and more sawyer

It's been a long, long while since I've done any recording, recapping, updating, etc. specifically on the kids. On who they are really right now.
Things they're saying, loving, doing.
It's high time I take some time for that.

I'll start with the little one.
Who's not so little anymore.
Having just had another birthday doesn't help that fact.






(his requested Jello cake on the special occasion)








You guys. He just turned SIX. HOW did that happen?





















Six years already with this kid. It doesn't seem possible...

















Sawyer loves school. I wondered how this whole Starting (full day) Kindergarten would go because he is SO not the "academic" type. He's about as far on the other side of the spectrum as he can get from where his older sister was at this age when it comes to an interest in reading/writing/all things schoolwork and learning related. He doesn't even like coloring or painting.
But he loves school. He loves his kindergarten teacher, he loves all of his "specials" classes (p.e., music, art, spanish, and technology each week), he loves the rules and routines of the school day and he actually loves learning all the stuff he's learning. He's writing and drawing so! much! more! -and on his own time!- and is actually excited about reading now. This is sooo nice, because at home? He's spent the last couple of years fighting me tooth and nail when it came to anything in the "school" realm at all. I don't know if it's maturity, if it's cuz 'all the other kids are doing it' or maybe it's just good for him that he's accountable to and learning from another adult besides his mom all day, but I love that he's loving it now.
He just turned in a giant feather they are donning a school hallway turkey with; it was a homework project and they were supposed to decorate each of their feathers with what they were most thankful for. He was set on making his all about being thankful for his teachers and their "great school". :)




















Sawyer is still all about sports though. His biggest love is baseball (oddly, since that's the sport the rest of us in the house care about the least). Ever since he played baseball last spring (and I guess realized he was so good at it as well) he can't get enough. He's constantly asking someone to go out and pitch to him in the backyard and upon returning inside always recounts for me how he "smoked it" over the fence or "smashed it' or whatever his latest terminology is. We didn't have him play Fall Baseball however, as he's still interested in soccer so he just finished up his soccer season with an Upward team again. And he has said he definitely also wants to play basketball, which he's never "officially" tried before, so he'll do that this winter. And then we'll be back to spring baseball, I'm sure. I'm guessing Sawyer'll be one of those kids who plays a different sport each season... not sure if he'll ever narrow it down to just one he loves. We may have friends handing us down a set of Sawyer-sized golf clubs too (left-handed, which has been hard to come by!) so he's super excited about that. You name it, he'll play it. And well, I might add. ;)














He's a player when it comes to games in general as well. Pool (beware the pint-sized pool shark when you come to our house), card games, dice, board games, it doesn't matter, he's more than up for it. I scored a bunch of classic games at a thrift store awhile back and it renewed his habit... we've been playing Battleship, Pictionary, Rack-O, Triominos, and Life like crazy. Oh and Fargo/Farkle/Ziltch/Whatever you call that dice game in your neck of the woods. Loves that one. He got the game Mousetrap for his birthday and I think we've played it every single day since.














And yes, video games. Of course. They're restricted to weekends only now, and only about an hour then, but he takes full advantage. MarioKart on the Wii is his favorite (or maybe now the new Mario SuperSluggers he just got for his birthday), but he honestly can't get enough of the classics... he and Savannah spend most of their time lately playing old school (we're talking original Nintendo) SuperMarioBrothers, Ms. PacMan, Donkey Kong and Chip 'n Dale's Rescue Rangers. :)




















Maybe Sawyer's just an old soul.
He's still drawn to older kids and things that typically seem older than he should be. In our church small group there are a handful of kids that are kindergarten to third grade aged -including Savannah- who color and play games (tag, hide&seek) inside and out while us grown ups hang out. And on the flipside, there are two handfuls of kids (all boys) that are sixth-ish grade and up... they spend their time during small group zooming around on Ripstiks and playing dodgeball and basketball. Guess which group you'll find Sawyer in? And the crazy thing is, he fits in. They actually play with him, include him and lookout for him and he pretty much holds his own with them. He is thisclose to having the Ripstik conquered.
I swear, someone needs to tell Sawyer he's only half the age he thinks he is.















