Bilingual in Toddler

Seb started speech therapy in May. He goes once a week for a 50-minute session with Miss Erin. At first I was worried it was too long for his age, but after a few visits he got the routine down and we don't even go into the room for his session anymore, we wait in the reception lobby! The doctors, speech therapists, and ENT all told us the tubes and speech therapy would make a big difference and I feel like Seb's making great progress. When he started he only had a handful of words, now he has so many words that Adam and I don't have any idea what he's telling us half the time, but he's talking and babbling and that's a good sign. We have become proficient in toddler speak.

Caca = Cracker

Seb uses this word ALL THE TIME. He also, loves crackers. He would happily eat nothing but if we let him. Caca can also mean cookie. But he doesn't get those as often, so I think it mostly means cracker.

Guk = Milk

I'm not sure about this one since I know he can say Mommy. I don't know why he doesn't/can't put the M in front.

Guk = Stuck

We have to judge the situation to know which word he's communicating.

Otter = Water

Melanie says this makes sense because W and T are harder letters. I'll trust the speech therapist on this one.

Opp = Help

Not to be confused with "up," which Seb can clearly say. This is another one where we have to determine based on the situation.

Gee Bee = Green Bean

He still eats them and loves them straight from the can. No heat necessary.

Ott = Hot

I have a feeling we're going to hear this a lot now that summer is here.

Dane Ew = Thank You

Sometimes he even sounds like he's saying it in German

Bubbas = Bubbles

He can also say Pop, but it's said in a grouping of 3: pop, pop, pop,

There are probably more, but these are the most frequently used. Seb has many words he can say just fine too. He's perfected Mommy and Daddy and even likes to point to us when he says it. Bye bye is more popular than hi, but he can say both. He knows More and Please (although it sounds more like Peas).  He can run through the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse roll call just fine. Bunny and Fish are words I hear every morning and evening when we arrive and leave daycare. He can say Grandma and Grandpa with prompting and has no issue with Kitty and Puppy. And when Seb's trying to stretch out bedtime, he's quite fond of Book or Ball.

I've done my best to get Seb trained with sports words. He can say Goal, Car (although he sounds slightly Australian) and Box. We're still working on race car.

We've been working on names too. I think it's going to take him awhile to get his own name down, but he says Luke (his daycare buddy) and tries to mimic most names when we say them and ask him to repeat them.

Right now we're working on getting him to use words instead of throwing a tantrum and using 2 or 3 words together. I think this one will take a little work because even if I try to get him to say: More Crackers Please, he pauses after each word. I'm also working on I Love You. It'll be interesting to see where Seb's language is at in 4 months.

Easter 2013

This time of year is birthday season in my family.  Between the end of March and the end of May, we'll celebrate six birthday's, mine included.  Every so often, a March or April birthday falls on/around Easter.  Last Sunday we celebrated two birthday's and Easter.

We started out with a family Easter basket in the morning.  Seb got a few bites of the chocolate bunny, but the candy was mostly for me and Adam.  :)  Sebastian had fun carting around the plastic eggs in his basket and at one point I even found two eggs in his play cooking pot.  The eggs are still out because he's having fun with them.  He likes to open them and attempt to put them back together, but doesn't quite have it down, so there are half pieces of Easter egg all over my living room and kitchen.

Adam and I each made dessert for Easter dinner and brought it to my parents for the festivities, but the real bonus of going over there is having lots of helpers to watch and play with Seb.  I was able to just get some fun shots of the decorations and I even dyed eggs.  My mom sent each one of the 'kids' home with a baggie filled with 5 different kinds of M&Ms and we each had a Jackson stuffed in an egg at our dinner setting.  I don't think you ever get too old for having fun like that at holiday's.  :)

Sebastian discovered dyed eggs.  We didn't do any at home because he's too young and knowing his obsession with drinking from cups right now, he'd probably try to drink the dye.  After I dyed the eggs he picked up one in each hand and threw them like they were balls.  They made a sad thud and he realized his 'ball' had cracked.  Being the curious 19-month old that he is, he then stuck his fingers in and explored.

The egg didn't stand a chance.  And he wasn't a fan of the yolk texture on his fingers.  In general he isn't a big fan of eggs, so I'm not surprised when he didn't even attempt to try and eat it.  Once he had yolk smashed on his fingers he held out his hands for us to wipe it off.  RIP pink egg.

