Bee Picture

In the video in the previous post you might have heard Julien say "Mommy, don't forget about the bee picture!" This is the bee picture.

Crawling in the grass

Up the step

Sebastian can now climb up the step from the family room into the kitchen. This means he can now get anywhere in the house. Yikes! We need to pull out the safety gate. He can't yet safely get down the step, but I am sure he will learn that soon.

Coffee cake

We had fun making coffee cake. Sebastian wanted to help lick the rubber spatula.

Stephan and Ruth

Last weekend Abby came over with the twins, Stephan and Ruth, and Wade. We were all very busy. Sebastian was very interested in the twins. He kept crawling over to them and trying to touch them. He also enjoyed bothering the big kids. Wade and Julien built pillow mountains and hurled their bodies into them, limbs failing.

The twins are now a little over Sebastian's birth weight. This was the first time the they actually looked at each other and interacted consciously. Ruth is more smiley than Stephan, although smaller. These are the twins I have been donating my milk to, so I am helping them grow!

Hike

Julien, Sebastian and I went on a hike with Anna and Jack a couple weekends ago at McCormick's Creek. It was a longer hike than we had realised, so the kids got tired by the end. None the less, it felt good to be outside for so long and we all enjoyed ourselves. We took turns carrying Sebastian.

Insect Dreams

Last night Julien woke up with a bad dream.
Julien: There was a millipede and a cockroach. And then dad killed the cockroach. Then Adrian and I were together in my room, although it wasn't a playdate, and a monster came up to the window and Adrian threw books at it to make it go away.

In the morning he told me about better dream he had. This one was about monarch butterflies.

Julien: I dreamt I played games with a monarch butterfly. The Monarch showed me "catch-a-stick" game where I moved the stick around and he caught it. I showed him a game called "Fire bomb." I covered a stick in rubber and threw it on a tree and it bounced off and I caught it! And we looked at the planets and a big globe. We looked at Siberia and went there to save a Siberian tiger.

Kneel

Although Sebastian's new found abilities can be frustrating for Julien, it can also be fun. Sebastian loves kneeling by the edge of Julien's bath. He slaps his hand on the bath tub and tries to stick his hand in the water. Julien thinks it's funny.

He also enjoys crawling around Julien's room, which can sometimes lead to trouble.

Cheerieos

We fed Sebastian Cheerios for the first time this weekend. He loved them! He was excited to be given something small to play with that he was allowed to put into his mouth.

Second tooth

Sebastian's second tooth is cutting through. He hasn't been quite as fussy for this one.

Really crawling

Sebastian is really crawling! Now that he can move around more easily he is much less frustrated. It brings up some new issues- including Sebastian getting into Julien's stuff. We had a big break down this weekend when Sebastian started to destroy Juliens set-up and grabbed a toothpick flag.

Shana visited for a few days this week. We were very happy to see her, although Julien was disappointed Willem didn't come too. Luckily we had beautiful weather. Julien built an area for his imaginary animals with garden stakes and Sebstian tried to suck on sticks and acorns. Sebastian tried to follow his big brother, but would then get distracted by the grass.

Trying to escape

We have all been very happy with the recent warm weather. Sebastian did everything in his power to escape outdoors. He started crawling forwards a bit before falling onto his tummy and dragging himself.

Safari Set-up

While Bill and Jan were on their trip Julien made several set-ups of Safaris.

African Safari

Bill and Jan just got back from a trip to South Africa. They were there for a conference, but also went on a wildlife safari with colleagues. Bill sent these wonderful photos of some of the animals they saw. Julien particularly enjoys the photo of the dung beetle rolling elephant dung. Bill said the people were in cages and the animals ran free.

Anna's last Day

Today is Anna's last day as Sebastian's nanny. He starts BDLC next week. Julien went to the same daycare when he was a baby. In fact, if you look at the website you might recognize an image of Julien in the graphic across the top of the page.

Anna has been great; we will miss her! Her son, Jack, is 4 1/2 and quite similar to Julien in many ways. We will continue to have play dates together.

Determined

When Sebastian is determined he can get where he needs to go. He has learned to pull himself forward, dragging his belly on the ground. Also, when he is on his tummy he can move into a crawling position and then back himself into a sitting position.

Cutting through

Sebastian's tooth is working its way through his gums. Sleep has been a little better, but clearly the tooth is still bothering him. If you look closely, you can see the edge of the tooth cutting through.

Tooth!

On Saturday I felt a small, sharp edge pushing through Sebastian's gums! When I felt it I thought, "we managed to get through teething easily." But no...last night Sebastian was fussy and crying and up and down all night. At 5:30 I finally decided to give him some Tylenol, and then he slept well. But I had to wake up an hour later, so I did not.

Meanwhile, Sebastian has not repeated his crawl forward; but he has learned to push himself forward. This is a much more gradual process then I remember with Julien. Julien scooted around in a sitting position and didn't learn to crawl until he was nine months. Then he started walking at 10 months. Julien always wanted to stand, where Sebastian has not. Sebastian enjoys being on his tummy and concentrates on getting towards trying Julien.

First Crawl!

Last night Sebastian crawled two crawls steps forward! He was only able to do it when he was concentrating on getting Julien's toys. When he was really focused, it worked; otherwise he would fall on his belly or push back into sitting. He was very pleased with himself.

Cockatoo Man

Julien and I made a new home for Polly, the imaginary cockatoo. Every night we put a blanket over the cage so she can sleep, and in the morning he takes it off.
Julien has also created a superhero named "Cockatoo Man" (for a while he tried out the name "captain cockatoo" but the other kids at school didn't understand it as well). This character is so vibrant that other kids are also pretending to be Cockatoo Man. Elias' mom said that Elias has been making Cockatoo Man out of legos at home (the most important part is the crest) and the other day when Richard dropped off Julien his friend Adrian came bursting towards him and anounced, "I'm Cockatoo Man!" Julien was concerned because he wanted to be Cockatoo Man but Richard told them they could be Cockatoo Man 1 and 2 and that seemed to work.