Rise of the Cobra

During the last week of Kindergarten before winter break Julien's class had a holiday party. Kids that play instruments were invited to perform for the party, but since Julien does not play an instrument (at least officially) I assumed he was not performing. However, at the end of the performances, after "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on the keyboard, "Twinkle Twinkle" on the cello, and Frosty on the guitar, Julien went up to the front of the class and performed "Rise of the Cobra" on his friends keyboard. True to form, Julien performed a complete invention.

Handprint

Julien gave us a plaque of his handprint that he made at school. He presented it with a recitation of the handprint poem. There's nothing like having your kid recite a poem to you. It was very cool.

Snow

There was lots of snow, sleet and rain during Bill and Jan's visit. Julien loves the snow. Sebastian, on the other hand, is not a great fan. Mostly he just stood still or sat still in the sled as I pulled him.

On the second day, when there was real true snow, we went to the park to sled. We ran into other kids from the neighborhood, including Joelle from his kindergarten class. Her dad told us that every day they get a Julien report. His impression is that Julien is "the charismatic one."

The Fort

Bill built Julien a fort out of a large cardboard box. Julien was very particular with his instructions. Meanwhile, Jan helped Julien make some pokemon cards. Julien loves the fort and has been playing with it every day. Sebastian enjoys it too.

Reading books

Sebastian LOVES to have books read to him. One of his new words is "read." He was very comfortable with Bill and Jan.

Knights

The boys were inspired to play knight. Julien is thrilled to be able to have his brother really play with him now.

Puppet show

Grandpa Bill and Grandma Jan came to town this last weekend. It ended up being a slightly longer trip than planned because all the flights to Boston were canceled. Although we were happy to see them longer, it was unfortunate they couldn't make it to see Jessica Andy and Benjamin.

They gave Julien a knight and dragon puppet and a knight shirt which led to several family puppet shows, much to the delight of Julien and Sebastian.

Ada

Kevin and Lane with little baby Ada. Don't they look cute and stylish? Ada was ready to go home.

Crafts

Malcolm, a fellow BABS board member, led crafts for the kids, including bird seed ornaments, which, of course, Julien loved. Sebastian liked getting in the middle of things.

Jumping for joy

We went to a holiday pary at BABS this weekend. The kids had a blast.

Hotel Pool

Some of you may remember my friend Amy from high school in Ann Arbor. She is now a co-director of Headlong Dance Theater in Philadelphia. This is a video of one of their dance pieces, Hotel Pool.

Cornered kitty

Sebastian continues to follow the cats around the house pointing and saying "kitty!" with a gleeful smile.

Sebastian uses a fork

with a little help...

Eating with a toddler can be a bit unappetizing at times. When Sebastian spits out his food at the table, Julien does a dramatic fall onto the ground moaning "eew! Gross!"

Family get together

On Saturday our side of the family came over. It was good to see everyone and catch up. Unfortunately, I did not get photos of everyone who was there.

There was lots of food and drink and coversation.

Sebastian walked right over to Charlotte and asked to be picked up. He thought she was grand!

It took a while for Julien to warm up, but once he did he was very happy. He spent quite a while explaining Pokemon to my cousin Mary (Charlotte's mom). Givan and I helped Julien with his Lincoln logs.

Jan was popular with the dogs because he fed them all doggy treats. Jan and Dorthy had two new beautiful Samoyeds- rescues from a shelter, but they mostly stayed in the car.

Talking

Sebastian talked up a storm. At this point he was telling us about all the birds out the window.

Four wheeling

Givan took Julien out four wheeling while Sebastian took a nap. Then he took Richard out for a spin and Julien helped John with a project. Richard was grinning ear to ear when he returned. They drove way up into the woods past several hunting blinds. He said it was beautiful.

Winnie

If we were to get a dog at some point, we would want a dog like Winnie. She was so patient with the kids. Sebastian adored her.

Pack of wild dogs

On Thanksgiving day Tara and Givan's cousins, Kristen and Abby, came over. I hadn't seen them in about 30 years (give or take). We really enjoyed seeing them. It was nice and relaxed. Julien loved Kristen and Terry's kids, Olivia and Sydney. They really hit it off. At one point all three were on the floor licking from bowls of water as they pretended to be wild dogs. Most of the time they were busy in our room alternately constructing wild dog caves and pretending to be vets (at which time they tried to get Winnie (the sweetest of the dogs) into the room with them). When we go up to the Cabins in the North woods of Wisconsin we usually stay in Kristen's cabin which is right next door to Cindy and Johns. Hopefully sometime we can cross paths with them when we go up North. Julien would LOVE it.

Java

Sebastian enjoyed playing catch with Java.

In this movie you can also see Julien and Sebastian in their matching Christmas monkey PJ's. Julien loves it when they match each other.

Cousins

Julien and Sebastian loved my cousins Tara and Givan. In the photo on the stairs Sebastian and Julien are playing drum on a pan. It was very loud.

Stars in the sky

Julien named this kitty "Stars in the sky."

Chores

Julien was thrilled to help Cindy with the chores. He was even ready to shovel horse manure!

Snow suit

Sebastian did not love his snow suit and mittens.

Snow

There was enough snow on the ground to make it feel like winter. Julien was thrilled. Sebastian was not.

But both kids enjoyed playing with their dad outside.

Kitty

For Sebastian the most exciting thing about the trip was the animals. At the beginning of the trip all animals were "kitty" whether he was pointing to a dog a horse or a bird. But towards the end of the trip he had also learned the words "dog" and "bird." He still doesn't use all of the words correctly. Cats are sometimes called "dog" and all animals are still sometimes called "kitty" (As Richard explained horse kitties, dog kitties and bird kitties). In any case, he seemed to spend most of the trip chasing or pointing at various animals. And when we returned home and saw our kitties he was over joyed. It was as if he thought "Oh, we have kitties too! I hadn't noticed!" He now tries to ride the kitties, hold on to their tails and otherwise abuse them. The cats both love and hate the attention.

Car trip

We took a long car trip to Spring Green for Thanksgiving this last week. Do not think from this smiling photo that it was all easy and happy. I would say, however, that Julien and Sebastian were both good travelers. Sebastian lost it during the last hour or so both directions, but was otherwise as good as could be expected. It took us ten hours to get there and nine hours to drive back home, so who could blame him. On the trip to Wisconsin it poured rain the whole way until we reached the border, where it turned into snow. Not an easy drive. But it was good to see my Aunt and Uncle, Cindy and John, and my cousins, Tara and Givan.

Row, row, row

Last night Julien was singing Thanksgiving songs he learned at school to me and Sebastian. One of the songs was song to the tune of "row, row, row your boat." When Julien explained this by singing a verse of "row row row your boat" Sebastian got very excited and started to repeat "row row row ya bo!" Julien and I looked at each other in amazement and asked Sebastian to repeat it, which he did, over and over. Clearly they have been singing the song at school!

Sebastian has learned lots of other new words recently. He says kitty a lot, although we think that he means "animal" when he says "kitty." He also says bubble (buba), football (fuba), what's this (whasih) and cracker (cwacka).

Cheeks

Doesn't Sebastian have the cutest cheeks?

Riding with the leaves

The boys loved working together outside. Julien taught Sebastian to ride with the leaves to the curb and stomp through the leaf piles.

Leaf pile

Sebastian watched his brother carefully and learned to fall and jump into the leaves. Lots of fun.

In the air

In the last year Julien has started to complain when I take photos of him. Fair enough, I take alot of photos and it can be irritating. I asked for permission to take picture of him leaping in the leaf pile and throwing leaves. He said it would be OK because he would be in motion, and therefore blurry.