The Smith Family Adventures

Simon is getting more and more mobile every day. Crawling is second nature. Standing is getting easier. Climbing is a possibility. He is my little shadow. Simon follows me around as I fold laundry or make dinner. He is able to play more and more now as well. When he is not tagging along with me, he is Elias’ little shadow. Elias is not sure how to take this new development. I hear, “Mommy you pick up Simon!” quite often as well as “That’s not for you, Simon!” I think one of my most commonly repeated phrases these days is, “Sometimes it’s fun to play alone and sometimes it’s fun to play together.” The boys have gotten some fun opportunities to play together in the last couple of days.

Swords! Simon got in on the sword action. Uncle Scott left these over at our house, and Elias has taken maximum advantage of that fact. He mostly likes to play swords with Nathan or me, but he has played with Simon a few times.

“What’s going on big brother?”

“Come on let me see! What’s in there?”

I saved up Pampers Reward points for a long time and finally got enough for this elephant ball toy. It is accessible for Simon’s age, and still fun for Elias’ age and beyond!

Simon watching Elias as usual.

Elias is 3 years old today. I can hardly believe it. Three just sounds so big. Where has the time gone? Nathan and I were realizing at dinner tonight that we have been parents for more than 10%  of our lives. It doesn’t seem that long at all!

Elias is very proud to be three. He’s been saying for weeks: “After my birthday, I be three!” Today when he woke up we talked about it being his birthday, and he said, “I’m three!”

Our celebrations actually began on Friday evening when Elias helped me bake cookies for one of his birthday celebrations. He added sprinkles and decorations to my good old fashioned chocolate chip cookies, and he said, “Mommy you better take a picture of me.”

Saturday morning he went to sports class, and then we spent the afternoon preparing for my family to come over. (Well…Ama and Baba and Uncle Scott and Auntie Kristy). We put up some decorations and prepared a bit of food. Elias requested a baseball party with chocolate cupcakes. I’m not sure why he requested chocolate cupcakes…he doesn’t eat them. In fact, he doesn’t really eat any sweets except for graham crackers and plain milk chocolate. So I made up a fun dessert activity. I wanted him to eat something special on his birthday!

Elias really likes balloons so I purchased a couple for him…although I felt a bit guilty for using up the helium. The joy on his face was fun to see nonetheless. Here he is very anxious for my parents and his aunt and uncle to arrive.

We ate dinner, opened presents and watched the annual slideshow together.

Then it was time for dessert. After everyone left, I asked Elias what his favorite part of the party was. His response? “When everyone sing the song.” When we sang happy birthday, Elias face just lit up. It was quite fun to see.

We ended the evening with a bit of play. No good party ends without some good sword fighting. Elias got in some sword fights with Baba, Uncle Scott, and Daddy. Uncle Scott left his “swords” here by accident so we’ve gotten the joy of sword fighting each day since then as well.

Sunday morning we went to church and Elias got a special birthday blessing from Father Jeff. When we got home he played a bit with his new toys. Unfortunately, Nana is sick so we will have to celebrate with her another day.

This morning Elias woke up on his big day! We started out by going to art class. Actually, I felt sad because he was screaming and crying that he didn’t want to go to art class and that we had to go to Ama and Baba’s. I forced him in the car and drove him to class. As soon as he saw the building, he was happy as anything, and talking about which activities he wanted to do first. He was super excited to see teacher Selene, and even gave her a hug!

After art class we ran a couple of errands to the post office and the library…boring, I know for a birthday, but it had to be done. When we got home, we spent the rest of the day playing inside. Elias even took a nap which was pretty amazing. (Although Simon did not nap due to teething. The universe is plotting against me).

Daddy had to come home late, but when he got home, we gave Elias a couple presents of our own.

The boys had fun playing together with the train set. We got him a bunch of new pieces to go along with what he had, and some art stencils which we’ll hopefully try out tomorrow.

Elias requested grilled cheese and life cereal for dinner. I wanted to try to get a picture of Elias on his third birthday. He had something different in mind than I did. He just wanted to make funny faces at the camera. We had quite a bit of fun taking the pictures. Here are a couple of cute pictures of my silly (three year old) boy.

We started Simon on solid foods a couple days after he turned six months old. Let’s just say the reception was luke warm. Tonight we decided to try something a little different…quinoa! Nathan or I had never had it either so it was new for everyone. Simon did not get particularly enthusiastic, but he did eat a tiny bit of it, and enjoyed feeling it in his hands. It’s a good start! (Now if only we could get Elias to try it too!) After putting some in his mouth a few times, and getting it all over his hands, arms, and bib, Simon decided to see what it would look like on the floor. Lovely. I’m glad he had some fun, though. The poor little guy has been sick for almost two weeks now!

Simon is seven months old now, and he’s changing so fast. He now can do a real crawl rather than an army crawl. He’s pretty slow at it, but it is definitely more comfortable than the army crawl so he prefers it. Simon also pulls up on whatever he can these days. He pulls up to his knees…not his feet….but it lets him see into the couch where his brother his playing or reach a toy that is up high. Once Simon actually did pull up onto his feet using his brother’s car ramp toy. He promptly lost balance, fell all the way back the floor, and pulled the whole ramp on top of him. There were quite a few tears after that! In fact, Simon gets a number of bruises and scrapes because his sense of adventure and perseverance is more advanced than his balance and coordination.

Simon has also gotten to enjoy a few new things this month. Elias has really started to bond with Simon. Elias holds him. He hugs him. And they even take baths together in the big bath! Simon absolutely loves taking a bath in the big tub with Elias. He laughs and laughs every time Elias splashes. It is the most fun we’ve had in a long time watching them together. Simon still wants to be wherever Elias is. Most of the time Elias is pretty good with him, but occasionally he gets frustrated. “Mommy you pick up Simon!” is  phrase I hear when I know he has reached the end of his patience. I try to force Elias to play with Simon (or at least next to him) but sometimes Simon is very overbearing. He has taken toys out of Elias’ hands, crawled up onto Elias’ lap, knocked down his towers, and more! Simon has to start learning how to play as well I guess!

Unfortunately, Simon also has his first cold. It is a persistent little bug. He’s had a runny nose for 8 or so days now. If it persists much longer I will have to take him to the doctor!

We love Simon so much. He is such a joy.