Baby Blog

Back to school! This year, S is going to two schools – Charlestown Nursery School, our most favorite neighborhood place right down the block, and FUSE, a social skills focused program in Lexington. We started the month with a Back to School night at CNS for parents, a home visit from Nicole and Kelly (S’s CNS teachers this year), my first CNS board meeting as Assistant Treasurer, and a Meet the Teachers day at FUSE with Miss Emily and Miss Meghan (S’s FUSE teachers this year). Saturday morning soccer with Coach Zane started for Sebastien to mixed reviews. School started the week after Labor Day and it was a bit more of an adjustment than expected. While Sebastien clearly loves school, has tons of fun and comes out super happy, the nights and mornings before school have been a struggle. We were surprised because last year was so smooth – no anxiety about school or separating from us – but this is a bigger class, new teachers plus a whole new school two days a week. I’m happy to report a month later that, things have gotten much better, but most mornings unfortunately started in tears for awhile. Sebastien also started with a new OT named Linda and we ended our relationship with our ABA providers. We were sad to see Lindsay go, but it was definitely the right decision (and I wish we had done it sooner). Erica worked with Sebastien the first few weeks of school at CNS and he made great strides in peer and teacher interactions. Nick ran Reach the Beach, raising lots of money for a great cause, and did awesome. Ashlyn came up for a visit and we went to the Life is Good festival. We took the kids to the Saturday show and then Ash and I braved the potentially rainy weather for the Sunday night Amos Lee and Jack Johnson sets. (Both were awesome and it didn’t rain at all.) Archer and I started our Music Together class with Krissy. He seems to really like it, although does far less dancing than I expected! We went apple picking at Russell Orchards in Ipswich – rode the tractors, visited the animals, picked lots of apples and came home to turn them into apple crisp. Sebastien also requested a Touch a Truck day and we conveniently found one on the south shore and followed it up with burgers at Wahlburger in Hingham (the Wahlberg brothers’ restaurant).

Archer, you have had a rough go of it, my friend. Just when the last of the four molars was almost through, your canines started swelling. They still haven’t broken the surface, but I can’t believe you’re getting another set back to back and it truly feels like teething will never end. You are confidently saying “shoes” and “socks”, “toast,” “that” and proudly and emphatically doing “so big!” Right around the end of the month, you added “cookie” and are definitely nodding yes, especially to the question, “Do you want some milk?” You and Sebastien spend your evenings run run running around the dining room and absolutely cracking up while I call, “Be careful!” and “Watch out!” You’re starting to get pickier with eating although some of that might be due to teething (I hope). You dance whenever and wherever there is music, except apparently music class. One of my favorite times is before I put you down for a nap or bed. After you nurse, I pick you up and you immediately snuggle into my neck while I hum a lullaby for you. You give great hugs and snuggles especially to me and except for the moments where you wake up screaming, I actually really like sleeping snuggled up next to you.

Sebastien, for you, let’s play a round of “Sebastien says”:

Sebastien vs chicken:
(in which I deftly deflect questions between his bites of chicken)
S: Does real chicken have bones, mom?
Me: Yup.
S: Do real chickens eat THIS chicken?
Me: No, chickens don’t eat chicken. They eat things like corn and other grains.
…
S: Can I have some more pretend chicken? It tastes good.
Me: Sure. Umm, pretend chicken?
S: Yeah, the kind we’re eating.

Then the saga continues:
S: (about one of the pictures in Charlotte’s Web, which we are not yet reading) …but that’s silly! An animal can’t turn into bacon!
Me: …

The first time S heard A very clearly say a word:
A: Juice! Juice!
S: [shocked expression, gasp]
me: Sebastien, did you hear that?
S: Mommy, why did he say juice?
me: Because he wants a drink and he’s learning how to say words now.
S: … … Archer! Say army truck!

S: Today is NOT Friday. The days DON’T have names!

S: Can I see a picture of Archer when he was laying down in your belly?
Me: Umm, I don’t have any pictures like that, buddy. I can show you how big my belly was when Archer was inside…?
S: No thanks. Let’s look at a picture of a bumble bee instead.

S: Why is your house far away from some other places?
Gabi: Because my house is in one place and other places are in all different places. And they have to be in different places otherwise everything in the world would be in one place.
S: Yes.

S: What’s mather mean?
N: I don’t understand the word you’re asking about. Can you use it in a sentence?
S: Yes. Daddy, what does the word mather mean?

Me: Sebastien, why did you just bite Archer!?!
S: I don’t have any whys.

S: No daddy, don’t sing. You have a bad voice.

S: I don’t love you, mommy. I love the chick. [that hatched from the egg at preschool]

We get home from camp, I unbuckle S from his carseat and go around to get Archer. An older, grandmotherly type is walking by and S strikes up a conversation with her. I can hear them talking but not exactly what they’re saying as I get A out and collect all our camp gear. I come back around the other side of the car, and only then do I realize he is speaking to her in English and she is responding completely in Spanish. He sees me, stops mid-sentence and asks, “Mommy, why is this lady talking in all made up words?”

At preschool pick-up, Nicole pulls me aside and says that Sebastien was telling everyone he wanted to have a “Boring Meeting” to talk about ways to make the school better for the kids. She was completely confused and asked him several times what he meant… a boring meeting? Then she realized he meant a “Board Meeting”.

Kid, you crack me up every single day.