Let's see... what else about Sawyer lately?
Oh, he's big on his faux-hawk these days.




















I personally hope it's a short lived phase (although it's already lasted throughout most of the summer and fall) because I love his simple "mussed" up quick, usual hair do, but he's all about the faux-hawk for now. He won't let me or Ryan touch his hair, and while he doesn't usually do this for school (he's still half asleep by the time our early bus comes this year), anytime he does actually "do" his hair, for church or other outings, a faux-hawk it is.





































He's definitely a one of a kind kid. So stereotypical boy in all he does and yet so specifically Sawyer...
At his six-year-old check up he was 46.5 inches tall and weighed 46.5 pounds. A perfectly well-rounded kid. ;)
He loves to laugh and is all about getting you to crack up as well.
He's still a snuggler and his affections often bubble over into random hugs at any time.
He signs I love you to me from across the room when I'm helping out in his classroom.
The first thing out of his mouth, same every day, when his dad gets home from work is a big cheery "Hi Dad! Welcome home!"
He loves to bug his sister but she's his best friend.
I think the majority of his elementary school already knows who he is just because he's about the friendliest kid around. I hear a big chorus of 'Bye Sawyer's through the open bus windows when he gets off in the afternoon.
He's not a big complainer and is still one of the most laid back kids I know.














Although he's got a surprisingly strong stubborn steak. That rears it head most often it comes to meals... regularly taking an hour to take the required one bite of everything on his plate with lots of attempted (and rejected) negotiations on his part... only to finally taste whatever it is and eventually declare it just might be his new favorite food.




















He's got a one track mind... when he has something he wants to do or something that he's trying to change your mind about, he will. not. drop. it.
For instance, wanting a puppy.
For the last two years.

I just can't believe he's six already.




















I look at him these days and can scarcely see the little boy he used to be anymore... he's turned into this lean, lanky kid who is trading baseball and Pokemon cards with his friends on the bus and talking about crushing his grandpa in a game of pool and learning to play Chess and wanting to pack his own lunches.














And although I miss my baby, he's a perfect six-year-old.
Only problem is, I'm just not totally okay with that six-year-old part of it yet. :/

he's no longer a preschooler

Bad Mommy Blogger that I am these days, I completely skipped over all but casually mentioning Sawyer's preschool graduation last week two weeks ago. Here are the highlights:




Walking the stage for his "diploma"



















Favorite kid















Favorite friend














Favorite teachers

Loved Miss Anita and Miss Carolyn!
Sawyer loved his pre-k year with everyone. :)






Here are a couple of quick videos (mostly for the grandmas I'm sure):
the first of Sawyer getting his diploma... they announce what he wants to be when he grows up. And yes, he's getting used to being called Saw-yer here in the south rather than the "soy"yer we're all used to. And I'm not sure why he's walking like a constipated hunchback across the stage.

pre-k grad from heather morrison on Vimeo.

And the second, a snippet of the (much longer) program the two graduating classes did for the "ceremony". And don't ask me why he's not actually singing or saying much... I know he knows all of these!

graduation program from heather morrison on Vimeo.

wednesdays

Wednesday evenings, for five weeks in the month of May and into June, the kids both have Upward camps at a local church; soccer for Sawyer and cheer for Savannah.

They've both had a great time for the two hours each week, submerged in sports they love.








































And Ryan and I have had a great time with a mini "date night" each week after we drop them off... two hours to have some grown up dinner time (yum- Thai!), challenge each other to games on the ipod, and just sit out on the grass under the trees watching the soccer field, enjoying the weather (and the cicadas. NOT.).


It's been fun to have a little regular "just us" time.

ball boy

Last night was the last baseball game for this spring!















We had a couple of great coaches (even though we were short on practice time much of the season!) and they both raved about Sawyer often; his big hits, his great throws, his focus on the game and his fun attitude. And they said they want a cut when he goes pro. :)
Sawyer's bummed it's over and is asking to sign up for more immediately. He's all about playing fall ball, even though we kind of hope he'll go back to more soccer in the fall. We'll see.
I'm just kinda happy that after the pizza party tomorrow, that's one less thing on our schedule for now!!

one of these kids spent most of the day in the ER...

