blueberries

I thawed out some frozen blueberries for Sawyer today. I put his giant toddler bib that covers everything from neck to thigh and put him in his highchair.

I came back to him, bib ripped off, and blueberries painted all over the tray of the highchair. The best part was his face.





how can you resist a face like that? :)

Merry Christmas!

something to be thankful for...

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

I have been reflecting upon the past year today. Thinking of what it was like to have a two week old for Thanksgiving last year and then what it is like to have a one year old this year. I am thankful for this past year. He has grown so much, become such a little boy.

Some of the things he has been doing recently are just amazing me. I mean truly amazing me. And I don't want to brag, because truthfully it is not about what he can do and others can't. Or what he can't do that others can. Each child is their own person and will develop in their own unique way. Ok, off my soapbox...

He says no less than 12 words.

Mama (so proud of this one)
Dada
Nana (banana)
hat
bebe (all babies including himself)
bisbe (frisbee)
juce (juice)
papa (grandpa)
baba (brother)
light
mmmmmmnnn (cow)
ball

And I think there are more but I can't keep up with all of them

He is so loving, and into everything. He is pretty stubborn, wonder where he got that one. And most of all he is the greatest gift ever.

Thanks for reading my thanksgiving ramblings. I hope that you feel as blessed as we do! :)

Big Birthday fun!

We had a very small dinner for Sawyer's birthday and we had a smash cake for the little guy. I was soooo excited for this. I really wanted to get some good pictures of the night. I was also excited to see the little guy enjoy his night. And he did. We had a meal of his favorite foods; roast chicken, sweet potatoes, and peas, with rolls too! Then mommy made a whole wheat healthy type of carrot cake and let him go at it...


This is what he does when we ask him how old he is. seriously!



This is a shot of the cake that I made for him! :)



He is checking it out and thinking, "now what am I supposed to do with this?"



"Oh I see, I eat it, okay."


"Now I am really getting into this!" Notice his brother and my mom and dad in the reflection of the window, how cool!



"This is some good stuff!"



"All done!" We took well over half away from him, by the way. :)


So that was Sawyer kid's big day. Thanks for looking!

He's 1!

This is a letter for Sawyer that I have written for him. I hope in years to come it is not just mommy cheese but can be for him a special reminder of how much we love the kid.

Sawyer, you will always be my baby boy, but today you have become my little toddler. I have been preparing for this day for a few weeks and you pretty much forced it on me when you decided to start walking at 11 months. haha. But that is you little guy, always forging ahead, always out to find the next exciting thing. You know, we have this toy area for you in the house and one of the biggest joys of your day is not playing with the toys really, it is just pulling EVERY.SINGLE.TOY out of the organized bins that are there. And as you have now realized because you are old enough to read and know that mommy is a organizational freak. So I look at you pulling one toy out after another and you are not even looking at them long enough to decide if you want to play with you are just tearing through and not completely content until every toy is in the middle of your rug, and I realize the joy of the experience is not the toys, it is the work that you are doing to get them all out. You are more excited by plastic food storage container than you are by anything made by Baby Einstein. You will knowingly walk over to the stairs, you are not supposed to climb on your own and get as close as you can to climbing and then turn and look at me and see if I care, or if I will come and get you, or if I will tell you, "NO!". Then you will throw this sly smile my way and head on up if you can find a way though the gate. You could eat and eat and eat and eat. I regularly hear from other, "how could he eat that, he just had dinner...." it doesn't stop you. I think you get that from your uncle Achilleus. And that curly hair. Oh that curly hair. Fuzzy head, q-tip head, curly bob are all common nicknames from us. And we love it. I just hope that it stays and you don't hate it.

So I say all this, Son, that you might get a glimpse of the massive amount of joy that you have brought into our lives. You are the biggest and most wonderful thing that has ever come into my life. One year ago as I lay in the recovery room, very drugged might I add, and I started to contemplate life with a baby I don't think I could have imagined a better year to toddlerhood. So, my baby, as you turn one, I am blessed that you call me, "mamamamam" and I have great joy as I look into the many years to come. I love you Sawyer. Always, your Mommy.

