Yu-Yu!

So Sebastian is pretty reserved with anyone he doesn't see really often. He tends to keep his distance and stare, even if it's been just a few weeks since seeing someone. Even though his Auntie Laura lives not far away in DC, she's really busy and we don't see her as much as either of us would like. Of course this means that he needs to warm up to her again every time he sees her. But this past weekend, he seems to finally have "remembered" her sooner. It's like he finally decided that she was cool, and that was that.

It probably helped that, at the Farmer's Market, Auntie Laura was the holder of Sebastian's beloved kettle corn! But after we got back to Mummo and Pappa's house was when the REALLY cool thing happened. Sebastian said Laura's name! Or at least HIS version of it. Auntie Laura will hereafter be known as Yu-Yu (pronounced like you-you). He actually did do a pretty good "oh-wah" approximation of her name once, but for some reason only known to Sebastian, he preferred calling her Yu-Yu.

And then the rest of the afternoon it was Yu-Yu this and Yu-Yu that. He and his auntie played piano together, he wanted her to play with us on the bed, he wanted to help/watch her cook, etc. It was adorable. Even the next day, as we were driving by the street to Mummo and Pappa's house, Sebastian was talking about her. He was pointing and kept saying "Mummo! Pappa! Yu-Yu!" "Yu-Yu! Pappa! Mummo! Yu-Yu!" I can't wait until the next time they get to hang out.

I love that he's starting to build these connections. And I love that he's talking more and able to verbalize them. And even more than that, I love how, despite his reservations and shyness, Laura keeps trying and interacting with him and generally being awesome. He's a pretty cool kid with a pretty cool Auntie Yu-Yu.

Ahh-Buh!

That's how Sebastian says his brother's name. He started saying it last week. Cutest. thing. ever. The first time my jaw hit the ground (our boy still doesn't talk very much...), and he's saying it all the time now. Sebastian loves holding his brother. He loves having Oliver on his lap. Generally, our little mime will just sit down, pat his lap, and reach toward Oliver to tell us he wants to hold him. But in my quest to get him actually verbalize things, I was pushing him to actually say Oliver's name.

And then he did. I kept asking him what he wanted, and finally he just looked at me like I was crazy, and the most irritating thing in the world, and said "Ahh-vuh!" That has since morphed into "Ahh-buh," which is a bit easier to say, but still, he gets his point across. The other morning he came up to the bedroom where I was with Oliver, who was still sleeping in our bed. I was in the bathroom getting dressed and stuff. Sebastian poked his head in, and started signing "where" and saying "Ahh-buh?" "Ahh-buh?" I didn't know what he was asking at first. He kept pointing downstairs, and I was stumped.

Then he got up on his tiptoes and looked into the pack-and-play that we're using as a changing table in our room while Oliver is still sleeping with us. Then he pointed to the changing table, signed "where," shook his head, and said "Ahh-buh" in a sad voice. I finally got that he was saying Oliver! Duh! I told him that Oliver was still sleeping in our bed, and his face immediately lit up. He signed "sleeping" and started babbling in a whisper, all while running over to the bed to see his brother.

Sebastian still doesn't say "HI" as adorably to anyone else. He has started saying it to us and sometimes to Mummo and Pappa, but he started with Oliver. He doesn't say many words perfectly. In fact, that is probably the only one. Aiti and Daddy are pretty close most of the time. But "hi" is wonderful every time. It is totally normal-sounding and perfect. And he reserves that perfection for his favorite plaything, his future best friend, his little brother. I can't wait to see them grow up together.

Wordless Wednesday: Brotherly Love

Ok just a few words, so you don't think we're horrible parents, letting our toddler and newborn sleep together in one crib. :P After he wakes up from his nap, if Oliver is awake, Sebastian likes to have him lie down in his crib and snuggle with him for a while. I think it's pretty adorable. Here are a few pics of the most recent cuddle-fest. (The silly faces are because S seems to hate the camera these days...sigh.)

Wordless Wednesday: Happy Easter!

Wordless Wednesday: Tired? Who's Tired?

Wordless Wednesday: Two Boys!

Welcome Oliver Wesley!