Birthday pictures are in my real camera, probably never to be seen until I pull out pictures after Christmas or something, but my sister is on the ball and shared our group shot on photostream, so I at least have that.  Let's not talk about how many pictures we actually take to get one where everybody has their eyes open and we all look presentable.  It's especially tricky with a toddler and a dog, but I think we were pretty successful here.

Easter 2013

Go Kings Go!!!

I didn't discover hockey until I was about 13, and I didn't go to my first game until I was close to 20, but I was bound and determined to get Sebastian to his first Kings game this season (at the ripe ole age of 19 months).  He'd already met Bailey and sat next to the Stanley Cup so it was time to trek to downtown LA to actually experience a game.  Thank goodness I bought the tickets before we did our taxes, otherwise we wouldn't have gone, but that's a depressing story that I'd rather file away and forget about.

I couldn't let Seb go to the game without any Kings gear, but he outgrew the two onesies he had a long time ago so this was the perfect excuse to try my hand at freezer paper stenciling.  I  wanted to be super ambitious and do something on the back reading, "My first Kings game," but in the end, opted to go simple since it was my first attempt.  I actually think it turned out pretty good, not bad for a $3 shirt!

Sebastian's first NHL game was on Saturday, March 23, the LA Kings versus the Vancouver Canucks.  We got there about 15 minutes before the opening face off and I was on a mission to get to Team LA and get Seb a jersey.  I was just as determined to get him a jersey as I was to get him to a game this season and I was SOO disappointed when the smallest size I could find in Team LA was a kids small/medium - way too huge for my Little Man.  :(  I had almost given up when I remembered there's a kiosk on the 300 level!  Just my luck, there was no line, AND there was clearly a toddler sized jersey hanging on the wall.  I bought the last 2-4T jersey and I had to buy the one on display, but we got it!  Mission accomplished.  And now it should fit Seb for the next 3 seasons, so in an odd way, I feel justified in my purchase/quest.

Sebastian did amazing during the first period (some McDonald's french fries may have played a role).  He loved the light show before the game and sat nicely in our laps and just took everything in.  He was even wiggle free during the national anthems.  I purposely purchased aisle seats and the the guy on the other side of us looked like he came on his own, so it was as if we had 3 seats, which was a nice little bonus.

I was slightly disappointed that our seats were at the banner end of the rink and I couldn't get a clear shot of the championship banner, but that was the compromise to sit at the end where the Kings shoot twice.

The banner's up there somewhere...

During the first period we noticed Sebastian was watching the game on the jumbo-tron and not paying any attention to the action on the ice, which makes sense because we watch it on TV at home, so it was like there was a big giant TV to stare at.  I still have no clue if he ever noticed there was action on the ice.

After the first period we walked the halls and had a snack.  Most Kings home games start at 7:30 PM and Seb goes to bed between 8 and 8:30, so I wasn't too surprised when he was pretty much done with the game after the first period, even though this was an afternoon start.  His attention span was shot and he normally only watches the first period of the games with us at home.  For the remainder of the game we alternated between walking the hallways and standing in the tunnel at the entrance of our section.  At least it kept things interesting.  We made friends with our usher and Seb met two of the Ice Crew girls (he was very fascinated with their uniforms, figures).  He also flirted with a woman sitting in an aisle seat near our section's entrance.

Never noticed how many electrical outlets line
the hallways at Staples...until I walked them with Seb.

As for the game itself, well the Kings don't typically play too well when it's an early afternoon game, and this one was no different.  They had a few good chances in the first, with no success, and while we were entertaining Seb during the remainder of the game, I can only really recall one more really decent scoring opportunity in the third.  In the end, my Kings did NOT score a goal for Sebastian so there was no goal horn or I Love LA to be experienced.  Final score was 1 - nothing, Vancouver.

Now I'm looking forward to comparing this experience to future ones in the coming years.  Sebastian's even good to go for the next few years with his little jersey.  Maybe next year Seb will sit through 2 periods???  I'm certainly hoping my little guy will grow up loving hockey as much as I do.  Go Kings Go!  Oh, and I've decided that since his birthday is 8-14-11, his favorite Kings are Doughty, Williams, and Kopitar.  :)

Tubes

Sebastian had his first surgery on Wednesday, March 20.  Poor little guy had to have surgery to put tubes in his ears at 19 1/2 months.  He's had 5 ear infections since October and it seemed like he spent more time with a cold than healthy this winter/cold season.