I've got laundry skills.

So I was doing some laundry the other day. I was washing some towels and such. Well I had some extra room and I threw in one of our blankets too.

This blanket was an older red one of ours and I had no idea that it would bleed all over EVERYTHING. We have got plenty of pink towels now. Haha!

So as I am moving everything over to the dryer I notice that I turned one of Saywer's onsies pink and I was really bummed. I had ruined one of his shirts... only then I realized which one I turned pink...



And then it was just funny. :)

roses.

So my husband shaved his head. For a Halloween costume. No big deal, right? WRONG.

We have family pictures in a week. I have been thinking and planning and shopping for these for months. We are not just heading on down to the local JCPenny for studio shots. Nope we are having our AMAZING wedding photographer come to our house and take the kind of pictures I hope to one day get close to taking.

And he shaves his frikkin head. What the heck?

So I was pretty upset. And then I was a little hurt because he didn't seem to care that I was upset. It was a vicious cycle. All along I knew we would recover. It wasn't that bad. But I was pretty upset for a while there. And then he bought me these...




And I was all better. :)

Baby steps.

Do you remember the movie, "What about Bob?" Oh my goodness funny. But there was a phrase that the Richard Drifus character would say to the Bill Murray character, "baby steps..." in fact I think it was the title of his book in the story.

Anyways, I guess I never properly understood the concept of baby steps. I just thought taking small steps. Not trying to grow and move fast but taking it slow.

Oh no it means so much more than that now. As I observe Sawyer attempt this wonderful feat of walking, I now know what it means to take baby steps.

You see he doesn't just take one step and then a little while later another and they are all small. No. He take one step every once in a while. And then it is like he forgot how to do it. And then all the sudden he will take two steps and then for a long time he won't even stand unassisted. Then maybe three steps a long time later. Then only one step for days. Then he gets adventurous and takes 4 or 5 but only once because lets face it walking is frikkin scary. So he goes back to crawling for a while and then he tries again but this time only 2 steps. It is up and down. Back and forth. Everyday is a new trial, every attempt is rough.

And that my friends is baby steps. We don't just decide to change one day. We do it one small step at a time. Just as Sawyer couldn't just decide to start walking today, we can assume that we can be come what we want overnight. We have to take baby steps. Some days it will seem as if we grow leaps and bounds and then overnight it might seem like we have forgotten everything we have learned. But if you look back, over time, and evaluate if you are growing, you will see that you are stronger, better, smarter, and farther than you were a year ago, right?

Just as I KNOW that Sawyer will walk someday (no hurry from me), I know that we all grow and change via baby steps. Having a baby teaches you so many lessons. He is such a blessing to me.

Here is a recent picture of my little guy.



And one of his brothers...

When it rains it pours.

These are not totally awesome but I took some pictures today with some new fabric backgrounds that I wanted to try out. He was hard to keep in the right spot so these are what I got, but I think he is lovely. Mommy goggles.

He is so close to walking it is crazy. Tonight for the first time he took like three steps in a row. I say as soon as he builds his confidence that he can really do it look out world here he comes running.

I learn new things every day because of him. And I am amazed daily and the wonder of this child. Thank you God for blessing me with him. I pray that I can be everything he needs me to be for him.

He turned 11 months on Saturday.

So today I pulled out my trusty camera and got some shots of him. And then I made our new banner at the top. All his faces! I love how expressive he is.

just some snapshots

The other day max and I were going to go for a walk and then we were at the car and we realized that we had to go and pick up Marcus from confirmation class at 7 and it was already 6:35. No time for a walk but time for some pictures.

And before I get to those I wanted to update you on some of his new accomplishments. He is standing on his own for like seconds at a time. This is a huge step (get to those in a second) for him. He doesn't even realize that he is doing it and then all of the sudden he does realize it and he sits down. He is also taking a step or so every once in a while. This is not an often occurrence. It is actually pretty random but nonetheless very exciting. He waves all the time now. Hello house, hello grandma, byebye kitty, byebye car. Pretty stinking adorable.

