November 08 Book of the Month

Introducing Planet Silas' November 08 book of the month:

Engine, Engine, Number Nine by Stephanie Calmenson ; illustrated by Paul Meisel.

Okay, two things to mention before I describe the book. First, I'm really late with this, as I normally try to publish the book of the month post on the 1st day of the month. With Halloween and the election, I pushed it back. Second, I don't have a bunch of pictures of Silas reading the book. I mean, do you really need to see pictures of him reading books every month? It's a little boring, right? And to be honest, I was getting tired of doing a kid-with-book-in-hand photo shoot every month. It's not that easy to get good shot when he's got his head in a book. So, from now on, unless there happens to be a nice picture of him looking at a book, or there's some other reason to post such pictures, the book of the month post will feature book cover images and a write-up of story in question and that's that.

So, let's get to it! This is a book that I used to read to Silas in the olden days when the worst thing he could do to a book was drool on it. In other words, we both really seemed to like this book when I could sit there and read it to him and there was little interaction on his part. At some point, it got shelved and forgotten about. Not too long ago, Silas brought it down and asked me to read it to him. "I remember that book, we loved that book" I said. I doubt Silas actively recalled it, but regardless, after just one or two readings, this became a frequent request. It's also the sort of book wherein after completing one reading, Silas shoves it in my face yelling "Mom, mom" until I agree to read it again (several more times).

Now, to the book itself. This is the story of a train picking up a myriad of passengers, from Bess and her pet pig, to Jake and his prize cow, to an entire marching band. They're all on their way to a county fair and it's the engine's mission to get them there on time. I don't know why both Silas and I love this book so much. Certainly, it's got a nice rhythm and there are lots of characters to follow. It's also humorous and sweet and, speaking as someone who went to the state fair every year, somewhat nostalgic. But there's something more to it that I can't quite place my finger on, even though I should be able to for the purposes of writing this review. Well, it's enough that we enjoy reading it, and I don't sigh and say "not that one again" when he asks me to read it for the hundredth time.

Sorry to say, but there's no honorable mention this month. Maybe I'll get back into the swing of it next month. Stay tuned...

A New Day

I woke up this morning feeling more hopeful for Silas' future than I ever have before. I have great hope now that we can begin to overcome some of the major obstacles we face and create a brighter future for our children. Because of the choice our country made, the world has given us a second chance and we won't take it for granted this time.

"Yes we can" because yesterday, we did.

Halloween '08: Pumpkin Sprite!

Here's our little pumpkin sprite!
It took over a month to make his costume, but I think it was a success. I was worried at first because he wasn't too fond of wearing the hat. I lined it with flannel and then he agreed to wear it. In fact, he wore it for 4 hours without trying to take it off once!

In addition to the felted pumpkin hat and knit pants, I made a simple crocheted quiver for him to carry a stalk of Chinese lanterns on his back.

Here he is, running to the car so that we can go trick-or-treating downtown.
Being only 19 months old, Silas doesn't eat candy and we didn't want the temptation of having too much of it in the house, so while we did collect some, we largely wanted Silas to give something away instead. Seeing as though he was a pumpkin sprite, I got a bunch of tiny pumpkins for him to pass out. Our first stop was Cafe Trios where Silas gave away his first pumpkin of the evening to his favorite barista (apparently, in exchange for her phone, which he really did not want to give back).
Then, we hit Winslow Way (our main street), which was closed to traffic for trick-or-treat.
We saw lots of great costumes, and as the rain had stopped, there ended up being tons of people.
Here's our friend Carmen, with baby Ozma, dressed as a bat. So cute!

A good shot detailing the back of his costume:
Silas loves this fountain, which is right outside my favorite store, Churchmouse Yarns and Teas.
After trick-or-treat, we made one last stop at Shannon and Patrick's house. Silas gave away his last 2 pumpkins and posed for a few more pictures before calling it a night.
What a great Halloween! And if the pictures weren't enough, here's a short video too. Remember that if you click on the video and go to Youtube, you can choose to watch it in high quality.


We hope you all had a fun Halloween!

