This is just a taste of Sawyer’s fascination with the view from our new apartment. He’s just tall enough to see over the ledge but he can’t see the street, which is all that really matters to him, so I hold him up to the window. Me, I’d rather look at the sky and the buildings, but he’ll grow to like those too.
That big brick building is the headquarters for The Gap. Google has an office right around the corner too. That’s why my new favorite Taco Truck sits right outside our front door. More on that soon. =)
Abby went to a baby shower for our former neighbor Christine today, so Sawyer and I spent the afternoon exploring our new neighborhood. After Sawyer’s delicious meal of Corn and Butternut squash, we set out to the Ferry Building to find something for me to eat. I lucked out with a panini made of tasty salted pig parts!
After that, Sawyer and I went down to sit in the shadow of Cupid’s Span, which is just a block away from our new apartment. Sawyer crawled all around the blanket and grass, and once he tired of that climbed all over me. He was very talkative too, alternating between saying “da-da-da” and his patented motorboat “br-br-brrrrrrrr,” which in the end had my shirt soaked from the non-stop slobbering.
Sawyer also made two friends while we were out, one was a pigeon and another was an almost two year old girl named Bella.
Here’s the pigeon taunting Sawyer:
I’m gonna git you, pigeon:
We laughed for almost an hour:
When he wasn’t distracted by something else:
He’s explaining something to me, only he knows what:
And then he went after the pigeon, not nearly quick enough, but he eventually made it to the end of the shady area before I tracked him down:
Here’s Bella and Sawyer. I wish I had taken a picture of their hug (she hugs everyone and everything her dad said) but all I have is one of Sawyer looking up at her father:
Br-br-brrrrrrrr:
Sawyer had a little trouble calming down after all the excitement at the park. He was exhausted and in need of a nap, but like always he wanted to eat first (apples and blueberries weren’t the answer). Abby was on her way home, so I had to improvise. My old trick was to put him in front of a mirror, which almost always takes his mind off of whatever is bothering him. Now I have a new trick, letting him stand in the window sill and watch the world go by beneath our window:
Our day began in Ohio at 3am PST this morning, and is only beginning to wind down in California at 10pm. Sawyer did well on the flight, and although he had fewer interested or interesting passengers around him, he managed to keep himself fairly well-entertained.
About half-way though our flight back to San Francisco this afternoon, I had the bright idea of putting both of our tray tables down and letting Sawyer spread out on top. I had no idea he would fall asleep so quickly, but a combination of his monkey and a make-shift eye-pillow had him lights-out for well over an hour. Needless to say, the flight attendants were very impressed.
Sawyer loves his monkey more than anything (note, not anyone) else in the world. I think it’s because he sees it as his twin! Don’t you agree?
As usual, even in tight spaces, Sawyer channels Cornholio:
Look at that tender embrace!
Sawyer has had two good naps since we came home, followed by a very large poopie-diaper, and is now sleeping soundly in his bed. Let’s hope it lasts.
Abby and I have so many pictures and stories to share, and I am excited to do so in the days weeks to come (yes, there are that many). I’m also saddened that we didn’t get to see everyone on our list, but it’s always so difficult to do everything we’d like in such a short amount of time.
Thanks to our families for a wonderful week back home in Ohio. My only complaint is that it flew by so fast. I can’t wait to do it all over again soon!
No, it’s not what you think, especially since his once gigantic head is now merely normal for his age. This is about baseball, specifically the San Francisco Giants, our hometown team just a few blocks from our apartment.
Abby, Sawyer, and I went to the game last Friday night, and Sawyer got to wear his new Giants’ uniform. He was quite a hit at the ballpark, even though he was extremely tired:
Over the weekend, we took some better pictures of a much more lively Sawyer:
Luckily, we recently purchased an orange sheet for his bed! We’ll get a picture of his Giants hoodie and his adorable baseball hat (I missed the best part of it in the first picture) the next time we see a game, hopefully very soon.
Last weekend was exceptionally warm and sunny, which almost never happens in San Francisco during the month of April. To celebrate, Abby and Sawyer took me to their new favorite spot in Golden Gate Park, the Botanical Garden, so we could soak up the good weather.
Sawyer was his usual rambunctious self, constantly flipping over so he could keep better track of everything going on around him, and urping up all of himself in the process. Luckily, Abby had an extra shirt in the diaper bag, which is how he ended up wearing this lovely ensemble:
Note the bucket cap features monkeys, salamanders, and various other jungle animals in a safari scene, the shirt has no less than eleven dinosaur species and erupting volcanoes in a prehistoric setting, and the shorts… well, the shorts are just plain awesome. And I have to admit that Abby’s old flannel blanket (she’s had it as long as I’ve known her, which is going on 17 years now) ties it all together perfectly.
