they were acorn squash, but they look more like patty pans to me. Either way...
An incomplete list of the produce I'm growing this summer: peas, chard, spinach, zucchini, pumpkins, corn, 5 varieties of tomatoes, potatoes, radishes, strawberries, onions, garlic, broccoli, cauliflower, red cabbage, and green beans. Happy harvesting!

Romeo and Juliet

2011-08-17T18:30:00.000-07:00

Editor's note: Silas has an Olivia the Pig play stage which consists of various scenes from three performances: Turandot, Swan Lake, and Romeo and Juliet. He spends quite a bit of time acting these out, performing opera or ballet, as the case may be. Today, he performed Romeo and Juliet outside for us. The porch was his stage. I asked him to tell me the story so I could write it down. The following is my best effort to write down precisely what he said. You may notice the tense changing, and you may also notice that he has taken a bit of artistic license with the plot.

Romeo and Juliet

rewritten and performed by Silas

Juliet was sleeping on the stage. I was in the bathroom peeing, when a monster came and she didn't even know. She was towed away! And now she's trapped with a monster in his dome.

I (Romeo) am going to try to rescue her.

I'm going to give the monster a ticket for towing Juliet away. I give him the ticket, but he throws it away.

I then use an ambulance because I think (I'm not sure) he left her on the floor. He might have dropped her and she might have hurt her head. But my ambulance doesn't work and it needs to be towed, so the tow truck is going to take her home. But the tow truck doesn't know yet that she's trapped because I didn't call them.

I need to call them and tell them that they need to come over. I think they probably will, actually.

that's pretty much what happens. When Juliet gets home, she likes to put on performances for people with me (Romeo).

That's it.

Polliwog Camp

2011-08-05T22:03:00.000-07:00

This week, Silas attended Polliwog Camp at Stillwaters Environmental Center. I think it's safe to say that he thought nature camp was awesome. The campers hiked on local trails, studied bugs, bird-watched, did nature art, and learned about ecology.

There's a fabulous climbing tree on the grounds, which saw lots of use. Silas also told me that he made a secret fort with several of the other boys.

There were three other children at the camp from Silas' class at preschool, and I think this helped make Silas feel comfortable right away. Here he is with friend J, in the gazebo overlooking the pond:

When I asked Silas what his very favorite thing about camp had been, he said it was "walking on the trail looking at the ecology huts." I don't quite know what that means, but I'll take his word for it.

We hiked up a mountain (again)

2011-07-27T20:59:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, we hiked up Hurricane Hill, just like we did last year. The biggest difference was that this year, there was a lot more snow. I mean a lot more. The pack from last winter was dramatically more than the year before, which I think must be a good thing.

Mt. Baker is just barely visible in the distance:

We saw an Olympic Marmot, which was bigger and more golden than I remembered.

And there was no shortage of deer.

Silas enjoyed making snowballs (and then holding onto them until they melted away).

Hello little cloud.

On the way home, we were waylaid by a bridge opening on the Hood Canal Bridge. This gave me a rare opportunity to get out of the car whilst on the bridge in order to take a picture of the Olympic Mountains.
Thus ended our day trip to the mountains.

We hiked to the ocean

2011-07-22T16:41:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday we hiked to Cape Alava/Sand Point. This is a 9.2 mile triangle: 3 miles from the trail head to the ocean, 3 miles along the coast, and 3 miles back to the trail head. I was afraid that, going at a 4 year old's pace, we wouldn't make it up the coast before the tide came back in. When the tide is high, this is a much more difficult hike, as the beach along certain stretches becomes submerged, and the only way to get through is to swim, or haul yourself up a cliff with a rope. To avoid that possibility, we walked around Sand Point for quite a while, then headed back up the path. So, about 7 miles overall.

The forest, on the hike in:
Checking out a location for a potential driftwood house:

Look, ma, I'm at the ocean!

On the top of what Silas calls "Dragon Mountain."

Me.

Us.

Strong (little) man:

Putting the finishing touch on the driftwood house:

Ta-da!

Enough of us. Here's what we came to see:

It rained during the hike back. Thankfully, the rainforest canopy kept us from getting totally drenched (sort of).

Long day. Good day.

Anna Smith Children's Garden

2011-07-14T10:51:00.000-07:00

We stumbled upon this lovely Children's Garden a few days ago. What a great place to gain inspiration for our own garden! As you can see, Silas loved the been and sunflower tepee. This is a must for our garden next year:

It's a little washed out, but Silas is about to step on a hopscotch board:
Shots of the garden:

My strawberries are overtaking one of my raised beds, so Drew will build me a strawberry bed like this one (square upon square upon square upon square) for next year:

We've been talking about building some mason bee homes in order to attract them to the garden and increase pollination. We'll probably base ours on the ones we found at this garden:

Bamboo mason bee home:

Unidentified beautiful flowering tree:
And, ending this post with a non-plant picture: Same park, down through the forest to the beach, Silas shows off his hook arm (paper cup + straw), which he would not take off all day. Sometimes it's the simple things in life...

Strawberries and Butterflies

2011-07-11T16:08:00.000-07:00

We're right at the peak of strawberry season. Yum! The garden grows bigger each year, and as strawberries are want to do, they have spread out from last year, giving us quite a few more berries this summer. Again, yum!
Earlier this spring, I noticed a chrysalis on one of the shrubs I was planning on transplanting. Not wanting to disturb or destroy it, I clipped off the branch it was on and Silas put it in his nature explorer box, that his Aunt Amy and Uncle Jeff gave to him for his birthday. Then, we waited. And waited. After a few weeks I began to wonder if the thing was ever going to hatch.
But as you can see, it did!
I identified it as a Lorquin's Admiral. Right after the picture below was taken, it flew up and away.
Good-bye pretty butterfly!

Cap'n Red Gnome

2011-07-06T18:31:00.000-07:00

Give him a hat and a peg leg...

Add an eye patch and a parrot on the shoulder.

Don't forget the sword...

...and a beard...
...And you've got Cap'n Red Gnome, scourge of the Salish Sea! Aaarrgghh!

(Taken at O's birthday party, several weeks ago. What a blast!)

Parade Picture Palooza!

2011-07-05T09:30:00.000-07:00

Thanks to his preschool, Silas got the chance to show off his tricked-out bike at the 4th of July parade yesterday. I walked with him, and D took lots of pictures...

Getting ready, along with the other preschool families:

The anticipation is mounting!

And we're off!
As nervous as he was before the parade began, it wasn't long before he started hamming it up for the parade-goers.
According to their website, this is the longest continuously running parade west of the Mississippi. So there you have it, we're part of history :)
This was my favorite float. I had to include some shots of the circus troop. They were awesome!
Check out the bearded "lady." The parasol was a nice touch.
Loved the mustached strong (mini) men with dumb bells.
The weather was PERFECT and our day was delightful. Hope yours was too!

Preschool-related post

2011-06-24T18:51:00.000-07:00

Every Wednesday, kids can show up at the playground adjacent to the preschool for an informal play date. We brought sidewalk chalk alone last week, and had a lot of fun.

Superheroes:
And from earlier this month...This is a scene from our preschool walk-a-thon. We walked down to the farmer's market, where they held drawings for several raffle prizes. After the walk, everyone met up back at the school for the end-of-year picnic. The weather cooperated, and we had a lovely day.

