Officially, Sebastian's first word after mumum and dadadada is "hot." The root of this comes from the stove, naturally. A way to warn him not to play around the spitting bacon fat or the warm oven. Every time he sees the stove he whispers seriously, "hot.hot.hot.hot.hot.hot." (This doesn't stop him from climbing into the expensive stainless steel oven drawer and rocking around in it). Some days almost everything in the adult world is "hot.hot.hot.hot." When I lift him up to the counter so he can see his lunch being prepared or when we're watering the garden things are often, apparently, urgently hot. (Right now, apparently my ipod is hot.) I wasn't aware. But he also has his own language, one which he barks out with a stern face or babbles sweetly in. He's also developing an industrious side, no doubt from all the DIYing around our house. Alex seems to always be hammering something outside, and I'm constantly making bread and gardening so of course he joins us. It's very important work, piling dirt outside the planters, throwing rocks and banging wooden blocks on the glass door. Hmm.
He's also standing more and more. Those jolly jumper legs are paying off. He clings to my legs and sometimes I look down and realize he's not clinging, just standing. I don't think he realizes it which makes it comical, this tiny person standing the middle of a room with no obvious self-awareness. Then he collapses. He's been able to walk holding onto things for a long time and now he's attempting to run while holding on the couch, which usually results in him tumbling immediately. I hear the trouble making really begins once they learn to walk, so I'm not especially concerned about the next steps.
Another advancement in Sebastian's life is the new found skill to take off his diaper. That's a fun one. I try to let him go nude a lot of the time but other times it's not worth it. Like naps, or going into town. The other day he was trying to go down for a nap and after a lot of noise from his room subsided into silence I crept in with a blanket and there he was, little piquano, fast asleep, naked. He cracks me up.
The other day Sebastian and I walked to the beekeepers for some honey. The deal is there's basically an old unplugged fridge in the driveway stocked with hen and goose eggs, jars of honey and whatever else he's offering. You put your coins in his mail slot. It's nice. The walk took about an hour each way as we tend to meander. After the jutting hills of Granthams (with many stops to eat our apple and drink our water and, well, rest because I'm kind of out of shape) we followed the long quiet road at the foothill of Soames. It's a bit of an old country road, if there is such a thing in this part of the province. Straight, flat, pretty. At one point we looked up and realized there were cotton blooms in the air, an unusual sight here. Snow on a hot, blue sky day. On the way back we picked salmon berries and daisies. It was a wholesome kind of day.

my view when i look down most of the time

alex started his new job on keats island this week

the best way to trick a baby into wearing sunscreen is to let him put it on you