Sebastian's Quiver

If you ask anyone who has lived in Portland, they’ll tell you the biggest problem with the city is the winters – they last for 6 months and all it does is rain.  Our first experience with a Portland winter was quite the opposite.  It started off realtively warm and sunny.  Native Portlanders commented how it was so unusual for the weather to be so terrific.  Then something happened as the nights grew longer and longer and the winter solstice approached – it got colder, and colder, and colder.  Then the snow began to fall.  The first snowfall was on a weekend and we got an inch or two and I was hopping around the house, ecstatic.  Then, about a week later it started to snow again.  And snow.  And snow.  By the end of the storm we had somewhere between a 15″ and 18″ of snow on the ground.  The entire city was covered in a blanket of white.  Long icicles hung from the eaves.  We took Sebastian outside for a walk every day, but it was cold, and we didn’t stay out too long.  One day I bundled up and walked the mile to the supermarket to pick up some necessities and there were people out and about walking around in the middle of the street (the sidewalks weren’t walkable, and the streets weren’t really much better), kids playing the snow, dogs running around all psycho.  It was a winter wonderland.  Everyone was smiling and happy and having fun.

I hadn’t been in a storm like that in, well, I don’t know how long.  Never in 17 years of living in Atlanta had I seen that much fall.  Maybe when I was visiting the Northeast after moving to Atlanta?  Maybe, there was snow when I was in New Hampshire, but I don’t think it was a foot-and-a-half because I drove my Hyundai to Vermont in it.  Like I said, I don’t remember seeing that much fall in a long, long time.

Snow this past weekend meant one thing:  a White Chanukah!  It was my first Chanukah away from my immediate family in, well, I don’t know how long.  Ever?  What to do?  Technology to the rescue!  My brother-in-law setup a webcam at their house, I turned on my laptop cam, and we connected via Skype in order to have a Video Chanukah.  We ate dinner together and we opened up presents together.  It was great seeing everyone, and it I’m sure they really enjoyed seeing us, especially Sebastian, who loves looking at the computer and interacting with the video.  We made homemade latkes and no-so-homemade matzoh ball soup.  Sebastian got bongos and wooden dinosaurs and other wonderful toys that’s he’s been playing with all week.  He was totally mesmerized by his very fist dreidel.  Even better were the candles that we lit in our homemade menorah (my grandmother’s glass candy dish filled with kosher salt with Chanukah candles stuck into it – out real menorah is still in a box in our basement and we couldn’t find it after an hour of looking).  One of Sebastian’s favorite signs is for ‘light’, and whenever he looks at the burning candles he signs ‘light’ with both hands.  Then I combined the signs for ‘fire’ and ‘light’ and he started using both of them when looking at the candles.  Booyah!  Then I showed him the sign for ’snow’ and now whenever he looks outside at the snow he signs ’snow’.  It’s great to see the sign language that we’ve been using with him for the past several months start to sink in.  He regularly uses the signs for ‘light’, ‘milk’, ‘more’, ’snow’, and sometimes ‘cat’ and ‘ball’.

Sebastian is also very close to taking his first steps.  He stands easily now, cruising along the furniture, hobbling around the house holding our fingers.  You can see that he thinks about doing it, but so far he just either falls forward or drops down into a crawl.  All his teething is finally going to pay off – two front bottom teeth are just starting to appear.  They should be out any day now.  His eating has progressed beyond the puréed foods.  He loves pancakes (no syrup), spaghetti, hummus and pita, and lots of other foods that we eat.  He still gets his daily dose of fruits and veggies so that he gets nice balanced meals.

Below are some new photos.  You can see all the snowstorm photos here, or all the newest Sebastian photos here.  Also, Juliann joined Facebook, so if you want to go visit here there, she would be happy to have you visit.  And now, what you’ve been waiting for, the photos (sorry for the weird photo sizes, the new version of Wordpress 2.7 changed the default image sizes).

Our car in the driveway:

A view down the street before the snow finished falling:

Juliann and Sebastian talking a walk in the snow:

Sebastian playing dreidel:

Sebastian eating breakfast:

My apologies.  It’s been almost a month since I last posted, and I know all you loyal readers out there are just clamoring for more photos and info on Sebastian.  Well, here you go.

One of the main reasons I’ve been lax is that we had family come to visit!  Yay!  My elder sister Staci, her husband Mike and their daughter Christie stopped by first.  It was fantastic to have them stay with us (better house guests than they will be hard to find).  Sebastian had a ball playing with them (especially Zombie Mike – see photoblog) and we had a ball showing them a bit of Portland (Powell’s Books, Japanese Garden, NW 23rd shopping and Yuki Sushi – YUM!).  It was great having Christie around, and her help roasting coffee and picking raspberries and getting the photos of the duckling will always be appreciated.

