he'll probably want to kill me when he's 14

But I couldn't resist posting these anyway...

I finally got him to put it on and not be scowling and/or screaming and trying to tear it off:


















But it took lots of convincing, bribing, sweet talking, and bargaining.
The bargaining involved the fact that since he allowed me to see him in the bear costume for all of 8.3 seconds, he also got to try on Savannah's costume:























And he was much happier about that.

Erin was the first to guess right and hit the nail on the head exactly. We had settled on Sawyer being Baby "I'm a big boy!" Bear and Savannah being Goldilocks. I thought Sawyer would love it as he's been conveniently in a I want to read Goldilocks and the Three Bears book every single night before bed rut for a while now. It was actually Savannah's idea. But of course when it came time to actually try the costume on, he would have nothing to do with it and tried convincing me he'd make a much better Goldilocks than a stupid ol' bear. Grr.

What do you think??

Erin, email me your address and I'll send you a surprise! :)

we're having issues

"NO! Noooooo! I hate dat!! I be Gowocks wike Yanna!"

This is the mild version of the fit response I have gotten each day for the past three days when I try to get Sawyer to do a certain something... any guesses on the issue we're having and what Sawyer's been crying whining yelling saying to me (over and over and over)??

First correct answer will get a fun prize mailed to them...

we're cool

I think Sawyer's officially done napping. He's only taken two naps in the last two weeks. And those were short and sweet in and of themselves. Ugh. I am so not ready for this. He just doesn't get, or at least pretends he doesn't get, the idea of just staying in his room for some quiet time either. I set up the frog lights to work with a mid-day rest time now, so hopefully he'll get the hang of this soon. I just cannot handle a full day without a Sawyer break!!

******
It is so incredibly cool here today and I am just loving it! I think the remnants of Ike coming through here (which brought some wicked winds and tons of flooding by the way! Over five inches of rain here in less than four hours. I never knew you could experience a true Tropical Depression all the way up here in Missouri!) really and truly broke the rest of whatever heat we had left from the summer.
Playing outside with the kids yesterday, I was actually chilly at times with jeans and a t-shirt on! Savannah wore long sleeves to school for the first time today and we are actually all wearing long pants. We slept with our windows open last night and woke up actually cold!! Ryan left for work this morning leaning over my side of the bed to give me a kiss and said, "Enjoy your cold nose!". That pretty much sums it up for me... much nicer to be bundled up in bed than sprawled out on top of the blankets sweating! Mmmm... it's nice to be cooled off! I don't think we've seen 50 degree low temperatures since April. That's the biggest difference from what we're used to back home, and about the only thing I don't like about the weather here. In Oregon (and mostly true of our time in Michigan), no matter how warm it got on a summer day, you could still count on it cooling off each and every night. You could open windows after the sun went down, you could enjoy cool summer evenings outside, it was always a nice break from the heat and you could enjoy mornings and evenings without any severe heat. Here we hardly get below 70 anytime during the summer. Most summer nights are just as uncomfortable, muggy and warm as the day; just without the heat of the sun! We can't open windows to let fresh air in, we don't enjoy cool summer mornings or comfy evenings. It "cools off" to a horribly humid 78 degrees. Yuck.
So one of the things that's at the very top of my list about loving this fall is opening our windows to the cool night air. Heck, I've had all our windows open all day, that's how nice it is today!
And our week's forecast is looking spectacular, with nothing but sunshine and temps in the low 70's all week long. Perfect fall weather.

I'm busting my butt trying to get the house cleaned and caught up on everything so we can spend most of the rest of the week out of doors. Today is the coolest and cloudiest of the week, so I figure if I can get ahead of the game chore-wise today, we'll be good to just relax and play the week away outside and watch a sunshiney autumn come rolling in!

What's the weather like in your neck of the woods?

he's so serious, he's funny

I just wanted to jot down some of the funny stuff Sawyer's been saying lately...

He's real big on being fussated!! He's almost always fussated!! instead of being mad or upset. And it almost always makes me laugh... just the way he says it every time with clenched fists down by his sides and his teeth gritted! Complete with an Arghhhh to go along with it.