I thought he was entitled to ice cream for dinner.





(the sister just gets it for being the sister, lucky girl!)
(and okay, I told them they could have ice cream for dinner, but did end up following up with making them eat offering them cheese/taco meat quesadillas -cinco de mayo!- and applesauce. so no turning me into the parent police.)

So... anyone else think it's ironic that I found that ultrasound picture yesterday and showed it to Sawyer and we had a very drawn out talk about not only how cool it is that that's what he (or any baby) looks like before they're born, but also a lot about how ultrasound works and how cool is it that they can see and take pictures of the inside of your body...
and then we turn around today and Sawyer is in the ER getting an ultrasound of his own abdomen??!?

Yesterday Sawyer was complaining about pain under his belly when he moved. It was just a casual mention starting off the day, that it hurt there (showing me way down low under his belly button) when he sat down or bent over or sneezed. I didn't think much of it... until, as the morning went on, he stopped being his normal active self and basically wouldn't get off the couch because it was bothering him. Fast forward to lunchtime and he had grown more lethargic and eventually, additionally, spiked a fever of 102.5°. Hmmm.
Now, I am not one to run my kids into the dr's office for a simple fever. I don't worry about the usual ailments of childhood... it takes either a lot or a long time of sick for me to call the doc. My kids are pretty healthy and pretty good at kicking illness in the butt themselves, given time. But this time? With the strange pain first (and not a tummy ache or sick stomach, but pain way down low) and then a fever... I was a little concerned.
So I took him in and after ruling out a bladder infection, the dr wasn't sure what was wrong... possibly the beginning of appendicitis? She checked all the usuals as to rule out any other possibilities... ears, throat, chest all looked good... and ran a strep culture just in case... which came out just on the slightest side of positive. She showed me the strip and I couldn't even really make out the blue line but she said she'd treat it as positive -maybe we just caught it super early so it wasn't showing up real well- and gave us antibiotics for that. Still kind of puzzled though as to the abdominal pain -again, that it was not belly pain, but rather so low and radiating- so said to keep an eye on it getting worse, moving to just the right side, etc, just in case it was coincidentally appendicitis.

Well, last evening it got worse. His fever was stubborn in coming down, he'd moved on to no appetite, frequent bathroom trips, and more pain; by bedtime he'd hardly let us touch him. I felt like more than anything it was the fever making him so miserable and breathed half a sigh of relief when we did get it down enough to feel at least halfway comfortable letting him go to bed. To then sit around all night and debate on whether we should take him in.
His fever and pain stayed at an even keel overnight, but in the morning I decided enough was enough and finally took him in to the ER as soon as Savannah was off to school.














They scoped him out for appendicitis right away... I was surprised at how relatively quickly they got us in they had him in the ultrasound room and then has his urine and bloodwork underway.














Vanderbilt Children's was great! But then of course the waiting for results. What seemed like hours later...















Turned out no appendicitis. Yay! But definitely the strep and actually the strep had caused lots of swelling and inflamation in the lymph nodes in his bowel area; hence the pain and tenderness. I had no idea there were lymph nodes in your lower abdomen and even less of an idea that they would flare up with strep throat!! Seriously... no sore throat, but fever and appendicitis type pain?!? Crazy.

They gave him an all-in-one dose of antibiotic shot in the butt... so we don't even have to worry about meds here at home and supposedly he'll feel better faster than the traditional 10 day dose. Hopefully.

We made it home just in time for me to dose him up with more Motrin, tuck him in bed for a much-needed nap, and welcome Savannah home off the bus. So yeah, basically spent our whole day at the hospital, just to confirm he had strep like our dr told us the day before. :)

He's doing better this afternoon... but of course been still doped up on Motrin.
Oh, and now he says his throat is hurting. Of course, now.

I think we'll be home from school tomorrow. He's been on antibiotics for over 24 hrs already, so he's not contagious, but I'm thinking he won't be up to it.
And that's saying a lot if you know Sawyer, poor kid...

