Dear Sawyer,
It's fun seeing what kinds of things interest you. You love animals and get excited when you see dogs, squirrels and birds. Two of your favorite books are Your Baby's First Word Will Be Dada and Moo Baa La La La, probably because you like seeing the animals and imitating their sounds (and we've read them both so many times, you can recite the words along with me). You also perk up around babies and say, "Awww, cuuue [cute]!" if you see one in a book or on TV.
You still have a very strong interest in cars, trucks, trains and planes and can spend long stretches in your room just pushing your toy vehicles around; you especially like to line them all up in a straight line. Lately, you've really been into firetrucks in particular and say, "Whew whew whew fi fi! Fi fi!" when you see one. You even get excited when I dress you in a T-shirt or pajamas with firetrucks on them and show them off to Daddy or your siblings by repeatedly pointing to the firetrucks and exclaiming, "Fi fi!"
Your love for reading has grown lately and you often pick out books, plop into my lap and request that I "rea" (other than Dada and Moo Baa, you also like The Little Engine That Could (trains!) and Thomas the Tank Engine books (more trains!)). You have also become more interested in puzzles and are really good at putting the pieces in the correct spots; your shapes, numbers and vehicles puzzles are already too easy for you. And like millions of toddlers before you, you have discovered the awesomeness that is Elmo. You have recently become very interested in Elmo books and Elmo songs and can even say his name: Eh-mo. We'll have to plan a trip to Sesame Place this summer!
Love,
Mom
Monday, May 15, 2017
Sunday, April 30, 2017
Repeat After Me
Dear Sawyer,
You grew so much this past month, both physically and intellectually. You moved up to size 2T clothing and size 7.5 shoes and your vocabulary has exploded. Your newest words include: door, car, truck, house, duck, fish, mouse, owl, more, book, shoe, hat, cheese, bao bao (Chinese for bread), ceeil (cereal), towel, wet, hur (hurt) and hug (you request hugs from me all of the time, which I love!). You also say hi (hide) and like to do so when you hear me coming to your room by diving under the day bed. And when I tell you to hide, you cover your eyes, haha.
When you now see something you want to eat, you point to it and say, "That." You also started saying "woooeeee" when you see police cars and pretending to be a dinosaur by roaring and holding your arms straight out in front of you. You can identify all of your body parts, recognize and imitate all of the main animal sounds and seem really interested in learning as many new words as you can--you often point to objects, listen to me say what they are and then repeat what I said. So smart!
Love,
Mom
You grew so much this past month, both physically and intellectually. You moved up to size 2T clothing and size 7.5 shoes and your vocabulary has exploded. Your newest words include: door, car, truck, house, duck, fish, mouse, owl, more, book, shoe, hat, cheese, bao bao (Chinese for bread), ceeil (cereal), towel, wet, hur (hurt) and hug (you request hugs from me all of the time, which I love!). You also say hi (hide) and like to do so when you hear me coming to your room by diving under the day bed. And when I tell you to hide, you cover your eyes, haha.
When you now see something you want to eat, you point to it and say, "That." You also started saying "woooeeee" when you see police cars and pretending to be a dinosaur by roaring and holding your arms straight out in front of you. You can identify all of your body parts, recognize and imitate all of the main animal sounds and seem really interested in learning as many new words as you can--you often point to objects, listen to me say what they are and then repeat what I said. So smart!
Love,
Mom
Thursday, April 27, 2017
Diaper Free
Dear Sawyer,
When I walked into your room last night, you pulled me over to your changing table and pointed to the bottom drawer. You opened it and pulled out a diaper, which confused me because your diapers are on top of the changing table where you can't reach. How did you get a diaper off of the changing table? Then I realized your crotch area wasn't as bunchy as it normally is--because the diaper in the drawer was the diaper you had been wearing! You were just wearing a onesie and had somehow managed to pull your diaper off through one of the leg holes! You must have been tugging at it pretty hard! Thankfully, you hadn't peed in your diaper-free state and I put your diaper back on before you made a mess. You kids are always surprising me!
Love,
Mom
When I walked into your room last night, you pulled me over to your changing table and pointed to the bottom drawer. You opened it and pulled out a diaper, which confused me because your diapers are on top of the changing table where you can't reach. How did you get a diaper off of the changing table? Then I realized your crotch area wasn't as bunchy as it normally is--because the diaper in the drawer was the diaper you had been wearing! You were just wearing a onesie and had somehow managed to pull your diaper off through one of the leg holes! You must have been tugging at it pretty hard! Thankfully, you hadn't peed in your diaper-free state and I put your diaper back on before you made a mess. You kids are always surprising me!
