Simon: Eleven Months

Dud wanted to keep rolling over

Weight:  I don't know... he feels heavy... sometimes more than others

Height:  He feels tall to me, I'll walk with him holding my hands and I don't have to lean over as much as I used to

Medical Issues:  Nothing to report - yay!  He gets dry scalp and teething, but let's face it those are pretty minor.

Sleep:  Could be worse, could be better... which is probably what I report each and every month.  He'll get up a few times a night and we give him some bottle to calm him down, but he really doesn't take that much.  Each time we get up with him it only takes a few minutes, but it would be nice to not have to get up at all.  He's super cute falling asleep, he puts his arms/hands over his face.  I still rock him before bed and we still use the ZipadeeZip sleep sack and loving it.  He goes down pretty easy.  He takes two naps a day around 9:30 and 1:30 and bedtime around 6:30-7.  If people are around Simon wants to hang out and not go to sleep.  Overall I can't complain too much about his sleep.

Clothes/Diapers (sizes):  Size 3 diapers, and 9-12month clothes

Diet:  Simon likes food... he gets so happy after eating.  He'll eat everything and if we are eating he wants to eat too.  He gets some baby food a day but we are trying to transition to more regular food.  He loves to feed himself too - puffs, cheerios, fruit, anything we can give him small.  We feed him 3 meals a day.  He gets about 4 bottles a day to equal roughly 25oz.  Still on breast milk and will hopefully make it a full year.  Just a few more short weeks to make it through. 

Baby Gear Love:  ZipadeeZip is great.  Still love our bottles (Born Free) and the Boon Drying Lawn.  Simon loves toys, including the toy book he can open and close, Robot, caterpillar, stacking rings, sorting shapes, table toy and dude loves to spin things.  We also love LeapFrog Scout dog.

Milestones/Firsts:  We have a crawler!  That's the big news this month.  Simon is also an expert at pulling up but now he can really get anywhere he wants to go.  He will walk along furniture and can go between two pieces pretty well.  He went swimming in a real pool finally for the first time.  My dad and stepmom watched him for the first time now that he's older (they watched him as a baby but much different now).  First trip to Grant's Farm and first splash pad experience.  He also now has 3 teeth.

Likes:  Playing, crawling, the dog's kennels, remotes, phones, eating, animals,

Dislikes:  Not being able to go where he wants to go (like when he can't play with the dog's kennels b/c the dogs are in them), being hungry or tired, teething, when Dan or I walk away

Things I Don't Want to Forget:  Now that Simon has teeth on top and bottom he's started grinding them together.  Hey if I were him I'm probably do the same thing, like licking your teeth after you have braces.

We've started experiencing a little separation anxiety with Simon.  When we go somewhere and if we try to hand him off right away he'll start crying.  He gets a little shy in the beginning with people that aren't Dan and me (and luckily the sitter).  He does warm up pretty quickly especially if Dan and I are staying.  If Dan and I are leaving I've heard he does cry for awhile after we leave, but eventually calms down and has fun.

Dan is so great with Simon - playing with him, showing him things, everything.  Dan's nicknames for Simon are Ding Dong and Baby Baba (sometimes saying the phrase goochy goochy baby baba)

Simon can say mama and dada.  I hear mama more when he's upset whereas he babbles dada.  Speaking of his babbling... so cute!  We had him around a baby about a month older than Simon and they baby talked together.

I love Simon's laugh.  He's ticklish so that's fun, but he'll also laugh at us sometimes.  He also loves it when we blow raspberries on his belly.

Simon loves to play with our faces.  Grab our nose, mouth, ears... I swear he's going to scratch my eye someday.  He also gave me a canker sore this way by scratching the inside of my mouth.

Simon likes to throw his toys.  Such fun! (sigh)  He also likes to drop things on purpose and throw things out of his play pen when he's in there.  He also likes to climb (over us, around us, try to get on furniture).

