Gelato!

My friend Steve from Philly was in town with his kids last week. We went out for burritos and the gelato in Berkeley, and decided to let Silas have a taste. He had been on hunger strike for a while, but he apparently decided to make exceptions.











Violet gelato!

Video Update

Some recent videos of Silas playing. Of course running after - and from - the dog is a favorite pasttime. He's also recently discovered airplanes (and the moon) and is starting to get into playing ball as well.







(we're rocking out to Action Patrol, not Bjork. Also, check out the yogurt hairdo)

You decide

Separated at birth?

No, I was there.

The Big 3-0

Silas turned some heads at his new pediatrician's office this week. At 15 1/2 months he is 30 pounds (off the charts still), 32 1/4 inches tall (75th percentile) with a 20 inch head (also off the charts). This is all within range for him, he's right on track, his own personal gargantuan track that is.

Here he is making a phone call with a TV remote control.

And he has made a full recovery from his bout with Coxsackie virus.

Oh, and he's still small enough to fit in the kitchen cabinets, so that's good.
Why are his pants wet you ask... "Jojo wawa! Jojo wawa! Jojo wawa!" Poor dog has to share his water bowl with an assortment of rubber ducks and matchbox cars. But Silas is generous with the table scraps and he makes a great napping partner.

Here's the crew waking up from a nap with their leader: sweaty bed head boy.

San Diego

Our recent trip to San Diego was a great success. During the trip we were blissfully ignorant of the nasty Coxsackie virus, aka Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease, that was lying in wait until we returned home. Silas has made a full recovery now after 3 days of fever and horrible blistery sore throat. And now the petting zoo goats at the San Diego Zoo have been cleared of blame in the virus scandal (goats carry Foot and Mouth disease which is not the same as Hand, Foot and Mouth disease, now we know)

So enough about enteroviruses... let's get to the cute baby photos!

We were in town to visit Elise and Clay, friends from Philadelphia who are living here for a post doc, and to hang out with the Schwarz/Madrid clan who were visiting from Philadelphia for Jessi's brother's wedding. There were many high points of the trip but here are a few of those that were photographed by our camera. There are more photos on Jessi's blog

Hilarious interactions between Silas and Penelope

watch out Silas, she bites
with a little prompting he decides not to continue the fight over the toy but instead to "pat pat gentle" She doesn't look impressed.



We crashed the Four Seasons on a daily basis for the awesome pool and good company. So here's Silas post-Four Seasons shower in a robe with his long baby hair brushed into a duck tail. I love it.

Hang on, did I really just agree to be left with 2 babies and a 3 year old ring bearer jacked up on chocolate cake and gummy bears? why yes, I did indeed. And we all had a great time!

We had dinner with Elise on the first night we arrived and Silas was in heaven. The restaurant was at the corner of two busy streets with a dozen bus routes and there was a bus every 10 seconds "Bu bu bu bu!!!!" And it was a sushi restaurant so he got to eat a big bowl of seaweed for dinner, his favorite.
Elise and Clay live in a totally cute neighborhood called Hillcrest, as indicated by the huge sign.
The lovely little Penelope.


The girls had afternoon tea, and then the boys crashed at the end. "Hmmm, I'll have another one of these blond crumpets please"

California Livin'

We're enjoying the Bay Area weather, not too hot, not too cold, but very very dry. The grass is very unhappy and normally I wouldn't water the lawn but we thought we could entertain Silas and save the grass at the same time with a sprinkler. It's working.
Si is totally obsessed with seaweed of any kind, this is breakfast. Mmmmm nori.
We went with Kevin to visit his lab in the new Stanley Building. Here's the lab bat in the background.
Silas loves running into bears all over the place (the University of California mascot). He likes to "pat pat" the bear, and then he identifies the nose, and then he usually calls it "Jojo" (I'm sure the 17 lb. dog loves it that someone is getting him confused with a half ton animal)
Berkeley is filled with parks and playgrounds. And being the all inclusive place that it is, there are specialized areas called tot lots everywhere. The most impressive is Totland, a wonderland for short folks who like to push plastic lawnmowers, fill plastic dump trucks and ride on bouncy plastic creatures. I didn't manage to get a photo that captures the joyful insanity of this place, but you can kind of see it on his face.