Love,
Mom
Tuesday, April 18, 2017
Out West
Dear Sawyer,
We did it! Daddy and I took three young kids across the country and managed to keep our sanity (relatively) intact!
We just returned from our first cross-country vacation as a party of five and it went really well. We traveled to Berkeley to visit Uncle Dennis and Auntie Audris (and their new baby, Finn!) and Daddy and I were nervous about the trip because, well, 3 kids, airport, 5-hour flight, luggage, car seats, ugh. Plus, we had a 7:30am flight out of Newark, which meant we had to get there at 5:30am, which meant we had to leave the house at 4:30am, which meant we practically had to wake you guys up as soon as we put you to bed the night before. When I woke JieJie up, she told me, "I'm full of yawns."
GuhGaw, JieJie and you are obviously not accustomed to waking up when it is pitch black outside but getting you guys up, dressed and packed into the car (along with our diaper bag, a backpack filled with snacks and toys for the flight, Daddy's laptop bag, our carry-on suitcase, our large suitcase AND the stroller and stroller bag, whew) was actually easier than expected. We made it through security surprisingly quickly and arrived at our gate just as the sun was rising. We bought breakfast sandwiches and it was cool to sit and eat them as we watched the sky wake up and see the blazing orange sun rise over Manhattan. It was the first time you guys had watched the sunrise.
The flight to California was also easier than expected. I kept you occupied with stickers, activity books, Play-Doh and snacks and let you watch TV for the last hour. All three of you behaved and there were zero meltdowns. Success!
We spent five days exploring Berkeley with Uncle Dennis, Aunt Audris and Finn and did a lot of fun things: went for a hike in Tilden Regional Park, discovered the awesomeness of Keva Planks at the Lawrence Hall of Science, celebrated Daddy's birthday at Farm Burger, spent a peaceful day amid the gigantic redwood trees in Muir Woods, saw elephants at the Oakland Zoo and rode a steam train through the forest.
We did have to make one unexpected stop on our itinerary: the children's hospital in Oakland. It was supposed to rain on our first day in Berkeley but it turned out to be sunny and clear, so we decided to go hiking in Tilden Park. We found a nice trail and GuhGaw, JieJie and I were walking ahead while you and Daddy were several feet behind us. You ran to catch up to us but stumbled, landed on your face and scraped it really badly on the concrete. You howled, there was a lot of blood, it was awful. We cleaned you up and you seemed okay but when we got back in the car, you suddenly looked really drowsy, your eyes kind of glazed over and you were not your normal, alert, chipper self. I got scared that you might have a concussion so we drove to the nearest emergency room.
So there we were, waiting in the ER. It was 6pm in California (so it felt like 9pm to us), we hadn't eaten dinner and we'd all been up since 3am, New York time. The three of you must have been so exhausted but none of you whined, complained or pouted--Daddy and I were very proud of you. And when the doctor examined you, he said you were fine and showed no signs of a concussion. You had some pretty terrible scrapes across your entire face but they were just surface wounds and would heal quickly; luckily, you hadn't broken any skin or knocked out any teeth. Yeesh, what a way to start our vacation.
Thankfully, there were no more traumatic incidents during the rest of the trip and we had a great time on the West Coast.
Love,
Mom
We did it! Daddy and I took three young kids across the country and managed to keep our sanity (relatively) intact!
We just returned from our first cross-country vacation as a party of five and it went really well. We traveled to Berkeley to visit Uncle Dennis and Auntie Audris (and their new baby, Finn!) and Daddy and I were nervous about the trip because, well, 3 kids, airport, 5-hour flight, luggage, car seats, ugh. Plus, we had a 7:30am flight out of Newark, which meant we had to get there at 5:30am, which meant we had to leave the house at 4:30am, which meant we practically had to wake you guys up as soon as we put you to bed the night before. When I woke JieJie up, she told me, "I'm full of yawns."
GuhGaw, JieJie and you are obviously not accustomed to waking up when it is pitch black outside but getting you guys up, dressed and packed into the car (along with our diaper bag, a backpack filled with snacks and toys for the flight, Daddy's laptop bag, our carry-on suitcase, our large suitcase AND the stroller and stroller bag, whew) was actually easier than expected. We made it through security surprisingly quickly and arrived at our gate just as the sun was rising. We bought breakfast sandwiches and it was cool to sit and eat them as we watched the sky wake up and see the blazing orange sun rise over Manhattan. It was the first time you guys had watched the sunrise.
