Simon Bunny

This was the first photo the teachers at school took of Simon. It was on his cubbie for the longest time and it was larger than every other infant's photo. They FINALLY took a normal-sized photo for his cubbie and sent this one home with us. God, so smiley! Look at those gums (before the teeth came in)!

Harmon Q&A

This comes courtesy of Sundry. I thought Harmon would have some interesting answers to the following questions and he didn’t disappoint. It’s going to be funny when he reads this stuff when he’s older, although I don’t want him to be older anytime soon. Enjoy!

1. What is something I always say to you? Play with my computer

2. What makes me happy? Going on walks

3. What makes me sad? When you’re frustrated at me

4. How do I make you laugh? You tickle my belly button

5. What do you think I was like as a child? (crickets)

6. How old am I? 10 (holds up both hands)

7. How tall am I? Points to the sky

8. What is my favorite thing to do? Play Legos with me (we pretty much NEVER play Legos anymore)

9. What do I do when you’re not around? You check on me

10. If I become famous, what will it be for? (crickets)

11. What am I really good at? Playing

12. What am I not really good at? Yelling at me

13. What is my job? To play with the computer

14. What is my favorite food? Chicken

15. What makes you proud of me? When we take walks to the park and when you play cars with me

16. What makes me proud of you? When I put my cars away

17. What do you and I do together? On which days, Mommy? We go to restaurants and to the park

18. How are we the same? You look like me

19. How are you and I different? I don’t know

20. How do you know that I love you? Because I love you in the whole world (his version of when I tell him I love him more than anything in the whole world)

21. What is the one thing you wish you could change about me? That you wouldn’t yell at me

22. What do you wish you could go and do with me? I want you to take me to Walgreen’s to get a car

Breaking through

Last Friday (May 8), while playing with Simon on our bed, I noticed some white areas on his gums. Since he wouldn’t let me gain access at that moment, I had to harass him the rest of the morning. By noon, I finally was able to confirm the breakthrough of a tooth – his bottom front right chopper. I immediately called Kevin at work and we both were sad. He’s our baby and he’s our last and now, with teeth, he’s no longer a newborn. He’s simply an infant now. While his gums aren’t as pronounced as Harmon’s were, I will miss them so much. There’s nothing like a toothless grin from a baby!

And to make it EVEN worse, the bottom front left chopper is through now too. WHY do they have to grow up so damn fast???

Simon at 5 Months

Simon turned 5 months’ old on April 25 and it was a pretty eventful month. At his 4-month appointment (April 3), we were given the go-ahead for rice cereal so we gave him some the very next day (April 4). He was digging it but I must point out that he’s never tasted anything but Enfamil so he doesn’t know any better. I, on the other hand, DO know better and that stuff is nasty. I accidentally got some on my finger while feeding him one morning and I made the BIG mistake of just licking it off – GROSS! Anyway, the cereal – rice and now oatmeal – has been great and he’s getting bigger, stronger, faster (oops, that’s the Six Million Dollar Man). He’s been growing like a weed and sleeping so much better at night and doing all kinds of cool things.

The long-awaited meeting with his feet finally happened Tuesday, April 21. They had been flirting for weeks and, finally, they got up the nerve to talk to each other. Simon moves quickly, though, because by Thursday, April 23, he took their relationship to the next level – he put his feet in his mouth. As is typical in a new relationship, you try so hard to impress and Simon thought FINALLY rolling over (stomach to back – both ways) would be quite impressive indeed. This happened on Friday, April 24.

OK, other quick things:
1) Simon loves his exercauser and he figured out how to work it on Saturday, April 18. He played the duck sound!
2) Simon absolutely CANNOT GET ENOUGH of Harmon! It is the sweetest thing in the world to watch.
3) Although it happened in MARCH, I need to note Simon’s first giggle. My Mom got him to laugh out loud for the first time on Wednesday, March 18 (while I was at work, damn it) by hiding and then surprising him while he played in his activity gym.

Falling down

A few weeks ago, we thought for sure we were headed for a trip to the ER with Harmon. He seemed to be falling down ALL THE TIME and all this clumsiness culminated in an ever-so-slightly chipped tooth (a chip only a mother could see on his upper front left tooth) on a Thursday night (April 16) followed by a LONG fall from the top stair of a huge play structure on a Saturday afternoon (April 18). This fall took place at Fuller Park, which we won’t be able to visit for a long, long time. Well, at least until I can get the image out of my head of Harmon falling down 10-15 wooden stairs. Thankfully, this incident resulted only in a few scrapes and bruises. After all that, we were a bit nervous about what was to follow but he seems to have pulled it together. Maybe he was going through some kind of growth spurt, which might explain the clumsiness AND the insane food intake!

3 ½

OK, as promised, Harmon is 3 ½ today so it’s going to be my last monthly update for him. Today was semi-eventful for him. He went for a long walk with Kevin and Simon in the afternoon and, because he was SO GOOD on the walk, he scored Tex Dinoco from Toys R Us.

When I got home from work, we played while Kevin grilled. The best part of playing was realizing that Harmon now can catch a ball! He may have been able to do this for a while and I just didn’t know but he was snagging everything I could throw at him. Maybe Greg Andrade’s prediction will come true and he, indeed, will end up being a “hands tight end!” Or, maybe he’ll be the next Joe Mauer … um, yeah ... not so much!

