G’n'R Out West

Yep, he’s already past the 1/2 year mark by one full month. Devastating, really.

He is growing up just too darn fast I can hardly stand it.  He is such a little smiley ball of happiness it is impossible to be grouchy with him around.

Sleep:
I have mixed feelings about Simon’s sleeping.  He is a nice peaceful night time baby.  He very rarely cries and when he is awake he just wants to nurse and snuggle.  Ah, as I write this, I just can’t even believe how lucky we are to have such a peaceful little guy in our midst.

He usually goes to bed sometime between 8-9 pm.  He usually wakes between 10-12pm for a feed.   Then again around 2am, 5am, and then is up for the day anytime between 6 am and 7:30. 

 He sleeps in his crib for the first part of the night.  After his first waking I usually put him back to bed in his crib, but at the next waking he joins us.  I think he would happily sleep in his crib if I had the energy (or desire) to put him back, but I’m too tired to stay awake long enough to do it, and I think he is growing up entirely too fast so I am enjoying the extra time we get to spend with him.  Adelle demands so much attention during the day, that Simon often doesn’t get the time he deserves.  So the nights is when I am all his.

Sometimes I think it would be worth our while to start trying to convince him to go back to sleep without nursing for at least some of those wakings as I am getting very tired of getting up so often.  But I can’t decide if that is the right thing.  I know he doens’t ‘need’ the milk, but maybe he needs the closeness.

Napping is good.  He is a pretty easy baby to read in terms of when he is tired.  He gives all the textbook signs.  It is funny because with Adelle I always wondered how you could actually tell when your baby was tired.  But with Simon he gives all the clues the books say he should give.  So that makes life easier.  He also usually goes down without a fight (everything was a fight with Adelle).  

If I put him up in the wrap for his nap, he’ll sleep for hours, in this crib, more often than not it is just a 1/2 an hour.  He usually wakes up happy from his little naps though, so I can’t complain.  If he is having short naps he’ll usually have 2-3 in a day.  If he gets a big long one in, that might be all he does. 

Eating:
Simon is very slowly coming around to the idea of food.  He was perplexed by it in the early days, but he certainly is getting on the bandwagon now.  He doesn’t necessarily enjoy the act of eating, but he is often hungry, and feels satisfied after eating.  He started with beef, but has now also had rice cereal, turkey, lentils, sweet potato, green beans, puffs and bananas.  He is the least indifferent about lentils, I think turkey and bananas come next on the list…but I still think he could take or leave it all tomorrow and never wonder what happened to food. 

He LOVES to have his milk in a sippy cup.  It gives him the freedom he craves to keep his eye on his sister because there is never a dull moment with a toddler in the house…

Getting Around:
So far there has been no independent motion.  He has rolled both front to back and back to front.  However, he has only done this a handful of times and sees no value in ever being left on his back or his front.  He does however enjoy sitting  and in the quest for a toy just out of reach has been known to end up on all fours.  He has no clue that this is an important step in life as his hands are both tied up and he just gets mad and ends up lying down, which makes him even more mad. 

He is, however, very interested in walking.  He can pull himself to standing (or almost standing) if he is sitting next to you and he pulls up on clothes.  He has never pulled up on furniture.  He also really likes it when you hold his hands and he walks around.  If he had his druthers, I’m guessing he’d skip the crawling and just get up and walk tomorrow. 

Hair:
His hair is a dusty blond.  I’m not sure if it will be brown or blond.  There isn’t all that much of it still, but some of it is getting long enough to hang over his ears!

Eyes:
Sometimes they look grey, sometimes brown.  If I had to guess, I’d guess they’d be brown.

Personality:
Sweet and lovely and so happy.   He really really really likes me a lot and I find it an incredible ego boost.  He likes Adelle a lot too, I’m sure she enjoys the attention as much as I do.  He doesn’t like anybody as much as he likes Adelle and I.  He loves giving Greg a hard time, and he has certainly given many an adult a run for their money. 