Our Dad's Day tradition

2011-06-20T20:28:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture post in honor of Father's Day, featuring my boys, out and about in Port Townsend.
PT is our destination of choice for Father's Day, though it is 10 shades of awesome any day of the year.
Hope all the dads out there had a great day :)

Are you ready?

2011-06-16T20:37:00.000-07:00

Silas is ready for summer! School ended last week, but we have much to look forward to. He goes to cooking camp (at his preschool) next week, and nature camp at an environmental learning center in August. He'll also be participating in the 4th of July parade with the rest of his preschool, and our little family will hopefully escape to the ocean for a few days as well.

I've got a few more preschool related pictures to share, so stay tuned.

Foulweather Bluff fieldtrip

2011-06-07T21:49:00.000-07:00

The weather could not have been better for Silas' school field trip to Foulweather Bluff a few weeks back. A short hike through the woods led to this tide pool, ripe for young ecologists to explore:

Silas touched an anemone with his science finger:

They found some newly hatched fish in the shallows by the eel weed. Silas was one of the lucky few who manage to pick one up. Whenever the children handled animals, Teacher Debbie was careful to say "This is the kind of environment it came from so it must like living there. Put it back in its environment." But the kids couldn't resist putting the fish in slightly deeper waters, just a few feet away. There was just no stopping them from "rescuing" the tiny things.

Silas stands proudly where he released his baby fish:

Teacher Debbie examines some seaweed with Silas and friends:

One of the more curious finds...I thought this was trash actually. It looks and feels just like a rubber tire. But Teacher Debbie schooled me. This is the sand collar of a moon snail, made by the mother snail from sand, tiny eggs and mucous. The collar protects the eggs from the shifting tides.

A sun star. We counted at least 18 appendages.

A sand dollar in each hand:

Jellyfish:
Other non photographed animals: eagles, sea stars, geoducks, hermit crabs, horseshoe crabs, etc. etc.

Grandma and Papa at the zoo

2011-05-31T21:34:00.000-07:00

This may be the longest stretch I've gone without blogging since Silas was a wee baby. Well, I needed the break apparently. To begin the game of catch-up, here are a few pictures from the zoo, which we visited while Grandma and Papa were in town.

Grandma bought Silas a pair of sun glasses, so he could be "just the same as everyone else" (his words, not mine, the little conformist):
The zoo has a great play area, complete with a cool slide. We could have spent all day right in that area and I think he would have been content.
The zoo's awesome view of Mt. Rainier:
One of my favorite things about this zoo is it's Red Wolf program. Red Wolves were driven to the point of extinction over the past several hundred years and only existed in captivity by 1980. This zoo's breeding program helped save the species. They are now on the way to recovery and have been reintroduced to the wild. We got to see several while we were there(a rare treat as they are not active during the day and like to keep their distance). There are less than 300 red wolves alive today, but at least their numbers are going up rather than down.

I've got some pictures to share from Silas' school field trip, and I promise not to go another month before posting them :)

Mother's Day Tea Party

2011-05-03T20:33:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my understanding boss, I was able to "escape" an all day meeting for several hours today in order to attend Silas' preschool Mother's Day Tea Party.

The delicious lunch was prepared by the children. When I got there, Silas led me into the room and right to our designated places (marked by our personalized place-mats). After the main course, the children all brought their mothers dessert, and then helped clean up.
We had a printed menu listing our lunch and tea selection, and on the back were quotes from each of the kids, listing thier favorite things about thier mothers. Silas' read: "I like to play with her. We play the bus game. We drive buses around. She cuddles with me at night." Yep. That sounds about right :)

I was also delighted to receive a beautiful flower brooch that he had made for me.

Thank you for a wonderful early Mother's Day, Silas!

Hop to it

2011-04-25T21:23:00.000-07:00

The Easter Bunny hopped on by, hiding some eggs, and an Easter basket for Silas:
Have you ever tried to find a chocolate Easter bunny without dairy? I didn't actually succeed, but I did find a chocolate Easter bear that, according to the ingredients list, was milk free. He gobbled it up later in the day with no apparent ill effects other than a tremendous sugar rush, but what he was most happy about, was this:
After sorting through his goodies, we proceeded to the egg hunt, which took place inside this year, due to the fact that kiddo was pretty sick.
Easter also brought this astonishing site:
While the moment did not last long, there was only a minimum of growling. Was it just an Easter-Day Truce, or the beginnings of a slightly less hostile relationship? We shall have to wait and see.

Olive goes to school

2011-04-19T21:45:00.000-07:00

Today was Pet Day at Silas' school. Before Olive entered our lives, I never would have thought about participating in such a thing. Sobin, my dear, dear kitty, is vicious and unpredictable when put into circumstances in which he is unfamiliar. He has to be sedated before vets will treat him. It is that bad. But Olive is mild mannered, in comparison, and I thought she might do nicely. Silas was so excited that Olive would get to see his school.

It turns out, we were the only ones crazy enough to bring a cat to Pet Day. Olive was momentarily adventurous (or perhaps was just looking for a means to escape)...
...before sequestering herself in the corner, where she stayed until I loaded her up in the carrier to bring her back home.
She did, however, let the children come up to her, say hello, and pet her. No children were bitten or scratched and they all seemed genuinely interested in her. So, all in all, a successful outing for kitty.

Silas got to tell his teacher and some of his friends all about Olive:

And it just so happens that Silas is Person of the Week this week:

My favorite response is the last one "When I grow up, I'll help Dad clean his yoga studio." Perhaps I can convince him to add "I'll weed the garden for mom" to the list.

Keep em' coming

2011-04-16T20:20:00.000-07:00

Still trying to finish up Wisconsin posts...

Grandma G and Si:

I call this the Ancestry.com trip, since a lot of time was spent teaching Silas about his family tree:

Silas, pretending he is one of Uncle Steve's dogs:

And...hanging out at Grandma and Merlin's house:

Art project time. "I have clown hands!"

Finally (for this post anyways), Alden and Silas were reunited, and enjoyed a game of fishing.

Moms and babes:

And that's were I'll leave it this time...

Wisconsin trip 2011: K..z Cousin

2011-04-10T19:54:00.000-07:00

Since the last post was dedicated to Silas' cousins on my side, this one is dedicated to his cousin on his dad's side. This picture cracks me up, every time I see it. They look like a circus act. Josh is 22 years older than Silas. He's got some growing to do to catch up with this cousin!

Wisconsin trip 2011: McC cousins

2011-04-08T20:08:00.001-07:00

Let's start with pictures of the cousins, shall we? These are all cousins on my side (ie. my sister's children). Adam helped Silas put together a Lego set.

They were very proud.
It was Adam's 10th birthday while we were visiting. 10! Welcome to double digits, nephew.
Silas' youngest cousin, sporting the well worn sweater I made for him.
Bouncing on Grandma's knee:
More goofiness:
Silas loved playing in the "fort" my sister's kids built along the stream in their back yard.

Carefully crossing the bridge:
So much more to post...but that's all for now.

Wisconsin 2011 trip: starting with the end

2011-04-06T21:53:00.000-07:00

I've got a couple hundred pictures to sort through from out trip to Wisconsin. I'll post more soon, but to start us off, here's the last picture taken while in Wisconsin: My sister and I and all of our offspring. I love our goofy kids.