I get my OWN TV screen?!  Bring on the Mickey & Jake!

Even for babies and toddlers, they make you fast prior to surgery, but the positive side is that we were the first operation of the day!  We had to check in at 6:15 and Seb wasn't too happy about the super early wake up call.  We checked into the outpatient surgery center, so it wasn't just kids.  There were a ton of nurses buzzing around getting all of the various patients prepped, and Sebastian was quite popular with them.  At one point we heard, "Shelly has a baby, don't take him back to the ER yet, keep him here!"  He had his own crib and the cutest little tiny hospital gown that was so huge on him it looked like he was wearing a dress.  There was even a little TV screen on an arm so he could watch cartoons while he was being prepped.  He got a little nervous, but I couldn't blame him, it's a lot to take in at 7am on an empty stomach.  He had a couple nurses, an anesthesiologist, and the surgeon all poking, prodding, and prepping him.

Why do they keep poking and prodding me?

Towards the very end he got an oral sedative.  He fought it for a little bit, but once it kicked in, he was a little drunken baby.  He was so happy and would laugh and laugh at any and everything.  He had the biggest wobbly smile for every single person he saw, and it made it a piece of cake when the nurse and anesthesiologist walked off with him to the OR.

Happy drugged up baby!

All in all, the prep took longer than the procedure.  After they escorted him back we went into the general waiting room.  We were there for about 17 minutes before the surgeon came back out to talk to us and tell us how things went and give us a post-op update.  Less than 25 minutes after they first walked back to the OR and we were with him as he woke up (very angry) from his procedure.  It's right on par with what the ENT told us.  Total time for the whole process is about 10 minutes and they're usually only under for about 5-6 minutes.  We tried to calm him down, dressed him and were home by 10:30.

It took Seb until dinner time to return to normal.  The anesthesia made him pretty grumpy all day.  He needed two really long naps and lots of cuddles.  At first he had an angry phase, then a clingy phase, and the whole time he was really, really sleepy.  Thankfully he didn't get sick from the anesthesia - just a little constipated.  We're dealing with ear drops right now and he hates them, but thankfully there are only a few more days to go.  It's too early to notice any real benefits, but for the most part he's been sleeping really good.  It seems like his balance is slightly improved and there's a LOT of babbling going on (he even said "i-pad" twice on Saturday night).  I'm really hoping he can finally hear clearly and the increased babbling will lead to talking.  We have a speech evaluation on Thursday, so we'll see what comes from that.  Words, buddy, Mama wants to hear you use your words!

I Spy

A couple weeks ago one of Seb's teachers caught him using a spoon at lunch so she snapped some pictures  to document it for me.  I realized I hadn't checked his camera in a long, long time, so it was time to take a peek!

I spy with my blue eyes...

At this age, daycare = lots of free play.  It looks like Seb makes good use of the room and all the various toys.  I'm not at all surprised to see he surrounded himself with yellow balls in the ball pit.

They do a winter developmental evaluation and one of the things noted on Seb's was that he loves to take all of the dollies and blankets out of the crib, climb in himself, play for a bit, climb out, and return all the dollies and blankets.  I wish the 'clean up' aspect applied at home.  But I love his methodical approach to this activity.

Most of the sensory activities involve edible items since it's inevitable that it will end up in somebodies mouth at some point.  It looks like we had perfect timing with his Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown shirt and this sensory activity.  It cracked me up to see pumpkin all over the other little boys face...and Seb's holding and playing with the spoon.  That's my future little chef!

Seb has a xylophone at home too and he's a pro at bang, bang, banging away on it.  We should teach him he can play music and sing at the same time.  Maybe it'll take the intensity of the banging down a level or two.  Hmm...on second thought, bang away all you want at school, I don't mind.  :)  We'll work on nice hands when you use the xylophone at home.

I've earned my new parent badge in sand play the hard way.  Now I know to check shoes, pockets and pant cuffs BEFORE we get home if they've been playing in the sand pit.  It also has to be brushed out of his hair too because, apparently, playing in the sand involves lots and lots of aerial acrobatics (the sand, not Seb).  I'm not sure which was worse, the sand from the pant cuff dumping into the car seat at the end of the day, or the excess sand in the shoes getting into the entry way carpet.  Luckily, it doesn't appear he has discovered he could eat sand if he so desired.

