Friday through Sunday Simon ended his life as a pure vegetarian by eating little pieces of chicken. Chicken is really good; not as good as bread but better than vegetables (and, oddly enough, vegetables are favored over fruit).

Saturday, Simon initiated a game of peek-a-boo with Dad using the napkin dispenser on a restaurant table. This afternoon Simon started the game by creeping around the sides of Dad's laptop while he was computing. Funny kid.

Also new, Simon keeps poking us in the eyes with his little fingers which, we suppose, is better than last week's interest in poking nostrils.

Simon has been spending the past couple of days with Mom while Dad attends a conference in San Francisco. The weather has been incredible (80s) and they are having so much fun. Yesterday they took two long walks, went to see the trains, touched all sorts of plants (a favorite Simon hobby), and went shopping. Today Simon had three play dates (one at a restaurant and the other two at parks) and a visit to the neighbor's house (she has a cat). We're not sure what's on the menu for tomorrow; the possibilities are endless.

Simon has officially been out of the womb longer than he was in the womb (for you number crunchers, Simon was ten days late but pregnancy is typically 38 weeks, not the advertized 40). Which feels longer, having him in or having him out? Though the first months of pregnancy (and the last 10 days) seemed to go by at a snail's pace, Simon's first few months of life were kind of like being stuck in the HR office filling out paperwork on the first day of an amazing job. Ssssssssssssllllllllllooooooooowwww. It's not that we didn't appreciate the time but, we're so glad it's over. In fact, the more sleep we get in a row the faster the clock moves. We expect time to fly by any day now ...

Yesterday Grandparents' Kagle arrived at the airport with large boxes of Cousin Brad's and Cousin Jeff's old toys. Simon would like to thank the Seattle Kagles for such great gifts. Given all the options, what did he choose to play with?

Boxes are fun.

Yesterday's quiz: What did Simon have for dinner?

Answer: sliced peaches, sliced blueberries, a bowl of pureed green beans with rice cereal, and half a slice of whole wheat bread (bread not pictured because it was completely devoured)

After Simon had his messy meal he was undressed and crawled from his room through the hall and into the bathroom for his bath (as usual) only this time he took a friend with him.

Guess what? Simon is famous! OK, not really, but this page is now a link at one of the web's most entertaining web sites: Odd Todd. This just proves that there is nothing that can't be accomplished by using the cuteness of your baby (we also tend to get a lot of free balloons).

Quiz of the day:

What did Simon have for dinner last night?

Answers revealed tomorrow ...

Yesterday, we were so busy boasting about Simon's incredible sense of humor that we forgot to reveal his new tricks!

Saturday Simon figured out that if he sucks on the hard plastic spout attached to his cup the water will come out. We are thrilled (seriously). Once he perfects sippy-cup use we can do away with bottles (and later boobs) entirely.

Over the past day or two Simon has started showing us his toys by holding them up and saying "thissssss" (his first official word). Today he began pointing but he doesn't yet point at anything in particular.

Perhaps most important to his development, Simon ate sand for the first time today; it must not have tasted that bad since he tried to eat it two more times within minutes (Mom is SUCH a party pooper).

A lot has happened in the past few days, enough to make us firmly convinced that Simon, our sweet little Simon, may just be the funniest person alive.

So Thursday Simon takes a walk with Matthew in the front carrier and all the way back he shakes his head "no" over and over then leans back for a kiss before shaking his head "no" again leaning back for another kiss, etc. He finds this hysterical (Matthew called Hava part way so she can attest to the fact that Simon was laughing hard). Three days later he is shaking his head "no" for everything. "Hey Simon, would you like some CHEERIOS?" (head shaking "no", hands grabbing "yes"). "Come here, Simon." (head shaking "no", hands and feet running the little body over for a visit).

But wait! There's more.

Hava was leaning over while resting on her knees making block towers last night when Simon came up next to her and gave her a "boo" on her back. Any skin will do for a loud and wet boo. It became so funny that both Hava and Simon ended up with tears in their eyes. This morning he boo'd Dad's face, this evening it was Mom's stomach. He is really good.

Funny but still not the funniest, eh?

