Happy Birthday: Simon is 5!

Simon is 5! How is it possible that the tiny little boy who made Morla faces when he was tired turned into this handsome and kind boy? He was sick all week and missed 4 days of school, including his actual birthday. But despite the fever we still did a small family birthday party. 

Here he is discovering trick candles for the first time. Both kids thought it was hilarious! 

On his actual birthday with a fever of 102.

Some info about Simon as he is turning 5: 

• Simon absolutely loves Wild Kratts. He wants to grow up to study animals and 'creature adventure' in the wild. He knows a ton about animals already and loves talking to everyone that will listen. 
• He is very familiar with the alphabet and the letter sounds and has started sounding out words. He still doesn't do it independently, but when you sit with him he'll get through whole sentences pretty quickly.
• He can count to 100 and do basic finger math. Though he's impressed me a couple times in the past week or two when he says really quickly 'that means we have 3 left' or something along those lines. 
• Simon has loved school and really flourished with his amazing teach Ms. Zairel. He is a kid that others seek out to play with. Even though many people ask for play dates with us, Simon isn't really one to ask for play dates at people's houses. He is as content playing by himself as he is playing with the friends. 
• He is very into super heroes and is often playing Iron Man or something similar. 
• Simon has really become a great big brother. They definitely still have conflict, but he is more often than not generous with her and enjoys helping her. He usually will hold her hand to help her down steps, or push her on the swing in the park. 
• He is funny and fun and generally a great kid to be around. 
• He has started going to Auntie houses (Colleen's and Jenn's) for sleep overs and really enjoys the one-on-one times.
• He normally goes to bed around 7:30 and wakes up around 6 with no nap. 

Pictures of Lillian - First week at CCC

Hi Emily and Alan,

Lillian has had such a great first week here at CCC and we are so thrilled to have her in our program. Here are some great pictures of her engaged in various activities this week. We had a great time moving our bodies and dancing during our movement class on Wednesday. We made guacamole for our cooking class on Friday and absolutely loved eating it! We painted suns for our bulletin and will put them up next week so our parents can see our wonderful work. We also had water play on Friday - that was so fun! Lillian had a great time making new friends throughout this week, playing outside and learning about our butterflies.

Enjoy!

Subhana Khaja

First day of day care for Lillian

Lillian started her first day of Day Care today. We had a bit of drama in the morning (she is still getting used to the toddler bed so was up at 2am and again at 5:30, moving things about, touching things she should not be and generally waking everyone up). However once she got calmed down a bit she was good to go and there were no tears during drop off. Honestly though, I don't know that she expected to be left as she's never really been dropped off anywhere before.

She's going to Children's Creative Center on Belmont and Damon. It's about a 5 minute drive in the morning to get there from our house (not counting the drama associated with getting into the car). Lillian will be going for the next 2 weeks by herself and then Simon will join her for the rest of the summer. The center is adjacent to a park that has a water feature, grass/trees and of course playground equipment so the kids will spend lots of time outside and having fun. It's a small group right now of about 6 kids in the class so she'll be getting lots of one-on-one time initially and as the group grows she'll be more comfortable with the routine. 

Is that a french fry or chapstick?

Lillian and Miss Jessica waving goodbye!

You can see Alan and Simon waving back in the reflection.

Saturday morning walk

On Saturday we went for a walk around the neghborhood, saw some garage sales and visited the local fire station. 

Doughnuts in the middle of the morning? YES PLEASE!

Sitting in the driver seat!

He was really excited.

The fireman was SO NICE.

He let the kids try on his fireman outfit and explained why everything was in it's place.

Got to see how heavy the shoes and coat were!

Sleepy Lillian. Sleepy Daddy.

New Bike for Simon!

Simon is turning 5 in a couple weeks and for his birthday he got a new bike and helmet! He's very excited and loves riding. We spent hours this weekend riding around the school field (the fake grass) so he could get comfortable stopping and turning. He has figured out how to stop and how to do a tight enough turn to turn around only on the sidewalk, so now he's set for sidewalk riding. Nothing will stop this kid now!

Jessie's last day

Jessie started with us when Lillian was just 10 months old in August of 2014. She and Lillian spent the winter together and last summer it was Simon, Lillian and Jessie playing (usually at the park) every day. This winter Jessie applied to art schools and got accepted to Pratt in New York City. 

Jessie is moving to NYC to start her new life as a masters student in art. And Lillian will be starting her new life at a Children's Creative Center day care. It's a bittersweet moment, but we are all looking forward to the new, great things that will happen as everyone continues to grow. 

August 2014

June 2016
(Notice Lillian's smile is the same as Simon's from 2014)

June 2016

June 2016

Pictures from May 2016

In May we had visits from the Basque Grandparents and Grandpa Bart, we had cold weather and beach weather and Lillian moved to a Toddler Bed!

Blowing bubbles in the front yard.

Checking out the lake.

Swimming and Dinner outside.