May '10 Book of the Month

Introducing the Planet Silas May '10 Book of the Month:

The Curious Garden By Peter Brown.

A little boy named Liam discovers a hidden garden and with careful tending spreads color throughout the gray city.

What a wonderful book to read in order to celebrate spring. I'm truly in love with this book and knew it had to be a BOTM (thanks for this gift, LeClairs!). The illustrations are wonderful, as is the story. Whenever we read this story, I point out to Silas that one little child is capable of producing such remarkable change. Liam begins this story in a city with no trees, plants, or flowers. But when he discovers a few sorry plants languishing on an abandoned railroad track, he makes a choice: to nurture them rather than let them die.

With just a bit of care, the garden takes over, exploring the railroad track throughout the city. Eventually, the garden grows beyond the track, onto rooftops, between buildings...anywhere it can. But what's more remarkable than the garden itself is that Liam's one small act is contagious. As the garden grows, so do other people's desires to help it spread and flourish. Before you know it, every available space is bursting with life, and the people, no longer prisoners in their gray city, are transformed along with their city. All because of one little boy.

When Silas helps me plant seeds and work the soil, I think of this book and hope that Liam's choice to to good in the world will be his choice as well.

I hope your gardens are beginning to burst forth with life. Happy Spring!

Spring showers for our egg hunt

When I looked outside this morning and saw the lush, drenched, green landscape, I was grateful that we'd only dyed 5 eggs yesterday. The egg hunt was short and sweet. Silas caught on after I showed him where the first egg was hidden. After he'd found the last egg, he said "find more eggs!" We pacified him by retiring to our warm dry house to eat some hot crossed sticky buns. Yum!

We hope you enjoyed some spring cheer today!

Big swing on the old oak tree

Our little boy is growing up way too quickly. This swing, which is on the big Garry Oak outside our front door, is a favorite with the neighborhood kids. A few months ago, Silas would not have been able to safely sit on this swing by himself. It's very wobbly. But look at him now!

I'm FINE, Mommy... just swing me again!

That's better.

I was surprised by how high I was able to swing him without feeling like he was going to fall off at all. And of course, the refrain "again again, please!" was heard countless times. This swing promises endless hours of fun this summer (and fall, and winter and spring...)
What else have we been up to? I took some time off last week (spring break for the school district I work for). While I was off, we hung out, took walks, went to the local children's museum, had a play-date... And Silas watched me knit (but really, that's everyday :). Just happy domestic stuff to fill the spring days. Also, we are going to be doing more vegetable gardening this summer, including quite a bit of container gardening on our deck. So we started that whole process. I will devote another post to gardening later on.

This weekend, we hope to work outside some more, attend a baby shower, and have an Easter egg hunt for Silas. Busy busy busy!

Pure bliss

I can't believe it, but my baby is now big enough to ride on the big swing hanging from our oak tree. Drew took a bunch of pictures of us playing on the swing this past weekend. I'm still sorting through them all and will post more images later, plus update you on our family's goings on, as of late, as soon as I have a bit of time.