You're Two Years Old!

Dear Sawyer,

One of your favorite songs is "You Are My Sunshine" and you request that I sing it to you by saying, "Sunshi!" You often ask me to sing it several times in a row and I don't mind because it makes you smile and because the words are so true: You are my sunshine and you make me so so so happy, gray skies or not. And now you are my 2-year-old ray of sunshine. Happy birthday, baby bear!

It's true what they say about parenthood: The days are long but the years are short. Taking care of you, JieJie and GuhGaw can seriously kick my butt sometimes, especially on those days when someone constantly needs something from me and I don't even have five minutes to just sit down, but your childhood is racing by. You already look like such a big boy (my, what long legs you have!) and you are acting like such a big boy, too--you are saying many new words every day, you can feed yourself so well when I give you a bowl of milk and cereal, you put away your toys when I ask you to, you brush your teeth on your own without complaint and when you go down the slide at the playground, you don't even reach for my hand anymore but are fine sliding down on your own (*sniff sniff*). You are still my baby in one main way, though--you can't fall asleep unless I cuddle with you. It would be easier for me if you would go to bed on your own like your siblings do (and did, when they were your age) but I do love our snuggles. I love the way you feel in my arms with your back against my chest and how you still insist on clasping my hands in yours until you drift off, so I will enjoy this sweet Sawyer-Mama time while I still can.

You have very good manners and always say "tank oo" to me but I have to say "tank oo" to you for being such a wonderful, sweet boy. You are so joyful, funny, giggly, huggable and adorable and I love being your mama. I look forward to seeing your beaming smile when you wake up in the morning and kissing your super-kissable cheeks as you fall asleep at night. You fill each of my days with laughter, amazement and yes, sunshine, and I am so grateful that you are in my life. I love you so much!

Love,
Mom

Itsy Bitsy Pider

Dear Sawyer,

I dropped a pretzel on the kitchen floor and you picked it up. I thought you were going to eat it (you have eaten off the floor many times before, sigh) but you threw it in the garbage can instead. Thanks for helping me, sweetie!

In other news, you have learned so many new words lately that I think this will be the last new-vocab update because there will be too many new words to keep track of going forward. The latest additions to your vernacular: quirrel (squirrel), cookie (as in the sweet treat and Cookie Monster), Ernie, Bir (as in Big Bird--your interest in Sesame Street has really grown!), house, rain, choo choo train, cat, horse, deer, ball, eye, ear, no (nose), arm, back, neck, tickle, axi (taxi), boat, wall, room, bed, oval, cuh-cle (circle), brush (you say this when I bring you your toothbrush), park, walk, the letters A, O and S, cool (school) and pider (spider). I can't believe how many words you are learning every day. Or that you will be 2 years old in two days!

Love,
Mom

Say Cheese!

Dear Sawyer,

You have unveiled two new behaviors recently. First, you now love posing for photographs and do so by plopping down on the floor, crossing your legs, folding your hands together in your lap and grinning from ear to ear while you say, "Cheeeeeese!" One time, you were watching TV and saw me carrying my camera into another room, so you actually climbed down from the chair and followed me because you wanted me to take a picture of you. And seriously, look how adorable your pose is!

Second, when you were standing in your crib tonight, I watched--and stood safely nearby--as you managed to lift your leg up onto the rail and hoist your body up so that you were balancing on top of it as if you were laying on a surfboard. Oh, uh uh. Bring in the toddler bed!

Love,
Mom

Main Interests

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

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

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

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