Simon went to swim class today, missing his first nap and screwing up the timing of his second (we're going to find a new class by next week) so he was REALLY tired by dinner but seemed to be in good enough spirits to go to our local Chicago style pizzeria. Hava put one cheerio at a time in front of Simon. He banged his hand on the table to grab the cheerio only he missed and it went flying off to the right and onto the floor. HYSTERICAL. So he banged his hand on the other side of the next cheerio and it flew off to the left. So funny he may have wet his pants (we'll never know). Then came the game of two cheerios, one in each hand, Dad gives you a third, what do you do? PUT IT ON YOUR HEAD OF COURSE! Duh. Everybody knows that.

Finally, this evening, just before his bath, Simon crawled from room to room with a small squeaky whale in his hand. Squeak! Squeak! Squeak! Goes the Simon.

Crazy kid.

*Warning*: this post is about boobies and lactating. If this makes you uncomfortable, read on (because we have no pity for you)!

It has come to our attention recently that there is quite a bit of interest in "pumping". We imagine that everyone has their own method but, for educational purposes, this is Hava's ...

Hava works at work from 8 am to 4:30 pm Monday thru Thursday. She is lucky enough to have been provided with some great pumping necessities:

1. a really good pump
2. a notebook computer as her workstation
3. a wireless network at her work and home
4. a conference room with a lock and an outlet
5. a wacky velcro bra thing which holds the cones in place so she can type
6. lots of extra pumping cones so she doesn't have to clean them after each use

Some of these items (like the work ones) just worked out, they were not provided especially because Hava was going to pump.

In any case, four times a day Hava locks herself in the conference room and pumps for fifteen to twenty minutes. During that time she accumulates between twelve and eighteen ounces of milk (you get more in the morning and less as the day progresses - just the way lactating works). The pump has a cooler which keeps the milk cool between sessions and until Hava gets home. Each night she refrigerates the milk and the pumping pieces are run through the dishwasher to be used again the next day.

Why go through the hassle? Feeding a baby breast milk for the first year of life has been proven to decrease his chances of illness, his chances of future cholesterol, obesity, and psychological problems, and increase his IQ. Nothing but the best for the Simonator.

Simon says: Happy belated birthday to Cousin Brad!

Last night, for dinner, Simon had pureed green beans with rice, pureed apples with blueberries, and smashed peas. He kept the skin of one pea in his mouth all evening long, periodically crawling over to Mom and Dad with a big grin to reveal his stored treasure.

Just FYI, the doctor we saw for Simon's outbreak of Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease said we should prevent him from salivating over other babies for seven to ten days. Pretty soon he'll be free to salivate all over anyone he wants.

Here is more information about HFMD from a CDC Study: "Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) is typically a benign and common self-limiting childhood disease, characterized by rapidly ulcerating vesicles in the mouth and lesions, usually vesicular, on the hands and feet. Lesions also frequently occur on the buttocks, but other parts of the body are usually not affected. HFMD is caused by a few serotypes of enteroviruses, most frequently coxsackie virus A16 (CAV16) and human enterovirus 71 (HEV71). Other viruses associated with the syndrome are coxsackie virus A (CAV) 4, 5, 9, and 10 and coxsackie virus B (CBV) 2 and 5."

Simon says: Happy almost birthday to Cousin Brad!

Mom is working long and hard at work. Simon promises to stop by at lunch with Dad. This morning he nursed at 6 am, again at 7 am, and then consumed 10.5 ounces of frozen milk before 10 am. Last night at solid food time we had trouble filling him up (try as we might), perhaps Simon is working on a better fit for his 18 month sized clothes.

Simon's parents have been too busy with Simon's newest big toy, a Fisher Price Learning Home, to update this web site; that's almost actually true.

Simon has been doing a few new things which require attention: in the last few days his crawl has changed from knees and hands to feet and hands; he looks like some sort of large, peachy, (and adorable) arachnid but it works for him; he gets around somewhere near the speed of light (or fast enough that we fail to see him pass). Where does he go? Simon has discovered the endless fun of toilet paper dispensers, he has found that climbing on top of a box can get him up and over a safety gate, and he continues to attempt to get into the bathtub (only now he uses Mom's bath time seat as a ladder and, one of these days, if we we're not looking, might actually make it in). He now stands for about five seconds at a time so we're mentally preparing ourselves for the beginning of toddlerhood.

