In Loving Memory of Pink Puppy No. 1

Today, Simon is 11 weeks old, or 2.5 months! At what point do you start counting in months? Deborah and I were talking about that last night. I have converted to months, she's still on the old system.

Simon's second week of daycare was interesting. His primary caregiver still had a wonky schedule as she came back from vacation, but next week, we'll be onto a normal schedule. To complicate things this week, torrential downpours caused the roof in Simon's infant room to leak and some of the drop ceiling tiles got soaky and fell to the floor. Luckily, it all happened overnight, but even the temporary room he was in developed a few spotty tiles. Hopefully, he'll be back in his room tomorrow.

Julie is very nice and their open door policy allows us to come and go as we please. I try to make it there a few days a week over lunch. Simon's favorite spot is the four-banger Boppy play pad in the middle of the room. He likes to hang out on Boppy number 3 and keep things in his pockets (what else are babies supposed to use pockets for?).

That same day, Simon started doing some weird kind of hiccuppy laugh. He's been making a lot of new noises (moo, goo, ooh, ahh, eow, agg, puh, muh, owhoo) but this one was by far the most interesting.

After the daycare roof incident it continued to rain for two more days. This afternoon, we came home to this in our backyard.

The cluster of four legs scattered about our backyard are our neighbor's Adirondack chairs and I think we gained some firewood too. It'll be fun cleaning that up this weekend. One thing that we did lose was Pink Puppy No. 1.

Here's a little background. When Debi and Rocky stayed behind in Colorado as I ventured to Iowa for a job at Rockwell, they were both very depressed. So Debi got Rocky this pink-puppy-looking thing and he loved it! And I got Debi a baby, and she was eventually happy as well.

Anyway, after spending all week outside, Pink Puppy No. 1 (yes, there is a No. 2 thanks to Target) ate the big one. He was in sad, sad shape, so I did what any responsible dog toy owner would do. Observe:

Yay! Tomorrow's the weekend!! That's mean more time with Simon, so I'm sure we'll have plenty more to write about in a few days. Take care!

This is HUGE!

Simon slept through the night last night. He went to bed around 10:00pm and woke up at 5:30am. Seven and a half hours and he didn't even get a bath last night. Plus, we had a huge thunderstorm that shook the house. It didn't seem to phase him. That is the most consecutive sleep I've had since before he was born.

Since he got up and ate at 5:30, Paul took him to daycare at 7:00, giving me time to shower, eat breakfast and even stop at Coffeesmiths for a decaf latte before work. Today is going to be a good day!

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'

During tummy time today, Simon rolled over unassisted. We couldn't believe it so we put him on his stomach again and caught it on video. Please do enjoy...



He has also been working on rolling from his back to his stomach. In fact, when I laid him down to look at his floor gym, he was more interested in trying to flip on to his stomach than looking a the lights and mobile.

I think we are going to have a mover on our hands.

Are You Ready For Some Football?

Konichiwa!

Tonight, the Kansas City Chiefs play Brett Favre, so in honor of this glorious event, Simon and I donned our Chiefs garb and sat down to watch the computer refresh every minute with the latest stats. Larry Johnson just fumbled 3 minutes into the game... yay.

Anyway, the first week of daycare was a little rough... for us. Simon loves it and they love him. There's a lot for him to do there and we even find ourselves buying things that he likes. We got an Infantino activity gym and a Bumbo recently. The Bumbo is supposed to be for older babies, but Simon's head control is very advanced for his age, so he is able to sit up in it for about 10-15 minutes at a time... kind of.

We would also like to thank Ben and Kim for the Leapstart Learning Gym. The "Hello" song is very catchy and we find ourselves singing it at random times. Guten tag! Simon is very intrigued by it and enjoys kicking in its general direction.

We're looking forward to a long-ish weekend with Simon. Daycare is closed Monday for an in-service day, so Simon gets to stay with us for an extra day. Hopefully, mother nature saved a rainy day so we can just stay in and nap and play Wii all day. And take cute pictures like this...

Chiefs up 3-0!!!

