as seb plays in his jumpy seat in the doorway, he seems fairly normal, his usual playful self, waving “hello” to me every once in a while. he has procured an old cell phone from his daddy for a toy, and i just saw him trying to shove a marker into his ear canal. that’s probably not a safe activity for him to be doing as he jumps and jumps and jumps. are markers not toys? are cell phones not toys? other things that seb likes to play with that probably aren’t toys: remote control, daddy’s shoes, electric cords, cup of hot liquid, forks, knives….okay, i jest. we really don’t let him play with that stuff, but he’d like us to. he’s learning what “NO!” means very quickly, responding with his own version of the word which can only be described as a sort of bucking action while wailing at the top of his lungs. i can only imagine what he will be like when he is two years old. *gulp*

i can’t believe it, but this news has been put off until the 2nd paragraph! seb is finally mobile at 10 months. i say finally because i never thought it would happen. as a mother, i did sooooo want him to be advanced and start crawling at 4 mos of age. i know i already have THE cutest baby, but is it wrong for me to also want the smartest? however, now i have to watch him very carefully most of the time lest i find him in the dark recesses of our home sucking on some of the afore mentioned items. i guess what he does is considered the commando crawl since he’s not up on his hands and knees yet. i like to think of it as the commando-after-being-shot-in-the-leg crawl. he pulls with his forearms while kicking his little feet, not realizing how much easier it would be if he would just bend his knees. but, man, is he getting good at it–look at that little guy go!

AND he’s cutting his 3rd tooth, the top right. i just see the tip of it when i turn him upside down–this is the only way i can get a good look at his top gums since he’s not big on showing them to me without a fight. and he likes being upside down, so it’s good fun. he rubs his bottom tooth on the tip of his new tooth which feels really cool and makes a fun grinding sound that isn’t annoying to me at all. [update: seb has actually cut his 3rd and 4th teeth! : O]

Posted on March 12th, 2004

the birds are singing! the sun is shining! even if it’s for a few days–woo hoo!! it’s amazing how much easier life seems to become sans putting 20 layers (a little hyperbole never hurts) on myself and seb just to run to the store. and i literally mean running in and out, no dilly-dallying allowed when it’s only 20 degrees. now if it can just get warm enough to dis the jacket…

can i just list the millions of new things seb is doing? like i need to ask: 1) saying “mama”, not necessarily to me but tends to just yell it at random things–at least he’s getting used to how the sound feels in his mouth; 2) eating cheerios on his own; 3) pulling up to standing; 4) walking around while holding onto my or brian’s fingers; 5) pushing buttons (beginning to understand cause and effect); 6) turning lights on and off; 7) waving “hi” and “bye” and beginning to understand the difference between the two (sometimes during the day he acquires a pensive look and just randomly starts waving–i think he’s remembering his daddy leaving that morning for work). okay, maybe 7 doesn’t equal a million new things, but it’s close enough. and the list of words he knows expands on a daily basis. just to name a few: water, cereal, window, clap, hair, eye, spoon, eat, sit up, cough, ball, binky (a shortened name for pacifier that really annoys my father, for those of you who don’t know)…he’s just sooooo smart!

so life with seb just gets more and more exciting and fun, a little taste of heaven on earth. the wonderousness of it all somewhat tempers the nastiness i see in people and in the world around us. in some ways, seeing seb’s innocence and purity gives me hope that good still does exist. but then the pessimist (or what i like to call the realist) in me wonders how long that innocence can last in a sinful world, and that makes me sad. so all i can do is pray that God will have mercy on seb’s little mind and heart and keep them for Himself.

let’s end this on a bit of a happier note: after a long, cold, seemingly endless winter in pittsburgh, the sun always does come out… tweet tweet

you can tell this is a little old since his hair isn’t in his eyes–and yes, that is drool on the front of his clothes

mama trying to achieve “art”

“what!?” i think he learned this expression by watching me

Posted on February 26th, 2004

one of the little things that brian and i have loved about seb since he was born is his hair. he’s always had some. in the beginning it was just nice that it was there to hide the bumps and bruises from his delivery. around 3-4 mos, his hair began growing in thicker, and we were happy that he was starting to look much more human. now it’s been growing so fast, we wonder when seb got to be such a hippie. both brian and i of late have debated within ourselves when to get seb’s hairs cut, and we both, separately, have come to the conclusion that it’s too big of a step right now. gone would be the wispy, broken newborn hairs that still hang on for dear life. gone would be the “tossle-top” that we cherish as a token of his babyhood. once the mess is straightened out, seb will look much more like a little boy than a baby. that is something we can hold off on for now…

here’s proof that seb got teeth! don’t mind the yellow hue of his skin: it’s just the result of a betacarotene overload. he’s not much into the green veggies.

seb is very aware of the presence of said teeth and is constantly running his tongue over them. could be dangerous while in jumpy seat. don’t try this at home, folks.

seb exercising his prowess over “the dada” (hahaha, now i have you!)

