G'n'R Out West

Simon is Three December 31, 2011

Better late then never…right?  At least he isn’t 4 yet!  It has been such a busy year I feel like I missed the whole thing. 

Poor Simon…he only had 2 friends over for his birthday party…one was a year old and the other was Micayla, one of Adelle’s best friends.  We had to keep reminding the girls all night to include Simon in their games.  Luckily he didn’t notice, especially since Simon loves Micayla about as much as Adelle does!  To be fair, we had invited two other families over as well…but all the winter illnesses conspired against us that night.  And the plus side, Greg made Simon a really cool Lightening McQueen (or macream as Simon calls him) cake.

Sleep:
This year we moved Simon into his big boy bed.  He didn’t seem to miss his crib much, but protested about being left in bed each night.  Surprisingly it took him a long time to figure out that, unlike the crib, he could escape from the bed.  In the beginning he would wake up at night and we would go in and give him some help sleeping.  But then later, after he realized that he could get out of bed…he started getting out in the middle of the night to snuggle up with us.  It sometimes makes it hard to sleep because Simon is a BIG kicker…but he is the sweetest little snuggler.  Each night when he crawls in he asks to have his blanket tucked all around him, then he strokes our faces with his cute little hands and tells us that he loves us.  If we are not facing him then he insists that we turn and face him ‘you look at ME’ so that he can snuggle our faces.  It is pretty hard to want to put him back in his own bed when he has so much love to share at night! 

Simon still naps at daycare for half an hour, but when he is home during the days he usually only naps if we are in the car in the early afternoon.  And then he usually only naps for about 20 minutes. Last year in my update I wrote that Simon wakes up at 5:30 am. Luckily things have really changed in that department. Simon is usually in bed by 7:30 each night and it is rare that he wakes up before 6:30! Sometimes he even sleeps in. We are spoiled!

Eating:
Simon can be a picky eater.  And he is so slow!  The rest of us are all fast eaters so he is almost always the one we are waiting on.  In general he will eat everything, but it seems that almost everyday he chooses a random food and tells us it is disgusting and then refuses to eat it. It makes life a bit frustrating, especially knowing that he doesn’t actually hate that food. I have no clue why he gets picky like that…but he sure can be stubborn.

He still loves pancakes and still asks for them all the time. But he also really loves to eat “Daddy’s cereal” (Just Right). I think breakfast is definitely his favorite meal.

Language:
Simon speaks very clearly.  He has a few cute little words (pampakes - for pancakes and finky – for pinky finger), but for the most part he pronounces words correctly…sigh, he really is growing up.

Simon can get really shy around people, but when he feels comfortable it can be hard to keep him quiet.  He  used to just sit back and let Adelle talk, but now he is piping up more.  At supper time when Adelle usually shares her day with us, Simon now chirps in with his day.   Only he can’t always think of things to tell us.  So he often ends up getting our attention, saying a few nonsense words and then just giggling.  Or he makes stuff up as he talks to us. 

Sometimes I try to get a video of Simon talking, he has a sweet quiet voice…but as soon as he sees the camera he clams up!  Bugger.

Personality:
Simon is just like his dad.  He has a magical gift to make us all smile and I am unfortunately wrapped around his little finger.  It is both infuriating and nice.  He is just the sweetest little guy. And it is almost impossible to be angry at him, even when he is really misbehaving.

Earlier in the year he was really good at doing what Adelle wanted him to do.  But now he takes a lot of enjoyment out of bugging her.  It can be so frustrating.  Sometimes he does it because he is jealous of something she has, or because he is jealous of the time that Greg and I are spending with Adelle instead of him.  But other times he just does it because he can.  Most of the time Simon and Adelle play really well together.

This year he became gender educated.  I’m not sure if it is the teachers at his daycare, or just the kids.  but he officially loves contact sports (he lives and breathes hockey and football).  He told me the other day that he didn’t like one of the girls in daycare because she wore pink EVERY day. 

Teeth:
He has them all now…well most of them.  He has one good chip from a biking related injury. 

Bathroom:
Simon has been toilet trained for a while now.  It was relatively painless.  He just decided he was ready one day and then went for it. We still struggle a bit at night. He refuses to wear a diaper, So we still do a lot of middle of the night laundry in this house! We also struggled a bunch with poop. He was so scared to try it, and then he got constipated…but he is good now…but only after a few weeks on intense bribary.

Other stuff:
- Simon is really scared of lobsters when they are alive…but he sure can eat them like a real Nova Scotian.
- Simon was determined to learn to ride a bike this year.  And he did.  We tried to convince him not to try because we thought he was a big too small for Adelle’s bike, but sure enough he proved us all wrong and right away was riding the bike more often then Adelle did!  At first when Simon started to bike he would bike very very slowly.  So slow in fact that he seemed to defy gravity. But then he started to enjoy the speed.  Now when he bikes I cringe every time he gets on that bike and especially when he hits the corners, which he usually leans into and takes at a 45 deg angle.
- Simon swims with unwavering confidence.  He just jumps right in, knowing it will all work out.  He does try to kick and is able to move his arms to help…but still has no concept of needing to breath.  He just swims with blind faith that we will pick him up to let him breath at an appropriate time. 
- This year Simon discovered the heating vent.  And then he put everything he could find down it.  One night I went into his room to find his foam football half gone and with bite marks in it.  At first I was nervous that he had  managed to eat it.  But no, it turns out he bit off tiny pieces and then shoved them down the heating vent.  Good times.  Most of Adelle’s strawberry shortcake accessories are also in the vent along with a few of Simon’s cars…and maybe some other things we don’t even know about. 
- Simon hates it when I call him cute.  He’ll say ‘Mama, don’t say cute! I not cute! I Simon!’
- Simon recently told us that when he grows up he wants to be: a football team, a hockey team and wear gloves as big as his dad’s.
- Simon can be very observant:
- > when Greg was asking me question after question to tease me when I was trying to explain fireworks to our curious kids, Simon turned to him and said: ‘Dad you not a kid’. 
- > Mummy – if you have no body, then you can’t move.  You are dead’.
- >If you have no head then you can’t eat.
- Simon can be accident prone.  This year he:
- > badly bruised his cheek at daycare and ended up with a bit of a concussion…he kept telling me that his hair was hurting.  So sad.
- > he chipped his tooth biking on the stairs
- > he fell out of bed, landed on the heating vent, and got a bloody nose and lip. 

Sweetest Little Boy I know