Like I mentioned above it does take a little time for Simon to warm up to a new situation or people.  He comes around, but I think he is starting to get a little shy.  For instance my sister (who he sees all the time) comes over and after his nap he will cuddle with me b/c he's nervous (or whatever).  It is fun to get cuddles from him because he constantly wants to be on the move these days.  

Simon loves to kicking and move all over at diaper change time.  It makes the diaper change pretty tough at times.  He'll also try to grab his dirty diaper or uncleaned butt... yuck.

Simon loves to be standing and pulls himself up with ease.  Of course getting up is just half the battle because he hasn't quite figured out how to get himself down yet.  He'll start to fuss and cry like "what do I do?"  Sometimes he knows he can just plop himself down, but mostly he hasn't quite figured that part out yet.

Simon wants to put his mouth on everything.  He will even bring his mouth to the object if the object can't make it to his mouth.  The other night it looked like he was giving Scout dog mouth-to-mouth.  Werido.

We hear from a lot of people just how easy of a baby Simon is... and he really really is.  We are so lucky to have him in our lives.

Weekend in Review - #5

Yay for three day weekends!


I got off work on Thursday and Dan picked up Simon from the sitters so I could stop by a couple of stores.  I was looking for multi-colored balloons for a craft project.  I stopped by Party City b/c I KNEW they'd have balloons, only to find that they cost $8 a bag... um, not paying that much, so I checked Dollar General, and they were out... oh well.  Dan went on a trip with his brother-in-law and left Thursday night (gone until late Saturday morning).  Simon and I played around until it was bedtime.  Then I made some dinner and sat with the cats.


Friday morning I got up with Simon and we played and ate breakfast.  Then he went down for his morning nap.  Around 11 Lindsey came over and Simon got up from his nap.  We got ready and finally headed to the pool.  We went to Chrondelet YMCA to their outdoor aquatic park.  It was really nice - the pool was nice, the weather was warm and it wasn't too crowded since all those pesky kids are back in school.  We stayed for a few hours.  Simon really did seem to enjoy the pool.  We took him on a floaty and let him splash around.  I'm glad he got to experience the water and I'm thinking in the spring we'll sign him up for swim lessons.

Simon was over pictures

couldn't even get him to look up - but wanted a pic in the floaty

Such a cutie

And in a hat!

After the pool we ordered some sushi and stopped by the Dollar Store quickly so I could see if they had balloons - which they did!  We picked up the sushi and headed back home.  I put Simon down for his afternoon nap and ate delicious delicious sushi.  Lindsey headed home and I waited for Simon to wake up.  We of course played and my mom came over after work.  We hung out with Simon, she put him to bed and then we watched some Olympics and I made a frozen pizza.  It was a nice relaxing night.


Saturday morning I got up with Simon and did the normal - play, eat breakfast, play some more. (play = chasing him around as he continuously goes after the same things he shouldn't haha).  I put him down for a nap and was going to take a nap myself, but Dan ended up coming home so I didn't.  Eventually Simon got up and he was happy to see Dan.  He ate lunch and I got ready to go out.


Susan and I went out to celebrate her birthday.  We did a painting class, had dinner at Circle 7 Ranch (by dinner I mean drinks and apps) and then saw Bad Moms.  It was a fun day! 

Stole it from Susan's IG

Finished painting (and a Simon leg)

Sunday we had no plans, Dan got up with Simon so I was able to sleep in for awhile.  We did the normal things - feed Simon, play, naps, etc.  That afternoon Dan grilled some brats and we had beans and slaw - so yummy (oh, Dan also cooked breakfast this morning, so he was rocking it).  Simon went to bed and I started working on the wreath craft project, but ran out of balloons.  Overall a really nice weekend!

Hanging out on the deck with the nice weather

Weekend in Review - #4

Another weekend in the books!


I had a five day work week so I worked on Friday.  After work I picked up Simon from the sitters for the first time in forever.  We headed home and played for awhile and then fed Simon some dinner.  We decided to go out for dinner so we loaded up the car and went to Quincy Street Bistro.  I enjoyed what I got but Dan wasn't happy with his.  Either way it was nice going out to dinner.  We went back to the house and put Simon to bed and Dan and I hung out for awhile before we headed to bed.