Not quite forgotten

2011-03-23T20:10:00.000-07:00

A couple of picture I forgot to post with past blog entries...

Above: Silas sporting the hat he made in school earlier this month.

Below: These were the little knitted fish I made as prizes for the Pin the Fin on the Shark game at Silas' birthday party.
And there you have it!

Party in the park

2011-03-21T21:17:00.000-07:00

It was windy, and could have been a tad warmer, but... it didn't rain! And, I think, a good time was had by all.

Above: pre-party set-up.

Craft time: Barb made bags for the kids to paint...

They turned out beautifully! Silas' is on the right:

Another big hit was the fishing game. I made origami sea creatures as prizes, and the kids took turns "fishing" for them.

We let them go again and again until all the sea creatures had been claimed. Several of the kids took turns helping Patrick behind the ocean/scenes put the prizes on the hook/paper clip.

After that game, it was time to play pin-the-fin-on-the-shark. It's a good think I knit 3 little fish as prizes because we had a 3-way tie!

Cupcake time! We sang Happy Birthday, but it was too windy to keep the candles lit, so I suggested he pretend to blow them out, and Silas obliged.

Yum!

Towards the end of the party, the sun came out and it warmed up:

What's a party in the park without time spent on the playground?

Some of our party-goers stuck around afterwards, and the party continued. I think Silas and his friend, O must have spent 20+ minutes in those swings.

Silas was so wobbly after finally getting out of his swing, that he walked right into another swing (in mid swing) before we could stop him. Party hard, Silas!

Party prep

2011-03-19T17:54:00.000-07:00

I think we are about 85% ready for Silas' party tomorrow. I baked 5 dozen cupcakes today (3 dozen chocolate, a dozen berry lemon, and a dozen vanilla gluten-free, and all dairy free because Silas is allergic).

The Pin the Fin on the Shark game is almost done to:
We're (almost) ready to party, preschool style :)

Happy 4th Birthday, Silas!

2011-03-16T21:43:00.000-07:00

Are you ready for a lot of birthday pictures? Okay, here goes...

Above (actually the last picture of the day, just before the bed), Silas poses with the sea creatures I made for him, plus Sherman the worm, of course.

Yesterday, just before leaving for school, Silas poses with his class birthday treat:

I took the day off of work, made 2 dozen donuts, and spent the morning in Silas' preschool class playing with the kids and celebrating Silas' birthday with his class.

He got to open one of his presents a day early...Woo-hoo, a hermit crab!

Thanks Patrick! Silas loves playing the chef at his cafe, which he named The Rusty Marshmallow (he says his first restaurant, Stinky Pie Cafe, closed, but The Rusty Marshmallow is doing well, I am told):

Opening presents from Mom and Dad:

Present for mom: My boys met me at work and we went out for lunch:

And Silas got to open his present from Barb:

She made him this fabulous quilt! Wow!

My cuddly birthday boy and me:

But wait, there's more! Or, there will be. He's having a birthday party this Sunday.

It's outside.

In March.

In the Pacific Northwest.

Several nights this week, I woke up and listened to the sound of rain hitting the roof and wondered what we were possibly thinking to plan a park party. We are taking a big gamble but currently the weather reports are somewhat promising. Fingers crossed!

It's become a habit...

2011-03-09T06:51:00.001-08:00

We watched Sound of Music last weekend. Can you tell?

snip/cut

2011-03-06T17:06:00.000-08:00

Every time I cut Silas' hair, I get slightly less awful at it.

This time, I used the following video as a tutorial, which proved fairly useful. He's completely resistant to having his hair cut, and will only consent to have me do it if I "threaten" to make him go to the hairdresser instead.

Unlike the charming and obedient child in the video, Silas refused to be pacified with a DVD, so that idea was thrown out the window. He cried bitterly for a bit and then finally sat there and let me cut it, with little complaint and only a bit of squirming. Sheesh. He seems happy with the outcome though, don't you think?

"Take a picture of me!"

2011-03-05T19:56:00.000-08:00

"Take a picture of me making silly faces!"
"Take a picture of me where my birthday party is going to be."
"Take a picture of me on top of the sea star."
"Take a picture of you and me together."
Aye-aye, Cap'n!

Because we all need a little funny...

2011-02-23T18:42:00.000-08:00

Silas would like you to know that the sunnies they give you at the eye doctor when you have your eyes dilated is the latest thing in spring fashion this year.

Wear them with pride, peeps.

Sherman

2011-02-20T08:31:00.000-08:00

I forgot to include these pics on my Valentine's Day post. I knit this worm as a little valentine for Si. He named him Sherman and has been sleeping with him every night. Sherman also "sits" in bed with us each night while we're reading. Both Sherman and Silas seem to be enjoying the Marvelous Land of Oz (we finished the Wonderful Wizard of Oz a few weeks ago, so now we're on book two of Baum's series). Guess he's a bookworm (groan).
More about this project can be found on my knitting blog.

Valentine

2011-02-17T19:41:00.000-08:00

I'm not inclined to make a big deal over Valentine's Day. When adults are celebrating it, it's a pretty cheesy holiday in my opinion, as well as almost comically commercial. But it doesn't have to be that way, and it is a great kids holiday. Watching Silas get excited about it his first Valentine's party at school, brought back fond memories from my own childhood.
I love that boy, funny faces and all!

Pacific Science Center

2011-02-12T19:40:00.000-08:00

Ah, the Pacific Science Center. Where do I even begin? Giant Caterpillars...

Giant guitars...
...and so much more. I don't think we knew what we were getting ourselves into when we walked through the gates. There's so much to explore that we will have to go back to see it all. But here's a brief run down of what we did see:

Mechanical dinosaurs: Silas was a bit spooked at first, but then warmed up to them. He wasn't afraid to get close to the ones that were listed as plant eaters. The meat eaters, on the other hand, he eyed with suspicion, and kept a ready-to-run stance, just in case.

Space exhibit: Planets, a "holographic" orb, outer space exploration, etc. They have observatory shows as well, but as much as I wanted to, we didn't partake...next time!

Insects: (including our giant caterpillar friend). Lots of different exhibits. A giant mechanical fly, live hissing cockroaches that you can pet (Silas declined, as did I), examples of six different food items made with insects (scrambled eggs with bee larvae anyone?). And also:

The butterfly room:
They must like orange, because Silas was very popular.

And so were bananas:
Backhoe: fun times for boys of all ages.
Also, a scale model of the Puget Sound, naked mole rats, physics exhibits, human body science exhibits (flexibility, sght, endurance, etc.). And more. We didn't even get to the downstairs area, the special exhibit, or the laser show. We did, however, make it to an imax film, and this is monumental, because Silas had never been to a movie in a theater before. We've held back, partly because he's usually only allowed to watch one video per week and we weren't sure how he'd react to the stimulation, etc. And partly, because, we figured, what's the rush when you're not sure if you're kid is going to freak out or decide to talk loudly through the whole thing. But the movie came with our City Pass, and we thought we'd give it a try. So, Silas' first movie was....drum role please....

BUGS -- A 40 minute nature film narrated by Judy Dench. On a ginormous imax screen.

Not a traditional choice for a first movie experience, but he loved it. He sat on the edge of his seat and politely whispered questions to me, when they came up. And he didn't even get upset at the end of the film when one of the "protagonists" (praying mantis) ate the "female lead" (butterfly). So, perhaps there will be other movies in his future.

