One!

Simeon has his very first birthday today! To celebrate, we flew home from visiting Grandma Ellie and Grandpa Larry. Well, they also hosted a party for him yesterday with lots of cousins -- many young ones -- and he heartily enjoyed that, although he had to go to bed in the middle of it. We made sure that he got his birthday song, though, and chance to blow out the candle. It turns out Michael blew the candle out, since Sim doesn't seem to have practiced that skill yet, but we'll see about next year.

Lately, Sim has been growing and developing by leaps and bounds. Here are some of his latest accomplishments:

 

--combat crawling at the speed of...well, I guess light would be an exaggeration, but he's fast!

--eating lots of things...most of which he’s supposed to eat, but not all.

 

 

--signing lots and lots of things…his favorites are “potty” and “dog.”  “Potty” is definitely the very favorite.

 

--saying words, too, including “dog” and “potty,” but also many others.

 

--learning how to open cabinets in the kitchen…much to his mother’s chagrin. 

 

--playing peek-a-boo and laughing hilariously about it.

 

--screaming (for fun) in small, enclosed spaces, such as an airplane…yeah…

--attending his first wedding since he was in utero.

Today we turned his seat around in the van.  He seemed pleased, but also a bit confused. 

 

His sisters were quite excited about the whole thing.  He proceeded to fall asleep.  It had been a long day with only a short afternoon nap. 

It’s been a very full year, and it seems to have flown by.  I can’t believe how big he’s gotten.

Oh, and I forgot another recent accomplishment:  he can climb stairs.  When we left for our visit, he could only do one.  Now he’s figured out how to keep going, but, of course, not how to remain up there…he always tries to sit down and would tumble backwards down the stairs if we weren’t right there.  It looks like another gate is going up in our house.

We’re just beginning to discover this sweet baby’s personality.  We love him with all our hearts.

 

It’s hard to believe he’s only been with us for a year – on the outside.  It feels like he’s been here forever.

We look forward to many more happy years.