Sawyer Smith

Sinterklaas

2012-01-22T21:38:00.003-07:00

We put our klopen out and low and behold... Sinterklaas paid us a visit (and no coal!).
It is a dark but well worth the listen!

Thanksgiving awesomeness

2012-01-22T21:23:00.013-07:00

We spent a fantastic few days down in Hueco Tanks, Tx for Thanksgiving with our good friends Vanessa & Matt and Christina & Chris. Dan, Chris, and Vanessa drove down a few days early, got Dan re-certified as a climbing guide, and played on the rocks. Sawyer, Christina, and I and then Matt drove down in time for a long weekend.

Sawyer, the "flying deer."

Our amazing Thanksgiving dinner- sweet potatoes, baked beans and franks, cranberry chutney, kale salad.... and three perfect pies (ala Matt the pie King).

Cheetah costume still a hit

2012-01-22T21:21:00.002-07:00

So Sawbug has decided that the Cheetah costume is still pretty cool. He wore it to the zoo and took a few people by surprise.

Fall snows

2012-01-22T21:13:00.007-07:00

We had two major October snow storms. Sawyer was *thrilled* about the prospect of winter being on the way.

Oh, and here is a self portrait by Sawbug.

Fall appreciation

2011-11-13T19:57:00.004-07:00

I see this view with this mutt every morning. I appreciate it.

Back yard leaf fun

2011-11-13T19:42:00.007-07:00

Fall farm visit

2011-11-13T19:31:00.006-07:00

Garden pumpkin

2011-11-13T19:26:00.002-07:00

We grew our first pumpkin in our new garden. We carved it early - as it was ripe early. And the squirrels promptly devoured it off our front porch. Alas, it was fun anyways.

Dan's 40th - Sept 17th

2011-11-13T17:18:00.008-07:00

Maine Sept trip

2011-11-13T16:59:00.008-07:00

Family portrait from August

2011-11-13T16:54:00.003-07:00

Chickens!

2011-08-05T21:39:00.007-06:00

We are doing a chicken share with three other families in our neighborhood. Our friends built a coop in their yard and today we went to the County Fair to pick up some 4-H chickens. Below is Heneley, the chicken Sawyer picked out for himself.Meet Huevas & Rancheras
Here is Heneley, Chester, and Rocky (Roquette)
Delilah-Clementine
Rocky (Rocquette)

mid-July garden

2011-07-25T19:31:00.007-06:00

Not long after we moved in I convinced Dan to help me build two additional raised beds for the garden.I desperately threw seeds into the garden to see if we could pull off having a garden at our new home the first year. After several terrible spring storms things were looking desperate. I ended up adding some starter plants and things have turned out really nicely.

By May, the garden looked like this and we were getting beautiful micro-green salads.

Now, in mid-July, we have a really beautiful and productive garden.

I am growing beets for the first time - they are beautiful! (Yes, Mom, me and beets- who knew?)

Sawyer was dismayed that the cabbage moths ate all our broccoli the week before we were going to harvest. Since then he has been a bit worried about the "bad bugs that eat the garden" so we spend a lot of time talking about all the good bugs, like spiders and lady bugs that help us out.

He is very proud of our garden. And so am I.

polar bear progress and lady bugs

2011-07-25T19:06:00.004-06:00

I can't find any old pics of Sawyer and the zoo polar bear but I promise he is getting taller!Oh, and he loves loves loves lady bugs.

All the many reasons I don't want to be in the photo you are taking

2011-07-25T18:36:00.009-06:00

Boy and dog.

I want to tell youall the many reasons
I probably dont
want to be in the photo
you are taking.

My boys... and a flashback

2011-07-25T18:30:00.003-06:00

The boys in the morning...and a FLASHBACK from 2008.

Animal Upon Animal

2011-07-11T21:59:00.005-06:00

Sprinkler time

2011-07-11T21:53:00.008-06:00

We have been having a great summer. Sawyer has been having tons of fun in the backyard.

