I’m beginning to feel more secure in my prediction that Simon is developing quickly these days, as yesterday we enjoyed a couple more firsts.
One came during the UK basketball game Matt was watching yesterday. Simon looked up at the screen and, casual as anything, said “ball” a few times. So he now understands that his toy and the game on the screen are related. We thought that was pretty cool.
Then dinner time rolled around. Simon ate his dinner while I finished cooking mine and Matt’s. I really didn’t think a sixteen-month old would be interested in tofu and black bean chili. But I was wrong! Once we sat down, Simon kept fussing until we let him in on the action. We didn’t let him share our beer, but he did enjoy the chili, the cornbread that went with it, and some licorice I got out as a treat afterwards.
Funnier still, he went on to imitate me. After I fed him a few bites of cornbread, he insisted on returning the favor, tidily placing a morsel into my mouth, sometimes immediately after putting it into his own. (I can’t decide what’s grosser: eating out of his mouth or eating off of his hands; both are nightmare-worthy.) Then, when I came time to clean up our mess, he wanted to “help” with that, too, and took a turn with the hand-vac.
Now today he pulled up as casually as anything to cruise around our ottoman. I haven’t seen him do this for over a month I’m sure.
Yesterday was also eventful on the sleeping front, as bedtime was a total comedy of errors. First, we got to bed an hour late because none of us had adjusted to daylight saving time. Frankly, “springing ahead” with a foot of snow on the ground struck a discordant note for us all. Against our better knowledge, we put Simon down to bed at 9:00 p.m. Within ten minutes, we heard wailing. I went to check things out and discovered that the crib aquarium batteries had died again. These days, with Simon smacking the thing countless times per night, we go through batteries like water.
Aquarium fixed, we left the room once more. An hour or so went by, and we heard more wailing. Only this time the loudest wail came from Tristan, who we accidentally locked in the room, while Simon picked up the harmony with a confused, half-asleep cry. Thinking everyone could settle in for the night uneventfully at last, we were both surprised to hear the alarm go off in Simon’s room at midnight. It seems that when I changed the clock for the ridiculously early daylight savings time, I accidentally turned the alarm on, too.
Simon had now awakened at least three times in an as many hours. Poor little guy. When he awoke this morning at seven, I knew he was too tired to really be up. So for the first time in ages, I picked him up, tucked him into bed between Matt and me with his paci and dirty dog, and enjoyed watching him fall back asleep before I joined him for a bit. It’s the closest look I’ve had at his sleeping face in ages, a sweeter sight than I remember, and a lovely call-back to snuggly mornings we shared this time last year.