28 months

Simon, this past month we spent a lot of time thinking about your size, compared to your brother. The image accompanying this post tells us a lot! While you weighed less at birth and continue to be 2-3 pounds behind Harmon's pace, you are taller and your hands and feet are huge! You mastered walking so much faster than Harmon and your vertical leap is probably the highest in the house. You're very nimble, which you demonstrate almost daily but crawling up and on things you shouldn't (on the counter, via the bat stools, in particular). I wonder what size shoes you'll wear one day ...

Random stuff that Simon says

Here is a brief compilation of random Simon-isms over the past few months:

• Simon, like Harmon did at his age, is learning how to properly use his pronouns. He often gets them confused and says stuff like "Daddy holds you" when he wants Kevin to hold him. Also, because he has trouble with Ls, "hold you" sounds like "ho-you."  
• Every time Simon sees me with a Starbucks cup, he says: "Mommy, you have your coffee!" Since the only coffee I ever have is mixed in a frappuccino, I explained to him that I drink hot chocolate. He now says: "Mommy, you have your hot chocowate!" Ls are Ws here!
• During the last few months, Simon has had really dry lips so we've used a lot of lip balm on him. Most days, he would clutch his little cherry-flavored Chap Stick all day long. He did, however, lose a few Chap Sticks - one, in particular, at Kroger. If you ask him what happened, he'll tell you "I threw it in the turkeys!" He threw his Chap Stick in the huge turkey bin at Kroger and Kevin was unable to retrieve it.
• Since I drink my fair share of Diet Coke, both boys are familiar with Coca-Cola. One night, at Boston Market (which has awesome Coca-Cola cups), Simon said "I need my Coca-Cola!"
• When you ask Simon a question, he'll often answer "don't know" and then he'll immediately give the answer. Example - Us: what's your name? Simon: don't know ... Simon.
• Many times when I'm getting him dressed, Simon will say "let's talk." That means we have to take a break from what we're doing and just talk. When I ask him what he wants to talk about, he ALWAYS says "wolverines" and "Michigan!" That's my boy!
• When you're reading, talking, playing, etc., Simon will often ask "which do you like?" If we're playing with cars, he HAS to know which one you prefer and you have to tell him or he'll keep asking 10,000 times!
• Simon calls sloppy joes "frosty jones!"
• Harmon asked Simon why he fell asleep at the lunch table at school. Simon responded: "I don't like to sleep in my bed there so I wanted to sleep on the table."

Hitting up the dentist

On Tuesday, March 8, Simon had his first dental appointment. I actually scheduled them at the same time as I thought it might help BOTH of them be more at ease. They were in chairs right next to each other - Kevin was with Harmon and I was with Simon - and I think it worked out well. Harmon is doing great after recently losing his two bottom teeth. His uppers are a bit loose now so the dentist would not be surprised if they are the next to go. Overall, a good check-up for him.

Simon did a great job too. His molars are in so he's rocking all 20 teeth. He enjoyed playing with the water squirter and the suction and didn't seem to mind so much when those tools were in his mouth. He really only got annoyed near the end of the appointment after having two different people probe his mouth for a while. He'll go again in six months and they'll ATTEMPT to get x-rays - good luck with that.

S'mores

The boys still love Yo Gabba Gabba and they recently watched the "Nature" episode where the whole crew goes camping. Their favorite part is when they are roasting marshmallows to make s'mores. A few days after watching this episode, Harmon and I had this exchange:

Harmon: "Mommy, do you know how to make smurfs?"
Me: "Huh?"
Harmon: "Those things with marshmallows and graham crackers."
Me: "You mean s'mores?"

He was so into the whole s'mores thing that we did get the ingredients and make some over the weekend. Of course, we had to roast the marshmallows over the stove so it wasn't totally authentic but they were still yummy!