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Three Sebastian Stories
At 3:30 this morning I heard footsteps coming down the hall towards our room. Sebastian clambered up the foot of our bed, pushed in between us, and went back to sleep.
A bit later I woke up to hear him saying in his clear little voice "Mama, you're squishing me!".
"Move closer to Daddy, then," came Teri's sleepy reply. He nudged towards me for a minute, and then went right back to her.
...
If you were wondering, I write about this sort of thing because I'm afraid I'll forget it.
Another one: on Saturday morning I was hanging out with Sebastian in the living room. I took my glasses off and put them on the arm of the couch. Sebastian was climbing around here and there. Suddenly he popped up right in front of my face, with a very worried look.
"Daddy, you should move your glasses," he said.
"Huh? What do you mean, bunny boy?"
"Put them on a table or the entertainment center!"
"Why?"
"Just move them!"
Suddenly suspicious, I looked for my glasses. They had been badly bent, as if a small but energetic boy had accidentally squashed them. Luckily, I was able to bend them back into shape; there was a scary moment when they snapped loudly, but there was no break.
"Did you bend these, Sebastian?" I asked carefully.
"No."
"Bunny boy, it's okay. I know you didn't mean to do it, and it's okay. But you need to tell me the truth. You did squash them by accident, didn't you?"
"No...yes."
"It's okay. Thanks for telling me the truth," I said, and gave him a big hug.
...
Sebastian's favorite game these days is hide & seek. He prefers to play it with both of us. That's hard, though, because our house simply doesn't have that many places for an adult to hide. He really needs children his own age to play with, and he's been having more play dates lately, but they're not enough.
So later Saturday morning, I invented a new game to play with him. And it was so successful that it amazed me. At the same time, it's so simple, so obvious, that I can't see why I've never heard of anyone else doing it.
I took three of his stuffed animals and had him count to twenty-one with his eyes covered. While he counted, I hid all three animals. Then he searched for them. I helped him out now and again with "warmer" and "colder", but he didn't quite get the concept even after I explained it; so in some cases I just flat-out told him "He's in this room" or "You're really close to him now".
Every time he found an animal he exploded with laughter. We ended up playing the game several times over the weekend.
I realize that the game is just a varient on an Easter Egg hunt, but I think that using his stuffed animals made it a lot more exciting for him. And it was a lot easier on me than hide & seek; it took him longer to find the animals than it would to find me, and I didn't have to try to figure out new places to hide and squeeze myself into ever-smaller spaces.
A bit later I woke up to hear him saying in his clear little voice "Mama, you're squishing me!".
"Move closer to Daddy, then," came Teri's sleepy reply. He nudged towards me for a minute, and then went right back to her.
...
If you were wondering, I write about this sort of thing because I'm afraid I'll forget it.
Another one: on Saturday morning I was hanging out with Sebastian in the living room. I took my glasses off and put them on the arm of the couch. Sebastian was climbing around here and there. Suddenly he popped up right in front of my face, with a very worried look.
"Daddy, you should move your glasses," he said.
"Huh? What do you mean, bunny boy?"
"Put them on a table or the entertainment center!"
"Why?"
"Just move them!"
Suddenly suspicious, I looked for my glasses. They had been badly bent, as if a small but energetic boy had accidentally squashed them. Luckily, I was able to bend them back into shape; there was a scary moment when they snapped loudly, but there was no break.
"Did you bend these, Sebastian?" I asked carefully.
"No."
"Bunny boy, it's okay. I know you didn't mean to do it, and it's okay. But you need to tell me the truth. You did squash them by accident, didn't you?"
"No...yes."
"It's okay. Thanks for telling me the truth," I said, and gave him a big hug.
...
Sebastian's favorite game these days is hide & seek. He prefers to play it with both of us. That's hard, though, because our house simply doesn't have that many places for an adult to hide. He really needs children his own age to play with, and he's been having more play dates lately, but they're not enough.
So later Saturday morning, I invented a new game to play with him. And it was so successful that it amazed me. At the same time, it's so simple, so obvious, that I can't see why I've never heard of anyone else doing it.
I took three of his stuffed animals and had him count to twenty-one with his eyes covered. While he counted, I hid all three animals. Then he searched for them. I helped him out now and again with "warmer" and "colder", but he didn't quite get the concept even after I explained it; so in some cases I just flat-out told him "He's in this room" or "You're really close to him now".
Every time he found an animal he exploded with laughter. We ended up playing the game several times over the weekend.
I realize that the game is just a varient on an Easter Egg hunt, but I think that using his stuffed animals made it a lot more exciting for him. And it was a lot easier on me than hide & seek; it took him longer to find the animals than it would to find me, and I didn't have to try to figure out new places to hide and squeeze myself into ever-smaller spaces.