I just finished typing out my (exhaustive) birth story for Oliver. I figure I wrote a novel for Sebastian, couldn't let Oliver feel slighted, eh? So here it is, if a few days late!
Oliver’s Birth Story:

On Wednesday evening, March 10, I started having regular contractions (again) about every 1-3 minutes apart from 9-11pm. They felt a bit different than usual, but I wasn’t sure whether to call the midwives. I went up to take a shower to see if they’d slow down or stop. Got out of the shower at 11ish, and while the contractions had slowed down some, they hadn’t stopped. After I sat on the couch again for a bit, they picked up. I decided to call at 11:30 to see what he midwife suggested. Paula was on call, and said that I should probably come in to get checked. She said that if I waited too long and was too close to delivery by the time I got there, I wouldn’t have time to have an epidural, and I really wanted to be sure I could.

So we called my parents, and told them that we needed to go to the hospital, and that we might have the baby tonight or tomorrow, or we might be coming home. Pappa came over to stay with Sebastian (who had been asleep since 7:30 or so), and off we went. We hit every red light on Route 7 on the way to the hospital, but the contractions seemed to have slowed down again, so it wasn’t a big deal. We got to the Birthing Inn around 12:45am on March 11; got set up in triage, hooked up to monitors, etc. Oliver’s heartbeat was strong and steady, as usual, but the contractions seemed to have petered out during the drive over. Blah! My midwife Paula came in and checked me, and I was 4-5cm dilated. She said we could go home if we wanted, or we could stay and see what we could do to get labor started again and have a baby!

We figured we were there, Sebastian was taken care of, we had everything in the car, we’d stay! Crazy! They got me admitted, IV started (since I wanted an epidural), and we waited to see if the contractions would pick back up. They didn’t, so we started a low dose of pitocin just to get them going again at 3am. At 4:30am, the contractions were regular again, and were getting painful, so I got my epidural started. It was quite painful at a few points getting it in, but then was working fine. The nurse, Christy, was great and helpful.

At 5am, I was still contracting regularly, so they stopped the pitocin and broke my water. That was very painful, despite the epidural. They said it might just need a bit more time to get set, but that they could turn it up if I was still in pain in a while. From 5-6am I tried to sleep some, but couldn’t sleep because the contractions were still pretty painful, and I was feeling a good amount of low pressure. At 6:10, the anesthesiologist came in to administer more meds to get the pain more under control, said they’d kick in about 10 minutes later.

At 6:30 am, I was still feeling a lot of low pressure/pain during contractions, but not as bad as before. Contractions were about 2 minutes apart, lasting about a minute. I waited until the nurse came in again to ask her to check me, because I was feeling a lot of pressure during contractions. It as a different nurse, because Christy’s shift had ended; the new nurse was named Mary. She came back in and checked at 7:30am, and she said, “Well, that’s why you’re feeling so much pressure! You’re complete!” I was still at -1 station, though, so she told me to get on my side and hopefully that would help him get into a better position.

Paula came in at 8:20am and checked me…he was “right there.” The nurse asked if I wanted to use the mirror, and I figured that I did last time with Sebastian, and it was pretty cool, so I said sure. They told me to give a practice push when I felt the next contraction (this was around 8:40am). I barely did anything…just kind of gave it a try (I was honestly a bit nervous it would hurt because I felt so much more than last time…it didn’t, though, just felt lots of pressure), and they told me to stop.

Everyone rushed to get dressed and ready, because his head was already visible! The most surprising thing was that it looked like Oliver had TONS of very dark hair already! Paula quipped that no WONDER I was feeling pressure, half his head was out already! She told me that we’d take it slowly so that I didn’t tear or anything, and we’d ease him out. Said I could push on the next contraction.

So the next contraction started, and I pushed to a count of 10. They told me to stop and I did, but his head just came out on its own, and the rest of him right afterward, SO quickly! His little hand was under his chin (his big brother was born head-and-hand first, too!), cord tucked into the crook of his arm (just like his brother!), with the cord was wrapped around his body. It was huge and thick, just like Sebastian’s was…we all compared it to a garden hose! Oliver Wesley Harman officially entered the world at 8:56am on March 11, 2010. That’s just under six hours from when they started the pitocin to get my contractions going again!

