It’s all happening too fast! Sebastian is already a year and two months. And he’s big. But we’ve known for a long time that he’d be a big boy, like when you see a little puppy with unusually large paws. Sebastian has unusually large feet and hands. Do you know how hard it is to find extra-wide baby shoes? In Spain?!

Laundry Day

Here are a few “what’s new” kinda things you can share with your friends:

• Sebastian started walking by nine months and hasn’t slowed down since. He can now run fairly quickly and, after getting bored with horizontal motion, has moved on to climbing. He enjoys climbing up to beds, the couch, Emily’s chairs, stairs of every shape and size, and even the step stool in the bathroom. Getting down is usually a trivial task, but not 100% of the time. Sebastian is definitely out-pacing Emily in the bumps and bruises department.
• Manual dexterity has seen a marked boon lo these past few months. Instead of simply hurling his building blocks across the room as was par for the course, Sebastian now occasionally opts to build towers with them. Sometimes reaching as high as five or six stories. He also seems to understand that the trains go on the tracks and that the shapes go in the box. He still puts everything in his mouth, though.
• I’m ashamed to admit that, as physically adept as our boy is, he has yet to utter his first real word. I’m not counting all the noises that might sound like mummy, daddy, yeah, and uh-oh. He has yet to prove to me that he’s got a firm grasp on their meaning. The clock is ticking on this one.
• He may not be speaking, but Sebastian is finally starting to understand what the heck we’re talking about. For example, he’ll usually oblige if I ask him to hold my hand. We can finally start teaching him tricks!!
• Trick #1: jump. This one started a couple of weeks ago. Sebastian loves jumping. He just doesn’t actually leave the ground yet. But if you ask him to jump, he’ll give you a huge smile, bend his knees, hold that position for just a little too long, and then quickly straighten his legs and back. And then he’ll laugh. Jumping is fun.
• Trick #2: spin. This one only started yesterday. If you ask him to spin, he’ll give you a huge smile, lower his chin to his chest, and then meticulously spin round and round until he eventually either falls down or bumps into something. And then he’ll laugh.
• Sebastian can eat any type of food he likes; we’re finished worrying about these silly childhood food allergies. He will happily eat eggs, milk, peanut butter, fish, bread, and soy – all without swelling up or changing color in the slightest.
• He’s not sleeping all the way through the night yet, but we’re almost there. Sebastian now only wakes up once, maybe twice during the night. I can usually rock him back to sleep but, if he decides that he’s hungry, there is nothing that will stand between him and his mummy.
• He’s such a nice guy.