The flight to California was also easier than expected. I kept you occupied with stickers, activity books, Play-Doh and snacks and let you watch TV for the last hour. All three of you behaved and there were zero meltdowns. Success!
We spent five days exploring Berkeley with Uncle Dennis, Aunt Audris and Finn and did a lot of fun things: went for a hike in Tilden Regional Park, discovered the awesomeness of Keva Planks at the Lawrence Hall of Science, celebrated Daddy's birthday at Farm Burger, spent a peaceful day amid the gigantic redwood trees in Muir Woods, saw elephants at the Oakland Zoo and rode a steam train through the forest.
We did have to make one unexpected stop on our itinerary: the children's hospital in Oakland. It was supposed to rain on our first day in Berkeley but it turned out to be sunny and clear, so we decided to go hiking in Tilden Park. We found a nice trail and GuhGaw, JieJie and I were walking ahead while you and Daddy were several feet behind us. You ran to catch up to us but stumbled, landed on your face and scraped it really badly on the concrete. You howled, there was a lot of blood, it was awful. We cleaned you up and you seemed okay but when we got back in the car, you suddenly looked really drowsy, your eyes kind of glazed over and you were not your normal, alert, chipper self. I got scared that you might have a concussion so we drove to the nearest emergency room.
So there we were, waiting in the ER. It was 6pm in California (so it felt like 9pm to us), we hadn't eaten dinner and we'd all been up since 3am, New York time. The three of you must have been so exhausted but none of you whined, complained or pouted--Daddy and I were very proud of you. And when the doctor examined you, he said you were fine and showed no signs of a concussion. You had some pretty terrible scrapes across your entire face but they were just surface wounds and would heal quickly; luckily, you hadn't broken any skin or knocked out any teeth. Yeesh, what a way to start our vacation.
Thankfully, there were no more traumatic incidents during the rest of the trip and we had a great time on the West Coast.
Love,
Mom
Friday, March 31, 2017
Sick Days
Dear Sawyer,
This month, you:
-were in such awe when Daddy bought you a new toy bus. Your whole face lit up when you saw it!
-learned how to imitate elephant and monkey sounds.
-saw snow through the window after we had a big storm and shouted excitedly, "Noooooooooo!" (like JieJie when she was younger, you currently have a slight issue with pronouncing your s's, heh).
-often try to sing along when I sing to you.
-have started running to Daddy's office and GuhGaw and JieJie's rooms to look for them after they've left for work and school. When you go into each room and call out for them and I tell you that they're not home, you say matter-of-factly, "Oh."
-started calling your nanny Mary "Mimi."
-learned how to say biiiiiiiiye (bye), nigh nigh (night night) and num num (you say this for cat--I think you are trying to say meow meow?).
-came down with pink eye, an ear infection AND scarlet fever at the SAME TIME. JieJie had scarlet fever last week, so you caught that from her, but then you got walloped with the other two illnesses this week, too. I'm so sorry, sweetie. It's not going to be a fun weekend :-(
Love,
Mom
This month, you:
-were in such awe when Daddy bought you a new toy bus. Your whole face lit up when you saw it!
-learned how to imitate elephant and monkey sounds.
-saw snow through the window after we had a big storm and shouted excitedly, "Noooooooooo!" (like JieJie when she was younger, you currently have a slight issue with pronouncing your s's, heh).
-often try to sing along when I sing to you.
-have started running to Daddy's office and GuhGaw and JieJie's rooms to look for them after they've left for work and school. When you go into each room and call out for them and I tell you that they're not home, you say matter-of-factly, "Oh."
-started calling your nanny Mary "Mimi."
-learned how to say biiiiiiiiye (bye), nigh nigh (night night) and num num (you say this for cat--I think you are trying to say meow meow?).
