State Names

Dear Sawyer,

You came up with this cute game today: I told you the name of a state and you told me what that state is famous for, based on its name. For instance:

Texas: it has a lot of taxis

Florida: it has a lot of floors

Washington: people wash things a lot

Pennsylvania: there are a lot of writers who use pencils

Illinois: people are annoyed there

Hawaii: people ask why a lot

So cute!

Love,

Mom

Handsome Fella

Dear Sawyer,

I picked out a blue-and-white plaid button-down shirt for you to wear today and when you put it on, you saw yourself in the mirror and exclaimed, "I'm so handsome!" I love your self-confidence!

Love,

Mom

Sweet as Sugar

Dear Sawyer,

Cute things you have said recently:

- You couldn't remember what the number 6 was called so you described it to me: "It's like an upside-down 9 with the belly on the bottom."

- "Mama, you're as sweet as 1,000 bags of sugar."

- "Upee." (I love that you still ask me to pick you up this way!)

You also say to me multiple times a day, "Mama, you're beautiful." I'll never get tired of hearing that!

Love,

Mom

Pressing Pause

Dear Sawyer,

Sometimes when you're on a Google Meet call for school, you have to leave to go to the bathroom and it's so cute when you ask me, "Can you pause it?" Hahaha! You haven't yet grasped that it's a live call and not a recorded show on the DVR!

Love,

Mom

The Little Moments

Dear Sawyer,

Being a mom (and especially a mom to four!) is so hard sometimes but the little moments that warm my heart are so worth it. I had two with you today:

- Last spring, I gave you money to buy a book at your school's book fair. You (unsurprisingly) bought a dinosaur book and it meant a lot to you because a) dinosaurs but also b) it was the first book you had picked out and paid for yourself without your parents around. You asked me to read it to you every day for awhile but it somehow got lost in one of our closets. I found it today and gave it back to you. It had probably been months since you'd last seen it so when you got it back today, you were SO happy! You clutched it in your hands, stared excitedly at the cover and ran up the stairs to read it in your room exclaiming "OMGOMGOMG!" the whole way. I love how excited you get about dinosaurs and I felt so happy seeing you so happy.

- Before Covid, you spent a lot of time with PoiPoi, either playing with her at her apartment or going to the playground together. Covid obviously halted those activities and PoiPoi is so nervous about the virus that she won't even enter our house. However, she did finally feel comfortable enough to spend time with you outdoors and agreed to take you to the park today. I went out to the sidewalk to watch you two walk away and hearing you chatting with PoiPoi and seeing your small frame next to her taller one after almost seven months of not seeing you two close together was such a welcome sight.

Love,

Mom

Strange School Days

Dear Sawyer,

Back-to-school time usually consists of several mainstays: getting new backpacks, meeting new teachers and classmates, feeling excited as you enter the school building after a eight weeks of summer. But sadly, we have none of that this year. You, GuhGaw and JieJie will be attending fully remote school this year which means that your new kindergarten classroom is also . . . your bedroom. Daddy built a desk for you and you now have your very own laptop! This year, you won't need a new backpack because you won't need to carry any supplies anywhere, you will "meet" your teachers and classmates via Google Meets and you are attending a new school this year but you won't be stepping foot in the actual building. I know it's weird and not at all what you or I envisioned for your big entry into elementary school but I hope you will still have a fun, educational and memorable (in a good way) year.

You have had a handful of Google Meet calls with your new class already and you are so great about sitting down at the computer and participating. Your teacher asked the students to take turns introducing themselves and sharing one thing with the class. You showed them your Allosaurus figurine and said, "This is an Allosaurus. It lived during the Jurassic period and was a carnivore. That means it ate meat." Your teacher made a "Mind. Blown." expression and said, "Wow! You shared so much great information!"

And she definitely knows you like dinosaurs because during another call, she asked if anyone had a question about the math lesson. You raised your hand and she asked, "Yes, Sawyer?" You replied, "I have a dinosaur mousepad." Hahahaha!

