Snow

We have a foot on the ground at this point, and Silas is warming (?) to it, pushing a snow shovel around the walk.  He may enjoy it more if I were more creative in giving him tools. I had more fun so far in the snow, building a snow fort for Silas, which was subsequently damaged during a late-night snowball fight outside.  I saw it happen, and went outside to request they fix it, but they did a crap job.

His favorite word this week is “mahai.” Grandma Weaver speculated it might mean “me have,” which is as likely as anything. Sometimes he just hollers it by himself though.

Silas is also sick again, with a runny nose and some coughing, though it doesn’t bother him much. Yesterday he pulled a wet wipe out of the bag and blew his nose in it without prompting. It pleasantly surprised us. Other times we’ll say “let’s wipe your nose” and he promptly wipes his nose with the back of his hand, smearing it to the four corners of the world. The worst of his teething is over now but we’re struggling to get him to sleep on time. We formed some bad habits over the past week. He sleeps in the late morning but if his nap gets cut short then we’re in for trouble. Not a problem exclusive to these two parents I’m sure.

Here are photos of the Quad after the first snow fall, and the scene yesterday while watching Silas and Kai together at our house.

 

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January 21

We never thought  teething was that bad, until this week, when Silas sprouted three eyeteeth at the same time. He was very un-Silas, bringing the whinging, and sleeping terribly, waking a few times each night. We were fragmented, and he was pumped full of medicine, which didn’t help very much. Wednesday brought some relief and he started sleeping through the first 5 or 6 hours each night.

We converted his crib to a toddler bed this week, as he’s developed a huge heel-hook, and can get his foot over the top of the pack n play. It probably will irritate in time, but now it’s still cute when we hear his door open and he stumbles into our room in the morning, where he settles down and sleeps for another hour or two.

Our child-share with baby Kai is still fun, and they enjoy each other, although Silas still swipes Kai’s binkey, and hugs him a bit hard around the neck. The day goes awfully fast when I’m wrangling the two of them for a few hours.

Silas is more into the reading than ever, and that’s how he usually falls asleep. His favorites (by far) are currently “I am a Bunny,” “Socks for Supper,” “When you give a Moose a Muffin,” and the winner “I Just Forgot,” by Mercer Mayer. It’s tattered already. Last night the books weren’t working at first, so we watched an episode of “Arrested Development” on my phone, but it didn’t work because I kept laughing. “I don’t know what I’m saying!”

Our biggest challenge these days is not a real problem, but Silas sure clings to Molly once she gets home in the evening. They could use a bit more time together. But when Molly really has to leave she says “Bye Bye” and Silas pulls out his binkey and yells “Bye!” and waves her off, sometimes blowing a kiss.

We visited John Heinz preserve at Tinicum on Wednesday, walking through the swamps and around the lake. It’s a cool park with loads of birds (in the spring) and deer, turkeys, and the like, all in sight of I-95 and the Philadelphia Airport control tower. I shot pictures of the deer, turkey, and a great blue heron who was fishing through a small hole in the ice. A few pictures down below.

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Play date

This week we began our very limited child-sharing arrangment with neighbors in the residence hall. Twice a week we’re watching each other’s kid for a few hours. Kai is around 7 months and matches Silas for good temper. Neither is much jealous and they find each other fascinating. The arrangement gives the adults a few hours to take care of business.

Kai and Silas

Silas surprised me again this week with absurdity. I gave him a slice of apple, which he promptly laid on the floor. Then he laid himself down on the floor as flat as possible and chomped on the apple slice. I should have stopped him but it was so funny.

You might notice Silas looking different this week. We gave him his first hair cut. We did not have much of a method but it seems ok. I had my own hair cut and I asked the barber for the average age of kids coming to him for cuts. He thought around 2-3. I figure he should have a good haircut when he heads off to elementary school in 4 or 5 years. He is crying in the photo, but that was very temporary.

Sleeping has improved a bit for us. We’ve been putting him down earlier, with a bath around 7, sleeping by 8 usually. He gets a glass of warm milk to settle him down. We’re putting him to bed on the flattened futon these days. We can read him to sleep laying down and just leave him lie when he drifts off. It’s pretty cute when he wakes up, opens his nursery door and walks out looking non-nonplussed. He still gets up at least once during the night, but we can sleep a few hours at a time, which seems good to us.