The nurse put him on my chest and they did all the initial evaluations there, which was nice, since I got to snuggle him and hold him. After the cord stopped pulsing, Ken cut it. We couldn’t believe all his dark hair! He was tiny and red and looked a lot like Sebastian, though I couldn’t believe he was ever that small! They took him to the bedside scale to get weighed and measured and further evaluated. He weighed 7 lbs. 6.6 oz, and measured 18 ½ inches long. He scored 9 and 9 on his APGARs. We checked him out and saw that he has detached earlobes (like I do, and Sebastian does), long fingers, and wide feet.

After he was all done and bundled up, I got him back and everyone cleared out of the room. We started our first breastfeeding session at around 9:20, and he latched on right away and did great. He’s an amazing little guy…really mellow so far, and so cute! He looks like a little doll! We’re in love, of course, all over again!


Following Birth:

They didn’t have a room available yet in the Postpartum wing, so we just stayed in the Labor & Delivery room until the afternoon. Mummo and Pappa and Sebastian came to visit at around noon. Oliver was in the nursery getting cleaned up when they arrived, so I got to say hi to Sebastian without the new little guy there at first. He was a bit wary (he’s always a bit nervous, it seems, in medical settings, and I don’t think he liked that I was in the hospital bed, even though I had changed out of the gown and into a regular shirt to make it easier for him). But he warmed up eventually and explored the room and played with my iPhone while we waited for Oliver to come back.

When he did get back, we introduced Sebastian to his little brother. He just kept looking at him and saying “Ooooh!” and pointing. He wasn’t sure at first, but after just a few minutes was wanting to touch him (pointing out his nose, his mouth, etc.), pat his head, and even give him kisses. It was adorable. Mummo got to hold Oliver, too, and we got a bunch of pictures of us as a brand-new family of four. They left after a little less than an hour, and Sebastian thankfully didn’t seem upset to leave, which is something we were worried about. He waved bye and we were left there with just Oliver again.

Around 2pm we were finally moved over to the Postpartum side, and got settled into our room there. The next few hours were just taken up by looking in awe at the new little guy, him nursing, and various check-ups for both me and him. Ken left around 6pm to go home to put Sebastian to bed and sleep there, since he didn’t get much sleep at all the night before (but more than I did!). I was nervous about being left alone with Oliver, but it turned out fine.

I managed to sleep a little bit in between feedings while Oliver went to the nursery (he was asleep anyway, so I figured I may as well sleep too), and before long it was morning and Ken was back. We told them that we’d like to take advantage of the option to leave the hospital after 24 hours, and not stay longer, since it would be easier for me to get help at home than being at the hospital alone. Also, hospital beds are NOT comfortable, and I was looking forward to busting out of the joint.

Of course nothing in hospitals is ever as simple as it should be, and it was almost 1pm before we were finally discharged. Our new nurse, Stefanie, was upset to see us go, because we were “cool” and she needed some laughter to get through her shift (apparently she had a few difficult patients already!). Ahh well, she helped us get on our way and out!

After a very silly trip to the pediatrician (long story, but basically they wanted us to have Oliver seen for the first three days after his birth, and since our pediatrician isn’t open on Saturdays, they consented having him seen twice on Friday (once at the hospital, and once in the afternoon at our pediatrician), we were on our way home!

We stopped at my parents’ house to pick up Sebastian, and he kept ooohing over his little brother, and wanting to see him and be near him all the time. While it’s proving to be quite difficult to deal with two very young children, we’ll manage and they’ll be the best of friends. So that’s our story, so far. Stay tuned for Sebastian and Oliver: The Continuing Chronicles!

Bedtime Routine

With Oliver's pending arrival "any day now," I thought it could be fun to post Sebastian's bedtime routine, as it is right now, with just one 19-month-old boy. Of course we'll do our best to keep things as normal as we can for him after the new arrival. But life with a newborn and a toddler will surely take some adjustment, and we'll all have to make some changes to make it work. So here we go, Sebastian's current bedtime routine:

Sebastian goes to bed around 7-7:30pm. Around 6 or so, we head up to Sebastian's room and play quietly. Usually he'll play with puzzles, read books, or make out with his stuffed animals (see recent blog post...) for a while, usually with Ken since he's been home lately. We sing songs, too (his favorites right now are "The Wheels on the Bus," "We Are the Dinosaurs," "Monster Boogie," "Itsy Bitsy Spider," and the "ABC Song," to which he tries to sing along), and sometimes dance around a bit . I usually take that time to fold his laundry and/or put away clean diapers. And of course I read with him, too, but I stay in the glider and don't get on the floor like I used to...who knows if I'd ever be able to get up again!

