Because we all need a little funny...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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.