I have no idea if Sawyer will appreciate this look when he’s older, or if he’ll rue the day we dressed him so ridiculously, but for now I toast his ability to pull it all off. He’s truly one-of-a-kind.
Due to work, Scott traveled home from Ohio a few days earlier than Sawyer and I. I wasn’t so keen on making the cross-country journey back to SF by myself, so my cousin Justin traveled back with me and had a great vacation in SF.
We had so much fun hanging out in the Fillmore, the Castro, and walking across the Golden Gate Bridge. It was great to have the help traveling home, but it was more fun getting to just hang out and play in the city.
It is so fun when people visit. I end up doing “touristy” things that I have always wanted to do like walk across the International Orange painted Golden Gate Bridge. Justin, Sawyer, and I walked (well, Sawyer “buggied”) nearly the entire 1.7 mile expanse and back.
The day was amazing clear, and the wind was milder than most days. There are some days when the bridge isn’t visible from the city due to fog. The bridge has a clearance of about 220 feet above the water, but looks much closer on the video when I look down. There are also look out points at each one of the towers where we stopped and recorded the view. The Bay Bridge, Alcatraz, Coit Tower, the Trans-American Pyramid, and Sutro Tower are all visible. I have added this link if you would like to know more about the bridge.
Sawyer slept the entire journey across and back, but at least he will be able to watch this video someday. It is the first video recorded and edited by me.
Our friend from Columbus, Amanda, visited San Francisco while we were in Ohio, as is so often the case. Luckily, we had one day overlap before she flew home. Amanda stayed with Erin in Berkeley, where they visited many ice cream shops. They came into the city on Sunday afternoon so that Amanda could meet Sawyer. We had a fun day at the Ferry Building and Chinatown.
Erin and Sawyer (this happened before the Indians baseball game — Scott went out of order):
Amanda and Sawyer with the Ferry Building in the background:
We were worn out after our epic walk. It was a very fun day!
Sawyer and I are learning all the fun spots to visit in Golden Gate Park. We scope out the park during the week to find the best places to take Scott on the weekends. Today we visited the Botanical Gardens. Sawyer is inthralled at looking up at the leaves on the trees. It is so much fun to see the world through his eyes (when he isn’t napping). Watching his eyes soak it all in makes me appreciate all the contrasting shapes and movement in the wind even more than I did before.
As our family and friends are digging out from under 2 feet of snow, Sawyer and I are sending you a blue sky, 60 degree day in the park, and wishing you could all be here to enjoy it with us. It is just over a week, though, until Scott, Sawyer and I are back in Ohio. We can’t wait!
Two weekends ago, on the first dry and relatively warm Saturday in quite some time, the Giants had an open house for the fans. Since we love the team and live just a ten minute walk away, we put Sawyer in his orange shirt, popped him in the buggy, and headed down. We were able to walk through the Giant’s clubhouse and dugout, where I snapped this picture of Abby and Sawyer on the player’s bench:
Sawyer, of course, managed to sleep through the entire trip, even with the wind on the bay whipping around the back of the ballpark:
In the previous picture, you can see Oakland in the distance on the left, just over Sawyer’s head. Here’s a picture of McCovey Cove (where all the kayakers wait for homeruns to fly over the wall):
Here’s what it looked like last summer before the Homerun Derby, three hours before it started:
Lastly, here’s a picture of the Bay Bridge in the distance (the entire area beneath the Coca-Cola bottle is a playground for kids — Sawyer will absolutely love when he’s old enough to explore it):
Sawyer eventually awakened, only to find himself sitting in a Dodger blue buggy, surrounded by a sea of orange (or so I theorized). He was not amused:
We’re hoping to go to quite a few games this “summer” (really, it’s more like winter out here). We’re certain to make it on tv when we hold up Sawyer in head-to-toe orange. I hope we can find a way to share that with you on his blog!
Sawyer got to see the city this afternoon, or he would have if he had been awake:
Abby and I put him in the Quinny and walked down the Embarcadero for lunch at Taylor’s Automatic Refresher in the Ferry Building:
Afterwards we walked out on the pier and took some more pictures and this video:
As if that weren’t enough, we walked along the Embarcadero under the Bay Bridge toward the ballpark, then Sawyer and I went to grab the dry cleaning over by the train station. He slept the entire time, well over two and a half hours in fact, and only woke up when we were getting on the elevator to go up to our apartment.
We fed him, then he slept almost four straight hours. Chances are we’ll be up all night, but it was well worth it. We’ve been waiting for a beautiful day like this, cool but sunny. Tomorrow looks to be more of the same.