Walking, Bubbles, and Grandma

fourteen months

This month I feel like it hit me. Simon isn't a baby anymore. At fourteen months Simon...

...tries to join Miriam in the bathroom.

...loves to smile for the camera.

...climbs to help Miriam brush her teeth.

(he fell two seconds after I took this picture)

...always wants up.

 my little Mama's boy

Simon's language is developing rapidly. Every day he is learning new words and signs. It is hard to keep up a list, but here is my attempt (I am sure there are some missing)...

New words: Up, Grandma, Shoe, On, Cheese, Jesus, Book, Hat

New signs: Hungry, Baby, Bye, Potty, Bath, Hat

Simon loves music and dancing. He goes crazy when Miriam gets out Hullabaloo. He loves singing and acting out the songs during story-time at the library. Whenever we have music on in the car he is bobbing his head up and down.

Simon has started to walk a little bit more (just the past couple of days). He can stand up and take a few steps. He tries to go so fast that he still falls a lot, but he is getting the hang of it.  Okay, so I wrote all of that a couple of days ago. This week our little Simon has started to walk. Here are a couple of videos.

(taken Monday June 4th)
Simon Learning to Walk from Vanessa Bishop on Vimeo.

(taken Friday June 8th)
 
Simon walking on the grass from Vanessa Bishop on Vimeo.

Clemyjontri Park

With Saturday being another beautiful day, we decided to do something on our "to-do list".  You know the kind. You hear about local things to do and decide someday you will go there. We are not very good at the follow through so I was determined not to let the beautiful day go to waste. We packed a lunch and headed to Clemyjontri Park. I thought the park was really neat. I say this because it is a special park that is accessible to children in wheelchairs. It also has all kinds of equipment that children of all skill levels can play on. It is a pretty big park. I think Miriam was overwhelmed at first. Once she explored she had a ball. Simon and Miriam both loved the swings. There was even a merry-go-round in the center of the park. Being the nice parents that we are we let Miriam and Simon buy token for a ride. (After deciding when we got there to leave the camera in the car and just have a day to play, I grabbed Michael's phone and took a couple of pictures of the kids on their horses.)

I think our outing was a success.

Kidwell Farm

Thursday was the most beautiful day. A storm came through Tuesday night/Wednesday morning and pushed the humidity away. I knew it was going to be nice, so I wanted to take the kids somewhere fun. Where better to go than the free farm? We packed up a picnic lunch and had a great time seeing the animals and playing at the park.

 

Things to note:

• Miriam is really close to the horse. She usually keeps a distance from the animals.
• Both kids are in stripes, cute huh?
• Simon loved the animals and wanted to dive for them, so most of my pictures were taken blindly because I had to have one arm on him at all times.

Sprinkler Fun

We spent Memorial Day with Michael's family. It was a hot one so Michael's Mom suggested the kids bring over their swimsuits and run in the sprinkler. I never know how much they are going to like the water. Let's just say that neither of them love taking a bath. I am glad I grabbed my camera as we were walking out the door at home because I got some cute pictures of the action.

Miriam ended up having a lot of fun. Simon... well we aren't real sure. He did a laugh/cry sound the whole time. I think he liked it, but he didn't want to stay out very long. Simon might have liked it better if he could walk through it on his own.

Mount Vernon, one last time

On Saturday we decided to go to Mount Vernon one more time before our season pass from Memorial Day last year expired. We met up a guy that Michael works with and his family. We arrived early before it was too hot and didn't even have to wait in line to go through the mansion. We had a picnic lunch on the grounds, then went into the museum just when it started to get hot.

We really enjoyed being able to see Mount Vernon a couple of times over the past year. We probably won't go again for a while. Here is a flash back of all the family pictures in front of the mansion.

Memorial Day 2011:

December 2011:

Memorial Day weekend 2012:

(hmmm... Michael is wearing the same outfit... and Miriam is in pigtails again)

Modeling and Taking Steps

Today Miriam really wanted to try on her swimsuit. She also insisted that Simon try his on too. She was being so silly and cute, so I took a few pictures of her modeling her new swimsuit.

After that Miriam wanted to take pictures of Simon. I decided to try to get him to walk. Miriam snapped these shots... pretty good eh?