Cocoa and Zoo Lights

On Sunday afternoon Sarah and Arjun had a Cocoa and Cookies get together and then everyone went over to Lincoln Park Zoo to see the Zoo Lights. It was a the first time we really pushed past Simon's bedtime and just went for it. He was great the whole time. 

There were a bunch of new people at Sarah and Arjun's but after a few minutes of adjusting he loved them all. There was another little girl there, a 14 month old who wasn't walking yet. I was giving both her and Simon some blueberries and was being clear about which were Simons and which were Lelani's. Simon took one of his blueberries and handed it to Lelani and then signed eat and pointed to her. He was so sweet with her! Patting her hair and waving and saying hi. He got a little crazy toward the end of the party, running around and getting applause from so many people can be quite the high.  

We took the bus to the Zoo and then walked around from around 5:30 to 7:30. He loved it. He walked a ton on his own and was carried for easily 30 minutes by Sarah. Everyone took a turn holding him and he loved it! On the walk to the train he passed out. When we got him to the backyard he was still zonked out and we had him tucked into bed by 8pm. He woke up a bit when we changed him and wasn't the happiest camper but was relieved to get into bed.

From Back Left: Joseph, Arjun, Paul, Alan
From Front Left: Vickie Sarah, Simon, Julie and Emily 

Saturday Park time

We thought we had a party to go to on Saturday, but the party was actually on Sunday. So instead we went to the park and ran around together. It was a great time.

All Simon's Words (or many at least)

If you haven't looked at the word list it's up to 60 words. Lots of them sound similar, but they evolve pretty quickly into the right sounds so we've started adding them to the list or we just lose them. And he's very helpful about pointing or repeating until we understand what he's trying to say. Here are as many of them as we could cover in a few minutes.

Booster seat

Colleen reminded me that I forgot to post pictures of Simon sitting in a booster seat instead of a high chair for breakfast on Sunday morning. He did really well, though Alan or I sat close the whole time because he didn't know that if he leaned too far he would tip over. 

And yes, he is pretend eating from the wall in these pictures.

Family Safari Stop

Today Alan, Simon and I went to Safari Cup this morning and, in what is coming to be a routine, Jenn joined us there and had breakfast with us before work. We spend so much time laughing with Simon. He is a goofball and loves to dance and look around and does things on purpose to make us laugh. He bumped his head against the couch (forehead first) and then touched the back of his head and looked at us and said ouch. We shook our heads and said that didn't hurt it's soft, so he want to the table and bumped his forehead, touched the back of his head and said ouch again with his little mischievous smile. How can you help but laugh at that? 

Simon stares at everyone as they go by, frequently yelling hi or boo at the more interesting people. I had one lady tell me watching him made her day. It made mine too!

Here's a quick video of him eating his french toast, dancing, looking around, getting tickled and generally being cute. After the jump there are a few more pictures.

No Santa and Blood Draw

Yesterday (Tuesday) Jenn brought Simon down to the loop. Alan and I met Jenn and Simon at the Christkindlemart in Daley Plaza so that we could go see Santa as a family. Sadly, Santa only works Friday to Sunday so we didn't get to visit. But we had a great time walking around the Christkindlemart anyway. 

We then headed to the doctor's office for Simon to get blood drawn for his 18 month checkup next week. He was awesome about the blood draw. I had him in my lap and held his body and a nurse held his arm out while another nurse worked the needle and blood vials. The needle wielding nurse was super quick and stuck the needle in almost before Simon started crying and only had to do it the once. He gave a couple really upset cries as he got stuck but even while she was drawing the blood he wasn't as upset. Not happy, but not trying to get away either. He was worried about the bandaid when the nurse came in but by the time his sleeve was pulled down he was fine. We didn't even have any tears at all, just a little bit of distress. Jenn and I decided he was better about it than either of  us are.

Trains say too-toooo!

Jenn says 'hohoho'

After the blood draw Simon got a sticker from the nurse!

I don't think he cared about anything but the sticker by this point.  

Sticky Sticker.

Waiting for the train "too-tooooo"