silas john - week 32

We were on vacation for majority of the week.  Silas did a really good job being in a new place.  Thanks to our sound machine, he napped and slept really good.  He did have a few early morning wake-ups, but when the sun comes up at 5 o'clock our time, what can you expect.

While at the cabin, he was content to be held or sit on the floor and look around.  He did not want to eat his food though.  As soon as we got home, he went back to eating like nothing had happened.  I wonder if elevation bothered him more than I know.

He's been working on a "lean-all-the-way-over-until-I'm-laying-on-my-belly-and-then-sit-back-up" move.  He actually quite stronger than he looks.

I've been waiting and waiting for the tooth mound to produce a tooth.  But it didn't happen the week.  He seems to have a bit of crankiness with the tooth and continues to chew on anything in sight.  We're using teething tablets to help with the discomfort.  It's so hard to know if anything really helps, but it seems like anytime I give him the tablets he seems better.  So we take what we can get.

We did add a little bit of "real" food to his diet this week.  He's now tried toast, whole strawberries, whole bananas, avocado and cheese.  Not much has actually been swallowed, but he is learning.

Silas was taken with Priscilla.  She was too busy moving to notice him much, but he just watched her all week long.

He loves loves loves his big brother.  No one can make him smile quicker that Amos.

Here's Amos at the same age:

amos jack - 23 months old

What a personality this little guy has.  For the last year, we’ve gotten to know it through his actions, but now he’s finally putting words to it.  Words open up a whole new world to knowing our son.  We think he’s pretty special.

EATING:

Amos is still a really good eater.  Maybe I ought to knock on wood for saying that, but he’s always hungry at mealtimes and usually eats whatever is set before him.  There are a few exceptions.  He doesn’t really like ground beef, spicy stuff, or green beans. That doesn’t stop me from making stuff with those ingredients.  I just hope if I keep offering it, he’ll grow to like it. He does love chicken.  If I ask him what he wants for dinner it’s always chicken.  For breakfast it’s a banana and lunch a sandwich. 

He finally started asking for my gum.  I knew it was bound to happen sometime with all the gum that I chew.  He does a pretty go job not swallowing it.

PLAYING:

He loves to play with other kids.  This month he got to spend time with all his cousins as well as lots friends.  I didn’t realize how fun it would be to watch him play and communicate with kids.

When he’s at home, he spends a lot of time playing with Silas.  The other day, I caught him trying to play “Ring Around the Rosie” with Silas.  He didn’t quite understand why Silas couldn’t play that game with him.  He wants to include Silas in everything we are doing, just as long as Silas isn’t getting the best spot or the best toy.

When he plays alone, he normally looks at books, plays with his animals or racetrack.  He has a CD player in his room now that he likes on so that he can listen to music.  He's getting where he'll play with things like play-doh and color books for longer amounts of time.

DISCPLINE:

Amos behaved so well the first two weeks of the month.  I made the comment to Jason about how Amos really seemed to be catching on to the whole discipline thing, so I wondered if the whole “terrible twos” wouldn’t be so bad.  Amos must have heard me because we then had a week where he seemed to be re-testing all of his boundaries. 

We’re all learning together.  I’m just glad that we understand each other more.

PERSONALITY:

He already seems to have this sense of fairness.  If he has to do something, then everyone should have to do it.  If he gets something, then everyone should get something.  Again, I have no idea who he gets this from.

He can also get very fixated on things.  Right now, it’s mainly bikes and everything that has to do with bikes.  He needs me to acknowledge what he says before he can move on.

Amos loves to do anything that Daddy is doing.  He mows, rides his bike, drives the car and wears hats just because Daddy does.

SLEEPING:

Amos spent almost two weeks sleeping in his little pop up tent this month while we traveled.  At the beginning, we had a few early morning wake-ups.  By the end, he was a pro at it.  It’s nice for us that he’s very flexible with his sleep locations.

LEARNING:

Kids are a sponge.  And this month Amos revealed a lot of what he has been soaking up.  For months I’ve been counting, saying ABCs and singing the same songs over and over to him.  He hadn’t much acknowledge the fact until this month.  Now he’s counting and singing up a storm.  I’m in awe of how little brains work.

COMMUNICATION:

“I want to go too.”

“I eat too.”

“My hemelt on, Daddy, please.”

