Eating with a Spoon

Simon loves spoons. Actually, he loves all utensils, but spoons are the ones we let him play with most frequently (also forks with corks). We haven't really spent a lot of time letting him feed himself with the spoon because you need time to devote to something like that ... both for the eating/figuring it out and the cleanup afterward. Today was that day. He did great. Fed himself a quite a few spoonfuls - notice he holds it with his left hand. I'm not sure if that's because he's actually left handed or because he wanted his dominant hand free to stuff food in his mouth with his fingers (see later pictures).

The green stuff is mashed potato with asparagus - just the right amount of sticky to hang on to an upside down spoon. There is ham beside it (sometimes stuck into it). In later pictures there are carrots with a bit of rice cereal to thicken them.

This isn't so hard! Why'd they wait so long to give me this darn spoon!

Spoons are ok, but hands still work too.

Morning at the Park

We went to the park this morning and had some fun. Here's a few photos and a quick movie. We climbed up the stairs and slid down the slide at the very end of the movie (not the one that he bangs on).

Last week fun

Walking down the side of the garage in his cute sweatshirt.

Beach day!

We went to the Lincoln Park Zoo and saw the cows, Simon calls them "mmmmm"

And Zebras!! (which he thinks are dogs. so cute)

Blowing the Zebras kisses.

Playing the piano at Family Grounds

One man band

Simon drinking from a straw for the first time! What a big boy!

Simon saying banana "nanana" SO cute

Simon sign update

We've focused on words the last few posts, but Simon still communicates a lot with signs and we're continuing to teach him new signs. He picks them up really fast and it reduces the wining and crying faces because he can say exactly what he wants. Here is an update on the signs that Simon knows and the new ones we're actively teaching him.

Signs Simon knows:

1. More
2. Milk
3. Drink
4. All Done (cross hand/wrists in front of you and move apart)
5. Food/Eat (which we also use for hungry)
6. Book (as in 'Read it to me')
7. Please
8. Dog (Simon just does the pant part that we put with it)
9. Diaper (as in 'change my diaper')
10. I'm sleepy, time for bed.  (This is one we made up. Simon touches his head with one hand for 'I'm tired' and with both hands for 'I'm really tired.')
11. Where'd it go? (Amy/Lisa taught him this in early July and it's one of his favorite signs. He puts both hands up in the are and makes a question noise with his voice, usually while looking down around for whatever he dropped or we took away.)
12. Jenn (Also one we made up. We were trying to teach him Jenn's name and it turned into a sign. It's Simon tapping his own chest!)

New signs we are teaching Simon:

1. Airplane
2. Swing - put your first and second fingers pointed down with the other fingers and thumb tucked up, like you're making little legs and swing your hand at the wrist. This is much simpler than the one on baby signs. Learned it from a speech therapist mom at the park!
3. Shoes
4. Swim
5. Wind
6. Happy
7. Hurt
8. Monkey
9. Down - point down 

Mr. Clean

Recently Simon has started taking napkins and wiping down everything he can reach... the floor, the walls, his face.  I'm not sure where he got the idea that cleaning is fun (Emily) but he loves doing it... especially when he can find tasty treats by inspecting the napkin after cleaning the floor.

Beach Boy

Emily and I took Simon to the beach a couple of weeks ago.  He had been to one with Jenn a few months ago but this was the first time we had taken him.  Some of the beaches along the lake are really dirty and crowded, but we found one a bit further north that was super clean and empty.  Getting there was sort of a pain but worth it to keep Simon from picking up a piece of trash ever 10 steps.

He didn't love being in the water (I think the waves freaked him out a bit) but he had a blast playing with and eating the sand.  We all got super messy though... we're STILL finding sand around the house.

Putting on sunscreen is nobody's favorite part

More pics after the jump... 

This Morning

This morning we did lots of walking around and chatting. Just a normal morning in the life. The tongue is out in some of these pictures because he's getting all 4 of his first molars right now so his mouth hurts. The video has a few words in it and a bit of walking.

So many more pictures after the jump.