Day 344 = February 9, 2011

I try to post only cute pictures of Simon but I thought I’d show an unhappy (not-cute) picture of Simon. He wanted to be picked up and held.

I was exhausted this evening so went to bed early so Ron played with Simon until Simon wanted to go to sleep. First they played with Elmo making chomping noises and chomping on his hand. Simon found it entertaining.

Then Simon practiced walking by cruising around with this pal Ziggie the Zebra.

They went for a walk around the room. Ron thinks that “Simon and Ziggie” would be a good cartoon (like Calvin and Hobbes).

And he practiced walking by himself before going to bed.

Ziggie is the perfect size for Simon’s hand to hold and squeeze. It’s also a super soft plush so good for naptime at daycare and at home. It is a bit long though so Simon can get tripped up on the extremities and tail. It seems like Simon has gotten attached to Ziggie AND Pooh so at least he has two stuffed animals that he likes so we won’t be so stressed if one goes missing or if we need to wash one. Pooh went for a hand wash today since it’s starting to get a bit funky smelling and dirty looking.

This week we have also started to wean Simon off his pacifier. Lately he seems to be very dependent on it for calming him down. On Monday night, Ron decided to cut part of the nipple off of the pacifier so that Simon would have to “work” to keep it in his mouth. Simon cried for a while but eventually gave up and went to sleep. Now he has been pacifier free for the last two days and hasn’t been overly fussy which I thought he would be. We haven’t given it to him again since that first night and he’s been going to sleep without it and not needing it during the day. I guess “cold turkey” is the way to go.