Get well soon buddy!

game ball

Sawyer was awarded the game ball after his game this past Saturday... something he's been looking forward to all season! He hit the very first pitch both innings up to bat and was a star in the field.
He loves every minute of the game and he is so fun to watch!















Congrats Sawman!!

Untitled from heather morrison on Vimeo.

go sawyer

So, baseball.




















Don't tell his dad, but Sawyer is claiming to like it better than soccer these days. :)




















He's having a blast on his little team.














And we're having a blast watching him!





















Most of the time I think he looks way too grown up out there on the field and in uniform.





















But then I look again and think he looks way too little in that big bulky helmet...
























batter up!






















foul ball!

































and a hit!





It's gonna be a fun season!

camp #5

A rehash of Sawyer's birthday party, long overdue.
Once again, blaming it on the computer sitch here at home... I took pics with my big camera, missing card reader for that, our desktop has yet to be set up, and screen time for me on Ryan's work laptop is hard to come by. So here we are, Wednesday already.

But on to the party!

















Sawyer ordered up a Camping Party, oh about eight months ago. Seriously, he's been planning this this long. Remembering SJ's "not-really-sleepover" party from the previous year, he wanted the same thing; he wanted it at night, he wanted sleeping bags and he wanted a tent. I was all for it, and in fact found the owl and critter decorations that set off our animal and color scheme in the clearanced Easter candy last year!! I grabbed a few packages of these chocolates as well as some animal gummy candies for less than fifty cents each! Lucky for me wrapped chocolate lasts like forever, right?!!
So for the cake, I know there are some fabulous ideas out there for camping/tent/outdoorsy cakes, but I went the easy route (read: no fondant) and just frosted with chocolate frosting and plugged the cute outdoorsy animals right around the sides...




And I think it turned out pretty darn cute!





























Other treats/foodstuffs:




Our makeshift S'mores. We opted out of a real campfire (more on that later) and S'mores, so this was my token S'more on a stick idea... just a chocolate covered marshmallow on a pretzel stick. It was yummy!















And I made these Owl S'mores (idea from here) which also got packaged up to go in the goodie bags.














Here's the whole spread of our camping "dinner"...
(okay, for some reason can't' find this picture right now??)

So originally plans for this party included our giant tent in the backyard and a campfire and roasting hot dogs and marshmallows and playing games and telling stories outside... you know, like a mini camping trip (minus the sleeping over!). I figured, early November, shouldn't be too awfully cold to be outside... heck, we camp for real in October, surely it'll be fine for five year olds out in the backyard for a couple of hours, no worries.
The week leading up to the party... 70 degree days.
This week... 70 degree days (I think it's supposed to actually be 78 today!).
The weekend in between? When we have a camping party?? Planned for mostly after dark???
High of 45, low in the 20's.
Hahahahahahah. Ha.
It wasn't very funny.
I hemmed and hawed about still doing all our outdoors stuff... I mean, kids don't care, right? But I cared, and it was cold.
So we skipped the tent and the firepit and instead we played a few games running around outside before the sun disappeared
[games: we played Mosquito Tag and had a bug/snake/frog hunt around the yard and went on an imaginary hike... jumping over creeks, ducking branches, tiptoeing past sleeping bears, etc.]
and then moved the party inside, turned on the gas fireplace and spread out or sleeping bags on the family room floor.
(sorry, dark pics, we were operating by fire and flashlight!)











































I read aloud some camping books from the library and we did some shadow stories on the wall with our flashlights...


























And of course we sang and had birthday cake...





















































Even though things didn't go exactly as planned (in more ways than one!), I think everyone had fun... I know Sawyer did!

Here's some of what our campers were sent home with:














I found little $1 canvas knapsacks and stamped names on them and filled them with fruit leather, carabiners, camping stickers, glow in the dark silly bands, glowsticks, trailmix and everyone took home their flashlights and any bugs/frogs/snake critters they collected in the games we played outside.

Our new favorite trailmix, in case you're hitting the trail (or just a regular old snacktime) any time soon... the mix was a hit with the kids; Quaker Oatmeal Squares, Multigrain Cheerios, pretzel sticks, Goldfish, banana chips, chocolate covered raisins, and mini M&M's.