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!

photos!!

Relating to my previous post, here are the photos!  I should say a word here about Evie's amazing performance at the Space City Open ice skating competition last weekend. She went out there and she meant business!! She was amazing and really deserved the win!! She says she plans to win the Olympics skating with Simon.....

 

Here are the two crazies on Simon's mat

And another two crazies at the skate competition

 

 

 

 

Simon demonstrating his usual lack of enthusiasm for tummy time

Pure cuteness

More to come in the next post.....

4 months old!

Well some how our little boy has passed the 4 month mark. He has had some milestones too including..... rolling over!! back to front and back again.  The day was June 9th.  I have to say that since then Simon has not made a huge effort to repeat the feat.  He's rolled a few times for Daddy but generally, he remains a bit lazy. Still, it is nice to know that he can do it.

Simon was really brave at his 4 month appointment where he had three injections and the roto virus oral vaccine.  He quite fancied some more of the roto virus and was really good with the needles. In fact, he was much better about it than Evie was who had to have two injections on the same day. She screamed the place down and Nana had to pin down Evie's arms!!  Dr. Herman was very pleased with Simon's development. He weighed in at 14lbs 14 oz and was 24.5 inches long. This means he is the same height as Evie was at this age but more than a pound heavier! That could well be due to all the rice and veggies Simon has been eating. We decided to try him on rice as he seemed a little hungry. He LOVED it. So after a few days we tried squash and he loved that too. Next I tried apple which he did not like one little bit. After that I tried peas and he liked that (like mother, like son).  So overall we have had a good experience with the food! Little chubbles really does like his food but unfortunately is still quite the puker.

School is going really well for Simon. He loves the ladies who look after his class. This is largely because he is the only boy in the room and he is spoiled. When we leave in the afternoon all the ladies come by to say goodbye to Simon and he laps up the attention.  Mostly I am able to go over there and feed him 3 times a day so he's not suffering too badly.

Other than rolling over, Simon is still chatting a lot, cooing a lot and smiling all the time. He has still not laughed out loud.  He can sit really well with a bit of support and likes to lift his head and shoulders while lying on his back. Simon still hates tummy time though. He still acts like we are inflicting some kind of torture if we dare to put him on his tummy.  I assume this will change one day!!

I will attach the most recent photos to a separate post as I am having difficulty with technical stuff!!

Baby Boy is 3 months old!

 

As Nana has correctly pointed out, I have not posted any photos of Simon turning three months. Somehow the time has flown and he is indeed, 3 months old. Not quite sure how this happened, but it has.  Simon now weighs in at a "healthy" 13lbs 13.5 oz.  He really likes his food. I am fighting to get him onto eating every four hours rather than every three. Let's face it, it is not like he needs the extra. I am counting the days until we can give him rice cereal as I am sure this will help!! So above is our chunky monkey on his three month "birthday".

 

Simon is a cheerful chap who is very partial to attention. He's pretty good at entertaining himself either in his bouncy chair or on his play mat, but would much rather play on those things with someone watching him.  He loves to smile, especially at his sister. He loves to watch Evie and Tori play.  He is a big time talker. Simon makes a LOT of letter sounds and sounds like "ma" and has a distinct English accent. If you don't believe me, google it. You can tell where babies are from just by listening to their baby sounds :-)  He likes to share a joke with whoever he might be talking to.  He grabs mainly with his right hand, likes to chew his left hand, and hates dummies. I can almost persuade him to take one particular one if he is feeling especially amenable.  Good boy goes to bed between 6-6:30pm and sleeps until 5am, when I wake him up.   Sadly, Simon has the same skill as his sister in puking up. He is usually wearing a soggy bib and washable clothing is highly recommended if holding him!! He can still poo for England.  And on that note, here are some photos.



 Daddy, Evie and Simon at Panera on Mothers Day. Cuteness all around.

 Evie meets an Iguana in San Angelo.  This is much cuter than the Burmese Python.

 Evie in her favored long dress.  Evie is not keen at all on the idea of wearing a school uniform in August. She asked for me to buy her the pink one. I think there is going to be even more trouble when I tell her they all have to wear the same shoes as well as the same dress and blouse! Auggie and I, however, are delighted by the prospect of having no early morning disagreements regarding Evie's wardrobe for the day.  More worrying is how we will make Evie wear the required socks. I have never known someone hate socks quite so much!

 This sums up Simon's opinion towards "tummy time".  He HATES it. He is perfectly capable of lifting up his head but doesn't like to.  He does, however, like to lift up his head while lying on his back.

 A randomly placed three month photo. We had fun taking these.

While I was expecting Simon I found a website that sells cute vests saying "born to kick for England". Grandad kindly ordered one for me and they sent the "born to ruck for England" one instead.  For any Americans watching, "ruck" is also something one would do in a rugby game.  Anyway, that explains the vest. This manly message goes so well with his frilly bonnet don't you think? Simon's looking more like a second row than a kicker these days anyway.

