Annabelle Speaks

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow (har har)

So this happened.
                                                                            Before and after.

When I was pregnant with Simon my hair grew a whole lot faster than normal.  Like, a LOT faster.  I suppose that is to be expected along with all the other strange pregnancy side effects, but I didn't realize how very long my hair had gotten until around Christmas last year.  For years my hair length has been within a few inches of my shoulders, always about the same.  But this was down past my bra strap when I dried it straight, about at my bra strap when I left it curly.  LONG.

The week of Christmas I randomly declared that I was going to cut it all off after tax season and donate  it.  Why not?  It was way longer than I wanted it to be, and it seemed like a ncie gesture to the universe.  A month later my mom was diagnosed with incurable cancer.  So!  Hair donation it is.  Got it, universe.

I still waited until spring mainly because the combination of infant + mom with cancer + busy season at work left me with no time or energy to deal with it.  This past weekend I finally dealt with it.

The pigtails cut off are just a touch over a foot long when I pull them straight-ish.

After the haircut we were going right downtown to meet with T's mom for the day, so I had them style my hair straight just because it seemed easier/more predictable, but I do wear it curly on regular days.  Aweseomly this is what I get when I shower at night right before bed, use no product other than leave-in conditioner, fall asleep on wet hair, and get up in the morning and just go with it.

I'm really happy with it, and I'm glad I have the ability to donate my hair.  I can't cure cancer, I can't make it go away, but I can do something to help someone else, and that's a good thing.

If you're interested, the organization to which I'm donating my hair is Pantene Beautiful Lengths.

Simon: Ten Months

Hey look, so your ten month post is going up less than a week after your nine month post.  At least I'm on time this month!

Wait, TEN months old? Who authorized all this growing?  Not me, that's for sure.

Okay, maybe it's a little fun. (A lot fun.)

You've reached the age where you can play some basic baby-games with us with regularity.  We're just starting to understand SO BIG!  When prompted you will sometimes do fives (high five) and you LOVE to clap for things.  For the benefit of everyone reading this I won't post a picture of you clapping while nursing (which you do every single time we nurse now, thanks kid), but I will post one of you clapping for blackberries.  You love all food so far, except eggs.  Not a fan of eggs.

This month your crawling really took off.  One day you were taking one or two crawling "steps", tops, and the next day you were full-on crawling all over (at nine months and one week).

You also learned to climb stairs this month, thanks to Gramma Itzmee. We have to watch you closely though, as you have the attention span of a gnat and will try to sit and take a break part way up when there is no floor under your butt to catch you.  We're holding off on the Mensa application for a while yet, then.

Hotel carpet - totally germ-free, I'm sure!

 

We took two trips this month.  The first was to Minnesota to Gramma Itzmee and Grampa French Fry's house.  You (thankfully) still did well on the plane, so we rewarded you with some time at White Bear Beach, crawling around the playground and walking down to the water's edge to see ice off.

We also took a (very long, very dull) drive to Iowa for a family wedding (for one of Mama's cousins on Gramma Itzmee's side). Despite the long drive and the fact that they had gotten half a foot of snow on May 3rd, we had a great time.  In addition to learning stairs with Gramma Itzmee you also got to swim in the hotel pool and dress up in the fancy suit that Barb and Heather bought for you last fall.  You were stylin'.

 

And you got to go swimming in the pool with Gramma Itzmee and Grampa French Fry (who had his camera with him even in the pool, because OF COURSE).

This past weekend, the last of being nine months old, Gram came to visit for the day and we took you to Millenium Park where you got your first dose of playing in the Crown Fountain.  It was too cold to let you stay in the water long, but I forsee many visits this summer.  You love your splashing.

You've also nearly overcome every baby's big fear: GRASS.  You still aren't a super fan of crawling on it, but you will put up with it without complaint, which I'm told puts you way ahead of everyone else in your daycare class.

Books are still a big hit, and you are starting to figure out how to turn the pages yourself.

