Hanging out with Jenn

Lots of pictures of hanging out with Jenn for the past few weeks....

Snacks on the front porch in Batman cap.

Smoothie mustache, Bruce Wane face.

Big smoothie mustache. 

Outside (back when it was warm)

Love the hose!

COLD water from the hose.

ROBOT!

ROBOT!

Snack time during Thursday's play date.

BGB Update - 17 weeks

I'm now 17 weeks and am very noticeably pregnant. I'm into my second trimester and the next big goal is 20 weeks, the official half way point.  Unfortunately I'm still feeling sick pretty regularly. I am light headed and dizzy and feel nauseous a few times a day, which is an improvement over feeling nauseated constantly. Things are getting better, just not as quickly as I'd like!

We had our 16 week check up on Tuesday and the doctor said all my symptoms are still completely normal and would be normal even if they lasted the whole pregnancy (lets hope not though). Then she went to listen for the heartbeat but she couldn't find it! We were pretty nervous as we moved to a room with an ultrasound machine and I reassured Alan that I'd just felt her moving earlier that day. When we got setup on the ultrasound, the doctor still had trouble finding a heartbeat... not because it wasn't there, but because our little girl was moving so much the doctor couldn't pin her down! We finally got the heartbeat count but never got a clear enough look for a picture.

I thought I was imagining that she moves more than Simon, or maybe I thought I was just better at telling it was baby moving? Regardless, I wasn't imagining it, she is a little lap swimmer. My Olympic hopeful.

Counting on fingers

Simon is now counting on his fingers. He gets to two really easily, but 3 is much harder. Here he is thinking about three and then showing me that he got it. 

Random train comment

This morning we were playing with the train table, and Simon was pushing the train along then he stopped it and said... "Dingdong. Doors closing. Brown line to the loop."

I just about lost it. So adorable.

New Game: Ready... Jump!

Auntie Amy invented a new game called Ready... Jump! These things always seem like a good idea at the time. Then, after you and Simon have jumped a million times and your legs are jelly but he is still jumping, you finally understand how Simon can eat as much as an adult and stay toddler sized.


Amy started in a squat with her hand on her knees then put her hands up in the air when she jumped. Simon is trying to imitate but his coordination isn't quite there, so the hands go up after he lands. I love it more every time I see it!

Illinois Railway Museum

On Saturday Simon, Alan, Emily, Auntie Colleen and Auntie Amy all packed up and went to the Illinois Railway Museum. It is about an hour and twenty minute drive to the museum and we packed up books and snacks and took off around 9 o'clock. We got there and immediately hopped on a train and went for a quick train ride. Simon was very interested in everything we passed and in the train whistles. It was unfortunately a pretty cold day so we all were shivering and hungry when we got off the train. We found a little cafeteria and had a quick but warm lunch. While we were eating a man walked by and Simon looked at us with a big grin and said 'Santa!'. The man did look like Santa, picture obviously below. We walked through some train barns and played in their play ground before heading back to Chicago. We had hoped that Simon would sleep on the ride home, but they were doing construction alongside the road for more than half the trip. Simon was so excited about the trucks that he never slept.

When/If we go back, we will do a couple things differently. Definitely we will choose a warmer day and we will bring lots of our own snacks as well as a picnic lunch. This was a fun adventure though and we saw tons of Trains. Simon said choo-choo and whoo-whoo many many times that day.

The Aunties and Simon in a train car.

Doing the Robot

Jenn and Simon made robot costumes a while ago. Alan and Simon have been practicing the robot dance. And now, for your viewing pleasure...

Father and Son.

(Side note: the pictures are a bit blurry because they were dancing so hard!)

Tough guy

Shirtless and tattooed Simon shows off his muscles.

Auntie Amy!

Listening to Daddy's Music

Every morning Alan puts on his bag and sets up his headphones before he heads out. Usually Simon is sitting at the breakfast table and gets super excited when the headphones come out. He always asks to listen to the headphones and Alan always lets him listen for a few minutes. These are from two consecutive mornings. Wednesday's pictures are at the breakfast table,  Thursday video is from after breakfast. 

Obviously, since Simon is usually at the breakfast table his hands are dirty so he is not supposed to touch the headphones. He always wants to but is really good about not touching them usually. Today because his hands weren't dirty he got to touch them!

More pictures after the jump.

Our Sunday - Zoo and sprinkler

We had a great Sunday... First we met friends April and Scott at the Zoo and Simon loved it just as much as he had a couple days before. Maybe more because this time Daddy was there.  Then we went home and everyone went to bed for a nap. Alan and I passed out, but Mr. Simon never slept. He was still ready to go when we got him out of bed. We went outside and played with the sprinkler, looked at ants, got dirty and generally had a great afternoon.