 And one final picture from our photo shoot. Sweet baby boy.

My maternity leave is over at the end of this week and poor Simon baby will be starting day care next week. I am certain I am more upset about it than he is.   He is only 5 minutes walk from my office though so I can go and feed/cuddle him every day he is there :-). 

And that's it for now. I will try not to be tardy with his 4 month post!

Two months old!

Poor Simon! He's not getting nearly so many blog posts as big sister did.  He is two months old already and I am not sure where the time has gone.  Here are a couple of efforts from our photoshoot. Simon was not keen to cooperate with me but I did get one smile! To be fair to him, it was right before bedtime so he was a bit tired. 

 

 

 Winking at the camera!

Simon and I have been having all kinds of fun. He met Grandad and Granny Judy last week, as well as more of his aunts and uncles and two cousins.  Unfortunately there has been some less fun stuff. Simon was having some terrible tummy pains, a nasty rash on his face, and a constantly stuffy nose.  So, I cut out dairy from my diet and it has made a huge difference.  So, it appears that he is allergic to milk protein and unfortunately that includes even trace amounts. So nothing fun to eat for me.  I am hoping to have my home diagnosis confirmed by the doctor when we see him on Wednesday.

Other than that, Simon is quite the smiler.  He also loves his bouncing chair and is liking his jungle mat more.  He's sleeping in his own room (yay!) and is a good sleeper. We had one night of 9 straight hours but I don't expect that to be repeated any time soon! He's in size three months clothes and today weighed in at 12lbs 3.5 oz.  He seems long to me too but I could be imagining it. His hair is still amazing :-)

I will post some photos of Evie next time and for now, I will hope that Simon can forgive his lack of blog posts.

xxx

Simon is one month old!

Time has gone WAAAAY too fast!

Here is little boy on his one month day. He was a right pickle all morning long and would not pose for any nice photos so this was as good as I could get. Monster. He looks like he's thinking very hard about messing up Mummy's photo ideas!

 

The rest of the photos are just a selection from the last month. In no particular order!

Still just a little boy in this one. He's since grown out of this outfit. A sad moment for Mummy and Daddy when we put away the newborn clothes.

 

 Purely to show the red hair. It is magnificent.

Hanging out in his boppy which is inevitably covered in elephants.  I don't think Simon was so sure that the boppy is such a good thing. I think he will get used to is. In fact, he will have to get used to it as Mummy has things to be getting on with!

 Evie silliness. She's snuggling up to Daddy in La Madeleine. I don't want Evie to feel left out if she ever goes back and reads this blog. So here she is on a horsey at Memorial City Mall. Lots of fun.

 Totally out of order as promised . . . This one is from the NNGH Ladies Lunch at Royal Oaks Country club on Simon's one month day. He looks nice and peaceful which he was NOT for most of the event.  He had to be removed during the Scottish Country dancing for screaming too loudly. 

 And cuddling Daddy also on his month day.

Showing his personality on these two.  He was actually mid conversation with Auntie Christine and I finally managed to get some good shots of him. Common belief is that Simon sleeps ALL the time. This proves that occasionally he shows us his pretty blue eyes.

 Another one where is his just a little boy. We love this outfit too bit it is also too small now :-( sniff sniff.

 

Wearing some cute clothes that Auntie Jana bought. She has excellent taste.

 And finally, one more from his month day.  He looks like he might be conducting Shostakovich in his dreams. Probably his 5th symphony.  Even if he's not quite that advanced yet, it is still cute.

So, what has baby boy been up to? Last time we weighted him he was 9lbs 5oz which is exactly 2 pounds over his birth weight. Well done chunky.  He likes to watch you which you talk to him, and is especially fascinated by singing.  He eats a LOT and honestly, could poo for England and the US combined. We can barely keep up with his pooing. He does, however, allow us (usually - touch wood) to sleep fairly well at night as he will sleep (generally) 3-4 hours between feeds and a couple of times has done 5 hours.  Now that I have expressed that in writing he will be up every hour tonight . .  .
Simon spends a lot more time awake now and is enjoying his bouncer - especially the toys on it that he can grab at. Simon is very cuddly and pukes way less than his sister so far thank goodness.  He is an expert at weeing and pooing on his parents.

And what's going on with Evie? Sweet girl got into Duchesne Academy and will start there in August. We are really chuffed with her as it is a very competitive entry and she must have done very well on her interview and play date.  I can't wait to see her in her cute school uniform.  She is also doing very well with her writing - her favorite thing to write is a food shopping list. Perhaps she's trying to tell us something?

That's it for now. I will try to be better about posting more photos of the babies!!

Jane xxx