He says Hat, it sounds like, "da-at"
He says Cat, "a-at"
He says dada, mama, baba, nana (favorite food ever, and sometimes all foods in general)

What an amazing thing. Someone should convince Max that we NEEEEED to have more.

Waving.

Kisses.


they like each other.

check out this hair.

For real, where did he get this? It is amazing.

In all it fuzzyness, curlyness, craziness, it is just so him.

I LOVE it.

I found Gymboree!

I had never shopped there before really. And I finally did, and I am never turning back.

So I found the cutest outfits and I just love their stuff. I mean this kid is picture perfect to begin with but now even more so, lol.

So here is our latest...

cow pig

So recently we have been teaching Sawyer a lot of words. Wall, ball, banana...

And he doesn't really say them back to us, except for nananananan. Ahhh, the love of the banana! :)

But the other day I sat down with him and picked up his toy cow and toy pig (he has a farm themed room) and said, "cow" when I touched the cow. and, "pig," when I touched his pig. Well today he just knew which was which without my help this time.

And he is only 10 months!!!

Wow. I am so proud of him. Maybe not that big of a deal but it is cool to see them learn. You know?

nanas

Sawyer loves bananas. He LOVES them. I think he would eat 3 a day.

He knows where we keep them. And each time we walk through the kitchen he looks for them and says, "nana." Over and over and over. So it is something like this, "nana nana nana nana."

Cute right?

Well yesterday we ran out of nanas. He got his breakfast one but then we were all out. So I had planned to go to the store and get more that day.

Well about 2 hours after breakfast we were walking thought the kitchen and he looked for the nanas and didn't see any. This apparently freaked him out. OMG where are the nanas? How am I going to get more nanas? How can I live without nanas?

He started to cry. He started to pout. He was very upset about this. So he sat down on his carpet and just cried for 5 min. 5 whole minutes of tragic crying all over the missing bananas. Where is the world coming to, he must have thought.

So we went to go get more nanas. And now peace is restored. Life is good. He can move forward because we have nanas. Needless to say we won't be running out of nanas anytime soon.

Heres a pic.

so what have we been up to?!?

Moving (LOVE the new house). Working (max got a promotion). Starting school (Jarod, 3rd grade, Marcus 7th). Visiting family and friends. Loving life.

I take pictures ALL THE TIME. And I love it.

Sawyer is closer to walking than ever.

I am starting some new stuff at church and I am pretty excited.

Marcus is in the honors program at his new school.

Jarod loves his teacher this year, and it is a gooood thing.

Max's grandfather is dying. That is sad. He got to say good bye though. Keep them in your thoughts.

And that is about it. Here are some new pictures for you.






Sawyer and his great grandmother franks.

he is accomplishing so much!

This kid is amazing. I am so excited to see him doing all this new stuff.

And an update on our life. Max has gone back to work full time. And the boys have started back to school for the fall. This is all quite an adjustment for Mommy. It will all come together. We will get it all figured out, but keep us in your thoughts as we do so!

what a day!

So today starts off with us finding this about 15 minutes after we put Sawyer down for his first nap...



And we thought, "what the heck is that all about?" Did he bite himself? Did he have a bloody nose? So we put him in the shower with daddy and then he threw up blood twice in the shower. Needless to say, we were off to the emergency room rather quickly.

We got to the doctor's office (the E-room passed us on to the pediatrician) and the doctor decided that little man needed to have his blood pressure taken.




That blood pressure cuff was the cutest thing I had ever seen. It was so tiny and it wasn't even the smallest one.

Shortly after that it was off to the lab to have blood drawn. And this was the worst thing ever because we had to pin him down while the tech attempted to draw his blood. This was not the cutest thing ever.



And if that wasn't bad enough, he got really upset. It just plain sucked.



Everything got figured out after three pokes two in the right arm and one in the left. As it turns out we didn't even get the test done that required the second and third poke. So this is how we ended the day.