That sums up the Pacific Science Center experience. We have one more City Pass to use before the end of the month. The zoo it is!

Argosy Tour

2011-02-10T18:11:00.000-08:00

On the same day that we went to the aquarium, we also headed out on a 1 hour harbor tour on an Argosy boat, the Lady Mary.

Since we take the ferry across the Sound whenever we want to go to Seattle, we would never have thought to go on this tour. But I'm glad we had our passes because it was really quite fun. We got up and personal with some California sea lions:
And we went all the way into the port of Seattle, where we got to see a container ship being unloaded with gigantic robotic cranes.

And hey, did you know we import things all thew way from... China?
The Coast Guard icebreakers were admittedly pretty awesome.

You can't beat the skyline.
Last weekend, we went to the Pacific Science Center. The City Pass fun continues, so stay tuned!

Aquarium time

2011-01-29T21:33:00.000-08:00

In our continuing mission to use all of our Seattle City passes before they expire next month, we took Silas to the Seattle Aquarium on MLK Day.

They have both sea otters and river otters (below). The river otters were a hit, in particular. We spent a long time watching them swim and play.
But the absolute favorites were the various sea anemones in the touch tanks. I lost track of how many times Silas requested that we go back to them so that he could gently run his finger through their soft, sticky tentacles.
This truly is a wonderful aquarium. It's no Sea World (which is fine by me). It's goal isn't to train whales to jump through hoops to amuse spectators. While it is wonderfully fun for the kids, it's mission is one of education, conservation, and research. For instance, they are doing a seafood watch program right now, in order to inform the public about sustainability and seafood consumption.
There are tropical tanks featuring the sort of Nemo fish you would expect to see. But most of the aquarium is dedicated to animals that can be found right in the Puget Sound and off the Washington coast.
One particularly massive tank features a scuba diver who discusses the ecosystem of the tank she is swimming in. Silas was a bit freaked out by the enormity of the tank and wouldn't get too close to it. But it made it's mark on him. Since that outing, he frequently pretends to be a scuba diver, slowly swimming through the house.

The aquarium wasn't the only fun to be had on MLK day. I will post pictures from our other adventure as soon as Motivation finds its way back to me again.

Rocket jam and cat cam

2011-01-23T20:49:00.000-08:00

I love my new glow-in-the-dark rocket pajamas. Thanks Grandma and Papa!

The only way for the cats to be (nearly) in contact without a growling, brawling, hissing, swatting cat fight:
I won't say that no progress has been made in their relationship but it's been extremely slow going.

I've got some pictures to post from an outing in Seattle last week. Till then, cheers!

Direct from Wisconsin...

2011-01-16T18:48:00.000-08:00

My dearest friend, Jessi, came to visit us last week, with a husband, a three year old (just 3 days apart in age from Silas) and a 5 month old! That's what I call adventurous! The camera was aimed mainly at the offspring. The boys played so well together and seemed to have fun sharing a room.
We showed them our town, and took them around the island we used to live on. We couldn't miss a trip to Seattle:
Friends, generation 2:
On the ferry:
Hey it looks like your mama knits you sweaters too!
Yup.
The youngest member of the family. Bright-eyed and photogenic at 5 am.
I can only wish the visit could have been longer. Well, perhaps it would also have been nice if the fairy-godmother could have whisked our families off for about 5 hours so that Jessi and I could knit and chat some more :)

It's 5 am in this picture, we've barely gotten any sleep, I have a stomach virus and Jessi has bronchitis, so we are not exactly glamor girls. But I had to post this. Here we are: friends for almost 20 years:
Can't wait to see you in Wisconsin this spring, Jaaayyyy!

EMP/SFM

2011-01-04T19:56:00.000-08:00

EMP art

Pictures from the Experience Music Project / Science Fiction Museum...

First, the sci-fi. Silas didn't know what to make of the robots, and kept complaining that it was too dark. While some of it interested him, I think the problem was that he lacks the reference points the Drew and I have. He has no idea who E.T. is, for instance. Everything he saw was new and a bit perplexing. Why did we care about shirts, for instance (that would be Captain Kirk's yellow v-neck, that's why).
I, on the other hand, am a sci-fi fan, and ate all of this up, especially the Battlestar Galactica exhibit. I couldn't resist letting Drew take my picture in front of Apollo's ship (it was rather dark and we couldn't use flash, so this is as good a shot as we could get):
The part of the museum that Silas (literally) grooved to best was the music lab, where you can play instruments in a sound booth. Here he is, rocking out:
We didn't use this feature, but for beginners, the computer will run through a tutorial and will teach a few cords (same for the keyboard sound booths).
Finally, we hit the Jimmy Hendrix room, where Silas got to listen to a few tunes.
Silas was ready to "go back out into the big city" at that point, and we pretty much rushed through the history of music in Seattle through the 80's and grunge era. Another time, perhaps.

We caught the monorail and headed back to the ferry.

The Olympic Mountains showed us the way home.

It had to be done

2011-01-01T19:59:00.000-08:00

Look ma, I've got a Space Needle growing out of my head!

In the 7+ years we've lived here, we've never once visited the Space Needle. This was a landmark that Silas certainly noticed and took interest in when we were in Seattle recently. So, when Silas' Uncle Jeff and Aunt Amy gave us the very generous gift of Seattle City Passes for Christmas, we were happy to make the Space Needle our first stop.
Thankfully, the weather obliged and we had a brilliantly clear day in which to view the city, Puget Sound, the Cascade mountains to the east, and the Olympics to the west.

Looking west, over the Sound and towards home, with the Olympic Mountain range beyond:

Elliott bay, featuring the ferryboat we take when we venture to Seattle:
And our lovely Mt. Rainier was its usual magical self.
We also went to the EMP/SFM that day. I will post some pictures from there soon.

Christmas, staring Silas

2010-12-27T21:08:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd better get these posted... Above and below: bright-eyed and ready to go! Silas waited patiently for Drew to go let the neighbor's dog out before opening his presents. In order to deal with the suspense, we opened Olive's present, a bouncy ball, which Silas is about to throw in this picture:
And we must not forget the stockings! I am going to have to reinforce the yarn loop on his stocking. Sticking an orange at the bottom each year is taking it's tole.
We played with Busytown all morning (and the next day, and today). Santa made a good choice! (note the lower part of the tree is short on decorations. You can thank the cat for that.)
These next pictures are for Grandma G in particular. This is the new outfit she sent, and yes, Grandma, those are the space-themed rain boots you got for him for Christmas. He loves them!
Lumberjack. All that's missing is the axe:
I hope everyone had a holiday as lovely as ours. On Sunday, we had an open house, which brought just under 30 friends and neighbors through our doorway.

I think I'm ready to swear off sugar for a long, long while.

Eve

2010-12-24T20:51:00.000-08:00

The picture above was taken just before Silas headed off to bed. He was a wee bit wound up tonight. I can't imagine why... (p.s. You win a bonus point if you can spot our cat in the photo)

And, our offerings to Santa. Silas selected herbal tea as the beverage this year and decided fruit would be a proper addition to the standard cookies and carrot sticks:
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"

Silas' festive tour and music box

2010-12-23T22:38:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays!

