Mates

Stuffed squirrel

Emmett loves his new stuffed squeaky squirrel. We hope it will help stop him from playing with Julien's stuffed animals. They are so hard to resist.

Through the screen

Sebastian is a true animal lover. This morning when I got out of the shower I heard Sebastian talking away in his bedroom. I assumed Julien was in his bed with him, but when I peaked in he was talking to Micha. He also keeps giving things to Emmett. Or he shows them to Emmett and Emmett takes them. This has lead to several pencils being chewed into bits, as well as a few other toys and sippy cups. Sebastian finds Emmett's name quite easy to say so he says "Emmett doggy." All the pets, and Sebastian, love the front couch by the window. It is a perfect perch for observing the street. Frequently Micha sits on one side of the window while Emmett sits on the other.

Eating popsicles and drinking milk

I love how Sebastian's crocs match his popsicle.

Alert dog

Emmett gets initiated into family life

One of the reasons we got a dog

Bird dog

The vet thinks Emmett has a little bird dog in him. He does seem to "point" sometimes.

Maia

I am a bit behind on posts! These photos are from a couple weekends ago. We went over to Tara and Spencer and their daughter Maia's house for dinner. Julien adores Spencer. Spencer was very patient and learned a lot about Pokemon. Sebastian and Maia got along very well. Sebastian worked very hard at saying Maia, but it usually came out as Ah-my. He has the syllables reversed.

Copying

If you look back at the video entitled "does this kid look sick" you will see that in this photo Sebastian is copying Julien.

Emmett's first day

Emmett is a very sweet dog, very calm and snugly. The cats have been hissing a lot, but they have been sticking close to him, and they aren't quite as freaked out as I expected. They follow Emmett around the yard. Micha and Emmett have had a couple of non confrontational nose sniffs, but Zeus is more stand-offish. Emmett clearly just wants to make friends with the cats. Perhaps in time. He did discover the life size dog stuffed animal in Julien's room and worked very hard to get it to play with him. It was cute.

Julien is thrilled and has been petting Emmett a lot, but is a bit held back, a little nervous. Last night Sebastian said "Emmett doggy!" several times.

Emmett has not barked at all yet. I understand that most beagles are barkers, but not so far!

Richard worked very hard to negotiate a name with Julien. Julien was hoping for Coco, Chocolate ice cream, Electro or a pokemon name like Turtwig or Uxie. Richard was hoping for Zander. Finally Richard compiled a big list with some help from Julien. They almost named the dog Yoda, but last minute julien decided that was no good and decided on Emmett. So Emmett it is!

Emmett the beagle

New dog

This little cutie is going to be a our new dog! We don't know much about him, but he's a two-year-old stray, mostly likely a pure-bred beagle. He seems mellow and tolerant with the kids. We're supposed to pick him up at the shelter tomorrow.

Does this kid seem sick?

I didn't think so either, but he has strep. A little crazed, but such a cute smile. I wish I had that much energy! But we are feeling a bit better today.

Soccer season

Soccer started up again. Julien had his first game this last weekend, and it was FREEZING. As you can see, Julien had his winter coat on and gloves during the game. Thankfully the weather warmed up later this week. He will miss his game tonight, however. Assuming he does have strep.

Strep throat

Well, now I understand why I have had so little energy and just feeling bleah...on top of having a sore throat. I have strep! And I am pretty sure Julien does too. He is at the doctor's office with his dad right now.

Earthquake

We woke up to an Earthquake at 5:30 this morning. It was very surreal. I haven't felt an earthquake that strong since I was in California. The worst earthquake I have experienced was in Santa Cruz. It was a 5.4 (or possibly down graded to a 5.2) this morning. Pretty significant for this area of the country. It brought me back to that feeling of fear and trepidation. It even woke up Julien, although Sebastian slept right through it. It was the leading news on NPR this morning. And it is all over the news. And just now I felt an aftershock. I can't help it, it fills me with fear. However, I can roll with the punches. Or should I say, I can roll with the earth.

A nice day

Last week we had a few nice days. The boys enjoyed running in the sunshine without jackets. They also enjoyed helping to clean out the garden.

Sebastian jumps off a drum

Why? I don't know, but he loves to jump off his drum. He also likes to bang his drum, especially if he is up after Julien is in bed. This drum is the same drum I played with when I was little.

Julien pushes Sebastian in circles

Julien the filmmaker

This weekend Julien got on a film making kick, so I let him use my old video camera and my old tripod. When ever he had the camera going you could hear him narating things under his breath. Yesterday he told me he was looking for "beauty" and whenever he found it he would start recording (ie flowers, trees, etc). He also enjoyed videoing his brother eat and cry and slide down the slide. He also video taped a "cooking show," ie me in my PJ's toasting bagels and making coffee. When I finally have a chance to look through his footage I am sure there will be some hidden gems.

First day at the market

We went to the farmers market this Saturday. It is early in the season, so there were lots of eggs available but not much else. Still, it was a beautiful day and lots of people were out. We enjoyed listening to Mitch and Eileen. Sebastian cried when it was finally time to go home and I had to take away his shakers.

Sebastian plays with Zeus

Two, one!

Sebastian loves to count down, "two, one, two, one!" and then crash or throw something, like a car, or a truck, or an airplane. He learned this from Julien who is always creating some kind of count down to destruction.

Sporty guy

Penguins

The penguins were very active at the zoo.

Viewing dolphins

The light in the dolphin dome was beautiful. The dome almost makes you feel like you are in the tank with the dolphins. The boys loved it. Sebastian alternated between calling the dolphins "shark" and "fishy."