While I’ve been busy yammering about Chrismukkah, Simon has been busy experiencing new things and mastering new tricks.
Sunday night, as we were leaving the Whitworths, Simon said “bye” for the first time. He didn’t wave, but I think he meant what he said. This followed the first time his word “dat” came out clearly as “that”. There’s been some disagreement in these quarters as to the meaning of “dat”. Evie was sure Simon was asking “what’s that?” I thought he was looking for Percy and Tristan and “dat” meant “cat”. But now, hearing him clearly say “that” as he points to items around him and in books, it’s starting to look indeed as if he’s using a relative pronoun as an interrogative. Crazy. I really have no other explanation, but I still don’t believe it.
Sometime this weekend Simon also took control of his sippy cup and drank himself. I’d be more excited, but he followed up by tossing the sippy cup across the room, so clearly this new trick is a work in progress.
Monday, Simon had his first experience with a popsicle. I was treating myself to a watermelon fruit bar, and Simon seemed intrigued. So I licked the bar and then gave it to Simon to lick. He put his mouth on it, then grimaced with a scrunched up face from the cold. A baby dilemma followed: He loved the flavor but was shocked by the temperature. He’d lick and scrape his teeth over parts of the bar all the while squinting and pulling his head back from it. At his funniest, he pulled back before actually making contact with the treat. It looked for all the world like an air kiss.
Today we had another first. He stacked a block on top of another for the first time. To celebrate, Matt and I took him out to dinner at Jockamos, where nutrition was tossed to the wind as Simon dined on a cereal bar, mac and cheese, potato chips (another first), and cherry pudding cake. We ended our night by walking over to a nearby apartment building to admire the lights, giggling as Simon pointed and said “lide” a million times, and then returned home for our usual bedtime ritual of milk, a book, some Chopin, and cribtime.
Attached is a picture of Simon Saturday night enjoying his first piece of mandel bread.