After dinner, my parents stopped by on their way back home after their trip to Springfield, Ill. for my uncle’s funeral. My Dad was missing the boys so they stopped in to steal an hour or so of their time. Of course, within minutes, my Dad had Harmon running around and doing great big belly laughs (and also had Simon “talking”). They both love their Papa!

All and all, a good day to be 3 ½!

Adjusting

When I came back to work after having Simon, I had to shift my schedule a bit. It’s been about 11 weeks now and we’re STILL trying to get the hang of it. For me, it’s difficult because I USED to be at home in a chunk (off all day Friday and Monday morning) and then at work in a chunk (in Monday afternoon and through the end of the day Thursday). Now, it’s all mixed up and it’s been hard to focus on BOTH places with all the back and forth. For Kevin, going in at 7 a.m. on a Monday was much easier because he had the weekend to rest. Now, he works a full day on Monday and then has to be in early on Tuesday so it’s harder on him too.

As for the kids, Harmon seems to be fine with it. Now, he just gets to spend more time watching the garbage trucks (Tuesdays are our garbage days). Simon, however, has had it a little rough. The breaks between the days the boys go to school are longer now – they go on Mondays and Thursdays instead of Tuesdays and Thursdays – and he’s having some issues adjusting. The teachers have explained to me that he just gets very sad and then he’ll cry if he’s alone for too long. They say he brightens right back up so it’s not a prolonged thing but it still makes ME sad to think about him being sad. I spoke with the teachers and the director and they all thought maybe an extra few hours a week at school will help (evidently another part-timer was having the same issues and it worked for her). We were SUPPOSED to try this a few weeks ago but he got a cold so we delayed it. So, today, Kevin so graciously gave up his Tuesday afternoon with both boys and dropped Simon off at school. I don’t want him to be sad at school so we will do this if we have to BUT I would much rather have him at home doing fun things with his Dad and brother. I don’t think it’s necessary and I also don’t see how just a few hours are going to help things but we’ll see. I’m just hoping it’s a phase and he’ll grow out of it.

Oliver Jeffers

Not too long ago, I was reading the blog of one of our friends, Brian DeWagner, and he mentioned an author by the name of Oliver Jeffers. I had never heard of him so I then was on a MISSION to find one of his books, read it and then decide if Harmon would like it.

At our local Barnes & Noble (the one “down the mountain” with the ESCALATOR, per Harmon), I found a copy of the Incredible Book Eating Boy and I loved it! I read it to Harmon and he loved it too so we bought it. I’ve probably read it to him at least 1,000 times – I’m not kidding. Unfortunately, this was the only Oliver Jeffers book available at Barnes & Noble or any of our local Borders stores so I had to take my search underground – to a LOCALLY OWNED bookstore (imagine THAT). At Nicola’s Books, on the west side of Ann Arbor, I found exactly what I was looking for. I found copies of How to Catch a Star, Lost and Found, The Great Paper Caper and The Way Back Home and Harmon got ALL OF THEM from the Easter Bunny. We read four books to him every night before bed and not a night goes by without an Oliver Jeffers’ book in the rotation.

So, thank you Brian, thank you Nicola’s and, most of all, thank you Oliver Jeffers for writing some great books that further strengthen my oldest son’s love affair with reading. Good things!

Harmon at 41 months

Since Harmon’s month all run together in a sea of cars, cartoons, Disney movies and trips to the park, it’s getting harder and harder to do a monthly update. So, once he turns 3 ½ (on May 12), I will cease to do an update on the 12th of every month. I’ll instead just write about things as they happen. And, this LATE monthly update really isn’t an update at all. It’s just going to some funny crap that Harmon has said (and done) recently. The kid is hilarious!

On a Tuesday afternoon:
Kevin: We can go to Toys R Us OR Chuck E. Cheese.
Harmon: We can go to Toys R Us AND Chuck E. Cheese!

On that same afternoon, he also must have had a dream about Chick Hicks during his nap because, when he woke up, he had a serious case of full-on Chick Hicks’ obsession. I happened to be out running work errands that day so I got it for him and all was perfect in his world (for five minutes).

One day recently, he was in the bathroom going #2. When I walked by the bathroom door he said “It stunks in here, turn the fan on!” I died.

On our way home from a recent grocery shopping trip: “Mommy, you can park cars with me. Daddy, you can make dinner!” Love that role reversal.

When asked what he wanted to do one weekend: “We can go to Target and get Lightning McQueen stuff!”

On another Tuesday, as Kevin was heading out to Chuck E. Cheese, he asked Harmon if Isabel could come. Harmon’s response: “No, she’ll poop on everything!”

Last weekend, he wore shorts and a baseball cap for the first time this year. He had this to say: I’m wearing shorts (a hat); I’m a cool man!”

He calls his fleece a SLEEF – weirdo!

Also, he loves the fine music of Wesley Willis (especially "Rock and Roll McDonald’s" – ROCK ON CHICAGO – and "Cut the Mullet") and would give his right arm if he could listen to ANY freecreditreport.com TV commercial.