“Dear Jesus, thank you for day.”

“Silas, play with me.”

He’s a big talking boy.  And it’s happening so fast.  He’ll wake up from a nap saying more than when he went to sleep.  The more kids we’re around, the more he says.

SPECIAL EVENTS:

Staying at Grammy and Gramps how a couple of nights, visiting Nana and Papa in Lebanon, and Road tripping to Colorado.  

I still can't believe that next month he'll be two.  Wish us luck, we'll be potty training next week.

silas john - week 31

Silas had so much fun this week traveling to see family!  We spent the first part of the week enjoying Nana and Papa's house!

Silas had so much fun playing with his cousins Emma and Teigan.  Teigan quickly became a chew toy after laying down in front of Silas.

Nana had lots of new toys for Amos and Silas to try out.  They were not short of entertainment.

He's been showing off his pre-crawling skills, and got to spend some time watching his cousin, Priscilla, crawling.  I think he'll be taking off soon

Silas has had a yucky sounding cough for the last 2 weeks.  We don't know what that's all about, but it hasn't affected his mood.

He's still working on that tooth I've been talking about.  There's a mound and everything, but nothing has popped up.

He's been a real trooper as he's spent 16+ hours this week in a carseat.  He didn't spend much of it sleeping, but he was happy for the most part.  I don't know what it is, but neither of our boys like to sleep in their carseats.

The blanket I gave him a few weeks ago has become a sleep-time staple.  He uses it like a pacifier and half the time has it over his face.  He's silly like that.

With all our travels, the pac-n-play has become his new bed.  He's adjusted to it pretty well.  However, it will be so nice for Mom and Dad when he is back in his crib, across the house from us.  He's noisy little sleeper.

We're still attempting to feed him solid food, but he's not too interested.  I think he's gotten worse at eating it, rather than better.  Maybe he just wants the real stuff.

view from the top

Mt. Shavano aka "100 Ways to Die"

From the time we we're invited to Colorado for a family vaction, we planned to climb a mountain.  Shavano became that mountain.  We been talking about it and looking forward to the climb.  It was going to be fun.

It only took about 15 minutes to remember how "fun" mountain climbing was.  It's like child birth, you forget so quickly.

It didn't help that there was no easy part of this hike.  At least, not easy to us.  Jason kept telling me that the mountain was labeled beginner to intermediate.  But I told him I was sticking with beginner mountains only from now on.

The only other mountain I'd climbed had somewhat of an enjoyable hike to treeline.  On Shavano, we felt like we were going straight up from the beginning.  We really thought it couldn't be much steeper on the top.  Instead we encountered snow.  And not just little patches.  Rather, long stretches of slippery snow that promised a 100 ft fall down the mountain slope if you missed your step.

Believe it or not, the worst was still yet to come.  When we hit a huge patch of snow that covered our trail, we decided we were done with trudging through the snow and headed up another direction.  We could see the peak, but no path to get there.  I spent the next 1 1/2 hours climbing, basically on hands and feet up the side of a mountain.  Every time I looked back, I knew I didn't want to go back down the same way we came.
We almost turned back when all we could see was boulders in front of us.  However, from the top of the mountain, we saw a head poke over the cliff and we knew we were close.  The funny thing about mountians is that you have no sense of distance.  Everything looks closer than it is.  Everything.  I knew I didn't want to go back down the way I had just come up, so the only options were to keep going or stay where I was.  Staying where I was was very tempting, but my dad reminded me that Amos and Silas were waiting for me at home.

I don't know if I can say the view from the top was worth it, but it was spectacular.

We quickly found out that the "path" down that we missed going up, wasn't much easier.  I "grannied" it all the way down, while my husband took off running.  I had to keep reminding him of our children that would be fatherless if he fell.

The snow patches seemed worse and longer on the way down.  We kept thinking we were out of the snow, and then we would come across another patch.  Making it to the treeline wasn't much better.  Going down hurts.  The only good part about going down is that your lunges are no longer burning, so you don't have to stop as much.  Which is good, because if you stop for long, you don't want to get back up.

The trail down seems never ending.  Everything seems longer than it did on the way up.  We were never more excited to see the CR-V.

I'm glad I did it, but it will probably take another three years for me to think climbing a mountain sound "fun."

silas john - 7 months