He's also real big lately on letting me know when I'm being "rude". Rude according to him, that is. You know; like when he doesn't get a second fruit snack or dessert without eating his dinner...
Basically when he's unhappy with my answers, "You rude Mom!"
He got in trouble this evening before bed and I told him because of his behavior I wasn't going to be reading any books to him -that he had to go strait to bed on his own. He of course told me I was rude. A few minutes later he was saying a long-distance goodnight to Ryan on the phone and when he was done I was talking on the phone filling Ryan in on the pre-bedtime cahoots and consequences. Sawyer heard me tell Ryan that he had let me know once again that I was being rude; Sawyer then interrupted me and said "Wait Mom, I change my mind. You not rude."
Gee thanks Sawyer.

This kid was on a "I hate..." kick for awhile. Suddenly this summer he was walking around saying "I hate this" and "I hate that". Most of the time we would just reiterate with him, "Oh, you don't like xyz?". Sometimes he would argue "no, I hate it!" or when it would just get to be too much (or if he'd use it toward people!), we'd remind him we don't need to use that word, we can use nicer words, just say 'I don't like that'. To which he always replies, "But me hate squitos!! (mosquitos)" in a very proud of himself tone of voice.
You see, one time, he said he hated mosquitos (during our Michigan mosquito infestation this summer) and seeing as we were all completely exasperated with the mosquitos, Ryan agreed, "It's okay to hate mosquitos! You go ahead and hate mosquitos Sawyer!"
Now to this day, if there's any conversation about the word hate, Sawyer has to pitch out the fact that he most definitely hates, and is allowed to hate, mosquitos.

On the way to his "preschool" on Friday we were driving along in silence for a few minutes and suddenly Sawyer let out a huge sigh and exclaimed "Me so 'cited... (excited)" letting his voice trail off absentmindedly. It was so stinkin' cute.

And he misses everyone! Ever since he got back from his trip a few weeks ago, he's all about the missing. Every morning when Savannah leaves for school as soon as the bus drives off around the corner he heaves a bigh sad sigh and says "Me miss Yannah..."
Then two seconds later he's happily skipping off to ride his bike.
He misses his dad all day when he's gone at work. He misses me at naptime. He misses the neighbor girls across the street when he sees their mom drive up with an empty van while they're at school. And he always says it in such a sad, dramatic voice. hehe.

And I love, love, love when he talks to anyone on the phone (his dad, his cousin, a grandma, etc) and it ends the same way every time; Bye, Yuv you, have a good day! and then a big kiss on the earpiece of the phone!

There's a ton more; I need to be better about jotting things down.

And just silly things like how he's suddenly taken an interest in Diego (Go, Diego, Go) and totally fully enthusiastically participates in the "interactive" show; full-on yelling out words in spanish when Diego says "louder!" and running up to the tv to point things out when Diego asks a question. He loves it.
Also the fact that he's out playing foursquare and catch football with the boys at the bus stop every morning... keep in mind this is a two year old. The boys at the bus stop are a kindergartner, a second grader, and two fifth graders! Sawyer thinks he's just one of the guys. And don't try to tell him different. He'll emphasize (quite loudly) that he's a BIG BOY!!
And probably tell you you're rude for saying otherwise :) .

wow

What a morning.

It started with my kids yelling at each other not 30 seconds out of bed, and so far has also included a certain kindergartner putting up every fight possible in my effort to get her on the school bus presentably and on time, a whole container of yogurt spilled on my kitchen floor, going out for errands and getting lost and driving around god knows where for 30 minutes, finally arriving at the elusive destination only to find out they wouldn't be open for another hour (I had checked the website which had no listing of this brand new store but all the hours for all their other stores in this area were the same so I foolishly assumed the new store would follow suit as well... wrong!), deciding to go to a different store instead of waiting around for an hour and then we got stuck in highway construction for ever, and the back up store of course didn't have what I needed. So we returned to the stupid first store because by then it was open and it was on our way home. Luckily they did have what I wanted and we were in and out of there quickly and on our way home.

