Before we get to 10 months....

Well before Simon is 10 months old and I'm officially way behind schedule, I thought I'd add a new post.  Time is FLYING by this year. Somehow we have made it to December 11. Madness.  After about three cold days in Houston we are back to mild weather.  The picture below was taken on a cold day. Simon has a snowman on his head. Evie is just silly. 

 

 Nice pink cup!

 Evie has a lot of new friends at Duchesne and has been invited to many play dates.  We went to Maddie's house a few weeks ago and Evie drew this on the chalk board. I think it is a self portrait.

 We also went to the mother daughter luncheon at the Royal Sonesta.  This was quite the "do". The lunch was rubbish for the huge cost but the experience was fun. There were probably 500 or more people there in a the big ballroom. The seniors and two girls from each other grade did a fashion show on a HUGE catwalk. Evie was mesmerized by the whole thing and wants to be in it next year! They draw lots for participation so I guess we need to cross our fingers.

 Simon is still my cuddly boy.  Evie liked to get attention but had nothing on this one. He still likes just to eat and cuddle. He has also started quivering with excitement if he thinks it is time for either a cuddle or dinner! It is very cute.  I think I'm his favorite person but that is probably because I am still associated with food.

 8 and 9 month pictures!! Despite not having much to report of the movement front, the doctor was very pleased with Si at his 9 month appointment.  Doc says he has excellent fine motor skills and speech. Si says "Mama" "Dada" "up" "that" "yes" and "Nana". we are also pretty sure he said "Grandad" while my Daddy was here.  Good boy. He's definitely chatty and thinks he's having conversations with me when we drive to school.

This week Simon has FINALLY started pulling up and can sit himself up. We realize this is nothing all that special for his age but we are glad he is finally making an effort! He still hasn't done it for us but school assures us he has done each more than once.

 Yum. Food. Simon's favorite place to be!!

 Snazzy pink jumper!

Not sure I have too much else to add. We had a really nice Thanksgiving. Simon was very good in the car and Evie sang lots of songs to us, mainly about Hallelujah.  She is also practicing for the Christmas program at school which takes place next week. She has claimed to be performing as a sheep but school sent home a message asking us to dress them in sparkly dresses so I suspect she is having us on! I will try to post photos from that after the main event.

Until next time...

J xx

7 months!

Once again it is better late than never! Simon turned 7 months in September and is as cute as ever.  The photo shoots are not getting any easier though. He likes to take off the sticker and poke poor old teddy. But I think we got some cute ones nevertheless!

 With great age comes some mobility. I definitely can't trust Simon to stay in one place any more.  Shortly after this photo was taken, Simon was half way across the room. He can wriggle backwards but is not crawling. I definitely consider this to be a good thing.

 A couple of weekends ago we had free tickets to watch Houston Dynamo play. So, since we were going downtown anyway, we met Evie's friend Abby and her Mum, Michelle, at the Aquarium. Simon had his first ride on a merry go round and on a ferris wheel. He loved all of it!  Here is Evie with Abby (who is 6 1/2. Evie is BIG).

Auggie and Evie decided to feed the stingrays. I declined. Basically you hold a little fish with your hand in a fist and the stingray will come and eat the fish. It was a bit weird. Here they are feeding from Auggie!

 And here's cute boy at school. Simon is sitting up really well now and can get back onto his tummy from sitting without face planting into the floor. He can't go the other way though! But the ladies at school work really hard with them so maybe he will hit some more milestones in the next couple of months. Or, maybe he will keep sitting happily on his bum.

 Two sillies of Evie. On the second photo she is showing off her new thermal headband. Cute.

 This was at school today. Simon was hiding from me behind the toys. It was a fun day and I was a little sad to have to go back to work.

 And finally, two sillies using the doidy cup! Simon is doing really well with it! Good boy. Simon is advanced in most things that involve food of drink. He's SUCH a PIGGY. he got very upset yesterday when he dropped his rusk. He's tried everything from parsnip to salmon and likes everything except mashed potato! Maybe he was holding out for gravy.

And on that note,

Bye for now xxx

The promised photos!!

In case you didn't see . . . there is update info in the post below. But as promised, here are the photos.

Simon being cool in Corpus Christi

Evie telling me I'm wrong

Evie dancing

Too much cuteness

First day of school at Duchesne

Fairly self explanatory....

Sunday morning snuggles at home

Off for a walk in Corpus Christi

Tummy time book!

Rude!

Simon is 6 months and other news

Well, ok, fair enough. Simon was 6 months on the 19th and that is some time ago. In my defense, I have been busy.  Mainly, we have been busy with Evie starting her new school.  She is now a Duchesne girl.  After a slightly clingy start when Nana first dropped her off for "orientation" Evie is now a very enthusiastic participant in all that Duchesne has to offer.  One of her favorite things is singing the "rather happy-clappy considering it is a Catholic school " songs that they learned for Mass. She treated us all with multiple renditions of "alleluia" this past weekend.  All that aside, we are mightily relieved that we appear to have chosen the right school for her. Evie even likes the after school program. This week she started the additional programs that we have paid for - yoga and gymnastics.  She seems to like it all so YIPPEE!! We are less keen on the "car pool" pick up line which is ghastly and makes me feel that I should park my Buick around the corner as it doesn't fit in the line of Lexus and Mercedes SUVs.  It also takes forever which is not to fabulous in the Houston summer.  Nana and I did notice, however, that one may purchase the "first in line" position in the lane should one feel the need to part with what I am speculating to be an enormous amount of money.  Nice as that might be, I think I will buy shoes (or after school activities) instead.

