Simon at 10 months

Greetings from the big 10-month old! Allow me to narrate this post--Mom is busy working on her fellowship application (clearly!).

Here I am, in this silly picture my mom insists on taking every few weeks or so...I used to lie nice and still while she took the picture, but those days are over--it took about 10 tries to get this one!

I've been working hard the past month on this crawling thing--it took a little getting used to! But now I am an expert. I can crawl on hard wood, carpets, grass, crunchy leaves, with or without socks, with or without pants...there's no stopping me, really.

Crawling All Over (45 seconds):





This is one of my new favorite tricks. I think the world looks much more interesting this way--and it often makes mom and dad giggle, which is an added bonus. My favorite place to do it is on the changing table ;-)


Did you know that its fall and that means that all the leaves fall off of the trees and then you can play in them?!!! ...oh, you did? Well, it was news to me. And I LOVE it!

Mom says its going to get very cold soon, so she took me to this awesome store and bought me two used snowsuits. This one is a single layer of fleece, perfect for cool fall weather. I like it a lot. My other snowsuit is still too big. Mom says she bought it so I can go play in the snow with daddy later this year.


Leaf Crunching (25 seconds):



That's about it for now. Oh, except for this, per requests of Crazy Uncle Pete and Grandpa Steve...mom said this was somehow related to two birds and one stone or something, but I don't really get it--am I the stone?

Dancing...or is he Donkey Riding?: (20 seconds)




Happy Halloween everyone!

Recent Happenings

It seems to me that the busier I am, the more productive I am. In the past two weeks, not only have I decided what I'm doing my dissertation on and drafted a 10 page description of it, I've also posted to the blog--twice now!--and started knitting Simon an earflap hat, which will be similar to this one.

Zoe checking out Simon's squishy blocks, while Jen stands by ready to foil their attempts at exploring each others faces...(we know she's adorable, Simon, but its more polite to keep your drooled-upon fingers in your own mouth)

This is a belated photo, of a lovely visit we had with Jen, Adam, and Zoe a couple weeks ago. It was great fun to see the kids together, now that they're both sitting up, reaching for toys and each other, and relatively mobile (Zoe was just shy of crawling, Simon had recently started)--a little more exciting than their interactions when they first met!

The weekend before last, we made a trip up north to visit Andy's grandparents. Simon had a blast every day--and then slept poorly every night. But all in all it was a good trip :).

With Great-Grandpa Roy and Simon's pumpkin from the farm

Visiting Great-Grandma Pearl in the hospital--Simon was quite the attraction there!

Simon with Grandma Marilyn & Grandpa Steve

Simon enjoyed visiting with Great-Grandpa & Great-Grandma, and had a wonderful time playing with Great-Aunt Penny while we were there. But I think his favorite parts of the trip were the times he got to spend with Grandma & Grandpa...and they may have enjoyed his company, too :).


It snowed on Sunday! Not a lot, and not for long--mostly it was "sleeting," as I explained to Simon, but enough to break out the winter gear for our little one. His mittens I knit for him last year fit great (when you can get them on), this coat that was gifted to us from Toby is just a little big (perfect for when its really cold, in a couple months) and toasty warm, and his brand-new hat from Grandma Marilyn kept him nice and dry--and stayed on, despite Simon's best efforts! (and yes, I'm still knitting him an earflap hat--you can never have too many hats in Minnesota!--and his head grows like half an inch per month or something, so I'm sure he'll need a variety of sizes to get through our LONG winter...)

Fall in Full Swing

Suddenly, its late October, with snow in the forecast for Sunday--how did that happen? Just a few weeks ago we could wear short sleeves:


And now, I find myself needing to knit an earflap hat for Simon, because its too cold to go outside without a hat on (and he takes off all hats that don't tie beneath his chin)!

We have been quite busy, with an impromptu trip up north to visit Andy's grandparents, a weekend-long course for Andy (this weekend), a fellowship application for Jess (due in less than two weeks), and so on. So busy that I haven't had time to download photos. But I did find this video from about a month ago that I meant to post, but never got around to. Simon is just starting to imitate things we do--just this week he started doing signs for "more" and "all done" when he's eating. (We thought for the past couple weeks he might have been trying them, but it was always too hard to tell if he was trying to say "all done" or just flailing because he wanted out of the highchair. For the past couple of days, though, he's gotten more and more consistent--he even did a "more" sign in a non-highchair context today!) Anyhow, back to the video: showing him to hit things to make noise (turn buckets upside down like drums, etc.) was one of the first ways we saw him intentionally imitating us, as shown here with Andy.

Tap tap tap (41 seconds):



Also, in case anyone was wondering who this family supports (though if you know us enough to know about our blog, you probably don't wonder)...

Note: Sadly, this sign was stolen just a couple days after this picture; but we eventually got another one to replace it.

Crawling & Stats

I forgot to mention Simon's 9-month stats in the last post. He is doing just fine, overall quite healthy, though he's had a slight stuffy nose for too long and we're not really sure why. Although we still occasionally get comments on Simon being a big baby, he really isn't anymore--in fact, he's now around the 25th percentile for both height and weight. In other words, about 75% of boys his age (in the US) are bigger than him! He weighed in at 19 lbs 3 oz, 27.5 inches tall, at his 9-month well baby visit.