Anyway.
Now I'm sitting in my driveway watching Sawyer ride circles around me on his bike. And this simple activity has pretty much pleasantly erased the annoyance and irritation of our morning. Did I mention how extremely not fun it is to be driving with a two-year-old in the back seat who not only talks non-stop, but who is still sometimes difficult to understand and who also insists you reply to everything he's saying especially the phrases you don't understand, repeating them over and over and over until you answer or acknowledge or comment on what he's wanting to tell you about... yeah, that's fun when you're lost and confused and already annoyed by the situation at hand!

But taking a break and sitting out here on this beautiful sunny day watching this kid and the joy he gets out of simply riding his bike in circles... it's the perfect cure to a frazzled grumpy morning.
His smiles are so contagious. He can't get enough of this bike. And today he's showing off ("Watch this Mom... Did you see that Mom??"), impressing me with his tricks, standing up on his pedals to ride, going so fast I can hardly believe he's still got any control over the tight turns he pulls off, skidding to a stop just in the nick of time before he hits my chair and then cracking up because I thought he was going to crash into me. Then of course, sporadically he jumps off the bike and moves onto shooting a few hoops or coerces me into whacking the tennis ball around with him, drags out the hockey sticks and goal and then he's back on the bike for some more laps. He's non-stop, definitely lives it up and enjoys every minute of it.
It's just so amazing to sit back and watch the enjoyment of a kid outside being a kid.
A boy being a boy.

Thought I'd share some of what was making me smile this morning...
(warning: I got a little snap happy.... and excuse the blurry shots; like I said, he likes to ride fast!!)
































































Next time I have a bad day I'm just going to stick my kid on his bike, let him go to town, and sit back and soak up the simple pleasures.

we are officially THAT family

You know the one. The one who's kids, in the middle of the summer, go to bed while it's still perfectly light out. Not only perfectly light out, but with what seems like hours of daylight to still play by. The ones who drag their kids inside by six thirty in the evening for bath and bed. We are officially the bummer early bedtime family.

I've always been big on good bedtimes for my kids. My kids, from day one, have completely 100 percent validated the theory of sleep begets sleep. The later they stay up the worse sleep they get, the earlier they wake in the morning, etc, etc. They've always had a regular bedtime of 7/7:30. Always. I know with my 15 years of experience with babies and young kids, that good sleep habits can make or break a good kid. I'm proud of the fact that my kids have always been good sleepers, and healthy, happy, well-rested kids.

However, besides knowing that, I've become totally lax thus far this summer.
It all started with our evening swimming lessons... which started at 7pm, meaning we were never even home before 8pm, putting the kids in bed much later than normal and them not drifting off to sleep till close to 9 o'clock. Then ever since lessons were over we've just had a lot of evenings of visiting with the neighbors, having friends over and the like. Normally, even in our "socialness" the kids maintain somewhat decent (regular) bedtimes, with Ryan or I simply taking a quick break from the visiting to get them squared away in bed. Lately however I've been letting it slide more and more. 8 o'clock... no big deal. 8:30... no big deal. Even 9 o'clock some nights. We had three families over for dinner throughout this past week (who's kids do not have an early bedtime at all) and I let the kids stay up until our visitors left. We were outside playing with the neighbor kids until almost 9pm the other night. Even when we're home and doing nothing, I've been more relaxed with their bedtimes, thinking oh it's summer... let 'em have a little fun! Yeah, well we're way past the fun point here folks. My kids cannot handle it. They are falling apart and bedtimes, when we finally do get around to it, are complete chaos now. I'm going to have to go back to some hard core bedtime "training" with Sawyer again as he's popping out of bed every other minute wanting another hug or kiss or water or potty or just to whine about staying up. He is so over tired that he doesn't know how to keep himself in bed and to get settled down anymore. And they're both waking at ungodly hours in the morning again too. Ugh.
Two nights ago we went to Circus Flora and Savannah fell asleep on my lap for the whole last hour of the show. Now let me just say this is absolutely unheard of. This child has not fallen asleep in public, in the middle of an outing, since she was honestly about 4 weeks old. And here she was at age 5, at 8pm, in the middle of a circus! with loud music! and a boisterous narrator! and clapping and cheering going on around her every 5 minutes! .... sound asleep in my lap.
I tell ya, that's when I knew I had to buckle down with our bedtimes again.

