Archive for the ‘Sylvan’ Category

My son is a monkey

Posted by julie on Tuesday, 20 February 2007, 22:00

One of the small, agile, climbing kinds. Like a marmoset.

On Sunday morning, I awoke to hear Sylvan talking. I often wake up like this, lying there listening to my son and my husband conversing downstairs. Usually, it sounds like this: “Rubboo . . . on,” followed by Chris’s explanation that rubber-soled shoes only go on when we’re going outside. On Sunday, Sylvan was saying “up,” a word succeeded only a second later by a big thud. And Chris was still next to me in bed! Uh-oh. I ran into Sylvan’s room, where I found him on his hands and knees on the floor, looking surprised with big tears running down his cheeks. Chris quickly gave Sylvan a little head-to-toe pat-down (no broken bones) while I kissed the tears away. So the comfort of having Sylvan caged up like an animal in his bed is coming to an end.

On Sunday evening, we put Sylvan to sleep in a Pack ‘n’ Play, since it’s a little deeper than his crib. I paused the movie, The Singing Detective (even though it’s Robert Downey, Jr., don’t bother), because I heard Sylvan’s doorknob jiggling. Yes, the little escape artist had stealthily scaled the playpen walls, letting himself down gently on the other side. I put him back in so he’d do it again. It was an impressive display of strength and flexibility. He hooked his left heel over, pulled his whole body up, swung his body over the top, and lowered himself gently to the ground. As frustrated as I was that I couldn’t think of how to contain our too-young-to-be-reasoned-with little boy, I was proud of his persistence and agility.

Chris MacGyvered Sylvan’s crib so that the mattress is resting on crates, six inches below where it used to sit. Sylvan might be able to get out of that, too, but he hasn’t yet. He has a nest of sleeping bags and pillows in front of the crib onto which he can throw himself if he feels so inclined. The next step is the mattress on the floor. So my little boy will be up and prowling the corners of his room at night, figuring out how to remove the safety plugs from the outlets and how to scale the bookcase.

Tejana makes me smile

Posted by julie on Tuesday, 13 February 2007, 22:23

Tejana, all wide smiles and dancin’ legs, Tejana with tiaravisited today for a couple of hours. She’s a month and a half younger than Sylvan, but she’s always seemed older than her months – very engaged and communicative. Since Sylvan is getting big, scary molars and has been sick, I was concerned about how two toddlers would treat a tired Mom. They handed each other crackers, stole each other’s water, one of them ate sand, and the other had a short tantrum when I told him he couldn’t go down the slide by himself. They were really fun, and, although I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Tejana, she managed to massage that spot even a little more. She grabbed my hand when we walked down the sidewalk, something I can’t convince my little independent to do (which means I end up carrying him like a writhing sack of potatoes across the street). And, tonight, at our Birth to Three meeting, after we’d been apart for two hours, Tejana, the 20-pound linebacker, barreled right onto my lap, sitting with me to sing songs.

A couple of weeks ago, Tejana illustrated an important point about baby development, namely that all babies develop differently. Something I find interesting is the diversity of ways in which similarly-aged babies gain language. Some sign frenetically, making amazing conceptual leaps when they need to figure out how to say words for which they don’t yet know signs. Some pick up many, many verbal words very quickly, most of which don’t really sound like English but all of which mean something specific to the baby; these babies might also frequently mimic the sounds of words they don’t know. Other babies say very little, but if you ask them to “please take the shoe to Daddy,” they’ll do it without a problem.

Sylvan is an immediate mimicker, so he is the master of a large vocabulary that I don’t always understand. Tejana, however, sat on my lap a couple of weeks ago as I read her a story about a cow, which, I told her, said “moo.” That little girl stared at my lips saying “moo” for probably two minutes while she figured out what she had to do to make that sound. Then she got up, said “moo,” and walked away. Tejana makes me smile.

Burley Babes Get Published

Posted by julie on Friday, 2 February 2007, 10:29

Sylvan and I made it onto Burley’s website and into their downloadable catalog: http://www.burley.com. Click the “Products” link to download the catalog, which has some more cute pics of Sylvan (and a couple of my hidden face).

Sylvan vocabulary update

Posted by jonesey on Tuesday, 30 January 2007, 20:08

This is probably the last time we’ll be able to do this, because Sylvan’s vocabulary is growing every day (literally; he’s picking up two or three new words a day).

This weekend, Julie and I wrote down all of the words that Sylvan uses without being prompted or reminded. These are words that he will either use spontaneously or use correctly when asked “Sylvan, what’s that?”

