Sebi's Fifth

Today was Sebastian's birthday. I really can't believe it's been five years since we had the quickest, easiest, delivery of any of the kids. You know, the way they tell you it's going to be in those birth classes: 'select some calming music and bring along candles to sniff' kind of nonsense that never actually is used or helps and generally just gets in the way. Well, with Sebastian it did happen. We brought Schubert's impromptus and read old Economists and he was born in about six hours of labor and I was a true convert to the epidural. Mmmm hmm!

Now look how huge he is! His grandpa took him out yesterday to buy him a bike helmet, having read that Sebi should have input on it so that he'd like it and be invested in it. Sebi's head was so mammoth that he didn't even fit the 8+ size. Yup, he's got a youth 14+ helmet and will probably turn out like HEEEED from So I Married An Axe Murderer (in case you haven't seen it, Heeeed is not an axe murderer, he just has a cranium like a 'virtual planetoid').
Sebi has also had a run of great one liners lately. I unfortunately can only remember three, and hope I haven't said them here before. Last week we took his dance teacher a CD of one of our favorite songs. Upon his return, he told me that she played it during class and they all danced. I asked him if he could show me how he'd danced to "Hey, Little Minivan" and he said "Mom, it's called provisation! It changes every time!" This week I asked what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday. I was thinking yellow-, chocolate-, pound-, bundt- or whatever, but he said "clone". This took a little sussing, but it turned out that he wanted a Star Wars Clone War cake. Here he is

creating the sound effects: (you didn't know that cakes had sound effects, did you?) Also on the subject of Sebastian and Star Wars, once upon a time we were concerned about his speech. At 18 months he had two words, and they were nearly indistinguishable. But after almost a year of speech therapy, lots of sign language videos, and many doctor appointments, he made great progress and now has no trouble getting his point across. Rob was watching Star Wars with him and asked Sebi who someone was. "Some wandom dude", Sebi replied. Indeed.
And finally, Aunt Kiecoo brought back a great set of cards from the MOMA when she visited New York in December. They have twenty four works of art shown at the museum, and then a detail from each one. The kids and I have used them to play Go Fish and Old Maid and Memory, and they're wonderful. The kids are really starting to recognize these pieces and I'm wishing that I could get some for the works they'll be seeing in Vienna. Tonight I was playing with Maddie and asking her for Marc Chagall's "I and the Village". She didn't know which one it was, and Sebi who wasn't playing and was across the room, piped up "It's the man with a axe killing a lady". Which is how it will always be known henceforth and forever, I'm afraid.

That's m'boy! He's such a thoughtful and helpful big brother that he could probably take care of Joss for a few hours by himself. He idolizes his big brother and his grandpa and would watch grass grow with them if that's what they were doing. He eats like he has two hollow legs, and his favorites are chicken curry ('lellow chicken'), green pasta (pesto), and peach soup, any of which he regularly has three to five servings of. He is a willing helper with shopping or laundry or dishes or cooking, and a great companion at the store. He's becoming a great reader, but I think the Wii and the trampoline are still his great loves. He makes friends and has fans wherever he goes, but his favorite is still Tomas. And Sebastian still wins for Most Ticklish Boy In The Universe. We love him!