18 Month Photo Shoot Christmas Present from Jenn

Jenn's amazing Christmas present to us was a photo shoot of Simon in the same place she took the 6 month shoot so you can really see how much he has grown in the past year. Below are my 15 favorites (ha!) but she took a bunch of pictures. I also added a couple of the 6 month photos that are really similar so you can see how much difference a year makes!

from 6 month shoot

from 18 month shoot

From 6 month shoot.

Playing with Trainset

Simon is playing with the train set he got for Christmas. And yes, we did get him a couple of Chicago CTA trains.

Grandpa Swinging Simon

Some morning fun with Simon. Thanks to Kiki for taking the video!

Snowing!

It was snowing yesterday so Simon and I went to the park and then across the street into the garden at the school to play in the snow a bit. Simon is wearing new boots that he's not great at walking in yet. 

Bed head.

Bath time

Grandpa Bart and Grandma Kiki Christmas Visit

Grandpa Bart and Grandma Kiki came up for Christmas week. There were many days of unwrapping presents and lots of fun playing with grandparents and lots new toys. In addition Simon discovered bubble wrap (he was delighted by jumping on it) and Dad and Kiki read more children's books than they thought possible.

It was a cold week and while we toughed it out one day at the park (see sliding picture below!) it was a pretty indoor week. Grandma Kiki came up with the best Christmas activity which will certainly become a family tradition: Going to the train exhibit at the botanic gardens.  The trains were a hit with everyone, especially a certain 18 month old who loves trains. Simon spent over an hour just staring around the room in awe. He'd get excited and point as they went by. There are some really beautiful pictures from the train expo, they are all the way at the bottom after the jump so you'll need to look through lots of great pictures to get to them.

Family Christmas Photo

Family Christmas Photo 2

At Holiday Train Expo
(note Simon not paying any attention to the camera, there were trains to watch!) 

So many more pictures of the week after the jump.

Second Christmas (Sunday December 23rd)

Second Christmas of 2012 was on Sunday the 23rd of December. Jenn came over and Simon, Grandpa Bart, Grandma Kiki, Colleen, Alan and I unwrapped presents for Jenn and from Jenn. It was a great day of family time and new toys!

First Christmas Present 2012

Table and chairs from Gaga Cindy and Pawpa Ken! Yay. 

6 Videos from past few months

We just set Jenn up with my youtube account so she can upload videos easily from her phone. As a result, we have a bunch of videos taken in the past few months. First one is from just a few days ago, but there are some from September in here too. They are roughly in time order going backward.

Jenn and Simon

Jenn and Simon like to watch the cars and look at the lights out the window. 

Cheese!

Second Haircut - by a professional this time

The weekend before Christmas we finally brought Simon to a barber to get his hair cut. It was getting so shaggy and the 90s cut on the side wasn't looking as cool.  We were pretty nervous about how it would go down, but decided to give it a go.

The best way to get ready for a hair cut is a good lunch. Then we went to Snippets and got a kids haircut. It was a breeze. It's like they knew exactly what to do!

To our surprise, Simon LOVES mustard.

He sucked the mustard off of the ham and tried to double dip.
We were still eating the mustard ourselves, so insisted on a new piece of ham as mustard vehicle. 

We took some of time to get used to the chair, tools and place.
Simon is combing his own hair to get things started.

They had a Thomas the Train cartoon playing on a TV right in front of him.
 The best distraction in the world.

Not sure what to think of this....

Good thing I have my comb and squirt bottle.

Almost done!

Santa Sighting #2

On Friday before Christmas Alan, Jenn, Simon and I went to the Loop to see Santa in the Chriskindlemart in Daley Plaza. Sadly, this Santa wasn't as good as the Santa we saw on Lincoln Ave. He wasn't very nice and Simon was a little scared of him. I was unfortunately in these pictures. 

Very excited to go.

Trains in the lobby!

Hmmm... I don't know if I like this guy.

Nope. Mama, stay between us.

Jenn's Picture.

Official Picture.

Santa Sighting #1

We saw Santa and Mrs. Claus on Lincoln Ave when we were walking home from Whole Foods. What a great impromptu picture!

What Simon is doing at a Year and a Half

Simon's a year and a half now so I wanted to post some of the things he's doing that we love. He's been doing some of these things for a while, but it seemed a good time for a summary post.

See the full list after the jump:

Buckling Buckles

Simon learned lots of new words this weekend. Buckle and Open are the big ones which he shows off in this video as he buckles his high chair buckles (another new skill).  He likes to do this over and over for as long as we're willing to keep opening them back up for him. He can even close them if he's sitting in the chair, but thankfully hasn't figured out how to open them on his own. He also learned Dude (said while giving a thumbs up sign), Okay, Big and Bag this weekend. He also says Click, but I'm going with that as a noise not a word. 

Pictures of the Day: 12/13/12

What? Only fruit for breakfast?

I see me on the phone!

That is me!

I love my picture getting taken!

Doesn't he look old? Still only 18 months.