Around 6:30, we change his diaper and put on his nighttime one (which is hilariously bulky because we use cloth and he pees a TON at night and needs it double-stuffed) and pjs. Then he asks Ken for his toothbrush (he's obsessed with brushing his teeth), and first I brush his teeth a bit and then he wanders around with it on his own for a while, brushing away. When he's done he gives it back to Ken and watches at the door as he goes and rinses it. Then he "lets Daddy back in" and we play/read/do puzzles for a while longer.

Around 7 or 7:15 (or a bit later if he seems a bit wound up and needs some more cool-down time), we'll start giving him warnings about "two more books" or "one more puzzle" and "then it's time for Good Night Moon." Sometimes he'll whine and try to pretend like he's not tired (all the while rubbing his eyes and yawning...), but he always settles by the time we get a few pages into "Good Night Moon."

Ken dims the lights while Sebastian comes and sits on my lap. Then Ken reads the book (more like recites it, at this point...I think we could both "read" it in our sleep at this point!). Sebastian snuggles with his purple froggy friend (with the paci part cut off) while we read. When the book is done, he turns around and hugs me and gives me a kiss. Then it's Daddy's turn, and he gets a hug and a kiss. Then Sebastian points to his crib and Ken puts him down, turns on his music, puts one of his Carebears next to him, and puts on his blanket (which S promptly pulls off and puts by his head...the kid hates being covered with blankets...weird, huh?). Then we both tell him good night and sweet dreams, and leave the room.

Usually he goes to sleep without a peep, but sometimes he'll whine or cry a bit right as we leave, but I think he's just wanting to stay up and play, even though he's tired. He always settles within 5 minutes. I feel like we're really lucky that he's a good sleeper, and sleeps through the night until morning. He wakes up between 5:00 and 6:30am, usually, usually on the earlier side if he's teething or otherwise not feeling well. He very, very rarely wakes up at night, and even when he does, he settles himself down within minutes, usually, without any need for us to go in. He takes one nap a day, now, around noonish, and that lasts between 1-2 hours, usually more like an hour and a half, and sometimes as long as 2 1/2 hours.

I can only hope that Oliver is as good a sleeper. It'll be hard, at first, I'm sure, figuring out sleep routines for both boys, but then Oliver won't be ready for any kind of schedule for a few months yet. In the meantime, we'll try to keep as much of a sense of normalcy for Sebastian as we can, and I really think that having such a solid, well-established bedtime routine will help with that. So there you have it...bedtime at the Harman house, as of March 8, 2010. Who knows what tomorrow will bring. But for tonight, Sebastian is sleeping happily in his room, hopefully dreaming sweet dreams about slides and puddles and matchbox cars, and all those great little boy things. Sleep well, my sweet boy.

Wordless Wednesday: Stuff Animal Make-Out Session!

End of an Era

Sebastian no longer uses a pacifier. This is huge. He's had one since he was two weeks old, and has always been ridiculously attached to it. He's always been a very quick eater, and when he was tiny, that meant that he'd breastfeed until he was full and still want to suck. So he'd eat too much and then be miserable. Solution: introduce the pacifier. That way, he could eat until he was full and then stop. If he still wanted to suck, he could do that without making himself sick.

We started with soothie pacifiers, and he really liked them. The only problem was that he'd spit them out and the dogs would eat them. We went through at least a dozen until we had enough. Enter our savior: the Wubbanub. It's a soothie pacifier with a little stuffed toy attached to it, to keep the paci from flying even if it's spit out. It also gives little uncoordinated hands something bigger to grab onto and helps reduce the need for parents to constantly do "paci patrol." Seriously, I recommend these to everyone I know who has a baby. Best baby item we ever got, hands down.

