On the morning of our last day in Columbus, and yes I’m still writing about a trip that took place over three weeks ago, the three of us joined Aunt Sarah, Mema T, and Pepa T at a nearby park.
Pepa thought we might be lucky enough to have a train come across the tracks, which would have more than made his day. Unfortunately there were no trains in sight, so Sawyer had to entertain himself with the playground alone. (Of course, Mema T and I saw three when we went to grab lunch just an hour later. Oh well.)
I love his expression in every one of these pictures, and the dog’s expression too:
After he wore himself out on the dog, he convinced Aunt Sarah to push him on the swings:
And then asked Mema to take over:
There weren’t any trains, but he did see a bing-bing-bing:
He was clearly bummed about the lack of trains:
This was an equal parts sleepy and wiggly goodbye to Aunt Sarah:
This was the beginning to a very, very long day. He didn’t get a full nap in, and didn’t sleep a wink for the entire ten hours of travel, that is until he was five minutes from home.
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!
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!
When Abby’s grandmother’s health took a turn for the worse, the three of us hopped on the next flight back to Ohio. Sawyer and I went to Columbus for two quick days to see my family while Abby and her mother attended to things back in Bath. Sawyer dove right in to his toys like he never left.
Pepa T and Uncle Kevin survey the scene:
Mema T is enthralled with Sawyer (he does that to me too):
Everyone is working on their own tower:
Sawyer and Mema combine their efforts:
He plans his next move:
Ah ha, Aunt Sarah!
Simon!
Aunt Sarah helps Sawyer organize all of the red pieces:
Sawyer knows just what to do with them:
Yep, pick up as many as he can hold:
Such concentration:
I never feel like I get enough pictures when we come home. Thanks again for having us, Mom and Dad. You always make it so much fun for him and even somewhat relaxing for me!
It’s unbelievably lame that I’m still posting pictures from Christmas, and I have ten more pages of pictures on flickr to go through before catching up. And it isn’t like nothing new is happening here, Sawyer continues to grow, gain confidence with jumping and flipping all around, and get even better at communicating. It’s such a joy to watch.
Meanwhile, way back in December, Sawyer opened some more presents when my Mom’s family came to visit. While none of these gifts are from Aunt Sarah, she was right them with him to help out:
Meanwhile, Uncle Kevin kept my cousin Jill’s kids entertained:
Such good concentration:
And so curious about everything:
Very happy with his new tractor and tractor book, but always on the lookout for more things with wheels:
Mama and Sawyer “up there”:
I love this picture:
Such good memories for me, and I know Sawyer will smile and say “Aunt Sair-rah” when I show him in the morning.
Almost immediately upon our arrival at Mema and Pepa T.’s house, it was time for us to celebrate Sawyer’s belated birthday. Sawyer got so many amazing new toys, and he definitely gets “Presents”!
Opening gifts is really hard work which takes a lot of determination.
Uncle Kevin gets this one started.
Aunt Sarah helps.
After this box, Sawyer wondered why every other present didn’t have cars inside.
Birthday hat!
The new line-up with some of Scott and Kevin’s old favorites, and Sawyer’s new cars.
Playing cars with Pepa T.
Sit ‘n Spin is slightly difficult to turn when he won’t put down the car.
Thank you to Mema, Pepa, Sarah, and Kevin for the amazing gifts. Your thank you cards, personally “stamped” by Sawyer, are in the mail.
Get ready for cute overload.
He woke up to find three birthday balloons:
His favorite was the one with Dora, Boots, and Diego playing soccer:
Stamps!
A choo-choo train and bing-bing-bing crossing:
Patiently waiting for his next present:
And moving way too slow at the unwrapping:
Fire cuck!
Back to the stamps:
Here you go, Momma:
Very happy:
Wee-ohh, wee-ohh, wee-ohh:
Studying everything new:
Making his move:
Gotcha:
You stand here:
Wee-ohh again:
Talking to Uncle Kevin while he plays:
Oh, I see how this works:
Anything else in here?
Nope:
No, really. There’s nothing in there, Sawyer:
I’m gonna make this next (really, he’s going to convince me to do it for him):
Abby put his garage together while he napped:
Later in the day, we skyped with our parents to sing happy birthday to him:
Wearing his #2 shirt from Mema and Pepa T and playing with his new cars from Mema and Pepa D:
Note sure about the candle:
More interested in the cars:
So serious, Sawyer:
Candle, again:
Looking to Momma for guidance:
So sweet:
It took him a couple of minutes to fully comprehend the awesomeness of his new garage (it really is amazing, Abby did a phenomenal job of discovering it and then finding one to buy):
But he took to the cars right away:
Skyping:
Here’s one very happy two year old:
He played with his new garage for a solid hour while we skyped with my brother and sister. He was so focused on his new cars and garage that he barely paid any attention to the rest of us. It was nearly impossible to get him away from it and into the shower. He finally fell asleep at 10pm. I’d say he had a very good day.
Thanks again to each of our families for helping us celebrate his second birthday, I can’t wait to see you again this weekend!
MeMa and PePa Truitt, Aunt Sarah, and Uncle Kevin (cousins Laney and Simon too) were so inspired by Sawyer’s counting lemons video that they made him one of their own:
I played it for him before his nap, but he was much too tired to pay attention. Four hours later, and after a big pasta dinner, he and I watched it ten times in a row! Each time it ended, he said, “again.”
I can’t wait to see him with you. Just over three weeks to go!
Skyping is so much fun and interactive. I’m pretty sure Sarah was full after this conversation.