We noticed a trend in a lot of the pictures, Seb has a best friend!  I asked his teachers and they said he gets excited when she gets dropped off and one day they asked him if Sophia was his best friend and he nodded and said "yes."  I think it's so cute to see them in all the pictures together.  However...with his recent bad biting behavior, I really hope he's not biting her.  Sebastian, that's no way to treat your friends!

And here's yogurt-gate!  The conversation that inspired me to grab our camera and see what the little man has been up to.  Great job with the spoon!  I even love his little yogurt mustache.  :)

We filled out an intent form for next year.  At the end of the school year my little man will be moving from the infant room to the toddler room.  My sweet boy is growing up so fast!

18-months

Back to Work

After nearly 18 months, I rejoined the work force last month.  I'm pretty sure pigs were flying the day I returned to work.  That's a long time to be away and I'm sure people figured I was never going back.  Sebastian was born on August 14, 2011 and between my maternity leave and my tumor, surgery and recovery, I didn't go back until January 22, 2013. I still have numbness, but it doesn't hurt or seem to be getting any worse, and sitting at home wasn't helping me heal any faster, so it was time to go back.  Between adjusting to being a working mom and dealing with this brutal cold/flu season, I've been on blog hiatus.

My work days are long, 7:30-5:30 with every other Friday off.  I wake up at 5 and get myself ready.  When I'm just about done, Adam wakes up Seb and gets him ready while I make breakfast.  I feel like I hit the ground running the second the clock hits 5:30 each evening.  I pick up Seb, battle traffic, and head home for the sprint to the finish line.  Once home I've got to clean up the dishes and bottle from school, make and eat dinner, clean up dinner, do more dishes, give Seb a bath, and put him to bed.  I think I finally sit and take a deep breath around 8.  The adjustment hasn't been too bad, I'm just exhausted by the end of the day, but the plus of being back at work is a paycheck every two weeks.

Home away from home

Pay day!!!

So, in the precious moments that aren't spent with my nose to the grindstone, we have been creating memories and experiencing life with an imaginative, determined, curious, and stubborn 18-month old. 

Sebastian definitely takes after his mama in the sweet tooth department.  We discovered he LOVES Girl Scout cookies.  He acted like he was going to take a nice exploratory bite, and the next thing we know, he's practically eaten half the cookie in one bite.

Chocolate + Peanut Butter = More please!

We've begun to wear our parental creative thinking caps more often and found out the aquarium at Rainforest Cafe provides a great distraction in the middle of a potentially boring shopping trip.  Unfortunately it wasn't near meal time, so we didn't dine and enjoy the full experience, but plan to in the future now that we've got this trick up our sleeve.

Fishy friends

My future iron chef remains fascinated with all things kitchen.  He loves cooking and he is obsessed with the fridge.  He can be playing in the living room, but if he hears the fridge door open, he makes a beeline to the kitchen.  One of his favorite activities is removing all the condiments from the door, placing them inside the fridge, and then putting them back in the door.  He's gotten quite good with his refrigerator version of Tetris.

Bonus points for stacked cheese containers?

We've been working on learning to eat with a spoon.  It's hard to relinquish control knowing the impending mess, but, to our surprise, he picked it up pretty quickly.  The first night he got yogurt in his eye, but was determined to figure it out, and he did.  I was so proud! Tonight Seb used a fork at dinner and even successfully stabbed a few pieces of chicken.  Now I'm wondering when we should start introducing him to the concept of using a plate?  We're also slowly working on drinking from a cup.

The best source of entertainment has been the park.  Seb LOVES being outside.  His daycare was closed on Monday and it was raining but that didn't stop him from bringing me 3 of his sweatshirts to let me know he wanted to go play outside.  The playing in the sand and the swing are his favorite activities right now.  He doesn't quite get the concept of a slide and he gets this look on his face, somewhere between terrified and uncertainty.  Is it fun, or not?  The jury's still out on that one.

I recently picked up a Paint with Water book for Seb since I want him to have creative opportunities and activities at home but dread the clean up from finger painting.  I love his focus in this video and painting in the middle of the kitchen floor makes for easy clean up.