But you don't always have as much time for reading now that you're standing all the live-long day.  Not only standing but full-on cruising around furniture!  At about nine months three weeks you started taking steps along the edges of the couch or your crib, and now at ten months proper you can do full laps around furniture and move from the table to the couch for support.  You still fall on your butt the second you let go, but we're heading quickly to Serious Mobile Baby stage, I can tell.

But I don't really have to worry about you getting far, at least not yet.  Your favorite place to be is still touching Mama all of the time.  According to you I am the very best jungle-gym in the world.  I'll take it.

Other milestones/things of note.  You have many Opinions-with-a-capital-O that you express via screaching (happy) and kicking and screaming (mad).  The mad parts are mostly during diaper changes, unless I distract you with a toy.  Your current favorite toy to hold for a scream-free diaper change is a gangly monkey that Grampa French Fry and Gramma Itzmee brought you from Washington D.C. last fall.  We named him Mr. Smith.  (Because he came from Washington, get it?  GET IT?  Oh, never mind.)

In other communication news, you definately understand at least some of what we're saying to you, too, particularly "NO.  SIT.  BUTT DOWN." which you hear roughly 3,567 times per bath.  Please note that understanding what we say and listening to/doing what we say are different things. Ahem. 

You are still all kinds of smiley and happy and you love nothing more than new strangers to talk to and giggle with.  In a Culvers on the way home from Iowa you were far more interested in sitting backwards in your high chair to better woo passing strangers with your smile than you were in eating.  I fear I've given birth to a tiny politician.  Or a tiny version of Gramma Itzmee.  Soon you'll be telling me how we're "related" to all these strangers.

 

In short, you are a delight.  Your little voice telling me "ba ba ba BA BA BA pttttttttthhhh" is one of my favorite things.  I love that the closest you come to blowing kisses is to give your palm a raspberry and then wave at me.  You clap when I come to pick you up from school and you attack me with kisses when I pick you up.  You're just the greatest.  I'm so lucky to have you.

Love,

Mama

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Simon: Nine Months

Simon: Nine Months

Simon-

I'm sorry this is late again!  I wrote it when you were just barely nine months, then I got all distracted and didn't have time to match it up to pictures.  Hey, at least I got it up...five whole days before your ten month post will go up.  Heh.



I still want to post a separate nine month post though, since otherwise the posts get too picture heavy.  How could I not want to put 7,000 pictures of you in each monthly post?  You are just so darn CUTE.

Anyway.  Onward to the nine month entry.

 

Heeyyyyyyyy, Goofy Bay-bay-ay....whup, whup, whop, whop...Simon Fisher Style.  Heeyyyyyyyy, Goofy Bay-bay-ay...

Can you hear Grampa Fisher singing that to you?  Because he will never, ever stop so long as it continues to get such a big grin out of you.  Most everything makes you happy, but him singing that goofy song is certainly high on the list of Mr. Nine Month Old Simon. 

Also good at getting smiles from Simon: friends! strangers! Anyone willing to make eye-contact!  You are the friendliest baby I've ever known.  You get that part of your personality 100% from Gramma Itzmee.

Also high on the list: riding a carosel!  We were up in Minnesota for your first Easter (and the entire following week) and one day we took you to Maplewood Mall to shop for clothes and ride the carosel.  Grampa Fisher also took you on the escalator, which he claims you loved.  I was not there for that part (stroller on the escalator!), but MAN you loved that carosel.  You just squeeled and squeeled.



You were also a big fan of swinging.  On two different days we took a walk to Appletree Park near Gramma and Grampa's house and went on the swings.  You also went down two slides (with me) and sat on a boucy car thing, but the swings were your favorite, by far.

 

Speaking of Easter, you were surprisingly tolerant of us (read: me) putting bunny ears on you.  We didn't even have to bribe you with candy!  (You did get candy in your Easter basket, but Mommy and I took it and ate it.  Sorry we're not sorry.)

 

In addition to our trip to Minnesota we also took a drive down to visit Gram for her birthday.  She was more interested in you than opening her present, but who wouldn't be?

Hilariously both Gramma in Minnesota and Gram in Illinois decided this was the month to pull out old toddler-size rocking chairs from when Mommy and I were little.  You happily sat in both, "oooooo"-ing your awe at us.  (Great Uncle Mike/Mama's chair on the left, Mommy's chair on the right).  For now both chairs are going to keep living at Gramma and Gram's houses, but eventually when you're a bit bigger we'll bring them home for you to climb on.


