April 10, 2010
Last weekend we took Maeve, Silas, and Chloe, one of Maeve's friends, up to Snoqualmie pass to play in the snow. The mountains had a late winter dumping, and we had fun. Maeve and Chloe particularly liked an igloo we found a Hyak, one of the state-run sno-parks near the pass. Silas pretty much just got carried around - didn't like too much crawling in the snow. Next year, cross-country skiing here we come.

March 14, 2010

Silas loves to crawl and move around, and recently graduated to taking big kid baths. He sits on top of the frogs in the bath and loves moving his legs around to make the water splash.

Silas is Up!
January 29, 2010


He's been combat crawling a yard or two for several weeks, but just this week he's up on all fours. Not yet cross-crawling, he mostly just falls over once he's up, but he's almost ready to take off. Luckily we've already got outlet covers and the hinges for the stair gate installed.

Christmas 2009

We spent Christmas week in Grapevine, TX, next to DFW where Mike's parents have just moved into their new condo a few blocks from downtown Grapevine. We spent one afternoon making family portraits, and here's a photo of all of Mike's family. It includes Mike, me, Tracey (sister-in-law), David (Mike's brother), Grandad Paul, Grandmom Carolyn, Cousin Matt, Maeve and Silas.










One thing Maeve really enjoyed was making gingerbread cookies with Grandmom. They couldn't find all the cookie cutters in the new kitchen, so they ended up making gingerbread snowmen. They were a bit dry, but icing and lots of sprinkles helped.












One day we went to visit the Kaplan family. Maeve, Daniel and Jacob played cards and ran around the playground. It was great to check in with friends. We also went out for Mexican - yummy. Kathryn's parents came over so we got to visit with them, too. It's great to have friends where the in-laws live.














We also spent a day with Rachel, Steve and Naomi. We planned on going to the Dallas zoo, but we got there and they said no animals were out because of the cold. I started calling friends, and Seth Kaplan called me back and recommended the World Zoo Acquarium downtown. It was really cool - the trail started on the third floor of the rainforest biosphere and went down to a more typical acquarium in the basement. Maeve and Naomi liked the flamingos.

We also spent a morning with Chris Kribs, Adelfo and Sara, but didn't get any good photos.





Maeve also really enjoyed the trampolene. She could jump for ages. She also enjoyed playing China princess with Mardi Gras beads - first cousin Matt was the China prince, but throughout the week anyone she could get to wear beads was recruited.








Silas worked a lot on eating, taking mini-naps, and getting carried around by a lot of people. He's also now working on sitting and starting to get mobile in a rotate around the circumference of a circle with the center being his belly kind of way.

Christmas 2009
We had family portraits made with the Ernsts in Dallas on Dec. 27, 2009. These are the best of ours.

December 19, 2009

We went to Seward Park yesterday, where the Audobon Society was having a winter festival. There was a group of kids tagging birds, and we got to pet a chickadee that they tagged and released. We also took a hayride around the park.

Silas started eating at 5 months when Grandma Shirley was visiting.

 

 

Silas now eats several kinds of cereal, fruits and veggies and likes it! Avocado isn't a favorite, but peas, squash, apple sauce, bananas. and zucchini rock.

Thanksgiving 2009. We took our first trip as a family of 4 to Leavenworth, WA to do some winter hiking.






Leavenworth is a town on the East of the Cascades that has remade itself as a Bavarian village, complete with bad German. It also has lots of Christmas lights - overall very cheesy, but close to great hiking.

On the way there, we stopped at Stevens Pass on Rte 2 for Maeve to play on the snow. Here's some snow running. A good game.











One day we went hiking on an old rail-trail down by the Wentatchee River.















































































Another day we went hiking up Icicle gorge. There was more snow there, so Maeve got to hike on snow and eat ice.








On our way home, we stopped by Snoqualmie Pass for more fun in the snow.

Halloween 2009


Silas has started to like to get help to sit and stand up. He's quite strong.

Maeve and Daddy enjoyed playing in the baby swings at the park. Maeve was running into Daddy and having a great time.

Silas with Daddy at Wallingford Park. He's all warm in his winter suit.

For Halloween, Maeve was a monster. She didn't wear her monster head very much, but here's where we're walking from our house down to the main business district in Wallingford, where they had trick or treating at the business starting at 3 PM. We were meeting Dagan, Kyna, and Scott at 4 PM. The view here is of Meridian Avenue, one door down from our house.

At Fainting Goat Gelato, instead of giving out candy, they gave the kids free icecream. Maeve got mint and Dagan got raspberry. Dagan was a cool dragon.

Maeve enjoyed walking with Kyna, so here's Kyna with both kids with Scott and Cat (pushing Silas) taking up the rear.

October 19, 2001

Silas and Maeve with Cat.

October 10, 2009.

One day shy of his 3rd month birthday, Silas decided to hold is own bottle, if only for a few seconds.