Happy Chrismukkah!

Simon has had a wonderful holiday season with friends and family. We had the week off of work and we have just been relaxing and enjoying food, company and lots of "special, special treats!"

He doesn't look too thrilled here, but he did enjoy looking at the Macy's windows on State Street.

Happy Hanukkah! Simon is painting his own puzzle.

The first snow of the year came on Christmas Day.

Opening presents is amazing. Better than playing with the presents afterward.

Retail magic, watching a fountain at an electronics store.

Teta

This fall, the little dude has been so lucky to spend time with his Teta. She moved to our neighborhood from Houston in September, and it's great having her here! She has many special powers, one of which is the ability to get Simon to eat healthy food. When we are struggling to get him to eat one kernel of corn, she's got him feasting on mangos, whole grain muffins, and molokhaia, an Egyptian soup made from a leafy green vegetable, chicken stock and garlic. Simon is always happy to go to "Teta's new house." He is helping her settle in to city apartment living. We are also hoping he'll pick up some Arabic!

Boo!

I'd love to put up an adorable picture of Simon in his Halloween costume, but he refused to wear one, or go trick-or-treating. This is the picture we got from his daycare that day:

Oh, well. I said it last year, and I'll say it again: there's always next year.

Big Boy Bed

As I mentioned in my last post about fears, Simon's fears and imagination have been interrupting his sleep routine. It started with him wanting us to leave his door open when he went to bed, then escalated to wanting us to sit with him, then wanting to sleep in our bed with us. There were long lists of excuses and delaying tactics,"I'm hungry" "I'm hot" or just plain "I'm not sleepy." It was a tough few weeks while we tried to find a way to get him settled. We were all pretty sleep deprived.

One of our efforts to make him feel more like sleeping was to remove the side of his crib, converting it into a toddler bed. He has never tried to climb out of the crib, but we thought he might feel more secure if he could get up if he felt scared.

He LOVES the "big boy bed." The first night he fell out once, onto a giant stuffed dog I put next to the bed in case he fell. I was sleeping nearby and he whispered "Mommy, help! I fell down!" I put him back in bed and he went right back to sleep.

There was a lot of getting up and wandering back to our room the first couple of nights, but now he is settled into the new routine and is so proud of himself. "I'm not gonna be scared!" he tells us, and last night he said "I'm going to sleep by myself!" This morning he came into our room at 7:15 saying "I'm all done sleeping now, Mommy."

Groucho

Simon's imagination has really taken off in the last few months. He gives us imaginary birthday presents, and asks us to read him invisible Spider Man books. This has also opened the door to some fears, and they are hard to predict or understand sometimes. He is afraid of "The Boy With the Fan" who apparently lives on our balcony and sleeps on the back stairs, but is invisible to Michael and me. He is also afraid of "The Bee Downstairs" which he says he can see through the glass door at night. He's having some trouble going to sleep by himself, often telling us he's scared, which is another story altogether.

One of his most inexplicable (and let's face it, kind of funny) fears is of Groucho Marx glasses. We discovered this accidentally while reading a book about a hungry bear and a mouse who is hiding a strawberry from him. The mouse disguises the strawberry using Groucho glasses. This video is of the second and final time we read this book. We thought his freaky reaction to it the first time was a fluke.



A month or so later, he spotted this picture on my phone, after we had been to a wedding with a photo booth (complete with costumes). He calls this "the scary baby."

He doesn't get upset when he sees it, and sometimes he asks to see the scary baby. I thought we were making progress. Then tonight we were looking for a movie to watch all together, and we thought Toy Story looked good. We didn't reckon on Mr. Potato Head.

He started screaming and crying as soon as Mr. Potato Head came on screen. Not as bad as with the strawberry, but Toy Story was out of the question. So... I guess it's the nose/moustache combo that's the problem? I have no idea.

Happy Camper

It's been a while! The little dude has been busy. Last weekend we went camping in Wisconsin with Jim, Jami and Noah and the kids had a blast. They LOVED the tent,the sleeping bags, and the hot dogs. On the way home we stopped for some pumpkins and apple pie. A perfect fall weekend.