Love,

Mom

Enough Screen Time

Dear Sawyer,

I have always been impressed with how mature you are for a little kid. Case in point: You helped me watch MuiMui in her room today while I did some housework even though I know you really didn't want to because you wanted to play with your toys in your room instead. But there's more to this story: After I finished my housework, I told you that you could watch some TV as a thank you for taking care of your sister, but you--who loves watching TV--said, "No thank you. I already had a [Google Meet] call and watched Dinosaur Train, so that's enough screen time." Color me impressed!

Love,

Mom

Dino in Space

Dear Sawyer,

Last night, you requested a made-up bedtime story so I began telling you one about a dinosaur who loved space, found a working spaceship in the middle of the forest one day, stepped inside and accidentally sent himself on a trip to the moon. I was describing the interior of the rocket when you said, "Wait, did the dinosaur have a space suit?" Then your eyes got really wide, you looked really concerned and you begged, "Make him have a space suit!" So of course I did--he found one in a storage closet! How sweet is it that you wanted to make sure the dinosaur had oxygen! And how perceptive that you caught that tiny missing detail in the story!

Love,

Mom

Hamilfan

Dear Sawyer,

At the beginning of July, we watched Hamilton and loooooooved it! Like so many others who saw the show, we were enthralled with the music and couldn't get enough. I downloaded the original Broadway cast recording the day after we watched Hamilton and literally listened to it every day for over a month. By early August, I had reached my saturation point and started listening to the other songs on my iPad again but it's mid-August now and you are still obsessively loving all of the Hamilton songs! At this current moment while I'm writing this blog post, you are sitting in MuiMui's rocking chair, holding my iPad and listening intently to "The Adams Administration." For weeks, you have been carrying my iPad all over the house while listening to the soundtrack and you have heard the songs so many times that you can recite so many lyrics by heart! You are especially good with "Alexander Hamilton" and "Aaron Burr, Sir" and can recite more words from memory than I can! I love it!

Love,

Mom

A Song for Mama

Dear Sawyer,

Perhaps you will be a songwriter when you grow up because you are always making up songs now! They are usually about trucks or dinosaurs but you came up with a really special one today and sang it for me:

I love my mama, I do I do.

I love my mama and she loves me.

I love my mama, I do I do.

I love her even when it's raining!

There were several more lines but you get the gist. It is my most favorite song ever!

Love,

Mom

Cute Mistakes

Dear Sawyer,

At dinner tonight, you were telling us about The Ugly Duckling and said, "He was ugly so he hided" and "He became beautiful when he growed up." Your older siblings corrected your grammar and said it's "hid" and "grew." As a former magazine editor, I especially should correct your incorrect pronunciations but as your mom, I want you to hold onto your baby talk for just awhile longer!

Love,

Mom

Hijacked Call

Dear Sawyer,

As the parent, I am usually the one telling you to be quiet if say, MuiMui is sleeping, I'm making a phone call or I'm trying to listen to an important segment on the morning news. The tables were turned today, though, when you had a Zoom call with your pre-k classmate Felix. His mom and I had scheduled a Zoom call so that you and Felix could see each other and chat but I've noticed that during many of these Zoom "play dates," the parents tend to start talking to each other and take over the conversation. I'm embarrassed to admit that today's call with Felix was no exception! A few minutes into the call, Felix's mom and I started discussing the school year in the fall, what we heard might happen, whether we were planning to send our kids to school in person or do remote learning, etc. We were chatting so much that you actually turned to me with your eyes wide and your pointer finger on your lips! Hahaha! Message received! I'm so sorry for hijacking your call, sweetie!

Love,
Mom

Dino-Mite

Dear Sawyer,

You had a Zoom call with your class today and your assistant teacher, Ms. Celia, also joined the call. She was on her cell phone, though, so she couldn't always tell who was talking. At one point, you shouted, "For my birthday, I got a dinosaur activity book!" Ms. Celia asked, "Who is talking about dinosaurs? Let me guess--is it Sawyer?" Everyone knows how much you love dinosaurs!

