Almost 6 months!

It is hard to believe how quickly time goes by!  Although, if you had asked us during the first few months, we would have probably said otherwise.  Sebastian is nearly six months old and what a big boy he has become.  He is so interactive, so vocal and he continues to be so, so happy.  He still doesn't sleep through the night but we have decided that this fact is a small price to pay for such a wonderful little guy.

Sebastian's eatting is somewhat improved.  He is starting to actually swallow carrots.  I broke down and bought a few jars of food to see what the difference was between the store-bought baby food and the purees I was making.  It all comes down to texture.  Sebastian started taking the jarred foods and then we decided to gradually bring the homemade foods back in.  So far so good!  On to peas in a few days.

Daddy has only two rotations left of medical school!  Which means that he has only 8 more weeks to go.  We submitted our Match List on Wednesday so now the great wait begins.  Fingers crossed everyone...  We have a lot of great choices on the list so we are excited to see what happens.

Great-grandparents, Bubie and Zadie Waltman, and great-uncle Laurence came to visit this past week.  We had a lovely visit and Sebastian was, as always, all smiles.

Biting Dad's nose

Spending time with Daddy... best part of the day!

"Daddy is my hero!"

Sitting up

Jeez!  Turtlenecks give double chins

Giggle fest with Mom

There is a lamp growing out of my head!

Tummy time

Sebastian the pirate with Sophie

Brotherly love

Fred put himself in jail

With Bubie Waltman

With Laurence and Bubie

Hanging out with great-grandpa

Mommy and baby, together again

Just the three of us

And so it continues...

I have been an absentee blogger lately.  There really isn't a good reason other than the fact that we haven't taken many pictures lately.  Even though there isn't wonderful photographic documentation, much has happened in the world of Sebastian.

Over the past eight days, Sebastian has learned to roll from his back to his tummy.  The unfortunate thing about this milestone is that it meant we had to do away with the swaddle.  We tried a night of swaddling him with his arms out which was a horrific disaster.  He, literally, screamed on and off for eight hours.  Matt and I decided it was the worst night we have EVER had with him.  At 4am, we gave up and decided to let him sleep on me.  Needless to say, I barely slept that night and Matt and I both felt just awful.  After spending the next day consuming ridiculous amounts of caffeine, Matt and I decided we were never going to replicate that scenario.  So, we did the unthinkable (at least for our generation).  We unswaddled Sebastian and put him to sleep on his stomach.  Gasp... all our fellow parents probably are reading this disapprovingly (again, or at least those from our generation).  But guess what, he can roll over if he needs to and he is sleeping.  So, we are doing it.

Now on to the food...  I was SO excited to introduce sweet potatoes.  I had been told to introduce orange tuberesque foods first.  I steamed the 'taters, pureed the 'taters, and presented them to baby with the greatest of excitement.  He made gagging sounds and looked like he would vomit.  'Taters are now frozen for a few weeks at which point they will be revisited.  Mommy is sad that baby hates her cooking.  We tried bananas next.  Sebastian wouldn't eat them plain so we have smashed them up and added them to his oatmeal which has been successful.  I need to introduce a new food but I am envisioning another gagging face.

We did have one glorious day of sunshine last Friday.  Sebs and I enjoyed a lovely walk around Harvard Square with Erica and Echo.  Sebastian has been spending much more time in his Ergo carrier lately and he has been digging it.  If only we could have a few more nice days!  I also took baby to Isis parenting to get weighed.  As of Friday, he was 16 lbs 11.5 oz.  What a big boy!

Only a few new pictures, unfortunately.  However, these few are pretty good!

Ah... and did I forget to mention, Sebastian took runner up in a Valentine's baby photo contest.  I submitted one of the pictures of him on the red blanket.  He won a gift certificate and a free cloth diaper cover.  Can someone say model career?

I was excited about the sweet potatoes... But someone else wasn't

Moments before failure

Fred heard this blanket was for models

Saucy baby

Crazy baby

Valentine's fun and games

Sebastian had a Valentine's play date with his friend Georgia.  We managed to snap several great pictures despite many challenges (i.e., Georgia was crawling all over and grabbing at our cameras and Sebastian would topple over whenever I wasn't looking).  However, due to privacy concerns, pictures of Georgia will not be posted.  If you want to see pictures of her, talk to her dad... he has a shotgun.  And Sebastian received his first Valentine!  Georgia is into younger men.  :)

Showing off his new sitting skills

And when we got home, we decided to try to snap a cute Valentine's picture for the Diaper Lab Valentine's contest.  I saved Sebastian's red diaper for today but he had it on for no more than 2 minutes and he pooped!  So, we didn't get the picture we wanted but some are okay.  Maybe we will win a prize anyway.

At his happiest

Happy Valentine's Day

A very Happy Valentine's Day to all of the love birds out there.  Sebastian sends his best... many slobbers, giggles, hair-pulls, and squeezes.  We were considering dressing him up as Cupid but we couldn't find wings and we thought a bow and arrow seemed dangerous.  Check back here throughout the day as I plan on posting new pictures as I take them.  Sebastian is currently asleep so I will be avoiding flash photography for the moment.

We had a lovely weekend.  We were able to catch up with Walid, Zoe, and Sienna on Saturday.  Sienna gave us a preview of what we have to look forward to in about a year.  She managed to take every book off of the shelf, put every pillow on the floor, and spit out all of the food I made.  We thought it was pretty funny but there is a chance that it might be less humorous if it is a daily occurrence.  Best of all, we had a chance to see Walid's "serious face."  He was telling Sienna that she needed to eat her food and not throw it on the ground.  Personally, I would have called his bluff from a mile away.  Sienna is going to own him in about 2 years. 

Sebastian has become very Skype savvy as of late.  He had a Skype date with The Poobah and Nana on Sunday, a Skype date with the Kaisers and DeLisles Sunday evening and a Skype date with great-Bubie and Zadie this morning.  Uncle Mark is by far Sebastian's most frequent Skype playmate though.  It is wonderful that we can actually see everyone!

Leave us a note and let us know what you are up to for Valentine's Day.  Thanks to Matt's computer skills, we have now loosened the restrictions on commenting on the blog.  I wasn't aware that people were having difficulty commenting.  Hopefully, no one should have an issue now.

Princess Sienna

Zoe and Walid with Sebasitan

Moments before Sebs found my ponytail

Sienna wears the pants for sure

Sebastian kissing Rody

Practicing sitting in the boppy

New love: Mom's cellphone

New toy: Mom's water glass

Ignore the double chin please

Licking the rim thoroughly

Happy birthday Grand Poobah!

Today is Sebastian's Grand Poobah's (aka, Grandpa Howard's) 64th birthday!  Sebastian wanted to wish his grandfather a very happy birthday so we decided to make a sign.  Unfortunately, Sebastian then decided he was hungry so he ate the sign.  Photo montage below...  At some point during the photo session, he also decided to poop.  I think I can tell by the facial expression where the pooping happened!  Ha ha... Happy birthday Dad!  We wish we were there to celebrate.

Poop face

"Ha ha... I am sitting in something warm."

"Does it smell in here?"

"It wasn't me!"

And a few more random pictures from around the house over the past few days...