Southport Taco Festival, Horses, and the dark

On Sunday I really wanted to go to the Southport Taco Festival. It is in easy walking distance and who doesn't love a good taco?! Simon napped until 4pm that afternoon but we decided to push it and go anyway. Unfortunately the taco festival was a bust - the lines were just so long it would have been impossible to stand in them and not have had a crazy toddler and a crazy mama before we got through. We walked up the length of Southport hoping to find a shorter line when we came across... HORSES and a CAMEL!

Obviously when you see ponies and a camel for the first time you need to pause and collect yourself, and that is just what Simon did. We stood near them and watched them give pony rides to kids and camel rides to adults for about 20 minutes. In the first couple minutes we offered a pony ride and it was a decisive no, however after realizing that none of the children were coming to any harm at the 20 minute mark Simon changed his mind and did want to go on a ride. Luckily that line was short. We walked right up and Simon handed the lady the 5 dollar bill (after some time of comparing the sign asking for five dollars and the five dollar bill in his hand to make sure the numbers were the same). Then Alan put him up on the horse and away they walked. Simon LOVED it. In the video I didn't do a great job catching him saying 'bu-bump bu-bump" as he tips his head side to side but he is.

Gooooooo!

Since we didn't get tacos at the Taco Festival we went to Burrito House to get our taco fix. The whole walk to burrito house Simon talked about his pony Andy (who is a horse from a library book) and ba-bumped and when asked if he liked it he told us happily, 'He didn't even lick me!'

We left Burrito House around 7pm - so late for Simon. When we walked out of the restaurant he started laughing and pointing at the sky and it took us a minute to figure out what he was saying. The sun had just set so one  half of the sky was light but as we faced home the sky was DARK. He hadn't seen dark sky before and was laughing because he thought the dark was funny and the Sun was silly or sleepy or both. I wish I had gotten a video of that, it was wonderful.

Here is his summary of the day when we got home, but he was so tired it's a bit disjointed and we had to prompt a bit.

More pictures of the horse ride after the jump...

My little hacker

I was checking an email before I headed out to work and needed to run to the bathroom. Simon offered to hold my phone (so kind) and I was sure I locked it before I handed it to him. But when I looked at the pictures to write a post I found a ton of pictures of Mr Simon's eyes and even a nice little video. Made me laugh so I thought it might make you laugh too.

I'm WATCHING YOU

Simon Saying 1,2,3 in Estonian

Karmen is great about sending pictures when Simon's with her and this week she sent a little video too. The resolution isn't excellent because it came to me via text, but it works. Karmen speaks Estonian to Tyler and I told her to feel free to speak it to Simon too but she usually just speaks English to Simon since he already knows it. Apparently just speaking around Simon is enough because he figured out how to say 1,2,3 and was repeating it to Karmen. Here he is saying it for us.

Happy boys in a big mess.

Mexican food and football

One guess where the tv in the restaurant is located.

Busted up nose.

On Saturday morning (yesterday) Simon and I were horsing around on our big bed and he dove for the pillows at the top and overshot the pillows and went nose first into the wall. It so sad, the poor guy immediately started to cry (who wouldn't) and kept saying 'Noooo!' like he didn't want it to have happened. Believe me, I didn't want it to have happened either. No blood, but a small bruise across the bridge of his nose and some swelling. I still wouldn't be surprised if he ended up with two black eyes, but so far he's good. 

It's really hard to get a picture of it, so I guess that means it's not as bad as I keep thinking it is. 

He's eating a pretzel, which is why he is making a funny expression.

Bran flakes and bananas

A while back I had bran flakes for breakfast, before that the only cereal that Simon had ever had was cheerios. After I let him try mine he discovered that he LOVES bran flakes and bananas. Now they are a common breakfast request. The order of requested breakfast recently is muffins, then pancakes, and third is bran flakes. The first two seem about right for a 2 year old but every time he asks for bran flakes and gets SUPER excited when I say yes I sort of chuckle to myself. 

Tuesday Park District Class

On Tuesdays Simon goes to a Chicago park district class with Karmen and Tyler. It's in a park space across the street from her house and will be a great activity when the weather starts getting cold and rainy later this fall.

Basketball.

Tiny airplane.

Tiny airplane flying high!

Across the hall there were adults doing an exercise class.
Apparently it was hard to keep him from joining in

Then some time at the park outside because it stopped raining.