In a weekend full of so many great moments, this one is by far my favorite. After a long weekend, everyone was tired, even Sawyer. He took a nice, warm shower, hopped in his nice, warm Elmo jammas, and read on the bed with his Mema and Pepa.
He rarely sits still this long:
He’s paying especially close attention too:
I love his little feet:
And his hands on his knees:
What a great moment!
On an even more beautiful Sunday afternoon, Sawyer, Mema, Pepa, and I drove to the Golden Gate Park in the hopes of finding Koret Children’s Quarter, otherwise known as the biggest and coolest playground in San Francisco (plus, it’s considered the nation’s first public playground). I knew roughly where it was, but I’m not all that familiar with that part of the city. As luck would have it, I found a parking spot just five minutes away. Sawyer was just happy that he got to see a double-decker bus on the walk there.
The first thing you see when rounding the corner is the historic carousel, originally carved in 1912. Sawyer immediately started in on his, “I wanna go in there, can I go in there, what’s in there, I wanna go see it, can I go see it?” routine, so the four of us got in line. From the moment I perched him on top of his brown and white striped zebra horse, he was all smiles. Looking at Mema:
And looking at me:
But he was positively beaming once the carousel started moving. Watch:
“All the animals are jumping.”
After the carousel, the four of us went out to explore the rest of the park. Sawyer, of course, gravitated to the swings first, but after a quick trip down the big cement slide on my lap, he happily settled in the sand. He managed to negotiate use of another little boy’s green truck and then proceeded to drive it all over, especially between Mema and Pepa:
It was nice and hot, too:
Sawyer and I took another spin on the carousel before leaving. It was the only way we were going to be able to walk past it. After that he insisted on racing his cars on anything at his level. I think he could have done this for hours:
Sawyer, that was the best park I’ve ever been to with you, and I can’t wait to go back with you very soon. Thanks, Mema and Pepa, for riding on (and paying for) the carousel too!
After an all-around chilly Friday, Saturday afternoon was warm (for San Francisco) and beautiful. It was still sunny on our neighborhood late in the day, so Sawyer and I took Mema and Pepa out to see Land’s End.
The last time they visited us, I showed them the scene from the top of the hill. It’s breathtaking from afar, but even better down on the water. We took the stairs down the hill:
And then walked all of the way out to the edge of the coast. Mema took some pictures of another family and one of them took some pictures of us:
I love this one with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background:
Sawyer really wanted to play in the water, so Pepa and I humored him with a walk down closer to the beach. Once there, he noticed a cave and begged to go in. I had no idea it was here, and plenty of people seemed to be coming and going, so the three of us walked in.
It was pitch-black dark, very damp, and kinda scary. Sawyer walked with Pepa until the end of the line (maybe 100 feet or so):
The view from the end of the cave:
We’re not the first to visit this spot:
Back out with Pepa:
And the view of Sutro Baths, Cliff House, Ocean Beach, and Seal Rock from the other side of the cave:
And when we were done, Sawyer climbed back up the hill:
He’s such a little dude!
It all started when Pepa put his hat on Sawyer. Sawyer, of course, promptly put it back on Pepa:
Sawyer didn’t like it when Pepa wore it wrong:
So he tried to fix it:
And once it was on right, he was able to concentrate on his crayons and coloring book:
See?
Until Pepa started in again:
Mema can play too:
I think he likes it now:
Sawyer is confused because Mema put the crayons where his cars normally go:
But everything was fine once she put them back in the crayon bucket:
Phew!
His back-and-forth with Pepa T and Pepa T’s hat really was priceless. The pictures don’t do the scene justice, I just wish I had grabbed my video camera instead…
With Mema and Pepa Truitt visiting, it’s time for Sawyer to turn on the charm. That usually involves making a mess of himself, especially when he attacks and devours his yogurt for breakfast:
Believe me, he’s just getting warmed up.
Sawyer doesn’t miss much at all. In fact, I think he must be part sponge because he just soaks everything in. I’m not sure what triggered it, but all of a sudden Sawyer was doing the Pepa dance:
Apparently Pepa T showed him that particular move when the three of us visited earlier this month. Sawyer has been pretty stingy with it lately, only performing it once on skype with my parents, which to be fair was likely his best and most expressive effort so far. I’m working on getting his arms into the dance too, and I’ll be sure to take some video of that if and when it happens.
And yes, that’s exactly how he says it. It’s not baseball. It’s baseball!
He is normally anti-hat, but Sawyer absolutely loves that Chicago Cubs one. It’s most likely because Pepa T has been showing it to him on skype for what seems like forever now. In the beginning, Sawyer would yell out “C” in response. Now he knows it means baseball!
Though a bit large, it just so happened to match the rest of his outfit perfectly:
I think he knows how cute he looks:
Not sure what he’s going for here, that bat isn’t a bike, Sawyer:
Practicing for his first little league baseball picture (that baseball looks so huge in his hands I originally thought it was a softball correction, Mema T informs me that is a softball):
One of Abby’s best pictures:
This is a close second:
By the end of his first time swinging the bat, Sawyer was able to make contact (with a little help from Pepa). He’s going to be a natural on the diamond, I can already see it. Sawyer most definitely loves baseball!
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!
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!