Backyard Fun

Some fun in the backyard.

Simon Says Part 4

Mama: Simon, do you remember what we had for breakfast?  Use your memory.

Simon: But my memory is asleep!

Simon: Tomorrow is my birthday! When will we set up the Christmas Tree?

Simon [morning of his birthday party]: When will my birthday friends be here?

Simon [watching two soccer players collide]: Oh no! They are going to get grass burns [on their clothes]. 

Daddy [makes noises like the teacher in Charlie Brown]: Simon, is that what adults sound like?

Simon: No, they sound like this: "DON'T PEE IN YOUR PANTS!!!"

Spice House employee [after giving Simon some small tasks to keep him busy and entertained]: Wow Simon, what would I do without you here to be my helper?

Simon: You would just do it yourself

Daddy: Simon, at the aquarium we can see a show where dolphins jump out of the water!

Simon [concerned]: But do they jump back in afterwards?

Simon [pointing at a statue outside a church]: Why is that man big and really really mad?

Mama: Apologize to Daddy for hitting him. 

Simon [to Daddy]: I am sorry I hit you. 

Simon [to Mama, thoughtfully]: I should have said "I am sorry for punching you".
Mama [smothering laughter]

Simon [to Daddy, very serious]: I am sorry for punching you.

Daddy: Simon, do you want to rock and roll all night and party every day?

Simon: No... I want to play with some things, then eat and then go to bed

Simon [after trying a sip of mama's root beer float, the first time he'd tried anything carbonated]: That is buzzing in my mouth!  Mama, I think your ice cream has a bee in it!

Daddy: Simon, why don't you want to walk home?

Simon: I don't want to talk about it right now

Daddy [hearing an unidentifiable noise]: Simon, what are you doing?
Simon: I'm hitting this door with my bum.
Daddy [incredulously]: Why are you doing that?
Simon: Because I want to and it's really fun.

Simon [to Mama]: You have long arms.

Simon [as we sat down to breakfast]: Let's talk about Eskimos.

It is so great to hear him explain and figure out words that he doesn't know.
Simon [We were talking about being sideways]: Then, when I am the upside way...
Simon [in the car, talking about the windshield with rain drops on it]: The thing you look through with dots on it.

Alan: I'm tired because I didn't get a nap, so I need to rest for a minute before we play monster again.
Simon: Do you know what is a good resting thing? Reading books. Want to read books with me?

Simon: You're making nonsense

Daddy: Simon, I need you to stop being difficult and start being a helper.
Simon: I just need to be myself

Simon: I can eat the banana worms.

Mama: Want some lemonade?
Simon: Um. Yeah, sure. [takes a tiny, obligatory sip] Back to baseball!

Simon: Daddy, I need to tell you something.  There is a really big vampire that eats bunnies, rabbits, and giraffes.  He has big arms and comes through the ceiling... and he's already here.

Simon [to Amy]: I like your tattoos, you should not wash them off.... Maybe you can peel them off and give them to me?

Simon [to Alan, interjected into a totally different conversation about breakfast]: Whoa. You have really big feet.

Simon [after Emily finished a story]: Mama, it took you a really long time to tell me that.

Hello Sunday Morning!

Block party 2014

We had a neighborhood block party yesterday and it was a ton of fun.  Jenn came and joined us for the day and there was a bouncy castle and face painting and a ton of neighborhood kids. There was a boy named Buddy who was awesome with Simon. They played catch for about 3 hours. Simon followed him around all afternoon and emulated him in all ways. 

Buddy and Simon playing catch.

Decorating a noise maker.

Making some noise!

Hey, can you open this?

Empty bottle, but she wouldn't put it down.

Whoa! Just a little dizzy.

Not homeless, just very very dirty.

Bouncy castle with Jenn

Reading to herself

Lillian is 11 Months!

Eleven Months! Our little girl is so big and advanced. She toddles all over the place and has been saying 'puh' for up for a couple months. She says it with intention, only says it when she wants up and gets pissed if you ignore her. We've talked about it and decided that we are going to call it her first word. The decision was prompted by the emergence of her second word - dog. Strangers can tell she's saying it and, again, she only says it when she sees a dog (or when she sees a squirrel which apparently looks like a dog to her - not a lion like Simon always thought).

She can easily reach the door knob. 

Here is a snapshot of Lillian right now:

