sleep issues

My father has accused me of being too rosy-eyed about my son. And maybe this blog should more accurately record the things that drive us crazy as well as all the cute stuff. I'm not sure I'm ready to fully disclose all of the times I lose my temper, yell, am tempted to throw things, and generally wish for an hour of child-free time. Or the times that Sebastian is a total terror, throwing his toys around, kicking them, hitting us, and screaming as loud as he can.

However... sleep has been and continues to be a big issue for us. Sebastian has always been a very bad sleeper. He doesn't like to sleep alone. He doesn't like to go to sleep. He won't sleep unless things are dark and quiet (none of this falling asleep in the stroller while walking around the city, or on my shoulder on the train home, etc.). He has always seemed to sleep a little less than he needs to - waking up after only 9 hours at night, and a nap of 90 minutes - when 9.5 hours and a 2 hr nap really seem to be what his body needs. He wakes up in the night and calls for us, and can't make it back on his own, nearly every night. He wakes up too early - before the recent time shift, he never made it past 5:15. And he was up for good at 5:15, no matter how much leaving or cuddling we did.

We tried letting him cry it out - cry himself to sleep the first time, and cry himself to sleep when he woke up at 2 am, and cry himself to sleep at 5. It never worked. He just never made it to sleep. He could cry for hours and not make it, for multiple nights.

We have been sort of limping along, taking turns getting up, napping on the weekends, feeling tired most of the time, for most of Sebastian's sweet life. Then we found him climbing out of his crib, and moved him out of it onto a floor mattress. Of course, once he had freedom of movement, he didn't want to stay in there at all - not on the bed, and not even in the room. So we started locking him in, but that led to epic screaming fits, and tears (on his part, and on mine). And then even more frequent night wake-ups because he was having anxiety dreams. And insomnia, where he wouldn't go back to sleep for 2-3 hours. Total disaster. Now Steve goes in and cuddles with him until he falls asleep, but that sometimes takes an hour. But at least he's only waking up once a night and making it back to sleep relatively quickly once we go to him, and he's sleeping until 6 these days.

We just keep hoping that someday some switch will flip, and he'll be okay on his own. But it seems pretty unlikely at this point, and we don't know what else to do. *sigh* At least he eats well, and is sweet-tempered, and is in all other respects such a lovely child.

my first phone conversation with Sebastian

Steve and Sebastian went out to Long Island to visit Grandma and Grandpa Raab yesterday afternoon. I stayed home to get some work done after my spring break vacation. They called me from the car on the way home, and I had my first real, back-and-forth, truly informative phone conversation with Seb.

First he told me about the traffic. That they were stuck because there were too many cars. But that they were on the big road (the highway) and there were lots of trucks.

Then he told me about his visit. He told me he saw Grandma and Bampa at their house. He gave them big hugs. He rode his bike outside. He sang happy birthday to Bampa and blew out the candles on the cake.

I asked if cousin Rio was there, and he said no, she had to stay home. I asked if he had fun, and he said "Hmm", which is what he says for yes.

I thought maybe Steve was prompting him from the front seat, but he wasn't saying a thing. All of this, totally unprompted! It was amazing!

Reading!

We managed to capture Sebastian reading a book by himself on video. It's been extremely hard to take photos and videos lately - as soon as he sees the camera, he stops whatever he's doing and comes to see the picture. In this case, we were trying to encourage quiet time - he woke up after only napping for an hour, and Steve was trying to keep him in his crib for another 30 minutes. Steve set up the camera on the dresser in Seb's room, and then left.

There's some crazy climbing (who knew!) before our boy settles down to the real business of reading his book (at minute 2:30, if you want to skip ahead). The book is about a boy and a younger girl who are waiting at the school bus stop. The girl keeps asking "Is that the bus?" and the boy keeps answering "No, that's a taxi/tow truck/ice cream truck/fire engine/garbage truck." Until finally, of course, the school bus arrives. So wait for it...

Reading! from B. Avery on Vimeo.

playing at home

the cute phrase phase

It's been so long since I blogged! Argh!