Saturday morning I got up with Simon and we spent some time playing and hanging out.  Most of the day was fairly boring... I did take a nap when Simon took his morning nap as well though.  That afternoon I did a major Target run.  It was slightly exhausting, but by watching deals, using Cartwheel and my Red Card I was able to save almost $60.  I was pretty proud of my shopping trip!

That evening we had some friends over.  Dan made some steak and potato kabobs and pork sizzlers and I heated up some beans and make some shells and cheese (super fancy over here).  We hung out outside and the weather was pretty nice.  Simon stayed up way too late, but he's a social guy and likes to be around people.  Everyone else ended up going out and I stayed back to watch Simon.

Found it at the store so had to try

Sunday morning I got to sleep in which was excellent.  Simon slept in for Dan too which was nice for him.  When I got up we got ready and went over to my mom's house.  We drove around for awhile and ended up getting a quick breakfast before trying to see an exhibit at Laumeier... but I guess they were without power so it was closed.  We then walked around Joann's and figured out a banner for Simon's birthday and some other random projects.  We grabbed some lunch and went back to mom's house.  We ate lunch and Simon went down for a nap while we worked on the banner.  I woke up him and we played over there for awhile (Lindsey got to see him) and then headed back home.  I did dishes and straightened up.  I finished the night watching the Olympics and cross-stitching.

Weekend in Review - #3

Last weekend was the ever exciting 3-day weekend.  Those are just so much better than measly 2 day weekends.


Thursday night I came home from work and played with Simon.  Dan ended up going to a concert so I had the house to myself which is always nice.  After Simon went to bed I did some cleaning, made myself dinner and watched TV.  I watched The Challenge finale, and wow, hardly seemed real.


Friday I got to sleep in a bit and then got up with Simon.  We ate some breakfast and played awhile.  Simon ended up going down for his nap.  When he got up from his nap Lindsey came over.  Originally our plan was to go to the pool, but it was so gray and off-and-on rainy that we ended up having lunch with my mom instead.  We went to Pieology and it was delicious.

He's always a happy camper when food is involved

Afterwards Lindsey and I took Simon to the splash pad/playground at a park near my house.  He LOVED it.  He wasn't too sure at first, but ended up having a lot of fun splashing in the fountain.  It was nice that there were no other kids there to contend with.  After the water we pushed him in the swing a bit and then headed home for his nap.  During his nap Lindsey and I got snow cones.

Lindsey and Simon checking out the water

Loved this fountain

Friday night Dan ended up going out with some friends so I again had the house to myself.  I ate leftover pizza and watched the Olympic opening ceremonies while cross stitching.  I went to bed fairly late.


Saturday morning I got up early with Simon and we ate some breakfast and played.  I put him down for his nap and got ready.  I had lunch plans with two of my high school friends - Beth and Amanda.  It was nice catching up with them.  Afterwards I came back home and hung out for awhile.  Then we got ready to go out that night.


We dropped Simon off with my dad and step-mom (they were really looking forward to babysitting!)  Dan, me and his cousin went to O'Fallon Brewery for some food and drinks.  Then we went over to the El Monstero concert at Riverport.  I was worried how hot it might be since it was August and the temperatures we've been having, but the weather was beyond beautiful.  They put on a great show!!  We left a bit early to beat the traffic though.  We picked up Simon and headed home.

Terrible picture, but I had one chance

The bring in a helicopter for The Wall

It's always a fun show to watch

Meanwhile Simon was playing with his grandparents

I got to sleep in on Sunday and when I got up we played a bit and then Simon took a nap.  Afterwards we had lunch and then all went up to Home Depot to get a few things.  Simon took an afternoon nap (and I may have too) and then when he got up we played, ate dinner and eventually he headed to bed.  We ordered pizza and I watched the Olympics while cross-stitching again.

Simon is obsessed with the dog's kennels... sigh

Happy boy!

Overall a pretty nice weekend.