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