Romeo and Juliet

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.

Anna Smith Children's Garden

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...

Cap'n Red Gnome

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!)

It's become a habit...

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

Pants are the new ears

Just a funny video to share today...I am planning on posting about progress in the garden soon and yes, there will be house project updates as well. For now, at least this video gives you a peak at the living room (we love our cork floors!), such as it is at the moment :)

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.

The friendly ghost

"I'm a ghost" Silas exclaimed when he put on his dad's sweater. Given the outrageously long arms, I would have gone with Inspector Gadget, but these kids today, they just don't get 1980's TV references. So, a ghost it is. Happy haunting, Silas.

Work is play, play is work

Silas has a construction scene book with reusable stickers depicting trucks, machines, and construction workers. Silas asked me about one sticker in particular showing a manhole with a worker peaking his head out. I explained to him that the worker was going to fix something underneath the ground. Ever since then, he's been fascinated with the idea of holes leading to underground zones.

A few days ago, he asked me to "be the cherry picker." This is a common request. He usually asks us to be the cherry picker when he wants us to pick him up and deposit him someplace higher up. In this case, however, he wanted me to lower him down the manhole, which, apparently, is our laundry basket's new identity. Once he was in the manhole, he said he was "a worker man" and proceeded to fix things. After a long day's work, he called over the cherry picker to lift him out of the manhole.

Job well done, worker man.

Be kind to stuffed animals

(Please ignore the mess of unfolded clothes on top of the dresser.)

20 months old --a boy and his doll

Our big guy is 20 months old today. Only 4 more months till his 2nd birthday... I've wanted to make Silas a simple baby doll ever since he was born. He seemed to be gravitating towards toys like cars and balls and I kept putting the project off. A few things have occurred recently that made me get a move-on on the doll-making front. One thing he started to do was lay a diaper out on the bed (where we change him) and line up a few of his stuffed animals for diaper changes, saying "diapa, diapa." He likes to watch me put diapers on his bear, for instance. He is also very loving with his stuffed toys, and will hold them to him and pat them lovingly.
The event that finally led me to break out the crochet hook, however, took place at a store downtown. I had taken Silas to the toy isle and was intent on buying him a small wooden car. He loved the cars, of course, but then his eyes caught site of a cheap little baby doll. He picked her up and did not want to put her down. He seemed utterly transfixed. So, I promised him that I'd make him a doll. Thus, Silas' dolly was born.
He picked up the word "dolly" right away and does seem to like her. Like many other objects (remote controls, cars, knitting needles), he often holds her up to his ear and pretends she's a phone, saying "hi. mom. mom. mom. bye." He will hug her, and line her up for diaper changes. But, let's be frank: his favorite thing to do is to pull her by her hair and stretch her head as far as he can. Thankfully, I crocheted her in one piece, so it's unlikely that he'll actually be able to pull her head off.
Dolly will most likely have a complete wardrobe of handknit clothes someday. Not sure if Silas will like to change her clothes, but I will :)

Ridin' in my car car

At the moment, "car" is indisputably Si's favorite word. Silas has also begun a great deal of imaginative play and the idea of driving a car is often a part of this play. For a while now, Silas has been setting his crocodile walker on it's back and then will crouch behind it, spinning the wheels, saying "car", and pretending to drive. One day, quite recently, He took the cushion off of the ottoman, sat on top of it and scooted across it while patting it and saying "car, car" over and over again. This has been a daily activity ever since. Normally, he climbs up on one end, scoots across, and dismounts on the other side. This is repeated for quite a number of times before he moves on to a new activity. Not surprisingly, he quite enjoys the song Car Car by Donavan, which Drew downloaded for him.

The outside room

Oh, hello there, Planet Silas readers! How are you? My name is Silas and I will be your guest blogger today.

How is it that these O's taste so much better simply because I am eating them outside? I do not know. I do know that I enjoy eating on the deck. It's really a lot of fun. In fact, the deck is my new favorite room!

But wait...there's more...
I have set my sites on becoming an expert carpenter. The deck is a perfect training ground.

Shannon taught me how to hammer things (my parents are so proud, even though they look a little nervous). I learned how to measure the railings from Daddy and have been practicing a lot.
See the slats that Daddy and Shannon added so that I can't fall through the side of the deck? That was thoughtful of them. It seems the big people around here are very keen on keeping me safe.

A baby's work is never done. Better get back to measuring these posts!
You wouldn't know it from these pictures, which contain only yours truly, but my Grandma and Papa are in town visiting! In fact, in the picture below, I'm staring right at them. And guess what? They both have cameras!
Anyways, I'm sure my mom will get around to posting some pictures of the grandfolks in a few days. Until then, you'll have to settle for me, me, and more me :)

Potty Party

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

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

Big Shoes to Fill

Hi Silas! Oh, what's that you've got there?
Why, it's mommy's shoes. Wow, what a big boy you are becoming!
And I see you like daddy's slippers as well.

Yep, that's our boy. He can't get enough of shoes. He carries them around the house, which means they often go missing. Also, whenever I say "let's go outside, Silas," he'll find my shoes (if he can remember where he put them) and bring them to me. Bringing me my shoes, unprompted, is also his way of telling me he wants to go outside. He tries to put his Crocs on by himself, but it's still a little difficult. Still, he makes the attempt. And on a related front, he's trying to put pants on as well. He can get one leg on, but that's about the extent of it, at present. It's a start!