Christmas

We're at Becky parents right now.  Sawyer spent the morning tearing through gifts.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I know it's Christmas eve, but I finally got the photos from Thanksgiving off the camera!

We spent Thanksgiving at my parent's house with my parents, Becky's parents, and my cousin Dan and his family.

Most of the pictures have someone with food halfway stuck in their mouth (like most Thanksgiving pictures), so here's Sawyer playing outside with Dan's daughter Moira.

What was Sawyer for Halloween?

Sick!

Sawyer was sick and went to bed early Halloween night.

We still dressed him up for both sets of grandparents over the weekend, though!

Thanks to Sawyer's Aunt Becky for the lion costume!

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Update: Check out this photo of Sawyer's cousins Alan and Teresa in 2002!

Canoe

Sawyer went in a canoe this weekend while we were visiting our friends Dave and Carrie in Rochester, NY.

We did other stuff, too, including the National Museum of Play. Thanks for showing us a good time, Dave and Carrie!

Crazy Shoe Hands!

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Close encounter with nature

Sunday was a beautiful day, so we walked to a playground at a nearby elementary school. There is a baseball field, so Sawyer and I walked behind the backstop to check out the equipment. I opened the lid on a big metal box and out came... wasps! Sawyer was stung twice on his arm, and I was stung on my thumb.

It was scary for everyone, but Sawyer was very brave, and he was back to being himself within five minutes. A day later, his stings were just two tiny red dots.


(Photo taken at dinner time. On the menu: Veggie soup and angel hair pasta)

CousinTV

Edit: I've played the tape for him 5-6 times now, but I always stop it after Alan's story (there's fuzz between each segment.) I let it run a little extra this last time, and I realized my sister had also recorded a story.

When she started reading, Sawyer sat right down as if to say "here's something new!"


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For Sawyer's birthday, his cousins sent him a very special gift. They read him books on video! It took a few days to fire up the old VCR, but once we got it working, Sawyer loved it.

On the video, Alan reads Life in the Jungle:

Teresa reads Good Night Hawaii:

And they both perform "Happy Birthday"!


Thanks Teresa, Alan and Aunt Becky for putting this together! Sawyer's a big fan of the show.

Sawyers

Edit: It looks like graphs don't get comments! I should say that even though there are a lots of Sawyers, ours is a special little guy. Here is Sawyer inspecting Quack-Quack when Quack-Quack stopped by on his trip to North Carolina.

Today my parents forwarded me an article that mentions a little girl with the first name Sawyer.

It's true; there are other Sawyers out there (although this is the first girl I've see with the name). Namevoyager lists 'Sawyer' as the 247th most popular name for boys in 2006. As you can see in the graph to the right, there was a huge spike in the last few years, almost certainly attributed to the popularity of the character Sawyer on the show Lost.

There was a great documentary by Alan Berliner a couple years ago called "The Sweetest Sound" about names. As part of the movie, he invites a dozen other Alan Berliners to dinner to discuss knowing that there are other people in the world with your name.

This hit home the other day when I called to make a dental appointment, and the receptionist was confused for a moment because apparently I'm not the only person with my name that goes to that dentist.

One year

Sawyer was born a year ago today. We were too distracted with other things on that day to update this blog, but my sister documented the occasion.

Today was exciting -- they threw him a party at his daycare.

They said he acted excited about it all afternoon.

We also had a small party for him over the weekend. Sawyer got his own cake.

The rest of us enjoyed a dinocake prepared by Becky.
(thanks wikiHow!)

Happy Birthday, Sawyer!

Mommy's Little Helper

Then again, maybe not.

Proof

Here's a quick video to update you on Sawyer's walking status.

Step by step

Sawyer took a few steps last night while his Grandma and Grandpa were visiting.

At the lake

We had a quiet couple of days up in Maine.

Frequent Flier

We're back from Hawaii, and we were home long enough for Becky, Sawyer and I to pack for a short trip to Maine for the weekend before the 4th of July.

Right now we're in the terminal for the flight home. Sawyer is enjoying a snack of mushy peas. This will be his 10th ride on an airplane (if you count layovers). The gate attendent just told us we should sign him up for frequent flier miles.



Sawyer is a very good traveler, too -- on this trip, he was just a little squirmy on Becky's lap, but easy overall. On the way back and forth to Hawaii, he barely fussed at all.

Here's Sawyer on the plane to San Francisco (on our way to Hawaii). The woman seated next to my parents thought he was so cute, she had to snap a few (dozen) photos. They turned out fantasic, and she was kind enough to email them to us this week. (thanks Maggie!)

Around Honolulu

I dragged my family to the contemporary art museum in Honolulu today, which features a large outdoor garden. Sawyer enjoyed the view from his backpack.


A highlight from the museum was when we visited the L'Enfant et les Sortilges exhibit, which is a group of colorful stage decorations housed in a darkened room. My sister did a dramatic reading of the show's brochure, which contained exerpts from the opera that the decorations were made for. Teresa and Alan enjoyed searching for the characters painted on the walls as they were mentioned in the story.

Becky and I had a memorable visit to this museum in 2003 ...

(picture of becky and tim in 2003 coming soon)

so it was nice to bring Sawyer back to see it.


After the museum, we went to the nearby Punchbowl National Cemetery to put fresh cut flowers on the grave of my dad's uncle Royce, who died in 1945.


(all pictures taken by my dad.)

Sawyer's aunt Becky took us to a beautiful beach on Hickam Air Force Base today, where Sawyer got his first taste of the Pacific. The swimming lessons with grandma paid off -- he had a great time.

(Thanks to my sister for the photo!)

Traveling Man

Sawyer's off to visit his aunt Becky this week. I'll try to keep you up to date with stories from the road.

(BTW, the photo is Sawyer using a Traveling Toddler, which straps his carseat to my rolling suitcase.)

Swim class

Sawyer and Grandma have been taking a swim class at the local community center. He looks concerned in this picture, but he really enjoys it. :-)

Open Wide

Sawyer's first tooth came in this month. It's sharp (and hard to photograph)!

Naptime

With all the activity last weekend, Sawyer was just worn out by Saturday afternoon. Grandma was more than happy to spend a little R&R time with him.

Whaaaaazuuuuup!

So Sawyer is a little behind on the current lingo, but he's definitely stylin' and up-to-date in his funky green shades. Sawyer and his Papa made quite the cool duo at the park.

Good memories

I was a student at Virginia Tech from 1995-1999. I was in the band freshman year; here's me standing on the lawn of West AJ, the dorm where I lived.

I heard some advice this week -- spend life making good memories with the people you love.

Here's a good memory I can share...

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Bad Hare Day

So it's a lame pun, but so appropriate to describe Sawyer's look yesterday. Maybe he should have kept the bunny hat on.

Happy Easter!

So far Sawyer has been a pumpkin, a pilgrim, an elf, and a leprechaun - what else would he be on Easter but a bunny?

And now back to our previously scheduled broadcasting

Sorry for the break. We're back with two photos from my parents.

Top o the mornin' to ya!

Here's our little leprechaun on St. Patrick's Day.

As you can see, Sawyer stopped wearing his helmet earlier this month. Everything turned out great!

A letter to our son

Dear Future Sawyer,

We are so very sorry.

Love, Mom and Dad

My mom uses the bear outfit to keep Sawyer warm on walks, since it has been cold and snowy. It previously served as his cousins' halloween costume.

Six months

Yesterday Sawyer reached the half-year mark.