He is so sweet when he sleeps. Let's just hope that it was a one time freak happening. Send all your happy thoughts and prayers Sawyer's way!

I got a new camera

And now I will promptly update you on the new look of Sawyer. I was gone for 9 days on a mission trip and he definitely changed but it is hard to put your finger right on it.

His vocalizations are more strategic and he is taller. He cries differently now. He has different cries. Like his, "oh gosh, I just got in trouble," cry. And his, "I want food" cry. And his, "pick me up, pay attention to me" cry.

He is also done breastfeeding. Nine months is a long time and it is a good goal to reach but I am not going to lie I was hoping that he would never have formula and he would make it until 12 months. We are going to see if can avoid the formula buy making sure he still has the good stuff but we are okay if it doesn't work.

And so here are the pictures.

Finally got the camera battery charged!

So Max is back. And life here is better. Sawyer really did miss him and so did I. It has been interesting to think about life over the past few weeks. We are reevaluating our feeding situations. And we are thinking about what it means to be two full time working parents of three kids. This is tough stuff. But it is good too! Blessings to us include that my job is so flexible. I can work when it is convenient for the family and for childcare. That is huge. It is a money saver.

We are moving. That is fun. And setting up all new stuff. That is interesting too.

And on the Sawyer front. This kid eats like it is his job. No joke. He has like 5-6oz of food each mean plus more each time as well. His most recent love is for the grape. He would eat each piece that I put in front of him and he freaks when he sees the container.

He has tried bread, and that was a favorite too.

I took a few pics the last few days and I wanted to share. Here they are...

I'm a single mom...

For four days. Max is on a work trip. And it has been a weird two days so far.

We went to Monterey to visit Auntie Abby for the night. Quick trip. Got there Monday afternoon and left Tuesday morning. Auntie Abby doesn't have babies over very often so Sawyer revealed to her the art of baby-proofing. It was fun and a bit of a challenge as a single mom but he was a total trooper on the road. He slept for about 4 hours of the 5 hour total road trip. And if you knew his inability to be a happy baby in the car back in February you would be as amazed as I am.

All in all it was fun! Sawyer had his first run in with a large dog. Patsy made sure to bathe him with her tongue. It was cute.

The weird part was the separation anxiety that Sawyer displayed for the first time ever. He would freak if I put him down. He wouldn't sleep in the porta-crib. He woke up quite a few times. And it was just strange.

Then we got home and there was more of the same. The only happy times were either while I was holding him, showering him, taking him for a walk, or feeding him. Oh, and he bit me. WTH? The kid has got to learn that you don't bite the hand (or boob!) that feeds you. LOL!

So the point to all of this is that I am pretty certain that he misses daddy. I think he gets that something is different and this is making him insecure. And if daddy being gone for 4 days makes him a little insecure what is mommy being gone for 9 days going to do to him.

And after all is said and done at the end of the day I just can't help but think that he is just so amazing!

not at all related to anything i would normally blog about

So as I have become more and more interested in photography there is a forum I look at sometimes. It is called, www.ilovephotography.com. Well there is this so called photographer who made a website, http://www.hoffman-photography.com, she is based in St. Louis.

NEVER HIRE HER. Her name is Ashley Karandjeff. She is a fraud. She took other people's professional photos off of the forum and off of their blogs and put them on her own.

Beyond that she posted some camera lenses and other equipment for sale and took multiple payments but never actually delivered the stuff.

So I wanted to post this here so if someone was going to google her they might get a link to mine.

Thanks.

An update.

Can you believe that he is going to be 8 months tomorrow?

So whats new with us? There are currently a lot of challenges for us but lots of good stuff too. Challenges include broken cell phones, rising gas costs, six people in a smaller house, sick babies with 103.4 fevers, moving, getting ready for two of us to head to Mexico. The good stuff includes, and is not limited to, Kristy leading a mission trip to Mexico, an adorable baby with an amazing personality showing through, Max getting to go on a work trip to Wisconsin (his first ever business trip like this), we get to move into an awesome house, and a really fun garden.