On the 4th of July, we went to Martin Park for Sawyer's first fireworks display. He loved it and stayed up until 10:15! He was a tired dog for the whole next week but he says it was worth it. We also started swim classes a couple weeks ago and is working on kicking, blowing bubbles, and his strokes. He likes his teacher a lot but still is hesitant to float on his back and doesn't like going all the way under the water.

Enjoy the pics!

Telluride Bluegrass Festival!

2011-06-19T13:34:00.002-06:00

We headed south to Telluride for the Bluegrass Festival this weekend. It was so fantastic. Great music, camping, weather, food, and totally amazing kid. This was Sawyer's first big road trip since being potty trained. Seven hour drive both directions and no accidents! He was a trooper on the drive and so fun at the festival. We brought our bikes and the bike trailer for around town and brought Sawyer's balance bike for around town and at the festival.

The festival has a great kid's tent with activities that entertain and get them out of the blazing high-altitude sun. Sawyer watched puppet shows, talent shows, saw cookies baked in solar ovens, and worked on learning to hula hoop! All under the breathtaking mountains.

We took the gondola up to Mountain Village where we enjoyed hot cocoa, the view, and scouted out the mountain bike trails for our next visit.
And of course the hot summer days led to some very enjoyable ice cream!

Our Three Year Old

2011-05-24T20:36:00.004-06:00

Sawyer turned three at the beginning of April. His third birthday marked not only a major milestone in terms of years but happened the same weekend we moved into our home and the week that he transitioned to the junior pre-school class at his school. It was a big month.

Our three year old is an utter delight.

He sings his ABCs, counts to 30, and knows his colors. His vocabulary continues to astound us. My favorite sentence from a few months ago was "Mommy, would you please de-couple these necklaces?"

He still loves his trains but is beginning to develop a fascination for cars. He is learning to use his pedal bike but when he really wants to zip around he still rides his balance bike.

At school he is beginning to get used to being in the junior pre-school room. It is a big change from a 2:8 ratio to a 2:18 ratio. He will be in the class until he is 4 years old, which means there are some kids in his class who are almost a full year older. There are a couple kids he likes to play with but he has yet to make the kind of buddy connection he made with Taj.

He loves to sing and is in a music class at school. He learns lyrics very quickly and often can be heard singing as he settles down for sleep. He also loves loves loves books. He can recite a dozen of his books word for word. He is beginning to pretend he is reading by running his finger across the text, though he usually "reads" in the wrong direction.

He is obsessed with drawing maps (usually to a camp site), robots, and machines. He likes to help me in the yard and garden- he uses his dump truck to collect the dandelion "spiders." A couple weeks ago we built a sandbox in the back yard and he can spend hours in that sand.

He is excited to camp a lot this summer and really wants to take another plane ride.

The House!

2011-04-24T19:19:00.007-06:00

Thanks to the fact that my mom, Sawyer's Omi, was visiting and helping during our move, we actually got photos of the house! Here are a few pics!

Packing the Truck

2011-04-24T18:58:00.005-06:00

As most of you know, we finally managed to buy our first home. Packing up from Racquet Lane was quite a chore considering that Dan for about 12 years and I had been there since 2002! We were lucky to have lots of help from friends with packing the truck (2x!).
Sawyer was a big help.

biking with Taj

2011-04-24T16:27:00.005-06:00

We have been meeting up with Sawyer's buddy Taj at the dirt track for a bunch of balance bike riding. Those guys just love each other and have so much fun.

Some videos of Sawyer in action:

March

2011-04-24T16:10:00.001-06:00

cutie

2011-04-24T15:52:00.003-06:00

Four months later

2011-04-24T15:37:00.004-06:00

For Halloween I made Sawyer a cheetah costume. Despite having requested it, he balked on Halloween and wouldn't wear it. This January he finally decided that he really wanted to be a cheetah. Luckily, I made it big enough for him to wear it even though he is growing like a weed.

