Sawyer

I was taking some pictures of a few things to sell online when Sawyer stood in front of me and asked me to take his picture. I snapped this one first:

And then this one:

And then I asked him to smile:

And then I asked him to open wide:

And then he got bored:

Until I made him smile for real:

And then he went back to playing with his new cars:

Malisha, Abby’s friend from college, was in Columbus when the three of us were, so she stopped by with her son Rowan. Though a bit older, Rowan played really well with Sawyer, so well that Sawyer even shared one of his eight cars with him. So generous of you, Sawyer.

You can see Sawyer collecting his cars for transport elsewhere:

And once he ran out of hands he graciously offered one to Rowan:

Shortly thereafter, I helped them figure out the make and model of each one of Sawyer’s new race cars:

Rowan would rather have been golfing:

Later, Sawyer warmed up to his new microphone (see the post from two days ago for more on the “best gift ever”):

And soon was belting out his favorite “Wheels on the Bus” song:

While waiting for lunch at the dining room table, Sawyer seemed to be holding court:

He looks so serious:

I only wish I knew what he was talking about here:

All of this in just about two hours! Not a bad way to start the day, eh, Sawyer?

For reasons not entirely clear to me, Sawyer and I left home during rush hour today to drive 15 miles to Target. I wanted to replace a gift that his Aunt Sarah and Uncle Kevin bought him — a microphone that plays songs for him to sing along to — since it no longer works. He really wants it to work, and gets really excited when it does, but it usually only lasts a song before stopping altogether.

You might be wondering why it no longer works. I watched this entire scene unfold: Sawyer is sitting at the counter in my parents’ kitchen eating breakfast. Sawyer has a cup of juice in one hand and his microphone in the other. Sawyer looks at the microphone. Sawyer looks at the juice. Sawyer smiles. Sawyer dunks the microphone into the juice.

At any rate, you can only buy this microphone from an actual Target store, so off we went in search of a replacement. Of course, to get him there I had to promise that he would see some airplanes. More on that in a bit.

Sawyer was a riot in the toy aisle. I don’t think he’s seen a toy selection like this in a long, long time. He touched everything within his reach, but only demanded that he get a few specific things by saying, “let’s put this one in the cart.”

Sure enough, that car was the one he wanted to bring home!

I heard “look at this car” about a hundred times:

I love it when he bear hugs my leg and tries to drag me somewhere.

After Target, I decided to take him down to the airport. I parked in a lot where I knew the planes would fly overhead. There were surprisingly few tonight, but I managed to catch one on video. The plane and the wind make the audio crack, but Sawyer’s smile at the end is worth it:

After a few more, I drove around to the other side of the airport so he and I could watch planes land over the bay. That was really fun, but unfortunately I left my phone in the car so I didn’t get any video. I finally pulled him away to get it, and then dragged him back to our lucky plane-watching bench, but he was pretty much done at that point. This explains the bizarro pictures to follow.

“Sawyer sit right here” on his half of the bench:

“Dada sit right here” on my half of the bench:

Sunny son:

Emphatically explaining something:

Oh well, rest assured he and I had a ton of fun. I always remember going to watch airplanes land with my dad, it was truly one of my favorite things to do as a kid. I’m thrilled that I could share that same experience with him, especially on his two and a half year birthday. Happy half-birthday, Sawyer!

He probably didn’t realize it, but he was definitely in the running for the best present my Mom received for her birthday. After all, Sawyer has a way of stealing the show. As usual, I didn’t get many pictures of them together, but the three I did were each special in their own unique ways.

They are discussing one of the eight new race cars she bought him, one to match each of the colors of the cars in his Speedy Little Race Cars book:

Sawyer noticed the dragonfly from across the room and ran over to inspect it while she looked on:

And this particular scene on the swing was by special request. He just had to have her push him:

It’s hard to believe we were just there a day ago.

After nine plus hours of travel in which Sawyer didn’t sleep a wink, he finally fell asleep just five minutes from home. When I woke him up to go inside, he begged to go back to Mema and Pepa’s house. He said the same thing when he woke up this morning too.

Just a few hours ago, after having been in bed for over an hour and ostensibly asleep, he began calling “daaaaaaada” for me to come see him. When I went in he said he had heard a fire engine and it was cool. It was also neat. And going to put out a fire. He then asked me to sing Wheels on the Bus with him, and after going through the wheels, the people, the wipers, the horn, the mamas, the dadas, he sang, “Mema on the bus says I love you.”

Happy birthday again, Mom! I love you and I am fairly certain sure Sawyer does too! =)

The three of us are preparing to head home to Ohio this weekend, and I’m slightly fretting the big decision before we leave: which of his way too many cars will he want to take on the plane? Every night after his shower, he bargains with me on the number of cars and buses he can bring to bed (usually the more cars he brings, the less likely he is to sleep; conversely, not enough cars is too much of a distraction too). The conversation goes something like this:

Sawyer: “How ‘bout one car, aaaaand ooooonnne bus?”

Me: “How ‘bout one Sawyer, three elephants, aaaaand ooooonnne bus?”

Sawyer: “How ‘bout two cars, aaaaand ooooonnne bus?”

Me: “Okay.”

Obviously, he could go on for hours, but I can’t. Fortunately he never asks to bring the entire bin full of cars:

Note that Sawyer is modeling the shorts that my good friend from high school Shelly Dean Figeuroa made for him. Her handmade Figgy’s clothes are great, and now that she’s selling patterns anyone can make the same beautiful things.

Look at how small he was when he last wore some of her creations. Thanks again for sharing your work with us, Shelly!

On some days, it seems like Sawyer sings far more than he talks. Here he is belting out his favorite, “Old MacDonald,” with a little dancing by Abby (she’s not going to be happy I left that part in):

Now he knows his ABCs too:

It’s 9pm now, and he’s been in bed for the last hour or so, but he’s still singing away in his crib. I love you, Sawyer, but Dada is tired. IT’S TIME TO GO TO BED.

This morning, I showed Sawyer the “pajamas full of cars” video that I posted yesterday. He laughed and then went back to playing with cars, and I didn’t think anything of it. It’s a typical morning, in fact.

I must have been completely lost in my computer because I looked up not even two minutes later to see that he had packed his pajamas full of cars. Watch him add the last few and then pull them out one-by-one:

And yes, I actually say, “It’s like Christmas morning. From your pants.” In the end, I counted 27 cars and he knew almost every one of them by name. I especially love the way he says, “Octagon.”

And he’s quite happy with that. Watch:

All I have to do is put one down the back of his pajamas and then wait for him to beg for more. I have no idea why he thinks this is so much fun, but he absolutely loves it.

By the way, when I went in the change him last night I found his pajamas unzipped to his knee. As far as I know there weren’t any cars in his crib, maybe he was just practicing for the next go-round of “cars in the jamas.” Wouldn’t put it past him.

Yes, he sings, “Cars, cars, cars, cars, cars, cars, cucks.” Watch:

Again, this post way out of order. I think it belongs after the post about the playgroup turning two, judging by the fact that he’s wearing the same outfit in each set of pictures. But I digress.

Rare is the day that Sawyer doesn’t attempt a ridiculously long lineup of cars on something. Sometimes it’s the floor, or maybe the dining room table, but more often than not it’s on the couch. This was one of his finer efforts.

He started on the arm:

Moved up to the back:

Dada’s car goes here:

Mama’s car comes next:

Looking good, Sawyer:

Making some last minute adjustments:

The best part is cleaning everything up when he goes to bed. No, on second thought, the best part is seeing him start over first thing every morning. I love you, Monkey Butt!