I have been informed that I have to update this blog. Grandparents really get testy when they live 2,000 miles away from their grandchild. They want to see pics and video. Now!

Sawyer is becoming his own person: grumpy when he doesn't get his way, wanting everything we have (even if he has the same thing right in front of him), trying to reach things on counters and tables, opening doors, demanding to be read to, and communicating what he wants more clearly. He thinks signing 'please' will get him everything he wants and throws a fit when it doesn't. In some areas we are happy to hand over the reins. This is one of his earlier attempts at feeding himself. Scott is holding the jar, Sawyer is holding the spoon...
For Halloween we went down to Amanda and Noah's house to trick-or-treat with Isabelle and Micah. By the time we were going door to door, Sawyer was so tired. The street we were on had a lot of split level homes, which had a lot of stairs. Sawyer wanted to climb up every stair, even if he had already gone to the door. He would throw a fit when I would pick him up to walk to the next house. We only went to about 20 houses before Sawyer was done. Overall, it was not the greatest night. Scott had to work and was sad to miss out on all of the fun. We dressed Sawyer up as a skunk. I was a skunk for my second Halloween, so we thought it was appropriate. This is a picture of the 3 kids going up to one of the houses.
The Lion, the Skunk, and Dorothy. (Sawyer was so zoned.)
I gave the lil' stinker a sucker after we started to walk back to the house. At first he didn't want it, but I made him try it. It took about 2 seconds for him to decide that he liked it, then I couldn't get it away from him.
These videos are kinda random. Sawyer LOVES to read books. This is one of his favorites. One night he got the giggles when Scott was reading to him. Of course I didn't think to get the camera until he was just about done, but you can still hear how hilarious he thought it was.


This next one is my attempt to record Sawyer on the phone with Grandma. (She is actually on the phone talking to him.) Whenever he gets on the phone he begins walking all around the house in circles the entire time he is talking.


I wish that we had more family around that could watch and enjoy the everyday happenings that occur. There are so many funny moments that are precious to us, but we cannot possibly record them all. We hope you enjoy these snippits as much as we do. 'Til next time!

so, i finally got sawyer to do all of his new tricks on camera. usually he sees the camera and stops whatever he is doing. there are a lot of little video clips, but i have been telling my family all of the cute things he has been doing and all they (well, my mom) have been saying is GET IT ON VIDEO! so i did...finally!

this first one is of him doing "itsy-bitsy spider." (he has apple jacks in his mouth, i take what i can get.) p.s. ignore my singing...


this one is of him doing "5 little monkey's jumping on the bed." (i only did 1 monkey.) this is a new one so the actions are still a little iffy.


this video is of "the wheels on the bus." i really like this one, but he can only do three of the actions right now.


he just started shaking his head no. he gets it from us, of course, and a lot of the time he shakes his head so hard that he falls over. it cracks me up!


these last two are of him dancing (on two different days.) he LOVES to dance. whenever he hears music, on tv, in the car, at the store, during church, he starts to dance. he has some pretty good moves. when he really gets going he even incorporated the actions from his songs like 'roll it' from pat-a-cake into his routine.


it is so much fun to watch him grow and learn. he just started standing up on his own to walk and he is also able to open doors. today he opened the front door when scott went out to the car to get something. good thing i was nearby. hope you enjoy seeing out little bean!

two big things happened this week. see for yourself...

WARNING...this is going to be a long one...but there are lots of cute pics...


sawyer and i went to michigan for two weeks and had a ton of fun. the day after we got there we had a huge bbq at a park (even though it rained) so that we could get together with a bunch of friends who happened to be in town at the same time. it was a blast! there was a lot of food, fun, and family. the group included sawyer and i, my parents, christian and his girlfriend rachel, ruth and her four kids, her dad dan and sister lindsay, angela and her three kids, holly and joe and their two girls, koren and garret and their two little ones, don and dale, amanda and noah, josh and sara and their four kids, and cory and selena and their two girls. (that would be 21 adults and 18 kids.) it was a good thing we went to a park. here are some pictures from that event.


