Silas has gained a ton of confidence this last week and is now excited
to take more than two steps.

Weight – 6oz (30th %)
Height – 29 3/4" (50th %)
Head – 18 7/8" (90th %) : big brain!!

Dr. Kamon predicts walking any minute!

The kids are ready to go fishing and horseback riding (or back horsing
as Elsie prefers to call it).

The kids are ready to go fishing and horseback riding (or back horsing
as Elsie prefers to call it).

We’re up in Montana and Silas has found the best toy ever. The
princess castle play set is the most fun he’s had all day and he’ll
spend 20 minutes playing with it alone.

Lisa’s daughter Sloane makes a visit to Pam and Kevin’s to see her friend Elsie.

It’s a lovely day in June when you feel like walking to the
restaurant. Not too hot and a nice breeze.

Having a helper in the back seat rocks!

Sun protection (and wine) is very important on sunny days.

Note to parents of young new skiers – ski school for newbies is often high priced day care with minimal amounts of skiing. There is a lot of waiting and the magic carpet is pretty flat (no real need for pizza). They do focus a lot on making it fun, putting on equipment and practicing the leg work inside – so its not a loss.  But possibly consider 1 day a ski school and 1 day of skiing with parents. The Edgie Wedgie was a must (pink tube holding the tips together)!

Elsie was giving them all her mermaid wisdom … she had just fed the sting rays and was very impressed with herself.

After the tour we ate in the Water room … Silas was too interested in his lunch to watch the fish.

Finally a quick shot of our little Shark lover!

He continues to GROW sticking it out in 60th percentile for both height and weight – very different stats from his sister.

Stats
Height: 26 1/2″ (60th %)
Weight: 17lbs 11.5 oz (60th %)
Head: 17 1/2″ (75th)

Silas is already chowing down on solids, sitting unassisted, grabbing items and putting them into his gob and rolling around – Milestones complete!

Being weighed …

You know how big I am? I am THIS big! Captain chubby pants!

Silas is completely enamored with his sister – apparently everything she does is hilarious!

Our pediatrician does a great job of make shift toys –  immediately put into his mouth.

Silas is a big hit at the office, but the biggest hit is Elsie – Dr. Kamon and Nurse Karen always love a visit from little miss chatty. Today before we even made it into the room Elsie had negotiated Silas’ shot sucker since he was clearly too little for a treat.

My mom (mrs.crafty) decided to go a bit crazy with the cricut! We also got to use my Grandma Richau’s fall china – fabulous!

Gobble Gobble!!

Fortunately I am handing over my miniature to Arielle our new nanny (yes, this name goes over quite well with Elsie!) who is amazing.  We are excited to have her with the kids!

He is Mr. Giggle-pants after the roll

Silas had his 4 month check up and all is well. We snapped some photos and then looked back at Elsie’s 4 month apt and were amazed at the similarities (well in looks, Silas is clearly a biggety-big!)

Weight: 15lbs 1 oz (70%)
Height: 24 7/8 (65%)

I first dyed the sweatshirt Kelly green (mistake) and then moved to rit dark green. I took a Jets logo and remade it in illustrator including the plane on the back so I could size it just right. This was my first machine applique – I took it very slow and really tried to stick to the edge (I am clearly not cut out for quilting).

I fabric painted the JETS on the plane using the freezer paper tutorial from MADE and it worked like a charm!

Here she is our little Jets Fan!

Here is the finished costume … the hat is odd, is he a pope goldfish? Silas also agreed that he looked funny …

Here is the Jellyfish – I used a clear umbrella and attached some elastic to make the contraption easier to carry, after many times putting the costume on I finally added the pat benetar headband for stability and for Halloween night we added purple glow necklaces …

Elsie practiced Jelly fish moves – which included Woop, Woop sound effects

Saffie was Snow white for the big day – here are the cousins off to gather loot

Mountain Shadows had a Halloween parade – here is the Jellyfish, and you can see Mrs. Walters following behind …

Beck toured the neighborhood as a Giraffe, and the Pope-fish stayed home with Momma to hand out candy

Here is elsie doing her loot dance … we emptied her bucket back into our candy bowl and gave most of it back to the neighborhood.

Earlier in the day we carved pumpkins …

Happy Halloween!

• 11lbs 9.5 oz
• head: 15.5″
• height: 22.5″

While in the kitchen I heard a high pitched “WHY HELLOOOOO, I would love some cake!” We went into the front room to see Uncle Greg having a tea party – Greg was playing the part of the Queen of England.

Next they went outside to play dinosaurs … Greg and the girls hid in the play house, while a wine-drinking-T-Rex (Hey Josh without a beer!) tried to get inside.

Apparently the TRex got in the house and was scared by the plaid-wearing-Spinosaurus.

Its hard work playing dinosaurs!

We miss you Uncle Greg – here’s to hoping you come back to Boulder soon!!

Beware TRex – you are next!

Here are a few shots of the big sister in her element …

Cuddling baby silas – making sure to support his floppy noggin.

