The Great Outdoors

We took advantage of the long Memorial Day weekend by heading about 3 and 1/2 hours outside D.C. to Highland County, Virginia to camp with friends from church.

As soon as we arrived Saturday afternoon, we headed with the group to the nearby Bullpasture Gorge. This involved strapping Silas into the Ergo baby carrier and carrying him across a suspended bridge to the banks of the Bullpasture River, where a wooden ladder up a tree led to a platform and a rope swing where one could clutch the rope tightly, fly out above the river, and drop into the water below.

After several other young men had done so, I (Matt) decided to show young Silas -- and the assembled group -- how daring and fearless I could be. I hopped up the ladder, grabbed the rope, jumped off the platform -- and precipitously dropped. Before I could appreciate why those standing onshore were gasping and shrieking, my feet, shins, and knees had dragged across the rocks in the shallowest part of the river.


The principal casualty of this accident, other than my pride, was my right knee, which was somewhat bloodied and bruised. I consider myself lucky that I did not break a bone, although Taylor almost busted a rib laughing at me.


Upon returning to the campsite, we saw that most of our fellow campers had already pitched their tents along the side of the river that bisected the 75-acre farm where we were staying.


Concerned that Silas' nighttime theatrics might disturb our fellow campers, we set up our tent at the far end of the camp, hoping that the distance would allow the other campers to sleep soundly.

To our great surprise, there was little need for such concern given that Silas slept far better in the wilderness in a laundry basket than he does in his climate-controlled bedroom on his organic sheets in his Asian hardwood crib while Mozart plays in the background.


Each night, we set Silas to bed at the appointed hour in a regular laundry basket stuffed with a flat pillow. The basket fit his 19-pound frame perfectly and provided an ideal sleeping surface for him. Around 1:30 or 2 a.m., as the temperature dropped in the mountainous country, we brought Silas onto the air mattress with us for warmth.

Silas loved the trip. He enjoyed the sound of the river, the dirty farm dogs wandering about, and the many campers eager to hold him and play with him. Perhaps his only difficulty on the trip -- of which he seemed oblivious -- was the quite unusual sunburn he incurred as a result of his father's attempt to avoid getting sunscreen in his eyes. This gap in sunscreen application led Silas to develop red circles around each of his eyes that contrast sharply with the rest of his face, where SPF 50 protected his thin, pale skin. He looks like a raccoon.

To sum up (and to indulge Taylor's obsession with puns): Silas was one happy camper.

Silas' Dedication

The big event in Silas' life last week was his dedication at our church. It was a very special day where we were happy to host family and friends for the dedication itself and a big brunch at the house.

Silas (and his father, who is quickly tiring of Bright Baby: First Words) was very pleased to get some new books as gifts.

There was lots of babbling and squeals of delight. Silas made some funny noises also.

P.S. A big shout out to our friends Caroline and Enrique, whose daughter Lucy was born last week.

Adventures in Babysitting

Taylor here. According to Matt, he's too "intimidated by my blogging skills" (read: lazy) to update very regularly.

Things have been going well in the Jones household. I've made the transition to working fairly massive-emotional-breakdown-free and Matt has been a superstar as a stay-at-home parent. Seriously... He's much better at this job than I was. The first few days were a little hard on him (and Silas), but now, they have an awesome routine going. Matt has even gotten Silas to a place where he naps regularly and goes down without a massive battle of wills. And Silas seems really happy.

Good times!

That doesn't mean that the two of them haven't had any amusing adventures, however. The penalty for making your wife write the blog entry this week: she's going to tell the four people that read it about some of your more hilarious moments in parenting.

Adventure #1: Like I said, the napping situation is much improved. But this was not the case when Matt first took over. The first few days, Silas fought each nap with every ounce of will in his tiny 17lb body. Matt, reasonably concluding that this situation was untenable, perused the fifteen baby sleep books I had purchased when I was at home with him dealing with the nap situation myself and decided to try out the "Pick Up Put Down" method of sleep training. This method requires you to lay the baby in his crib for naps and once he starts crying, you may pick him up. You may only hold him, however, for as long as it takes for him to stop crying. At that point, you have to put him back in the crib immediately. If he starts crying, pick him back up. Once he stops, lay him down. Rinse. Repeat. Matt tried this... 45 times. When (shockingly) it didn't work, Matt decided to try the one thing that the sleep training book described as a "last resort."

He climbed into the crib with Silas. Yes, folks, my husband hauled his 160lb body into our child's tiny crib. When I inquired as to how he got out of the crib without waking Silas up, he looked at me like I was crazy and explained that he stayed in the crib for the duration of the nap and just fell asleep himself.

Yes, honey, I'm the one that's crazy here. You're a thirty year-old man who just napped in a crib.

(Thanks to Matt for being a good sport and reenacting the scenes from this week's adventures so that I could document them for the blog)

Adventure #2: Yesterday, Matt decided to do some straightening up while Silas played on his playmat in the living room. As he cleaned up the kitchen, he noticed that the trash needed to be taken out. He grabbed the trashbag, headed down the basement stairs right out the back door to where our outside trashcans are and he shut the door behind him. When he tried to go back inside, he realized that the door was locked. He ran around to the front door and found that it was locked as well. Right around that time, he heard Silas start to cry, alone, by himself in the living room. So, Matt did what any reasonable, completely panicked parent would do. He scaled the side of the house, and shimmied in through a window that no adult man should be able to fit through, destroying the screen and knocking over several glass picture frames in the process. And Silas was fine. He was probably only alone for five minutes or less.

I knew Matt's monkey-like ability to climb would come in handy one day

I don't know, that's a really tiny window.

And still, he fits through it. Huh.

We also had a great visit from our friends Julia, Dayana, and Karla this week. Silas got some cute clothes, a growth chart with a dinosaur on it, and some sweet sweet kisses.

Peas Are for Suckers

Among the foods that Silas has sampled to date, he has been quite clear about which is his least favorite: peas. It is unclear whether the taste or the texture offends him more, but each feeding of peas invariably produces cringing, spitting, and gagging. Here's a video of our second attempt, and Silas' typical reaction.