Tinker toy creations

2011-04-24T15:33:00.004-06:00

Sledding

2011-02-12T12:45:00.006-07:00

Golden Train Museum

2011-01-26T21:05:00.006-07:00

Omi, Boppi, and Uncle Jurgen took Sawyer to the Golden train museum. He loved it!

Santa

2011-01-26T20:55:00.005-07:00

Waiting for Santa's arrival...Story time: Twas the night before Christmas...

Sawyer got the top item on his Christmas list: Calling All Engines!
Saying thank you to Santa.

St. Nicholas

2011-01-26T20:47:00.003-07:00

Dinner

2010-11-14T21:44:00.000-07:00

Pumpkins & Corn Maze

2010-11-14T21:06:00.009-07:00

swing climb

2010-11-14T19:53:00.002-07:00

When Omi and Boppi visited in the beginning of September this was the new skill Sawyer developed.

Arches in October

2010-11-08T19:55:00.016-07:00

We took a fantastic trip to Arches National Park at the beginning of October. We met up with my good college friend, Beth Ellen, and her family (husband Keith and delightful boys Sam and Charlie). It was hotter than we expected but we took a nice walks, played in the shade of massive rock, and ate great food. As ever, Sawyer was a great traveler and a utter joy to take on this camping adventure.

Thomas the Train!

2010-10-06T21:36:00.010-06:00

We took Sawyer for a day out with Thomas the Train. It was at the Colorado Train Museum in Golden. He was utterly thrilled the whole day! We met up with our friends Heather, Pat, and their boy Van as well as Jenn and her boy Charlie. Here are the pics!

Crested Butte

2010-10-06T21:22:00.006-06:00

My folks came out for our anniversary weekend to take care of Sawyer so that Dan and I could take our first-ever trip away together from Sawyer. We had a brilliant weekend of camping, mountain biking, and climbing. We are so grateful to have had this opportunity!

My garden - a synopsis

2010-10-06T21:11:00.008-06:00

We had an amazing garden this year: tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, summer squash, acorn squash, tons of herbs and flowers, and enough basil to make a freezer full of pesto. Sawyer was a great help and loved helping water.

Maine trip part 2

2010-10-06T20:31:00.014-06:00

Finally, finally I am getting the blog updated. We have had an amazing summer and it has been a whirlwind of travel and activities. Here are a bunch of photos from our Maine trip.

Maine trip part 1

2010-08-28T14:08:00.011-06:00

We spent a fabulous day on Grandpoppa and Mimi's boat on my birthday! We cruised around Casco Bay, had a delicious lunch on Peak's Island, and caught a giant striped bass! Sawyer had so much fun and as soon as he got home he was telling all his friends at school about his great adventure! Thanks Grandpoppa and Mimi for the amazing day!

Elephant in your French horn

2010-08-10T14:38:00.002-06:00

Water Play

2010-08-10T13:36:00.011-06:00

Have I mentioned how much Sawyer loves to play in and with water? Here are some pictures from his recent help watering the garden/yard.... and then warming himself up on the sun baked driveway.

Garden joy

2010-07-29T21:09:00.011-06:00

Sawyer and I spend a lot of time together in the yard and garden. He enjoys helping me weed and water and we can wile away many hours puttering around. It has been particularly rewarding as the fruit of our efforts has begun to come in. He has been eating tons of raw beans and snow peas right off the vine and is devouring the zucchini breads that keep coming out of the oven. We are looking forward a tomato deluge in the next month. Here are some picks from our time together and our garden.

Yellowstone

2010-07-29T07:08:00.033-06:00

The last time I was here was 1989. It was the year my brother headed off to college and we took a trip out west to Yellowstone and the Tetons before dropping him off in Boulder. It was also the year after the historic Yellowstone fire. I remember walking through a skeleton of a forest with a floor of wildflowers. Well, the landscape has proven resilient.

It was great to revisit this beautiful place! We had a wonderful visit over the 4th of July weekend. Here is a snapshot of our trip!

Promise

2010-07-25T22:07:00.002-06:00

I will update the blog this week. I promise. We have had a wonderful July but have been so busy that getting our photos out of the camera, onto the computer, edited, and up on the blog just hasn't quite happened.