Speaking of my garden here are a few pictures...



And here is a picture of the little man. He LOVES being outside. On numerous occasions when he has been less than thrilled with playing inside we have taken him outside to hang out in his walker. The little guy is thrilled with being outside so much that he just hangs out and pushes himself around and has a blast being outside. I see an outdoorsy type of son in our future.




And in further news, little man is now crawling like a maniac, he pulls himself up on everything, he is very close to fully cruising, he puts himself to sleep most of the time, he loves to play with anything that is not considered a real toy (remotes, phones, keys, the cat's tail), he has four teeth, he goes to bed at 7pm and wakes up at about 6am (God bless us), he eats meat and tons of veggies and fruit (he also eats tofu!), and he has an adoring family. Thank God for babies!

This video is hilarious, it has to be on the blog

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20PItBH__Mk

the birth story

I am up late and I just read the lovely birth story of a friend of ours and I realized that I never did this. So here it goes, what I remember of the birth of Sawyer Winfield F.

You were due on November 7, 2007. I started having regular contractions just before 34 weeks. I know that because I had to start going in for regular non-stress tests on week 34 and apparently I was having contractions all the time but not realizing it. Imagine my surprise when they get me all hooked up to the fabulous heart rate and contraction monitors and for them to tell me that I was already getting really ready to have you out. I was actually kind of excited. I mean I didn't want to have you that early but I thought anytime around 38 weeks would be great. So we started betting that you would actually be an October baby... but there I was at November 8th. I had to go in for another one of those lovely non-stress tests and I walked into the room with the beds and I looked at my friend Kathy the non-stress nurse with my swollen feet and my huge belly and I said to her, "I am done." So she called the doctor and asked her to see me that day, to work me in, and we would discuss the option of induction.

That was not my first choice. Anyone who heard me talk from day one that I found out I was pregnant with you would say that it was actually very unlike me. I was the au nautral, no epidural, no induction, just short of a home birth person. But here I was, knowing that most of the time Pitocin comes with Epidural and I was OKAY with that for the most part. I seriously wanted you out. I did my part you were fully cooked. It was time for you to come out. But now that I know you, this makes perfect sense. You do things on your own schedule at your own time and at your own pace. You make you own rules kid!

So here we were looking at Dr. French and she called Labor and Delivery and they said that they didn't have a bed, and my heart sank. I was so dissapointed. I so badly wanted to see you that day. I so wanted to hold you. But we had to go home and wait. So we waited and rested and we had a small power outtage on Friday night when we dropped your brothers off at Carol and Tom's house for the weekend. We tried to go to bed early but I had a hard time sleeping. We called at 5:30am. We must have looked a little eager because we thought that we were calling at 6 when the told us to call but some how we called a half an hour early. We got to the hospital at 7am and got hooked up to the medicine at 9am (after I had one last diabetic meal because I was starving!).

I labored drug free for 8 hours. They were pretty easy hours. Your G-ma Wilma and G-Pa Bob were there. Auntie Niecey was there (we watched the food network). Daddy was there of course. And one point Steven came by and much later Amanda and Jane came by. Seriously the first time that I met Jane was in the hospital and she almost watched you be born, weird!

So at about 4pm the contractions got worse than all the ones that I had been having at home. I was dilated to about 5cm and I was getting a little tired but I kept going drug free. All of the sudden it got so horrible I had to stand and hug your daddy and rock through each one. They were like a minute apart and they lasted 2 minutes long. Crazy. It hurt so bad. And at about 5pm I decided that if it kept up like that I wouldn't be able to push you out. So I gave in and had the epidural. I don't regret having it at all. I only regret telling everyone that I didn't want one before because, seriously, that thing was amazing.

So at about 6 the drugs were in and I was so happy. But I was at 7cm just before they put it in and at 9-10cm right afterwards. At about 8 I was pretty much ready to go but I had this little lip keeping them from letting me push plus you were really high and were not coming down.

