Sunday in NYC!

We spent Sunday in the city - a gorgeous, crisp day - we had a very fancy breakfast at Norma's, at the Parker Meridien. Sebastian drank the amuse-bouche smoothie, ate blueberry pancakes and french toast, and generally behaved very well. Then we wandered down 5th Avenue, looking in the department store windows at all the Christmas decorations. (Okay, so I looked, and Sebastian kept up a steady stream of commentary about the many buses and taxis and trucks that were going by.) We visited Rockefeller Center, where we watched the ice skating and saw the enormous soon-to-be-decorated and lit Christmas tree. Then we got on a city bus and went for a joy ride, all the way down to Soho. Sebastian loved it. After that, we walked around Soho a bit and then rode the subway back up to Bryant Park. Sebastian loved that too. :) At Bryant Park, I took advantage of the free ice skating to do a couple of laps while the boys watched, and then we took Sebastian on the little carousel for some spins. We finished with a taxi ride back to our car, making our boy's happiness complete. Buses and subways and taxis, oh my!

Skating at Bryant Park! Sebastian was very interested in watching mama wear these crazy blue shoes and go gliding around. And I felt such joy at being on the ice again, despite the overcrowded conditions and terrible rental skates. Ah, Canada.

My boys.

On the carousel at Bryant Park.

more word updates

This is one of those blog entries which is entirely for myself, to be able to look back in a few years and remember. My memory is like a sieve, and if it isn't written down I know I'll quickly forget some of these things that currently melt us.

Sebastian's pronunciation of various sounds is gradually improving, and with that comes the disappearance of some of my favorite mistakes.

teetee has become the more recognizable taxi
wa-wa to water
choo choo to train
mama to mommy and dada to daddy (this was the biggest surprise, as we have always gone along with him and called ourselves mama and dada - must be something he got from daycare)

There are still a lot of mispronunciations, of course, including my current favorite: beeeg. That short i sound escapes him entirely.

He is making enormous strides in learning his letters. All are associated with a person or thing: S for Sebastian; C for car; B for bus; N for Nathan, J for Jack; P for Presley; T for train, truck, and taxi; M for mama; D for daddy; and the lower-case e.

His newest phrase: Oh, okay. It cracks me up.

birthday party

The Raab family came over to celebrate Sebastian's 2nd birthday. I made pumpkin apple bread, lasagna, and an apple/beet/mozzarella mesclun salad.

Our boy is two!

Our ice cream cake.

Sebastian's favorite present: the bag that auntie Mary brought her gift in. Typical. :)
Lots and lots more pictures of present opening, car racing, and jumping in the gallery.

phrases and other random things

A short list of Sebastian's current phrases (the really cute ones):

I try again - this is one of my favorites. So cute.
I wait - generally for buses or trains
I found it!
My turn! - obviously daycare has taught him a very useful skill and phrase
Two hugs - he likes to hug both mama and daddy simultaneously, and always says "two hugs!" to prompt us into action
I boo mama - meaning, I scared mama.
turning - when we're watching the trains go away from us, turning the corner
Come on! or I'm coming! - again, usually in reference to buses or trains

tree hugs - that's right, he's already a tree hugger. Except he takes it very literally, and will hug any tree that takes his fancy.
tickling - he's really into tickling and being tickled. He even tries to tickle other people, like his friend Sonya, and Grandpa and Grandma.

books - He's started reading along with some of his books, including a Duck and Goose Opposites book - so he knows sad and happy, loud and quiet, near and far, clean and dirty

the Boynton dance book - he loves this book and asks for it by name, and insists on everyone dancing with him.

letters: Seb has learned his first letter. O! And he sometimes knows e, s, and b for bus
colors: for the longest time, everything was blue. But now he seems to know and be able to say most colors - red, green, black, purple, yellow (sometimes), orange.
numbers: So far everything more than one is two. Or if it's really a lot, five.

Two!!

Happy 2nd birthday! from B. Avery on Vimeo.

Our boy turned two on Wednesday. It's hard to believe. I stayed home for the day and we had a lovely time - we watched trains, we went to our usual Weds dance class, we wandered around outside in the leaves, and Daddy came home early.

After dinner, Sebastian got to open some presents - a book and vehicle-themed stamps from Popo and Grandpa, Sesame St. software from cousin Danica, and some stackers from Mama and Daddy (our big present - the kitchen - has been set up for a week already). We'll have cake on Sunday when the family comes to visit.

I've been meaning to write a longer post about Sebastian's new words and phrases, new fascinations, new tricks and traits, but work has been extremely busy for both of us, and there hasn't been time. I have a long list of blogging to-writes...

play kitchen

Mama and Daddy's birthday present to Sebastian: a play kitchen. He loves it. Especially the microwave.

Sebastian and the very long journey

Seb's long journey from B. Avery on Vimeo.

new video

This video belongs with an earlier post - our leafy visit to Rockefeller Park on the 23rd.
My favorite aspect of this video is that it really starts out as one thing and then becomes another.

Babe in the woods from B. Avery on Vimeo.

Halloween

Is he a bear? A dog? A lamb? It was billed as a bear costume, but given our boy's shyness and the soft fleeciness of the costume, we think he most resembled a lamb.

Friday afternoon party at our Happy Harbor daycare - this is Jack (the dragon) and Nathan (the U Mich fan), two of Sebastian's favorite friends. (We ask him how daycare was - if it was fun - and he says "Nae-nae, and Jack, and Pesley", aka Nathan, Jack, and Presley.)

On Halloween day, some pre-dinner wandering around town with Sonya, checking out the street decorations, playing with the leaves, and testing out the idea of trick or treating. It took a little while to convince Seb to step out with Sonya, but he finally got the hang of it.

And later on Halloween night, Sebastian really got into the trick or treat ritual, going up to houses along with other kids, staring at strangers and trying to say "trick or treat", grabbing a candy from the bowl to put in his bag, and saying thank you. Given Sebastian's fear of strangers, this was truly amazing. We had such a fun time seeing all of the children out and letting Sebastian experience his first real Halloween.

More pictures in the October gallery.