"Laugh Aloud" and "Make You Smile" Pix from Week 10

So, I'm pretty sure those first two pictures would bring a smile to most faces!

I love this outfit on her! This is from Aunt KayKay and is so cute. I like the quote under the sheep, "Keep Them Counting." The coordinating pants have the cutest pockets on the front.



So, cute, the little tongue sticking out again.





Wow, Evie's brown hair looks almost red in this picture.


Simon and his books! So glad he enjoys books -- Simon was so cute today when I asked him to clean up his eggs. He'd walked into the living room and somehow a collection of egg 'particles' from breakfast fell from him and I gave him an idea of how to clean it up. (I was thinking picking up the pieces using a tissue would be a good idea.) Simon came back with his empty milk glass from breakfast and put all of the pieces in it...then he said, "I got to put this in the trash." Great idea. The only drawback was that he didn't empty it that well of the particles b/c when he filled it up with water, I saw lots of murkiness in his water... ;) I sent him back into the kitchen to put up something else and he whispered as he walked to the kitchen, "That would be good (of me)." He's not always that eager to please. However, he has cute ways of saying no. He used to say, "I can't like that." Now he just lets me know that whatever I am requesting wouldn't make him happy (as if that is the goal of parenting.) He might say, "I'm not happy to do that." On the reverse side, he is often heard saying, "I'm happy to do that." "I'm happy to see my friend."



Also cute saying of SImon, often posed as he looks at books, "What it do?" Aw, our little rapper.



I'm noticing that SImon is distinguishing more between boys and girls. Not in the way that you might expect, mostly in their clothing and eating habits (as he perceives.) For example, at breakfast today he announced that the eggs and biscuits (homemade, mind you!) were his favorite breakfast. "These are my favorite breakfast. Eggs and biscuits with jellyfish (grape)." "Not girls." So, I asked, what are girl's favorite? "All the girls like the oatmeal for breakfast. All the girls. It's their favorite." He asked yesterday, "Is Nina coming over? Is my Nina friend coming over?" Simon has such a good memory as he rarely gets to see his little friend Lorena, maybe twice since Evie's come around, during my appointments or brief drop-ins...anyway, that's a bunny trail just to show how good his memory is of pleasant events. Simon said, "I need my Nina friend. She's a good girl." I asked what made her a good girl. He said, "She wears a pink shirt and purple." So, all the good girls wear pink and purple, and all girls love oatmeal. It's their favorite.

Evie is waking up more! She has this cute habit of shaking her little legs. When she is in the crib sometime, trying to resist a nap, I might go in there and she'll just start 'dancing' by kicking her arms and flailing her arms. She's all smiles and gurgles and has this look of expectancy in her face, like she is so proud of herself and is just waiting for us to praise her. It's really cute. In the first picture posted of her on the red chair, her leg is a blur because it was just dancing away.

Simon woke up kind of cranky this morning and wanted to go back to bed. Well, that was fine with me, I turned his light back off at his request and let him know he could join Evie and I in the living room when he wanted and then we'd have breakfast. He came dragging in a little later, shielding his eyes from the bright sun (back window/doors), and asked, "MOMMY, CAN YOU TURN IT OFF? CAN YOU TURN THAT LIGHT OFF?" The sun? Wow, he must think I am really powerful.


After breakfast he told me, "I've got to go to someone's house." We had some friends over last night and I think he was sad they weren't here. I wish I'd snapped a picture of the kids last night. There are two adorable twins (boy and girl) about to turn 2 and an older sister who is about 4 months older than Simon. Anyway, I think he wondered where they were and needed to go to someone's house.


Today he was playing with his plastic frogs and put some aside for his dad. I asked, "Who are those for?" He said, "Those are for my dad. Those are his frogs." Then he kept playing and I heard him kind of whisper in a loving tone, "Matt." I asked, "What did you say?" Simon said, "Matt. He's my dad."

We are planning to take Simon to all-night prayer tonight. It's been awhile since we tried to take him. Usually we plan for him to be at his grandparents when we have Fri. Night Prayer. We tried it once, with him in his playpen by himself in a room and he was too scared for that too work. Then we have tried at least once to bring him a blanket and see if he would just fall asleep in the big meeting room, like the older kids, and that DID NOT WORK. It was too much for him to be still at that age. But, it's been awhile since we tried that, so I think it might work this time. I can rub his little back and maybe he'll drift off to sleep. Or maybe not, we'll see. I told him this morning about how we would be going to GFA tonight and he would get to sleep there. At first he said, "Oh, that sounds like fun." Then later he told me we couldn't sleep at the big building in the dark rooms because it was scary and we have to sleep at home not in the big building. I explained that this time he would get to stay with us and he is excited once again. And he said the cutest thing when he found out he could stay in the big room with all the mommies and daddies, he said, "Oh, that sounds like that will help me be good." By good, I think he means, not scared and it is so cute to hear him expressing his thoughts!

These pictures are of Simon getting himself some water. I heard cabinets opening yesterday and I went to see what Simon was doing. He was standing on the stool, and he looked at me and said, "Mama, I need a drink." So, he put water in it and tried to put the lid on it...so cute. He couldn't get the lid on so he just stood over the glass and of course, certain laws of gravity prevented him from drinking the water in the position, without a straw. It was really funny to watch. And then I helped him :)

Simon in his cute apron and chef's hat!


Simon was excited to mail some cookies to our dear friends who moved to New Mexico. We tried a yummy shortbread recipe that used semi-sweet chocolate. Yummy. Of the 3 dozen cookies our recipe made, only 2 dozen made it to New Mexico!