Sebastian kissing

Here is Sebastian giving me a kiss (from afar). He also loves to kiss his monkey.

Picnic at Joanne and Brady's

Me and Sebby; Brady, Joanne and Abe; Ed and Katie

The men have a serious discussion (note the popular "leg on merry-go-round" pose)

I didn't even know playgrounds still had merry-go-rounds! They are so fun!

The wind, and its effects

AFTER: The shorn tree, newly staked

BEFORE: the blown-over tree (note lack of big roots)

We had a big windstorm the other night, and as we were driving home from the store that evening, we saw that one of our trees had blown over! It was very interesting how it just peeled right off of the ground, taking two bushes with it. The roots weren't very deep. The next day Sam cut off a bunch of branches with the chainsaw, and suddenly the tree just bobbed back up again--so we staked it and tied it with a rope. I don't know how well it will work, but we'll try it.

Abe and Seb were both quite interested in what happened, and in looking at the fallen tree. The past few nights, however, Abe keeps getting out of bed to say, "What if our other trees blow over? They have strong roots, though, right?" "There isn't a strong wind tonight, is there?" "What if the purple tree falls in the strong wind?" etc. We try to reassure him, but I can tell he's still thinking about it quite a lot.

This morning he told me the following story about Honey (his bear): "Honey lives in his own house, and he has a lot of trees. And he heard some thunder, but there wasn't any lightning. Honey's lightning doesn't want to hit tall things, it just wants to stay in the clouds. If it comes out, then it just goes back in again. And Honey's trees are all tied with rope, so they don't ever fall over."

Baby Hammer

When Abey was a baby, my friend Rachael's boys called him "Baby Hammer." So I don't know why we didn't think of getting him a Baby Hammer, but don't worry--we didn't make that same mistake with Sebastian. The idea arose because Sebby's favorite toy in the whole world was a wooden mallet we had, but it was doing damage to things he banged on (toys, floors, my head, Abey's head). So finally, I bought him this plastic hammer, which theoretically will hurt things less. Anyway, he loves it. It's just the right size for his little hand, so he carries it around everywhere and bangs with it. Sometimes he hits himself in the head or the eye, and then he looks at you accusingly, but other than that he's just plain happy about it. The thing is, though---and this is what makes me wonder if it really was such a good idea (although he loves it so much, how can I resist him?)---he wants to bang on everything.



Yes, everything.

Beware the baby Hammer! Beware!

Sebastian's latest accomplishments

Besides liking to tilt his head and arch his body into a banana, Sebastian likes to point at people. He can wave bye-bye really well now, but he often does it with a pointed finger. If you see him lunging at you (as above), you can expect a poke in either a.) the eye, b.) the nose, or c.) the mouth. If it's the mouth, he wants you to bite his finger and go "omp omp omp." If it's the eye, it's probably because you have your eyes closed and he wants you to open them and look at him. (He can't stand it if I have my eyes closed while I'm nursing him. He can sense that I'm not giving him my undivided attention, and he'll come off and poke-poke-poke at my eyes until I open them. Then he'll continue eating.)

Sebastian can also clap his hands, say "more" ("mmaaah!") and sign "more," "eat," and "all done." (All those words have to do with eating, you'll notice. He is a boy that loves to eat.)

Abraham and Sebastian