Because yes, you are showing signs of being a climber.  We have an inflatable bathtub we almost never use that I had on your bedroom floor as I was packing and you were SO PROUD of yourself when you climbed on in all by yourself.  So proud!



Until things went horribly wrong.



(For the record I did pull the tub off you, at which point you cried, pulled it back on top of you, then returned to happy babbling from under the tub.  Well okay then.)

I do also have this picture that Mommy took, continuing the great parenting tradition of getting the camera first, then saving the baby second.  (Oh, you'll do it to your kid(s) someday, too.  Remind me to show you the picture of me as a baby with my head stuck under the bed.  True story.)

You are getting REALLY good at feeding yourself.  In fact, last week, one week shy of nine months, we officially stopped sending purees with you to school and just let you eat the lunch they provide.  You've had chicken and black beans and pineapple and biscuits and all manner of other foods.  In fact on biscuit day your sheet tells me that you ate FIVE servings.  That's my boy!

Movement-wise you are picking up all kinds of steam.  You pull to a stand, you cruise a few steps along furniture, you are starting to take real crawling "steps" on your knees - you are all about moving.  And attempting to stand in the tub.  Ahem.

So, the breakdown of milestones I wrote down for this month:

Got from stomach crawl to a sit March 24th (8 months, 5 days)

Pulled to a stand March 31st (8 months, 1.5 weeks)

Used laundry basket like a walker down the hall April 7th (8 months, 2.5 weeks)

Took 2 steps along dresser April 13th (8 months, 3.5 weeks)

Happy day, big boy.  Love you with all of my heart and then some.

Love,

Mama

 

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Simon: Month Eight

Simon: Month Eight

Eight months old, still as awesome as ever.

You'll be happy to know that I continue to be dumbfounded by the awesomeness that is being a mom.  Every day you get a little bit cooler, a touch more fun, a smidgen cuter.  Every day.  How is that even possible?  No idea.

A week or so after turning seven months old you mastered sitting up.  You went from only allowing yourself to be propped up with your hands for 30-45 seconds at a time to sitting unaided, with a toy in your hands, for upwards of twenty minutes.  Showoff.  You do still fling yourself backwards to the floor with reckless abandon when you are done sitting, so if one of us isn't right by you we try to keep you on the foam tiles or with a pillow behind you.  I know we have a lot of bumps and bruises in our future (you should have seen me as a child - I was one giant bruise), but I think we can keep you from getting your first concussion for a few more weeks anyway.  I hope.

Closer to eight months you're leaning forward and sort of almost deliberately getting yourself from a sit onto your stomach for your army-crawl.  Still no actual crawling yet, but you are using your feet and knees a little more every day in your army crawl, so I don't think it's too far in the future.  You're almost there.

You are happiest when you are touching me in some way.  Hilariously you have developed a love of very attack-like kisses.  You attack, I cringe and fake protest, and you laugh and laugh and laugh.  It is...mostly charming.  Also moist.

This month you made a huge leap in learning to play in the bathtub.  You discovered kicking and splashing a few months ago, but now you really go all out.  After washing we take you out of your bath chair and let you flip and slip and slide around in the big bathtub in an inch or so of water and you LOVE it.  You can spend a good 15 minutes after the washing part of your bath just rolling from front to back, back to front, front to back, and scooting from one end of the tub to the other, pausing to splash and splash and make sure whichever mom is bathing you is soaked to the skin.  It is hilariously entertaining to watch.

You've also moved up a notch in the eating department.  You're now willing and able to open your mouth for food instead of just wanting us to smear it on your face so you can lick it off your lips.  Eating level up!  Your favorites are green beans, prunes, bananas, and sweet potatoes.  You've been pretty okay with any food we've given you so far.  Pureed meats took a few tries, but you like them just fine if mixed with a veggie.  One week before your eight month birthday we gave you some baby puffs to let you practice picking food up and putting it in your mouth yourself.  It took a few days but you took to it really well.  We also hand you hunks of whatever food we're eating when we can.  You loved both my toast and my pizza crust the best so far.  Carb lover?  Yup, you're my kid.