Love the giraffe.

Heading out from the zoo.

Dirty, hungry Simon.

Applesauce is amazing after a long hot afternoon watering the grass and bricks.

Serious eating.

Breakfast faces

This morning we went to S&G for breakfast before my yoga class and Simon attacked his food (like always) and then practiced all his faces for us. So fun! 

Pancakes and Sausage.

More pictures after the jump.

First Zoo Trip of the Season

We went to the Zoo on Friday morning early and got to see the animals out and about without the crowds. It was wonderful and Simon had a blast. Definitely will go back again soon. 

The monkeys ARE awake!

Watching the zebras.

Hello Leopard!

Simon even road the train!

Sprinkler time

On Tuesday Jenn and Simon spent the whole afternoon outside playing outside with the sprinkler and hose. These are a few of the pictures I took. (In the video, he leaves to go try to turn off the hose since his buckets are full.)

Breakfast On May 15th.

My very vain son looked at me while we were eating breakfast and said, "Picture? Me?". Translated from toddler that is, "Mama, I think you should totally take my picture now." So I complied. After a few pictures my hand got tired and I set up the nifty tripod that Cindy/Ken sent us and took some videos. Videos with translations and more pictures after the jump.

Smile for the camera.

Mother's Day News = BGB

We are expecting Baby Girl Basque (BGB) to join our family in the Fall!!

Simon is very excited to have a baby sister and is already talking about sharing some of his toys with her. He has even told some folks about the new baby in Mama's belly. He is most excited to hold her, but does usually mention to us that babies cry, whenever we talk about babies.

She is officially due on Nov 8, but because Simon was 3 weeks early we are expecting her to join us around the middle of October. I am already showing, it happened much faster this time around! And I've had terrible morning sickness, unfortunately like the first time (I had hoped that too would be different). We will continue to give updates as we learn anything new. Alan and I are really excited!

Auntie Colleen and the trains

On Saturday Simon and I spent the day with Auntie Colleen. First, we went out to breakfast and then went to her place and played with her guitar. Simon loved playing with the guitar and running around Colleen's place. We then headed to Union Station for National Train Day. I had heard they had train exhibits and I wasn't sure how age appropriate it would be but Colleen and I decided it was worth looking into. The tickets went on sale at 10 and exhibits opened at 11. We got there around 10:30 and had to wait in line for a bit, but Simon loved it. He enjoyed being outside the train and looking at it up close more than he liked being inside it, though he definitely loved running down the aisles. There was a whole children's section we didn't get to, but Simon was done so we didn't want to wait in yet another line. It was a great day! 

Lots more pictures after the jump...

Showing off the house and ants

Our internet has been spotty lately so I gave Cindy and Ken a call on our regular house line the other day. Simon was so excited to hold the phone that I went ahead and let him. He ran around the house, thrilled to hold the phone, and showed Gaga and Papa all of Simon's favorite haunts.

This is the couch. Don't go behind it!
(I missed him ducking behind and pointing)

Toy box!

So many things in the back yard. Especially...

Look at the wall.

Right there! Ants!

Ants RIGHT THERE!

Did you see?

The great escape (attempted)

Our bedtime routine changed a while back and instead of holding Simon when I sing a good night song to him I set him in the crib, tuck him in and sing to him. The other night I set him down and he popped right up - which he does about half the time - and I did my normal response of ignoring that he is standing and tucking in his animals instead, leaving a Simon-sized space in between them which usually causes him to dive in pretty quickly. This time he ignored my tucking in of Jelly Cat and Chili Dog and scooted to the far corner of the crib, the one closest to the changing table. He started saying something, but he was tired and I was having a hard time making out the word he was saying. After a minute I went over to look at what he was gesturing to and found that one of the screws that holds the crib together was almost all the way out and he was not gesturing but instead continuing to unscrew it! (It then clicked that he was saying screw.)

I immediately turned on the light and called down to Alan (who luckily was also home). He was making dinner and confused as to to why I was calling him up when I should be about ready to quietly sneak down the stairs. He too was amazed that Simon was unscrewing his crib and went to go find an allen wrench. Simon came out of the now suspect crib and was very excited that he'd caused such a stir. When Alan started tightening the screws, Simon insisted on helping. Together they fixed the crib.

It turns out almost all of the screws were somehow very loose. Simon for over a year has been laying on his back with his feet in the air and letting them fall on to the crib sides, or kicking the crib sides or pushing on them. We think with that constant motion he just was slowly loosening the screws until he could get his little fingers in there to finish the job. Instead of climbing out, our son was going to just let the crib fall down around him. Very Shawshank.

All is safe now and we will be checking the screws regularly from here on out. Important parenting lesson - learned!

Craft day!