Love,
Mom

Birth of a Dinosaur

Dear Sawyer,

One of your favorite games is one where you pretend to be a baby animal and I am the mama animal. Sometimes you choose to be a puppy or kitty; today you chose your favorite animal: dinosaur! You were pretending to be a baby triceratops and I was your mama triceratops. Hands-down the cutest part of the game was at the beginning when you said, "You have to have me first!" You pressed yourself against my backside while I was standing up and then quickly detached yourself--that was you pretending that I had just given birth to you! Haha! I love your imagination!

Love,
Mom

You're Five Years Old!

Dear Sawyer,

Last night, I stayed up late to set up everything for your special "dino-mite" birthday today. I hung up a big dinosaur banner across the dining room window, laid out a dinosaur tablecloth on the dining table, decorated a golden paper crown with dinosaur stickers and blew up more than a dozen balloons, including a T-Rex-shaped one that is almost as tall as you! I set my alarm for 6am so that I could sneak into your room and fill it with the balloons before you woke up--but you ruined that plan because you woke up at 5:30am and came into my room first! You usually wake up after 7am but I guess you were super excited to start your birthday!

Happy birthday, baby bear! You are FIVE years old!! As mentioned above, we kicked off your big day super early! I told you to wait in your room and then JieJie and I gathered up all of the balloons from my closet, ran back to your room and showered you with them. As expected, you loved the T-Rex balloon, named it "Humongous" (which is especially cute because you have a stuffed dino you named Tiny) and carried him around with you all day. I made you a special birthday breakfast: a pancake "face" with strawberries, M&M eyes and nose and whip cream mouth and eyebrows. I also said you could pick anything else you wanted to eat for breakfast so you also had chocolate milk, chocolate cereal and chocolate cat-shaped cookies (like chocolate much?).

After breakfast, you had a Zoom call with your teacher and classmates. They sang "Happy Birthday" to you and Darby even drew a picture of a dinosaur for you. In the afternoon, we had another Zoom call with more friends (including your best gal pal Mila and favorite guy Kian). We played Headbanz and sent everyone on a SAWYER scavenger hunt--they had to find items in their house that began with each letter of your name and it was so fun to see what everyone could find, like a soccer ball for S, raisins for R and even a whole watermelon for W! After the scavenger hunt, we had a dance party and you showed everyone your awesome moves to your favorite song, "How Long." Everyone was super impressed!

I made you your favorite soup for dinner  (sausage and barley) and then we had a ginormous chocolate cake with chocolate ganache frosting--topped with dinosaur decorations, of course! You were soooo sleepy by 8pm and almost dozed off at the dinner table but not before you told me, "This was my best birthday ever. I don't even care about the coronavirus." Yes! Mission accomplished! Under normal circumstances, we would have planned a big party at a fun play space and celebrated with all of your friends in person. I was so sad that we couldn't do that for you and wanted to make sure your 5th birthday was still amazing so I am so glad that you were still able to have a special day! And you received so many awesome dinosaur gifts from friends and Daddy and me: dino Legos, dino books, dino figurines, a dino terrarium and even a battery-operated T-rex! So funny story: I ordered a "Future Paleontologist" T-shirt for you weeks ago but it got lost in the mail. I even opened an official "postal investigation" and the post office said there was no sign of it. The website that carried it also didn't have anymore so it couldn't even send a replacement shirt. But when I opened the door this morning to retrieve another package, there was the envelope with your shirt! It showed up after all and on your birthday!

You are hands-down my favorite 5-year-old! You have such a sweet, fun-loving personality and you are so sensitive, thoughtful and smart. Here are some things about you at 5 years old:

-You love drawing dinosaurs and trucks and are really good at it.
-You love building with Lego.
-You love to dance and are so good at following the choreography in the Kidz Bop music videos. As mentioned above, you *nailed* the "How Long" choreography and blew all of your Zoom party guests away!
-Your favorite songs are "How Long," "High Hopes," "Uptown Funk," "Island in the Sun, "Dance Monkey" and "Old Town Road."
-You like to stay in the kitchen with me to watch me cook or help me bake.

