Blackberries

Blackberry gotee

More please!

Jenn, this is Yummy!

I'm taking my time with this one...

Sucking the guts out of my blackberry.

Basque Visit - Sept 1-3

We had a great visit with the GrandParents Basque over Labor Day weekend. Simon is like a sponge now, learning words and signs at a crazy rate and generally understanding everything you say to him. That doesn't mean he does what you tell him, just that he understands it. 

The whole weekend was pretty overcast, but since it never rained it just reduced the crowds for us. On Saturday we went to the spice house and got all new spices. It happened that there Old Town was having a street fair so we got to listen to live music and walk in the blocked off street. It was Simon's first exposure to live music and he *loved* it. (We recently tried to replicate with a Rock Band session, but it just wasn't the same.)

Then on Sunday we went to the Lincoln Park Zoo! It was tons of fun. Because it's free we didn't feel a lot of pressure to do everything and could just leave when Simon started giving some tired warning signs. We did get to see the monkeys swinging, fish, zebras, cows and LOTS of birds. Simon was making animal sounds like crazy. And for a few weeks afterward when he saw a giraffe he called it "dada" because Daddy was holding him when he saw the giraffe at the zoo. (Took us a while to figure that one, but we're pretty sure.) 

We even had a Monday morning trip to the park and some sprinkler time.  It was a very fun and very full weekend.

At the park, playing with the bell-tube things.

Tons of pictures after the jump...

Angry Juice

A quiet afternoon of block stacking goes horribly wrong when Simon hits the bottle and then the tower

End of summer photos

Simon Relaxing on Alan!

He saw some dogs that were much more fun than us.

Matching dad!

I love this photo! He smiles when you say 'cheese' now!!

Showing off his muscles at the park! 

Bird obsessed!

Just relaxing with a magazine...

Growling at squirrels. 

Cutest baby!

Simon signing "car"

serious Simon

DOG!!!

Spinning...

Adorably, Simon has now learned to spin. He does it when he's dancing or just to do it. Usually he staggers around afterward and tumbles all over the place. It's pretty funny to watch. 

He loves the phone so much though that now when he sees it he comes around to watch what you're watching on the phone screen. It's pretty adorable and has made taking videos rather more difficult.

Make believe

Simon has learned make believe. He will go around with a scoop and a bucket and take samples of a bunch of things and mix them up and then take 'tastes' of them. He'll very generously also share a taste with you. 

He was playing make believe with the empty lunch bowl yesterday. But the pictures looked like I was starving him so I put some rasins and dried blueberries in his little bowl for him to move around and play with .

Two spoons are better than one.

And a hand is best.

Yum.

Wait... how did rasins end up in my cup?

New Googley Eyed Shirt

His outfit today just made me smile. We will have to watch him though because the little googley eyes are also quite tasty.

Scared of the delicious popsicle

Simon both loves and fears the popsicle... Why is it so delicious and yet so COLD?

Picture of the Day: 9/14/12

Blueberry Muffins.

Last night we made blueberry muffins and this morning while Simon and I were in the back watching the birds and clouds I gave Simon a bite of mine to see if he liked it. Simon LOVE LOVE LOVED the muffin. In short order I was begged for more and finally just handed him what was left, about half a muffin. It was intense... he loved it so he squeezed it but then he kept dropping crumbs (unacceptable!) so he'd lean over to pick up the crumbs and pop them into his mouth. A couple rocks accidentally got included in the cleanup effort. Those weren't as good though, so were spit out with great fanfare (so sad I didn't get that face on film!).

3 Years...

Thanks so much, Jenn and Colleen and Simon. What an amazing present. We love it!

Simon loves bananas.

In case you did not know, Simon loves bananas. It's the only food word he can say and is 
something he requests multiple times a day. We do try to limit to one banana a day, though 
are not always successful. He has even resorted to begging for bananas at the park... What 
adult can resist a sweet little kid toddling up to you and asking for a bite of your banana? 

This is how you eat a banana ...

Kohl's

Getting new clothes at Kohl's with Aunt Amy on Sunday... Obviously the cart was by far the best part - he got to face forward! The stop was important because it's suddenly cold and we had no pants, only  shorts, that fit the big kid. Unfortunately sizing is hard, it jumps from 12 to 18 and he's 15 months old, so get bigger, right?.... we got him size 18 month pants that are WAY too big. We'll be going shopping again this coming up weekend for 12 month sizes. 

Our little Toddler

Aunt Kathy Visit!

Aunt Kathy came to visit this weekend and Simon loved her! I'm sure it has nothing to do with Kathy bribing him with french fries when we all went out for lunch. They spent lots of time making faces at each other and playing with the awesome new car puzzle that Aunt Kathy got for Simon. For the past day he has constantly had two of the cars in his hands, walking or sitting. And when you show him the 3rd car, he'll happily switch one out so long as he keeps at least two. He likes banging them together to make a loud noise and sliding them along the floor, but doesn't like having the pieces in the puzzle.

Here are some pictures of Simon playing with Kathy...

I like melon.

A New Merryman Park

One of my favorite parks is getting a remodel! The new Merryman Park will be intense, with a netted climbing thing, a play ground area and of course a swing area. Demolition starts this fall and the park is supposed to be ready for play in the spring. We will miss the metal slides that you can zip down, the usually empty park and most of all we will miss the ramps... but it will be nice to be rid of the wood chips and dirt.

Here's us playing today at the old Merryman Park....

Peak-a-book AND swinging, does it get better than this?

I AM GOING SO FAST!

SWING!

Daddy: "I'm coming to get you!" Simon: "Ahhh!"

Tire swings are a great time.

Also good for Daddy-Simon bonding.