Simon: 14 months

Simon is now 14 months.  I'm not really sure the format I want to do these posts in now that he's over 12 months and last month I just posted pictures, but I want to do more than that.  I think I'm just going to put random stuff down - no harm in that!

I can't remember if I included this one last time or not...

Eating

The big transition we made this month is cutting out bottles.  They say that around 12 months you're supposed to be done with bottles.  Well, Simon is 14 months and still getting them at night, but in the last week-ish we have been able to drop the daytime bottles.  At night I'm slowly cutting back on the ounces in his bottle.  I don't really think he needs the bottle at night, but it's more so a trigger that it's bedtime.  We'll keep with it and by 15 months he should be d-o-n-e with bottles.  Which at this point is music to my hears as I've been hand washing bottles since the beginning.  (We don't have a dishwasher, so I hand wash everything)

Playing at the sitters

Simon isn't walking yet, but he gets closer all the time.  Here the thing, I know he's totally capable of walking, he can stand for long periods of time, move his arms and pick up toys.  He can also walk behind a toy really easily even adjusting the direction of the toy if he's run into something.  But he doesn't trust that he can walk on his own - would much prefer crawling instead.  At some point I know he's going to figure it all out, but right now, he's not quite there yet.  That's another thing I'm hoping he figures out by the next update.  In my head, he should be walking by Christmas.

Wasn't too happy with his Halloween costume the first time we put it on

Simon loves picking up and examining leaves

Simon likes to eat, sometimes more than others.  Breakfast I'd say is his biggest meal of the day followed by lunch and dinner.  He drinks milk out of his sippy like a champ.  Whenever Dan or I am eating something, he wants to have bites and gets upset if we don't let him.  He likes to shove everything into his mouth at once, sometimes he gets away with it and gags and spits things back out... lovely haha.  When he's done eating or doesn't like something he will push the food right back out with his tongue.  It's pretty funny.  He's also figured out it's pretty fun to feed the dogs food, so that's another thing we have to watch out for.

Happy boy

Showing me leaves

Simon is a fast crawler.  He is off and going.  He's found it's fun to open the cabinets in the kitchen, explore our bedroom, and the bathroom is pretty neat these days too.  He likes to mess with the dog's kennels (opening and closing doors if pretty fun!), play with the remotes, shake Quina's food and seeds, play with the spring that catches the doors, roll the highchair, and check out our shoes.

He picked out all the other food and left the peas

More leaves!

He says Mama/mom for sure... I'm not sure it's always in the right context, but he says it.  I may have noticed Dada too, but more mama's than dada's.  Sometimes he prefers me and other times he prefers Dan.  I think it's a good enough balance for now... and he prefers either of us to anyone else.  He gets shy when we're in a "new" place and will start clinging to us when he things we are going to leave him.  He gets upset when we leave him somewhere (thankfully not a problem at the sitters, but other times).  It's always sad when they are crying as you walk out the door, but in the end we know he's going to be ok and end up having fun.

We still haven't figured out how to get all the cradle cap/grossiness off his head... and it itches him.  He will scratch his head when he gets tired and while he's falling asleep.  He has 8 teeth now.

Loves playing in the dog kennels

14 months!

Sleep... some nights he does SO WELL and then others we're in there a few times to give him a binky.  He handled daylight savings pretty well (we kept pushing back his bedtime the week before to help him adjust better).  Then sometime this last week he decided 6:30-7 was too early for bed and now is going down closer to 7:30-8.  Naps are better at the sitter's than home.  Last night (the night of his 14 month) I rocked him all the way to sleep after a good 20-30 mins of crying in his crib.  He was getting SO UPSET.  So I ended up rocking him and singing to him.  It was sweet he fell asleep on me, but I'm not sure what that was about as I haven't had to rock him to sleep in months.  Dan normally has to get him up around 7 if he isn't already awake hearing me move around.  He will usually mess around in his crib until Dan is ready to get him moving.  On weekends we can usually get him to sleep until 7:30.

Halloween

Playing at Magic House

Simon loves all the animals, looking at them, touching them.  I mentioned he loves feeding the dogs.  He also loves when they give him kisses and usually laughs with delight... although Bella can kind of smother him with kisses sometimes... she's an aggressive lover haha.  We've been working on gentle with the dogs, learning the pet them and not just hit them (Simon's petting is more like tap tap tap) they tolerate it well though.  He sometimes likes to pull up on them (mostly Daddy) and Daddy isn't always a fan of that moving out of the way quickly, but they are all good with him.  Simon loves looking at the bird and petting/grabbing the kitties (both at my house and my mom's).  He certainly isn't scared of dogs.

Vail and Simon at the trunk or treat

Simon loves his toys.  In his room he will frequently go from one toy to another.  He'll get to the baskets I have corralled some toys into and pull them all out.  He likes his rolling toys (cars, little people ones, etc) and rolling them back and forth between us or crawling and rolling them around.  He will also play fetch with himself by throwing a toy and the crawling after it and throwing it again.  He loves walking behind his walking toy as I mentioned.  He also give Scout hugs and I've started saying AWW real loud when he does it and he thinks that's funny and does it over and over again.  He can kind of do the shape sorter, but mostly doesn't have the patience for it.  I'll read to him sometimes, but again, no real patience.  I really look forward to getting to the point of teaching him things, but he doesn't repeat things.  It will come with time.

Pushing the wagon

More playing at the Magic House

Simon has a buddy at the sitter's now and it's adorable.  I think it's going to be fun to see them grow together and feed off each other's developments.  He's also so close in age to Vail and that's so fun to watch as well.  Simon is much more agile now, but Vail is crawling.  At some point in that not so distant future they will be the same age doing the same things.

Crawling after the wagon... he looked like a real dinosaur

Magic House

Simon claps and waves... sometimes.  He loves when we 'dip' (lean him backwards upside down), being upside down, crawling back and forth between us on the couch, tickles, chasing after him crawling, spinning/dancing, dancing, watching Blippi, playing with leaves, rolling balls, watching kids, staring at people, playing with his binky, having a binky, eating, drinking, talking (sometimes), and so much more.

On Halloween day we dressed him in the prisoner jammies he has from Alcatraz  

Waving with both hands

Simon is really just a happy guy, he is just a joy to be around.  He likes to mess with somethings sometimes but let's face it he's exploring.  I can tell he's going to like climbing soon.  I just love this little boy so very much and so so happy he's part of our life.