-You and I watch a lot of cooking shows together and your favorite one is Valerie Bertinelli's.
-You have a big sweet tooth!
-You still come to my room in the middle of the night to cuddle because you woke up and got scared in your room.

-When you do come into my room, you stand at the side of my bed and ask, "Can I cuddle wis you?"

-You still love Mama-Sawyer cuddle time! (Me, too!)

-Now that there are four kids in our family, I can tell that you especially cherish solo time with me. When we went to a park back in April, you and I wandered off by ourselves to go on a dandelion hunt and when I said we should go back to the rest of the family, you resisted and tried to pull me further away.

-You still say "Upee" when you want to be carried and "Lapee" when you want to sit in my lap.
-You often tell me, "I want to play wis you!"

-You are very obedient and patient. One time, you were on a Zoom call with your music teacher and many of the kids were talking or calling out but you remained quiet and raised your hand until the teacher called on you. Unfortunately, you had had your hand raised for so long, you forgot what your question had been!

-You like reading books on Epic, going on ABC Mouse and watching Alphablocks videos on YouTube.

-You are so good at writing your own name and can do simple addition and subtraction problems.

-You know all the letters, can count up to 20 and can read short words like no, go, hi and mom.

-You have slight OCD and always like to "neaten it up," whether it's the spice rack, the shelf of cereal boxes or my makeup and jewelry nook in my closet. One time, you were on the toilet when I opened up the cabinet beneath my sink. You saw how haphazard the packs of maxi pads, canisters of bathroom cleaner and bottles of hand soap refill were and asked if you could please organize everything, haha!

I love everything about you but these things top my list:

-You are still so innocent and find joy in so many things. I bought you new dinosaur underwear and you couldn't have been more excited!

-You are so helpful. If I am folding laundry or cooking dinner, I can always count on you to ask, "Can I help?"

-You are such a good big brother to MuiMui. You always give her hugs and kisses. I love how you talk to her in a slow, high-pitched voice. You often ask to hold her but she is getting very heavy and wiggly for you so it's a bit of a struggle!

-You are so loving. Just the other day, you said to me, "Bend down, I have a secret for you: You're the best mom I ever known."

I love you so much, sweetheart! Happy birthday!

Love,

Mom

Life After Mackenzie

Dear Sawyer,

This morning, you were cuddling with MuiMui when you turned to me and said, "Before Mackenzie was born, I hated my life. Now that she's born, I love my life!"

Well, that is a little extreme (and, ahem, untrue) about you hating your pre-MuiMui life but I'm glad you're so happy now!

Love,
Mom

Yummy Disgusting

Dear Sawyer,

One of my favorite Netflix shows is "Ugly Delicious." You were watching it with me a couple days ago and asked what the title meant. I said it referred to food that tastes delicious but maybe isn't that pretty. Today, JieJie and I made pumpkin cream cheese muffins with a streusel topping and as soon as you took a bite of one, you ran into the kitchen and exclaimed, "It is yummy disgusting!" Wait, what?! I was confused until I realized you meant the muffin was "ugly delicious." Hahaha! Thank you for the, um, compliment?

Love,
Mom

Up and Away

Dear Sawyer,

I was going over sight-word flash cards with you this afternoon when we got to the word "up." I asked you to spell it and you said, "U P." I acted shocked and asked, "Did you just say 'You pee?' I didn't pee, you peed!" You thought this was hilarious and laughed for several minutes straight while saying, "You pee! You pee!" And now you will always remember how to spell the word up!

Love,
Mom

Dino Flavor

Dear Sawyer,

Me: Sawyer, what flavor birthday cake do you want me to make for you this year?
You: Dinosaur!
Me: Sure, we can decorate the cake with dinosaurs. But what flavor do you want it to be? Chocolate? Coconut? Strawberry?
You: Dinosaur!