 

And sweet Simon ....six months and full of cuteness.  He weighed in at 16lbs 2.5oz at his appointment but has since blown past the 17lb mark. His slightly slender statistic at the doctor's was probably due to the stomach flu sweeping its way through the Campbell household that particular week. He is 26 inches long. Interestingly, this is almost exactly the same size that Evie was at the same age.  Simon still LOVES his food. He prefers it to have a chunky texture (hates puree) but otherwise is not in the least bit fussy.  Thanks to the organic food revolution that has happened in the time between Evie's arrival (when the organic section was one small basket) and now, there is seemingly no limit to the peculiar taste combos Simon can try.  His favorite so far, if I had to pick, was blueberry, parsnip with buckwheat.  I actually tried this because it sounded vile and I will confess that I'm on Simon's side with this one - TASTY. Anyway, in sum, Simon likes food.  He also likes to talk (Dada, Isla), smile (at everyone, but especially Evie) and cuddle. Emphasis on the latter. He is also getting really close to crawling. I don't think it will be long. This makes me a little sad as it means my baby boy love is not so much a baby boy any more.

 

I know you really want photos. I will put some in a separate post. I promise

 

J xxx

5 months old!

Well, time is flying and Simon turned 5 months old  on the 19th.  He's such a BIG boy. The last time we weighed him was last week and he was 15lbs 12oz. I strongly suspect he is 16lbs now.  Simon is in his six month clothes now so I have very sadly put away the tiny things.  But, on the plus side, big baby means fun baby!! Simon loves rolling around but still is not keen when he ends up on his tummy. There is usually a lot of whining. He also likes to stand up and push off things with his big leggies. Unfortunately, he tested that trick while I was not paying attention, I lost my grip and he smacked his little head on a table. Poor baby! No lasting damage though :-)

 

 

Simon continues to LOVE his food. He is now eating solid food twice a day.  His favorites so far are pears, pears mixed with spinach, prunes and squash. He also likes banana. He likes it best when it is chunky so we mix his fruit and veggies up with rice or oatmeal.  Simon also tried soy yogurt yesterday and (huge surprise here), loved it. Good boy!  Here he is being thoughtful after a nice bowl of something tasty.  

 

 Simon has also started laughing which is really cute.  He was actually giggling at his sister which is not a huge surprise. Speaking of his sister, we had a sleepover last weekend with Tori.  The girls were very excited when Auggie said they could make pancakes in the morning. They looked pretty tasty. Even though Evie has two beds in her room, and even though the girls were put to bed in separate beds, they ended up in the same bed and were very good girlies.

 And here are some more photos of my lovely girl.  Evie pies only has a couple of weeks left at Chevron school and then it is off to big girl school.  She's still not particularly keen on the uniform but while reading "Princess Evie's Ponies" this evening, we noticed that the girls in the adventure were wearing school uniform (thank goodness for British books!!). The idea of a uniform seems slightly less repugnant to her now.  So thank you Auntie Jill for the lovely book!

Back to Simon....here are a few photos. This is a selfie from the other day. He has been generally less suspicious of the black thing in my hand recently so I've caught some decent smiles. 

 And some of the best from his 5 month photo shoot. I had help this time!! Simon's Ma was on hand to make him smile while I took the photos. We keep hitting a bit of a snag because the chair in his room (which is where I take these) is leather so his little bottom keeps sliding down. Still cute though!

 This is my favourite!

Simon was rolling around in his bedroom and found little puppy.  This was taken after he had rolled over onto his tummy, had a little grumble, and rolled back again.

 Silliness in a cute outfit. I have told Simon that tongue will get chopped off one day.

 "Tummy time" - or in Simon's case, have a bit of a thumb suck and hope someone moves me. He did eventually perk up and start playing with the toy to his right but to be honest, I didn't feel that his heart was in it.

 But...what he DID enjoy was a turn in the exersaucer! It is actually out for Isla to use but Simon thought it was great fun. Evie has tried to get in it a few times too. Here they are playing together. Cuteness overload.

 

 I think that about covers it. Basically Simon likes to eat and be cuddled. I wish my Nana could have met him. As you all know, we lost our Nanina last week. She was the most gentle and kind soul you could ever have the pleasure to meet. She loved all of us and would have enjoyed Simon's red hair and cheeky grin.  I only hope we can all live up to her example.

 

 

xxx

 

 

 

 

 

photos x2

Evie's school had cooking week where they worked with the in house chef to learn how to look some dishes.  Here she is making a fruit wrap and was very pleased with herself!

 Close up shot of her gold medal.  I should say as an aside that the competition was at the worst ice rink we have ever been to. Add to that, they put Evie's class right at the end of the session (LATE) and they were running late so it was REALLY late by the time she competed. And between practice and performance we went to the most horrid mall EVER as it was the only thing close by - an experience saved only by the fact the mall has a wine and beer license. Thank goodness.

 Baby girl ready to go!

 Cute Daddy and Simon shot.

ok, that's all for now. I will keep trying to upload the video of Evie Skating but I'm not holding out much hope!