amanda, dale, koren, and sawyer hangin' out.sawyer and ruthie.
the big wheel and the big boy...dan, papa, don, and lindsay.amanda entertaining the boys on the swings.garret pushing the girls.holly and her youngest.all tuckered out...that weekend my parents had a stake picnic, so we went to that, hoping to see people we knew. this is how sawyer entertained himself, that is, when papa wasn't showing him off to everyone.sawyer had a good time with his uncle chris. he missed him a lot when he left and would go to the door to watch him leave.grandma and sawyer would spend time together playing, reading, and singing. he is now really good at pat-a-cake. he does all of the actions.one night we went out for a big birthday dinner and we came home sawyer attacked uncle chris and rachel. he likes to yell as he is 'getting you' and after her attacks, by giving kisses and hugs, he will roll over onto his back. we haven't quite figured out why he does the last part, but it is funny.

sawyer started babbling, a lot and very loudly, while we were there and he would yell at the cats for some reason. it was so funny to hear him be so expressive.


playing video games with papa and uncle chris while enjoying his morning bottle.we also got to help papa and grandma pick out bedding and paint colors for their guest room, spend time with nannie jeanne, have karen come over, hang with paula and her boys, visit chris f. and his girls, and relax. overall it was a fabulous trip, the only thing missing was daddy.


when we got home we had to show off all of the new things sawyer started to do while we were gone. he started pointing, dancing a lot more by using his arms (i wish we had this on video, but he would stop whenever he saw the camera), talking on a pretend cell phone 'eh-woah', blowing kisses (this is in the video below), and tons more. poor daddy was not happy to be missing out on so much. thank goodness sawyer didn't start walking or we would have been in some serious trouble. :)

this last video is of sawyer and his birthday card from aunt darrelyn. the song happens to be his favorite. i guess you can say that we are all 'clapping our hands' right now because we are so happy... happy to have visited with loved ones, happy to be home, happy to have each other!

we had a fun birthday weekend. grandma kris came over on friday and brought some gifts. it took him a long time to open them because he kept getting distracted by all of the tissue paper. he loves his new toys and sends a big thank you to gigi and grandma kris.
on saturday scott and i celebrated our 1 year old by spending the day doing fun things with him. we bought him some stacking blocks, which he loves knocking down.
here is a video documenting part of the mess making. it was so funny!

here is the birthday boy in all his cake-covered glory. he likes cake!

outside our condo we have a "splash zone." it's a ton of fun. we were so excited to take sawyer out this year. he seemed to like it, although the water is a little cold and the dumping buckets make him a little jumpy. we have gone a couple of other times and he is getting used to it. we are hoping that he will be walking by the end of the summer and then he will be able to maneuver himself around the sprinklers.scott called me into the laundry room the other day. i walked in and saw this...i guess he likes to play with sawyer and do housework at the same time.
while i was watching the "a capital fourth" on pbs sawyer was playing all over the living room. he often plays quietly, reading books, concentrating on his toys...the usual quiet=trouble doesn't really apply to him yet. however, when i looked around the coffee table to where he was on the floor, i saw this...i know that anyone who has children has been through this before. with my brother it was toilet paper in a 2ft heap and shaving cream piles down the hallway. i just had to get it on camera.......enjoy!

oh the fun 11 month olds have. he has been pulling out the bottom drawer of the oven for a while, but the other day he decided to try something new.he loves to be read to, especially by his daddy, but he is also content to read all by himself sometimes.

we all know that sawyer looks like scott. we hear it everywhere and from everyone. the other day a friend told me that he looks more like me! i was so excited, even though it shouldn't matter, but the thing is, scott and i have been saying this to each other for months. then, today when i opened my email, i had a note from my dad. it said, "just wanted you to know that the coffee table syndrome is hereditary." it also came with this picture of me...as soon as scott and i saw it, we thought, man, that looks like sawyer (with more hair), especially the expression and mouth. what do you think?

when i told my mom that i was going to update our blog today i got a resounding, "yeeaaahhh!" from her. i guess that means it has been too long. our family is going through a lot of changes right now. scott is looking for a job and he started another semester in college. i am through with school, for the summer. my grandpa jack died and sawyer and i flew to the funeral in the middle of may.i was very surprised and upset when my mom called me and told me that her father had passed away. we were planning on going to missouri this summer so that my husband and son could meet my grandpa. i had known for a while that the time was coming, but i was really wanting, and hoping, that i would get to see him one more time. i was very touched to find out that when my grandma was going through some of his drawers, she found all of their missing pictures of sawyer in his nightstand. he had put them in a place where he could look at his great-grandson every night. my grandpa jack has always held a special place in my heart and i will miss him terribly. one good thing about funerals is that families get together, and in this case i was able to visit with family that i haven't seen in years. it was fun to see and talk to everyone.while we were there, we stayed at a hotel that had a waterpark. sawyer was terrified of the place for the first hour and a half. it was indoor, so it echoed, there was loud music, and a big splash bucket that dumped water. he held on for dear life and jumped every time the bucket dumped. the adults enjoyed all of his hugs though... we hung out with grandma laurie, papa paul, aunt darrelyn, uncle sean, evan, and jack.

