Growing

Since my last posting I survived two whole nights away from Silas. I attended a women's retrat with ladies from my church. It was wonderful & once I got there I was really fine. . . Preparation for the excursion was pretty much Hell. I won't elaborate except to say that I had never spent a single night away from Silas, let alone two. Here's a picture of the beautiful labrynth that April made for the retreat.

I am happy to report that I have a garden again this year! Over the past couple of weeks Jason & I have planted tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini & yellow squash, & cantaloupe. I also managed to clean up the bird feeders. After only one day the hummingbirds found us again - one almost landed on Silas's head a few minutes ago.

Here are some pictures of the garden. The big, green giant on the left is our muscadine grape vine. The thing is crazy! I cut off at least 2/3 of it in February but it has all come back!

Here's the little farmer in action. I had to buy him his own gloves because he wouldn't let me use my own... MINE is a word he knows well!




I feel like I have about a million Silas stories to tell. I'm not sure where to start!

Our little man has a big bossy streak. He will tell anyone & anything what to do. Today a mocking bird had the nerve to start squaking at him. Silas spent several minutes giving that mocking bird a piece of his mind! He told said bird (who was sitting on a wire in front of our house), "GET DOWN, BIRD. GET DOWN! GET DOWN NOW!" He screamed this at the bird several times. Eventually the bird left - Silas likes to win his battles.

He can converse with just about anything. His near-constant companions are his water, blanket, wolf named Neshoba, & Elmo. Neshoba & Elmo are always getting into things - usually things that Silas was recently scolded about. His water is always up to something to - but Silas takes care of it. "No, no, Watie! No wet Datsu." Translation: "No Water! Don't get cracker wet." Somehow datsu = cracker in Silas-speak.

For a while I wondered if something was wrong with his hearing... I would correct him every time he said datsu instead of cracker. Then one day he told me "NO! Not cracker, Mommy. Datsu!" He's not only bossy, he's also very opinionated.

Last Sunday at church Silas pulled a classic. After the first little instrumental /call to order piano bit Silas let out a big "YEAAAaaahhh!" to which everyone laughed. I did my best to hold it in, but I was silently laughing so hard that I was crying. I was also cringing because I just knew that after the next song he'd let out another cheer - which he did. It was cute the first time & of course when a 22 month old can get a reaction - especially a positive reaction - out of a room of over 100 adults that 22 month old is going to keep it up!

I think that has just about exhausted my load of Silas stories. Here's my current favorite picture of our little farmer on his "tractor".