Simon - 18 Months

I am soooo late with these posts, but I have to at the very least write this one.

Simon is a year and a half old now!  The time is flying by but I also really enjoy every new stage with my boy.  The baby stuff was fun, but the toddler stuff is even more fun.



Simon getting his first National Park stamp at Shiloh

Simon went to the doctor last Friday (about a week and a half after he turned 18 months).  Dude is 23lbs and almost 33 inches tall.  This puts him completely average... or as the doctor puts it... perfect.  But seriously the kid has been hugging that 50th percentile line for a long time.  His weight is slightly below and his height is slightly above... but really this kiddo is average. 

Simon is doing everything developmentally he should be except he's not really using words yet.  I started to get worried about it a few weeks ago.  The thing about Simon is he talks a lot.  He'll have whole conversations with you with hand motions, inflections, everything... except he's not saying real words.  He only consistently says momma variations, and sometimes Dada ones... but that's all, at least that's all I understand.  I've been bombarding him with words, repeating things multiple times before giving/doing things in hopes he will pick it up.  For instance I'll say up about 3 times before I'll actually pick him up.  He understands us very well, just isn't really saying words back.  I've been really trying to listen for them and maybe he is trying more.  The doctor said he should probably have a light switch moment when he starts saying a lot of words.  If we don't see an exponential amount of word growth in the next three months that we should think about getting him assessed for a speech delay, but right now since everything else developmentally is there he's not concerned... so we'll see how the next few months go.

In brighter news, Simon loves to play with toys, give us books to read, run around, and BE OUTSIDE EXPLORING.  Kid seriously loves being outside and always throws a fit if we don't go outside after work (when the dogs do) or when we have to come back inside.  He would spend all of his time out there.



Simon loves the animals, and really isn't scared of any animals.  I think he loves Daddy dog the most.  He'll sit on him, "pet" him, touch him all that jazz.  Daddy doesn't always love all of that, but just walks away when he isn't in the mood.  We are working on 'gentle' and 'pets' with Simon.  Bella loves to give Simon kisses and take advantage of meal time with Simon.  Simon knows how fun it is to feed the animals.

Add caption

Add caption

Add caption

Simon has picked up the art of dance this month too... which really involves flapping his arms around, but it's pretty adorable.  He's also really started to climb on the furniture too.

Simon does pretty well at meal time sometimes eating a ton and other times not really interested in eating at all.  He likes all the common kids foods but especially loves the sweeter things including fruit.  He mostly drinks milk but sometimes water too.

Sad he's not going outside

Mr. Simon went on his first road trip this month for my mom's birthday.  We went to Memphis and Nashville.  While we were never in the car for that long at one time (a few hours) he did SO WELL.  I don't want to just sit here and brag on him, but really I couldn't imagine it going as well as it did.  He got somewhat fussy when we went back in the car at times and nap schedule was all thrown off, but he handled it like a champ.  How did we get so lucky??

Simon experiencing "snow"

Sleep is good, he sleeps through the night very well... but in bigger news we made the switch from two naps a day to one.  It's been going pretty well!  His sleep schedule is wakes up 7:30-8, takes a nap around noon-2ish and then in bed around 8.  I like to keep him somewhat flexible with sleep, but it would be nice if he'd sleep in untraditional places at times.

Kiddo loves to imitate us.  He will do things we do like pretend to feed the dogs or fill up his humidifier.  He also knows where things go, or where things are (where's your bed, where's your jeep).  He'll also go to his highchair when we mention meal time or his towel or the bathtub when it's bath time.

Simon still has a bit of a shy streak.  It takes him a bit to warm up to unfamiliar places or people, but once he does he's all good.  A lot of times when we go somewhere new he starts to get worried we are going to leave, but once he figures out we're there together he's ok.  And even if we are leaving him somewhere he snaps out of it once we're gone pretty quickly... or so people tell me anyway.

Simon is such a joy... while we do have some fussy/crabby/tantrum moments he seems to move on pretty quickly or it's solved by food, a nap or Tylenol.  I'm not sure how we ended up with this easy kid, but we did and we are so lucky for it.  He's just such a perfect addition to our family.  Honestly, he makes our family a family.