There are a couple of reasons. We haven't taken any photos since our return from Phoenix, partly because it's been January, and kind of blah, and partly because Sebastian now knows and recognizes the camera, and will not continue to play/speak/be cute when the camera is pointed in his direction. He just wants to see the picture, and manhandle the camera, and really no photo-taking happens. And in addition, work has been pretty busy for me, so I haven't had the usual free moments to blog in the office.

We have, happily, entered the extremely cute phrase phase of childhood. Sebastian mimics us, and invents things, and comes up with words that we didn't know he knew, and amazes us with his correct use of prepositions and plurals and pronouns. We are easily amazed, it's true, and we are suckers for our boy. But for my own future self, here are this month's fun phrases:

"I so cute!" (This is clearly something I say to him too often.)
While fingering a coat in my closet: "That's a nice blue."
"Have a nice day!" (He doesn't say this to us - he says it to vehicles, for the most part.)
Avi Coffee - this is Sebastian's nickname for Avi, who owns the Hastings Station coffee shop.
"We go on abenture" - on weekends, when we're all going out as a family, we talk excitedly about the adventure, and Sebastian has adopted it.
"Don't miss the turn!" - he often asks to go visit the trains, or go through the tunnel in Irvington - I used to ignore the request and then say I'd missed the turn. So now he starts reminding me very early to not miss the turn!
"I know!" (With a tone of happy, and fake, surprise.)

And in a different category - the mispronunciation file - when Sebastian says "kitchen" it sounds more like "chicken", and diaper is something like "butder".

He came home from daycare two weeks ago and suddenly broke out into the Happy Birthday song. (Completely without tune - he's obviously inherited our tone-deafness.) I was really surprised. I asked at daycare the next day and no one has celebrated a birthday for weeks, so I'm not sure what led to the sudden outburst of song. He's since followed that up with Jingle Bells. :)

tench froast

Sebastian's new favorite food is french toast, but he transposes the consonants, so he runs around yelling "I want tench froast! Tench froast, mommy!" Daddy's tench froast is the best, and 'Bastian got to eat it all weekend long.

We ran around the city on Saturday, checking out the fancy new playground at Union Square, and drove out to LI to visit Grandma and Grandpa Raab on Sunday. And on Monday we did some Metronorth joy-riding. It was tough to return to work and daycare today.

new foods

Sebastian has always been a pretty good eater - he loves his pasta and bread as much as any toddler, but will consent to eat other things as well. And he eats enormous quantities. He's been known to pack away three scrambled eggs, a piece of toast, and half a banana for breakfast, and come back for a second breakfast two hours later.

But while we were in Phoenix he suddenly became adventurous and accepting in a whole new way. He ate all kinds of things that he had previously shunned, including edamame, french fries, nuts, broccoli, Thai pork satay, and chicken shawarma. He did still refuse some of the usual suspects - hummus, guacamole, most vegetables. But we were impressed nonetheless! And just last weekend he continued with the newly carnivorous trend, happily downing pulled pork at Q BBQ restaurant in Port Chester. That's our boy. :)

Sebastian and Danica

Phoenix trip

We went to Phoenix for 10 days, meeting up with Carl, Kim, and Danica, and with my mom and dad (aka Popo and Bompy - Seb's new moniker for Grandpa). It was a glorious vacation - warm and sunny weather, two cousins who were thrilled with each other's company, a festival of activities - and the joy of seeing my far-flung family.

We visited the Desert Botanical Garden, the Phoenix Zoo, the Natural History museum, the Children's Museum, and the fantastic Heard Museum of American Indian art and cultures. We hiked up Usery Mountain to a cave, climbed the rocks in Papago Park, and went for a long hike up Siphon Draw in the Superstition Mountains. And in between, endless games of chase in the hallway, crazy dancing to the Boynton dance book and Sesame Street, and lots of truck, train, and car games. I've posted over 200 pictures in the Picasa web album. Hopefully I'll blog more about our adventures in the next week or so.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10!

Sebastian counted to ten! The whole way! We were so proud, and so was he.
(What did he count? Trains, of course...)