SPD

Blog Hijacking

Guest post by Sebastien's favourite (and only) aunt

Sebastien has gone to see Grandmaman and Uncle Peter. As part of this Tour de Bebe, there have been receptions organized in his honour. Sebbie takes his duties seriously. When I stopped by this morning, he was busy practicing his pucker. Everybody wants to kiss the baby, after all.

He's not as innocent as he looks. Sebastien also realizes that there are other opportunities. To take advantage of these, he is practicing his "if I look up at the sky, other people will wonder what I'm looking at and look up too" maneuver.

It totally worked on me. And this bought Sebs the time he needed to investigate the contents of my purse.

Caught red-handed, he instantly reverted to his tried-and-true strategy for getting out of all difficulty: look cute.

That totally worked too.

Reclaiming the Blog!

What do you call a pile of Doucets?

Based on their activity level, they should be called a flurry of Doucets. Or maybe a tornado.

The Big Smoke

Us Thunder Bay hayseeds are amazed by Southern Ontario. You can buy anything at the stores! Even babies!

And you can have breakfast with a rock band!

Not that Uncle PJ claims to be a rock band. But you have to take your thrills where you can get them.

Of course, this would be a lot easier if the kitty would just sit still for Sebastien to maul her.

Kind of like this one. We would show the full baby cuddle, but it might get us in trouble with PETA. He's not that gentle yet, our Sebs.

Baby Friendly

Well, you can't say Air Canada isn't baby friendly. They let Sebastien fly the plane!

Then again, that can't be good PR. We confess, the sticker actually designated Sebastien as the pilot's lunch, not as the pilot. Good thing the pilot didn't see him. He is pretty yummy.

Up, Up and Away!

Up, up and away is what we are doing tomorrow in a big ol' aeroplane. For now, Sebastien is making his way up with ever more confidence, though we suspect when he gets to the coveted orange hat, he'll probably stop.

Maybe we should be leaving that hat at the bottom of the stairs.

Rattling the Cage

Well. It was just a matter of time...

Time to lower the mattress another notch. Sigh.

Birthday Party!

Papa's birthday! A good excuse to finally have some people over to the new house.

Big and little people, that is.

Young and Old

Our little youngster waves goodbye to the very old boiler - it is on its way out!

And then has a snooze to recuperate from the emotional farewell.

New Messes

We have all been working hard at finding new ways to make a mess around here. Mama gets points for feeding Sebastien pasta with sauce.

Maybe it would be less messy he wasn't such a moving target.

And Sebastien gets points for discovering the bikes in the front porch, and becoming obsessed with the chains.

Papa gets a whole lot of points for vacuuming all morning.

Funny Hats

It's Mr. Funnyhat, and his son, little Mr. Evenfunnierhat.

This was all contrived to distract Sebbie from the newspaper we weren't letting him play with. In the end, everyone had fun.

Plotting and Scheming

These two are clearly cooking up some diabolical plan. Maaritta is older, no doubt she is the instigator.

Or maybe they were just talking about how fun it would be to eat crackers together after the hike.

Food Facts

A little known fact: Baby food tastes better if you put some in your hair.

Then again, maybe that's why his hair is growing so fast.

Heaps of Babies

The only girl in the picture is also the youngest. No doubt Skye will be their fearless leader in no time.

New Experiences

Okay, Sebastien making a big mess and throwing clean facecloths everywhere is not a new experience. But it's still kind of funny.

Mauling dogs is still a relatively new experience - and he's never mauled Shiner before.

Eating venison - defnitely a new experience!

And then there's Matilda - pretty much everything is still a new experience for her!

Babycentric

We decided to deviate from the bedtime rituals tonight, and go for a walk to the Zero Gravity circus. But since they had the gravity on after all, we just took pictures of Sebastien. He has a gravity all his own.

Funny, he's cuter after bedtime. Interesting trick.

A Helping Hand

Sebastien helped us with the laundry today.