Thanks Paloma!

Thanks to everyone for great advice on finding a battery-free activity table. We got several suggestions on new models to buy, and used ones from Craigslist ads and Ebay auctions. Simon is now the happy owner of this battery-free Fisher-Price activity table, procured for him from Ebay by Paloma. Its great--activities on the one side, and the other side is a surface to use for building/stacking those jumbo-sized lego/blocks, so we think its a great table to grow with him.

Liz, Simon, and the llama :-)

Liz spent last weekend with us, doing lots of babysitting so Jess could go to a conference. Having recently returned from Ecuador, she brought along this awesome knit llama (with a dad, mom, and baby riding on it!) for Simon. We're glad that she is helping him start a love of knitted toys, as Jess has recently shifted her knitting aspirations from clothes to toys, at least when it comes to babies who outgrow clothes so quickly. Unfortunately, Liz, we haven't seen it since you left...any idea where Simon stashed it last?!

We took advantage of a gorgeous Saturday to go for an early fall picnic on Harriet Island. It was a little chilly, but a nice way to spend an afternoon/evening, especially knowing that winter is just around the corner! Here are a few photos from our picnic outing:

Hehehe...Aunt Liz makes me giddy!

Hey look, its the hoodie family!

Oh boy, there were swings...Simon had a great time. He gets so animated when he's excited, flailing his arms and legs, that we were a little worried he might be scaring the much more subdued baby in the swing next to him!

Also, we caught a nice little clip showing off Simon's new crawling skills. This was taken just his second or third day of crawling. He hasn't quite figured out that he can use crawling to go farther distances, or get to something out of sight (e.g. us in the other room), but of course that's just a matter of time!

New Crawler (29 seconds):

Nine Months Old

Simon turned 9 months old last week! He's become such an interactive, inquisitive, and sometimes opinionated little boy. Here is an idea of what life is like for us these days...

Clothes galore!

Thanks to generous gifts (especially as a newborn), and hand-me-down donations from the family Jess used to nanny for, Simon's cousins Ben & Ellie, and most recently a classmate of Andy's at the seminary, we have only ever paid for about two outfits for Simon. Here he is sitting among 3 baskets full of 12-month sized boys clothes (his current size) that we were just given. We are so grateful to be able to give often hardly worn clothes (they tend to fit for only a month or so, after all!) a second, third, or fourth go-round, and to not have the financial burden of paying for baby clothes!

Everything you need for a diaper change: wipes, diapers, changing pad...baby...

Simon is no longer content to sit or lay still...ever, but especially for diaper changes and getting dressed. A few weeks ago he learned to get into a sitting position by himself, and what was already a challenge with continual rolling over has become nearly impossible with rolling over and then sitting up. We try to be patient, but seeing as he's often cranky going into a diaper change (or getting pjs on) anyway, this does tend to be a tense time of day for us...here, however, he is just thrilled because once he managed to get his little naked self off of the changer and into this little cubby, we thought it was so cute that we let him stay there for a while so we could take a picture :).

All ready for bed

I just love the slippers! And Ellie & Ben, do you recognize those jammies (and slippers)? We have a bucket or box of toys in most rooms in the house, so wherever we are we can set Simon down to play. In addition to the typical baby toys, we also like to supplement with empty boxes, clothespins, washed out yogurt, ice cream, and margarine tubs, and other random household items, like this ladle that Simon found just fascinating for about 10 minutes one night.

Hey! It's a camera!

Simon has become quite the little ham when a camera is in view. Its rather amusing, except for those times when you want to catch one of his other adorable expressions, and he instead whips out a big smile...but I guess we won't complain! We've spent a lot of time in cute little fleece jackets recently, as fall has arrived in Minnesota. Soon we'll need to break out the mittens and hats, too!

Look what I'm eating!

We continue to expand Simon's food repertoire...in addition to the pureed veggies and fruits we've been making and freezing, he's started in on a few finger foods. Here he's munching on a noodle. His favorite finger foods, so far, seem to be cheese chunks (cheddar is all he's tried) and cheerios, though pasta and bananas he's also deemed worthy of eating. He has seven teeth, and that eighth one has been taking a LONG time to make an appearance--we're not sure why, as previously they seemed to pop up in pairs. He's still breastfeeding, and I've discovered the 'joy' of pumping at work...makes me glad I don't work full time!

And what is Simon doing, you ask? Well, in the past month he's started several new and exciting behaviors. He now regularly does social referencing (where infants in an uncertain situation will look at their caregiver for an indicator of how they should respond/if its okay), and shows separation anxiety and other positive signs that he is developing well socially. Just recently he's started gesturing/pointing at things as well. His object permanence continues to develop, meaning we can no longer get away with hiding undesirable objects (e.g. our coffee) behind our back while we play on the floor with him--he now knows its there and will try to get at it even though its out of sight. Physically, as I said he's able to sit up on his own, and just Friday night he crawled for the first time--babyproofing, here we come!

Aunt Liz is visiting for the weekend. She kindly babysat for us while Jess went to a local conference Thursday & Friday, and was here to witness the transition to crawling, too. We'll have to post some pictures from the weekend soon...but that's all for now. Enjoy your Sundays everyone!