And once again, case in point: after a few late nights in a row and the great Circus Flora Pass-out, I knew last night that a nice relaxing early bedtime was a priority for both these kiddos. Both were ready and in bed by 7pm. And do you know what time Sawyer finally fell asleep? At 9:50. After about 347 trips out of bed and up and down the stairs. Eee Gad! (and then not to mention he was up and at 'em at 6 this morning!!)
So we're going to be relearning some bedtime routines around here. And we're not deviating from the regular 7 o'clock bedtimes but for very rare exceptions anymore. My kids apparently can't handle a lax summer bedtime schedule. Which is fine by me... more me time, more mommy and daddy time, more grown up time when we have friends over....
Now only if I could make a rule that every child in our house or in our neighborhood would be in bed by 8pm! It'd make life a lot easier for us!!
So yes, we are THAT family who makes their kids go to bed early... even in the summer!! Believe me-- it'll be much better for all involved....

multiple choice

Before drifting off to sleep in his bed each night, Sawyer likes to ....

a) turn into some sort of backward version of a hunchback.
b) become impregnated with an alien child.
c) make sure his special little froggy blanket stays reeeeally close while he sleeps.

helmet head

We have a friend (who happens to be a neurologist) with whom we joke often about "Life Helmets". They have two small boys and we've often chuckled over the frequency of noggin bonks on these kids (my boy more so than theirs put together I think).
Dr Dave likes to say that with the paranoia of many parents these days and how over the top some go to safeguard their kids, with their locks and gates and pads and bumpers, and even as they grow up; no merry-go-rounds, teeter-totters or big slides on playgrounds anymore, etc... he says he'd be rich if he invented, marketed and "endorsed as a neurologist" a Life Helmet for kids. Just think, your kid can walk around protected, you'd never have to worry about bumps, bruises or stitches. Sure, they'd look pretty silly, or you'd always think they were ready for a ride, but hey- they're head is protected for life!! ha!
What's not so funny is that many parents would probably entertain that idea! It might already exist?!

Well, it seems Sawyer's gone and run with that idea all on his own. Here are some pictures of Sawyer over the past week. Keep in mind these were four separate days. And mind you, there was no biking involved. He just felt the need to wear his bike helmet. Indoors. All the time.
While watching tv, while wearing pajamas, while coloring, while hopping around the house in froggy rainboots...










































That last 'Mr Happy' picture could be considered a valid helmet wearing instance... Sawyer found a little toy skateboard (thats for a doll/figurine) in the toybox and decided he needed to don his helmet to "skate" around the house on the skateboard. He was hilarious scooting around on that tiny thing... his one foot barely fit on it. And he's all thinking he's a hotshot skateboarder :)





















I just think it's hilarious that this kid suddenly wants to live in his helmet.
And that with him and his record, that's probably a good thing.

can I get a little consistency?

You know the mantra... Kids need consistency.
I give my kids plenty of consistency. They have consistent rules, boundaries, consequences... they have a mostly predictable schedule and routine. Consistency is something I feel I am good at providing my kids.

And yet, what do us parents of small children get in return?
Pretty much the furthest thing from consistency... Your kid's a good napper? Just wait two weeks. You think you have a behavior nipped in the bud? Just wait a day. You think they like grilled cheese and carrot sticks? Just wait till dinnertime. Absolutely the opposite of consistent.

Yesterday?... My kids, in one sitting, each ate three Bran Applesauce Muffins. Three! Each!
Today?... I can't get either one of them to eat even half of one. They act like it's the most horrible food on the planet.

Obviously the only thing consistent about these kids is that they are in fact inconsistent.

*****
Friday Questions!
Tell me please, what do you set your thermostat (if you have central air) at in the summer? How about in the winter too, just for kicks.

