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."