simon celebrates

first the gift from mommy grandma that didn't get wrapped


then the gift from aunt rachel. we had to get simon started, but then he figured it out and took over.


we also had to show him how to play with the toy, but he picked up on that really quick too.


then a jack in the box from grandpa j. simon figured out how to release the latch all on his own, in about two minutes.


then we went upstairs to join the rest of the family, and caught simon trying to run away from the stockings.


he got lots of books...


and the ikea toy that he couldn't let go of at the store...


and a duggins from ny...


and a snow suit!


snow pictures still to come...i promise.

simon reads

he knows the word for, eh, picture for, banana

simon loves

nutella rolls

simon's friends

these are simon's friends.


starting from the left is kingsley, yonkers and seymour.

sometimes he plays with them by ignoring them. they like it.


and sometimes he pats them on the head.


other times he just throws them in front of himself.


but i think they have the most fun when they are all playing in the crib together.


another friend has joined them. that is soda. he always stays in the crib so that simon has a friend at bed time and nap time.



look at how much he loves these guys.





simon couldn't hold himself up he was having so much fun with them.

simon loves

vacuum


he's very serious about it



a couple weeks ago i decided to vacuum while simon was awake, and he had so much fun. he even wanted to help. we also vacuumed simon a little bit. have you ever tried putting the vacuum nozzle up to your nose? simon has. robert has. anyway, we store a vacuum hose in the garage next to the door into the house. now everytime we go in and out that door simon wants to play with the vacuum. i let him play with it one time and he even started making a vacuuming noise. he did that today too, when i got out our hose for him to play with. he really likes it.

thanksgiving

robert was kind enough to take a break from his usual studying to take us down to az for thanksgiving this year, even though his finals start next week and he really could have used more time to start preparing.

here is simon, not sleeping in the car. he was really good in the car despite how tired he must have been. we picked robert up from school at 3 and simon slept for the first half hour of the drive. we changed him into his pajamas at aboud 6:30, he fell asleep at about 7:3o, and again slept for a half hour. i don't think he slept again until about midnight, and i think he only slept longer than thirty minutes because i was holding his head up. his car seat is not good for sleeping in the car. we arrived at my mom's house in payson at 1am and all jumped right into bed.


i think simon favors grandpas over grandmas. he chummed up to richard real quick, but didn't let grandma hold him until the last day we were there.


we went to the park wednesday afternoon. simon had a lot of fun. do you see that huge goose? he would walk right up to you. he wasn't mean, but was certainly not afraid to come begging for food.


simon decided he didn't want to feed the ducks anymore. chasing them away is much more fun.


we had a big group at my mom's for thanksgiving this year. among the guests were our friends that are living in the valley.


my uncle denny and aunt nancy were also in town. simon liked denny's hat.


he also liked hanging out on our bed, looking cute for grandma.


on the way home simon only took one nap. but at least he was propping his own head up for a while.


he didn't sleep anymore than that one nap, but it lasted an hour i think, because i took over propping his head. but it was worth it. i think simon ended up actually having fun in the back seat. look at him. how could he not have fun.

a day late...but not a dollar short

it is here. finally. and simon loves it!



in-n-out opened their first locations in northern utah yesterday. one in orem and one in draper. they broke records. 15,000 hamburgers were sold between the two stores. i didn't dare take that on yesterday. the lines were insane. the drive-thru was winding throughout the parking lot. when i drove by this morning after it opened it didn't look so bad so i asked robert to meet me there for lunch. when i got there the drive-thru was just as bad, and there was a line out the door, but they said the wait was 15 minutes to get the food from where we were standing. so we did it. it might have taken longer, but it wasn't too bad. i was with good company. thank you rob and dad (and mike from rob's classes) for humoring me and going to in-n-out during the grand opening rush.



simon really did love it. i couldn't get a picture of him with the cheeseburger in his mouth, but he ate more than half of it. way to go buddy.

i remember

i remember that we had a commodore64 when i was a kid.
i remember my parents deciding not to get the internet when i was about 10 years old.
i remember learning to type on those really old, boxy macs when i was in 5th grade.
i remember using dial-up.
i remember when not everyone had a computer.

now even toddlers have their own computer.



don't worry, we didn't buy this computer for him. it's just robert's old computer from 2004.

autumn

we have a huge maple tree in front of our house. due to the amount of leaves that fall this time of year i have decided that i don't ever want one of these trees when i someday have my own house. cleaning up all of the leaves is quite a chore.

the other day i was walking out of the house and the neighbor boys were playing in all of the leaves in our driveway, and when they saw me they ran away. i let them know they could keep playing and they came right back. it was really cute. i even got them rakes. the younger boy (not pictured) took the rake and said, "i love rakes. i want a rake for my birthday." so cute.

after i got rakes for the boys i got simon from the basement and let him play with them. i let him get dirty. i'm pretty sure this is the first time. here is simon sitting next to daniel in his big pile of leaves.

the simon we all know and love

classically simon

a return to hk

when i first met robert he told me that hong kong was his favorite city. i made him promise to take me there, and he did. when we were living in shenzhen we went to hk every chance we got. i also fell in love.



this next picture is from my favorite park ever. i talked about this park in my new york post.


this next one is a sign for a commuter escalator. no where else will you find one of these.


so after visiting hk i told robert i really want to live there. whenever we talk to people that live in hk i always ask how we can get there. the thing is, i've never really believed that we'll end up there, as much as i think i would love it.

last week robert accepted an externship with the international center for law and religion studies. we're going to hk. it may only be for a month or so, but i'll get to live there.

mummy in a car

first halloween

yes, i know technically this is simon's second halloween, but i don't think the first one counts when he's only four months old and didn't dress up and was asleep for the whole occasion. i'd say we made up for it this year.

my calendar was full of things to do. more than we were physically able to do. i already posted about the scarecrow festival. last weekend we went to boo at the zoo. it was cold. yesterday was halloween scream at the senior center that my dad goes to in bountiful. today we had little haunts, get bewitched, monster block party and trick-or-treating at the mall on our list. we went up to salt lake for the monster block party, but there was nothing there. luckily we were just driving by first since simon was asleep in the car. i just now found out it was cancelled :( i was most looking forward to this event. all month! oh well. we drove down to west jordan for "get bewitched" at gardner village. i had never been to gardner village and was curious. it wasn't that great. maybe it would have been better if they were passing out candy at all the boutiques. maybe it would have been better if they were open, instead of closing at 4, just 5 minutes before we got there. but they did have some pretty cool decorations. after that we drove back to provo and went to the university mall for trick-or-treating. it was pretty crowded. there was basically one continuous line along all the store fronts. but we managed to get in and out of there with plenty of candy in 45 minutes. then we came home, fed simon, bathed simon, put simon to bed.

happy halloween!

boo at the zoo:









golden years senior center:







university mall (parking lot):