Sebastian has the froggy one. We call it his Froggy Friend. He LOVES that thing. One of his first words was "bah," which is how he says "frog." For the first 18 months of his life, that thing has been his best friend. We bought several just in case so that we'd always have one available. He has a green one for daytime use, and a "nighttime frog" that is purple. Miss Purple Frog stays in his crib and is only available for naps. He puts her back in his crib when we leave his room, and then waves "bye bye" to her. It's adorable.

We were wondering how in the world we were ever going to break his addiction to his "bah." How could we take away his best friend? Would it be a disaster? Would he freak and throw tantrum after tantrum if we dared take it away? We figured there was no point even trying right now, with the new baby coming so soon and everything, and hoped that a natural situation for pacifier-weaning would present itself. And amazingly, it ended up doing just that, sooner than we had hoped, even.

About a week ago, Sebastian bit through the pacifier part of the green frog he's had since he as two weeks old. That's a pretty good run for something that has pretty much been used daily for a year and a half. We quickly took the frog from him and cut the tip off, so he wouldn't be able to choke on the flap of silicone hanging off of it. We gave the frog back to him, and told him that it was "broken," but that it was still ok. He put it in his mouth, and got a very concerned look on his face. Then he held it up to us and put his hands up, his way of saying "uh-oh." We told him that the pacifier was broken, but that the frog was still ok and he could still play with it. So he ran off with it and was fine. (At the time, he had two green frogs that were in rotation, but one of them was MIA since he hid it somewhere, so we didn't look for it and just went with the "broken" frog. He found the intact one a day or two later, but it was spirited away when he wasn't looking and he hasn't noticed...)

He still had Miss Purple Frog in his crib for naps and bedtime, of course, and that was fine with us. We figured getting rid of the nighttime frog would be much more of a disaster, since he uses it to comfort himself if he wakes at night. Well, a few nights ago, he was putting the pacifier of the purple frog into his mouth, clamping down with his teeth, and pulling. We warned him several times that he should stop, or he would break it. He kept right on doing it anyway, until he ripped the tip right off. So that frog, too, was cut for safety, and we had to tell him that he broke it, and that was just how things were. He did the same "uh-oh" thing, and kept pointing to the broken part, but really seemed to understand that he did it, and there was no going back.

We braced ourselves for a horrendous night of no nighttime frog. We had the back-up intact frog on a shelf in the laundry room, in case the situation got dire, but figured now was as good a time as any to try a frog-less night. Well, not frog-less, because he still got to take Miss Purple Frog to bed. But she wasn't her old self. Amazingly, the night went wonderfully. He woke up once around 2am, cried for a few minutes, and went back to sleep. Without a pacifier. We were flabbergasted. He even slept until like 6:30am, which is late for him. Subsequent nights have gone equally well, even with teething woes. He did wake up two nights ago and had trouble going back to sleep, but that wasn't frog-related.

So we're paci-free! Once in a while he still comes up to us, frog in hand, and points to the "broken" part, puts his hands up and says "Oooh" in a sad voice, as if to say, "Look, my frog is broken, but it's ok." Then he either happily trots off with it in his hand, or gives it to us for safe-keeping. I have no idea where the frog is right now. And we don't have to go on a frog-hunt when we leave the house anymore. He seems totally fine without it. He seems to be babbling more, now, too...go figure, without something in his mouth all the time.

It'll be interesting to see what happens if Oliver takes to the pacifier and there's one available again. We have a pair of Monkey Wubbanubs reserved for him. I'm hoping that Sebastian will be ok with the fact that the frogs are for him, and the monkeys are for his brother. Time will tell.

But for now, his froggy friend is just a toy. It's the end of an era, and somehow that's a bit bittersweet. It's yet another piece of evidence telling me that my baby is actually a little boy now. And that's as it should be. Good thing I'll have a new itty bitty before long, eh? One big boy and one baby. Sebastian is already living up to his title as big brother. What a good boy.

Wordless Wednesday: 37 Weeks (Full Term)!

ENT Appointment

We went to the ENT today with Sebastian to check out his potential restricted frenulum (tongue-tie) issue. Of course I was actually debating on not taking him after all, because (no joke) the day AFTER making the appointment, he started working N, T, and D into his babbling arsenal. Those are the very sounds I was worried about (and the ones that could be difficult with a tongue-tied kiddo). So I was kind of expecting the appointment to be a bit of a waste, but figured we might as well go anyway.