Simon still roams around in his sleep a lot, so he wound up outside the sleeping bag a few times, but that was the only hiccup.

It's kind of like a simile

Most of the time Simon's chatter is a play-by-play of what's happening at any given moment. His insights are along the lines of "I'm eating pasta with my mouth." (while pointing at his mouth) or "There's a doggy over there, Mommy." Then he repeats what he said, 7-10 times in a row until we demonstrate that we heard and understood him, usually by repeating it back.

Recently he's been getting a little more creative and poetic. He likes to compare something to something else that looks similar and I'm often surprised by what he comes up with.

"It's kind of like a mountain" 

"It's kind of like corn" 

"It's kind of like a moon" 

"I'm kind of like Uncle Pete" 

I can't argue with him; he's right. 

Go west, young dude

We just got back from a delightful trip to Yellowstone National Park and Jackson Hole, Wyoming with Teta, Aunt Beth, Uncle Peter and best of all, Cousin Sawyer! Highights for Simon included the lobby, the gift shop, and doing whatever Cousin Sawyer was doing. He did not care for the geysers and prismatic pools, his only response to them was "I'm hot!" and "I'm wet." Here he is counting how many geysers he can see. Any quantity over 3, he likes to dial it up to 11.



Here are the two little buddies hiking in Grand Teton National Park:

And a few more pics:

Lookalike

So who does Simon look like? Here are some side by side comparisons:

Cousin Pellie

Cousin Sawyer

Gene Kelly

Kenickie from Grease

What do you see?

Simon was whining and crying yesterday, so we had him "take a break" in his crib, he didn't mind at all. When he was done reading this classic Eric Carle book to himself, he declared, "I'm all done crying now, Mommy!"

A few things about Simon

Simon likes to go look out the window after someone leaves the house, to watch them go to their car or to the train.

Simon knows what each of my keys is for, and puts each one in the appropriate lock as we make our way inside from the car.

Simon can turn the door handles and open the doors in the house now.

Simon thinks a watermelon rind is "kind of like a crocodile"

Simon has two 100-piece puzzles he can do by himself.

Simon has no idea what "I'm sorry" means. He says it at random sometimes, not connected to anything I can figure out.

Simon is very shy and kind of freaks out when someone new enters his sphere and tries to interact with him. Strangers in a crowd or at the park are no problem, but when Teta or Mom-Mom and Grampy has a friend come over, he takes about half an hour to relax around them.

Simon used to say "Help, Mommy!" and "Have it!" and now he says "I need some help now, Mommy." and "Give it to me!"

Simon does not like changes to his routine. If you turn right when he is used to turning left, he protests loudly.

Simon refuses to go into a kiddie pool and he doesn't like to go in the sprinkler anymore, but he loves to spray Mommy and Dada with the hose and he loves to play and splash in the bath.

Simon likes to be tucked in before bed, and if he is playing in his bed and then gets tired, he hollers for "Tuck-tucks!" "The feet!" and if that fails, he calls out "Betsy... Beeeeeeeetsy!!!!" which is hilarious and creepy at the same time.

Just in the last month he finally started using a straw, which is very handy at restaurants.

Meeting Cousin Pellie

Joanna and Jordan had their baby on May 30, and her name is Penelope! They are calling her Pellie, and although we talked about her a lot and went to the hospital a couple of times, Simon didn't get to meet her until today. He has had a cold, and we didn't want him to bring germs to their house, so we met them outside at the park. He didn't have much to say to her today, but she was just sleeping. She is now a regular part of his chatter at home.



On his behalf, we say, "Welcome, Cousin Pellie!"

Big guy

Simon had his two year checkup today, and he's officially doing great! He is 34.5 inches and 28.5 lbs., which puts him right in the middle of the pack for his age. It's quite a comeback from when he was down to the 6th percentile for weight at his 15 month checkup.