Love,
Mom

Play By Play

Dear Sawyer,

I overheard you talking to yourself while you were washing your hands in the bathroom today and you were straight up narrating everything that you were doing: "I squeeze soap on my hands and then I rub my hands to make bubbles. Then I turn on the faucet using my wrist and wash away all the bubbles. I turn the faucet off and walk over to my towel to dry my hands, but not too hard." When you came out of the bathroom and saw me smiling at you, you got a sheepish grin on your face but continued your narration: "And then I give my mommy a big hug."

I asked you who you were telling your story to and you said, "I was telling it to my brain." I love it!

Love,
Mom

Milking It

Dear Sawyer,

You had a Zoom call with your teacher and class this morning and your teacher began teaching a new unit about babies. She knows that you have a baby sister so she asked you, "What do babies need?" You answered loudly and proudly, "Boobie milk!" How much do I love that you shouted the word "boobie" at your Catholic school teacher? Haha!

Love,
Mom

Magic Man

Dear Sawyer,

You and Daddy watched a magic show on Netflix and it clearly made an impression on you because you spent the rest of the day performing your own magic tricks! My favorite one went like this:

You, showing me a blue slap bracelet on your right wrist: Look, Mommy! You see this bracelet?
Me: Yes.
You: Okay, don't look at me now, Mommy! Don't look at me!
Me, closing my eyes: Okay.
You, fumbling with the bracelet and moving it to your left wrist: Don't look, Mommy!
Me: I'm not.
You: Open your eyes now!
Me: Wow! How did the bracelet move to your other arm?
You, beaming proudly: Magic!

You also did a trick where a Hot Wheels car "jumped" from one of your pockets to another. When I asked you how you did that, you again beamed and said, "Magic!"

Awesome, little man, awesome!

Love,
Mom

Sawyer the Songwriter

Dear Sawyer,

When you walked into the dining room for breakfast this morning, you had a big smile on your face. JieJie asked you why you were smiling and you replied, "I just love Mommy so much." You always say the cutest things! Here are some other recent gems:

- "You're my most special girl."

- "I had a bad day. I have bad days when you don't play with me."

- "What's the day that sounds like French fries?" (aww, you forgot the word Friday!)

I also hear you making up the funniest songs while you are playing with your toys. Here is a sampling of lyrics from your newest compositions:

- "Not everyone has a dad! Not everyone has a daaaaad! And that is okaaaaay!"

- "There were dinosaurs on the earth. They were living on the earth. Then a meteor hit the earth and ruined their liiiiiiives."

Please dedicate your first Grammy to me!

Love,
Mom

Lots of Love

Dear Sawyer,

You were talking about your classmate Izzy today and you told me, "I love Izzy." Then there was a short pause and you added, "That doesn't mean I don't love you."Whew! Thank you for the reassurance, little man!

Love,
Mom

Sock It To Me

Dear Sawyer,

The unhelpful conversation we just had:

Me: Are those socks on your floor clean or dirty?
You: Yes.
Me: Huh? Are they clean or dirty?
You: I think so.

Love,
Mom

Sawyer Scares

Dear Sawyer,

You keep scaring me, little man! I was blending smoothies the other day when I suddenly felt something leaning against my leg and nearly jumped out of my skin. It was you! I hadn't heard you walk into the kitchen over the sound of the blender.

Later that afternoon, Daddy took GuhGaw and JieJie out so I was home with just you and MuiMui. After I changed MuiMui's diaper, the house was eerily quiet and I couldn't find you anywhere. I looked in all of the rooms upstairs and then went downstairs. It was still so quiet and I thought to myself, "Sawyer, PLEASE don't jump out and scare me!" I called out your name and then heard your voice coming from GuhGaw's room: "Come look for me." You were hiding under GuhGaw's desk! Maybe the next time you want to play hide-and-seek, you tell me first?

Then last night, two hours after I had put you to bed, I was walking up the stairs when aaaaggghhh! There you were, standing sleepy-eyed at the top of the stairs. I was so startled, my chest actually tightened.