When he is in a good mood, he’ll make eyes at anybody.  He loves to share a laugh with somebody, especially from my arms.  He’ll catch thier eye and then get all shy and hide his head in my chest.  It is a coy move that totally melts your heart.

He seems very interested in other kids and likes to touch them.  He usually keeps pretty quiet, with the exception of his infectious laughter.  He is most vocal just as he is going to sleep or just when he wakes up  (he’s a bit of a groaner).  Sometimes he yells and coos during the day, but it isn’t that often.  I think I heard him make a ‘D’ sounds 3 weeks ago…but I haven’t heard it again, so I might have just wanted him to enough that I heard it without it being said.

He adores his jolly jumper and he can spend a really long time in it. 

Simon loves the water both in the bath and in the pool.  He loves to splash in the bath and has a great time as long as he is sitting up.  In the pool he finds it hilarious when you jump up and down.  He even loves getting water splashed in his face.

He loves everything fast…especially fast upside down stuff.

 Stuff that happened this month:
- Grandma Fran and Grandpa Ron finally came out for a visit
-He put his head underwater for the first time in a pool, it was surprising, but not terrible
- He tried food for the first time and is fairly indifferent to the experience
- He started jolly jumping and he has been bit by the bouncing bug
- He tried the swing at the park and loved it
- He went to the university as part of a volunteer study and they did some test on him in the speech development lab as part of a larger study on how babies learn language.  They didn’t outright say it, but I’m pretty sure they think he’s a genius. 

Our smiley little 7 month old

We are 10 days into our visit with Greg’s parents.  Only a few days left.  Adelle will be DEVASTATED when they leave.  She’s had both her Grandparents wrapped around her little finger since they arrived.  I know it will be hard on all of us when they leave.

Greg has been in Houston the better part of their visit, so it has been an extra bonus for me to have some help around the house. 

Some very exciting news on the home front is that our girl Adelle is toilet trained!!!  Yipee!  She’s been accident free for a good few days and for the last 10 days or so we’ve had an accident only every other day.  I am sure there will still be some days that things don’t quite work out in that department, but I think we are done with daytime diapers.   FREEDOM!

Adelle’s little tomato plant is doing us proud.  Yesterday I spotted 2 little pea sized tomatoes (or momatoes if you speak toddler).  I pointed them out to Adelle and she had a hard time keeping her hands off them…today one of them has some brown spots on it, so it may have received a little more love than it needed yesterday.  I might keep the next one I spot a secret until it gets a little bigger!

Sometimes you get lucky and capture a moment….

Our very enthusiastic neighbour came over tonight to help Adelle plant a few tomato plants. She is VERY excited about it. Hopefully we don’t kill them!!

We finally pulled out the jolly jumper.  It wasn’t something Adelle was ever into, so we totally forgot to bring it out for Simon.  Big mistake…he loves it.  It is a fair bit of work though.   Adelle LOVES to help Simon get some impressive height on his jumps!
 

We also finally got out to the mountains!  We spent the morning with Kevin, Kathleen and their little Aidan.  The kids had a great time on our walk, but had even more fun after the walk when Kevin chased them around the picnic area.  That guy has more energy for kid playing than anybody I have ever met!  It is so wonderful.

It is the punchline to a joke in Chirp Magazine. Adelle’s cousin Lily read the joke and told it to us 100x while we were in Ontario.

Adelle thinks that the entire  joke is: ‘Get it? – Shampoodle’ and says exactly that as often as she can remember to.  It can get a little tiring. The best part is that she is so excited about the joke that she usually gets Simon laughing too.  So as it turns out, both Simon and Adelle get the joke…and Greg and I just sigh…and occasionally laugh too.

Last week we were at the park and Adelle was playing on the teeter-todder with some of her friends.  She is totally convinced it is called a peter-cauter and convinced the other kids who where around of her nonsense.  By the time they were done playing, everybody was calling it a peter-cauter.  I am sure thier parents were just as pleased with the correction as I was with whatever kid taught my perfectly reasonable daughter to stop saying bird and start saying birdie last year.