 Sebastian's latest fascination is with storage bins.  He can happily spend large amounts of time emptying and filling them with a treasured assortment of toys, before climbing in and playing.  I wish I could read his little mind to know what's going on in there.  I think he's got a puzzle piece, a horse, a train, a yellow cookie, and his xylophone in there with him. I love watching childhood imagination at work.

 Seb hit 18-months on Valentine's Day.  He's almost 23 pounds and 32 inches.  His favorite color is yellow, he loves to dance, loves the ABC song, and can point to his ears, nose, head, tummy and toes.  He loves bath time and is fascinated with watching the water swirl down the drain when we empty the tub.  He scarfs down yogurt, peaches, pears, turkey meatballs, goldfish crackers and teddy grahams.  He does not like pizza, cheese, or ice cream.  He's had 4 ear infections this winter and all 4 of his molars grew in at the same time.  Peek-a-boo remains a favorite game but hitting the red "End" button on my i-Phone comes in a close second.

The best Valentine I could ask for <3

Learning via You Tube

Growing up I wanted to learn how to crochet.  My mom had some books which, I thought, had pretty clear pictures showing simple steps.  Then I realized, and got angry, that the instructions assume you're right handed.  I'm a lefty.  A few years ago I bought a knitting book from the bargain bin and decided, since it involved 2 needles, it HAD to be more straightforward to knit left handed than crocheting. Ever tried to learn to knit and flip the pages of a book?  Notsomuch.  Enter, the virtual classroom of You Tube!  While I was marginally more successful with the knitting (meaning I did more than a big, long chain), I never really made anything.

One of the things I wanted to accomplish with my blog was to learn how to do more in Adobe Elements.  Namely, editing photos, making collages, and fun ways to share my pictures.  Elements has a 'create a photo collage' button, but either I'm not using it correctly (I blame my left handed brain), or it is so basic it doesn't do what I want it to do.  After searching You Tube a bit, I found a tutorial, and with the aid of the pause button, I followed along and made my own collage template!

Neumann Christmas 2012 (1 of 3 in 24-hours)

It could look a little better, and I'm sure it will the more I play around with it. But, it did everything I wanted it to.  I found out how to do a border on my images, and I was able to drop them into each box and resize them to fit into the box - which was key, because my organizational OCD had placed each photo box EXACTLY where I wanted it.  Thank you You Tube.  Now I'm going to try to make a collage for our other two Christmases.

Fun in Instagram

Back in November I posted about the November Thankful Challenge that I was going to participate in on Instagram (and I actually kept up with it).  The same blog that I found the challenge on just posted an awesome photo collage template (with instructions) for combining your Instagram photos.  So, here's 25 days from my month of thanks:

Day 1 - For chubby toddler feet peeking out from under the highchair.

Day 2 - For Friday night dinner dates with my little guy!

Day 3 - For the annual Turkey Trot 5K and being able to run it this year.

Day 4 - For orange roses growing in the garden.

Day 5 - For Sebastian's finger painting masterpieces.

Day 6 - For being American and the constitutional right to vote.

Day 7 - For a huge purse and things to keep me busy while I wait for my MRI.

Day 8 - For my boys checking out a rare rainy morning.

Day 9 - For the crisp air and clear sky following a rain storm that finally make it feel like fall in Southern CA.

Day 10 - For homemade pumpkin pie (and discovering Seb loves it).

Day 11 - For Sunday family dinners & Granny's who encourage 'helping hands.'

Day 12 - For the simple things that surround me every day.

Day 13 - For annual passes and Seb's first visit to Disneyland (even though he hated both rides we went on).

Day 14 - For warm pumpkin muffins topped with melted butter.

Day 15 - For the entertainment value of gigantic teddy bears at Costco!

Day 16 - For my brother and sister.

Day 17 - For my family and the opportunity to take new pictures since we've expanded in the last few years.

Day 18 - For 'barn soup' and childhood imagination at play.

Day 19 - For a fun purple manicure (and the time to do it)!

Day 20 - For holiday flavors at Starbucks and Adam having the day off!

Day 21 - For an indulgent lunch destination. Nom nom nom!

Day 22 - For homemade pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving and a house full of loved ones.

Day 23 - For Seb's fancy new sneaks from his Granny.  So proud my little man is now walking!

Day 25 - For good friends who live close enough to help when you're in no shape to run out for flu supplies.

Day 26 - For bubbles and tricycles.