First school picture

2010-12-21T22:14:00.000-08:00

Since Drew is a photographer and niether of us are big fans of studio photos, we've never had the inclination to take Silas to be photographed professionally. But, now that he's in preschool, the era of school photos has officially begun. So, now that the grandparents and aunts and uncles have received their print copies in the mail, I thought I'd share his very first school photo on the blog. :)

We made a gingerbread house

2010-12-18T14:56:00.000-08:00

This was not only Silas' first gingerbread house, but also the first for Drew and I. Neither of us can remember making one (our parents can correct us if we're wrong). Silas' method for decorating the gingerbread house was to fill every available space with candy.
I told him this wasn't the kind of candy you can actually eat, and he bought it. So, just about every piece we could fit on went on.
And Silas, making one of his characteristic goofy faces in front of our tree:
One more week!

Dear Santa

2010-12-14T19:28:00.000-08:00

I dictated a letter to Santa today on Silas' behalf. I thought I might have to coach him a bit on what to say, but apparently, he's got this letter to Santa thing all figured out. Here are his exact words:

Dear Santa,

I want an orange and a BusyTown. I have been a very good boy. I will give you something. I will give you a glass of milk and some cookies and a muffin. And a big clock. I will send you some decorations for your tree. I will give you candy to decorate a gingerbread house. I will give you some tofu.

I love you!

Silas

Crossing Santa off of our list

2010-12-12T22:06:00.000-08:00

We went to Clear Creek Nursery this weekend so that Silas could see Santa. I don't know what I was thinking. He did enjoy seeing several of Santa's reindeer.

And the curious camel:
He looks so happy, so excited...
But this was as close as we could get to Santa:
See that grin? That's the thankful-to-be-nowhere-near-the-real-Santa-smile. We got all the way to the front of the line before it became perfectly obvious that Silas wasn't going anywhere near Santa, who was accompanied by Mrs. Claus, an elf, and a reindeer.

I don't know why I thought this was something he would enjoy. He LOVES Santa, or more correctly, the idea of Santa. He can't wait for Santa to come. I thought maybe, just maybe... But he doesn't want to sit on his lap or be anywhere near him. Or talk to him. Or make eye contact. Or eat Mrs. Claus' cookies. Or have story-time with him (he's been very specific on this point).

It's not worth it, especially if it's just to get a picture. Next year, we will write a letter.

Tall buildings and flannel shirts

2010-12-11T08:55:00.000-08:00

Yesterday it became blatently obvious that we have not exposed Silas to the city enough. We went over to Seattle to attend a friend's party. It's been ages since both Silas and I went over. As we were driving through the city streets, lit up by Christmas lights, Silas appeared in awe.

"Look at all of the tall buildings. Look at that (a row of trees sparkling with Christmas cheer). It's BEAUTIFUL! Look at all of this stuff. I LOVE the city."

And then finally, came this statement: "There's more than just trees here!"

You would think we were raising him on a homestead half a day's carriage ride from the nearest town. But still, we could bring him to the city a bit more often. It would do us all some good. We promised to go back during the holiday break to Winterfest at City Center (that's the space needle, for all of you non-Washingtonians).

This morning, he was still talking about his trip to the "big" city. "The tall building all look like flannel shirts" he told me. Considering the city in question, this seems pretty fitting.

In the corner of his room

2010-12-06T20:21:00.000-08:00

All of our love, for Olive

2010-11-30T21:21:00.000-08:00

About a month ago, Drew and I were talking about the fact that I was the only female in the house. "Even the cat's a boy" I complained. I told him that as much as I love Sobin, I really missed my girl kitties. About a week later, early in the morning on a Saturday, Drew got up early to let the cat out. Soon after, the cat came back in and joined Silas and me upstairs. Silas, who was just waking up, looked at me sleepily and said "there are two cats in this house."

"No," I replied, "there's just Sobin. Just one cat."
"No!" He insisted. "There are TWO cats here!"

Two minutes later, Drew came upstairs to tell us that there was a tiny cat outside that seemed frightened and wanted desperately to come inside.

So, as Silas predicted, there are now two cats in this house.
When we brought Olive in, she was in a state of panic. It was obvious that she was starving, both for want of food, and for want of human companionship. I could barely bake muffins that morning because she remained right underfoot. Before long though, she had calmed down. She took to us immediately, making herself right at home. The picture below was taken after she'd been with us for less than four hours:
At first, I thought for sure that someone must be missing this affectionate, sweet tempered cat. I put up signs, contacted the human society, talked to neighbors, looked on craigslist, etc. Nothing. Assessing her physical condition and her mannerisms, however, made it increasingly clear that no one was looking for this cat. Sad to say, but most likely, she was dumped. She was underweight and ate constantly for the first week. Her interest in the fridge, as well as her response anytime we opened a can, makes me think that she was fed people food and canned food, but obviously not enough. Her discomfort at being outside leads me to think that she was an inside cat, but despite this, she had a nasty case of fleas, ear mites, and tape worm. As well socialized as she is, it seems that someone may have loved her, but they didn't take care of her. Perhaps, for whatever reason, they just couldn't.

After having her for nearly a week, we declared her ours, took her to the vet, and bestowed upon her the name Olive. The vet estimated that she is between 9 and 12 months old, and not spayed. She doesn't appear to be pregnant (woo-hoo) and isn't in heat (double woo-hoo).

Olive is putting on some weight now, and is parasite free. I have no idea what she faced in the first year of her life, but her biggest problems now are loosing her toy mouse and dealing with the big kitty, who would prefer that she didn't exist.

Please be my friend. PLEASE!

Olive seems determined to make friends with Sobin, who has been perfectly content being an only pet for the last 9 years. These days, Sobin spends most of his free time growling, hissing, and glaring maliciously, even when Olive is not in the immediate vicinity. He's actually handling it better than I expected. After all, no blood has been shed. They can actually be in the same room together, occasionally, without an all out battle ensuing. Olive continues to work on him and break down his resolve. She'll win him over one of these days.

Her favorite spot: looking out the front window, waiting for her buddy Sobin to come home.
I have my girl kitty again. Drew seems to find her endearing, and Silas has another pet he can bond with. Everyday, he hugs her, saying "you are the bestest kitty. I love you!"
We all do.

It's going to be a long winter

2010-11-24T09:47:00.000-08:00

They said this winter would be harsh, and so far, that's shaping up to be true. Our first snow storm (so rare to have ANY snow in November), canceled school for two days and brought western Washington to a standstill. It has been nice to have an extra long holiday week. And of course, Silas was thrilled about the snow.
I'm glad I finished his cabled jacket in time. It seemed to keep him toasty through the storm. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for our house. As is so common here, we lost power. Walking around town yesterday, listening to the hum of generators and smelling wood smoke, it was pretty apparent: No one had power. Most of the county seemed to be out, and it is nearly miraculous that we got ours back after only 24 hours.
Thanks to our friends, we spent the day in their toasty house, basking in the heat from their wood stove. Sobin, who has yet to show any fondness for our new kitty, has been hanging out in the garage a lot.
Yesterday, we let them in the house together, unattended, for the first time, because I didn't want him out in the bitter cold. Since we were gone most of the day, they had no choice but to work it out without our interference (or Silas doing his Sobin imitation, growling like a tiger and further provoking the already provoked big kitty). While Sobin still does little more than growl, hiss, and mope, he doesn't seem to want to physically confront her. Since he is three times her size, this is a good thing, I think.