Carrots are also good.

Lastly you've been upgraded in our Target trips from carset-in-the-cart to sitting up in the seat like a big boy.  It comes with a price of me being able to decorate you with whatever is handy.  Sorry I'm not sorry.

Ready for St. Patrick's Day.

Embarassing my baby even in his sleep since 2012!

It's been a good month, little man, baby bear, nugget, turdle baby. I love you to the moon and back, a million times over.

 

Love Always,

Mama

Simon: Month Seven

You are now seven months old. Simon! Seven whole months! That is a lot of months. (Actually as I post this you are seven and a half months, but this post only details you through turning seven months.  Work with me here.)

The day you turned six months old we betrayed your trust and did something terrible - we fed you pears.

Fortunately you warmed up to pears specifically and food in general over the month and mealtimes aren't quite that dramatic anymore. By the ripe old age of seven months you aren't quite yet ready to open your mouth for a spoon, but you do enthusiastically lick food off your lips or hands and then look at me expectently, waiting for me to smear more food on your face. There is an easier way, and I have faith you'll get there eventually.

Honestly most of the puree feeding we outsource to daycare. When you're with us we're more likely to just hand you a half eaten apple to suck on. To some people this is a trendy thing called "baby led weaning". To us it is just easier. Plus you really like sucking the juice out of an apple.

We did upgrade our setup at home (and at Grampa French Fry and Gramma Itzmee's house) to include a high chair, which you just love. You think you are SO GROWN UP sitting in your very own chair.

You are not, however, grown up enough to have any teeth yet. You've been teething on and off for months, gnawing on anything you can get near your mouth, but no dice yet. Maybe we'll invest in baby dentures. Or maybe we'll just sit here and quietly enjoy the "Marion cheekss" you make while teething for a while longer.

Marion was my Gramma, your Gramma Itzmee's Mom. When she would take her dentures out she would make this exact same face.

In other fun news you got to start swimming lessons this month! You started out a bit apprehensive, but you have gotten very good at splashing. We've already signed you up for the next session, and Mommy and I can't wait to take you in the pool some more.

Sadly the month wasn't all fun and games. You got your first really bad cold. You've had other colds and sniffles and coughs but this was the sadest I've seen you yet. You even lost your voice! It took you several days after getting your voice back before you re-learned all of your vocalizations, and man I missed them. Except for the terydactyl scream, I didn't miss that one. That one you can drop any time now.

We spent a good chunk of your seventh month up in Minnesota staying at Gramma Itzmee and Grampa French Fry's house when Gramma Itzmee got sick. You, my little monkey baby, were the greatest medicine ever, for all of us. You danced, you smiled, you laughed. Often all at the same time.

Books are your current favorite toy, which delights us to no end. You make the same excited gaspy noise when we place a book in your hands as you do when we sit down to nurse. I'm trying not to take it personally. Books are pretty rad, after all.

While you are still too small to drive it yourself we did break out the car Gramma Itzmee got you for Christmas this month and it was a hit! Maybe not as big of a hit as books, but a close second.

You have gotten so big in just a few short months, little dude. You laugh and smile and would spend all day standing if you could. Just before you turned seven months we finally got you to reliably sit up unassisted without propping you on your hands. The problem with learning to roll and gaining early mobility is that you had no interest in sitting. We all but have to karate-chop you at the waist to get you to practice your sitting. But finally you are getting the hang of that, too.

Standing again, of course.

I can't wait to see where the coming months bring you. Every day you make me smile, you just bring so much joy into the world. Seeing you learn and grow and discover new things is an amazing gift. Thank you for making me a Mom, little man. You're the greatest.

Love,

Mama

Simon: Five and now SIX WHOLE MONTHS OLD

The last time I wrote here you were a wee little four month old baby.  Then the holidays hit and we got busier than usual and you got more and more interactive and that five month post just never got written.  I know!  But I did keep good notes, so I think we can cover months five and six in the same post.  It'll be okay.

