We shot our Friday photos this afternoon, in the midst of our big packing up from this week in Lubbock. Due to the Grandma’s baby shower we attended earlier this week, and some kind gifts from Grandma Babbee, we’ve need all our Tetris skills to fit everything in the rented Camry. We had a great Thanksgiving meal yesterday, a great post-Thanksgiving lunch today, and will have post-Thanksgiving sandwiches for dinner on the road this evening. We’ll probably pull over in Oklahoma City tonight at some fine motor inn type establishment, then drive all day tomorrow to get back to Madison. Molly will have a tough time getting ready for the grindstone on Monday, and I’ll need to polish up the fathering skills again, since Babbee and Aunt Kerry did most of the baby-raising this week. OK- on with the packing.
Ready for Winter. These are toddler size. Jeez....
We made it safely to Lubbock and Silas was a real trooper during our 20 hour drive. He only really cried once because we didn’t anticipate his need to eat but we were able to pull over to a rest stop a few miles down the road. Amazingly, it took about the same amount of time to drive with Silas as it does without him! In Lubbock we have been taking advantage of a big frisbee golf course at MacKenzie Park where Adam has been amazing my whole family with his long, smooth shots. When I say we have been taking advantage of the course I mean that Adam has been playing once a day and I have been walking the course with Silas in the front pack for some exercise. Despite the relatively flat and barren landscape in West Texas, this park has a small river and lake that the course is built around so the round of golf is more like a little hike with 21 holes to guide us. The first time Adam played he managed to hold on to all his discs despite tree groves and ponds that often stand between the tee and the basket. We were lucky to start the course with a nice local couple who had a sense of where the baskets were because many of them are halfway up a hill or around the bend of the river. The second time we played was not so lucky- Adam lost his “beast” disc in a pond with very tall reedy plants that made finding the disc impossible. We back tracked to ask some young guys who were playing behind us where they find discs in Lubbock. They pointed us across the little river to a blue van and said that the “guy down by the river” has any golf disc you could possibly imagine. Just like Chris Farley, he sits in his van down by the river, dredging it every once in a while to pull up lost and used discs and then he sells them back to golfers. Adam came to Lubbock with 2 discs and after visiting the fellow in the blue van twice I think we are leaving with 11 or 12 (at $2/disc which seems like a real steal). Yesterday my mom (Babbee), my sister and her best friend joined us for a round which was a lot of fun. We plan to go out again this morning to play another round before the serious eating begins. The pictures give you some sense of the course and the van while the last picture is of Adam and Silas on tummy time hanging out in my mom’s living room.
Adam on hole 10 (notice the trees and water!)
blue van by the river
Babbee, Molly and Silas at the end of a family frisbee golf round
Not sure about that week #… I think he finishes his fourth month next Friday. Bad father. I was a bad father yesterday too, when I finally “finished” my motorcycle repairs, started it up, and fumigated the whole house with vapors of burning oil and other carcinogens. We got it aired out pretty fast though. Silas still seems huge to us, but we’ll quantify that at a doctor’s checkup in about 3 weeks. What does it mean to hit the 100th percentile in a category? Fattest baby ever? He’s nowhere close to that anyway. We’re dressing Silas in a bib as part of his normal wardrobe recently. Otherwise he slobbers through shirts in no time. Molly and I have been packing up for our first big road-trip with Silas. And it’s a doozy- headed down to Texas in the wee hours of Saturday morning. We’ll be stopping briefly in Kansas city to visit a museum which hosts a photo of the Electric Circus music club (60’s New York) which dissertationally interests Molly. We’re leaving at 5 a.m. Madison time to reach the museum during open hours. Ought to be fun. The whole trip should run maybe 19 hours if we boogie- but with Silas who knows. Uncharted territory. I’ll load the photos up now while Silas has nodded off to sleep.
I don’t know… maybe 3 months 3 weeks? Molly? Anybody. Busy week this one. Silas has taken to squealing for any and all reasons. He’s still in a great mood. Getting us up twice a night but does it nicely. I don’t have much time so will just throw these up. I got a thing…
I was in denial when Molly said that Silas popped his first tooth about two weeks ago. Molly insisted, but I thought it was a polyp or something. But tonight Molly found another one, and it sure looks like a tooth, albeit not popped out yet and a little high up his gum. He’s been chomping, foaming, and bubbling for a while now, so this may explain it. I endeavored to shoot a picture of it, with a flash shooting into a drinking glass wrapped in aluminum foil. We got it on the first shot, which was absolutely ridiculous- I’m going to the dog track now. Molly asked if I wanted to shoot the second tooth, and I told her it would take about three hours most likely.
I just did the zoom and crop on the picture of his tooth. Wow- that is weird and slimy.
I’ve lost track and am tired of searching previous posts to figure out which week Silas has reached. Just over three months is now my answer. I’ll keep up the monthly age benchmarking until 6 months, then transition to “Almost a year.” Week two passed, I think, uneventfully, and very fast. Molly moved to a 4-day, 10 hour/day schedule- a big improvement from the 5 day week. She has more time with Silas, and I have a few hours to goof off. I still consider myself house-bound, which is silly because Silas behaves completely as long as he’s fed, and I can carry him anywhere. It’s a mental block and I’ll get over it. Silas was a good little boy this week. A bit snotty but he doesn’t seem bothered, and he’s sleeping maybe 5% better- we’ll take it. I’ll post also a slightly lame video, but he rips a pretty good squeal that’s worth hearing.
Took a walk down to Olbrich gardens today, meeting up with Tina, Levi, Henry, Chris, and Kalea (in decending order of maturity.) It was chilly but Silas was ensconced in his red puffy suit and the jogger, so he was fine. I was amazed again by the imperviousness of the kids to all sorts of crashes and stumbles. I hope Silas is so tough when he toddles.
Here’s a picture of Chris and Silas hanging out, and a picture of Chris and Silas using a kaleidoscopic device (for which it was not intended.)
Today marks the first full week of Adam the Primary Care Giver and Molly the Full-time Provider. Tough week. Molly and I both had hefty coughs that kept us awake an extra hour or so every night. Silas is sleeping slightly better but still gets us up at least 2 times per night to eat. But he’s been in a great mood and we’ve had lots of fun with him. Molly and I scored our H1N1 vaccinations this afternoon, so we’ve got that going for us now. Shooting our weekly photos this morning was tough. Silas goes stoic the instant my face disappears behind the camera. That gives me about 1/4 second after he smiles to step back and shoot the photo. Maybe we’ll start shooting them before Molly goes off to work. She’ll be the cheek-pinching singing monkey-clown and I’ll just shoot the pictures. Silas’ first Halloween definitely calls for the froggy-suit.
Strange new squeals and hollers filled our house this last week, as Silas expanded his vocal range almost hourly. He also granted us our first 6 hour uninterrupted chunk of sleep, which was followed by several hours of uninterrupted grunting. He’s still growing as far as we can tell, and wearing a lot of 6 month clothes already. We’re pretty sure he’s sprouting his first tooth down on the right side- he’s foaming and blowing some serious bubbles. Molly and I have had two sets of colds in succession (ongoing) which Silas has also picked up. He suffers them better than we do, to be honest. Molly heads back to full-time work next week. That will challenge all three of us for sure. Silas is taking the bottle pretty reliably, which is a good sign. Molly is going to miss the kid during the day of course. Right now Silas is grunting, working on a little project he’s got going over there. So I’m going to finish this post fast. This week’s photos…