I meant to post more about Olive, and I will soon. The snow storm, power outage, and preparing to host Thanksgiving are keeping us pretty busy. More later...

And have a Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Safe travels.

Introducing...Olive

2010-11-20T08:24:00.000-08:00

I have been talking about this on facebook, but for my dear blog readers who are not also my fb friends, I have some news: Our family grew by one furry member this week. Last Saturday, we accidentally acquired another cat. I will share Olive's story, and some more pictures, later this weekend.

My future frat boy?

2010-11-14T18:28:00.000-08:00

Me: Silas, what sort of job do you want to do... What do you want to be when you grow up?

Silas: I want to be a big, big, party guy.

Great. :)

Port Townsend, again

2010-11-11T19:41:00.000-08:00

Nothing earth-shattering to report at this time. We're doing lots of house projects and going through the daily routine. Here's a couple of pictures I never got around to posting from a trip up to Port Townsend about a month ago.

Searching for treasures on the beach:
Better Living Through Coffee: Way more than coffee. Locavore's dream. Reason enough to drive the hour up to PT:

Is that a smile or a grimace? Actually, it's the g-force he's getting hit with as he takes his rocket into outer space (he insisted I take a picture of the "launch").
Till next time...

Happy Halloween 2010!

2010-10-31T20:10:00.000-07:00

Well, the day has finally come and gone. It was long, but we loved it. For the first time ever, we went up to Port Gamble to trick-or-treat. It did not disappoint: Way smaller and low key then the crowds on Bainbridge. Each business offered something different: games, "fishing" for prizes, etc. All in a lovely, scenic town. The top two pictures were taken there.
After Port Gamble, we headed for our Midwife's house. Each year she hosts a reunion open to all of the families whose babies she helped birth. We've never gone before, but now think we'd like to make it part of our Halloween routine. It was wonderful to see her and the house that she built, which is only a few miles from the town we live in.

After an all too brief time there, we headed to Bainbridge to drop Drew at the ferry, meet up with Patrick and do some more trick-or-treating. Although I had my camera with me, I stopped taking pictures around this time. I think we were all a little burnt out by this point. We had promised Silas that we'd take him to Bainbridge, so we had to follow through. I think next year we'll skip it. It's become too crowded and hectic. Still enjoyable to see all of the kids dressed up, but not at all fun to push a shy three year old through the masses.

Back at home, Patrick and I took Silas for a brief walk around the neighborhood and then I settled in and passed out a bit of candy to trick-or-treaters. After picking out a few pieces of candy, he set the rest on a table in his bedroom to await the candy fairy, who will take away his candy and leave a present.

The last two shots are from Thursday (costume day at preschool):
The shell that Drew made...Nice, huh?
Did you have a fun Halloween? I hope so!

Peek-a-BOO!

2010-10-31T07:36:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!
I'll post pictures from the day sometime soon...

The jack-o-lantern post

2010-10-29T18:38:00.000-07:00

We finally carved our pumpkins!
Silas says: they are spooky... but funny spooky, not scary spooky.
I think he's right :)
Silas got to test drive his Halloween costume at preschool yesterday. The shell that Drew made looks fabulous. I took pictures and am so tempted to post them, but I think I'll wait until Sunday.

Have a happy spooky Halloween weekend!

The pumpkin post

2010-10-21T19:29:00.000-07:00

Alas, the long awaited pumpkin post. The two pumpkins above are the fruits of our labor; our very own home-grown beauties. We'll come back to them. First, let's go back in time to the end of September. Our local farmers' market had a fall festival. The kids in our community all had fun painting and decorating pumpkins. Silas decided to go for a textured look and applied massive glops of paint. It's been almost a month and the thing is still not dry. And our porch, home to our little pumpkin masterpiece, has a multi-colored ring of craft paint on it.
Jump forward a few weeks: Silas and I decided it was time to harvest our pumpkins.
Proud of his pumpkin:
Firefighter Pumpkin, ready to put out any Halloween related fires:
And taking their rightful place next to the painted pumpkin:
We hope to carve them this weekend...
But that's not all! One more pumpkin joined our trio. Silas had his first school field trip...to the pumpkin patch. I went along, and I've gotta tell you, at first I thought it was going to be a disaster. He didn't like the 120 year old barn we stared off in (that's it in the background of the next picture). None of the other kids seemed to notice how spooky it was, but Silas sure did. He refused to jump in the hay with the other children, and I truly thought the field trip was going to be a bust.

But, I finally got him to detach from me long enough for him to run through the hay bale maze.
By the time the group went through the flower trails and the corn maze, he walked along with the other kids and more or less forgot about his parents' existence (for a good 5 minutes anyways).
He picked out a pumpkin,
And the school trip ended with the quintessential class shot. Awe.
That's about it, for now. I hope there are lots of pumpkins in your life too.

Leaf walk

2010-10-17T19:44:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, Silas' class went on a leaf walk, then put all the leaves up in the windows. The idea must have struck him as a good one because this evening, he asked us to go on a leaf walk with him. The above picture shows the results of that walk. We have a pretty long fall here; plenty of time to add to our leaf collection.

I'm still working on putting together a pumpkin post. It will happen. Soon.

A house for Hermit Crab

2010-10-13T21:58:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm not keeping the identity of my son's Halloween persona a secret this year. He quite firmly decided several months ago that he wanted to be a hermit crab. Actually, he started out by saying he wanted to be a ghost hermit crab monster, but I think we talked him down to just plain old hermit crab.
Have you ever tried to make a hermit crab outfit before. No? Really? Well, neither have too many other people apparently. I basically went out on my own here, designing first the mitts and then the hat.
He likes to pretend to pinch things with his mitts. He will grab on to my hand, and gently press down, and then say "See, I'm a nice crab."
We are still searching for the perfect house (i.e. shell) for this Hermit Crab. I'm leaving that mainly up to Drew to take care of. We have some ideas, and some time. Hopefully it will all come together by the end of the month.

If it's autumn and you love it...

2010-10-10T15:15:00.000-07:00

This is my favorite time of year: harvest festivals, crisp cool days, falling leaves, pumpkins, Halloween. We are enjoying all of the above here at Planet Silas. Silas got to ride a pony at the Johnson Farm Harvest festival. He rode the land slide, too, just like last year:
Yesterday, we went to the Fire Station's pancake breakfast, skipped the pancakes, and headed straight for the line to ride on the fire trucks. Unlike last year, Silas changed his mind about 10 minutes in and decided there was no way he was going to ride that truck. He still got a chance to show off his firefighter jacket, however.
On one of our last truly warm days, we had a picnic supper with friends along the Hood Canal.
It was lovely:
I'm planning an Autumn-themed week here on the blog. We've got pumpkins, pumpkins and more pumkins as well as a sneak peak at Silas' Halloween costume. Stay tuned!

Preschool: the continuing saga

2010-10-05T19:57:00.000-07:00

We are now in week three of preschool, but let us backtrack to week two. Last Tuesday morning, Silas told his dad that, and I quote "I'm just not interested in preschool." He told his teacher the same thing, several times. When I question him about this, he says that there are no interesting toys to play with there, but will also say that the school bus toys they have are his favorite. When I ask him what he likes to do there, he'll say "nothing" but when I ask him if he had fun doing art he'll say that art was fun. When I ask him if he liked his snack he will answer in the affirmative, and so on. He also talks about several of the kids in his class constantly and I have no clue how much of what he says is real and how much is made up, but at least he's showing an interest in the other children.

