Sawyer

That’s how he described it tonight over dinner, and that’s exactly what we did. It was a beautiful day today, even kind of warm too, so the three of us went to Baker Beach late this afternoon. Sawyer loves the water, will do anything to escape my grip when near it, tolerates the sand, hates to sit on the blanket, and likes to look for boats and airplanes. It’s a pretty big deal for him.

Beach! Ocean! Sawyer!

The waves were huge, easily six feet or more:

And it was high-tide so I really had to pay close attention:

He could play here all day long:

But it’s good to take breaks with Mama on the blanket:

I love the way he walks in the sand, and since it slows him way down, he’s relatively easy to catch. You can see how long he sits still, what was that all of two seconds?

Here he is with Abby walking back down to the water:

Abby captured an excellent video of me and him in the water, you’ll see just how crazy he really is. Look for that tomorrow. It’s a good one.

Monday mornings mean a trip across town to Mygym. It’s near my office, so Abby and Sawyer always drop me off on the way. For reasons not entirely clear to me now, I sat in the back seat with Sawyer. There’s not a whole lot of room for me back there, but it was fun to bond with my boy for a few extra minutes this morning.

Here we are enjoying the close quarters:

Half way up Geary Street this morning, while stopped at a light, Sawyer looked at a building beside us and said, “Octagons!” Except of course he pronounces it, “ockagons.” Sure enough, the building had five octagons on the front of it. I have never noticed it before, but he sure did.

Here’s a link to it on Google Maps. Can you believe this kid?

While I was cooking breakfast this morning, Sawyer lined up his rarely used people all in a row. It’s amazing that they’re all facing the same direction. They even fit perfectly in between the two blankets on what’s left of the couch:

There’s a second line-up of cars on the other end of the couch, as meticulous as this one. Eventually the back and arms of the couch were full of cars too.

I love the way he sees the world, the opportunities it presents, and the insanely creative things he does with both. This particular example is really quite remarkable. You never cease to amaze me, Sawyer!

Abby had brunch in our old neighborhood with her friends from the playgroup, so Sawyer and I took the opportunity to get a free ride downtown to play.

We hopped out at Union Square, and then walked down Powell Street so he could watch the cable cars. He really liked the cable car turn around, and pleaded with me to go on one. I would have happily said yes had the line not been so long. Next time, Sawyer.

After that, he tolerated some shopping so I could buy a pair of much needed jeans. We then jumped on a street car for ride up Market Street to grab lunch at the Ferry Building. We scored a great table on the street so he could watch the street cars and motorcycles go by.

I got him some chicken fingers, normally his favorite, and some fries. He wouldn’t touch the chicken but devoured every last one of his fries:

This might be the first uneventful video ever posted here. He seemed set on spilling his honey mustard sauce all over him, constantly moving it closer and closer to the edge of the table, but somehow I escaped that fate. Maybe he’s growing up. Or maybe I just know his game too well.

After that, we walked behind the Ferry Building to see the boats. An older gentleman was playing his clarinet so I gave him a small donation and he played three songs for Sawyer, “Old MacDonald,” “Twinkle, Twinkle,” and “Frère Jacques.” I love giving him a chance to see and hear music being made up close, but he was more interested in the train ride I promised him.

So off we went to go underground for the final leg of our trip, just two quick stops on the Muni train to meet Abby at Town’s End. We played around out front while she finished up, and once in the car he completely passed out:

Unfortunately I woke him up when I got him out of the car, so I eventually had to lie down on the bed in his room to get him to go back to sleep. He woke me up a couple of times by snoring comically, no doubt in response to me snoring in my sleep. Eventually he fell asleep and slept for over three hours.

Believe it or not, this was the most relaxing weekend I’ve had in a long, long time. Exhausting, but well worth it. Thank you, Abby and Sawyer!

The more I or anyone else tries to wear him down, the stronger he gets. Four trips to the park, four days in a row, three of them on the bus. He cannot get enough.

Thanks to an unbelievably warm and sunny Saturday afternoon, and a finally-feeling-better Sawyer, he and I hopped on the bus to go to Alta Plaza Park for some fun in the sun. The last time we went there, I captured one of my favorite videos of him climbing the steps to the park. He ran right up them again, without any hesitation whatsoever.

He knew exactly what to do when he got to the park too:

Up and down the slide, over and over again:

A picture can never do justice to this view:

He was a little frustrated that I couldn’t push him higher in the swing:

He’ll have to graduate to the big boy swings if he really wants to fly, but I’m in no rush to show him how those work.

The Hipstamatic is one of my favorite new apps for the iPhone. It tweaks the output of the camera to simulate the photos of my youth, those beautifully grainy square photos with the white frame and rounded corners. I haven’t stopped playing with it since I bought it a few days ago.

Sawyer was playing with his stamps while I made dinner, and when I looked over I saw him standing in front of a stack of stamps, completely covered in ink of course. I grabbed my phone and quickly took these gems:

I did nothing to these pictures, the magic is all in the software. I love this kinda stuff, but I promise not to overdo it here. Good stamping, Sawyer!

I didn’t get many pictures of my Mom and Sawyer when we were home for Christmas, so I made a point of getting some really good ones in what little time we had together on our last trip. I think these turned out really well.

You may also consider this an exercise in documenting the many faces of Sawyer, and the many different ways he tries to sneak his binky back in when he knows he’s not supposed to have it.

He loves that truck book, even though the trucks are from the 1970s:

Here comes the binky:

Busted! But he doesn’t care:

I know he loves reading with you, Mom, almost as much as I love seeing the two of you together. Come visit soon!

And what better way to do it than standing the bathroom in Mama’s slippers, in nothing more than his diaper, while doing everything he can to not brush his teeth:

Happy (belated by the time you read this) birthday Sarah, Matt, and Mike!

“‘xcuse me, vacuum cleaner!”

That toy used to scare him, so it’s good to see he’s finally conquered his fear. He’s clearly quite comfortable at in parent’s home:

Of course, having elephant, penguin, pretzels, juice, and binkin close by has to help. You sure do travel in style, Sawyer!