The Cat Whisperer...

I mentioned a while ago that Silas loves and tortures our cat. Our cat does, however, happen to be the world's most tolerant cat. It might let out a meow for help here and there, but it never attempts to hurt Silas...and the kid is anything but gentle with it. He sits on it, often has a death grip on its tail, grabs fists full of its hair, and chases the poor thing all over the house. Here is a little peak at a typical interaction between the two:















Oh, but wait! That's not even OUR cat. That's the stray! Can you see the fierce face the cat is giving Silas in the last picture? It might look mean, but not once did it try to scratch or bite Silas, even though Silas thought it was a good idea to bite the cat's tail! Any stray cat I've ever known has been wild and mean, and would definitely attack a child that was being this rough with it. I guess if you hang around sweet little Silas long enough, you have no choice but to be tolerant!

Another day, another walk...

I mentioned in yesterday's post that Silas absolutely loves being outside, whatever the conditions. When the rest of us are freezing our behinds off, he seems totally oblivious. Yeah, well at one point on our walk today I grabbed his hand to try to get him to turn around and walk back towards the house. When my hand touched his, something poked my hand really hard. I then looked at Silas' hand only to find that he had a goat head lodged in his palm. The kid didn't even care! A goat head, people! They hurt! Like I said, the child loves being outside, no matter the cost!

Silas: An Update...

At 13 months, our sweet baby:

~Goes up and down stairs by himself. I now let the boys play together downstairs without me and we all love it.

~Can follow simple directions. If you ask him to go get you a ball, he'll do it.

~Helps himself to the Craisins...the only snack that is not up high.

~LOVES being outside and kicks and screams every time we come back inside, even if it's 10 degrees out.

~Loves going for walks but hates holding my hand. He'd rather wander all over by himself.

~Adores and tortures the cat. But they have an understanding, and I'm pretty sure Silas gets the good end of deal.

~Says the following words on a very regular basis and uses them appropriately: Mommy, Daddy, kitty, ball, bath (bathum), snack (nack), night night, please (sign), thank you (sign), uh-oh, and bye bye (complete with a wave).

~Throws every crumb and sticky piece of food off his tray when he's done eating. Yeah, that's fun.

~Can slowly walk backwards and has a very proud grin on his face when he does.

~Sleeps through the night. As in, most nights we put him down at about 6:30 PM and don't hear a peep out of him until 6:00 AM (notice I said MOST nights). Also of note in the sleep department is that our oldest child still gets up a good 50% of the time and comes down to our bed.

~Unloads the contents of our cupboards numerous times throughout the day. I keep telling myself we don't need to buy the childproof lock thingies because he will surely outgrow this phase, but...

~Has a temper and lets you know when something doesn't go his way by screaming and/or stomping his feet.

~Is the BEST snuggler in the entire universe (at bedtime, that is). You should have the privilege of putting him to bed some day. Nothing will make you happier.


Boy, oh boy, do I love this kid.

By far my new favorite...

If only some day we could have a daughter. We wouldn't use this name, but I would definitely print one like this for her room:

I finally got my camera out...

We went for a little walk today and I actually took my camera with me. We didn't last long because it was rather chilly, but at least we enjoyed the fresh air. I keep intending to try to take some pictures of the boys together, but haven't gotten around to it. Maybe before too long. Until then, here are a few from our day:

For those who spoke up...

Any other takers? Get em free before I do something crazy like start an ETSY shop! Really, though. Definitely a fun hobby.







P.S. I really do intend to start blogging about the boys again. I'm just on a bit of a creative kick, in case you couldn't tell.

Name Cards...

I made these name cards for the boys' rooms today. I haven't printed Owen's yet, but I did frame Silas' and put it up in his room, and it added some much needed character, in my opinion. Can you tell I love Photoshop? It's such a fun creative outlet that doesn't make a big mess of the house. Anybody want one?

Leap Frog Tag Reader...

If you are a mother of preschool aged children, I am going to venture to say that you need to get this. It's a Leap Frog Tag Reader, and it is AWESOME. My brother got one for my niece and I was amazed when I saw what it can do. So, I got one for Owen. It is, in my opinion, one of the best tools I've ever seen for teaching children to read. The child can touch any word on the page and it will read it or sound it out. There are lots of tools out there that read a story to a child, but this one the child actually has to touch the pen to the word...which means they are seeing each word that is being read, rather than just hearing a story. There are also games that can be played with it that involve letters and letter sounds and you can also touch any character on the page and they will say something. Plus, there are a WHOLE bunch of books you can buy with it. We took it in the car with us to Seattle and Owen used it the entire way there. It kept him entertained for a 3 hour car ride and he was learning in the process. What could be better than that? If you have little kids, I think you should get one. They are a bit pricey, but well worth it if you ask me. So, people....run on out and by a Tag Reader. You won't regret it.

P.S. Leap Frog should pay me for the advertising!

Burlap Bulletin Board...

I saw this bulletin board the other day in the Ballard Design catalog and loved it. I thought it would be a fun addition to our kitchen and a good solution to my on going dilemma of where to put cute cards when they come in the mail. I decided, however, that I could probably make it for way cheaper than the $60 they were asking.




So $15 and an hour's worth of elbow grease later, this is what I came up with today:

Lincoln City...

We are at the beach and are thoroughly enjoying ourselves, even if the weather is a bit crummy. I guess being completely lazy watching cable TV, playing with cousins, shopping, and swimming is making up for the wind and rain. Besides, the boys couldn't care less about the weather. See for yourself:

Ten on Ten (kinda)...

When I contemplated doing Ten on Ten, I thought it would be a fun way to document our every day life. And to do so most effectively, I told myself that I would deliberately not do anything out of the ordinary, stage any pictures, or even ask the boys to pose for the pictures. And guess what? I didn't. This is truly just our life today (ok, we did happen to have some visitors, but it wasn't for the sake of this post). That being said, it was absolutely impossible to narrow the pictures down to 10. After all, this depicts life today and leaving any out wouldn't do the day justice. So, it might be more accurate to call this post "Twenty on Ten." Maybe in February I'll be able to post just ten. So without further ado...

Twenty on Ten:









































The End.