On the downside, the teacher mentioned that he seemed sad the whole time. That was a particularly rough day, as was Thursday. On Thursday, he cried at home before leaving for preschool, he cried all the way there, and he cried when being dropped off.

It's the anticipation that's the hardest for him to deal with. When all of this was brand new, he'd wake up and ask if he had to go to preschool that day. I'd say no, and then the subject was dropped. Now, he wants to know days in advance when he will have to go to school so that he can gauge how nervous he should be that day. And he asks over and over again.
Do I have to go to preschool tomorrow?
No.
Do I have to go to preschool after tomorrow (meaning the day after tomorrow).
No.
After that?
And so on. Last week on one of his school days, he woke us up at 4 am to tell us that he didn't want to go to preschool. He reiterated this statement countless times, our patience disintegrating with every repetition.

We have tried many different tactics to ease his separation anxiety. I knit him a little bracelet, which he keeps in his pocket so that it doesn't get lost. I told him that I knit all of my love for him into it and that if he keeps it close, my love will be with him as well. I've read him books about starting school, about dealing with separation anxiety, etc. We got him a little pocket picture album and printed pictures of everyone he cares about, so that he can keep that with him. We try to be very positive. I tell him daily that I think he's a smart, kind, and brave kid.

"Not so brave, " he'll say.
"Brave," I'll respond " because being brave means doing something, even if you're afraid to do it."

We encourage him to interact with the kids and the adults in the classroom. Despite his fears, he did select some shells from the beach last week and brought them in to show Teacher Debbie:
That was week two. We are now in week three: one day down, one to go. Today, and I say this with cautious optimism, was a bit better. He cried, but not so much. I had a long discussion with him about his day when I got home from work. We talked about what he did at preschool (painted a leaf, played outside, played train tracks, etc.) and then I asked him if he felt sad when his daddy left him there.
"Yes," he replied, "I felt sad. But then I felt better." I gave him a big hug and told him I was proud of him and how very brave he was. This time, he did not disagree.

Golden

2010-09-26T22:03:00.000-07:00

Our twelve foot tall sunflower, and it's slightly shorter neighbors, finally decided to open a week or so ago. The bees are happy about it, and so are we, but they took their merry time. I seriously thought we'd have a hard frost before they bloomed.

And here's my little preschooler, climbing in our lilac tree (or magic beanstalk, as Silas calls it).
So, there's a bit of sunshine for you to start your week off with :)

The big P-S

2010-09-22T19:46:00.000-07:00

My baby started preschool this week. Here he is, above, just before we left home (I took off of work, naturally, cuz there was no way I was going to miss this moment), and here my boys are on the steps to the school. Silas loves their big flag.
We actually didn't expect him to start school this week. He was on a waiting list and I didn't think there would be an opening till about mid-year or so. But on Sunday I got the call. They had an opening for Silas in the Woodpeckers class (his age group), effective immediately (this is the first full week of school). On Monday afternoon, we filled out a bunch of forms, signed a check, and most importantly, met his teacher. I can't say enough about her. I knew right away that she would be patient and caring with Silas. Separation anxiety is a big deal for us. Silas is used to being with us ALL of the time. If not us, then with Patrick or his grandparents. We've never had him in daycare, never left him with people he didn't know well. Although his class is only two hours long, we knew he would freak out when we didn't stay with him.

On Tuesday, we dropped him off, stayed a bit, just like the other parents were, and then attempted to leave. He clung to us and cried. His teacher picked him up and held him and told him he could wave to us from the window. Seeing his sad little face through that window was so very hard for me. I went back to the car and balled. But we did it. We left him in the care of competent adults and then walked to a nearby cafe and and actully had a lovely child-free time. When we returned, we could see from the road that the class was outside on the playground and we searched for Silas. At first, we couldn't see him (we were a good 50 feet away) and I had this fear that he was inside, too traumatized to play. Finally Drew spotted him: "he's there, by the slide. He's having fun." Relief!

At the end of the day, the kids have music time and the parents gather outside in the hallway. The teacher says goodbye to each child individually and they come out one by one. When he saw us, his reaction was, well, nonchalant. Oh, you're back. Okay then.

The teacher said he did very well. He was upset for less than 10 minutes and then was fine. We'll see how he does tomorrow.

Just a few things about the preschool we chose. It's a cooperative school, meaning it's a non-profit and the parents are expected to participate periodically in the classroom as well as be on committees and attend parent classes. Drew will be doing a lot of that as he is the stay-at-home parent, but I will be involved however I can be. I was pleased to see just as many dads as moms dropping off and picking up their children. Times have changed in that regard.

This year, he'll be attending two mornings a week. If we keep him in this school, he'll attend four afternoons a week next year. For now, the two mornings a week is the perfect amount. The curriculum is play-based rather than academic, and that was perhaps one of the most important factors for us when choosing a school. They explore the senses a great deal. For instance, they used paints with various scents, like rosemary and lavender, added to them. The children could then go out and find the plants in the garden with those smells.

To give you an idea of their philosophy, I will end with an excerpt from the Coop's webpage (for security reasons, I won't be publishing the name of his preschool or linking to their webpage, I will simply call his school the Coop):

Research in the area of early childhood education indicates that young children learn best through play. In the process of exploring and manipulating materials in their environment, they gain an understanding of their world. Programs that provide a wide variety of experiences appealing to all of their senses, appropriate to their age and developmental level, are the most valuable. Young children are natural learners. Their curiosity and desire to make sense of their world lead to spontaneous, self-directed learning.

It is for these reasons that a large part of our school day is devoted to free play. We plan experiences to involve the child's senses of sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell. The more fully a child explores, senses and interacts with real objects, the more meaningful and long-lasting this learning will be. Our school is committed to developing the whole child - physically, emotionally, socially and intellectually - by allowing space in which each child can explore the environment, interact with peers and adults, and have the opportunity to experiment with materials not readily available at home.

We believe that each parent and child is unique and deserves to be treated with kindness and respect. We realize that the Coop is each one of us individually and all of us collectively. May we learn together, support each other, and may our family lives be enriched from the experience.

a few more

2010-09-19T16:04:00.000-07:00

A few more picture's from Grandma G's visit...

At the Poulsbo waterfront.
And here's one for the blooper reel: My silly little bear.
We have something exciting happening this week. I will keep you in suspense for now and will post about it later in the week.

Grandma G's visit

2010-09-16T20:57:00.000-07:00

Aren't they a photogenic pair?

Grandma G and Merlin came for a visit last week.
Merlin enjoyed playing with Silas:
It looks like Silas thoroughly enjoyed himself!
Two different pic, two different cafes:

Outside of the Suquamish Museum:
It was a whirlwind visit and Grandma G was gone way too fast. We hope she makes it out to the West coast again soon!

Say "Cheese!"

2010-09-13T20:49:00.000-07:00

I have lots of pictures to post, including some from Grandma G's visit. So, stay tuned...

Bloedel Reserve

2010-09-06T14:23:00.000-07:00

While my parents were here, we went to Bloedel Reserve, a beautiful 150 acre preserve and garden that we hadn't visited in about 5 years.