Sort of. First he helped by taking everything out of the drawer.

And then he helped by personally inspecting the contents of the clothes hamper. Just to make sure we didn't accidentally wash anything that wasn't dirty.

Eight Months!

Sebastien's nickname around here lately is Wiggly Pet. Here he is not being wiggly at all.

He is trying to appear mature, so that Peggy will let him drive her SmartCar. He can probably already reach the pedals...

The Times They Are A'Changin'

Looks like the days of Sebastien lounging peacefully in Kristin's arms are over.

At least he is a good host, and shows her where the good toys are kept.

Best Friends

It's hard to convey how funny these two are together.

And no, the pool doesn't have water in it. Just spiders and an inflatable lion.

Old Friends

On rummaging through a forgotten box of toys, Sebastien discovers an old friend.

And then discarded it two minutes later to go climb Mt. Mom.

Spinning their Wheels

Sebastien's newest obsession.

After the second step, he starts to look around for someone to rescue him. Not even 8 months old, and already afraid of heights. You'd never know it, from how he leaps off the couch.

And then there's Scotty....

An old pro at the stairs, and just itching to master that walking thing.

And the newest member of the club:

This wee darlin' is just 9 days old! Matilda makes the boys seem rather huge by comparison.

Half-time Show

It was opening day of soccer season, or hermit season, as Tom calls it.

But there was still time to bond with the Sebster over a soccerball. Sebbie is still working on his ball handling skills - he mostly plays with his mouth.

Positively Reptilian

Unbelievable. A day where no photo was taken of Sebastien.

This Mama feels like such a toad.

Group of Seven

Hm...this backpack gets kind of heavy when you're going uphill.

Sebastien enjoys the same view that Lauren Harris once did. Minus the boxcar. Can't wait to see him fingerpaint this view.

Miles to Go

And then it was time to head north again, in our pokey fashion. First stop was Pancake Bay, which was disappointingly devoid of pancakes. But there were some good sticks to play with.

And then back to Neys. Sebbie practiced his yoga moves here. Or maybe he was just kissing the ground, so happy to be camping again.

Waterbaby

Well, maybe not such a waterbaby, judging by his reaction to his PFD.

He seems to prefer dryland activities.

Especially if it involves being hauled around in the backpack.

Pickles and Puppies

I don't want a pickle...

I just want to give this dog a tickle.

Tia, on the other hand, was not so sure of the whole affair.

The mud was a much easier target.

And then, all cleaned up for dinner with the girls. Out of 8 shots, this was the best one. Not surprising, really.

Oma und Opa

Funny, nobody is camera shy when there's a baby in the room.

The Future's so Bright

We have to wear shades. All of us.

Sebbie enjoys the view from a place known to our family as "Jam Mountain." This is a loose translation - due to the dryness this year, we should rename it to raisin mountain. Always worth the walk for the view, though.

Markus is acting as guest blog photographer on this hike - he was almost as trigger-happy with the shutter as Sebbie's Mama! This has resulted in Sebbie becoming a bit of a camera hog...

Social Baby

Johanna absconding with Sebastien...lucky little fella that he is.

But she brought him back to meet Uncle Markus. Here they are swapping recipes...

And, just to round out an exciting day, Sebbie finally met Lisa, and his new buddy, Raggedy Andy.

Homeward Bound

Hey, this tent thingy looks like it might be pretty easy to get out of.

Drat, foiled again.

No trip along this shore is complete without a stop at Old Woman Bay. Sebastien made friends with a few grains of sand, and Johanna showed us how to use the fill flash so we could take a decent picture of it. It's hard to tear yourself away, but we could hear the highway calling us, to take us to the best place on earth.

Free from the car seat at last!

Seeking Refuge

Since Thunder Bay is the hot spot in Canada these days, we thought we'd head south to get out of the heat. By Rossport, we had already cheered up.

And by Neys Provincial Park, appetites had returned all around.

(Though some of us, no names shall be named, got seasick just from looking at the big waves.)