What had Sawyer smiling from ear to ear in this picture?
Watching his cousins Laney and Simon play in the water at Antrim Park!
Here’s Laney:
And a soaking wet Simon:
They didn’t sit still for long:
Laney kept a watchful eye on her younger cousin:
Sawyer wanted swings, so we left the lake and walked over to the playground. There weren’t any swings, but he was able to entertain himself on the steps up to the slide:
Uncle Kevin, as always, upped the excitement level:
Inching his way down the slide:
And running around to do it all over again:
Two monkeys:
Sawyer loves when Kevin climbs trees, which happens often thankfully:
Sawyer snapped this picture of Mema, Pepa, and Kevin’s legs:
Abby’s friend’s son let him play with one of his trains:
Did I mention that he was barefoot the entire time? It didn’t matter if it was on hot asphalt, rocky ground, or damp grass:
To top it all off, he even saw a police officer exercising his horse:
What a fun morning with the Truitts!
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!
This past week was full of milestones: Sawyer’s first day of preschool; Sawyer’s first close-encounter with a fire truck; and Sawyer’s first illness from preschool (no pictures of or posts on that, it was gross).
On top of that, Abby wrote the 500th post on Sawyer’s blog! I noticed it was getting closer and closer, but completely lost track of the actual count. Sure enough, the fire truck post was number 500. How fitting!
On top of that, Sawyer turns two and a half tomorrow! Which means that in just over 900 days, Abby and I have created and shared a story almost every other day. I never would have guessed it would have worked out that way. Best of all, the final tally has Abby with 253 posts and me with 247. Way to go team Scabby!
Here’s a few more pictures from our trip to Columbus for my Mom’s birthday.
It was finally warm enough for Sawyer to wear his new Mario Kart pajamas (thanks, Sarah and Kevin!) to bed, and he loved every second of it:
He knows his way around computers all too well. He’s no doubt looking for cars:
When he really ought to be looking for a haircut:
Later that day, my family met at Antrim Park to watch the dogs play in the lake. He was endlessly amused (more on that in a future post). I love his toothy grin:
I love you, Sawyer!
Big wheels need to be tested on the open road. Fortunately Uncle Kevin was there to help him out:
He can’t quite reach the pedals yet, but Uncle Kevin gets him moving:
To Sawyer’s great delight:
He looks like he could go for hours:
Pepa T looks on with his sippy cup as Sawyer takes the turn down Breckenridge Way:
There hasn’t been a single day since we left that he hasn’t asked to go back to Mema and Pepa’s house. He did tell me that he would need to go on two airplanes and then ride in Pepa’s car to get there, so at least he understands that much. You’re not the only one who wishes they were closer, Sawyer!
Mema and Pepa T surprised the three of us by buying Sawyer a big wheel. It was set up to be the last gift he would find, as it was hidden on the back porch. I saw it before he did, and got him excited for one more present. Bad idea.
When he went out to see this wonderful gift he was so disappointed that it wasn’t wrapped! In his mind all presents are wrapped. Yes, I think he really does remember his birthday and Christmas celebrations with Mema and Pepa from last December!
You can see the initial disappointment on his face:
Which lasted all of two seconds:
Oooohhh:
Okay, he likes it:
No, he loves it:
Happy as can be:
Sharing a smile with Pepa:
And a moment with Uncle Kevin:
He would eventually find a way to remove the flag:
Typical Sawyer:
What a great gift, Mom and Dad. I know he’ll be ready to zoom around the neighborhood the next time he returns!
Last weekend, our old neighbors Zane and Christine brought their 20 month old son Dylan over to play. It was still relatively warm in the late afternoon, so we all headed down to the backyard to let the boys wear each other out. I grabbed the basketball hoop as an afterthought, but it turned out to be the main event.
Actually, that’s not entirely true. The real highlight was the neighbor next door watering his plants. Both boys were enthralled with the hose:
Anyone else notice that Sawyer’s starting to shoot the basketball now instead of just slamming it down? That’s my boy. Well, that’s probably more from Pepa T and Uncle Kevin. I never had much of a touch.