Boulder Airport Days

2010-06-27T21:13:00.009-06:00

The Boulder Airport isn't a very big operation, but it has a good share of small planes and a decent business of pulling gliders up above the Flatirons for wind-driven rides. Dan regularly takes Sawyer there after school. They hang out in the big fields and watch a landing or take-off. Sawyer loves it. Dan recently learned about Boulder Airport Days and was keen to bring Sawyer to this great local event when tons of WWII era planes are on display. Sawyer got to see tons of different kinds of planes including a bi-plane and a rescue helicopter. He loved it. Here are some pics from their day!

This is Sawyer's silly walk/run that he does when he is super psyched!

Peanut Allergy update!

2010-06-27T20:55:00.003-06:00

Looks like we have some good news!

We took Sawyer in for comprehensive nut allergy testing. Because my brother, Jurgen, is severely allergic to nuts we were advised to keep Sawyer away from nuts until he was at least 2 years old and to have testing done before exposing him. The concern is that, if allergic, his first reaction could be anaphylactic.

Two weeks ago Sawyer had his back pricked with extracts from 12 tree and ground nut varieties, along with one prick with actual peanut butter. The allergist thought there might be a mild reaction on the peanut extract prick - though I didn't think it looked any different than the other pricks (which were all slightly red as would be expected if you pricked anyone's back with a needle with something on it). We followed this test up with a blood test. There was nothing in the bloodwork to indicate that he might be allergic.

Due to the fact that the allergist noted a slight response to the skin test, she recommended that we do a tolerance test in the office to be on the safe side. These tests require 4+ hours in which time you slowly introduce more and more peanut butter over time so that if there is a reaction, the doctor can administer epinephrine right away. We read up on all this and figured this was overkill. Also, since Jurgen's first reaction came almost 11 hours after his first exposure, this kind of testing wouldn't actually protect Sawyer if he had a reaction.

Instead, we started our own tolerance testing at home. Last week we touched some peanutbutter to his tongue. 24 hours later, no reaction. The next day he has the smallest taste. 24 hours later, no reaction. Two days later he had about 1/6 teaspoon. 24 hours, no reaction. The next day he had 1/4 teaspoon. 24 hours later, no reaction. And so on.

At this point he has had up to a 1/2 teaspoon and has yet to have a glimmer of a reaction. While we are not yet at the point of giving a big yummy pb&j, we are fairly certain that when we do we will be in the clear.

I must say, I have been anxiously awaiting this process since I cut nuts out during my pregnancy to protect Sawyer and have only had nuts on a very limited basis since then. I have a much deeper and more meaningful appreciation for how challenging it is to have to avoid a food that is so ever present in our world, particularly when a life is potentially at stake.

That said, I am happy to be ushering nuts back into our lives. Hooray!

Sawbug & Doumri

2010-06-27T20:42:00.002-06:00

When Sawyer was born, Doumri weighed almost 2x as much as our little munchkin. Now, at 30lbs, Sawyer weighs about 2x as much as one of his best buds.

boys in pools

2010-06-05T22:46:00.003-06:00

one two three

2010-06-05T22:39:00.003-06:00

Mother's day weekend

2010-05-11T21:14:00.009-06:00

We went camping over Mother's day weekend. Who knew you can camp at Carter Lake?
It was absolutely frigid on Saturday until the late afternoon. Sawyer was a trooper.
Chris and Christina joined us on Saturday afternoon. We got in a little bit of climbing, chased Sawyer and Dezi around, and had a great time.
Dezi, of course, chose to swim- even early on Saturday morning in 27 degree weather!

artsy guy

2010-05-07T08:39:00.006-06:00

Sawyer's teacher, Lindsey, took these great pictures of Sawyer. Thanks, Lindsey!

Family portraits

2010-05-02T13:53:00.002-06:00

Chautauqua hikes with Mommy Hannah

2010-05-02T13:45:00.005-06:00

The train table that dan and hannah built

2010-05-02T13:06:00.008-06:00

mid constructionadding details
diamond cove, ferry, and moon garden

the set up

happy boy.