-came down with pink eye, an ear infection AND scarlet fever at the SAME TIME. JieJie had scarlet fever last week, so you caught that from her, but then you got walloped with the other two illnesses this week, too. I'm so sorry, sweetie. It's not going to be a fun weekend :-(
Love,
Mom
Wednesday, March 29, 2017
My Sweet Sawyer
Dear Sawyer,
Even though you are only one and a half years old, you have an incredible amount of empathy toward others. When other people are feeling sad, you immediately pick up on this and try to comfort them, which is truly amazing to see. JieJie was sick this afternoon and feeling so miserable that she sat down at the bottom of the staircase and just started sobbing. You ran right over to her, patted her arm and embraced her so tightly for several minutes. Every once in awhile, you let go of the hug to look lovingly into her face before wrapping your arms around her again. At one point, you even cupped her chin in the most heartwarming way.
And one of my most cherished memories is of you the last time you saw Uncle Tony. It was the day before he passed away and we were visiting him in the hospice wing of the hospital. Uncle Tony was laying in bed and GuhGaw and JieJie were scared to get too close to him but when I sat next to Uncle Tony and pulled you into my lap, you leaned right over to him and patted his arm several times. The way that you knew something was wrong and how you wanted to make it better--it made my heart swell.
May you always be the kind, caring soul you are now.
Love,
Mom
Even though you are only one and a half years old, you have an incredible amount of empathy toward others. When other people are feeling sad, you immediately pick up on this and try to comfort them, which is truly amazing to see. JieJie was sick this afternoon and feeling so miserable that she sat down at the bottom of the staircase and just started sobbing. You ran right over to her, patted her arm and embraced her so tightly for several minutes. Every once in awhile, you let go of the hug to look lovingly into her face before wrapping your arms around her again. At one point, you even cupped her chin in the most heartwarming way.
And one of my most cherished memories is of you the last time you saw Uncle Tony. It was the day before he passed away and we were visiting him in the hospice wing of the hospital. Uncle Tony was laying in bed and GuhGaw and JieJie were scared to get too close to him but when I sat next to Uncle Tony and pulled you into my lap, you leaned right over to him and patted his arm several times. The way that you knew something was wrong and how you wanted to make it better--it made my heart swell.
May you always be the kind, caring soul you are now.
Love,
Mom
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
Messy Bath
Dear Sawyer,
This is how your bath time went tonight:
-I undressed you and put you in your tub.
-GuhGaw and JieJie were fighting over something (as they ALWAYS are) and yelling at each other.
-I ran out into the hallway to tell them to stop fighting. While out in the hallway, I realized I'd forgotten to get a diaper to put on you after your bath, so I grabbed one from your room.
-When I came back into the bathroom, you were playing with a BALL OF POOP! Oh my god, you had pooped in the tub and there were several balls of poop floating in the water.
-I spent several seconds trying to decide what to clean first: you or the tub. I went with the tub.
-I carried you out of the tub and put you inside my glass shower stall and shut the door.
-I threw out the poop (ew) and started scrubbing and rinsing the tub. Meanwhile, you were completely naked and pacing back and forth in the shower like a funny little zoo animal. You had never been in my shower stall before and I could tell that you did not know what to make of it. You knocked on the door a few times and called out, "MaMAAAA! MaMAAAAA!" I knew you were probably thinking, "Um, Mom? What am I doing in here?" After a few minutes, the novelty started to wear off and you started to panic and knock on the glass harder, wanting to be let out.
-I started cleaning faster and knelt there, amazed that this is my life now. Oh man!
Love,
Mom
This is how your bath time went tonight:
-I undressed you and put you in your tub.
-GuhGaw and JieJie were fighting over something (as they ALWAYS are) and yelling at each other.
-I ran out into the hallway to tell them to stop fighting. While out in the hallway, I realized I'd forgotten to get a diaper to put on you after your bath, so I grabbed one from your room.
-When I came back into the bathroom, you were playing with a BALL OF POOP! Oh my god, you had pooped in the tub and there were several balls of poop floating in the water.
-I spent several seconds trying to decide what to clean first: you or the tub. I went with the tub.
-I carried you out of the tub and put you inside my glass shower stall and shut the door.
-I threw out the poop (ew) and started scrubbing and rinsing the tub. Meanwhile, you were completely naked and pacing back and forth in the shower like a funny little zoo animal. You had never been in my shower stall before and I could tell that you did not know what to make of it. You knocked on the door a few times and called out, "MaMAAAA! MaMAAAAA!" I knew you were probably thinking, "Um, Mom? What am I doing in here?" After a few minutes, the novelty started to wear off and you started to panic and knock on the glass harder, wanting to be let out.
-I started cleaning faster and knelt there, amazed that this is my life now. Oh man!
Love,
Mom
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