We were prompted to do this because at his 16-month check-up visit, Sylvan’s doctor asked if he had any words. Julie was a bit taken aback, and replied something like “Sure, lots.” When the doctor asked how many, Julie didn’t know, but she guessed about 50. When she got home and told me this story, I thought it might be closer to 100. So we made a list. Here they are:

another, apple, avocado, backpack, backwards, bag, ball, balloon, bath, bear, bib, bike, bird, book, boot, bottle, bowl, bubble, buckle, burp, button, cardinal, cat, cheerio, cheese, clapping, cookie, daddy, dancing, diaper, dog, door, down, duck, ear, eat, egg, food, giraffe, girl, hat, helmet, hot, jogger, knock, light, lion, magazine, milk, mitten, mom, moon, more, nap, no, nose, off, on, owl, pen, phone, plane, potty, raisin, rock, rocking, rubber, shoe, shower, slipper, snow, sock, spoon, squirrel, stop, teeth, tiger, tongue, top, trousers, truck, tub, under, up, vroom, walking, wall, water, wheel, yucky, zipper

That was the list, 91 words, as of Saturday. He has learned another five or ten words since then. It’s amazing. We really have to watch what we say, because he’s absorbing all of it and repeating most of it.

The words are mostly nouns, as are most of the best words in English, but he has his share of verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

Amazing.

Sylvan’s old-school Nike/Duck wear

Posted by jonesey on Wednesday, 29 November 2006, 11:16

Sylvan NikesI don’t know where Sylvan got this sweet Oregon Ducks track suit. The vintage (and tiny; his feet barely fit in them) Nikes with waffle soles were originally worn by Chris Wiesemann, my co-worker. They remind me of the track flats I used to wear in high school: just enough rubber underfoot to prevent major pain, and just enough nylon over the foot to hold on the rubber waffle. Ouch.

Sliding alone

Posted by julie on Tuesday, 14 November 2006, 23:23

Sylvan and I enjoyed today’s clear sky, occasionally tracked with bands of clouds boding precipitation for tomorrow, by spending a large portion of the afternoon playing in the park. He only ate a little sand. He figured out how to climb to the top of the playground equipment, where there were two slides – one wide and shallow, another twisting and faster. After joining me on the shallow slide, Sylvan climbed up and tried to launch himself off the slide head-first. I grabbed the back of his sweater, sat him down, and held his hand so he’d slide slowly. After allowing me to do that a couple of times, he climbed up, and, at the top, turned around as if he were going down a stair, and slid down on his belly, facing me at the top. He went down the slide on his own!

Stay Puft at Benson Lake

Posted by julie on Sunday, 5 November 2006, 1:02

The road followed the McKenzie River, winding through the school-bus- yellow big-leaf maple leaves standing out against trunks that are finally almost black with rain. The soundtrack for the scene is a mix CD that Patrick made when he lived in Hanover – mostly country, with some zydeco and late-80s alt rock thrown in because it’s Patrick. Patrick. He’s getting married tomorrow, marrying Sibel, who is smart and beautiful, but, most of all, good to Patrick. And we won’t be there. Chris can’t leave work this week because his employees are at a conference through Wednesday, and I simply couldn’t imagine traveling to South Carolina alone with Sylvan and enjoying a wedding while chasing around a toddler. I can’t believe we’re missing Patrick’s wedding, though. After all these years!

Patrick loved living in Oregon. Listening to his music, driving through the rain and the autumn colors, I started thinking about all of our great friends who are scattered across the country, many of whom we rarely see, and I wondered if I truly appreciated being with them when we spent every day together in high school, college, or grad school. Then I think about the amazing places out there that I’ll never see – places right outside my back door and places half a world away. What kind of cruel joke is a dinky 90-year lifespan (if I luck out and follow in my grandmoms’ footsteps)? Okay, maybe that was a leap, but that’s what I was thinking about. I spent 2.5 hours driving today while my one passenger and listener slept, so I did a lot of thinking.

