After his morning escapades at Soccer Tots, and then a big nap in the afternoon, the three of us ventured out into the frigid San Francisco weather for a quick skuut around the neighborhood. This is only his third or fourth time outside on it, but he’s quite good at it now:
He can even spot bug bugs as he goes!
Abby took us to a beautiful street around the corner from our place where one of the houses has a rose garden out in front. The two of them found it earlier in the week, and Sawyer immediately remembered it:
Of course, when he stops to smell the roses, he actually exhales instead:
As you might imagine, it’s quite comical:
I think he’s going to high-five this one:
On the way home, he insisted on riding and drinking at the same time, and I’m still not sure how he pulled it off:
It won’t be long before he’s zooming up and down the sidewalk here. I got him going pretty fast one time and he absolutely loved it!
For many years, Abby and I have made a point of being asleep well before midnight on New Year’s Eve. That was the goal for this year as well, but our new neighborhood had other plans for us.
We went for a walk up to Union Square after dinner, hoping to see the Christmas tree before it was removed and to find some 2009 glasses for Sawyer. We stopped along Market St. to take some pictures:
Sawyer loves seeing the action on the street. He’s especially fascinated with buses:
Still in search of glasses — our friends Zane and Christine sent us the best picture of baby Dylan in them and we wanted to do the same with Sawyer — we walked toward the Ferry Building, the epicenter of the fireworks celebration later that night:
No luck there either, so we walked home. Here’s Abby pushing Sawyer on the sidewalk beneath our apartment:
With Sawyer sound asleep and us well on our way, the street below erupted with honking cars and hollering voices. Shortly thereafter the fireworks went off, which got us out of bed and into Sawyer’s room to watch:
Sawyer woke up too:
The bay was full of boats to see the show, which must have been an amazing view:
But Sawyer was most interested in the cars on the street below, and to be fair it was quite a spectacle once the show ended:
Thankfully, things cleared out quickly so Sawyer was back to sleep by 1am. Of course, he woke up at 6:15 to start the day, but I think he really enjoyed his first taste of fireworks. I believe there’s another event in the spring and one again in the fall, so he’ll have plenty of chances to experience them again before next New Year’s Eve.
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.
I work right next to South Park, a beautiful little green oasis in the middle of the San Francisco built in 1852. On beautiful days, Abby likes to bring Sawyer over to meet me for an afternoon break, and it’s always the highlight of my day to be with them in the park.
We usually put a blanket down in the shade so Sawyer can roll around, look at the trees, watch dogs, taunt pigeons, and scream at nothing in particular. This past time we took some pictures too.
Sawyer loves to play with glasses:
I love this series of Abby and Sawyer pictures:
Lately, I’ve been throwing Sawyer up in the air. He really seems to like it too. We tried and tried to catch him floating in mid air, but the perfect picture proved elusive:
Sawyer defined (it reads Small and Adorable):
He’s always so serious, or maybe he’s just super cool:
Yep, that’s it. Super cool:
Yikes! This last picture looks like one of mine from my senior year of high school. Luckily that was waaay before flickr and blogs, so only a handful of you could ever see it, but I did look sharp in a barn jacket that was lined in the same fabric as my shirt. I wonder what happened to that outfit…
At the end of brunch with my parents this morning, a somewhat restless Sawyer necessitated some quick creativity from Abby, so she gave him a slice of lemon to play with:
It’s hard to say if he liked it or hated it, but either way he continued to eat it, grimacing with every bite. We even gave him a second slice when that was done, and had to take it from him when we started to walk again! He certainly kept all of us entertained today — the next round of video is even better — and made my parents’ unplanned extended stay (thanks, Ike) even better than we could have hoped.
Today was his nine month birthday too. Tomorrow is his nine-month checkup, so Abby will have his new measurements later in the afternoon.
Look for many more posts this week, we have a ton of good stuff to share!
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.