Posted on January 26th, 2004

i guess if a baby’s going to get one tooth, he may as well get two. seb has the first bottom tooth pretty much in and a corner of the second. *sniff* from here on out we can say bye-bye to his little gummy grin. it’s a fairly sad occasion for me, but there is also much cause for rejoicing–FINGER FOODS! and the commencement of seb feeding himself… needless to say, brian and i will be going out in the next day or two to purchase some sort of mat to go under seb’s highchair.

i am endeavoring to teach seb sign language. apparently, babies around 7-8 months of age begin to have the motor skills present to manipulate their hands into simple signs. so for the past couple of days, i have begun to show seb signs for “eat”, “more”, and “milk.” the plan of attack, according to this is making eye contact with baby, then saying the word as you sign it in his field of vision. this sounds simple, but it is surprising how little seb actually makes eye contact with me. i guess that makes sense since he usually doesn’t have to look for me, and i’m always pointing his gaze away from myself to other objects anyway (“seb, lookie…look…look at the light, seba… lookie”). although it will take him a month or two until he can use the signs, it’s amazing that i can actually see the beginnings of language comprehension in his eyes. i’m pretty sure he knows “light,” “fan,” and “cat.” and he’s “pointing” and grunting at things too. he doesn’t use his index finger yet, but sometimes he practices. when he is sitting on my lap before a nap or bedtime, he will stick his index finger out and look at it for a few seconds, just to make sure it works.

Posted on January 15th, 2004

the other day i was looking at the main page here, and chuckled about my famous last words (“we’ve been practicing with our cats for the past five years, how hard can it be?”). there are several reasons why raising a child is SO much easier than “raising” cats. a) seb is already, at 8 months old, WAY smarter than either one of our cats. i don’t know who ever said that cats are relatively smart. they aren’t. b) seb has always been WAY cuter than either of our cats. i used to think that they are cute. but they aren’t. c) seb, in some infant way, appreciates that we take care of him. he smiles at us and laughs at us and reaches for us with his chubby little arms. i used to think that the cats felt some sort of affection for us (why else would they want us to wake up and pet them at 3am?). they don’t. at this point in the game, the only thing the cats have going for them is that they’re self-cleaning. and even that doesn’t impress me very much. when seb finally learns how to bathe himself, i think it’s safe to say that i won’t have to worry about finding him in the living room, dining room, kitchen, bedrooms or walkways, spread eagle, licking his nether-regions.

[disclaimer: the thoughts portrayed in this blog are in no way, shape or form a reflection of anyone in this household but my own. (we all know that brian feels differently about the cats.)]

started to read What’s Going on in There? How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life by Lise Eliot, who is a neuroscientist somewhere (maybe columbia univ? i don’t want to run get the book right now to find out). anyway, after only reading the first few chapters, i’m beginning to realize how miraculous it truly is (although the author would tout it as just good evolution) that more human beings aren’t brain damaged. seriously. i’m hoping that this book doesn’t make me more paranoid about how i can be ruining seb’s potential as a functioning child and then adult in this world. (yeah, ok jen)

Posted on January 5th, 2004

well, Christmas turned out to be a success, although it ended up NOT being white (how did that happen?). i mean, no one got hurt, the wrapping paper didn’t scare seb out of his wits, and the cats haven’t died from eating half the bottom of the tree (yet). seb did make out on the toy end. i’m trying to figure out how to gradually re-introduce them to him so he doesn’t end up with post-traumatic stress disorder from being overstimulated every day like he was on Christmas Eve and Day.

so far, the jumpy seat hanging in the doorway that wasn’t a gift is by far his favorite toy. he just laughs and squeals as he jumps (boing-boing-boing), bouncing off the doorjam, his feet occasionally sliding around on the kitchen floor. he twirls around on a toe and regains traction on the carpet of the dining room side. the cats are scared. when he spies one of them, he stops bouncing, straightens his legs and leans towards them with his arms wide, hands grabbing and a wide, wet smile on his face. if he could talk, he’d be saying, “here kitty, kitty, kitty…” he quivers with delight. yeah, so they’re very scared. brian and i just laugh. someday those cats will get what’s coming to them.

today it’s back to normal. brian is back at work. and i have to get back into my routine at home again. “vacation” is over i guess…now it’s time for spring!

Posted on December 29th, 2003

Posted on December 20th, 2003

you’ll have to excuse the main page right now. it looks dumb i know, and i tried to change it, but it didn’t work. i’ll fix it soon. or brian will.

so anyway, about seb. seb just turned 7 months old! he’s over half a year old already. i think having a kid has made the time really fly. i never thought it did before. so in the past month, seb has done a lot. he is sitting up no his own all the time now–he hardly ever falls over anymore. he’s rolling a lot from his belly to his back which is a problem at night while he’s trying to go to sleep–he’ll flip himself over while he’s complaining that he has to be in bed alone, then he cries all the harder. he hasn’t yet figured out how to roll the other way, so i have to do it for him. daytime will be better for me to get him to do it himself. seb eats solids 2-3 times daily. i think he is really starting to enjoy it. i have a children’s song cd that i pop in when we’re at the table, and he really gets a kick out of it. it’s funny to see that he has favorite songs–he gets excited and laughes (spitting out food as well!) when one comes on. knick-knack, paddy-wak seems to be his all time favorite. oh yeah, and he finally figured out the jumpy seat (you know, the one that hangs in the door way). it took him a while, but last night, he started to jump around in it. yay! yet another thing to entertain him while i get my stuff done.

we’re still battling his head tilt (torticollis). it seemed to be getting better at one point, but i still see it in the pictures i take of him. perhaps we will have to do physical therapy afterall.

well, there you have it. this is the first time i have logged at length about seb, but i’m not sure if it will continue yet. mostly, it depends on whether i will remember to do it. other than that, i don’t know how much of a fan i am of making my dialog a “public” thing. we’ll see…

Posted on December 17th, 2003

great grandma mcmillan

great grandma hemphill

great grandpa hemphill

Posted on November 26th, 2003

Posted on November 6th, 2003