Yeah, so turns out he's totally fine. Frenulum isn't restricted, might be a bit short, but nothing that would need clipping (now or in the future). Sebastian did awesome at the appointment...he was VERY quiet and reserved. That isn't altogether out of character for him around new people/places, but was pretty strange nonetheless, since he's usually such a maniac when we're out and about. I guess the doctor's office freaked him out a bit. The PA and doc were both really nice, as was the receptionist, and were obviously all familiar with kids and tried to make him as comfortable as possible.

Sebastian let them look in his ears and his nose just fine, but shook his head when we asked him to open his mouth, show us his teeth, or show us his tongue. So in went the tongue depressor, and he was even ok with that for a bit. He only started crying a bit when the doc kept it in for a while longer to let Ken take a look, but then he stopped and Sebastian was fine. I didn't get a look because I was holding him, but I trust the doc's appraisal.

So it looks like Sebastian's late-ish talking isn't from any organic cause. Which is good, I guess. No, it is good. It means that he'll probably just get that "language explosion" everyone keeps talking about a bit later than some other kids. But I know it'll happen. He's already babbling SO much more (and trying out repeating words, too) in just the last week, it's pretty amazing. We'll keep working with him on making different sounds, repeating, etc. And he'll get it.

Maybe we should have just waited a while longer, but all in all I'm glad we went. At least now I don't have to worry about it anymore. Now we can move forward and let him do things at his own pace (ok, ok, I'll probably push a little harder than most people would, but hey, it's my job as his mother AND an SLP, right?). In any case, I'm like 80% sure he said "tee-gah" for "tiger" this evening (Ken heard it too!), and that's CRAZY progress compared to "a-bah" for everything. Baby steps, eh?

18 month pediatrician visit

We had Sebastian's 18 month ped visit yesterday, and it went great. He weighs 26 lb 13 oz, and is 33 1/2 inches tall. We asked about some turning in of his toes that he's had for ages, and the pediatrician did confirm that he has some tibial torsion going on, especially in his left leg/foot. It's nothing serious, and usually resolves itself without intervention. I had it, too, when I was a baby, and had casts on both legs when I was less than a year old to correct it. Apparently they don't do casts anymore (thank goodness), and it doesn't affect his walking/running/climbing like a manic, so they told us not to worry about it. But at least we knew we weren't crazy wondering about his feet pointing inward.

He's on track (or ahead) on all milestones, with the possible exception of expressive language. The pediatrician was not actually very concerned since he DOES have about a dozen words, and tons more signs, and his receptive language is fantastic. But after I told her about my concerns (having a limited repertoire of consonant/vowel sounds even in babbling, etc.), she said it wouldn't hurt to get his speech looked at. She admitted that some of what I was talking about was over her head, because she wasn't an SLP, but that if I was concerned, it might be good to get him checked out.

She gave me the number for Child Find in our area (early intervention in the school system where I work...), and said I could call them for an evaluation if I wanted to. She also said that taking him to an ENT would be another step to check into, because of the possible tongue-tie issue. She left it up to us what we were going to do.

We talked about it for a while, and decided to check into the tongue-tie possibility first. If it's a simple matter of him just needing his frenulum clipped for him to start using more varied sounds, it seems like a whole speech evaluation wouldn't make much sense anyway. The most they could do would be to confirm that they, too, had suspicious about tongue-tie, and refer us to an ENT. So we'll cross that bridge first, and go from there. If we need to, we can take him for a speech evaluation later, but I think I'd still like to wait a while and work with him on my own before we start that process.

We're really focusing on getting him to verbalize more rather than just sign, and there has already been a bit of a difference at least in his attempts...he picked up on the fact that we wanted him to verbalize instead of (or in addition to) signing, and he's doing it. But everything is still pretty much a variation of "bah," so not much different there. I really just wonder if he CAN'T get his tongue up to say T, D, N, etc.

