Busy, Fun Day!

Today we had a busy, fun day. In the morning we had some skype time and then hopped in the big car and went to the Southport Summer Festival. They had a bunch of booths: One randomly by Grayhound where we got pictures taken; a free bouncy castle, which Simon wasn't sure of; and one booth had a bubble machine. We got rice and beans at one of the kiosks and listened to a live band of teenagers who are taking classes at the School Of Rock down the street. They were pretty surprisingly good and Simon loved watching them. 

Then home for a 3.5 hour nap for Simon and Mama. During lunch/snack when we woke up we asked Simon what he wanted to do and it was ride the train. We sang a quick song (amazing video of that, but Alan will add it later) and said a story while we were eating, then it was time to head out!

We packed a bag and went to the brown line and rode it to the end of the line. Simon just stared out the window the whole time pointing at trees and cars and flags that we passed. On the way home we got off to grab a quick dinner out. Unfortunately dinner took longer than we planned but at least it didn't rain on us even though the sky (and Simon) kept promising rain. Luckily we have the sweetest kid in the world so he just played peek-a-boo with the guy behind us on the rest of the train ride home. While walking home Alan told him that he looked tired. Simon said that he didn't look tired. So Alan asked him how he did look. Simon said, "Look like... Joanna. Yeah, that works." We both laughed a long time. He passed out about 20 seconds after I left his room tonight, didn't even ask for an encore when I said it was time to stop singing.

Oh, and the whole day we were diaper free. No accidents all week. 

Reading to himself after potty time while we pack the bag and get ready.

So much going on out there!

More pictures from our day after the jump...

Bouncy Castle!

Whoa!

So much to see at the end of the train line!

Pot pie came with a puff pastry. Daddy was kind enough to share.

Thoughtful, then he laughed. It was the funniest bread ever.

Grandparents Basque visit

Most of the Grandparent's Basque visit was consumed with Birthday Party and other birthday activities. But here are some down time pictures...

Walking to dinner on Friday night.

Correction... slowly walking to dinner.

I'm going to tickle you, Papap!

Playing trains.

This is the way to travel!

Looking at pictures of himself.

Pulling the animals out of the page to talk hold them.
Gotta put them back before you turn the page!

What's under here?

Good, old fashioned reading and snuggle time.

BGB 20 Week Ultrasound

We went to the doctor on Monday and did our 20 week ultrasound for BGB. She is doing wonderfully and very healthy. She was moving a lot still but the technician said that was actually better because then we would be able to get all the shots we needed. BGB was practicing her dramatic gestures - back of hand against forehead - and generally wiggling all about. It was great fun to watch. 

Strong profile.

Strong foot, hand is the blob by the arrow, it's coming in...

Holding her foot with her hand.

Simon's sweet words!

Simon is now so good at putting sentences together!!! Most of the things he says are trying to figure out how to use words properly and repeat everything. But this week he started giving compliments and asking me smart questions. 

The other day I was building him a city out of Legos and he looked at it and said "nice city Jenn (Den)" and this morning I was sweeping and he came in and said "nice sweeping Jenn (Den)" .....soooo sweet!

As I'm typing this he is sitting next to me reading his big blue book and I asked what color a dog was in it. "Pink dog. What color that Jenn (Den)" (pointing to a baseball bat) I said "what color is it Simon?" He responded...."no Den, you tell color" ......so smart!!!

Fathers Day and Simon's Birthday

Simon's actual birthday lined up with Father's Day this year. We all had a great day. The day started with Simon opening a couple more presents and eating some delicious breakfast sandwiches. Before every meal we sang Simon Happy Birthday - he loved the song and would start it for us randomly throughout the day.  Then Simon opened his present from Grandma Cindy and Grandpa Basque - a Basketball Hoop. The rest of the morning the boys (Simon, Alan and Ken) spent the day outside playing catch and basketball and generally having a great time. Cindy and I were there as well, but primarily in an advisory capacity.

During No-Nap time Cindy watched Simon's antics in the crib while Ken, Alan and I dropped some pictures off at my office. Then the afternoon was more outside play time. We had Simon blow out another candle and eat another cupcake. The pool came out and a couple more presents even. It was a great, relaxing day.