Silas enjoyed:

Walking with his grandparents.
Sitting in front of the big house, looking out over Sound, and watching the birds soar.
And exploring the forest.
We saw a big banana slug.
and many other beautiful things.

The rock garden adjacent to the Japanese garden is one of Drew's favorite areas.
and the moss garden is mine.
If you'd like to see more pictures from Bloedel, and from the rest of my parents' visit, you can see some on their blog (scroll down for the pictures).

Garden Prelude

2010-08-30T16:40:00.000-07:00

With my slug's pace in posting, it's almost impossible to show you an up-to-the-moment view of the garden. Will you settle for some within-the-last-couple-of-weeks pics? First up, Silas peers out from behind the beans. I just made a been and tomato dish with a few pounds of them yesterday.

Below: Yes, we will have a couple of pumpkins this October!

This is Silas' magic beanstalk. He is pointing up to the clouds in anticipation of how high he expects it to grow.

Broccoli:

This is the as-of-yet unknown flower that cropped up just about everywhere. It looks pretty in this picture, but trust me: it's not that great. The flowers are only open for a few hours in the morning. The rest of the day, it just looks kind of... blah. I think it might have to find it's way out of my garden, though I expect I will never be totally rid of it.
Soon, I will post more pictures of another much different garden that we visited with my parents, who are visiting from Wisconsin. Till then...

New header

2010-08-23T21:27:00.000-07:00

For those of you who read the blog through FaceBook and don't actually see the blog itself, this is the blog header I've used since last fall:

And here's my new one:

I love love love the old picture of my boy with his curly blond locks, but it was about time for an update.

Hike to the light house!

2010-08-21T09:45:00.000-07:00

There we are: A happy little family enjoying the view from the top of the Dungeness Spit lighthouse. We don't look a bit frazzled, over-heated or exhausted.
Well, maybe a bit. It's actually a hike of over 5 miles to get from the mainland out to the end of the spit, where the lighthouse sits. Here's a view from the mainland:
Can you see that tiny speck way out on the horizon, just to the left of the trees? Probably not, but that little speck was our destination.
As we started out, we thought, like all the other times we'd come to the Spit, that we'd just walk a ways and then turn back. After all, it was only mid-morning and already verging on intensely hot. But as we got a mile or so away from shore, a breeze picked up and it became bearable. By the time we stopped to eat lunch, we were far enough along that there was no sense in turning back, and we decided to go the whole way.
We made a deal with Silas that if he walked all the way to the lighthouse, Drew would carry him back.
We were all very proud of ourselves when we beheld this sight:
Still a 10+ mile hike with no shade did leave it's mark, although Silas was magically spared sunburn. Poor Drew was sore for days after carrying our 35 pound son on his back for 5 miles. But it was all worth it.

The Spit is a national wildlife refuge, particularly for birds. Along with a few seals, we saw...
A Bald Eagle...
a Peregrine Falcon (much bigger than an eagle, which I wasn't expecting)...
And a lone Brant.

Silas has spent the past week talking about lighthouses, and this morning, we built one out of blocks. This hike definitely left an impression on all of us :)

The Olympic Mountains behind you, the Canadian coastal range in front and water all around...If you are ever out on the Olympic Peninsula, DO NOT miss Dungeness Spit. Even if you don't go all the way out to the lighthouse, this is still one of the most gorgeous places you could ever find yourself.

Merymere Falls

2010-08-14T19:43:00.000-07:00

...a few pictures from last week's adventure: Marymere Falls, near Lake Crescent.
Checking out the river...
...and crossing the old, narrow log bridges.
Goofing around on the river bank...
...and hanging out on moss-covered boulders.
That was last week's adventure. This week's: the Dungeness spit, where we will hopefully catch a breeze off of the water and have break from the heat.

Until next time...

Hiatus

2010-08-09T19:38:00.000-07:00

I'm taking a bit of a hiatus...again. No Book of the Month this month, and expect infrequent postings...We are minimizing our computer usage in favor of, well, everything else.

Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Edmonds / the ferry

2010-07-31T20:02:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday was my final day of vacation and we decided to spend it out and about. Silas loves taking the ferry, so we took the Kingston/Edmonds run and spent the day walking around Edmonds.
We had some time to kill while waiting for the return boat, but quite conveniently, there is a park adjacent to the ferry terminal, complete with a large sandy beach, and a cast iron canoe.
It was warm enough to ride on deck on the way back. Silas described to us what waves are like (above) and was his usual hug-filled self.
Even though I'm back at work, we are still doing plenty of fun summer things. Today we went to the Kitsap Arts and Crafts Fair and we saw a reptile show featuring all kinds of cool critters. Silas got to touch two geckos, a 5' long snake, a baby alligator, and his favorite, a kimono dragon with two tails (the only known one of it's kind in the world).

Hope your summer has been a lot of fun too!

Big mountain, little hiker

2010-07-26T20:19:00.000-07:00

Last week, we took Silas on his biggest hike to date: The Hurricane Hill Hike in the Olympics.
We brought the backpack carrier but didn't end up needing it. Our little mountain man walked the ENTIRE 6 plus miles, and perhaps not unexpectedly, managed the 1,700 feet elevation gain better than many of the adults we encountered on the trail.

On the way back down the mountain, we ran into many exhausted people who asked if he walked the whole way. "Yes" I said, "and if our 3 year-old can do it, so can you!"
We saw a lot of wildlife, including an overabundance of deer. They were everywhere! Look I spy one now:
And there's another:
This little chipmunk was so tame, she'd run across our hands and nibble our fingers. Even so, we resisted the temptation to drop a few bits of granola bar her way.
I recon that Silas hasn't seen snow since we were in Wisconsin in February of 09, so getting to touch some of the permanent snow was a big deal for him:
Look son, over yonder...
Now that Silas has completed this adventure, we are hoping to get a few more hikes in before fall, including one along the coast.

Si's room, phase 1, Complete!

2010-07-24T10:12:00.000-07:00

Silas' room received a make-over this past week. In addition to taking out the old baseboard heater and doing some electrical work, Drew painted it and I rearranged everything.
I can't tell you how much better it feels in there. It's just the way I imagined his room to be :)
Silas really seems to like it too:
As a comparison, here's a shot of the room prior to painting: The same drab color the whole interior of the house was painted when we bought the house, which we are painting over room by room.
Phase 2 will be putting new flooring in his room.

We painted the bathroom as well, and I suppose I will post pictures of that at some point too.
We also went to the mountains a few days ago so expect to see some pictures from that day as well.

Lookin' up

2010-07-21T09:18:00.000-07:00

Our sunflowers are already taller than Silas. We can't wait for them to bloom!
Also, the plants all around the sunflowers are an as of yet unidentified perennial that came up in late May. If anyone knows what it is, let me know! Here's a close-up:
If it flowers, it may be easier to identify and I might just fall in love with it. If it doesn't flower, I'll do my best to remove it. It's cropping up everywhere and seems to spread way-too easily.

Here's another one that was a mystery plant until I found a picture of it in a book on perennials, just yesterday:
It's acanthus, or bear's britches. Another interesting but fast spreading plant that will have to be kept in check.

And, that's your garden update for the day :)

In the works

2010-07-19T22:52:00.000-07:00

Silas is very excited because we are painting his room this week. As a result, our dining room (minus a table) has become a temporary playroom...
I will share a few before and after pics of his room, once it's completed.