Mon petit artiste!

2010-04-22T20:28:00.003-06:00

Sawyer's good looks

2010-04-22T19:31:00.004-06:00

Appear to come largely from:Dan. Here is a pic of him at 3 years old - earning a penny for cleaning the table.

And below is Sawyer, just shy of 2 years - being ridiculously cute.

2 year old stats

2010-04-08T21:50:00.004-06:00

Sawyer saw the pediatrician just a couple days after his birthday. He is in the 93rd percentile for height (at 36 1/4") and in the 75th percentile for weight (at 30 lbs)! Everything seems to check out well. His eyes are straight, all his teeth but his back molars are in, he is on target for milestones.

We finally scheduled an appointment to have him tested for nut allergies. The doctor felt strongly that with family history it isn't appropriate to try out nuts at home. So on May 13th, he will be scratched to test all the nuts. It will be nice to finally know!

Birthday!

2010-04-08T20:57:00.010-06:00

Sawyer had a great birthday. We started with presents, of course. Then we went out for a yummy breakfast where Sawyer got a bear-shaped chocolate chip pancake. Lucky boy.

Then we headed to the Science and Nature museum where Sawyer flew space ships, measured up to skeletons, and explored the benefits of big mule deer ears.

Thanks for the gifts and birthday wishes!

Omi visit

2010-04-08T19:34:00.004-06:00

23 month update

2010-03-07T22:33:00.002-07:00

Okay- I have been out of the loop for a bit. Last week I spent a week at a symposium in Arizona for work and am clawing my way back into life and work. It was really hard to be away from Sawyer and Dan but we were able to Skype a bit to stay in touch.

Since my last posting, Sawyer has been growing in leaps and bounds. He graduated from the Dew Drop room into the "Hurricane" room for the bigger toddlers a couple of weeks ago. He and his buddy, Taj, transitioned up and their bond has grown ever stronger.

Sawyer is talking more and more everyday. His sentence structure is improving a lot, though he is still working on the complexities of "me, mine, I, and you." His most common phrase, still, is "Mommy/Poppa, hold you" when he is asking us to hold him. I love the turn around of pronouns. He is also testing out whether or not whining is an effective way to get what he wants. Mostly he is learning that it isn't.

He has been loving the melting snow- puddles to splash in, mostly. We have been taking his bike out for rides between snows and he is getting more and more confident-- though sometimes he gets going to fast and ends up crumpled up on the ground. He is mostly taking this in stride.

Sawyer is eating more of a variety of foods as he is moving away from the white-only approach and incorporating some other foods. While he will eat almost any fruit, he still mostly refuses vegetables- though he will eat pureed veggies if they are topped with ketchup. Well, he will eat most anything with ketchup on it. He has decided that crepes are good (even the savory kind) and he loves french toast.

Surprisingly, he is still sleeping in a crib- though we are pretty sure that the day he figures out he can climb out can't be too far away. Until we see him risking breaking a limb, you will find him in his crib at night.

And finally, Sawyer is completely obsessed with trains. Everything is a train in his vivid imagination- dishes leaned up against each other in the dish washer, pieces of pasta lined up on his tray, anything that moves can potentially be a train.

I will try to get some pics up this week.

Sleeping bag

2010-03-07T21:48:00.003-07:00

Sawyer was very very excited to get his first sleeping bag. Of course, we had to play play play in it!

2 5 6

2010-03-07T21:09:00.002-07:00

Sawyer is learning to count. He has recently gotten very attached to the numbers 2,5, and 6. When we ask him to count he usually says, "1, 2, 5, 6!" When we ask him how many? He says, "2, 5, 6!" Here is a little video.

Harmonica encore

2010-03-07T20:48:00.002-07:00

Sawyer has been practicing. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Dezi!

