Two weeks

Well, it has been two weeks since my last post- we have had a rough couple of weeks, but have found our footing again *and* Sawyer is back to full health and his chipper self!

The rash that we thought had cleared up two weeks ago came back we avengence and covered Sawyer from head to toe.  His torso was bright red and inflamed for several days and he came down with a virus at the same time.  The doctor still insists that the skin problems are due to eczema and prescribed hydrocortizone.  Not wanting to rub steroids all over the little guy, we cut out a few foods he has been eating a lot of recently, kept him home from school to get over the virus, and treated his skin with a whole lot of lotion.  He went back to school at the end of last week- virus gone and skin condition under control. As of this weekend there is no lasting sign of the skin condition.   We are reintroducing foods and doing a patch-test of a skin lotion we suspect he is sensitive to...We'll see if it pops up again.

Oh- and it turns out he is getting 5(!) teeth in simultaneously (rather than 4)!  One of the days he was feeling particularly miserable, we set up a comfy camp on the floor of the living room and just hung out on pillows and blankets and read books.  

The great news is that he has really adjusted to being in school.  He no longer gets upset when he is dropped off and he is eating pretty well.  He still doesn't sleep very well there, which is too bad because on the weekends he naps for about 3 hours and clearly needs that sleep.  Hopefully this

 will improve soon too!

Here is a video of his improving spoon skills!:

So here is some news- Sawyer pooped on the toilet- twice!  He has learned the sign for "poop" and has started using it to tell us if he has a dirty diaper and even sometimes to tell us he is going to need a clean diaper soon.  So during his days home sick I started offering him the toilet when he gave us a warning sign- thinking at least he would get familiar with the idea-- and it worked! Now, I know he is still likely to be in diapers for a good bit longer, but it sure is nice to think that some day the diaper days will be over!  I was going to post a little video- but figured I will just stick with this photo:

Other great news is that the farm we joined has begun supplying our weekly veggie and Oh!!! what a bounty!  On Thursday, Sawyer and I biked to the pick-up place and got our bunches of: spring turnips, radishes, spinach, a braising mix of spicy greens, and a big bundle of Egyptian walking onions!  What fun!  Here is a pic of the cornucopia:

And here is the first meal we made from it:  baked salmon served with roasted turnips with poppy seeks and paprika, and braising greens sauteed with a little balsamic vinegar.  Wow! 

recovering

We are all recovering now from the end of last week.  Sawyer ended his week with an ear infection, 4 teeth coming in simultaneously (2 incisors and 2 molars), and a full body rash.  Ug.  We ended up at the doctor's office Friday evening.  It is a little bit of a relief to learn that some of his crankiness in the last week has been due to the pain and discomfort- all of which can be remedied.  He is on the mend and is getting back to his chipper and delightful self.

Sawyer's school experience isn't going quite as smoothly as we had hoped.  He has been pretty overwhelmed by the whole experience.  While he doesn't cry as much when we drop him off, he is still really working to get his footing.  The kids in his class are all so much more mobile, verbal, etc.  It is amazing what 3-4 months does in terms of development at this age.  The main downside is that Sawyer isn't eating or napping particularly well at school.  This means that afternoons/evenings can be pretty cranky and he spends a good bit of the time we share before bedtime eating.  Literally- he eats a giant snack when he gets home around 4pm and a giant dinner about two hours later.

We went to the zoo again this weekend.  We decided last time we went to become members- it is a really good deal in that we have already paid off the cost of the membership in visits and now we have 11 months of free visits!  What a great place to spend time with the little guy!

His new favorite creatures are birds.  Each morning we sit by the front window of the house watching the birds while he drinks his morning milk.  He says "bur".  At the zoo he absolutely loved the pond of water birds.  Here is a series of photos I took as he enjoyed the scene.

More birds! More, more, more!

What???

Look at those ducks.

Hmmm, ducks.

Look, ducks, there!

All done.

One of Sawyer's favorite new expressions is one of inquiry.  He throws his hands up to ask who? what? why? where?  We were watching the otters swim and he threw up this fantastic gesture:

Otter, huh?

He got this great wood frog for Christmas but has only just figured out that it is cool to pull while walking!  Go frog go!

As definitive proof that low-tech toys are a great joy, here is one of Dan and Sawyer's new favorite things to do: the great Bean Bag Swing!  He coos and coos and then signs for more when Dan stops.

To recap last week: we had a really nice Mother's day.  We made a nice breakfast at home and then went out for our first family bike ride!  We finally got a trailer for the bike so we can do some commuting on bikes.  We have started taking Sawyer to/from school in the trailer and he just loves it.  Every time we stop to check on him (or at a stop sign) he signs that he wants "more more more."  

Zoo visits and First Haircut

Over the weekend, we headed to the zoo again with Sacha, Diane, and Amato.  It was a beautiful day and we saw lots of great animals, including baby giraffes! So grateful for glass enclosures, huh?  Sawyer was pretty interested in the snake but the snake was clearly smitten with sawyer!

In other news:

Dan has been suggesting a haircut for Sawyer for the last month or two.  He didn't really like the mullet Sawyer seemed to be growing.  I finally agreed that a mullet was loose in the house.  So I finally agreed.  At first we put him in his high chair and promptly realized that the high back would prevent reaching the devilish hairs.... so we finally opted for his rocking horse!  With some clothes pins holding on a towel and some pillows to keep him from rocking wildly, we actually got his hair trimmed up nicely!

Sawyer's first day of school!

Sawyer started school on Monday morning.  He did pretty well on his first day but was a little overwhelmed by the afternoon.  His teachers were very attentive and ended up carrying him a lot (sorry for them- he is 25lbs!).  His class mates are all 17 months or older- so he is definitely the little guy (even at his size).  Luckily, he has some good role models- his classmates are all washing their hands, sitting together for snacks and meals, and playing games together.  

We are keeping his days at school relatively short- 9:30-3:30 for now- so he gets some good time at home, at the park, walking the dog... doing all the stuff we usually do in the afternoons together.


I have forgotten to mention that he went in for his 1 year check-up a few weeks ago. He measured 24.5lbs and 30.5". He is still in the 70th percentile for weight and 75th for height.

busy boy

Sawyer has been a very busy boy.  Now that he is walking- almost running- keeping up with him is getting harder and harder.  Once he is up, he is going non-stop until he sleeps.  

Last week was his last week with his nanny, Carolyn.  We are sad to lose her, but she will be off to great things soon.  We took Sawyer to his school on Wednesday afternoon to meet his teacher and spend some time with his classmates.  He had a blast and when it was time to leave he really didn't want to go.

Here are some recent videos.  

He has been practicing his table manners.  

Though he knows a lot about gravity from falling- he is also learning a little about the nuances of gravity.

since this video- he no longer uses the walls to get to standing. he is doing the classic baby squat-to-stand now!

He is always on the move. He can engage in tasks like this for a long time.