Anyway, so I called an ENT that a friend recommended (she took her son to him for ear issues), and they had an appointment for this Tuesday! So we'll be taking him on Tuesday morning to go get checked out. I'm NOT looking forward to the appointment at all, mostly because it'll be a nightmare holding him down and prying his mouth open so they can get a look in there. I've been trying to get him to do it for months, but there's no hope. He'll sometimes open his mouth to say "ah" when I ask him to, but there's no way I can get a look under his tongue...gah.

We'll have them check his lingual frenulum (one under his tongue) as well as the upper one between his upper lip and gums, as it seems pretty short, too, and extends between his front teeth. I don't know that it is affecting anything, but worth checking it out, right? He doesn't really ever smile where you can see his teeth, so I wonder if he just can't retract his lips because of it. Who knows.

I really wonder what they'll say, and what they'll recommend we do (if anything). The receptionist said that for younger babies they will sometimes do the tongue-clip procedure (frectomy) in the office, but for older kiddos it has be done in the OR. That kind of scares me but I guess we'll see how it goes.

Sebastian Meets Refined Sugar

So Sebastian has been going a little stir-crazy being cooped up inside for like a week because of the snow. We go outside every day for at least SOME sort of walk, but we can't go to the playground or anything because it's like 3 feet under snow, and the roads still aren't great so we can't go anywhere else like the mall (not that I'd want to, with all the OTHER people trying to get their kids out, too...). So we've basically been in our house. And have taken a few trips to my parents' house. But the poor kid is going NUTS (and so are we...). We try to let him run around as much as we can, but it's just not the same as being outside or playing on the playground, kwim?

ANYWAY, so we took a looooong walk today to try to get some of his energy out, which sort of worked. He discovered puddles for the first time, really, and LOVED them. It was adorable and I wish I'd brought my camera just to catch the pure JOY on his face as he splashed around. Ahh well, next time. But of course after our long walk trudging through snow and slippery icy streets, I was feeling like crap (I'm still supposed to be "taking it easy"...yeah, right, with the week we've had!). So I had a few chocolate chip cookies and went upstairs to lie down for a little while and Ken played with Sebastian.

Now apparently at some point during the 30 minutes I was upstairs, the dogs somehow made some huge mess that Ken was cleaning up while Sebastian wandered around the living room. (Usually totally fine...it's toddler-proofed for the most part.) But neither of us realized that the plate of cookies I'd been munching on had been left on the table, with two pretty good-sized cookies still on it.

You can see where this is going. Sebastian very happily (and quietly) chowed down on TWO chocolate chip cookies. This is the kid who has probably had like 4 cookies in his life, and whose sugar intake is generally limited to fruit, water-with-a-little-juice-in-it, and the occasional graham cracker. Even the sugar in fruit makes him kind of hyper (and he's quite the firecracker as it is), so we definitely limit the refined stuff.

So afterward, he was a MANIAC. Like running around laughing his head off, positively cackling and grinning like a loon. Came tearing up the stairs to find me, jumped on the bed, and proceeded to try to dance on me while I tried to keep him from jumping TOO vigorously on his little brother. Even changing his diaper he was lying there on the changing table laughing hysterically and saying "HEE HEE!" It was hysterical. I've NEVER seen him so wound up. Makes me wish we had a video camera.

We ended up taking him to my parents' house so he'd have a new venue to run around for a while because he was SO spazzy and was trying to go up and down our million stairs at the speed of light....I was scared he'd hurt himself! My parents couldn't believe how hyper he was...we all just laughed and agreed that refined sugar was better in SMALL doses for our little Tasmanian devil!

Just had to share...no pics or anything (don't think they would have come out anyway, fast as he was moving!), but hopefully you can just IMAGINE little Sebastian running amok. It was a sight to behold...

Animal Sound Hilarity

It's the little things that Sebastian does, these days, that are often the most hilarious. Lately, he's into animal sounds. His favorites are "cock-a-doodle-doo" (which just sounds like "coo-cuh-coo-coo") and "moo." He's been doing "quack" for ages, but the others are more recent acquisitions.

But what is Sebastian's take on what dogs say? "Shh!" Hahahahahaha! The first time he did this I nearly fell off my chair. Of course our dogs are pretty quiet in general, and don't really bark like other dogs do. Sometimes they "Rrrrooo" when they see something outside or when Gandalf bugginig us for food, but not a lot of barking. So when the dogs do start making noise, we usually tell them to "shhh." Sebastian loves helping us order the dogs around, so he "shh"s too.

