first family bike ride!

(That's our first bike ride together, as a family, since we are clearly not the First Family.)

We have a Skuut bike for Sebastian, bought by an overly enthusiastic bike-riding mama (that's me) over a year ago. It's been too big for Sebastian until very recently. I brought it to the park a couple of weeks ago, and he didn't want anything to do with it. He has gingerly walked around the apartment with it. And then on Thursday, when we came home from work/daycare, he saw the bike and asked to ride it outside on the sidewalk. I was thrilled, and walked up and down the block with him while he slowly walked the bike. He was quite tentative, but clearly enthusiastic about riding a bike on his own.

And then yesterday morning, I asked if he wanted to go out for a bike ride, and he said yes, and then specified that he wanted to be on his own bike (instead of with me, on mine). He was very clear that I should ride my bike, and he should ride his own bike, and daddy should ride his bike, so the "whole family" would ride together. So indeed, off we went, up to the Aqueduct trail, the whole family riding bikes together. (It's really hard to go that slowly on a big bike!) I thought he might tire quickly of the whole thing, but he walked/rode his bike for probably a full mile along the trail, from Irvington to Mercy College. I then took him up with me for a little while, for the long downhill to the train, but then once we reached flat sidewalk again, he requested his own bike, and he biked another 1/2 mile.

At the beginning he was quite tentative, walking slowly and wary of rocks and sticks. But he slowly picked up confidence and speed, and even started doing a bit of coasting, where he lifted both feet off the ground. He got scared on steeper downhills, when he felt himself losing control, but slight declines were amazingly fun. He moved his little legs faster and faster and really motored along. All in all, an amazing success, and really fun, even if it took us 2 hours to bike 2 miles. :)

new phrases

I remain, as before, fascinated and charmed by Sebastian's language skills. Some of his recent gems:

I think I can, I think I can: Grandma Raab bought him the classic Watty Piper book "The Little Engine that Could", in which the little blue engine makes it up the hill by chanting I think I can over and over. Sebastian now will repeat this phrase for himself, when running up a long hill, and for me, when I'm biking the two of us around.

Good job, mommy: this just makes me feel like a good parent, that he should know how to give praise and give it so freely.

Why? Why not?: Oh, yes. We have entered the why phase of things, bringing home to me how little I understand about how many things in the world work. I usually try my best for 3 or 4 whys, and then give up.

If you do that, I will be sad: the future conditional. I was impressed.

I had a nice time, and I'm so happy to see you!: Two things he says that are so very sweet. Sometimes I get the I'm so happy to see you! when I pick him up from daycare, and it just lights up my afternoon.

Are you happy?: I don't know where this came from. I don't think Steve or I make a habit of asking each other if the other is happy. But Sebastian really likes to ask, and if you aren't happy, he wants to know why. And if you're not happy because you're tired, he wants to know why. And occasionally, very very occasionally, if you're not happy because of his bad behavior, he will take steps to fix that behavior. :)

library books

During the epic snows and rains and storms of February and March, we visited a lot of libraries. It's cheaper than visiting toy stores or book stores, and often provided a much-needed out of the house destination on bad-weather days. We are blessed with some beautiful libraries in Westchester - all of the Rivertowns have terrific libraries, located on the waterfronts. The Hastings library has enormous windows overlooking the train tracks. And the Greenburgh library is newly constructed and gorgeous - a modernist glass building smack in the middle of an unlovely spot next to highway 287.

Sebastian loves visiting the library. When we pass by the Greenburgh library, he'll shout and point out the window "Big library!!". It's fun to ask him to pick which one to visit. And it's really fun to pick out new books to take home - we usually end up with anywhere from 7-12 new books each time. He loves getting new books and usually becomes fanatically attached to 4 or 5 of them. He wants them read every day at bedtime, the same few books. Every day, for a few weeks. And then he suddenly gets tired of them and never wants to read them again. It's fascinating to us, this extreme attachment to a few books, followed so quickly by extreme aversion.

Many of the books we bring home have transportation themes: Trainstop; Little Blue Truck leads the Way; The Bus for Us; Curious George and the Dump Truck. I'm constantly amazed at just how many books there are about trucks, buses, trains, and planes. But we do manage to sneak in a few that are about other topics - usually animals. He surprised me an enthusiasm for Robert McCloskey's classic Blueberries for Sal. One of his current obsessions is called Piglet & Mama. And for awhile, we were reading Knuffle Bunny at least twice a day (but Knuffle Bunny II was totally and completely rejected, with fear and loathing).

Both Steve and I have very fond memories of visiting the library as children and getting to take new books home, and it's fun to pass on the enthusiasm to Seb.

Easter!

We celebrated Easter in Greenlawn, at Grandma and Grandpa Raab's house. Dinner was a collaborative affair, and excellent - ham, biscuits, sweet potato and spinach curry, broccoli and cauliflower, and polenta with asparagus and peppers.

Sebastian was very excited to go and visit them and even more excited about egg hunting. We filled plastic eggs with some of his favorite things - pretzels, chips, cherries, bits of pumpkin muffin. I filled a few with cookies and jelly beans, and he rejected both of those more traditional treats after one bite. Steve hid all the eggs in the front yard and Sebastian loved taking his basket around to find them all. In fact, he loved it so much that he immediately wanted Daddy to hide them all again. And after he found those, he worked with auntie Mary to hide all the eggs again, and mommy and daddy had to find them. And then after cousin Rio arrived, we had to hide even more eggs, and let Seb and Rio hunt for them together. There was a lot of egg hunting. :)

Seb and Rio also rode their bikes around together - Rio on a big girl bike with training wheels, and Sebastian on a low-riding tricycle that lives at Grandma's house.

spring BBQ at the Karyos!

We had a lovely playdate and BBQ with the Karyos on Saturday night. At Sebastian's request, I took pictures of nearly everything that happened. He wanted to be able to look and see pics of Sonya and himself playing together, eating together, and holding hands. (These were specific requests.)

Many more pictures on Picasa:

Say cheese!

Sebastian and Sonya had a tea party, that became a birthday party. They took turns singing happy birthday to each other - see parts I and II below.

Happy birthday, part I from B. Avery on Vimeo.

Happy birthday, part II from B. Avery on Vimeo.

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. :)