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.

Raking leaves

We raked the leaves this weekend, much to the enjoyment of the kids. Julien was actually able to help this year. Sebastian tried to help too.

Koi feeding frenzy

We went to Oliver Winery this weekend and fed the koi. It wasn't as busy as the last time we were there, so the Koi were not so over fed. They were ready to eat!

Coin sorter

Julien recently got a coin sorter from the Scholastic book club (part of an order he placed with Kathy when she was visiting) and he loves it. He has taken all the change he can find, from the coin bowl, the bottoms of purses, etc, and sorted them and put them in rolls of 2$, 5$, etc. He still doesn't quite understand how change works, but it is begining to make sense and is very interesting and clearly important in the world.

The other day, Richard picked up Julien's back pack in the morning and it was incredibly heavy. After fishing around in the various pockets he found a sock full of rolls of change. What was Julien doing? He wanted to go to the book fair at school with his friend Isaac to find a book on spying. Why? They want to spy on the bullies. Who are the bullies, you might ask? Any one that has done him wrong recently. Usually someone who has been a friend, and probably will be a friend again.

We explained to Julien that he was too young to go to the book fair alone and that he could not bring his rolls of coins with him to school. As you can imagine he was quite disappointed. I offered to take him to school early so we could look at the books in the book fair, but he declined. He wanted to go with Isaac, without adults.

Star Wars movie

Julien, having never seen a Star Wars movie, decided to make his own version of Star Wars.

Toys

He also took some photos of his toys. Are the playmobil guys at school?

Julien's pix

Julien has been taking photos with his new camera. I love his self portrait.

Sweater

Recently, I was looking through storage in our basement, when I discovered a box of baby clothes that used to be Julien's. Unfortunately, Sebastian had already outgrown most of the clothes. Luckily, this beautiful sweater, knit by Jessica, still fits!

Cry

By the end of the visit Ada was very ready to go home. She had the most heart wrenching, beautiful, vibrating baby cry. So different than the grown up cries of Sebastian.

Swing

Sebastian was happy we went to the park.

Julien greeted Kevin and Lane with his handmade "Wolverine" super hero mask on. We recently got him a new toothbrush in the shape of "Wolverine." He likes it so well he has been using it in his set-ups (no longer called "set-ups").

Holding Ada

We also enjoyed holding tiny baby Ada.

Kevin and Lane

Kevin and Lane came over for brunch this weekend with little baby Ada. It was good to see them in the groove of new parenthood.

Zeus snuggles

Lately the cats have been particularly snuggly. Perhaps it is due to the weather getting colder. Sebastian loves the extra attention. He also likes to say "kitty."

Meow!

Yoda takes off!

Sebastian loved trick-or-treating. He ran down the street trying to keep up with the big kids (I tried the stroller, but he would have none of it). He enjoyed going up to the houses with the big kids, but didn't know what to do when he got there. A couple times, when he was offered a treat out of a bowl, he took something out of his own bag and put it back into the bowl. Reverse trick-or-treating.

When we got home I thought he would pass out with exhaustion, but, after a long nurse, he was up and ready for more action. That night after Julien went to bed he started talking like crazy. He said bubble, kitty, brother, and a few other words. He also started to head down the hall to try to retrieve his brother. We managed to stop him before waking up Julien.