I will never stop missing this outfit.

Month five brought us a big increase in chatter.  Hilariously you were always the most chatty when you had your fingers and/or a toy stuck in your mouth.  Were you critiquing the object's taste?  Who knows, but it was damn cute.

Nothing is better for teething than Mom's fingers.

 Month five also brought on a major case of the wiggles for you - you are one busy and active baby.  You are happiest when roughhousing.  I see many bumps and bruises and breaks in your future, little crazy man.

I can fly!

 Of course all that flying and wrestling and wiggling leaves you pretty snuggly by the end of the day.

My favorite.

 But it doesn't take long for you to get back to being silly.

Our big milestone of month five is that you learned to roll over back to front!  You accomplished that for the first time at four months and thirteen days old.  You were under the Christmas tree looking at the lights, cooing (you did love those lights) and suddenly decided that you wanted to be on your stomach.  Then thirty seconds later you had rotated 90 degrees, scooted, and reached right for the power cords.  SO.  It's going to be like that, huh?

Pretty lights!

 The night after you learned to turn over was the worst night of sleep EVER.  You kept turning over in your crib and getting stuck on your stomach and getting SO MAD.  Now it seems funny, but that night it sucked.

Right before you turned five months old we also took you to see Santa.  True to form you weren't bothered at all by the strangers or activity and put on your best smile for the camera, pleasing your Mommy immensly.

Happy baby!

 And then you turned five months old!  But we have another month to cover here.  And it's an important one since it contains your first Christmas!

OMG

 Being the first grandchild your first Christmas was predictably present-filled.  But more importantly, it was also activity filled.  First, you decided you liked nothing more than to stand all the live-long day.  No you did not pull yourself up to a stand in this picture, Gramma Fisher put you there, but STILL.  Yikes.

You learned that it was way more fun to sit at the table like a Big Boy than to hang out on the floor with your toys.  Gramma Fisher learned to eat with one hand.  So much learning!

You also got to see snow for the first time.  We put you in a snowsuit that was MUCH to big (size 18 months!) and plunked you in a snowbank.  It was hilarious.

Back home you began to notice the cats, much to their annoyance.  Ricky remains close by most of the time, he lets you pet him maybe sometimes.

You love to play with all of your new toys in the foam-tiled portion of the livingroom we have come to call Simon Town.

You've also been spending a bit of time every week chatting with your grandparents over Skype.  Kids these days!  Video chatting with relatives hundreds of miles away!

You've also become semi-mobile, which is so awesome.  You aren't crawling, but you are rolling to get places, pausing on your stomach to reorient yourself the direction you want to be.  You can get yourself quite a distance in the time it takes for me to get myself more water.

You started waaaay back by those toys by the wall.

Delightfully you are still our silly boy, our goofy monkey, and you bring more joy into our world than we ever could have expected.

Love you, little man.

 

Love, 

Mama

2012

(This list of questions originates with Linda at All & Sundry. Previous years 2010 and 2011.)

1. What did you do in 2011 that you'd never done before? 

Had a baby!  He's nice, I think we'll keep him.

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?  

I am not a resolution kind of person.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?  

Me! Also my good friend from college (who shares a birthday with me) had a baby boy almost two months after me.  Several internet friends also had babies, which is good since this way I have people to talk to on Twitter when I'm up nursing at two in the morning.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Thankfully, no.

5. What countries did you visit? 

None! I rarely travel far, but this year I was more grounded than usual due to the pregnancy-childbirth-new baby cycle.

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you didn't have in 2011?

I'm going with the same answer I had last year, the ability to sleep past 4am, oh my hell.

7. What dates from 2011 will be etched upon your memory, and why?  

July 19th - Simon was born (duh), October 16th - Simon's first day at daycare (sadface)

8. What was your biggest achievement of this year? 

Making it through pregnancy still exercising and eating well, surviving the first five and a half months of motherhood and sleep-deprivation without cracking (much).  Successful breastfeeding.

9. What was your biggest failure?  

I don't know that I have any.  Going back to work has been a struggle, but I wouldn't call it a failure, just hard.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?  