More happy birthday! This is the best song.

Me's. (What Simon says instead of mine.)

So many pictures after jump.

Simon's Second Birthday Party

On the 15th of June we had Simon's 2nd Birthday Party. Everyone chipped in and helped make the day a great success. Jenn did the decorations and cupcakes, Colleen did the food shopping, Ken, Cindy and Alan gardened and cleaned up the house. My job was to make to-do lists and send the invites. Easy!

Choo Choo, Simon is 2!! 

First things first... Simon did NOT nap. Everyone was too reved up. When we let him come downstairs he totally loved the decorations, he just pointed and kept saying 'there!' and 'dat!' with a big smile.  We got him fed and put him in his engineer costume.

Oh, dat!

Engineer costume from Auntie Awneen

We had about 20 people come celebrate, a great group of folks. Lots of fun and snacks, then we had cupcakes, Simon blew out his candle like a champ and we opened presents. It was quite a trick to take the presents away from him as soon as he opened them he wanted to play with every one he opened and we sort of had to force him to open the next. As a result we saved family gifts and opened them throughout the next week (last one opened on Friday).

So many pictures and videos after the jump.

Yay Pee! - DAY 3

On Day 3 of Potty Training it really was all coming together. Simon was great throughout the day. We had one accident that was completely mine and Alan's fault - we gave him a big drink then decided we should go for a walk. Half way around the block it was time to pee but there was no potty close. :-/ Beyond that, he was peeing in the potty all the time. We were doing the timer still, this time for an hour, but again he rarely peed when the timer went off. He needs to be asked regularly if he has to pee and if he does he runs to the potty and does it! He just needs the reminder. 

After he pees in the potty he turns around looks at it and then says "Yay Pee!" and looks at you and says "Give High Five?!" Which we obviously do with a lot of cheering on our part. We didn't do any rewards for peeing. Almost all of the training guides recommend giving a sweet or prize or sticker after peeing on the potty as positive reinforcement. We don't give rewards for any other expected behavior besides thank yous and praise and Alan and I realized that we want this to be as normal and expected as possible. As a result, we decided high fives and clapping would work better for us than prizes.

Honestly, it went exactly as the books said it would, perhaps even better. I really didn't think it would come together so quickly. It'll obviously be work on our part going forward - essentially being his reminder for the next couple weeks/months - but we will have moved to diapers only during nap/night time. The independence and pride it gives him is pretty nice to see. 

We will keep sleeping in diapers until he goes to a big boy bed (not fair to not give him the option to pee anywhere!) and that will be quite a while yet. He's not ready now (would play instead of sleep) and we won't change his bed for a few months before/after when the baby comes to reduce changes, so earliest would be next Jan/Feb. 

Alan has been talking about getting Simon some matchbox cars for a while, yesterday's grocery shopping trip coincidentally brought him very close to Toys'R'Us. So as a fun we-are-proud-of-the-effort-this-weekend he got a set of matchbox ambulances and firetrucks. Maybe the most exciting thing since... well since his last birthday present got opened on Friday. *grin* (The pictures below are all of excited, naked little boy, but still PG.)

Matchbox firetruck/ambulance set

So ready for it to be opened...

Can barely stand it he is so excited!

YAY!

Train table is GREAT for matchbox cars.

Potty Training - Day 2

Day 2 of potty training was also a huge success. We had one accident first thing in the morning. About 10 minutes after waking up he started to make I need to go to the potty signs but I didn't act quite fast enough so we had a bit of a mess. (I just didn't think it would happen so fast!) After that we had no more accidents and a couple great potties. We kept with the timer, at 30 minutes this time, but really it was asking him if he had to go and him saying yes that got results every time. We even went for a walk in big boy underwear all the way to Scooters this afternoon. When we got there, we immediately went to the potty for a check in and he went! Yay! He got a big boy (kids) ice cream cone but ate only a few bites of it. I think it was too intimidating. He had less ice cream than he does when he gets the toddler size. It made for some fun pictures though.