Adelle’s favorite sport these days is hockey ball…her favorite position – Golder.

Yesterday we spent the day at the park.  Adelle really gets worn out on our big park days.  She fell asleep on the way home.  I got her into the house and she insisted (half asleep) to be put down on the floor and covered with a blanket.  I obliged as she clearly was not to be reasoned with.  When she woke up 30 min later she had a big mark on her forehead and was very confused as to why she had a blanket on her.  It was pretty cute.

Greg ran his first half marathon this weekend.  It was so much fun to watch him come in at the finish.  He looked wonderful and still appears to be walking so I guess he did well.
 

The big news with Simon is that he went in the swing for the first time at the park.  He absolutely loved it.  He was so proud of himself just to be sitting in it.  We also went down the slide, he couldn’t believe his luck!
 

Adelle is riding her trike like a pro.  She can peddle it all by herself and if she finds her foot position isn’t ideal to get the bike moving she has even figured out back peddling to get it exactly where she wants it.  Sometimes she is so grown up, and other times, like today when she peed in her underpants 3 times…I wish she was older!  arg.

He fell asleep AGAIN.  All the other babies coo and giggle and splash…or yell and scream.  Not Simon.  He spent the first 1/2 hour just looking around taking it all in.  Then one yawn, a few minutes later another, a few head  bobs and he was out.  I can’t help but be surprised.  What a little cutie.

Six months came too soon.  Seems like yesterday he was just a wee little one and now he is pushing 20 lbs.  It is ridiculous.

Sleep:
Yep, yep, same old, same old.  Fabulous sleeper.  He gets up about every 2-3 hours for a little snack, but he hardly bothers anyone and immediately falls back to sleep.  It would be nice if I could convince him to sleep in longer stretches, but he is so unimposing it is hard to complain. 

He is starting to do more napping.  He sure does prefer to be all wrapped up and carried for his naps, but he is getting a bit better at sleeping alone at nap time.  When we were in Ottawa he had some amazing naps.

Eating:
We haven’t quite ventured into the world of solids, but he can hardly wait.  He is ready, we are ready…hopefully it will be lots of fun.  I’m pretty excited about the whole thing. 

He has never had a bottle, although he is really really into glasses and has enjoyed a sip or two of water from time to time.  I could probably pump some milk and Greg could get him to take enough from a cup or sippy cup to give me a nice little break…hmmm…that sounds really fun.

Hair:
Very light, getting longer but not very thick yet.          

Eyes:
Seem to have stabilized a bit, and are looking similar to Adelle’s hazel.

Getting Around:
To date, our little man has rolled over a total of 3 times.  He isn’t much into lying down (front or back) while awake.  So he doesn’t get a lot of opportunities to practice.  He has mastered sitting though.  Just in the past week he has really become stable enough to leave him unattended.  Of course he still falls over, but more often than not that is because his good friend Adelle is assisting him with something!

Personality:
Such an easy easy going little dude.  Of course that is easy for me to say, since I am his very most favorite person.  He has been known to give others a bit of a hard time, but when I take him all his worries seem to melt away.  It is a pretty big ego boost for me.  It is nice to be so appreciated. 

He is all smiles and happy grunts in the morning.  He is often full of big laughs in the evenings.  Apart from the occasional grunt and all the giggling he keeps pretty quiet.   He loves to smile and loves to reach out and touch other people, especially thier faces. 

He tolerates a lot of rough housing from his sister.  It can be hard to convince her to be gentle with him, when he seems to enjoy her the most when she is being the most aggressive.  I guess most babies with a toddler sized sibling get tough quick. 

• Stuff that happened this month:
  - He met his auntie amy, lily, chi-chi and uncle hugh…finally!!
  - He drank water from a glass
  - He fell in the creek…hopefully the next time he falls in water, it won’t be my fault!
  - He met his girlfriend Lydia

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Simon had his first solid food today.   We figured since he has low iron and red meat has high levels of easily absorb-able iron that it would be the perfect first meal.  In addition to this reasoning we are in Alberta and so what would be a more fitting first meal for our baby?  

