One Year Old And Then Some

Sebastian arrives to his party

Well, here we are, it's the end of July and our sweet son is already more than 13 months old. I am only just now getting around to writing this post about him turning one, and his birthday, and how wonderful it was.  I am falling behind on this blog but I do want to keep it up, as a sort of virtual memory book of Sebastian's growing up. I know he'll read this one day and wonder why it took me so long and I can only say, "son, I was too busy being in the moment with you to write about it. Now put your space suit on and get me an astronaut ice cream."

As a display, I made a clothesline of the clothes he wore this year that were especially dear to us. You can see how massively he grew since taking him home a year ago.

His birthday was so wonderful.  We had so many visitors who came specifically for the occasion, it just made our hearts sing. Gabriella arrived first (she is now officially called Go-Go), followed by Christina, Aunt Maria, and Uncle Don. Then Uncle Daniel, Aunt Shannon, Isabella, Nathaniel, Gabriel, and Sophia arrived, and soon after, Grandpa Warren.  We had a picnic party at a park in Glendale called Mayors' Bicentennial Park and it was perfect: we practically had the park to ourselves, and the weather was just right. I think there were around 50 guests altogether: our friends, friends of my parents, and new friends from the playgroup, all there to help us celebrate and mark what a beautiful year it has been with this new soul in the world.  It was just a beautiful, perfect, stress-free day and I will always hold it in my heart, just like I do that first day he arrived with his arms outstretched and his dark eyes solemnly regarding his new world.

The cakes, OH THE CAKES! Sebastian had a vegan banana cake. The other two were fresh lemon and chocolate icebox from Lark Bakery. I will always remember their deliciousness.

Here is a link to more pictures from the birthday party. Hey, by the way, were you at this party? Please send me your pictures! I didn't get to take a ton since I was busy wrangling the birthday boy, so any extra pics would be appreciated.

CAKEYFACE

Our sweet family

Here is a link to more pictures from the month of June 2011.

His triumphant first walk in the park!

Here is a link to pictures from July 2011. You will see that he is walking. He started fully walking on June 29th.  He went from just trying out a few steps at a time for a month to just, on that day, starting and never stopping. It was such a Sound My Barbaric Yawp Over The Rooftops Of The World moment.  He is SO thrilled about it. He just walks around with a huge silly grin on his face and his arms up in a vampire pose that is hilarious. He is talking up a STORM and already has about 35 words in his vocabulary. He is also getting EIGHT TEETH at the same time, which is obviously not fun, but he's dealing with it much better than I think I would. 

Since I started trying to write this post (that I need to just finish and put up or it will go on and on), we've had a lovely visit from his grandparents (Grandpa and Gramsie).  He had a wonderful week with them and already miss them very much. There is more, there is so much more, and one day I will write it all down. For now, there's this. Baby steps.

April and May

Oh man, I am so behind on posting it's not even funny. Sebastian got sick again at the end of April and that culminated in another double ear infection which means we essentially fell off the planet for the last month. He's just getting back to himself now.

 

At Mayor's Bicentennial Park, where we will have his birthday party

 

  

These photos were taken at Descanso Gardens

More pics from April in the April Gallery.
 

 11 month birthday

 

Disneyland!

 

I had the incredible pleasure and honor of acting with my son in a movie last week. It's called Holiday Road and will be released this fall. It was such an amazing experience to be with him and have him near me while doing my job. I loved it so much. He was awesomely patient and funny and everyone was impressed with his calmness on set.

More pics from May in the May Gallery.

Yesterday, which was Memorial Day, we were at a park with Ashley and Joel. Ashley was holding Sebastian and she said "go walk to mama" and he did. He walked about six or seven steps into my arms.  It was very unexpected and utterly wonderful.  It will probably be a while before he is really walking but this was an amazing first time, and I'm glad we were all there to experience it together.

And in only five days, my son will be one year old. I don't...I can't...I...I will post more soon.

