You Are My Sunshine

The husband is working late tonight so I got to tend to Simon all on my own.  I had to work late (yes, really!) and got home a little before 8:00.  Simon had been asleep for about an hour and hadn't really had a proper dinner.  I debated if I should wake him up or let him sleep.  The clincher was that the kid wets through a diaper quicker than I can say piddle so I figured I better at least change his diaper.  When I woke him up I asked if he was hungry.  He said yes, so I changed his diaper and got him up.  I decided to make him a waffle and some eggs.  Man, he tore through the egg so I made him another.  He picked at the waffle.

As an aside, we've been wanting to get a stereo for the living room but haven't gotten around to it yet.  I finally set up the Pandora on the Roku so we have some music now.  Simon is LOVING it.  He dances his little heart out.

We had music on while he ate.  I let him sit on my lap.  It was so quiet and peaceful.  I kept the lights down and kept kissing his head.  I love the smell of his hair.  He held froggy while he ate.  It won't be so much longer before he's too big to sit on my lap, but I can still cuddle him.  I got him in for a quick bath.  He hated every second of it, but it really does help him sleep better.  Then we cuddled on the couch listening to the lullaby station and he fell asleep in my lap as we listened to "To Make You Feel My Love".

We heard "You Are My Sunshine" once or twice which made me think of when he was born.  Eons ago there was this show called "Murphy Brown" that I liked.  She sang that song to her newborn son in the hospital and for some reason it always stuck with me.  When we were waiting to be sprung from the hospital with Simon, Daddy was asleep in the bed and I held Simon in the chair and sang that to him. 

It was such a lovely evening which I needed after a stressful day at work.  To have a quiet evening with Simon is such a treat.

6 Months Later

Simon passed the 6 months clean from chemo mark a few days ago.  I forget just how bald he was.  He never looked terribly sickly to me.  He just looked like Simon.  But looking back it must have been pretty obvious he was a sick little boy because I look at pictures and they don't even look like they're of the same kid.  You did it, son.  You showed cancer who's boss.  And someday you'll show the world you're the boss.  You make your mom proud.

He loved looking at the baby on the thermometer.

The Victor.  Just finished with chemo.

Yakkity Sax

Simon more or less quit growing for the 6 months he was on chemo.  He's starting to catch up a bit but it's still a challenge to find pants that will not fall down.  I think I figured out part of the problem.  The boy does not stop moving.  His latest obsession is falling and tries to climb up stuff to fall off.  He runs back and forth down the hallway of our little apartment constantly also.  I am completely convinced his life would best be viewed at 2x speed set to Yakkity Sax.  Heck, I'm not even sure you need to speed it up all that much.  It is great to see him have energy. 

An Afternoon at the Museum

My parents got us a membership to the Children's Museum of Houston for Simon's birthday.  Today I was bound and determined to get him there.  He slept until 2:30 and it was about 4:00 when we got there which left us 2 hours of merriment.  We had the grandest time.  We started out in the baby/toddler area.  He looks so big with the other kids there and definitely took a shine to the little ball pit.  Then we explored some other areas we hadn't been to before that show how things work and whatnot.  He had great fun there as well.  But the bad thing is he's really kind of in between the really little kids and the big kids.  He has none attention span for me to show him what he's supposed to do at the exhibits but spent a great deal of time pretending to talk to Daddy on one of their many phones.  But he didn't really seem to care.  He ran from one thing to the next before zipping on to something else. 

We took a break and had snacks and then went out to the outdoor part that has all these water activities you can do.  He especially loved it because it started to rain, and aside from falling, rain is his other big love right now.  He and I were the only ones out there for a while as other parents had the good sense to come in.  But I didn't much care.  Our lives are pretty well back to "normal", whatever that is but sometimes I think back to what he's been through and just say the heck with it.  If he wants to be out in the rain, he's gonna be out in the rain.

We went back in and walked through their little city shops area and into the vet.  There were stuffed dogs and cats all over.  One spot had an x-ray on the wall of a dog's abdomen.  I've seen lots of pictures like that before, but of a little boy so I kind of took notice. Then I saw there was an arrow pointing to a "mass" in the belly of the dog.  It looked so familiar.  I just stood there and looked at it for a while.  I held Simon a little closer.  We went into the grocery store where he picked out apples and put them back and we got a balloon before heading home.

It was a good day.  He had all the fun and was pretty good.  Now he's fighting sleep by playing in his crib.  Simon, you played so hard.  You've earned a good night's sleep. 

Fall!

Simon's new favorite word is fall.  It's a random bit from one of his books that for some reason he's taken a shine to.  Last Sunday we watched America's Funniest Home Videos which only seemed to cement his love of the word.  He loves to point out when he falls or when other people fall.  It's adorable.  He also practices falling, jumping off whatever low-ish object he can find.  That's my boy.

Stories to Tell Simon's Prom Date Volume I

Actual text message the husband sent yesterday while I was at work.

I go in to check on a napping Simon, and see this:  The neck of his shirt pulled down to his waist.  His pants pulled down to his knees.  His diaper removed and on the floor.  His sheets soaking wet.  Simon soaking wet.  And fast asleep.

That boy loves nothing more than to take off his diaper while he's "napping".

Sunday Fun Gangsta Style

I taught my son how to hold a gun tonight.  A little part of me died when I did it.  He was very good at church today except for one episode so for a treat I took him outside after dinner.  We brought sidewalk chalk and squirt guns.  I put him in his swing and gave him a squirt gun showing him how to hold it and squeeze the trigger.  The whole time I was hoping he wouldn't think of the squirt gun as a gun.  He swang and we squirted each other.  He had some interesting grips on the thing and eventually ended up pointing it backwards so he could squirt himself.  We laughed and had a blast but my mind did wander once or twice to when he's a little bit older and if he should encounter a real gun.  How soon do I teach him about the dangers of guns?  How do I help him see the difference between a pistol and a squirt gun?  For now I'll just enjoy this innocent time when we can go outside and be silly and have fun.