Basque to the Future

Friday, October 5, 2012

Reading with Grandpa and Grandma Sweeney

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

hugs, boo and other fun things

Jenn spent some serious time with Simon last Thursday teaching Simon to say Boo! in preparation for Halloween. His whole body gets involved so that he bounces a bit when he says it and frequently loses his balance. He laughs hystarically when his 'boo's result in a scared noise from the recipient.

For a while Simon has puckered up for you if you asked for a kiss... now Simon will also give you a hug. He doesn't quite say the word hug yet, though he makes a noise with the same inflection you use so the word should come soon. Right now if you ask for a hug he'll open his arms super wide and give you a really great hug. It's so sweet and makes you feel completely awesome. Yesterday I even got an unasked for hug - the first that I've received.

The words are just exploding. I can't believe that 3 measly months ago at his 12 month check up we were concerned about him meeting the 2-3 words by 15 months. We now also say bye bye and Alan told me this morning that Simon says hi as well, which I hope to hear for myself this afternoon.

He is learning so fast we're having a hard time keeping up. We've started just adding words to the word page with out associated posts. So if you're Simon Crazy like me, look over the list every once in a while.

Here's a really long video. The interesting stuff happens in the first 15 seconds, the rest is just hanging out.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Apple Picking 2012

Jenn, Colleen, Simon and I went apple picking on Saturday and we had a blast. Simon ate at least 3 whole apple on his own. I'd start him off by eating some of the skin off and he'd hold it himself and go to town eating it. He LOVED them. He'd eat until he got to the core, but never turning the apple so it was a perfect half circle.

Early in the morning it was in the 50s so we went with pants, long sleeve shirts and undershirts. Unfortunately it got into easily the 80s. Us adults were stuck in our heavier clothing, but babies have a special space in our society and can go around in just an undershirt and it's completely ok. It was the filthiest onesie at the end of the day.

Jenn and Colleen also took a bunch of pictures, those will come another day...

Arriving. Colleen, Simon and Emily (left to right)

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.