Baby Blog

January and February were rough months over here. We all (except Blake) had the flu. We had snow, more snow and a blizzard on top of that. There was missed school and cancelled school and many days spent stuck in the house. We watched so many movies that, “Hey kids! Let’s make popcorn and watch a movie!” wasn’t even exciting anymore. Archer decided he didn’t really like the snow after all (which was fair, given that it was over the poor kid’s head) and I decided it was really hard to bring three kids to and from preschool when you can’t even get the stroller (literally) out of the house. Sebastien was maybe the lone family member who couldn’t get enough and thought we were all crazy when we started counting down to spring. Arizona was the bright spot in two months of sickness and weather and we thoroughly soaked up every minute of sun and warmth while we could. We hoped to come back to a big thaw, but instead, came back to ANOTHER foot of snow. Ah well, spring has to eventually come in March (or April?) right?

Sebastien, you celebrated your 5th birthday with an ice skating party at the rink in the North End. You invited your friends from the Investigators class and had such a blast skating with them. (Archer came down with the flu the day before your party, so he and dad and Blake stayed home, but I’m not sure you really noticed once your friends arrived.) When asked, you claim your favorite gift was a “roomerang” (an indoor boomerang) but you got lots of other great stuff that you love too – costumes and a hockey jersey and gloves and tons of lego sets (which definitely helped us get through all the snow days). Speaking of legos, you’ve really come along way with them and can basically do the sets on your own now. You still like to have a grown-up give confirmation and “great job!”s along the way, but you will mostly stay focused on them independently, sometimes for hours at a time. We also took our first of many trips to Legoland with the passes you got from Ra and Papa for Christmas. It’s a fun place to have right around the corner. Kid, you still ask a lot of questions. And you have a lot of funny quotes. Some of the highlights recently:

Sebastien: I saw it on a comm-er-shun-al.
Mom: It’s actually pronounced commercial.
Sebastien: No. Only grown-ups say commercial. Kids say comm-er-shun-al.
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Lisa Sutich: Leo has a case of the sillies today.
Sebastien (deadpan): I have a case of the serious.
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Sebastien: Mom! I can’t find my hockey new jersey!
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Sebastien: I’ll teach Blakey words like “leaf” and “Netflix.”
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Sebastien: Do you remember that time Ashlyn made me litter and told me not to tell you?
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Sebastien: Do you know if I said, “Parrot,” to a parrot, it would say, “Parrot?” … How come parrots can talk but elephants can’t?

Archer, you are really speaking in full sentences now with lots of spontaneous speech. I love this stage of getting to know what’s going on in your head. You tell us a lot about monsters and scary things, but “Thriller” is one of your favorite videos. (And it is so scary that even Sebastien leaves the room when you want to watch it.) You love to play the matching game where I lay out all of the Grinch or “I Never Forget a Face” cards on the floor and you have to find the pairs. You loved the pool in Arizona and riding a horse for the first time – you had a little shy smile the whole time like you were so proud of yourself – and the petting zoo. Oh man, you could not get enough of the petting zoo. You are iPad obsessed and whenever you are too quiet, I can usually find you hidden in a corner with a device of some sort. When you get to watch TV (and there has been a lot of that this long, cold winter, I will admit), you like to watch Paw Patrol or Peg + Cat or Peabody and Sherman. You have decided to scale back your hummus eating and exist primarily on lunches of “ham and” sandwich. (That would be ham and cheese, in case you don’t speak Archer.) You still love to book browse, sometimes choosing that over having someone actually read you a book at bedtime. You’ve started pointing out words in books and guessing what they say. You love to play instruments (loudly) and with any kind of little guys or animals and “play lego trucks!” (which means you put little lego guys in all of Sebastien’s lego creations and then inevitably drop them on the floor, smashing them to pieces). If we prompt you to say goodbye to a friend, you usually say, “Goodbye! I love you!” And I’m pretty sure your preschool class had to instill an “ask before you hug” policy all because of you.

Blake, you continue to be an easy and happy babe. You mastered rolling back to front in early January and rolled the first time front to back at the end of January (but maybe only accidentally). The funny thing about front to back is that you can definitely do it when you’re asleep or half asleep – I’ve seen it on the monitor! – but cannot for the life of you seem to do it when you’re awake. So when put down on the ground, you immediately roll onto your belly, stay there for a little while and then get mad because you can’t get yourself onto your back or propel yourself forward. You’ve had some ongoing blocked tear duct issues – it keeps getting infected and reinfected – so (spoiler alert) stay tuned for an upcoming procedure in March. After Arizona, you settled into a great 2-3-4 nap schedule, taking your first nap around 9-10:30am, when the boys are in school, and your second nap around 1-3pm, when Archer is also sleeping. You go to bed around 7pm and sleep until around 7am, with one or two wake-ups to eat. You did have a few off weeks of sleep which we attributed to either a late 4 month sleep regression or unknown sickness or teething, where you’d be up for an hour or two in the middle of the night. (We were all very tired.) But you settled back into your routine after that and you’re great at going down “sleepy but awake” and putting yourself to sleep. We started you on solid foods right after Arizona and you can’t get enough. You’re mostly just tasting and playing at this point, rather than swallowing a whole lot, but don’t let anyone eat in front of you without sharing or you are NOT happy! Big hits so far have been apples, cucumbers and watermelon.