Molly drove Silas out to a music class a few days ago, after an inch or two of snow had fallen in the morning. She did not make it far before calling to ask whether we have anti-lock brakes and how they work. Yes we do, and you’re supposed to stomp them pretty good, but we decided she should come home anyway. They hadn’t salted or plowed yet that morning, and if you lock up the wheels and slide through a red on Market St  you’d best cut your losses.

You may notice some slobber on Silas’ shirt down below. He’s popping his lower eye teeth now, so to be his shirt means to be wet. We’re going through 2-3 bibs per day. I never thought we’d need this many, even though we’d been warned.

 

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17 months

Snow fell again last night, and Silas doesn’t seem to care. He touches it with his mittens, then demands urgently that I clean it off.  The cavalcade of holiday visitors ended with Kerry and Calvin’s departure last weekend. As I’ve heard happens, our schedules are now boffo. Silas naps once a day, or twice, and goes to bed at 7:45, or 11, and wakes up 3 times at night, or 5. We’re initiating some new habits to help straighten things out. At least Ella is staying in bed longer now, since we cut her late evening snack off the menu. Thank goodness, because this is painful. Silas is popping two more eye teeth out now, which may account for some of this struggling.

Our moving saga continues (abated,) with our bedroom hosting 20 boxes, two extremely long bikes, and a lounge in another house holding another 30 boxes, which can’t be moved to storage until the elevator is fixed. This symbolizes our plight (minor though it is.)

dang me, hang me

On a personal note, I found an international food store yesterday which will save my sanity. It focuses on Indian and Pakistani. 5 blocks away. Offers your basic eggs, milk, and vegetables  in addition to a huge variety of rice, beans, cheeses, and spices. They also have an Ethiopian hot food bar, complete with Injera. I’ll miss the Madison Yue Wah store a little bit less now at least.

Yesterday Silas napped for a disappointing 45 minutes the entire day, so I’ll post this before he wakes up.

He was so tired

Horked from the Int'l Foods bag in his trailer

Best hair ever

Last photo. Silas signaled "All Done."

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Vacation

We anticipated this week being a big fat vacation. It has been fat, for me anyway, but it hasn’t been much of a vacation. Christmas was a good time up at my aunt  and uncle’s, but then we decided to bust back to Philly that night since the snow was looming, instead of staying over at my parents. Silas seemed more curious about the snow than excited. Ella began peeing one foot from our door rather than venturing out in the snow.

Tuesday, once the roads had cleared, we drove down to Harrisonburg VA to visit Silas’ great grandfather Cleo Weaver. It surprises me that Silas gets to meet his great-grandfather. I do not consider that normal, though maybe it’s more common than I think. We got a great picture down below. Cleo was real sharp and Silas is  fond of him. On our drive back home dad blew a tire on I-81. It reminded me of the scene from Christmas Story, but there wasn’t any cursing at the end of it. And it was sunny. Maybe it was a flat tire scene from another movie?

Silas spits out new words every day now. We think he’s clever, but he still surprises us. He started using ‘thank you,’ ‘please,’ ‘elbow,’ ‘person,’ and ‘owl,’ among others.

Ever since we’ve moved to Philadelphia we’ve rented a 15 by 20 foot storage unit in Manayunk, due to our wealth of bikes and boxes of files. We eventually resented the $220 monthly bill and went about emptying the unit. So Wednesday, all day, we rented a U-Haul truck and moved stuff into our apartment and into a storage basement across campus. Super long day, with more complications than I care to describe.  Our things eventually made it to the first floor of the building in which the basement storage sits, as the elevator broke, so we need to move the final mile sometime next week. Psyched for that.

Now we’re on the cusp of the new year. Molly’s sister Kerry and brother-in-law Calvin are staying for two days, and they’ve just headed off to center city to see in the New Year. Molly is reading books to Silas in the nursery, hoping he’ll fall asleep so we can have a drink with our friends upstairs, whose kids have also hopefully fallen asleep. I’m sitting here eating a bowl of something we found in the freezer. I think my mom must have made it.

GPa Larry

East Coast Snow

Doin what he does best

Old guard, New guard

 

 

 

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