He eats pretty well for a two year old, still likes raw onions and—even more mystifying—loves sardines. He'll just eat them right out of the can. Teta left some here (great nutritional value!) and we figured we'd let him try them since we weren't going to eat them.

More Birthday, Little Dude!

We combined Simon's family birthday party with Mother's Day. Simon is going to think that EVERY Sunday is his birthday.

Everyone is working on Simon's new puzzle, except Simon.

Happy Birthday, Little Dude!

Simon turned 2 today! Even though we are having our family party for him next week (combined with Mother's Day), we decided to do some fun stuff today. He opened a few presents, ate peanut butter banana pancakes for breakfast, went to the zoo, did a new puzzle (dinosaurs!) and had birthday muffins after dinner with candles. He really seems to understand that birthdays are special, and they involve cake. So he's pretty excited.

Potty

We bought Simon a potty seat a few weeks ago, along with a super fun book about learning to use the potty. He had been showing some interest, and we did some practice sitting on the potty, and read the book about a million times (he LOVED it!). Then it seemed like he lost interest for a while, but last night he asked to sit on the potty before getting in the bath, and for the first time actually used the potty for real!

Okay, it's weird and gross to get all excited about pee, but it's nice to make a little progress toward a diaper-free existence. I think it will still be few months before we potty train him for real, since he can't currently get his pants off by himself. Baby steps!

Wanni waninah

Simon is reading himself a version of Pushkin fairy tales which seems to be hilarious. If only we spoke his language! He is using his favorite incomprehensible phrase, "wanni waninah." He says this all the time, we keep wondering what it means. I think it's just a placeholder, like "yadda yadda yadda".

Here he is learning another kind of language, music.

Spring update

I haven't been as good about updating the blog lately, mostly because I am working full time now. The three month project I have been working on was extended for another six months, so we are getting used to the new schedule for a while. Simon still goes to daycare three days a week, and the other two days he has been spending with my parents or Michael's mom. Simon and his grandparents are really enjoying spending more time together.

He has been making so much progress on his talking, it's amazing. He mostly speaks one or two words at a time, but his vocabulary is huge. Last time I counted it was 150 words, but that was a few weeks ago and he learns lots of new words every week. Now he is starting to mimic complete sentences. The effect is strange because mostly he says things like, "No bath!" and "Two duckies!" but now it's mixed in with random stock phrases, like "What are you doing, Mommy?" and "I don't see it either" and "Doggie, where are you?"

He is also learning a bit of Arabic from Teta. He is singing the alphabet song in three languages!

Spring has come early here, as it has everywhere this year. We have been out at the park a lot, and Simon likes to walk the 5 blocks home from daycare rather than ride in the stroller, stopping to point out all the birds and flowers along the way. He can walk up and down the stairs by himself also (with a spotter in case he trips). And for some reason his hair has gotten more curly lately.

Dance break

Simon still spends most of his time on puzzles, but sometimes he takes a dance break.

The puzzle master

If you are wondering what Simon thinks about, dreams about, and does with his spare time, it's this. Over and over again.

Screamy scream scream

We all have our days, here is Simon having one of his. He's on his way home from daycare with Da-Da, doesn't want to ride in the stroller, doesn't want to walk. He's almost 30 pounds now, so carrying his squirmy butt five blocks home is out of the question.

Warning: if you don't want to hear a toddler scream for 30 seconds, do not play this video. Is it wrong that I find it a little bit funny?

¡Vamos!

Some of Simon's Spanish words are starting to appear in conversation. They speak 90% Spanish at his daycare, and the kids are asked to respond in Spanish as well. We have no idea what he does or doesn't know in Spanish, and it's a delightful surprise when we hear a new word. A few days ago I didn't move quick enough to the request for "milk" so he tried "leche" instead. When that worked, he said "¡Gracias!" My favorite so far is when he comes in the room and wants me to go with him somewhere, he says "¡Vamos!" Luckily, Michael and I can both handle preschool level Spanish.

We got a new camera, but between our incompetence at using it and it being cold and flu season (with accompanying snot) we don't have very many good pictures yet...