for the last little while, scott and i have been getting to know our son's emerging personality. sawyer started crawling instead of scooting everywhere, climbing up on and getting into everything. he is a very sensitive little boy. he gets really sad when he hurts someone, especially mom (pulling her hair or biting.) he gets his feelings hurt when we tell him, "no." he doesn't like when mom and dad argue, even when they are teasing each other. he is timid and gets scared easily. he loves books, hugs, kisses, snuggles, and being held. he is on the verge of walking and likes to walk along and in between furniture.

he loves his daddy and thinks he is funny. we like finding new ways to entertain our 10 1/2 month old...

we are amazed at how quickly he picks up on things (daddy is so proud!)

we are trying to take advantage of this time we have to enjoy every moment of sawyer's life and discovery period. children are so full of wonder. it is so cool to see him exploring something new or even something old in a new way. what an amazing time of life!

well, now that i am off for a few months, i will try to be better about updating...i make no promises though. we might be having too much fun!

learning

he sits, he climbs, he scoots, he is curious about everything!! he always seems to have some kind of scrape, scratch, bump, or bruise as he explores his environment. oh the joys of parenting a 8 month old. this has been a month of learning new things, for all of us. mama and daddy learned that we can't put off getting a real entertainment center any longer. our make-shift table with sheet cover is a little too interesting for our little one.we also learned that we can no longer keep things on the shelf of our coffee table.he is very proud of this accomplishment...we've learned that he CAN have biter biscuits, but ONLY right before bathtime.we've learned that the baby is not the only one who has to strip down to give him a bath. his kicking and splashing gets the entire bathroom wet.we've learned that separation anxiety is hard on everyone, especially when he wakes up at night and doesn't want to go back to sleep because he would rather be with us. he yells in his bed for someone to come and get him out.

we've learned that when we are eating, "mmmmmm!!!" means that he wants to try some. (he doesn't like it much when we won't give in because it is something he can't have.) we've learned that it sure is funny to give him new tastes every once in a while.
most of all, we've learned that we love our son. he is such fun to be around. we love to watch as he learns and tries new things. we know that every hug, snuggle, giggle, belly laugh, and mama kiss are worth the tired days and the sleep deprived nights, because, at least for this mama, this is all i have every wanted and dreamed of and it is all rolled up in the cutest package...our sawyer!

sawyer discovered how to stick out his tongue this week. it is so funny. he will just sit there all day with his tongue sticking out.

we had fun the other day playing peek-a-boo on the bed. of course, the best ones happened before we had the camera on, but this is a good example.

yesterday when i got home from work, i set him in his bumbo and he went to town with the newspaper. he had already started playing with it that morning with dad, but i let him destroy it. i stopped the video when he got a little piece in his mouth. it is ok to have fun, but we have to stay safe! :)

we have been having a ton of fun lately! sawyer is growing so quickly and every day he does something new. he is forever entertaining scott and I and making us giggle at the littlest things. he has discovered how to scoot all over the living room and loves getting into daddy's DVDs and video games. if you look really closely at the adorable smile, you might see a little white speck at the bottom of his mouth...yes, he finally got his 1st tooth. if you can't see it very well...
this should help! (gotta love those big blue eyes...)

today, he discovered how to make a raspberry noise with his mouth and was actually mimicking us. he has never done this before and we were just cracking up. we love being parents and are grateful that we have been blessed with such an amazing and happy baby!

Sawyer at 6 months

Well, it's Scott updating for once. My first time. Yay!

So Mr. Sawyer-man is now six months old and has perfected the art of rolling over both directions. Back-to-tummy, tummy-to-back, you name it he can do it. As such, we have reached the BIG trouble we predicted because now that means he's mobile!

Did you see how quickly he did that? No more leaving him on the couch for us.

To make things worse, it seems he's already plotting the next step: he is fully aware of his legs and using 'em!

(Sorry, the vid is a little long.)

As if those steps weren't enough, his adjustment to baby food is also in full swing.

Hmm... doesn't seem to like the chicken and rice flavor much, does he? Hope that means we have a little while longer before he gets too grown up!

Thinking of you until the next post....