What the duck are you looking at?

OK every kid needs at least one embarassing picture taken, Sebastian will have his fair share we are sure. This week has been nice and calm for the most part. We think he is going through some weird growing/eating phase, and he is a little less predictable with his eating schedule than he has been. Things are still going very well overall and we still get 4 hours of sleep before he wakes up for mid-night feedings. As you can see in the picture, "Tubby Time" is less stressful than it was at first, now that we wash his face and head last not first. Once the water touches his head he screams.

We can't believe how quickly he is outgrowing some of his clothes! The little porker is filling out his clothes quite well, though in his defense the cloth diapers add a little extra "junk in the trunk" so its not all him.

Flying Baby!

This is Sebastian's new favorite position! Weird huh?

Last night our friends the Alcorns hosted an outdoor family movie night. they projected onto a huge canvas screen right in their yard and had about 40 people over to enjoy. We stayed until 10, then Sebastian decided it was time to go.

Daddy's First Overnight Trip

Well it wasn't easy, but I survived my first overnight trip away from Sebastian and Todd. More importantly, Todd survived his first overnight without me. I have to say, when I got home he looked very happy to see me, and I took the baby right away. I needed a little lovin', and Todd needed a break.

The picture above is the view from my hotel room. Pretty impressive huh? The city of Silverthorne, CO is way up in the mountains about 90 minutes outside of Denver, amd home to the newest Kenneth Cole outlet store. The training application that I have spent the last year designing, developing and marketing finally was put in the hands of actual "users" in a retail environment. Kenneth Cole is our pilot partner to allow us to test its applicability and functionality. The feedback was great.

OK enough about work, back to Sebastian. He is so funny lately. We see a real personality developing, and he is so adorable. I can already tell he is going to be one awesome kid. I found myself noticing every baby that passed me by at the airports this week. Thoughts of homesickness went through my head. I also watched the families carefully, trying to glean things that they were doing that looked like they were either working or not. I have a funny feeling our first trip will be a learning experience more than anything.

Sebastian is 1 Month Old!

Our little man is already 1 month old. It seems like he has always been here, but it also seems like just yesterday that we got the call that Brit was in labor.

My friend Laurie brought her baby Alyssa over today to meet Sebastian. She is adorable and looks just like her with beautiful auburn hair and big blue eyes. We had a nice lunch and visited a bit while the babies took turns being either happy or crying. It was funny to see.

He's making some changes in his schedule and eating habits. He seems to have longer periods of sleep and being awake, and as long as he is dry he is happy.

This week is going to be hard. In addition to the day trip I made to St. Cloud MN on Monday, I have an overnight trip to Denver on Thursday/Friday. I hope Todd survives!

Our gorgeous boy is growing up!

We are just a few days shy of Sebastian being here for a month and already I see such big changes. He is so cute we can't stand it. He certainly keeps us on our toes, and we have managed to get ourselves into a very nice groove.

This weekend we went to the German Village yard sale. It was great, we realized that all we need to do is plan ahead and we manage him easily. We even changed and fed him right in the back of the Jeep when he needed it, and then went back to our day.

I have to travel for three of the five days this week. I am not looking forward to it at all, but it is the reality of my work. I sure will miss the little guy!

Meeting Grammie and Pop-Pop

Wow what a weekend little man had! Mark's parents (Mark Sr. and Cheryl) came to Columbus to meet Sebastian, and to celebrate Mark's 40th birthday on Monday. The weekend was spent just hanging out, having a great time as a family, and letting Grammie and Pop Pop spend as much time with Sebastian as possible. They babysat on Saturday night, so we could go out for dinner to celebrate the 40th birthday with Kevin and Craig. We all went to Grandville on Mother's Day and had brunch with Todd's family at the Buxton Inn.

We really had an awesome time. Todd got me an iPod and tickets to see A Chorus Line. I can't wait!

Back to Work

Well, even though I "worked" on Tuesday, 4/28 I officially returned to work yesterday, 5/5/2009. It was weird in a few ways, for example, Todd was home and will be every day, and Sebastian was of course here as well. I had meetings throughout the day, and though I could hear him crying I stayed in the office and let Todd handle the situation. They were just fine, and I was able to come out of the office for lunch and between meetings and hold him and hang out before heading back into the office.

Shannon, our social worker, paid a visit on Tuesday afternoon. She was very pleased with how things are going and loved seeing Sebastian in his new home. We had a great visit, and she plans another the first week of June. After that we have our interlockatory hearing on June 12.

Sebastian's new nicknames this week are "Chugger" and "Super Soaker." Both are related to each other, sort of a cause-and-effect relatiobship. Good thing we are using cloth diapers, we'd be spending all of our money on Pampers otherwise! Yes... CLOTH DIAPERS! If you have any questions about that email us. I am a HUGE fan of the cloth diaper and I am super glad we are using them. We put him in dispsables for the pictures on Monday and I didn't like them at all! You can also visit the "Diaper Pin" website, it is full of information about cloth diapering. I will say this, there are a lot of options out there, you have to weigh the choices and pick one that works for you. We use "prefolds" and love them, but when he grows out of them we will likely go to a "one size" diaper like GroBaby or Bum Genius.

Picture Day!

This picture is not one of the professional ones we had done today, but it sure looks good! Sebastian did a great job with the photographer, and she took some amazing shots. They sure know how to get you though, they have lots of offers for very expensive packages! We got enough to have some to keep but we also know we have lots and lots more pictures in our future.

It is 4:00 PM on the last day of my "paternity leave." I am already depressed about having to work again! At least Todd gets to focus his attention 100% on Sebastian while I work. This is going to be a great arrangement for us all.

We spent the morning and early afternoon at the Columbus Zoo! We got a family membership today, and spent a few quality hours checking out the animals with our friends Ray and Matt and their kids Jenny and Aaron. We had a blast! Poor Sebastian slept through most of it, except for waking up as we were in line to see the baby elephant. It was a bit brave of us to attept this early on, but we managed without too much trouble. We all had a great time and can't wait to go again and again.