Ode to Sebastien

I love posting my kids' quotes as my Facebook statuses, and I love posting pictures, even more now that I have a fun new iPod Touch to play with. But I often feel like these things showcase my girls a little more than my son.

And here's why.

First - Sebastien was not as verbal as early as Eden, therefore his language is not as sophisticated as hers. He is catching up quickly, but his brand of speaking doesn't lend to quick quotes for a Facebook status.

Second - The boy is on the move, and he is very hard to get a picture of. My camera is not very fancy, it's kind of slow. By the time it has finally processed my request to take a picture, he has moved on. I have lots of pictures of the side of his face.

Here are just a few things I want everyone to know about Sebastien. Sebastien is happy-go-lucky. He plays very well with his sister, he plays very well by himself. He likes to cuddle, he is not at all clingy. (Unless he's sick or something.) He is laid back, the opposite of intense. He has an enormous imagination and a great memory, which leads to lots of pretend play. He is very VERY funny, but it's difficult to translate his humor if it's not witnessed in person. Sebastien loves music; he pays very close attention and has for awhile now impressed us with his pitch. (Starting very early, we knew what he was singing, not by his articulation of his words, but by the tune.) He loves drums and tubas. (He will often hear a song and say "I hear the tuba!") He loves singing. He's a great dancer. Sebastien is a ham, but not a show off. He is tender-hearted and sensitive in a way that makes me want to scoop him up just hug him all day long. He loves his twin sister, and he likes to make his baby sister giggle. He is well rounded - he likes to dress up in hats and different shoes and he likes to throw balls high up in the air. He is great at identifying shapes and fitting them together. He loves playing with "little guys" of any sort.

He is a fantastic kid.

Writing this I find that I could go on about him all day long. But this is a start.

Honesty, Guilt and Eyeballs

I have a friend who blogs regularly, and I really enjoy reading this blog. She has vowed to always be honest, which makes her posts interesting, clever, and funny. I have often thought to myself, I should blog like that. But when the time comes, I just can't. I have no problem being totally honest about where I fall short, but I struggle when it comes to things that might be less than perfect about my kids. (By the way, I'm not saying that my friend's "honesty" means that she sits and gripes about her kids all day long. I'm just saying that she's honest about everything. And it got me thinking.)

Last week during a play date, I found myself saying something to my girlfriends about my wonderful son that was less than flattering. (I did so when he could not hear me.) It wasn't an awful thing to say, it just wasn't positive. I have been plagued with guilt ever since, wishing I could take it back and just not say it. I keep thinking... do they know him well enough to know the funny, creative, smart, charming and so lovable parts of him... those things that make my statement of the not-as-positive pale in comparison?

I know that my kids are not perfect, but when I voice the things that they do that proves that I know this, I feel so guilty. I mean, what's the point of saying anything but positive, glowing statements about small children?

But then again, part of me knows that if all moms only ever say positive things about their kids to other moms, then how guilty would we all feel when we inevitable notice or have to deal with the imperfections? Wouldn't we all then feel bad about ourselves as moms or worse, about our kids, when it happens that our kids aren't as perfect as our friends' kids sound?

I don't know. But here's another part of this. Last week Sebastien went to his pediatric ophthalmologist. Before he was two years old, we noticed that one of his eyes was slightly wandering, so we took him in. His eye doctor wanted to watch it for six months to see if he would be one of the 30% of kids who naturally grows out of this. We took him in last week for this follow up appointment, and he has not grown out of it. It has, in fact, gotten a little worse. And so now, for one hour a day, he has to wear an eye patch. He prefers the pirate variety to the sticky adhesive, "band aide" ones. Is he the most adorable pirate ever, you ask? Yes.

But this relates to this honesty and guilt issue in that I have been reluctant to post about this. Sebastien is not perfect. He has a wandering eye. This is not the end of the world, it is a minor issue that will likely be resolved by this little bit of patching. But for me, I have not wanted to write about it because of this tendency to only want to talk about the positive things, to only focus on the good and not acknowledge the imperfections, or at least not out loud and publicly. But it's ok that he has a wandering eye. It's not shameful, it's not his fault, it's not even about his character, so why this desire to hide it?

I honestly don't know why I have an issue with this. But there it is. Honestly.

Here's a cute picture of my girls, just for good measure. At some point I will also blog about my issue with feeling that everything needs to be balanced, even and fair, lest I feel even more guilt. But that's for another day.

I just have to show this off...

This photo is sideways, but find the "E" and you'll see Eden's attempt at writing her name. The "E" is clearly followed by a "D" and after that things get a little muddled. But come on, people, she's 2 1/2 years old and she did this unprompted and without help from anyone. I just thought she was coloring and suddenly she said, "I made my name!"

15 lbs 7 oz

Violet had her six month well child check last week. This went mostly well, she is developmentally on track and she is healthy. However, she weighed in at 15 lbs 7 oz. She has not doubled her birth weight, and her weight has dropped down a curve since her four month check. So we are going back in six weeks for a weight check.

This is a little crazy to me, because my darling Vi has such adorable little fat rolls on her legs and her cheeks are just as squishy as can be. Eden and Sebastien were born so little and I was always so worried about them gaining weight. It has not occurred to me to worry about Violet's weight.

Dr. Warmoth, our pediatrician who I actually like a lot, is not an alarmist. I appreciate this about him because as a mom, I do tend to worry. He explained that it very well could just be Violet falling into the percentile that she "genetically" is meant to be in. Some babies, he told me, are born heavier than they are genetically meant to be. He would not go down the road of "what else might be going on" because he's just not like that. He's calm and optimistic.

If Violet continues to drop in percentiles, the first step will be to supplement her feedings. Which is not a terrible thing. I had not intended to wean her until much closer to her first birthday, but of course, bottle feeding her, or supplementing is far from the worst thing in the world. In fact, I already supplement her last feeding of the day with some formula. So there is a part of me that wants to rush to that point and say, well, let's just supplement all feedings now! Let's fatten this baby up. But Dr. Warmoth did not want me to change anything at this point, so I will be patient and wait six weeks.