Naughty or Nice?

He didn't love Santa at all but he did enjoy the candy cane that Santa gave him!

I've created a monster

Simon does not appreciate any diversion of attention away from him so needless to say, he is less than thrilled when I log onto the laptop to check out email. I got the brillant idea the other day to do a google search for animal pictures to get him to appreciate the computer more. Problem is that now he's obsessed. Instead of trying to close my computer so I can't use it, he keeps it pried open so that I can search for animal pictures. It gets a little old looking at lion pictures for half an hour, but he seems to enjoy it and it's a great quiet time activity.

Explosion of Vocabulary

Simon has had a recent explosion of vocabulary in the last week. He's expanded from "more", "mine", "hi", "bye", "mama", "daddy", "BruBru", and dozens of animal noises to a more useful array of words to describe what he wants. We're going to start having to be careful about what we say around him now! His understanding has also increased and he can point to almost everything in all of his books and can actually go select the book that you're requesting from his pile (this is quite the feat as Simon has quite the library of books).

Trimming the Tree

Mum and Dad were brave enough to invite over all of their grandchildren to help trim their tree. For those of you who have seen their tree, you know that Mum takes great care in placing the ornaments, almost like they have been put up with the assistance of a ruler (and knowing my Mum probably a level too!), so I was surprised they would want the help of three kids under 4 feet tall. Well to my surprise the tree turned out beautifully and the ornaments are surprisingly well distributed. Simon only wanted to put up the Christmas balls and shuned any non-round ornaments. He also insisted that Granddad put all of the ornaments "up" and he would always jump to illustrate when passing off the ornaments to hang. Next year Seamus will join the fray so Dad needs to work on speed hanging as he was already ragged by the end of it and this year there were only three demanding grandchildren.

Santa Clause Parade

We bundled up today and headed downtown for the annual Santa Clause parade. As is becoming tradition, we realized after getting Simon decked out that his snowsuit was not going to make it through the winter - again! The unfortunate thing is that at his age, it's just not an option to have a massive snow suit to grow into since he wouldn't be able to keep up with the other kids at daycare. We managed to time it perfectly this year and it wasn't long after we found a spot that the "floats" started going by. There are a few neat displays but for the most part it is a ragtag assortment of random cars, people and dance troupes. Simon enjoyed it though, with the exception of the mascots from which he hid. After an hour and a bit of the parade, Matt and I were glad to race back to the car and warm up. Simon was the only one who seemed unaffected by the cold - next year, mental note to wear snowpants.

Hola

Matt and I headed off to the sunny shores of Mexico for some sand, sun and relaxation. We spent a week at the El Dorado Seaside Suites in the Mayan Riveria. The resort was beautiful, gorgeous rooms, great beach beds and awesome food. Our schedule for the week consisted of waking up, grabbing a bed on the beach and then heading down for breakfast. Once breakfast was done, we would meander down to the beach where I would lie in the shade while Matt would twitch beside me waiting to do some kind of activity. The guys spent most of their beach time snorkelling, playing volleyball, kayaking and driving the beach waitress crazy with drink orders. Around 1:00 we would pull ourselves together for lunch - usually a few hour affair. Once lunch was over, we would basically repeat the morning activity until it was time to dress for dinner. Dinner was always a formal affair, followed by drinks. It was a great change of pace for the week!

PICTURES TO FOLLOW

Mine

We came back from our week in Mexico to a newly acquired word, "mine". Everything is labelled as mine first before handing it off to you. The tone is the best part, he gets a demon edge on his voice and then says "mine" like he's possessed. Very entertaining, at least in the short term!

Simon Fuller had a Farm

At our 18 month appointment, the doctor indicated that Simon was a bit delayed on his speech, however, he didn't recommend intervention unless we didn't have any progress over the next few months. Well we haven't had much progress on words but Simon is a veritable zoo. He can imitate a bear, a lamb, a tiger, a horse, a cow, an elephant, a gorilla, a snake, a dog, a cat, a mouse, a duck, an owl, birds, and the list goes on.

Happy Halloween!

Simon had a busy, busy day on Halloween and his costume got quite the mileage even though we didn't trick or treat. He started the day off going to him Kindermusik class. Matt originally wasn't planning on bringing him in costume but once he saw all the other kids decked out, he quickly wrangled Simon into his. Next stop was to visit Mommy at work. Unfortunately the timing didn't really work out as we had an urgency to deal with so Matt and Simon were in and out pretty quickly. Next Simon went on to charm Matt's coworkers and then home for a nap to rest up for the evening's festivities. At 4:00 Matt and Simon picked me up and we went off to wish my Mum bon voyage, visited with Aunt Debbie and Uncle Eric, showed off to Ursula, visited Grandma and then settled in for an evening of handing out candy. Simon loved all of the kids coming to the door. As soon as the doorbell would ring he would take off to the front door and jump up and down until the door opened. Then once the kids turned to leave, he would try to join them! Eventually we headed outside to give out candy there. It was such a mild evening and Simon enjoyed nighttime bubbles.

A Soccer Star in the Making

Simon definitely takes after his parents and has a mean right hoof. He has managed to almost kick the leftover dinner dishes off the table, maim Brutus numerous times, and keep me guessing with his kicks all during this evenings soccer match. Simon and Matt are now in the second half of a marathon soccer match. Simon has two balls on the go and I'm pretty sure that he has outscored Matt. Simon's "net" is the fireplace and he is playing his dual role of netminder and striker quite proficiently, once he takes his shot, he races back to defend his goal. Matt's "net" is the exposed part of the wall and the opening of the kitchen. If Matt dares leave it unprotected Simon gets quite antsy, starts pointing frantically, yelling "ma,ma,ma" and then runs over to tap the spot that he wants his Daddy to stand - and by stand, he means stand. If Matt so happens to be sitting, that earns some more frantic points from Simon. We are now rounding into almost a full hour of this. Matt couldn't be having more fun and is enjoying the change in pace from the usual non-stop reading of Brown Bear. I'm sensing a nightly soccer game in our future.