Sylvan playing in a puddle at the Benson Lake THI looked in the rearview mirror at Sylvan, his lips puffy and pursed with sleep. I love it here, too. I wish my family weren’t so far away. Aside from that, I just want to hug this place every day. Sylvan and I were headed up near McKenzie Pass today to hug a place before the snow came and closed the road for the season; Chris said that the snow level is supposed to come down to 3000 feet on Tuesday, which means that Sylvan and I were probably the last folksSylvan smiling at Benson Lake to hit Benson Lake without skis this season (and my guess is that the ski up the highway is a little much even for dedicated winter campers). It also means that, yippee!, ski season is right around the corner. After some time spent playing in the parking lot puddle, we set out for a little 1.3 mile walk up to Benson Lake, which was gray and rippled with wind. As you can see from his gravelly fingers, the beach was a hit. Sylvan stomped and splashed in the water (thanks for the hand-me-down boots, Silas) and had a full-blown, arched- back toddler screaming fit at Benson Lake. Was he too cold? Hungry? In need of breastmilk? Frustrated that I insisted on helping him in the water? I don’t know, but I layered him up with a puffy jacket under his hunter orange rainsuit, breastfed him in a rain shower while conducting all my heat to a hunk of basalt that darn well better have appreciated it (Yes, the rock, not Sylvan. I know what I’m modifying here.), and shared 5 ounces of tasty sharp cheddar with him. He smiled his charming smile and agreed to happily chatter with me for the first half of the 1.3 downhill miles. Then he conked out, not falling over in the backpack because, with his layers, he resembled the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

In the parking area, at an old quarry, the leftover boulders proved a good hiding place for pikas. One eeped at us as we stripped off our raingear. I explained that pikas are related to rabbits, that they cut, dry, and cache plants for the winter, and that I’ve rarely heard them in Oregon. Sylvan just wanted to get into the car, point at the lights, and devour Cheerios.

Unintentional Poetry

Posted by julie on Friday, 3 November 2006, 22:51

New Words 11/2

DOOR
BOOT
maybe SHOE
UH-OH
MOO
COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO

Elvis is in the building

Posted by julie on Wednesday, 1 November 2006, 2:00

catolantern.JPGToday felt like fall in New England – bright and crisply cold. Last night was our first frost; the tomato plants are graying and wilty, but I did find five more decent tomatoes. I guess I can finally pull out the plants and either plant some cover-cropping crimson clover or blanket the garden with leaves. It was 17 degrees last night, which tied 2002 for the record low for the date.

Sylvan and I celebrated fall and our new bike trailer by getting around via bicycle today, despite temperatures that didn’t climb out of the 40s until late this afternoon. This new trailer is narrower than the old one, which makes me much more comfortable riding with traffic, and it has a stroller wheel that can swing down when the trailer and bike are separated. This is super-useful when one has a child who simply can’t stay awake when the vehicle/swing/bicycle/backpack is in motion; instead of sitting and reading the New Yorker while Sylvan slept, I shopped for feta, got a coffee, and solicited for donations for the Friends of Buford Park’s silent auction.

Sylvan in leaf pileSylvan helped me rake maple leaves this afternoon. Well, okay, the verb rake is a stretch; Sylvan wasn’t so good with the rake, and I managed to uncover only a very small portion of the yard, but it didn’t matter, because at least one of us obviously had fun.

Sylvan happy in the leaves

Sylvan sneering as ElvisAnd here is Elvis from his 70s Vegas years, a costume Sylvan was able to wear three times this season, since he’s such a little party animal. He wore the costume well, despite its short length, since I made it from a 6-9 month sleeper, and scratchy neck. He also had to deal with eyeliner sideburns and chops and a scarf that was so long for the first party that he stepped on it again and again. He’s a trouper. This photo is from the first party and shows the costume best, although the thunderbird my Mom suggested I make for the back is quite impressive but not quite visible in this photo.

Sylvan and Mommy, models

Posted by julie on Saturday, 28 October 2006, 22:17

Sylvan and I are going to be famous — in Eugene. And everywhere where bikes are sold. And among active parents looking for creative ways in which to haul their offspring. Sylvan and I were in the right place at the right time last week when our friend Cary, the marketing director at Burley, called. Burley, located in Eugene, designs and builds bicycle trailers, bikes, baby joggers, and raingear. Cary had plenty of men who work for Burley who could take part in a photo shoot the next day for their new trailers, but he needed women. I’m sorry, what actually happened was that Cary called and said, “We’re having a photo shoot for Burley’s new catalog, and we need superbly attractive moms and their adorable children. I immediately thought of you and Sylvan.”

So of course we said yes. Well, Sylvan said, “daw,” but that’s just because the photo shoot was in the park, with its plentiful pooches. We just viewed the photos, and some are fantastic; it’s amazing what a professional photographer can do. Unfortunately, we can’t post any of the photos on our blog, but, let me tell you, they’re great! And, when they’re published on Burley’s website or in a print catalog, I’ll let you know.