The boys

There is a lot of cuteness at our house these days! Simon started walking at 15 months. After several mini steps here and there, he finally started to walk on January 7th. Now, he toddles around the house with one foot facing slightly outward, mirroring ever so slightly the cute crabwalk he used to do. He often walks to the basket where we keep shoes, picks out his shoe, and says "shoe" (suuw), and then carries it over to the door and says, "outside" (ow-sigh). If we don't comply, he usually starts to cry unless we are successful at distraction. Once ow-sigh, he just walks, and walks, and walks, down the driveway, to the right, and down to the neighbors' house where they have some huge lights lining the walk leftover from Christmas. He points at them and says, "off!!" very emphatically! He then tries turning the little ones on and off by twisting them into their sockets.

Simon's language has taken off. While Noah was in Chile, Simon picked up a lot of words from the books we read. In the end, we had a good time, bonded a lot, and Noah bonded a lot with his dad. He actually had a fabulous time with his cousins, and came back more mature. After he got back, Simon he was a bit more quiet for a short bit, and then suddenly the language started to come like a landslide. Now, he says, "ball" (bah), "doll" (dah), "car" (tah), "star" (taw), "dog" (doh), "cat" (ta, with a in apple), "hat" (ha, with a in apple), "hot" (hot, while shaking his hand), "blankie" (bahbee), "tete" (tete, means binky) "baby" (baybay) "strawberry" (awbebee), "palta" (pawta), "agua" (agua) "hot dog" (ha-doh), and "apple" (appah), to name a few that come to mind. He tries to say Monty, which sounds something like "Tahtee." He also repeats things a lot, and his dad has taught him, "yes, sir!" (yeisah). He also sings, "ee ii ee ii uuu" from Old MacDonald, and if you sing, "Are you sleeping, are you sleeping," he will hum the next verse for Brother John. And, he loves to eat broccoli! He loves to color, to stick stickers on paper, and try to do whatever Noah does. He likes for things to be in their place. If there is a pacifier on the floor, he will hand it to me and motion for me to put it away. If his blankie (the one that is not the preferred one) is out of the crib, he will motion for us to put it back in. Nano has a song he sings to Simon, and whenever he says, "boom," Simon drops onto his bottom. This is one of his tricks, too -- if you are laying on the bed, he will come and plop on top of you, thinking it is hilarious!

Noah is finally over (for now?) his aggressive behavior towards Simon, which is a huge relief! We don't have to be watching over them like hawks, and there is no intentional hurting. Of course, Simon still tries to get what Noah has, or knock things over, which is a challenge to Noah, but he is dealing with it much better! Sometimes, he looks like a defensive lineback, but at least there is no pushing for the most part!

The other day, I went to take a shower, which is a hard moment for Simon because he has to separate from me. He started to cry, and Noah went over to him saying, "Monkey, monkey, monkey," in a singsong way, the way I would say it when we read a certain story, until Simon stopped crying and started smiling. Very sweet!