Digger Man invited Silas over to his house for a digger demo in the snow. This might perhaps have been the best day of Silas’ life. 🙂
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The day after we arrived in upstate New York we enjoyed Christmas again with my family. Silas ran wild with his cousins the ENTIRE day.
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A few images from our drive to Grandma and Papa’s house:
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Turns out our trip north got delayed after all due to snow – but only for a day. Not such a big deal for our desert family whose been dreaming of the white stuff since November…at least. Paul and I headed out for a beautiful city run in some of the biggest snowflakes I’ve ever seen. We saw a city bus spinning sideways uphill and a variety of happy people out playing in it (sledding, mtn biking, walking dogs). My eyelashes were almost frozen together by the time we were finished! Then later in the afternoon we went for a walk with Pap Pap and Silas through the neighborhood. And Silas finished off the day with (can you guess?) DIGGING in the snow until his little toes and fingers were ice cubes. Once we got inside he ran into the kitchen saying “I need a heater!” 🙂
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Season’s greetings from the eastern states! We’ve ditched the desert for the cold, the snow, and lots and lots of family and friends this holiday season. Silas and Ivan are enjoying multiple Christmas-es as we travel from home to home, getting to open presents just about everywhere we visit. This morning of course was the best so far….because SANTA CAME to Grandma and Pap Pap’s!!!!!! Tomorrow we start venturing north to Grandma and Papa’s house where I’m sure Santa has left more goodies for the boys. Hopefully the forecasted snowstorm won’t slow us down.
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Reason #11… why my kids are making me a better runner:
Because sometimes random things drop out of the stroller that need a go-back for retrieval. Toys, books, shoes, articles of clothing. Today it was a piece of twine. And not just any twine. It was about a 1 foot segment of the twine that held the Christmas tree to the top of our car on the way home from the tree lot. A neglected piece that didn’t make it to the trash can that was picked up by small hands and pocketed. A very special piece of twine. Perhaps a magical piece even. This time, Silas didn’t notice that he dropped it right away. He wasn’t sure when he dropped it. He just started yelling “Stop mama! STOP!!!! Go back. GO BACK! It’s back there. Waaaaay back there!” I doubled back a little. No twine. I went a little further. No twine. I asked him when he had it last. “Way back. Waaaaay back!” I wasn’t far into the run and selfishly just wanted to get moving so I tried convincing him that we would stop and look for it on our return (since we were doing an out-and-back). He started crying. I got annoyed and repeated my promise to find it later. He cried harder. The real cry, not the fake cry that we sometimes get when he wants his way. I can tell the difference. This was a sad sobber. Afterall, it was the special twine. The Christmas tree twine. Seriously mama. I went back further. Further, further, further until we were basically almost back to the house. Still no twine. “The wind must have blown it away, Silas.” Surprisingly this sat ok with him. I guess he’s realist, like his parents. There was simply no explanation other than the wind and now there’s nothing we can do about it. It’s gone. We turned back around to basically re-start our run (after 1 mile of backtracking) and he sat quietly.
Then….low and behold….we get almost to the exact spot where we had turned around in the first place and there, on the side of the trail, was the little piece of twine. Just sitting there, wiggling a bit with the wind, and definitely looking very lost and lonely. Silas went nuts, hugging his little lost treasure.
We continue our run and all is well, although I notice that Silas isn’t his normal chatterbox-self. I figure he’s still having his moment with his lost twine.
Then, finally, after about 10 minutes Silas says:
“Thanks mama. You were very helpful to me.”
My heart melts.
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Gah! I did it again! I got plenty of photos of the boys at Hueco this past weekend but none of us climbing!! We really did climb, I promise. No major sends to report yet. Paul still has some work to do on Crown of Aragorn and Belly of the Beast is not yet mine. In the meantime though, Paul fell on the last move of Flower Power v11, and bagged the adjacent Je Suis Wedge v8. And in warming up for Belly of the Beast I ticked off the one-move-wonder Belly of Burden v5 in a handful of tries…which made me feel a tiny bit strong, hehe. The boys are having a blast out at the rocks, on the trails and at the campground. We’ve put an “upstairs” in the van for Silas to sleep (equipped with his own sleeping bag and glow stick, of course!) and he totally digs it. Ivan is nothing but smiles and squeals no matter where he is….especially when big brother is around. And, like Silas at this age, zonks out every time we put him in the carrier to hike to the next spot, which makes naptime super easy. Can’t wait to go back. This is definitely starting out to be a great season!
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..are alike. Here are some Silas vs. Ivan photos in months 0 to 6. I love seeing the similarities, but more so the differences. Now at 6 months, Ivan is definitely growing into his own unique look. His eyes are blue, his face is rounder, and his size!…he’s humungous!! Already wearing Silas’ 12 month hand-me-downs!!! Guess he’s not wasting any time in getting big enough to play with his older brother. Can’t say as I blame him – his big brother is turning out to be a pretty cool cat.
Silas is on the left, Ivan on the right. Enjoy!
Last week I tried to be all official and formally get some good pics of the boys together at the 3 year-old and 6 month-old marks. I realize now I was being overly ambitious. Do you realize how nearly IMPOSSIBLE it is to get both boys looking and smiling at the camera at the same time????!!!! It nearly drove me insane. I suppose this is why normal people take their kids to a professional to get this done. Anyway, here is the best I could get. Enjoy!
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Here are a few pics that Sam took last weekend.
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