And apparently, this has generalized. When you ask him, "Sebastian, what does a dog say?" or "What does Gandalf say?" he puts his finger up by his lips and says "Shhh!" No matter how much we try to convince him that dogs say "woof," or "roo," he's not having it. I think he's doing it now just because it's funny, because after he says it, he breaks out into a huge grin and says, "ha ha ha!" He's such a goof. I'm glad he has such a fun sense of humor. I love this kid!

SnOMG!

So right now the east coast is getting pelted with snow. We have upwards of two feet of snow right now, and it's still coming down. The BLIZZARD OF 2010 OMG was not so benign for our little family, even though we totally weren't stressed beforehand, and just planned to hang out at home and enjoy being snowed in. Not so much.

It started with our power going out at 2am last night. Of course the baby monitor starts going nuts because there's no power, so we go and turn it off and crack Sebastian's door so we'll hear him if he wakes up. Go back to sleep. At 5, he wakes up, and still no power. We get up and he's annoyed because his morning routine generally consists of hanging out with Ken downstairs, eating a banana and some oatmeal, and watching Blue's Clues. Of course, that is not an option because a)we can't use the microwave to make the oatmeal, and b)we can't use the TV to watch anything. So we just had to keep telling him the TV was broken.

Meanwhile, it's dark and cold (at this point it was like 60 inside), and getting colder. Fast forward like 5 hours until 10 (though it was NOT fast by any means, in real time, because Sebastian was getting more and more bored and cold by the minute) and Sebastian went down for a nap. We called the power company and they were estimating 5pm for getting our power back. Umm, our house is getting colder by a degree or more an hour. It would have been like 40 degrees or below by 5pm. So we start trying to figure out if we can get out and go to my parents' house (about 2 miles away).

Walking isn't an option with a toddler and me being almost 35 weeks pregnant, and supposedly "taking it easy" to keep contractions to a minimum. Our van is not good in the snow, nor does it have four-wheel-drive. So my dad/hero gets his SUV dug out and comes to get us. But has to come a really back way because there are two huge trees down on the road on the main way to our house. We manage to get packed up and get back to their house (though barely...it was touch and go several times). When we left, our house was at 52 degrees.

We have coffee and some warm lunch, and things are looking up. Then we get a call like an hour after we get there that power is back (nearly 12 hours later). I guess we should have just stayed at home. But who knew, right, and we were worried about getting stranded in our freezing house. So my dad wanted to wait another hour or so to see if road crews would come take care of the trees. We did, and then packed up to go back home, because we didn't want to get stuck at my parents' house either (particularly because the dogs were still at our house).

The way we came was much more precarious so we went the main way, and there was even one MORE tree in the road. Crap. So we ended up walking the last half mile, through deep snow, carrying a toddler and three bags (we had packed in case we had to stay the night). My dad parked his car up on the street that was blocked by the tree and walked back with us, to help carry Sebastian. (Which was amazing, because there's no way I could have carried him, as hard as it was just to get myself (and Oliver) home as it was. Ken had the bags.)

We got home, exhausted, wet, but safe. Then my dad goes to walk back to his car, and realizes he doesn't have his keys. CRAP AGAIN! He somehow dropped them on the way from the car to our house. In two feet of snow. Ahh! So Ken and my dad go walk back to the car and try to look for them, but of course no luck. My mom ended up meeting my dad halfway between THEIR house and the car with the other set of keys, and then they walked back to the car together and drove it home. Gah! They've given up the keys for lost...Ken looked on his way back, too, but of course they're nowhere to be found.

What insanity, eh? Everyone is home, now, though, safe and warm. But what a DAY! I was so looking forward to just a chill day inside, waiting for our awesome vegetable stew to be ready in the crock pot, hanging out on the couch and watching the winter wonderland outside. But instead we got this. I am not amused, Mother Nature.

Anyway, just had to share....I hope everyone else getting snow has fared better than we did. I'll post pics later tonight when S is asleep and I can get some guaranteed uninterrupted computer time. Right now Sebastian is enjoying his second episode of Blue's Clues in a row and I don't feel the tiniest bit guilty. He deserves a break too.