1. Toddling/Walking more often instead of crawling. She is getting pretty sturdy on her feet and will walk all around while holding onto things. Definitely we've graduated into a toddler phase. She still will crawl or hands-and-feet-crawl if she wants to get someplace quickly but more and more often is choosing to walk instead of crawl. 
2. Sleep schedule: Bed at 5:45pm, sleeps until 6ish in the morning (I think she would sleep until 7 but we usually have a loud 3 year old who wakes her up). Naps 9a-11a and rarely takes an afternoon nap. We're going to transition her to 1 nap soon I think.
3. She is always settling herself to sleep now. If she is super tired and you're holding her near her crib she will wiggle and try to get down so she can just go to sleep already - skip the song! 
4. Eating: She still takes bottles of formula regularly throughout the day, nurses first thing when waking up and just before going to sleep, and eats a ton of solids as well. Most of her solids are finger foods at this point, though she will occasionally eat purees still. 
5. She eats everything. We haven't found anything that she dislikes yet. If given chicken and broccoli and cheerios she eats them in that order. All her food is seasoned and pretty much off our plate - so, for example, she eats scrambled eggs with pepper, cheese and Tabasco just like we do.
6. She still loves her brother, but has realized that she also loves EVERYONE. She is waves constantly as we walk down the street - at every man, woman and child, at every dog and sometimes at trees too. 
7. Lillian loves climbing. She goes up on a kid sized chair and back down with no issues and has for months, she climbs up stairs (we don't let her try going down so I don't know if she can do that, but I have faith she'd figure it out quickly). She climbs up and over all obstacles in her way - parent's legs or parent's faces it makes no difference! 
8. She loves music and when she hears it she bops her head and rocks her body to the beat. 
9. She is really trying to talk. Says 'puh' for up and says 'og' for dog. Both are now words that strangers are thinking are intention to talk, so they count! Word page in the other tab is started as of now! 
10. Signs: She is really into this signing thing. She has more, down and milk solidly, and will occasionally say hungry (more a shoved hand against her mouth) or drink (which is about the same). She waves hello/goodbye, will high five, has started blowing kisses. We've been doing change diaper, bird, all-done, book and a few others that she watches closely and is trying to do and I think she'll have in the next few weeks.
11. She has a great disposition. She is usually super happy and chatty and loves to smile and laugh. She loves strangers and will wave frantically at them. If they smile or wave back she usually has to pause and consider them a bit more before she returns to waving. Pretty reliably we can count on her only fussing when there's a problem (she's hungry or tired). 
12. She loves the tickle bug and to be tickled. We take a few minutes every night to do some laughing together before nursing and bed time and it's always her crawling laughing and me either tickle bug tickling her or flipping her over to tickle her neck. She laughs hysterically for both. 
13. She is still putting everything into her mouth. EVERYTHING.
14. She sleeps with piglet and a purple little hippo-blanket and two pacifiers. 
15. She plays with cars, balls, and laughs with joy when presented with a baby doll. She loves it when stuffed animals wave at her. Regardless of what she's doing, if Simon appears to want to play with her she will drop everything to play with him.
16. Simon and Lillian play a few games together. She will chase him a little and he runs away laughing. They play peek-a-boo pretty often together and will also play 'Where's Simon'. She's quite good at finding him. 

Lots more pictures after the jump.

Hamilton Elementary Walkathon 2014 - fundraising

Hi All,

It's Simon. I know you don't hear from me directly very often, but now that I'm in pre-school I have important things to share. This time it's about the Hamilton Elementary Walkathon.

The Hamilton Elementary Walkathon is a walk that all Hamilton students (pre-k through 8th grade) take through our neighborhood to both encourage student fitness and to encourage interaction with our community.  This year is my first year as I just started preschool with Ms Zairel. I love my classroom so much and have already used the climbing wall, athletic green, gardens, library books and gym equipment that were purchased with previous walkathon raised funds.

The money raised this year will go toward adding a new section to the playground and maintaining the current equipment.

If you would like to help me and support the 2014 Hamilton Elementary Walkathon I would appreciate it! Every donation counts & together we can make a difference.

Thank you!

Simon

LINK TO DONATION PAGE

Taco Fest with Grandpa Bart

On Sunday Colleen and Joe came over to go to the Southport Taco Festival with Grandpa Bart, Simon, Lillian and me. We have had a bit of a crazy week and were a while getting together to leave. Finally we were walking out the door! I ran back inside to grab one last thing and make sure we locked the door and when I got onto the porch Colleen, Grandpa Bart, Simon and Lillian (in the stroller) were all stuck in the garage because it was POURING rain. They ended up making a dash for the house and while we were trying to figure out what to do the rain stopped and I insisted we go to the festival - I was promised tacos!

We had a great time. Ate lots of tacos. There was a baseball air castle thing that Simon loved. I decided to just skip Lillian's nap since she has not been napping anyway and when it got about nap time she was done being in the stroller and just wanted to be held. Luckily I predicted that and brought the new backpack warp. Everyone took a turn - sadly I didn't get a picture of Grandpa Bart in it. After eating all the tacos we walked home and had Cafe El Tapatio for dinner.  Early bedtime for all kids! 

We were here, they were there.

SWING!

Joe taking his turn with Lillian and multitasking by feeding her.

Practicing playing bags.

Selfie on the walk home.
Simon was NOT happy about walking.

Home and resting on the couch.

Grandpa Bart visit!

Grandpa Bart is visiting and has been a huge help while Alan is in London. 

Missing Daddy

Simon asked to talk to Daddy last night and we made him a goodnight video instead. This morning Simon wanted to make another video. Lillian got in on the action too!

Morning Routine and play time

This morning we had a few minutes of play time before Lillian and I packed up to bring Simon to school.  Then Lillian and I took some selfies. 

Where's Simon?

Lillian and I had a great time taking funny face selfies this morning.

Our morning routine and more pictures after the jump (if you're interested): 

Wednesday night - Peas and Pancakes

Wednesday night we decided to have peas and pancakes for dinner. It was pretty wonderful and we all ate it right up quickly. Then we headed for an hour at the park before bed time and Simon showed off his swinging ability!