Cut it out! :-P

Love,
Mom

Dino Expert

Dear Sawyer,

You are such a dinosaur expert! You have a lot of dinosaur books and love watching "Dino Dan," so you enlighten me with new dinosaur facts every day. And I love that you can pronounce the trickiest of dinosaur names when even I can't! I was reading your newest dinosaur book to you the other day when I got to a dino called a quetzalcoatlus. I was stumbling on the name and saying, "Quetza . . ., quetzacoa . . ., quetzal--" when you cut me off and pronounced it perfectly: "ket-za-co-atlus." I asked you how you knew that and you chirped proudly, "Dino Dan!"

You are also an expert at cheering me up! I was upset with GuhGaw the other day because he was not listening to me, so you hugged me and said, "I'm hugging you to make the badness go away." Then today, you scurried around my room and organized everything. You put my slippers right next to the bed, pushed my chair under my desk and lined up my lotion bottles neatly on my nightstand. You told me, "I make your room organized for you."

Thank you, sweetheart!

Love,
Mom

Bottle Mix-Up

Dear Sawyer,

Sweet and funny things you have said and done recently:

- I made chocolate pudding and when you tried it, you said "It's sweet like Mommy."

- Right before bedtime a few nights ago, you were standing on your chair when you slipped off and hit your face on some Keva Planks that were on the floor. You were thankfully okay and your eye looked fine but the area above your eye was starting to puff up, even though we had immediately applied ice. I told you that you would probably have a black-and-blue bruise in the morning. When you woke up the next morning, the first thing you did was race into my bedroom and ask me frantically, "Do I have black and blue? Do I have black and blue?" I was still groggy and didn't even know what you were talking about initially. You did have a couple smallish brown marks above your eye but fortunately not a bruise.

- You were telling me about a show you watched about Jackie Robinson and said, "At the end, they were nice to him. And at the really end, they shared milk and cookies."

- An hour after you went to bed last night, I heard you crying and went into your room to check up on you. When I got there, you sleepily got out of bed, walked over to your dresser, picked up your lotion bottle and started to put it to your mouth. I grabbed it and handed you what had been next to the lotion bottle and what you had intended to pick up--your water bottle!

Love,
Mom

Big Brain

Dear Sawyer,

I am always impressed with your amazing memory. I will tell you something in passing and you will remember it and recount it to me exactly months later (yet when I ask you what you learn in school every day, you can't remember, even when I ask you as soon as you get home from school!). You showed off your memory skills yet again today when you were washing your hands in the bathroom and randomly brought up the story I told you about how after a really big blizzard in Pittsburgh one year, Uncle Tony and I opened his bedroom window and broke off a giant icicle that had been hanging right outside of it. I took pictures of Uncle Tony holding the icicle and it melted all over his carpet. When PoiPoi discovered the wet carpet later, she was not pleased--especially since we were both in our 20s and she said we were "too old" to be goofing around like that (uh, you're never too old to goof around!). I don't even recall telling you that story (my memory is clearly not as good as yours!) so I must have done so a long time ago and when you brought it up today, I said, "Wow, I can't believe you remember that story." You replied, "Yeah. I'm small but my brain is big!" Hahaha! Can't argue with you there!

Love,
Mom

Unbroken Heart

Dear Sawyer,

JieJie was upset tonight because GuhGaw had been mean to her yet again (ugh, sibling rivalry), so I was talking to her about it and trying to comfort her. I told her, "It breaks my heart when he hurts your feelings." You were playing with your cars nearby and when you heard this, you came over to me, hugged me and said, "I'll connect your heart for you." How sweet is that?! And when I asked you to get a tissue for JieJie, you not only got one but insisted that you be the one to wipe the tears off of her cheeks. You also hugged her and said, "I'll be nice to you." Thank you, sweetie, for always being so loving and caring!

Love,
Mom

Deleted Statement

Dear Sawyer,

I love the ways you phrase your thoughts. A recent example: You came into my room and declared, "I love Mommy the most!" But then you wanted to whisper it in my ear instead, so you said, "Wait, I want to say it as a secret. I deleted the other one." How cute is that?

Love,
Mom