A Change of Routine

Thanks to craigslist, Simon is getting a bumbo tomorrow! No idea why those things are so expensive, but they're all the rage right now. He's even getting the tray option which runs $10-$15. All this for only $25! Linda will be executing Operation Bumbo for us since the lady who has is works right next door to Aegon. So we got that goin' for us, which is nice.

Also, today was Simon's first day at the RC CDC (Rockwell Collins Childhood Development Center). It was a little nerve wracking with the packing and the labeling and the anticipation, but he did very good. We stayed with him a little at the beginning and he was just so alert and looking around, it was too cute. We totally didn't want to leave him.

But around lunchtime, I stopped by in my travel between buildings. He was just kicking away on a boppy starting at one of those hangy toy things. I'm thinking maybe I could build one of those for him. Might be fun, but I'm not sure it will have lights and sounds. We'll see. Rockwell's full of sparkies (Electrical Engineers) so maybe one of them can wire it with some LEDs and Dolby surround.

But they absolutely loved him at the CDC. He sucked down his bottles, cuddled with the caregivers and played on his back a lot. He was even in a good mood when he got home. All-in-all, it's been a banner day for Simon.

After today, Deborah and I feel a lot better about daycare. Even though Simon's primary teacher won't be there until Thursday, Marla was super as was Lori who was helping out temporarily. The open door policy is really great. After we sign in up front we can just walk back and hang out and play and visit other babies. Very cool.

We'll definitely blog more about this soon. But now, it's sleep time for the Curson-Vieira family.

Gute Nacht!

Shots!!!

On Tuesday, Simon turned 2 months old and he had his 2 month appointment with Dr. Bentley. He is now 11lbs and just about 24 inches long. He had three shots and I must say it was more traumatic for Paul and I than it was for Simon. He cried for a few minutes and then I held him close and that was the end of that.

Simon also went to work with me this week. He was so good - he spent a lot of time kicking on his blanket on the floor (his new favorite activity.) However, no more work for Simon. Tomorrow will be his first day of daycare at Rockwell. I am fairly nervous about it. They have a wonderful facility and their caregivers are great, but it is still difficult to let him go. I may have to sneak over to Rockwell to get in a few snuggles during the day.

Last night we went over to the Applebee's house for dinner and Simon spent time with Kian. He also got to try out a Bumbo chair. He loved it! We have to get one for him soon.

There are lots of cute pictures this week and an update of the Watch Simon Grow video...


Preparing for baptism. Simon is nervous!


Shark attack!


Grinning baby


Too cute


Hanging out in the Bumbo and trying on a mustache.

Inklings of Armstrong

Whew! It was like the weekend that never ended, but it wasn't bad at all. Two Thursdays ago, my parents came in for the weekend as did my sister Julie. My parents left Monday and Julie was gracious enough to stay through the week to watch Simon while Deborah and I went to work. And to make it even more interesting, we watched Maggie and Zach (Chuck & Linda's dogs) the latter part of the week. So Julie had her hands pretty full, but Simon behaved for the most part.



It's random picture time!


Paul & Simon hiking in Squaw Creek Park

Simon's definitely getting the kicking thing down. During tummy time he lifts his heads and kicks his legs meaning that he's working on becoming independently mobile. Scary. We noticed that he kicked his legs in an alternating motion as if he was walking. So in honor of the 40th anniversary of the moon landing, Simon did his Neil Armstrong impression.



Well, that's it for now. It's hot as moe outside, so we're staying in and playing Wii and cleaning up from the weekend. Mmmm... time for ice cream soon.

Magic Pants and Fred-Shade

This has been a super busy weekend with Fred, Mary, Julie and Jean in town and Simon's baptism. So tonight I present to you a short story in photos and videos. Please do enjoy.

Family at the baptism

Posing with Pastor John

Mary & Simon

Jean & Simon

We found some time to play with Simon on his play mat. Not only is he starting to kick and lunge during tummy time, he also has magic pants:

And we hooked up his baby swing outside. It was quite sunny so Fred ran shade and swung back and forth out of camera range to provide constant shade for Simon.

It's late and there is much to do and much more to write about. Hopefully one of us will get a chance to write more tomorrow. Julie's blog also has an interesting article about babies and poop with a cute picture of Simon. Check it out on our favorite blogs list. Good night!