Getting ready to read stories in her big girl bed

Getting loves from silas after a wasp bite

And snuggling the swaddle monkey

Well done Big Sister!

glowing baby below

7lbs 4oz, 20″ long and 13.25″ head – very similar to Elsie’s measurements.

Here is Mandy seeing Silas for the first time

Silas was a bit cold after he came out, so he cooked a little under the heat lamps to get him nice and warm

Grammy was going to come in and keep Mandy company in the OR after I left with Silas, but she had to take Elsie to school, and missed out on all the fun.

Here is the picture window in our room – no kidding, this is what we see lying in bed! Please refer to the prior post about the mural we painted last month to see how this view inspires us.

Elsie has been very excited to meet her baby brother and welcome him. She came up to the hospital right away after school and had a little frog blanket to give to Silas. He gave her a little bracelet with her name in it!

She was very excited to hold him

And was the most gentle girl with him – though once he started crying softly, she was a little disturbed and wanted to hand him back – smart girl!

You can find a few more photos in our Silas album linked below (the cupcakes were the gift we bought for the nurses when we arrived – and yes, that is bacon on the chocolate cupcake).

1. Some birds live in the forest, but some birds don’t

2. Giraffe’s eat leaves, but wolves eat rabbits … and they howl like this “AwwwWoooo”

Both very true  :)

The house backs to the beach and the waves are perfect for 3 years olds so we have been spending much of our day running from the beach to the pool and back again (a perfect energy burn for toddlers!)

The dads took the kids out in the Kayak … the kids acted as the boat coxswain (faster, faster, over there) – Scott was a great listener!

elsie decked out in her swim cap (to hold her hair),  her goggles and her swim bubble (a great invention for self sufficient toddlers in the water) …

If we aren’t swimming in the ocean, we are swimming in the splash pool.

And favorite past time is jumping in …

More beach

Time to collect Shark teeth …

The yard is covered with fabulous shady palm trees which drop coconuts, scott spent an hour opening the treasure, we spent a few minutes gnawing on it, and then Scott and Mark whipped it into yummy coconut rice.

Elsie and Nicholas are perfect sidekicks – they spend most of the time swimming and then relaxing

They have managed to watch Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs at least 10 times …

View from our rooftop where yesterday we had fabulous massages

Finally the superheros! We put the costumes on and the kids set out to save a baby turtle on the beach!

Today we are finally headed out of the house to do some exploring in the local town …  more to come

Josh was on hand just in case we needed him (also note the beer in his hand, I actually am not sure I have a photo of Josh without a beer in his hand).

Even saffie did some driving …

Our neighbor Meredith was also out and everyone took turns (3 year olds taking turns, can it be?) – Elsie opted to run next to the car while when she wasn’t in the drivers seat – whatever burns energy!

I got the starter outfits at target for $8 each, and Hobby Lobby was having a sale on La-me, 2 nights of sewing and basic superhero costumes are ready!

Batcuffs!

I would have put them on my mini-model, but she is snoozing it up! More photos from Mexico!

The instructor recommended we purchase a bike with pedals and bring it to class to start the transition. So for Elsie’s 3rd birthday – we headed to the bike store determined to select a unisex bicycle that our next child could share …  of course, Elsie and I settled on Purple with Butterflies. The bike is quite a bit heavier and pedaling is a whole new concept. She is desperate to ride the pedal bike and keeps at it …

Tonight after dinner Elsie and Mark were outside practicing – she burst in the house and wanted me to come and see what she could do …

Well done stinker!

This easter elsie was really into the Easter bunny. While at the mall she desperately wanted to sit on the Bunny’s lap and ask it some very important questions – sadly it turned out to be a Mute, but she waited patiently to get some tickles anyway. This is when my mom announced that Elsie was officially ready for Disney Land!

The next morning before Brunch, we decided to color some easter eggs – I find this wasteful because we rarely use any of the hard boiled eggs – but its tradition, so out came the coloring pills and cups. Elsie (with Grammie and Mommies help) followed the Martha Stewart sticker method …

We ended up with some very fabulous colored eggs spelling out Elsie – I vowed to make deviled eggs, but who am I kidding, I can’t cook.

We had brunch at the Flatz restaurant which is a humungous (Elsie thanks Murray from sesame street for that word!) buffet which is perfect for pregnant woman and boys.

The girls quickly made friends with the stuffed bunny – and so far saffie felt safe …

until you know who showed up. Saffie is very clear that she does not care for Santa, The Red Robin or the Easter bunny. Elsie on the other hand monopolized the bunnies morning.

The brunch was filled with many yummy treats – and elsie zeroed in the chocolate covered strawberries!

After brunch we had a mini egg hunt in our backyard with the girls – G.G. Ruby created her traditional candy filled nests and the girls had a great time hunting them down. (grammie did a great job of hiding the nests in very obvious places).

We also sent the girls on a mini-scavenger hunt to find their easter basket. This year I took photos of the places they were to look to find their clues which eventually led them to the baskets (again in plain sight!).

Happy Easter from the Sladdens!