Simon & Zoe's Reunion

Last weekend we had the treat of visiting with our good friends Jen, Adam, and Zoe, who came to stay with us for a night. For Simon, it was the first time he'd seen Zoe since our move. As before the move, they got along swimmingly :).

Zoe tried out Simon's sofa--and let Simon spend some time with her favorite toy, baby Pink-Pink.

For every toddler I think a major bonus of playdates is getting to play with different toys. Here Adam and Zoe are trying out Simon's paint-with-water trick.

Before they had to leave on Saturday, we got to walk to the park and play outside for a while.

Both Zoe & Simon made the up-the-stairs, down-the-slide circuit several times.

They also had fun relocating leaves from one spot to another.

Thanks for visiting, Zoe! We hope you'll come see us again soon!

Recent Happenings

A week or two, in review:

We finally had a Sunday afternoon free, without terrible weather, we decided to venture out a little farther than our neighborhood park...not much farther though, just up the road to Silver Lake Park.

enjoying the fall weather

Simon has become quite adept at going down the slide all by himself--as long as it isn't in some way scary or unpredictable (he prefers the straight slides to tunnels or spirals)

Simon and I had the rare pleasure of visiting with Emily, my good friend from high school...we only had a few hours before she needed to head to the airport, so we ate lunch and played at the Lego store at the Mall of America.

Simon and Andy recently got to visit with (Great) Grandparents Hubert & Audrey. Hubert has been less mobile since a fall earlier in the autumn, so we haven't had quite as many opportunities to visit recently.

We also had visitors this past weekend! ...but that will have to wait for another post...

Calling Grandpa Steve...do you copy?

We've been concerned recently that some of Simon's calls haven't been getting through, so we thought we better post them here to make sure Grandpa Steve gets the message. (Apparently you are frequently called from daycare, too!)

Our first clue that maybe the calls weren't going through was his choice of new-fangled fancy phones that we've never even heard of--such as the graham-cracker-phone, which he used just today at snack time. We're guessing most phone service providers are a little behind Simon, and haven't yet developed the technology to connect calls to devices such as the graham-cracker-phone...

...although even when he uses a more traditional phone device, sometimes we're still not sure that the call was connected. We'll have to check with Qwest to see whether this particular phone is in fact connected to our landline :).

Our Family's New Focus

Greetings, from our busy family to yours! A few photos by way of a quick update...

We're trying to get Simon out to enjoy the not-yet-winter weather, when we can. Although he often insists on the park or taking a walk, when we can convince him the backyard is a worthwhile destination, he has a great time out there. Mom and Simon typically end up drawing with chalk (Mom drawing "more OOO's!" on command); whereas Dad and Simon typically end up shooting baskets until Dad's arms get tired.

slam dunk!

Simon is quite busy during the week at child care, but that doesn't mean he has run out of ways to exhaust us in the evening hours we spend with him. We're a little too exhausted to deal with the potential mess of real paint at this point, but we did get these great paint cups and paint brushes for him to use at some point--for now he is thrilled to "paint" with water!

Simon still loves his binky, puppy, taggie, and nursing before bed and first thing in the morning. We're thinking of weaning him from the last and first at some point in the not-too-distant future, but with all the recent stresses in our lives, not at the moment. He was very proud of himself the other day for figuring out how to fit two binkies in his mouth at one time!

A few weeks ago we unfortunately had to say goodbye to our Taurus. It was a bit sad--our first car as a couple, and it served us well for five years. But it came back from mechanic with a list of problems and estimated price for fixing them that just made it clear it was time to upgrade. We have since welcomed this 2006 Ford Focus* into our family--four door with a hatchback, for those occasional times we seem to find when we need to move something big. So far it works great, and Jess is glad to have a reliable car for her twice-weekly commute!

(*Now go back and read the title...haha...I'm so clever. I bet you thought we had some great ideological shift over here...)