Does childbirth count as injury?  Because OW.  Other than that I've done quite well.

11. What was the best thing you bought? 

The Snoogle.  Stupid name, but it's the only reason I got any sleep in late pregnancy.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

My super-genius child, of course. He rolls over! He "talks" at us! He squees and giggles and everything he does is just the best.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

87% of the people featured in stories on the news.

14. Where did most of your money go? 

Baby gear, baby gear, and baby gear.  Simon.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Telling everyone that I was pregnant and then giving birth to Simon.  Coolest thing EVER.

16. What song will always remind you of 2011?

Hmm.  I'm not sure, I can't think of anything in particular.  I haven't listened to much new music.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer?

Happier, about the same, poorer.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?

Snuggled Simon.  I did a ton of sunggling, don't get me wrong, but I always wish for more.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?

I wish I had enough money to work less, but that's not going to happen anytime soon.

20. How did you spend Christmas?

We drove up to Minnesota for a few days before Christmas, then to my aunt and uncle's farm in Wisconsin for Christmas Eve/Day, then back to Minnesota.  It was so much fun to watch my parents and other family and friends interact with Simon.  I so wish we were able to live closer.

21. Did you fall in love in 2011?

With Simon, yes.  Love at first sight.

22. What was your favorite TV program?

I watched nearly the entire run of Scrubs while on maternity leave.  Also a lot of Ellen's talk show.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?

I have too short of an attention span to sustain hate.

24. What was the best book you read?

My reading sort of screached to a halt after Simon was born, but I remember liking A Discovery of Witches, Let's Pretend This Never Happened, and What Alice Forgot.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Same as last year: I don't listen to a lot of music, I mostly leave musical discovery up to T.

26. What did you want and get?

A healthy, happy baby.

27. What did you want and not get?

A baby who sleeps.

28. What was your favorite film of 2011?

I...don't think I watched a single movie in 2011.  Huh.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I turned 32.  T stayed home from work so I could take a Simon-free nap and we went out to lunch.  Lovely!

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? 

More sleep.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept of 2011?

Old Navy Maternity.  Ha.

32. What kept you sane?

Same as 2011:  The friends who live in my computer/email/on Twitter. What did people do before the internet?

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Same as 2011: Not sure. I can't think of any TV-loves-of-my-life this year.

34. What political issue stirred you the most?

The news is depressing and scary, more so since Simon was born.  I try to ignore politics when possible.

35. Who did you miss?

My parents (who live 400 miles away).  Having a baby makes me want them around even more than before, and I missed them a ton before, too.

36. Who was the best new person you met?

Simon!

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011.  

Simon has so far mostly taught me to slow down, and to chill out on the multitasking.  It'll get done eventually.  Stop and smell the roses, etc.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

Who needs sleep?  You're never gonna get it.  Who needs sleep?  Tell me what's that for? Who needs sleep?  Be happy with what you're getting, there's a guy been awake since the second World War.

Simon: Month Four

You, my child, are getting to be so, so awesome.  Every single day of your life I've thought to myself "THIS.  This age right here, this must be the best one.  It cannot possibly get better than this."  And then it does!  Over and over again, like magic.

A few days after turning three months old we moved you from the bassinet in our bedroom down the hall into your big crib.  Clearly you were ready, as the first night you managed to kick-propel yourself from one end to the other, with your head facing the opposite direction.  Fortunately the novelty of that wore off and you only did that for about a week.  It took you at least an hour to move that far and listening to all the kicking and grunting was not getting either of us any more sleep.  You also learned to turn onto your side and that is mostly how you sleep now, either in your crib or in bed with me, depending on how the night is going.  You spend at least half the night in your crib most of the time, so we'll call that good enough for now.

This month brought us Halloween, which I already posted about, but darn you were a cute little tiger.

You also let me dress you in what your Grandpa Fisher calls your "Andy Rooney" outfit, which was very nice of you.  You were mostly suspicious of it.

Speaking of Grandpa Fisher, he took some really cute pictures of you when we were all up in Minnesota earlier this month.  He calls this one "Grandma's Little Manipulator".  We all went out and bought you ponies as soon as we saw this face.

