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!