Of course no trip to the backyard would be complete without a dump truck race. Here’s Sawyer taking his truck for a spin:
After dinner and a lot more playing, the boys said goodbye with a high-five:
I still can’t believe Abby captured this picture. Awesome.
Sawyer hung out the window to say goodbye to the Sweets as they walked down the street:
He was quite proud of his performance:
“Bye! See ya! Bye! See ya!”
He’s pretty cute when he’s tired. Otherwise he’s an absolute handful.
“Why am I not moving?”
Pretty pleased with himself, but I’m not sure why. Maybe because uncle Kevin is coming to push him.
Sawyer could have let Kevin push him all day long, but Kevin was tired from walking to see the sea lions at Pier 39. Sawyer wanted to go “way up high!”
Luckily for uncle Kevin, Scott finally got off of work. Sawyer just beams when he sees him come up the street. “Dada!”
What a great week! I can’t wait to share all of the pictures and stories from my Mom and Dad’s visit. It was like the three of them never said goodbye, he simply picked up right where they left off the last time he saw them, parking himself right between them no matter where we went:
I don’t think I’ve ever seen Sawyer as wiped out as he was today. I guess five days with Uncle Kevin, and then another five days with Mema and Pepa T will finally wear the little guy out. Usually, things like this only make him stronger. I can’t even imagine what that will be like.
As usual, I completely spaced on taking pictures of Sawyer when he is with his extended family. Fortunately, Abby snagged three good ones of Kevin and Sawyer on Sunday, and I managed to get three more this morning.
Sawyer absolutely loved having Kevin here. If he wasn’t in the room with him, Sawyer asked where Uncle Kevin was until they were reunited. In fact, the first thing he said to me when I got home today was, “where’s Uncle Kevin?”
No doubt his love for Kevin is predicated on his willingness to do anything and everything to Sawyer him entertained. For instance, Kevin fits in Sawyer’s hizzy:
Which is a good thing because Sawyer loves to hang out in there, and loves to read books too:
Especially “Cars and Trucks and Things that Go”:
Sawyer was watching Sesame Street this morning while I got ready for work. Kevin laid down beside him on the floor, giving him three of his bestest buddies: elephant, penguin, and Uncle Kevin:
Unfortunately I couldn’t get both of them to smile at the same time:
But Sesame Street was pretty funny:
Thanks for a great visit, Kevin. I’m glad you and Sawyer are even closer than before, and I know that he’ll cherish these days for the rest of his life. I certainly will.
Abby and I have done this hike to Land’s End with him before. Remember the night that he saw the moon, got sleepy, and laid down on the ground in the middle on the walkway? There were far fewer histrionics this time, just good old-fashioned Sawyer fun, and an overwhelming desire on his part to go play in the water. You’ll see in a minute why we did not.
The weather turned ugly early in the day, but just after dinner the skies opened up and sun began to shine. The three of us bundled up and drove the two miles to Land’s End, only to have it pour again as I parked the car. Fortunately it was brief, and we were able to stay dry for the bulk of the hike.
Here’s the view of the Golden Gate Bridge from Land’s End:
The Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy has a great picture of the angle of the walk down to the ocean, and Google Maps shows the layout from up above. Sawyer wanted desperately to follow Kevin down to see the ruins of Sutro Baths:
Great call on the raincoat, Abby!
You can see why I didn’t take him down:
The waves were pounding the retaining wall, and the stairs down are dangerous on dry day, but Kevin managed it without issue. I preferred the dryer and much safer view from 50 feet above the waves. Here’s an idea of view from up above:
I’ve seen the ocean angry before, but it was in a foul mood on Sunday night.
Neither pictures nor videos nor words will ever do justice to Land’s End. It’s one of my favorite places to go in San Francisco. Sawyer loves it too. He walks up and down the many steps along the hill without complaining one bit. Kevin has some great pictures on his camera, and I’ll add them here when he uploads them.