And I call this one your Karate Kid picture.  Wax on, wax off.

You did great on the trip to Minnesota.  You slept the entire flight out there and most of the flight back.  The little part of the flight you were awake for you were smiley and happy and quiet, which was a relief.  I mean, you're ALWAYS smiley and happy, but you aren't always quiet.  You are so very chatty, "talking" back and forth with us and your teachers at daycare all the live long day. You also learned a particularly ear-splitting screech that you perfected over a delightful three day period, but that is gone again (for now).  (Good riddance.

You put in a good number of hours and Grandma and Grandpa's house playing on my old baby blanket, all looking like my baby clone.

No, really.  My clone.  We looked at some of my baby pictures and I swear they look like they could be you.

Hey, look! It's Simon in 1980! ...wait.

1980 and 2012. I'm not sure if Simon is more impressed by the similarity or by the 1980 mustache.

You also got to jump in my vintage Johnny Jump Up.  I'm sure that is totally up to today's safety standards.  You didn't really "get it" much this trip, but I'm sure it will be more of a hit at Christmas.  Hilariously at one point you looked at me and clearly tried to walk to me, until the spring bounced you back under the door frame.  Too soon, baby!

You continue to be a charmer, claiming the hearts of everyone you meet.  There are a surprising number of people in the parking garage at your daycare who know you by name and always stop to say hi if they see us.  My favorite is when you pout at someone and then bust out the biggest grin.  I swear, you are pretending to pout and then laughing at yourself - a sort of baby's first joke.  It's crazy cute.

Until next month, little man.

Love, Mama

Happy Halloween

Simon is (obviously) too young to go trick-or-treating, however nice it sounds to go gather a bunch of candy to shove into my face hole.  (NOM.)  But T and I did dress him up in Tiger jammies on Saturday and prop him up by some pumpkins just for the cuteness factor.  Because I wasn't about to pass up the chance to balance a tiny pumpkin on a wee baby.

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T's pumpkin on the left (Jack Skellington from the Nightmare Before Christmas) and mine on the right.  Little wee pumpkins on the bottom right were mine, too.

Weekend Cooking Frenzy

Now that I'm back at work and Simon is in daycare, getting dinners cooked and lunches packed for T and I has become something of a challenge.  For budgetary reasons we can't eat out every day, but I have such limited time in the evenings it's tough.  I have a handful of things I can easily make on a weeknight (tacos, sausage and rice, cheese burgers, penne with meat sauce), plus food I've made ahead and frozen (chili, pizza burgers), but poor T gets sick of the rotating cast of ten or so meals, so I've been trying to branch out a little bit.  This is what I pulled off this weekend, also creating a couple lunches for the week out of the leftovers.

Saturday night: Baked chicken breast seasoned with garlic and cumin tossed into a salad of raw spinach, steamed shelled edamame and green pepper.  Mine was dressed with olive oil and black pepper, T's with ranch dressing, because she would put ranch dressing on everything. (No recipe, I just made this up.)

Sunday lunch: Bacon avocado cheese burgers. I cooked the bacon in a pan and while that was cooling on paper towels I cooked the ground chicken burgers (seasoned with salt and pepper) in the bacon fat.  Burger win!  Topped with cheese and sliced avocado.  Sliced apples on the side. (No recipe, again I just winged this.)

Sunday dinner:  I roased a whole butternut squash (technique here), 5-Minute Brown Butter and Crispy Sage Chicken (recipe here), and the left over edamame from Saturday mixed in with quinoa. I highly recommend that crispy sage chicken, it was SO easy and SO good. Someone linked to it recently and I don't remember who, but thank you whoever posted that! (UPDATE:  It was Kelly who posted about it on Twitter.  Thanks Kelly!)

Snacks: Roasted pumpkin seeds from the pumpkins we carved on Saturday.  One batch just with 4 tbsp butter and 1 tsp kosheer salt, the other batch with 4 tbsp butter, 2 tsp worchestire sauce, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, and 1/2 tsp seasoned salt. (Roasted at 275 for 40-50 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes for first 30 minutes, every 5 minutes thereafter)

Not bad for one weekend!