2010-02-14T18:57:00.003-07:00

chocolate

2010-02-14T17:24:00.004-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ezm4k-_H39k

Potty Song

2010-02-14T17:00:00.004-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OE79Dqn0oLM

So I am hoping that Sawyer will forgive me for this but it is way too cute to not share!

Twenty-two months

2010-02-14T16:58:00.000-07:00

Weekend walk

2010-01-31T16:33:00.007-07:00

I love shadow pictures. Here we are hiking this Saturday- Sawyer (on my back), me, Dezi, and Dan.
Sawyer was in and out of the backpack throughout our walk.

Got this picture of the uplifted river bed that was along our hike. Beautiful, I think!

Breakfast with the Birds

2010-01-31T16:29:00.002-07:00

We had a really nice breakfast with Chuck, Sarah, and Jocie on Saturday.Jocie is wonderful, mellow, and smiley!

Fabulous shades for a moon dance

2010-01-31T14:17:00.005-07:00

When we picked Sawyer up from school last Friday evening and saw that his teachers had painted on these fabulous shades- we just new it was a perfect evening to catch a happy hour. We headed out to Pearl Street for some happy hour sushi and some romping in the night. Sawyer did some moon dancing that night.

play ground, big coat, and sock hands

2010-01-31T13:52:00.010-07:00

Rolling in rocks...

Eating rocks... just another day at the playground.

He like's Dan's big coat.
for some reason, he loves wearing his socks on his hands these days... so I say, run with it!

National Western Stock Show

2010-01-31T13:24:00.012-07:00

Last weekend we went to the National Western Stock Show down in Denver. Sawyer loved everything we got to see.

Sawyer was sooooo excited to pet the goats, sheep, pigs, and the lama.... though when the initial encounters were over, he ended up mostly watching the two ducks that had found a little facsimile of a pond to hang out in. Sawyer's love of birds continues.

Sawyer rode on a pony....

he did pretty well on the pony at first but ended up getting pretty overwhelmed and wanted to get down after a while. Though now, a week later, he recalls the ride fondly and proudly.We spent some time hanging out with the LeMaires when we were there. Violet and Sawyer just loved this little goat.

Sawyer, Lucette, and Violet enjoyed a train ride together!

And finally, Sawyer got to climb up on a giant tractor. He was thrilled!

Tea time with Momma

2010-01-29T13:21:00.000-07:00

Out of the Kitchen

2010-01-25T22:14:00.002-07:00

If you have spent any time in our home in the last three years, you know well that Dezi is regularly commanded to occupy his place "out of the kitchen." Though technically his place is just inside the kitchen, this command keeps him out from underfoot. Of course in the last 21+ months, Sawyer has heard Dezi receive his command on a regular basis. On this day, Sawyer decided to join Dezi in his place. Good boys!

Hello?

2010-01-18T20:54:00.006-07:00

Sawyer is totally obsessed with telephones. Luckily, he is inventive enough to accept that oranges can be used to make important calls. *

Of course, he is also obsessed with throwing things--- look out!

* these pictures are all from before the unfortunate haircut....

Family Shoes

2010-01-18T20:52:00.000-07:00

pizza boys

2010-01-05T20:22:00.005-07:00

Amato and Sawyer made pizzas this evening. They did a great job though I think that in the end, Di and I ate more pizza than they did...

They clearly both figured out that they could enjoy the process along the way- yummy cheese!

baking

2010-01-05T20:18:00.003-07:00

Sawyer helped me with a lot of baking over the holidays. He decided it was important to taste all the ingredients. For some reason he seemed to think that flour was tasty! Yum.

holidays

2010-01-05T20:01:00.007-07:00

first bike!

2010-01-05T19:43:00.004-07:00

I have a lot of catching up to do on the blog. We had a really nice holiday season. Sawyer's Nana came out for Christmas and we had a wonderful visit. I am going to try to get some of the pictures up over the next few days. I want to start with Sawyer's new adventures on his new bicycle.

