Sebastian Says..
"I'm usually right.... but when I'm not right, I'm lucky."
Sebastian's Snowy Birthday
Despite the 12" of wet, heavy snow a partial birthday party went down this weekend. Some of his friends couldn't make it so we'll have a make-up party in January. Sebastian's request: Mini Golf. Good times.
If any of you want a slice of chocolate birthday cake, please let me know. I still have a good 3 lbs of the stuff, ugh.
Happy Unofficial Birthday, sweetie.
Shovel, what? The driveway? Pffth.
This is what happens when there is 11" of new snow on the ground, it's still coming down and your kid is driving you crazy in the house. (If you don't believe the snow total, check out the stack o' snow on the mailbox in the first photo.)
I broke out the sleds from the garage, we hiked to the top of the neighbor's driveway and sledded down into the street. This started a trend and all the neighborhood dogs and kids joined in the fun.
The best part? When the whining starts, "Mom, I'm cooooold," we walk 30 yards to the house for hot chocolate.
"I want that"
The downside to watching regular television (including Animal Planet) are the commercials. It's doubly-bad when we can't fast forward through the commercials with the trusty TiVo.
It was cute for a while when Sebastian would exclaim, "I want that, the purple one," and point to the Mr. Clean commercial. I'm more than happy to fulfill this particular capitalistic desire as long as he gets a sponge and a bucket to go along with it.
Now that we're in Christmas consumerism overdrive and many retailers are pushing for early holiday sales (before everyone loses their jobs, houses and gas jumps to over $4/gal.) the sheer volume of commercials pimping the latest and greatest toys are overwhelming.
"I want that."
"I want that."
I'm trying to look at the bright side in that these commercials give me ideas for birthday and Christmas presents. I have to keep reminding myself that more Elmo videos aren't going to cut it and play-dough, while still a treasured favorite, is getting pushed to the side in favor of Transformers and Tinkertoys.
That said, I'm accumulating a list of "wants" for Birthday and Christmas gift ideas. On the left-hand side of this blog you'll see an Amazon wish list which contains the items Sebastian has been clamoring for.
I'm not advocating that items should be purchased from Amazon, this list is merely a service in your search for the gift to beat all gifts.
Democracy
I had a reality check today.
Parenting is not a democracy. It's a benevolent dictatorship.
Over the last couple of weeks I've let Sebastian walk all over me. I've over-extended my "renewed" vigor for parenting and taken it to the extreme end of the continuum. You want more candy? Okay, only 5 more pieces. You don't want to finish your dinner? You can have a snack later.
Unfortunately, this has translated into bad behavior at school and arguments at home.
Sebastian is a good kid, he really is. I just need to reign him (and me) back into the structure fitting for a three-year old.
I need to get back into the Dog Whisperer mode of parenting. Cesar Milan has something going on when he says, "you need to set rules, boundaries and limitations," and exerting "calm, assertive energy."
Yes, I am making a correlation between parenting and dog training and no, Sebastian doesn't sleep in a kennel... yet.
Superheroes
Ah.. so begins the season for inducing diabetic comas. Yes, it's Halloween.
Sebastian wanted to be Spiderman for Halloween and I convinced him that every other little boy would want to be Spiderman and a different costume would be a better idea. We settled on a spider costume but he added a caveat; the spider had to be the spider who bit Peter Parker and created the cultural phenom.
All righty. I bought the fabric, designed the costume (complete with officially ripped-off Spiderman emblem on the chest) and began work.
Then the notice came down at school.
Sebastian's school typically has a Halloween festival for the kids and parents, complete with vast quantities of games, social interaction, parents snapping photos and, of course, candy. The festival is usually held the week of Halloween in the late afternoon. Not this year. The festival was held at night a full two-weeks before Halloween. Normally I wouldn't have an issue with this but given the shortened timeline, the plans for the spider costume had to be abandoned.
"Sebastian, if you couldn't be a spider, what would you like to be?" "A spider." Uh, oh. Enter copious amounts of whining.
The night of the festival, I rushed to get Sebastian and made a mad dash for Kmart. All of the costumes there were "too scary". Feeling the time crunch we traveled to ShopKo and found a costume Sebastian was stoked to wear.
Old school Wolverine.
(You go, boy!)
Shortly after this picture was taken the three superheroes decided to mosey into their classroom and proceeded to have the ultimate padded costume superhero throw-down. We parents, kicked back, watched the expenditure of sugar-induced enthusiasm and snacked on their candy. Too bad they weren't serving margaritas.
Update: Monday afternoon, Sebastian and the other members of the toddler WWE continued the ultimate battle for superhero supremacy, sans padding. There were bruises, hurt feelings and teacher angst. Oops.
The Pro
Sebastian is sporting a new 'do, courtesy of Tia Tasha. It's his first professional haircut and it ROCKS! No more "Lloyd Christmas" haircuts.
Muchas gracias, Tia!
Headbanger
Sebastian has always been keen on music. He'll rock out at the drop of a hat. Over the past few weeks, I've heard him whip out some melodies and lyrics to songs we've listened to only once.
Here are some of his favorites:
"Dare", Gorillaz
"Feel Good, Inc.", Gorillaz
"Foxy, Foxy", Rob Zombie
"Smooth Criminal", Alien Ant Farm
"Fly Away", Lenny Kravitz
"Brass Monkey", Beastie Boys
And lest we not forget one of the more popular songs of today ("Fergalicious"):
Or a little ditty about a less than proper young lady from Steven Tyler and his gang of hoodlums ("Rag Doll"):