The weekend after that my parents came for a visit!  Yay!  Sebastian loved playing with Grandma and Grandpa.  The stayed for the weekend after a couple of nights in Las Vegas, and we showed them a bit of Portland, too – both rose gardens, some bridges (sorry Mom), and Fife (thanks Dad).  As much of the time was spent with them playing with Sebastian.

As far as Sebastian goes, he’ll be 6 months old on July 25.  Half a year, can you believe it?!  He’s getting very close to crawling; he gets on his hands and knees, but he’s not too sure what to do from there and usually starts crying.  His current favorite pasttime (besides not sleeping at night) is playing the piano.  I sit in front of the piano with him on my lap and he just goes to town on it.  He’s currently in his free jazz/experimental phase, so the music isn’t really for everyone.  There are currently plans in the works to record some of it and post it here so you all can listen to his musical prowess.  Sebastian is also very close to eating solid foods.  All the experts say six months is a good time to start introducing him to solid foods, so we are starting to plan his first foray into solids foods.  What will be first?  Bananas?  Avocados?  You’ll have to wait and see.  I’ll try to remember to get some photos of his first food eating experience, and if I do, I’ll post them here.

On a more adult note, Juliann and I are both doing well.  We are a bit tired due to Sebastian’s horrible sleep patterns (or, more accurately, non-sleep patterns).  My new job is going well – you can see the iPhone application that I helped develop, and you can download it, too.  Juliann is getting ready to take her massage therapist licensing exam.

OK, that’s probably enough.  You just came here to check out the newest photos, so here they are.  As usual, you can check out the photoblog: Family Photos, Sebastian Photos and Japanese Garden Photos.

Perfect shot:

It’s Grandma!  And the blanket that Great-Great-Grandma made!

Oooooooo, a new toy:

Staring contest.  High Noon.  In front of Kitty’s Saloon:

Drool!

Gazing off into the distance:

At the Japanese Garden:

Sebastian delivering the Baby Death Grip to his Uncle Mike:

And of course, one last one of my wonderful wife:

Sunday was Juliann’s first Mother’s Day!  Such a rare event deserved very special consideration, so I mulled over many different ideas of what I could do to make the day even more special.  I decided on taking Juliann (and, of course, Sebastian) to her very favorite place in the whole world:  the Oregon Coast.  Of course, I also treated her to breakfast in bed, a box of special gourmet chocolates from Cork, and a gift certificate for a 90 minute massage at one of the nicer spas in Portland.

(An aside:  This past Friday (May 9) was the five year anniversary of the day we first met.  We had a special dinner with a great local bottle of wine and an excellent bottle of dessert wine from Badia a Coltibuno in honor of where we got engaged exactly four years previous.)

Back to Mother’s Day.  Juliann picked up some yummy foods from New Seasons, we packed up the car with changes of clothes and food and extra shoes and socks and rain gear and camera equipment.  Sebastian slept for the entire 90 minute drive to the coast and we ended up at Ecola State Park.  To give you an idea of where we were, here are two photos taken seconds apart (I know the sky is very different in the two photos, but that’s Oregon weather for you).  For a sense of scale, in the first photo, you can see some people down in the lower left corner of the photo.

Sebastian was great, as usual, on our trek outdoors.  He was awake for the beach hike and he was mostly asleep for the forest hike.  Here he is all bundled up on the beach (click to enlarge, like all the other photos):

Juliann is pretty much Sebastian’s full time chauffer.  I find it pretty amazing that she does all the hiking that I do, but with a 16+ pound wait hanging off her frontside.  She is often way out ahead of me, and not just because I stop to take photos.

Here are a couple more photos from the beach.  As always, please go to the photoblog for more photos and captions.

After we finished on the beach, we went back to the car and had lunch.  From there, we went on the forest hike.  The hike was a loop and the first half of the hike was 100% uphill – no small, level stretches, no slight downhills – it was very steep and all uphill, about 1.25 miles and a gain of 800+ ft in elevation.  The forest was beautiful, though.  Huge trees and lush greenery surrounded us.  The second half of the loop took us closer to the coast and we had some wonderful views of the water and beach and lighthouse.  Here are several photos from the hike:

The lighthouse.  For a closeup, go to the photoblog:

So many trees:

One final look back at the beach:

And there you have it!  Our very first Mother’s Day.

Is that dappled sunlight falling upon Sebastian’s head? Nope. Is it a bald spot? Nope. It’s a blonde streak in his otherwise brown head of hair. I guess he couldn’t decide whether he wanted his dad’s dark curls or his mom’s blonde silk. It will be interesting to see if that streak stays with him or if it changes along with his other hair as he grows older.

A number of people have asked how our feline member of the family is getting along with the newest human member. Well, here you go:

Just as long as Sebastian doesn’t steal Misha’s spot in the sun, they’ll get along just fine.

(Yes, I realize these photos are huge.  I might get around to shrinking them down to a more manageable size, but then again, I might not.)