Toddlerhood - Life's a Scream

(This is a picture of the way I see Simon at least 30 times a day. Usually, he's sayinng "Up peeease".)

Simon's started screaming lately. Maybe he sees that it works for Claire and is testing it out for himself. His scream usually sounds like "MMMMOOOOOOooooaaaaaam"!
He has discovered the art of closing the doors in his house. He only "locks" himself in rooms 2-3 times a day which results in screaming sessions. Every now and then, he'll say "'elp, 'elp but, mostly it's a scream.

He's on a mission to put all the Kleenex in our house into our toilet. He likes to fish diapers out of the garbage and put them into the cloth diaper pail. He follows me around the house with books saying "ho-rey" (story) and screams when I don't stop, drop and read.

He plays pretty independently (see above adventures) when I nurse Claire. He's been enjoying giving Tigger sips of his pretend tea and changing Tigger's diaper. He helps me burp Claire and he likes to play with her toes. He says "oh no" and "I know, I know" to her when she cries.

Today, I took him for a walk in his sled and he insisted that he had to hold his Canada flag (with his thumbless mitts) for the whole walk.

His favorite car "toy" is the tourist map we still have from our Canmore trip because it has a Canada flag on the back.

This morning, I heard him sneezing in his crib and then, I heard him say "'hank-'oooou" to himself.

His naps are not too often. He plays in his crib and his own "quiet time" for about 2 hours but, it's only 2-3 times a week that he naps now. Good thing he loves playing and wrestling his animals in there. (We have a video monitor and watching him play in there is hysterical.)

He's successfully peed on his potty (our Christmas gift to him because we're those kind of parents) and we're hoping that this will lead to good things.

It's official - I have a toddler on my hands and I love it.

Other then the screaming, I laugh out loud at him at least once an hour if not more. He still throws his baby arms around me and gives me slimy kisses and he still insists on snuggling during stories and Sesame Street. I'm going to miss these days someday when he's a big, smelly, grunting teenager who stomps around my house, eating my food and refusing to be anything but monosyllabic with me.