Such a cool kid.

I love this kid.

He is cracking me up more and more all the time as he seems to be communicating more effectively. Saying things that surprise me and make me do a double-take. These are my favorite types of double-takes.

This photo shows one of his Christmas gifts (or birthday) from last year. It seems that whatever he receives doesn't get tons of love until about a year later (something we are trying to change this year). It is hard to tell with him what he will be in love with, what is developmentally appropriate, etc. What is really cool about this - the hat and the goggles - is that he actually wanted to put them on (got them out of his toy basket on his own and asked for help in putting on the goggles). In the past he has not wanted the glasses on his face...but now, he is all over these guys. And of course, I was all over the camera.

He calls himself "Bob" - as in Bob the Builder - and pretty much what he wants to do is look at himself in the mirror and then take them off. So, so cool.

I had a couple emails from people yesterday wondering what Santa will be bringing Simon. Yesterday I had typed up this whole post about what has been happening with Santa and then I lost it. I hate it when that happens. The just of the post was that we had been back to the same toy store three times trying to decide between an entire Thomas the Tank Engine set-up (moving from the plastic tracks to the wood) and a house from Playmobil.

He loves Thomas. They are his favorite. And we are well aware of this fact. Our worry was that we would be feeding into an obsession rather than encouraging some diversity in his toy selection here at home. And besides all that he loves what he has right now (keeping it simple right?).

As for the Playmobil house, we were hoping to support him more in imaginative play with people. In the end though, I think he may not be completely ready for this developmentally.

After continued deliberation, and leaving the store for the third time without a "big" present we decided to go a completely different route. When we were driving home Santa and I started talking about what else he loves right now, and how what he loves and repeats tends to come from what he watches on video. And right now it is all about Dora and Diego. We like that he seems to be learning stuff from those shows and he is so excited about them. So Santa will be bringing him the Dora house (with a couple accessories, like the backyard) which satisfies Santa's desire to get him working on imaginative play in a home-environment and his desire to have him receive something that he will actually love and play with. And we got the last one at Toys-R-Us. Awesome.

My sister recently sent him the Dora floating bath toy which has been a total hit around here - it has made him become excited about taking baths again.

Another toy Santa brought last year that is finally getting some use is the My First LeapPad. Last year he got the Wiggles and Thomas books and just last week he was starting to get it (pushing the green go button, turning the pages with the sounds, etc.). Santa will also be bringing the Dora book this year.

Other than that there will be little things. A Dora coloring book. Wiggles slippers. A recorder. Bubbles. Hungy Hungry Hippos game. A book about monkeys. And a couple Thomas magnet books.

Excited to see his reaction Sunday morning. Excited to get to share in that overwhelming joy.