Sebastian got his own snow shovel from his grandparents for Christmas, and we finally brought him outside to use it. We were waiting for a warmer day, but we figured 20 degrees is as good as any degrees, so we brought him out.
This isn’t his very first time playing with snow, but it is his first time in the snow on his own and with his own boots and his own shovel.
Of course we have a video! He was more interested in the airplanes landing than shoveling, though. So after editing a lot of footage, we have about a minute left over to present to our readers:
Several months ago, we shared with everyone how Sebastian loves to sweep. Well, at 18 months he has graduated to using the new Kirby vacuum.
He also loves to wipe everything off with a washcloth, wipes his own nose, and loves to wash his hands! Sebastian is a neat-freak like daddy and a clean-freak like mommy (those aren’t the same thing, but he has both in him).
Yeah, Sean tried to do something fancy with the video but it didn’t really work out as planned. If the video seems weird to you, it’s not your eyes.
Sebastian turns 18 months old this week but we still haven't had his first haircut yet! We aren't sure what we are waiting for, but we have been putting it off. Maybe it's because we don't want to lose his curls (Sean had the same curls until his first haircut, then they all went away). Or maybe it's because we know he will scream and run around with the scissors unless we tie him to the chair. Either way, we haven't done it yet.
This means that his hair is quite a mess, but we don't mind. Here is some evidence of the situation:
First, his curls. His hair is actually combed in this photo:
He gets Einstein-head when he is in his ball pit, but we couldn't get a photo to do justice for it, but here is simply a cute action photo:
Oh, and we have a video of when his hair is wet in the bath, as it shows its length. The only nudity is a leg, so don't be too offended:
Yes, you heard the word "hospital" in the video. Sebastian is fine—just another asthma attack which hopefully we are able to control at this point…
Sebastian has some new dance grooves that he would like everyone to see. In addition to a previous dance video, his dance moves now include jumping, hopping, partner dancing, marching, and the hula. Enjoy!
Sebastian loves to help clean up, too! So, we gave him his own broom to help sweep with.
We are also working on getting video of him crawling backwards, walking backwards, and jumping, but so far we haven’t been able to capture it. He also has been trying to wipe his own nose with Kleenex—it’s too cute to believe without seeing it, though!
He still isn’t really talking, although he can say “daddy” and “mommy” when he gets upset enough. Sebastian does try to speak in complete paragraphs rather than learning one word at a time, so maybe that has something to do with it. Einstein didn’t speak a single word until he was three years old, so maybe we have a genius on our hands?
Bedtime has become a difficult thing lately; he is already at the stage where he simply doesn’t want to go to bed, but anyone else listening who isn’t in-the-know would think we are killing our baby every night. Ruth admits she is a push-over whereas Sean just dumps the baby in the crib and lets him be, so we are trying to meet in the middle somewhere.
Hopefully we will have more video to force upon you soon!
Sebastian loves the printer. Whenever he hears it start to print he will come running from anywhere in the house to collect the papers as they come off the printer. Most of the time he will take the papers over to Ruth and deliver them to her as well (without eating them first).
Sebastian begged daddy to break out the Christmas music early this year so they could get started on practicing their duets. Here is a clip from their first sight-reading session:
We aren’t sure where Sebastian is learning to dance, but he is picking up a few new moves a week. A few days ago, he learned how to twirl or spin. He also adjusts his dance style to the type of music he hears (no joke). He also seems to react more strongly to rhythmic sounds rather than melodic ones. His favorite songs to dance to are “Amish Paradise” and “White and Nerdy,” which are both Weird Al hip-hop parodies. Sebs also likes oldies (easier on the ears) and doesn’t know what to think when the Xenakis comes out (modern classical music). He also screams when Sean plays Beethoven on the piano. So, Weird Al and Tommy Roe it is, then!
So far his dance moves include:
--the head-bob (up & down and back & forth)
--the bounce-at-the-knee
--the side-to-side hip-dance
--the baby-butt-wiggle
--the hands-in-the-air-waving-up-and-down
--the holding-hands-arm-snake-from-1986
--NEW: spinning
--NEW: twirling
Of course he performs these moves completely at random so we don’t have video proof at this time, but we do have a video of the spinning. He does get dizzy and daddy admits he feels bad for chuckling a bit, but it’s adorable and no one got hurt (except maybe the cat at the end; you’ll see).
Sebastian can suddenly eat with a fork. This came out of nowhere and it is pretty exciting. It seems that most everything he can do is sudden and we wonder where it comes from (duh, imitation of course). It also makes us think for a second about all the things he could do that we haven't been trying to convince him to do yet. Are we holding him back? Nah; there are things he can do that other kids his age can't, like balance perfectly on a truck rolling down the floor like a skateboard and not cracking his head open when his parents aren't looking!
He hasn't started talking yet, but we aren't too nervous. He can do other things that are way ahead of schedule, so his brain is just developing in its own way. It probably doesn't help that we know what his made up gestures, signs, and grunts mean, so he can communicate well to us without having to speak, which may be making him lazy regarding words, so we need to make him try harder to communicate with us rather than giving in to his demands simply because we know what he is trying to say.
He also tries to talk in complete sentences rather than just words, which might have something to do with it. If we could get a video of this, it would make sense, but it's the hardest thing to capture right now since it's so random. But to describe it further: he will rattle off a whole paragraph of "words", then chuckle at the end. He also understands conversation extremely well. You can have a dialogue with him back and forth seamlessly, albeit without English. It's really amazing.