10 Months Old

My boy is 10 months old.  He's weighing over 26 lbs.  He's a huge, huge child.  Everyone who sees him guesses at least a year and a half, then their eyes bulge when I tell them his age.  He's happy and healthy and fun and sweet and inquisitive and placid and gentle. He studies people very intensely and seems very serious around newcomers, but not fearful.  He is an observer.  He crawls very quickly and easily pulls up to standing and gets back down with ease (well, relatively...we've had two bloody lips in the last 48 hours from falls).  He insists on putting himself to sleep, which is puzzling, but I guess good? He refuses to be rocked, instead opting for rolling around in the crib and talking himself to sleep (BAB WAB BAB WAB BLAB BAB WAB!).  His stomach is clearly doing better and it's making him a happier and more engaged child every day.

I have added to the March gallery with more pictures.  April gallery to come soon.

My aunt saw this picture and saw a bit of my grandmother in him.  I see it, too.

MAGICAL

The last week has been just magical. Since he's been well, Sebastian has been having a grand ole' time. Crawling, jabbering, laughing, SLEEPING, the works! He's just happy, happy, happy.  It's really, really wonderful.  His nine month stats: 24 lbs, 3 ozs (yowza), 30 inches tall. 

We had a fun weekend and took him to the zoo where he started to really notice the animals for the first time:

More pics at the March gallery, which will be added as we go along.

I just want to say that I LOVE the comments that you, our family, leave here. I don't always have a ton of time to respond but I am definitely listening and appreciating and taking stuff to heart.  Thank you!

January and February 2011

From the way I've been not blogging about Sebastian, you'd think I didn't care or something.  Well folks, it ain't that at all.  He has been sick, poor thing, in some form or another, since before Christmas.  That's 11 weeks ago.  It started before our trip home to Albuquerque that he got a cold.  That percolated for a while, he got another cold on top of that one, and that developed into bronchiolitis and a double ear infection in January.  He was on an inhaler and had to have nebulizer treatments at the doctor.  Then he managed to get himself a third cold at the beginning of February, and we all said, "well surely this is the end now." BUT WE WERE WRONG, because after a trip to Albuquerque, he managed to get himself a FOURTH cold, which complicated into another bout of bronchiolitis and a new ear infection.  Then he became sick from all the antibiotics and had a really bad reaction including full-body hives, abdominal pain, and general very upsetness. ARE WE HAVING FUN YET?

What I am trying to say is that we've been busy. :) He still manages to be this sweet and cute and adorable through it all. 

Here are more awesome pictures from January and February.

I am sharing this so that some day I can look back on this time and laugh and say, "Hooooooey! Remember when we didn't get a decent night of sleep for eleven weeks straight? Wasn't THAT a kicker?" I'm saying eleven because it is stopping at eleven.  There will be no twelve, so help me.

Hey, future self: it gets totally awesomely better, right? I knew it. 

He will be nine months old in two days.  He is army crawling like a champ but hasn't quite mastered it with the belly off the floor.  Any day now, I'm sure of it.  He's trying to pull up on everything but doesn't quite have it all together yet.  I think it is because he is HUGE.  He is wearing 18 month clothing.  It's kind of heartbreaking and beautiful.  He has just sailed past several clothing sizes.  I'll post stats when I get them on Monday.

December

Wowza, am I ever behind on this blog. It has been quite a month. Trying to catch up. Here are pics from Sebastian's first Christmas. It was magical and beautiful, even though he did manage to catch his first cold just hours before leaving for Albuquerque. He has been sick a whole month since then! It is finally starting to get a bit better but wow, what a tough time it has been!

Here is a gallery of pics from December.

Here he is on Christmas morning:

And here he is at his baptism at Aquinas Newman Center with his very loving godparents: 

It was a truly beautiful and intimate service and he did really well.  I felt so happy to be able to have such love and light surrounding him.

He's awake, got to go.  More very soon!

Pics from November

Happy Holidays!  I wish I had more time to blog here, because there is so much to report.  Sebastian is 6 MONTHS OLD!! What??  His 6 month checkup revealed he is 28 inches (94th percentile for height).  Doctor Henry loosely predicted he could be about 6'1" some day.  WOW! 

Here he is meeting Santa. 

Pics from November can be found here:

http://gallery.me.com/theendlessband/100714

I hopefully will find some time to post more wonderfulness soon.  We are so looking forward to this Christmas with our little one.  It's hard to fathom but it's already here.