Wordless Wednesday: Mush!

Our Smart Boy

Sebastian has always loved blocks. But up until recently, he has mostly just gnawed on them. Then, a few weeks ago, he started actually playing with the shape-sorter like it's supposed to be played with! (It's actually mine from when I was a kid!) He opens the lid, gets out a block, closes the lid, and then works until he puts the block through the right hole. Then he opens the lid and starts again. He will do this 20+ times in a row.

Right now he's just proficient at the square and round holes, but the other ones will come in time. We actually have some blocks from a different shape sorter in with the orginial ones, so there are two slightly-different-sized square blocks. The green one goes in a bit easier, since it's smaller, but usually after a while of putting that one in the hole, he'll get bored and go for the bigger (and trickier) yellow square one. Way to challenge yourself, kid!

The green square actually fits through the round hole, too, if he gets it just right, as you can see in the following video:


We're just so amazed that not only is he walking, starting to say some meaningful words (we think), and definitely understanding us more (simple directions, labels, names, etc.), he's showing off his intelligence in just his play skills! SO cool! How did my little tiny baby get so big and smart all of a sudden?

Wordless Wednesday: Ironic?

(might have to click on the pic to read his shirt...)

The Walking Wonder

It hasn't even been two weeks, and Sebastian can now walk across an entire room, step over obstacles, and change direction! O.o In this video, he walks over to Daddy and then changes his mind and heads for the door instead. He plays with the door for a while, then comes back.

I can't believe how quickly he went from taking a few wobbly steps and lunging at stuff to really balancing and steadying himself to stay up and move places. He seems to want to walk more than he wants to crawl these days, and generally tries walking first, sometimes falls down, then crawls. Even when he's next to something he could use to cruise, he sometimes just lets go and walks. Ack, where did my baby go?!

(PS: He really does walk back to Daddy eventually....gets distracted by the door for a while but stay with him, he'll do it!)

Poor fiends...

Well, it's official. The baby is getting the dogs into trouble. Sebastian has started handing stuff off, and thinks it's loads of fun to give us things and pass them back and forth. He also, apparently, thinks it's fun to do the same thing (or attempt to!) with the dogs.

Thing is, though, the dogs are not allowed to have anything to do with Sebastian's toys, lest the kid only have bits of mangled plastic and decapitated stuffed animals to play with. The dogs get in big trouble if they put any part of a baby toy in their mouths, complete with stern voices saying, "Dognamehere, LEAVE IT." Usually, Gandalf is the perpetrator. Ella is far too crafty to take any toys while we're anywhere nearby, and does it under cover of darkness or while we're otherwise occupied. Far too many Little People have already met their gnarly end in a dog's chompers, so we try to be really diligent about enforcing this rule.

Gandalf has a particular love for Sebastian's froggy friend pacifier. It's actually pretty cute, becuase he does not ever try to actually destroy it, rather will carry it around and put it next to him while he sleeps, cherishing it, if you will. Still, though, eww. The dog does not need to be lovin' on the baby's stuff with his drooly dog-mouth.

So imagine Gandalf's joy when Sebastian started willingly handing his froggy friend over! Sebastian sees Gandalf lying or sitting somewhere, or even just passing by, and pops the frog out of his mouth and passes it right over to Gandalf's waiting mouth. Then Gandalf gets in trouble for taking it. Poor fiend!

We think it's kind of hilarious, though, how Sebastian seems to totally anthropomorphize (yes, I totally used that word in my blog...I am a geek, after all!) the dogs. He tries to put toys/books/what-have-you in their "hands" while they're sleeping. He tried several times (with all four paws, in turn) to give Ella a toy once, finally giving up and putting it in her mouth instead. At which point the poor pup took it and promptly got reprimanded.

We try to tell Sebastian not to give his toys to the animals. But they are part of the family too, I guess, and in his mind, no different from us. I don't know if the animals should take that as a compliment, or if we human family members should be insulted. Hmm...

Wordless Wednesday: Giddy-Yap!