So we waited and waited and waited. And finally at 12am they let me start pushing. And I pushed and pushed. We were all so exhausted. Daddy and auntie, g-ma and Amanda would all jump up each time I had to push to hold my legs and then just crash all around the bed whenever I was done. It was so funny.

So at about 2:30am they came in and told me that they would only let me push for about a half an hour more. Then we had to head into the c-section room. I wasn't scared like the time they scared me at about 9pm when your heart rate was going down and this crazy dr. came in and told me that the had to take you RIGHT THEN. Luckily your heart rate fixed itself. But by 3am I was okay. I did my best to get you out the right way but it was not going to happen.

So we rolled into the surgery room. There were drs. and nurses everywhere and then the cut me open. I was so cold. It was crazy I was shaking and shaking. They put like 5 warm blankets on me and I was fine then. Then at 3:21 I heard the best thing ever. You cried. And your daddy said, its a boy. And I was kinda shocked because I was certain that you were a girl (we didn't know, you were a surprise). But you were great. And they wrapped you up and brought you over to me and I touched you and cried and kissed you. It was amazing.

They rolled me into recovery (I puked). They brought you to me and told me to feed you. And I did and it worked. And you were starting to get food and adjust to life outside of mommy. I couldn't get enough of you. You slept on my chest for the first few weeks. We never left each others sight. You are the best thing I have ever done. I think you are amazing and I love you with my whole heart.

first word?

Max happened to catch on video (on our rink-i-dink point and shoot) a cool moment... see below.




So did Sawyer say, "Mama?" He has been babbling the ma's and the ma's recently but this time it really sounds like it. This kid is phenomenal. Crawling, pulling himself up, talking...all at 7 months. Oh and today is the seventh month anniversary of his birth by the way. Happy 7 months Sawyer baby!

crawler

we have a crawler. he finally did it. after weeks of scooting from here to there on Wednesday morning we were all sitting around getting ready for the day and eating some breakfast and he just crawled on over to me. it wasn't the normal launch toward the object of desire like you saw in the last video, no this was the full on one hand in front of the other, one knee in front of the other, crawl. what a proud mama am I!

here are a few newer pics...

six months - happy mothers day to me

Yesterday was quite a day. Sawyer's first half birthday. I can remember as a kid that the half birthday very closely follows the whole birthday in importance. Six whole months of life. It seems like yesterday in some ways and in others it seems like it was years ago.

We celebrated by me preaching at church yesterday. Well that really wasn't the celebration but it was a good way to start the day. It was a good service. It was also Pentecost. Just such a big day.

And then I woke up this morning and realized that I didn't snap one picture of the day. My memories will have to remain in my head. So I vowed to get some shots today of the kid. I bought him his bathing suit this morning and put him in it and took him outside to the neighbors beautiful (chemical laden, more on that later) lawn and it was a beautiful day...

And so after the photo shoot we went inside and lo and behold the kid had a rash all over his tummy and back. I thought, "oh, perhaps he is allergic to grass, darn, oh well." Until my arms started to BURN. Like really burn. What the heck? So, I immediately got us into the shower and washed all the chemicals off our skin. Stupid people and their stupid chemicals. But they sure do have a beautiful lawn. Dang that I can't take advantage of it more. :(.

Please excuse the shadows on him. These were taken at about 2 when the sun is too high for good pictures. I was going to try to do more later but as you guessed it I can't go back on the lawn. Dang it!

he's growing and growing

5 months, 18 days, 14 hours and he is amazing. 2 teeth, almost crawling, voraciously eating solids, babbling constantly....I am constantly in awe!

here are some pictures to enjoy and a video.

still teething...

only this time it is the top two teeth, or so I think. So today after work I came home, tried to work some more, put the kid down for a few naps but in between the naps he was super fussy and I came up with the idea to give him a bath. We normally give this kid showers. He loves the shower, it just calms him down so well. But today I pulled out the ole' fisher price washtub and filled it with warm water and ploped him down in it and he had a pretty good time. Here is a picture I took of our time in the water together. He was a trooper. Now after it was all over was another story but I don't want to frighten you away from having children all together, lol.