Day 141

Simon had an exciting day with Ron.  He went to San Mateo to have lunch with Ron’s classmates who were visiting the bay area from Canada.  They participated in the Ironman the past weekend in Sonoma.  After lunch, Ron and Simon went to visit Sabrina and her twins, Connor and Toby.  Unfortunately, Ron said during their visit that the twins were mostly asleep so didn’t get any pictures with them but Simon did take a picture with Sabrina.

The twins are a few months older than Simon.  I’m in awe of Sabrina being able to take care of two boys at the same time.  We only have Simon and it’s already so much work, I can’t imagine double that… but I guess that it also means double the joy!

Simon got to play with a lot of their toys so now we have an idea of what toys he likes and that we should get in the future.

Before I left in the morning for work, I got Simon dressed in this new Hippo footsie pants outfit, matched with his baby blue Tigger bib.

I needed some cuddling time with Simon tonight so held him while he took a little nap.

Day 140

This morning Simon woke up hungry at 5am.  I got up to feed him and he went right back to sleep until 7am.  I wonder why he gets up so early then just goes back to sleep right after… I had to rush off to work though soon after he woke up so Ron updates me on Facebook with Simon’s activity.  In the below photo, Simon just woke up from another nap, happy and well rested.

Yes he is wearing the same outfit as yesterday.  Ron hadn’t had a chance to change him yet.

As I mentioned a few days ago, Simon is still having a good time exploring his new toys.  Here he is laughing out loud while Ron is playing with him.

Also, Simon is still practicing crawling so here is propped up on the Boppy and you can see him pushing with his feet.  He is also munching on his bug toy.  He likes to suck on the rubbery wings of this bug.

After a change of clothes, Simon transforms into a “Stud”!  Ron seems to like this outfit together with the bib as I think Simon has worn this before.

We went for dinner at Spices in the Richmond district and Simon had his first sniff of stinky tofu.  He has a concerned look on his face but didn’t seem overly offended by it.  I did eat it while I was pregnant so it probably doesn’t scare him that much.

It was chilly this evening so Simon ended up being wrapped up in his blanket while sitting in the car seat.  Plus he got a bit cranky at the restaurant so we had to wrap him up in his blanket to calm him down.  Doesn’t he look a bit like Obi Wan Kenobi in his robes?  Except not this happy.

When I put Simon back into the Exersaucer, I was surprised to see Simon’s feet touching the ground, at least his toes are.  He was able to roll back and forth a bit but with significant effort.  I love the expression on Simon’s face, looks to me like he should be saying something like “Rock on!”

Day 139

Simon woke up at 6am this morning.  He ate and played for an hour before falling back asleep within 40 minutes and proceeded to sleep for an hour and a half.  It was a bit hard of a day at work because I was still pretty tired but whenever I see his cute little face, I can’t be upset.  These new PJs are from my co-worker Sheila B.  It’s a whole cute set with a hippo hat and cute footsie pants.  I’m sure they’ll be featured here soon.

Recently Simon has become more aware of the cats.  Now he will look intently at them when they are meowing or moving across the floor.  The cats are also becoming more aware of Simon and maybe a bit afraid.  In the following photo, Misu is trying to leave the living room but has to go past Simon.  Simon is staring at Misu and Misu is cowering a bit with his belly flat on the floor.  Even though the gap seems large, Misu is still scared to cross and when he finally does, he scurries as fast as possible.

Simon has been very vocal lately with some new high pitched squeaks.  It’s kind of strange, a bit like bird sounds but also a bit like pig squeals.

Now something non-Simon related.  Ron went for some allergy testing today to find out what he is allergic to.  They did a whole series of skin tests on his right and left arm and as you can see, he tested positive for many allergens.

The most serious allergies include dust mites and oak trees.  But it was good to find out he is not allergic to cats or dogs.  We’ll be purchasing some special pillow cases to keep out the dust mites and will need to clean more often.  Ron will also be trying some fluticasone nasal spray so we’ll see if this helps his stuffy nose and snoring at night.  No more cute videos of Simon and daddy both snoring…

Day 138

We finally had time to do Simon’s laundry again so he has another new outfit.  During the day, Simon is a mild mannered baby… by night, he transforms into “Super Baby” and will scare you with those eyebrows!

So we visited my co-worker and her family this morning and since their youngest is over 1 year old, she has lost interest in her Exersaucer so they let us borrow it for a while.  It is the same one that Simon has at his grandparents except it is a previous generation so has different toys.  He is having fun with it and exploring the different toys.  He likes the piano and this purple dolphin that spins and has beads inside.  His legs still don’t quite reach the ground so Ron fashioned a piece of styrofoam to support his feet.

Simon also received a Boppy pillow as a gift a while ago but we weren’t sure we were going to use it.  But we found it to be a good way to prop Simon up, either sitting up so that it wraps around his front and he leans forward on it or for him to have tummy time and learn how to push up with his arms and push with his feet.

Simon woke up too early for me this morning so I was exhausted by afternoon.  I ended up taking a 3 hour late afternoon nap.  He’s been waking up earlier than usual so one of us has to wake up with him to cater to his needs.  At least during the weekend I can take a nap but I hope he doesn’t do it during the week.

Day 137

So Simon has been getting into the bad habit of flipping himself over onto his stomach while in bed.  We can hear him thrashing around, kicking, scratching, and whimpering then all of a sudden, he’s quiet.  This is when he has flipped over and face planted into the crib’s pad.  He is usually sucking on his pacifier so there’s no risk of him blocking his airway since his nose is still not completely pressed down… but sometimes he doesn’t have his pacifier in his mouth and he releases a large amount of saliva which pools a bit and makes his face super wet.  He has a little red rash on his cheek from this a few nights ago.

This morning after pumping, I heard Simon turn over again so went to turn him back onto his back.  Ron had left Simon’s Winnie the Pooh plush at the grandparents so Simon had only his pudding puppy pillow to hold onto.  Doesn’t he look so peaceful?

We’re not sure how to prevent him from turning onto his stomach since it seems to be a favorite position these days, even during playtime.  Check out his booty!

Although I’ve been trying to have him practice sitting up more but for some reason he hates sitting on his behind.  He prefers standing or lying down.  But while playing with him today, I thought I’d give him a different perspective on his toys hanging from his playmat and surprisingly he grabbed hold of the two bars of the playmat and was balancing himself.

He’s still quite wobbly if you watch this video and ends up falling forward or backward.  He seems really flexible!

We went for a walk around downtown today since it was such a nice day but boy, does my back and shoulders hurt.  Simon is getting pretty heavy.  I received a suggestion for a different carrier and may invest in another one since Simon does prefer to be carried rather than being put in the car seat or stroller.  We tried the bigger stroller (without the car seat) before I went out with him but he really hated it.  We already know he doesn’t like the car seat anymore unless he has to so I just took him out in the Baby Bjorn.  Here is a picture of him after we got home, grabbing hold of BOTH feet!

One more day left before the weekend is over.  Last week at work seemed so long but the weekend always passes by too fast.