Santa Visit

2010-01-02T13:38:00.000-07:00

Hiking with Janelle

2009-12-13T18:42:00.008-07:00

Our friend, Janelle, has been living in Australia since just before Sawyer was born. She is home for a long winter visit. This morning we went for a wonderful little hike with her and our friend Altan. We are so grateful that the deep freeze we have been in for the last 2 weeks has broken and we can enjoy some time outside!

cereal box

2009-12-12T13:32:00.004-07:00

It has been noted that Sawyer is always smiling in our pictures. Though he has a wonderful temperament, rest assured, even Sawyer has days when not being able to play with a cereal box during breakfast is too much to bear.

Sinterklaas!

2009-12-06T21:02:00.007-07:00

When we were in DC, Omi showed Sawyer the puppets that my grandmother, Petra, made- including Sinterklaas and ZwartePiet.
We decided that we want to celebrate Sinterklaas on December5/6th so that Sawyer learns more about his Dutch heritage. So last night we put Sawyer's new wood shoes out by the fireplace and this morning we opened a couple little gifts and ate huge plates of blueberry/banana pancakes!

other DC pics

2009-12-06T20:53:00.005-07:00

Love this picture of Jurgen and Sawyer. And this one of Sawyer and Grandpaji (who Saw calls Boppee right now).
Sawyer did some more reading on his own...
some of his reading was pretty heavy stuff!

Klompen

2009-12-06T20:18:00.003-07:00

So we are happy to report that Sawyer got his first pair of wooden shoes- straight from Holland. With his footed pajamas, they were a perfect fit! At first he tried out the great sounds they make on the wood floor...

And then he really got going! He ran circles through the house klompen his klompen just loving the noise. He mastered those shoes really quickly despite the fact that they have absolutely no traction- especially on a wood floor!

and then he came in for a big hug!

Air and Space museum!

2009-12-06T20:11:00.005-07:00

We took Sawyer to the Natural History museum and the Air and Space museum. He had a blast checking out all the planes.
There was an area that was all about air craft carriers- he was completely enthralled by the movie that showed the planes landing and taking off from the deck. I caught this pic of him watching the play by play.
Sawyer has always been very determined. He usually has a pretty good idea of what he wants. Here is a good example. When we were at the museum, he saw a row of chairs. He grabbed my hand and pulled me to them and said "Mamma sit." He then went and got Dan, pulled him to the chairs and said "Poppa sit." He then rounded up Omi and Grandpaji. He filled the final chair and we quickly begged a stranger to grab a picture of the moment. Here we are:

Turkey Day

2009-12-06T19:58:00.011-07:00

We took a wonderful trip to DC for Thanksgiving. My brother flew in from Seattle and we had a great time visiting museums and hanging out. Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful traditional turkey dinner-- complete with sweet potatoes with marshmallows, which Sawyer found particularly appealing!Dan got a little loopy along the way...
...as did Sawyer. Luckily, playing under the table kept Sawyer pretty entertained.

Maine Visit

2009-12-02T14:43:00.005-07:00

It has been a few weeks since my last post. November was a very hectic and sad month. Dan went to Maine at the end of the first week of November to help care for his ailing grandmother, Dodie/Nana. The following week we all went out for her funeral. It was very sad to say goodbye to such a wonderful woman.

While we were in Maine, we spend time with lots of family. We also took an afternoon to go to the Maine Maritime Museum. Sawyer loved all the boats. Here are some pics.

growing boy

2009-11-05T20:43:00.007-07:00

Here is an update to this summer's jumping video- this boy is growing up.

We got a couple of place mats for Sawyer to keep him at the table longer. It has been fun to watch him explore them and learn some new words. Here are a couple of videos...

Sawyer is stringing two words- sometimes three words together. Most of his sentences are about himself or Dezi. He refers to himself as "baby" or "the baby" as in "Up, the baby" when he wants up and "Outside, the baby" when he wants to go outside.

