Now Entering Parenthood...

At 11 months old, Simon has become quite a lot of fun for Marta and I. While he’s always been a pretty happy baby, he’s finally begun to actually “play games” with us. Silly, pointless games of course, but that’s what it’s all about when you are a baby. Marta discovered that Simon loves getting lightly bopped on the head by various objects. This activity can go on for 15 minutes straight with Simon laughing hysterically the entire time. If there’s one thing we can’t get enough of, it’s those hysterical baby laughs. He also loves being chased, tossed up in the air, and being tickled.

For Thanksgiving, we all drove down to Indiana to spend the holiday with my Dad’s family. The car ride was over 5 hours long, but Simon handled it perfectly, both on the way there AND on the way home. During the trip, Simon got to meet his second cousin Abigail, who is two years old. Watching the two of them interact was incredibly entertaining, and we managed to get some pretty cute photos. 

Simon has also become more affectionate and cuddly lately, something that all new parents look forward to. When he wakes up in the morning (after a wonderfully long and uninterrupted 12 hours of sleep), he wants to be picked up and held while he wraps his arms around and rests his head on mom or dad’s shoulder. The ladies at his daycare have reported that he has been going around giving hugs to the other children, and if he notices a hug taking place, he quickly makes his way over to get in on it.

While he still hasn’t quite begun to speak complete words, he has started doing what appears to be another bit of sign language. When we sit him down in his high chair, he frantically brings his hand to his mouth in a back and forth motion as if to say “I’m hungry, where’s the food!?”. We have started giving him whole milk during meals, which he really loves, among many other new foods. Simon is an exceptional eater for a baby his age, and we are grateful for that. Sometimes it’s a complete mystery how he’s able to eat so much food…where does it all go?

Finally, this month marks one of Simon’s biggest achievements yet…walking! While he’s nowhere near perfecting it, he has taken as many as 13 steps without tumbling over, and he continues to practice every day. Marta and I spend a lot of time playing with him and having him walk back and forth between us, using some mundane object to coax him into it. Mundane to us, but fascinating to him. Remote controls, a camera lens cap, and bubbles seem to work really well to get him up and moving. At the rate he’s improving, I think it’s only a matter of weeks until he will have mastered the ability altogether, and thus we will begin a whole new chapter of keeping an eye on our little troublemaker.