On a final note, Grandparents Kagle brought Simon an orange balloon the other day and, while the helium lasted, it was at least 100 times more interesting than his Learning Home.

The blisters are starting to fade and Simon is a good sleeper once again (yesterday he went to sleep on his own for both naps and for the night without any tears). Our illustrious neighbor, Darienne, took some adorable pictures of Simon and Calvin playing in the park the other day. We couldn't resisit the temptation to post two of them here:

Simon isn't going to win any beauty contests this week (he looks even worse this morning) but, besides not sleeping for more than an hour and a half in a row last night, he is completely back to his chipper pre-blistery self; he even felt good enough yesterday afternoon to hang out at the park with a buddy.

After an evening and night of refusing to nurse, Hava called the advice nurse and the nurse's advice was "bring him in" so we did. The doctor said what we knew: Simon has a case of Hand, Foot, and Mouth but she also pointed out that his case is particularly interesting since you might as well add "Trunk" to the virus title. Simon's blisters are everywhere; much as if he had chicken pox (but he doesn't). His throat sores are keeping him from eating much but, as the doctor pointed out, he is mighty cheerful, has good coloring, and "clearly is getting enough liquids" (he was drooling all over the place at the time) so he probably looks much worse than he feels. On the downside, he is quarantined from other babies and young children for another week and a half. On the upside, he can play with babies who have already had this strain (and we're not naming any names, promise).

Simon has a low fever but he continues to challenge our baby proofing, play, and read (or, rather, be read to). He is glassy eyed, extra affectionate, and sores have developed in his mouth, around his mouth, and on his tush.

On a brighter note, new things for Simon include spending a lot of time upright on his knees, bouncing to music while standing and holding onto something, standing unassisted for about two seconds, and kinda-sorta understanding clapping (he puts his hands together but lets us help him with the rest).

Simon, in his wont to be included, is currently undergoing his Las Madres Mountain View 2004 Club initiation rights - also known as a case of Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease. Never fear James Herriot fans, Hand, Foot, and Mouth is not the same as Hoof and Mouth; we won't be calling the Heath Ministry or having him put down. He is in relatively good spirits for having a fever of 101; nevertheless, we're going to try and put him to bed early and cross our fingers that some sleep will be had by all.

Finally an interest in other species (besides dogs) is beginning to develop. Simon really enjoyed the Monterey Aquarium; especially when a shark came up to the glass and zoomed by him at high speed (hysterical!). Friday turned out to be beautiful so we walked from our hotel along the Bay and through Cannery Row. This morning was less dry so we drove up to Santa Cruz in hopes of a stop along the boardwalk but continued on home instead since the rain wasn't letting up.

It was a good mini-break but exhausting since Simon is now really really good at sleeping in his crib but apparently not so comfortable sleeping anywhere else. On that note, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ...

Tomorrow morning (at first nap time) we three Kagles are off to give the new wheels a spin and discover all there is to do during a completely wet mini-break in Monterey.

By the way, if anyone is interested in buying a 1996 silver SC2 Saturn (in great condition) we're selling; hooray for the new four door Prius!

Simon seems to be getting sillier by the day (which we deeply appreciate). Yesterday Matthew discovered that if he sings a single note for long enough Simon will try to match the note and sing along. The game gets even more fun when Matthew tries a note out of Simon's range. Hava also discovered that if one of us makes kissy noises at Simon he'll give that person a kiss (a wide mouth slime kiss).

Simon is eight months old! Watch him age.

Cutiepants Kagle (the Simonial Underunit) - an updated list of favorites:

Favorite toy: frozen juice container lids festooned with stickers (got any lids to pass on?)
Favorite everyday activities: opening and closing doors, climbing the step to the landing and crawling/falling down the step onto a cushy blanket, cleaning out the linen closet, tearing down block towers Mom and Dad build (it's a race), peek-a-boo using car windows or while in his highchair, being startled by Dad
Favorite thing to say: "Ba!"
Favorite food: Cheerios, water from an adult cup
Favorite books: anything with a peek-a-boo theme