Sebastian received his first passport in the mail today, officially making him a British citizen. Just in time for our trip to England in three weeks! His American passport should come soon thereafter, allowing for smooth sailing through US Customs when we travel to New York at the end of August.

Sebastian celebrated by rolling over for the first time! He had been threatening to do so all week. We congratulated him by graduating him from the pram to the pushchair. We didn’t have much choice since he was actually getting too big to fit in the pram. He much prefers sitting up anyway.

In other news, Emily is aggressively lobbying to knock her midday nap on the head. This would be absolutely fine if it wasn’t for the fact that she really needs a nap everyday. There have been no naps taken on four different days this week. And on each napless day, our sweet little angel transforms into an irrational raving typhoon somewhere around 7pm. Dinner isn’t as much fun when you’re too tired to hold a fork.

Emily also wants you to know that she jumped off the wall into the the public kiddie pool all by herself yesterday morning and ran into the sea and jumped over the waves all by herself yesterday afternoon. Theme for this month: all by herself.

I’m really trying my best to clear out the ton of old media and stories I’ve got backed up from the past two months. Here are some photos and a video that have been just sitting here for a whole month, waiting to be posted. If you’ve been sneaking peaks at my Flickr and YouTube accounts, you may have seen them already. I’ll try and write those two pressing stories later this week (from Passover and Easter!).

Pussy Cat Pal

Sleepy Mummy Snuggle

Yes, That’s A Bathtub

Butterfly Face

I’ve been taking Emily to the swimming pool for as long as she can remember. But it was just last week that she finally got up to courage to trust her life to a small foam tube and venture off without daddy holding her hand. Not only did she swim on her own, but she swam an entire length!

When we got home and Emily – beaming with pride – told Jan the news, mummy couldn’t believe it. She had to see it for herself. So the very next day, we all marched down to the gym with swim trunks in hand to see our little girl prepare for what is destined to be nothing less than a stellar Olympic career. Sebastian came, too! It was his very first swim session and Emily was thrilled to demonstrate for him how one day he too will be able to swim all by himself. We thought he would only last five minutes in the not-so-warm pool but he had a great time! Smiling and flapping, he played in the pool for about 20 minutes!

After the pool, Sebastian went with mommy to the ladies locker room and Emily went with me. The post-pool shower is a ritual that we both really enjoy – even though I’m pretty sure I get cheated out of my fair share of under-the-water time. Standing there, watching this smiling little creature trying to keep the water out of her face by spinning in circles, I got sad. They grow up so damn fast. We’ve only got a finite number of showers left together and this fact become painfully apparent at that moment. But I couldn’t wax sentimental for too long – we had to dry our hair under the hot air blower, hide inside the lockers in the dressing room, and gallop home like horsies.

Sebastian went to the pediatrician for his four month check up yesterday. They laughed at him. They laughed because he is so big. He’s not freakishly big or anything, but he’s solid.

How big is he? His growth chart says that he’s 63 cm (25 in) tall (long?) and weighs 7.5 kg (16.5 lb). Absolutely average height (length?) and his weight is about halfway between average and morbidly obese.

One thing that hasn’t changed is Sebastian’s placid disposition. I think we sometimes forget how lucky we are to have such a laid back and sunny tempered gentle giant. Especially given Emily’s rambunctious and frenetic pace, getting stuck with a fussy baby or a crying baby or a sicky baby would have buried us long ago. He just likes to sit there and watch the world go by and, every once in a while, he’ll give you a big ole gummy grin and a high-pitched giggle. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Emily (2 years 9 months), with her delicate touch, shows mummy, daddy, and Sebastian (3 months) how to make banana cake muffins.

Emily and I were walking home from school today when we came upon an elderly white-haired woman painfully making her way along the sidewalk ever so slowly with her cane just barely keeping her from falling over. We would have simply passed her and made our way home but Emily turned to watch her for a while. The woman looked at Emily, smiled sadly, and said, “Yo tengo cinco nietos exactamente como tú,” [I have five grandchildren exactly like you] and she opened her hand towards Emily to allow her to count all five of them. Emily saw the five fingers and earnestly corrected the woman, “No, I’m two!” and adamantly held up two fingers. The old woman, not understanding a word of Emily’s perfect English, corrected her, “No, es que tengo CINCO nietos,” [No, I have FIVE grandchildren] and again held up five fingers. Emily got very upset and shouted at the lady, “No! I’m two!!!” and once again held up two fingers to prove it. This was the part of the conversation where the old woman started crying, explaining how she rarely gets to see her grandchildren, that her daughter had died, and how she would soon be with her in heaven. In an attempt to cheer her up, I marveled at how lucky she was to have five wonderful grandchildren. The woman smiled and agreed. Emily hadn’t made eye contact with her since their little shouting match. We agreed that Emily must be tired and ready for her nap so I scooped her up, said goodbye, threw the little girl on my shoulders and legged it home. That was awkward.