Anyway, I think it got mixed reviews.  My interpretation of his reaction was that he was VERY excited to have been included, at long last, in the eating rituals that he watches each day, but he was very dissapointed in the meal.  At any rate, I think we can all agree he gets an A+ for trying so hard to like it.

We just got back from 2 fun filled weeks in Ontario.  The first week was just the kids and I and then Greg joined us for the second week.   We did all right without Greg, but he was certainly missed and we were all very excited when he did finally join us.

For the most part we just spent time with family.  It was sad to miss out on seeing some friends, but family time is precious when you live so far away.  Both my sister and my brother are living in Ottawa at the moment.  It was amazing to spend 2 whole weeks there and feel so involved in the details of their lives.  My brother even bought a house while we were there, so we had the opportunity to do a drive by to check it out.  It will be fun to go back to Ottawa after he has moved in and spend a few nights with him.  His cats will be tormented by Adelle all day AND all night…it shouldn’t take too long before he regrets inviting us to stay with him!!!!

My sister and her family are currently living with my dad in the co-op where we grew up.  We spent lots of time there and it was so beautiful to watch our kids play where we used to play.  Some things are different, but some things just never change. 

Adelle has never been more filthy then when she was hanging out in the co-op.  Just as it should be.  She was SO HAPPY all week just playing outside with her cousins.  She and Chi-Chi can get into it every now and again, and again, and again…but that’s just part of growing up.

My dad has one neighbour that we don’t like.  Well, to be honest, the kids like him…but most of us adults do not.   Adelle just couldn’t get close enough, and the snake was really not afraid of us.  I was just glad she didn’t fall off the front stoop and land on the snake…I don’t think it would have been pleased.

One afternoon we met up at the splash park.  In typical Adelle fashion it took just moments for her to be soaking wet and filthy.   Shortly after ensuring she was completely soaked from head to toe Adelle chose to sit down in the sand…and then proceeded to eat it.  Sigh.  Sometimes we are so alike, and sometimes we are so different. 

Simon really enjoyed all the kids.  He spent a lot of time just laughing and laughing and laughing.  We are also fairly certain he told his first joke on this trip.  He was hamming it up with the kids, chewing on my dad’s hand.  After a few seconds he’s stop, wait for the laughs to die down then start back up. I tried to catch it on video…but of course having the camera around ruined the moment.  At any rate he was a big hit with all the cousins and he just ADORED them.

At the end of our trip we headed off to Kingston for John and Angela’s wedding at Angela’s family farm.  We also were lucky enough to spend some time with our friends Kevin and Alison at Kevin’s parents home just outside of Kingston.  It was just lovely.  Aaron and Adelle could not have gotten along any better.   For the most part it was a great visit with them.  However, I am not sure if Aaron is my friend anymore.  In an attempt to prevent my daughter for falling in the creek I managed to take down myself, Simon (who was in the sling) and poor innocent Aaron.  It was sad sad times!  We all got nicely wet and my poor little boy got a few scratches on his head.  I don’t think Aaron was hurt, but I was so traumatized by the incident myself that I’m not sure Kevin and Alison would have had the heart to tell me if he had been.

Adelle had a total blast at all the wedding and at all the wedding related activities.  John and Angela did all sorts of great things at their wedding to make the kids feel included.  Adelle met a number of new friends and it was just wonderful to see her having fun with kids outside and on the farm….ah…more dirt!

Adelle didn’t quite make it through the entire vacation unscathed.  In an unfortunate shovelling accident Greg managed to hit her in the nose.  At first it didn’t look so bad, but on second though we took her in to the doctor, they took some xrays (found nothing) and then glued her cut up.  So far it looks great, but i think there is a chance she might have a little scar.  Greg felt terrible, of course, but after my creek incident I think I’m the one that really feels like the worst parent in this house!