Singing

We named the stuffed Monkey we got in Kentucky 'Lul', he has a little tie on his head to attach to a door and a pull down to extend his legs and sing Brahm's Lullaby. Simon is super cute with Lul and will snuggle and dance while he is playing music and has recently started to sing with him.   When Lul's song ends Simon will bring him over and offer him up to get him to play again.

The singing is adorable. It is very high pitched and mostly just one note. He sings when music is playing or when you're singing or when Lul is playing.  

Misc photos

One of my all time favorite Simon photos!!

We had a playdate with Jackson last week!

Simon being the tickle monster!

Boys being boys...

This was nap time yesterday...I just HAD to sneak a photo

He loves his puppy :)

So cute!

Black eye

Officially a toddler, his first black eye. It is small, on his right. We don't know which of his many tumbles caused it, he just woke up from a nap with it.

Park Last Sunday (7/29)

The first half of the summer flew by for Alan and I and we have resolved to spend August at a slower pace. Part of that is trying to go out and explore more parks while the weather is good. Last Sunday we went to the Montrose Park Beach. Alan and Simon spent some time chasing our big orange ball around, the wind was blowing pretty hard so it caught the ball every once in a while and upped the difficulty. I sat on our blanket and enjoyed watching them play.

This park was pretty large, with an open grassy area and a section of trees, even a beach over a slight rise and it wasn't very crowded on a Sunday afternoon. There was a little cafe with live music for the first 20 or so minutes we were there. One of the best features is a big parking lot and as a bonus there is a bird sanctuary at the end of the park. Sadly the park was very dirty. We will go back, but only when Simon understands not to put trash in his mouth. It was not fun following him around and pulling broken plastic forks, bottle lids and eaten chicken wings from his very fast, very tight grasp. 

More pictures and a long video after the jump...

Chompers

For the past few weeks Simon has been rather grouchy (for him) and hasn't been napping quite as well.  Jenn was the first to think to check the teeth. I thought molars didn't come in until they were 2, but our son is very advanced for his age and getting his first set of molars now. He has his right top, left top and right bottom first set of molars already broken through. I think the bottom left is coming soon ... if not already poking through - Simon doesn't love letting us shove our fingers around in there to find out what's going on. Last successful check was early last week, subsequent queries have met with clenched jaw.

We are using the poor napping as a trigger to shift to a one nap schedule. We started the transition a week or so ago with a gradual movement of the first nap later and the second nap more a calm activity than an actual nap. Or at least that was the plan. Small children scoff at plans. This weekend Alan and I successfully managed two 1 nap days.

Kentucky Visit June 19-23

The 7 hour drive to Kentucky was going great... even Simon was cooperating; though not nearly as sleepy as we'd have hoped, he wasn't screaming. Then the deer changed everything. Our 11 year old honda took the hit like a champ, we didn't swerve or hit the semis that were all around - just that deer. The deer died but all else were safe and sound, though the nervously awaited screaming from Simon did happen. Who can blame the kid though? I wanted to scream, too. Luckily a volunteer fireman stopped right away and called the deputy out to meet us. Even though the hood was crunched the car still managed to make it to the truck stop about 2 miles further down the road - with it's first police escort. Mom met us at the truck stop, we moved all bags and belongings and very, very tired one-year-olds into her car, and Alan took Honda and the lead while we tried to get the Honda closer to Mom's house. The honda drove great and did not overheat on it's 30 minute trip to The Body Shop in Versailles, KY. We were all happy to be home around midnight (original estimated arrival was around 9:30 or 10).

The trip got much better after that. Grandma Patty was prepared with a swing, a kid sized chair, high char, SO MUCH FOOD and a little pool for Simon to play in. She even banned the dogs from the house for a few days and cleaned like crazy so Alan stayed there with no allergy issues!

We spent the trip eating lots of great food (yummy garlic bread) and playing in the pool with the baby. We introduced Simon to cats and horses and he met more dogs. There were so many birds and trees and new sounds that Simon was wide eyed most of the time.

We rented a car for the ride home. Thankfully that ride was uneventful. (And because I posted this so late, I can tell you that Wonderful Nanny Jenn picked up the car the weekend after 4th of July.)

Story in picture form after the jump.

Breaking out

"I know this thing comes undone..."

"I think they do something with this plastic thing..."

"Squeeze? ... Pull? ... Pinch? ..."

"Wait, did it come apart?!"

"SUCCESS!!!!"