Silas' Food Critiquing

Last Saturday I tried barbecuing pizza for the first time.  After taking a bite of the pizza, Silas told me, "This pizza is not as foul as it could possibly be."  Coming from Silas, that's practically a compliment.

Who Does Ambrose Look Like?

Here are some pictures of Gideon and Silas when they were newborns.  We don't think Ambrose looks very much like either of his brothers.

Baby Gideon...

Baby Silas...

 

Welcome Baby Ambrose!

Ambrose was born Monday, January 7th at 6:06pm.  He weighed in at 7 lbs. 9 oz. and 19" long.

 

When Peter went to pick up the boys and bring them to the hospital to meet their brother, Gideon was squealing with delight.  Both boys were so excited for the newest addition to our family and they've been very cute and sweet with baby Ambrose so far.

 

 

This was right before leaving the hospital this morning.  You can see that he already scratched himself with his large talons.

 

 

Patty Cake

I overheard Silas reciting his own version of patty cake.  Instead of "throw it in the oven," he was saying, "put it in the microwave."  I think I like his version better; it's more realistic.

A Taste of My Own Medicine

As I tucked Gideon into bed tonight, he asked whether or not he got a song.

"No.  Not tonight." I said.

"Why?"

"Because I don't feel like it."

Then Gideon pulled out his cool, rational voice, "Mom, we don't always get what we want.  You know that."

How could I argue with his logic.

Making a Splash and History Lessons

At dinner time a few weeks ago Silas knocked over his cup of soda, sending it everywhere.  As I frantically tried to clean up the spill, Silas said, "That's why it's called Cranberry Splash."

I gave Gideon and Silas the inside of a roll of wrapping paper to play with.  It was great fun because it could be rolled from both sides making a "pirate scroll," which doubled as a "spotting scope."  After playing with the scroll for awhile, Gideon said, "Mom, way back in the 70's, they used to use scrolls."  (Before books were invented you know.)

The Boy Who Cried Ant

For the first time since being in Las Vegas, we've had a steady trickle of ants coming into our kitchen during the past week.  This has thrilled Gideon and Silas.  Like most little boys, they love bugs and they think ants are particularly cute.  If they can get an ant to crawl on their hands or up their arms, it entertains them for a very long time.  On Sunday, Gideon had a tiny little ant crawling on him when he suddenly cried that his ant had bitten him.  Gideon's mood at the time was such that Peter and I thought it was an attention-getting ploy.  We both told him that his ant was way too small to bite.  Then yesterday, Silas was playing with an ant in the kitchen when he suddenly started screaming that his ant friend had bitten him.  Silas' tears and subsequent terror of the ants in our kitchen eating him up were so obviously real that we knew Gideon had been telling the truth after all.  This prompted us to do a little internet research.  I now know what fire ants look like.  Oops.

Motherhood Milestone

Today is a big day for me as a mother: I took my first kid to the ER.

I put Silas down for a nap and about five minutes later I heard him screaming.  When I came up to his room, he told me that he had swallowed a tack.  (The map above his bed is held up with tacks, which fall out on a regular basis.)  Silas kept grabbing his throat and crying about the tack hurting him.  Peter thought we should take him to the emergency room.  I called our insurance's nurse advise line and the nurse concurred.  So off we went to the emergency room, where we waited a lot, got an X-ray, waited some more, and eventually talked to the doctor who confirmed that Silas had a tack in his stomach.  The doctor had called a surgeon to find out if the tack needed to be removed.  Apparently spiky things that are shorter than two inches will usually pass without harm (for everyone's future reference).  I do, however, have to make sure that the tack passes within a week...which means...drum roll...yep.  They sent me home with a big bag of gloves.  Now we can just hope that Silas doesn't sit on it when the prodigal tack returns.

Halloween Pictures

I thought I would get one more year of choosing the boys' Halloween costumes, but no.  When I started suggesting Halloween costume ideas, Gideon told me he was going to be batman and Silas told me he was going to be a "ghostie."  They tenanciously stuck with their ideas for weeks, despite my awsome suggestions of garden gnomes, chemical engineers, etc.  Alas!

Halloween Prayer

Part of Silas' prayer tonight was "Thank you for vampires."