Halloween Preparedness Checklist

Trip to the pumpkin patch. check.
Turning a pumpkins into a jack-o-lantern. check.
Jack-o-lantern checklist added note: It was a family effort. Drew scooped out the stringy stuff and seeds and then roasted the seeds. I did the oh-so-elegant carving, and Silas held the top for us so that it wouldn't get lost and also threw pieces of discarded pumpkin bits off of the deck.Back to the checklist:
Read "scary" stories, including "The spooky old tree" which grandma and pa sent. check.

Wear the cute Halloween pajamas that grandma G sent. check.
And finally,
Put the finishing touches on Si's costume. che--er, well, almost check. Let's just say, it will be ready to go by trick-or-treat time on Friday afternoon. We are ready for Halloween and can't wait!

Halloween Costume Sneak-Peek

I don't want to totally give Si's Halloween costume away, and I am actually still working on some of the accessories. I thought I'd let you have a sneak-peek, however. So, here's a partial view of the hat... stay tuned for more pictures on Halloween.

On the trail, and the bounty of October

The picture above shows the trail that's right across the street from our house. We walk on it often, and will be enjoying the big leaf maples as they begin to change color. Silas is always looking for mushrooms, which are becoming numerous as fall progresses.

Amazingly, we still have some strawberries growing in our patch. Silas always likes to stop to look for ripe ones, which are increasingly hard to find. With shorter, cooler days, the berries take much longer to ripen, and often get eaten by insects in the interim. We still manage to find a few! There are quite a number of huckleberries to be found near us as well, and our hard fruits like Asian pears and quinces, did quite nicely for us this year. So, even though we are getting on towards the end of October we are still managing to eat a few things from the garden.

19 Months Old

Silas is 19 months old, as of yesterday...
All of these pictures were taken during a little photo shoot I did last weekend.

Believe it or not, there are a few more pictures and details of the sweater/hat set that I knit, which you can see here.
Clearly, he's not afraid of the sheep anymore:
He's truly a toddler, but still my little baby. Love you Silas!

HOPE vs FEAR

Thank you for voting responsibly
& for thinking of my future

HOPE can conquer FEAR

Pumpkin Picking Pics

Hi! It's me, Silas. Guess what, guess what, guess what? I'm really excited because we went to the pumpkin farm this weekend!

The pumpkin farm is only about 5 minutes from our house. When we first got there, I was amazed. Look at all of the pumpkins!

My mom calls this one "Three pumpkins."

My parents said I could choose a pumpkin, but it's hard to decide. I wanted all of them.

As you can imagine, riding in the cart was one of the highlights. You haven't lived until you've experienced this, trust me!
In the end, we picked out 4 different kinds, plus a couple of little baby ones.

Back at home, we put one out on the front stoop and the rest on our deck.
Mom continued to take pictures.
Just a few more, right?
Well, it's my own fault, really. If I wasn't so cute, she wouldn't take so many pics.
That's the recap of my first trip to the pumpkin farm. Happy fall everyone!

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.

Lil' Red Riding Hoodie

Barb from my work knit this for a relative. She let me borrow it for the night to see how it fit Silas. Such a cute pattern! You can't see from the pics, but there's a zipper going all the way up the back. Hmmm. I may have to make one of these for him, despite the fact that he already has about 5 hand knit sweaters to wear this winter. What can I say. Knitting is an addiction.

Anyways, well done, Barb! The recipient of this hoodie is one lucky baby!

Harvest fair and akebia fruit

Last weekend was sunny and warm--perfect weather for Bainbridge Island's annual Harvest Fair. There were goats, bunnies, and other farm animals, music, food, hay rides, and other fallsy activities. Si's favorite thing was to sit on this old tractor and pretend to drive. In fact, he really didn't understand why he had to get off of it so that other children could have a turn. "Sharing" has not quite entered his vocabulary yet.

The akebia vine growning on our garage was also displaying it's wierd fruit last weekend. I couldn't help but include a few pictures, since they are so beautifully odd when they open to reviel all of the tiny seeds tucked into the long cylindrical casing.

One expects perhaps an alien creature to emerge instead of such a benign plant...
Silas was very interested in them as well. Apparently the akebia fruit, which is native to Japan and Korea, is edible, though we've never partaken before.