Sawyer

Last week, Abby thought of something fun to do with Sawyer: painting.

To be fair, she briefed me on her plan, but I don’t think I fully grasped the scale at which she was thinking. I definitely knew something was up when she came home with a giant roll of butcher paper, but I had visions of her placing a few squares of it on the dining room table for him to play with. You can imagine my surprise when she covered the entire kitchen in white paper!

My job was to block the only exit from his paper cage and capture everything on video. I didn’t expect to become part of the exhibit, but Sawyer made sure to share his color with me. Here’s the video of the first ten minutes (that’s the washing machine in the background, just about to take flight but it ends soon). Note that he can now stand up in place without bracing himself:

Click through to Vimeo for full-screen HD video. =)

And pictures of the finale, here’s Abby lathering him up with paint:

He took care of getting color on his belly:

Very little white paper left untouched:

Yes, he’s screaming in this one:

Choosing his spot wisely:

Looking for his next target:

He’s very discerning:

Completely covered:

Like a little warrior baby:

Having a blast too:

Clean backside:

And now he’s done for the day:

Just think, Abby and I are bringing our little Sawyer monster to see you soon. Better cover your walls with paper!

We started the morning with a two and half hour walk down the Embarcadero (here’s Sawyer walking around one of the piers along the way):

We went all the way around to see the sealions at Pier 39 — almost four miles round trip — our friends Zane, Christine, and Dylan made the trip too:

After a long nap for Sawyer (just enough time to cook dinner for us) we sat down to our Thanksgiving feast of turkey and stuffing, mashed yams, and Abby’s green bean casserole:

Sawyer really, really liked it:

Abby gave him some pumpkin pie for desert and he promptly shoved the whole piece in his mouth so that he could scrape off the filling:

By the end of dinner, Sawyer was so wound up:

He slept better last night than he did the night before, but that isn’t saying much. He’s teething and growing like a weed so he’s really restless. I’m hoping for a long afternoon nap now that I finally settled him down.

Happy belated Thanksgiving to everyone!

Against my better judgement, we are debuting Sawyer’s first real injury from walking. The little guy tripped on the rocking chair and took a header into the bottom shelf of his changing table. Ugh!

I’ll ease you into it:

Here it is:

He’s really okay.

Here’s my little secret. In previous posts, I have edited out minor scrapes, so putting these up is not easy. It is so much better this way. Don’t you agree?

After a long Sunday afternoon at the park with Abby, and an unsuccessful attempt at a nap when he came home, we finally gave up and turned Sawyer loose in our room. Here’s proof that he can walk without having his hands over his head. Look at him go:

Note how skillfully he stoops to pick up my orange alarm clock, how effortlessly he sidles, how well he turns without stopping, and how easily he melts down when tired. I can’t wait to bring him home in just a few weeks!

This morning’s sun bounced off of the building across the street and right into our living room, which made for some incredibly bright light on Sawyer’s breakfast. He didn’t seem to mind, he was more focused on devouring his blueberry waffles.

“Waffles and raisins, and yogurt, and juice, and cinnamon sticks. That’s the breakfast. And sunshine.”

Next, I played a little game of peek-a-boo with him by sliding my face behind either side of the camera. If you watch closely you can see him follow my with his eyes. He then decides to play his own game of peek-a-boo, by disappearing off-frame:

Gotta love his mouth-full-of-waffles smile!

Snippets of our time at the park today.

This merry-go-round is not light.

Through the tunnel.

One of my favorite tubby tricks, aside from giving him a mohawk or an Ed Grimly, is to give Sawyer a gigantic bubble afro. Last week’s effort was one of my best.

Here’s the making of:

The shaping of:

The modeling of:

The inspiration:

And the celebration:

My parents can tell you how much I loved watching Bob Ross — “We don’t make mistakes, we just have happy little accidents” — every Saturday morning. I tried painting only once, and believe me he made it look a lot easier on tv. My sister Sarah just started painting recently. Wait until you see her work, she’s really good!

It’s official. He’s walking:

Talking:

Hiding:

Playing and laughing:

Sorry for the dangly piece of string hanging from his shirt. It is a bit distracting.

It was unexpectedly hot at the zoo, and the outfit I picked out for Sawyer was much too warm for him. Luckily Abby had a spare in the diaper bag, so after the petting zoo we gave him a quick change. Voila, brand new Sawyer.

Here he is taking in the sights and sounds of the playground (there were kids everywhere):

Then we came across one of the many peacocks that roam the grounds:

Sawyer loved it, peacock not so much:

He looks so much more comfortable:

We made our way over to the penguins to see their afternoon feeding. No pictures of that, but rest assured Sawyer was enthralled by the way they moved on land and swam in the water. He wiggled the entire time we were there.

After lunch by the “Little Puffer” train station, we went to see the monkeys. Sawyer felt right at home:

Abby’s turn:

Up top:

Then the giraffes:

I’m pretty sure he’s posing for these:

Looking at the ostrich:

And last but not least, he takes in the gorilla exhibit:

You can tell that we wore him out, but as I said yesterday he couldn’t have been happier. I can’t wait to take him back, and I can only hope we’ll soon have another beautiful afternoon for a trip to the zoo!

It was a beautiful day in San Francisco today, well over 80° and not a cloud in the sky. The zoo is located on the ocean-side of town, so it’s almost always much cooler over there, but when the air is still and the fog is gone it’s just perfect. After the game and a quick lunch for Sawyer, we hopped in the car and headed out for the afternoon.

We went straight to the meerkats:

I think he liked them:

Then we walked over to the children’s petting zoo (this was Sawyer’s preferred mode of transportation — he wore me out):

He loved the ducks:

And walked all around:

But really wanted to swim:

Tons of goats (Sawyer had no fear):

Luckily he wasn’t in the middle of this:

Standing with Abby at the edge of the pond:

The ducks were just inches away:

And the swan too:

He loved every second of it:

Sawyer stayed up well past his normal afternoon nap time, but never once grew tired of the zoo. He loved watching the other kids as much as the animals, the seagulls, and the many peacocks that roam the grounds. He finally feel asleep in the car on our way home, which was hardly enough, but he went to right to sleep after dinner without a fuss. I know he’ll have plenty of stories to tell us in the morning.

Should we ever leave San Francisco, today was one of those days I will always remember. I wish we could have stayed out another hour to watch the sunset — with the normal heavy fog there’s nothing to see, but today would have been perfect.