Pine cones

Simon discovered pine cones, both at the Lake and near our house. He had fun collecting them at the Lake in this video:

Pine cones from Anne Reynolds on Vimeo.

You'll hear him say "ee-weven, fir-teen" (eleven, thirteen) - he's starting to learn some numbers but doesn't always use them with much accuracy. He also got distracted by some "garbage," which I think was actually just a leaf...

He also found some pine cones near a neighbor's house, and had fun throwing them.



Wind-up:



Pitch:

Stats update

We had Simon's two-year check up last week, and got to find out how big he is! Drumroll please:

Height: 33 3/4 inches (30th percentile)
Weight: 25 lb, 6 oz (25th percentile)

He's been hovering between the 20-30 percentile mark for length and weight consistently for a while, which his doctor is very happy about. (As he said, "Growing is a marathon, not a sprint!") In all other respects, including his speech, Simon was pronounced right on track. This was especially welcome to hear, as he was a little slow to start talking, most likely due to his ear troubles when he was younger. But he has more than caught up now!

Some examples of Simon's longer recent phrases:

"I die-ying tuck, Mommy!" (I driving truck Mommy - video of that soon)
"Tah-mon dive Mommy's caow?" (Simon drive Mommy's car - he is big in to "driving" lately)
"Mommy seep Tah-mon's room?" (Mommy sleep Simon's room - this has become a regular question in the evenings, even though I haven't slept in his room in almost a year.)
"I pop-it big bubble!"

Other recent favorite things to do:

Playing with his stuffed animals. First thing in the morning, he usually wants us to put all of his "ah-moos" in to his crib. Then he'll usually throw them all straight back out. Lately he has also enjoyed transferring them all to our room, on to our bed.

Blowing bubbles. I have also discovered that the promise of going outside to blow bubbles will more often than not prompt him to finally finish everything on his dinner plate. After the first time I did that, I realized it was bribery, but that didn't keep me from doing it again.

Drawing on his white board and his chalk board, which are each on opposite sides of his easel. He very often requests that we draw too. "Big circle Mommy! Big circle Mommy!"

Playing in the sprinkler and his new kiddie pool. These were huge hits over this past weekend, when it was VERY hot outside.

Pictures from school

We've had some fun pictures recently from Simon's daycare, so I thought I'd share a few.

In this first picture, Simon is second in line to go down the slide into the kiddie pool. His teacher says that he was the first one from his class to go down, and just loves it.

Painting:

Putting together pictures with his best pal at school, Sabrina ("Beena"):

Outside playing in the water tables with Gianna and Sabrina:

His whole class having a snack - they made a "pool" out of blue jello and then ate the jello with goldfish crackers:

After fun at the water tables, they had a snack outside:

Buddies:

Taking his turn mixing fruit salad:

Strawberry picking

The weekend before this past one, we took Simon strawberry picking. He enjoyed it for the most part, and ate several juicy strawberries out in the field. Which is clear from his stained shirt in the photos below.

The biggest highlight, though, was the tractor ride to and from the fields. We didn't get a picture of Simon during the ride, but here is one taken just after our ride back.

Sprinkler

These are more recent, but still a little bit old. We had a great weekend with friends Langdon, Anna and Eliza visiting us back in June. It was really nice outside, so we turned on the sprinkler. The kids thoroughly enjoyed it! At the video on the bottom, you can see that some adults may have enjoyed it too. :)

Sprinkler fun from Anne Reynolds on Vimeo.

Oldies

I just uploaded photos from our actual digital camera for the first time in two months. I now take so many pictures with my phone that I forgot about those! So here are some oldies, but they're still cute.

1) Simon went through a phase for a while where *everything* was a choo-choo-train. Here he is with several of his vehicles lined up - of course he is extremely proud of himself.


2) He has a great easel down in the basement, where one side is a dry-erase board. He loves to scribble on it!

Big boy

Simon wants to do everything like a "big boy" these days. Here he is drinking his milk like a big boy!



(We got him a haircut later that day - these photos were the straw that tipped my back....)