Silas is almost 4... and some Tahoe photos

Kevin got him a bike, shhh, it's a surprise! It's from Cycles of Change, a cool local nonprofit that works on transportation advocacy, job training, and bike education.

Some of you may be wondering what to get Silas for his birthday. I'd like to encourage you to think of his bursting closets (filled with clothes and shoes that fit him perfectly thanks to so many loving grandparents and friends) and overflowing toy shelves (filled with toys that he still loves to play with for hours) and instead give him an experience for his birthday, like museum memberships (Cal Academy of Science is pretty great) or tickets to a live performance (we can help you find something in our area) or a gift card to his favorite places to eat (Picante, Tacubaya, Cole Coffee, Crixa Cakes, Zachary's Pizza, ... this list could get long).

taking Joey on the slide

We updated the Wish List on the right to give a few more specifics ideas.
But really truly Silas loves getting birthday cards (especially with pictures of people, animals and machines he likes); getting his own mail is a big thrill.

Here's a taste of our Tahoe pictures:





And the grown ups had fun too!... here we are on a sleigh ride (Silas was just not in the mood for a photo)

Florida in February

"Come on Silas... just be in the picture!!!"

... Well he did enjoy playing with cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents and great-grandmas on our recent trip to Florida, even if he did scowl and run for most photo shoots.

An assortment of photos that he either didn't notice me taking or sporadically agreed to:

Chowing down on Nani's famous mac and cheese.

Aunt Karen (aka Cookie) teaches Si to eat the fish food we brought to lure them to the dock at her new place. In this case it was fresh cuban bread, lucky fish.

"Quick Grandma Jane! Lean in while he's distracted by a giant plate of food at Memaw's house!" Got it. Now back to eating.

Did I mention that Memaw is 93 years old, lives by herself, cooked all this food, and baked a cake! She is unstoppable, and she likes it that way.

And Grammie is no slouch either at 90. Here she is playing her "racing grannies" game with Silas, I don't think the photo captured the sparks coming off this track. The game was nearly as ruckus as Gram.


and apparently she has trained us well... while we were waiting for her and the other residents to finish dinner in the dining room Dad, Karen and Silas try out some acrobatics in the rec room. I'm not sure whose idea this was.
Silas begged my dad (aka Papa) to take him fishing. For anyone that doesn't know, my dad is a professional fishmonger, or so he likes to call himself. But he got his start with a dip net at the lake. So during the ladies-only baby shower the guys went "fishing" and brought back an assortment of live specimens in a bucket, mostly minnows and grass shrimp. Here's Silas squealing over the crawfish, he wants to hold it but the thrill is almost overwhelming. I remember the feeling myself.

From silas february 2010 berkeley-fl

They did other guy things as well, like riding the world's fastest lawnmower and eating bananas with a pocketknife:

From silas february 2010 berkeley-fl

And here's the big reason we went to Florida this time, Alex and my sister Deidre are expecting their baby in April! Here they are trying on the slings (with sock monkey babies).

We lucked out with an unexpected visit from the Biodiesel reactor on wheels, driven by Uncle Chris and Lynette all the way from North Carolina. Silas ASKED to have his photo taken with the reactor. If only I'd been quicker I could have gotten some relatives in the photo too!