I forgot to update his stats: at his 18 month appointment Sawyer was in the 80th percentile for height and 70th for weight.

i love you, Poppa

2009-11-05T19:17:00.004-07:00

Hey Dan- we miss you!

love,

hannah and sawbug

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T15:25:00.006-06:00

Sawyer went to his first Halloween party on Friday at school. He and his friends had a lot of fun and even were part of a parade that went through the big-kid rooms. On Saturday night we went to another Halloween party and by then Sawyer had figured out how to say "party" and what it might mean. Then we took him trick or treating for his first time- He can say "Happy Ween!" but hasn't mastered "Trick or Treat" yet- I imagine next year he will be in true form. He definitely go the hang of it and ran from one house to the next with his little turtle shell bouncing behind him.

Here are some pictures from his party at school.

Feeding Dezi

2009-10-31T15:04:00.002-06:00

We are really happy that Sawyer is starting to help us with chores around the house- about time, huh? ;)

Snow day!

2009-10-31T14:48:00.007-06:00

We got an amazing October snow that lasted a couple days. Over 21"!

Sawyer absolutely loved it!He decided pretty early on that he didn't want to wear his gloves, so Dan had to do some hand-warming interventions.

What to do on a cold and rainy day

2009-10-27T21:16:00.006-06:00

Boxes make for some great play time when you are stuck inside the house!
Sawyer wants to be like his Poppa....We made pumpkin bread together this weekend. Sawyer helped me measure the flour, sugar, and spices. He absolutely loves watching the KitchenAid do its work.
And finally, Sawyer seems to be picking up some habits from Dezi....

Leaf Jumping

2009-10-26T18:42:00.003-06:00

After we got all the leaves raked, we decided we needed to do some leaf jumping!

Fall leaves and first snow

2009-10-11T13:40:00.014-06:00

Here are some pics of our recent romps in the beautiful fall leaves. Sawyer did a good job helping me rake up the front lawn.
He had some fun playing in the garden too.He is never happy when it is time to go inside...

And the leaves were really beautiful until.... our first snow! It has been a very, very cold weekend.

I love this pic of Sawyer- he has such an earnest face.

It was so cold that on Saturday Diane and I brought Sawyer and Amato to the butterfly pavilion. Sawyer hasn't been there since he was 11 months and just learning to walk (and Omi was visiting). He was a little nervous about the fluttering butterflies but he loved the spiders and cockroaches, touched the starfish. Sawyer spent most of the time in the pavilion running after Amato yelling "Mat-mo! Mat-mo!"

I tried to get to some good pictures but only this picture of Amato turned out well. Here he is!
Sawyer's vocabulary is really growing! His new big words this week are tunnel, cricket, and honey.

18 months!

2009-10-04T20:08:00.009-06:00

We hiked Mt. Sanitas again this weekend- this time we went all the way up and over. Sawyer hiked about half of the way up and slept for about half of the way down. It was his first time up and over since he was about 15 lbs- which is about when I decided he was too heavy to carry up the staircase trail.... apparently I am not steadfast in my decisions as I was the one that carried him up the second half and Dan was the one that carried him down...

Sawyer is absolutely in love with planes and trains. He has a keen ear for both of them. Apparently Saturday mornings are popular with the local small-plane pilots because we saw more than a half dozen small planes on our hike. Sawyer was very, very excited. Here is a picture of Saw and Dan as Sawyer was scanning the sky for a plane he heard.We took a nice little break half way up with a great view of the Front Range foothills.

This weekend Sawyer hit the 18 month mark. He weighs 27.4 lbs and is 32.5" tall! He is becoming a real parrot and is learning lots of new words. His newest word is "turtle" which he began using on Friday afternoon when we saw a turtle at the ponds we visit regularly.

It looks like Sawyer is giving up his only white foods eating campaign! He is actually eating vegetables again (it has been about two months) and loves ketchup!

Some other big news these days is that Sawyer is giving up his binky! He had been using it less and less so on Friday night we decided to put him to bed without it and he did just fine. He hasn't used a binky since Friday afternoon nap at school. We are on night #3 and things are going well! Now we just have to see what happens during nap time at school tomorrow!

oh.. and he really likes wearing two hats... :)

weekend fun

2009-09-27T19:45:00.009-06:00