Birthday, Valentines, and my 'not so little anymore' Sawyer

WARNING: This is a MASSIVE post. Not only do I have a month to catch up on, but I've decided to write an update on Sawyer as well. Feel free to skip over that if you want to...it's honestly more for me than anyone else. I am working on printing our blog for each year to keep as a family scrapbook/journal so I've felt the need to do some more detailed (aka...wordy) blogging.

First off, at the beginning of February we celebrated Nathan's 29th Birthday! Here's to his last year in the 20s. That is so weird. We really are getting old, aren't we :). He was sick that day so we kept things pretty low-key. I made sure he got his Krispy Kremes, Baked Cheetos, and Beef Stroganoff and he was a happy boy. We just spent the evening at home with the three of us...and we had a good time.

The Low-Fat Lemony Cheesecake I experimented with this year! I thought it was pretty dang good!

The Birthday Table

Next we had Valentine's Day. Again, we didn't do much. On Saturday night we went to Chipotle and Yogurtology with Sawyer and had a great time. We kind of feel like Valentine's Day for us is more of a family occasion because we celebrate our anniversary and Nathan's birthday in the couple weeks leading up to it...so by the time we get to Valentine's Day we feel like we've had enough 'us' time. So Sawyer got his heart-shaped balloon (a tradition my mom started and which Sawyer LOVED), and we ordered a heart-shaped pizza (a tradition Nathan started the first Valentine's Day that we were dating). We then had ice cream and strawberries for dessert. It was a fun little night.

And this is a week after Valentine's Day...Sawyer just loves that balloon!

So now onto my sweet little boy...

It’s been awhile since I’ve written an update on Sawyer. I’m afraid that he’s growing

up too fast and before I know it, I’ll be looking back on this time wondering where

it went! So I guess I should at least try to preserve his toddler years in pictures and

words. After several weeks of being sick (more like months—toddlers really know

how to find all the germs in town!), we are all starting to feel more like ourselves

again and with that comes an increased appreciation for all of the many ways that

we are blessed each day.

When my little Sawyer is well rested and healthy, he really is such a joy to be

around. He has been communicating so much more this past month. There aren’t

many words that he won’t try and repeat after you. And he definitely makes an

attempt to relay his thoughts about everything…it’s just a matter of being able to

understand what those dang words are! But I’m getting better at recognizing the

words and he’s getting better at saying them, so I figure it won’t be too long before

we’re able to carry on a conversation.

This is one kid who knows what he wants! Let’s just say that we’ve had several

sneak peeks into that wonderful world known as the “terrible twos’. His LEAST

favorite things to do: go back inside the house, sit in the shopping cart, go shopping

at all, go to Nursery (only cause it’s in the middle of nap time), hold mommy’s

hand while going down the stairs (or ever for that matter), and let’s not forget…be

told ‘NO’. Fortunately, both Sawyer and parents are slowly learning how to deal

with these situations…and for all those other times, well, thank goodness we’re not

2 years old forever .

On a more positive note, Sawyer has a lot of FAVORITE things to do as well. These

include going to the park, ransacking the library bookshelves, playing ‘horsey’ with

daddy, watching ‘Mo-mo” (elmo), pushing buttons—literally anything electronic,

playing with his ‘Choo-choo Rain’, watching the ‘woof woof’ outside the window,

buckling himself into his booster seat, climbing the shelves of the pantry, hiding in

the fridge, saying ‘bye bye’ to pretty much anything (including the toilet paper he so

lovingly flushes down the toilet while saying ‘bye bye stinkies’…hasn’t quite grasped

what stinkies really are yet), watching videos of himself or other kids he knows, re-

discovering all of the baby gadgets that we are slowly bringing back out for the next

one, giving hugs & kisses, going up and down the stairs all by himself (with mommy

following closely), using keys to ‘unlock’ anything that looks like a keyhole, and

recognizing anything and everything that might be considered an ‘owie’ or might

cause an ‘owie’.

Some favorite foods include: ‘tot dogs’ (turkey dogs), ‘sheese’ (cheese), ANY

fruit, ‘mees’ (broccoli/trees), carrots, fruit snacks, milk, ‘Shjooce’ (juice), yogurt,

cereal, and of course chocolate or candy of any variety. He pretends to like my trail

mix but I’m pretty sure he just picks all of the M&M’s out of the bag. Overall we’ve

gotten pretty lucky with this one…for the most part he will eat whatever Nathan and

I are eating for dinner. He’s not too picky but he definitely has his favorites.

Sawyer takes one nap in the afternoons (in his big boy bed) and generally sleeps for

about 2-3 hours. I will so miss those naps one day! He’s always been a good sleeper

at night, too, and continues to get in about 12 hrs each night. Although lately we’ve

seen a little more manipulation out of him when it comes to bedtime …he will say

and do anything to postpone it if he can!

While his energy level is seriously out of control and he is CONSTANTLY learning

something new and finding something else to get into…he’s a happy kid and super

sweet. He loves to play and laugh, give hugs, and even fold his arms for prayers!

He is going to be such a good ‘big brother’ in a couple months. He loves babies and

as long as we can teach him to be ‘gentle’ I think his little sister will love him too.

Nathan and I constantly find ourselves looking at him in amazement…wondering

how we got such a cute kid! I’m so grateful to have him as my little buddy

everyday…so grateful that I get to stay home with him. Working my Friday night

shift each week makes me even more grateful for that! We love him so much and he

brings us joy and happiness everyday.

I just went through the past couple months of pictures and found a bunch that I never got around to posting. So most of these are a few months old...

You can pretty much assume that whenever Sawyer is half dressed, getting into things, and the house is a mess it means I'm at work and Nathan's in charge ;).

That bathroom drawer never gets old!

This was from Thanksgiving week at Nate's Aunt Sydney's house...they have a farm and Sawyer thought that tractor was pretty sweet. I just love this picture!

Just before leaving for Christmas vacation...we took Sawyer to the Train Park in Scottsdale. We had a blast despite the fact that it was the ONLY rainy day in Arizona that month!

Don't know if I ever posted a picture of Sawyer and his big boy bed (this isn't the best one but it's all I could find for now)

Pretending to be a grown-up :)

Another Father/Son evening...