Wintertime; we set it at 68*, going down to 65-66 at night.
In the summer we set the ac at 78*. I knock it down to 76 if we have a lot of people over or sometimes just before bedtime for a bit because it gets so much hotter upstairs. Or if I'm just miserable. I have to sneak it though, because Ryan's a 78* stickler.
Is that not a common setting? I remember at the end of last summer (well into the fall, actually) mentioning something about it being so nice that it was finally cooler... about it being the first time (probably since we had moved in) that our thermostat had read that it was cooler than 76 degrees in our house...
And someone said they wondered if maybe our thermostat was not working well. I'd love to keep the house cooler than that... but we have a big house and can't afford to pump up the ac more than we do. How do you run the ac in the summer?

chalk another one up to the tired column...

Why does it work so that kids are always up puking in the middle of the night, rather than the middle of the day?

Sawyer was absolutely fine yesterday and went to bed great. We were awakened about 1am by his crying (screaming) and throwing up in his bed.
He threw up three times between 1 and 3:30. AM.
After cleaning him up the first time, I had taken him and slept in the guest bed with him, meaning I was awake from approximately 1 to 4:30. AM. And then he was awake and raring to go at 6:30. AM. And was perfectly fine all day. Acting normal, running around as normal, eating as normal. And hardly blinked an eye at the lack of sleep.
Me however?
I was teaching in kid's church this morning so I had to get up and be there, and then had some baking I had to do this afternoon, followed by a barbecue get together this evening.
I could have really used that 5 hours of sleep I missed.

I'm glad it was just a flukey bug or whatever it was and that he's feeling fine, I really am. I'm just puzzled as to why it always seems to happen in the night, rather than the middle of the day when we're all awake and able to function a little easier... after a full night of sleep.

I'm off early to try and get one of those tonight...
Wish me luck!!

it's going to be a smooth(ie) summer...

Sawyer loved when I would make him smoothies last year. Savannah hated them and I could never get her to drink them, even if they were all fruit or the sweetest blend I could think of. Even two days ago, her dad got a berry smoothie at Costco and he got it in his head to make her try it. It was a huge ridiculous battle and in the end she took one sip and then acted like she was going to throw up.
So when I made smoothies today to go along with our lunch of eggs and waffles, I was completely prepared for Savannah to ignore the smoothie next to her plate. Now that the weather's warmed up, I've decided to start making them (almost) every day for Sawyer as #1-he's not a breakfast eater and maybe since he likes these so much he'll get a little energy coming in in the mornings if I blend up some goodies. And #2- he really doesn't eat vegetables OR fruit. He loves carrot juice (wouldn't eat a carrot to save his life) and he'll eat cucumbers and maybe a couple of peas, but that's it. Meal after meal, I can't get him to eat veggies in their whole form, whatsoever. And I've never met another toddler who won't eat fruit like this kid. He'll eat bananas three at a time, and on a good day maybe some grapes, but other than that, he won't even try. He doesn't like melon, won't eat peaches or pears, no oranges, berries, nada. So while I'm still offering him fruits and veggies at meals and snacks, smoothies work for now as far as actually making it into his system!!

Todays mix was simply 2 bananas, 3 handfuls of baby spinach, and about 2 cups of frozen blueberries.
Sawyer gulped down two big cupfuls.

And Savannah....
loved it!
She drank down her whole cup even before moving on to her waffle and pears. And asked for more. And told me over and over again that she loved it. She told me she couldn't leave it alone long enough to eat her lunch! LOL

And you know what else she said to me just now, a half an hour after the fact?
"Mom, I just can't get that smoothie out of my head!... Let's have those every day, pleeease?!!"

cuz three posts in one day wasn't enough

I'm just feeling chatty. And I keep trying to talk to my husband and he gets mad if I don't wait for the commercials in between Scrubs...

So here I am. Welcome to random thoughts version 4/10

>>I was beginning to think I'd forgotten how to cook dinner. I mean a real dinner. I honestly can't remember the last time I made dinner. Like more than a box of mac and cheese or throwing chicken on a salad. I was actually chopping vegetables today... and sauteeing on the stove!! We had this tonight and it was yummy! Hopefully I'll be more motivated to make real and yummy meals next week with my family in town.

>>Oh, did I mention my family is coming into town? My parents are arriving on Saturday and they're bringing my little sister for a week. She hasn't been here yet, so that'll be fun!

>>My eye has healed up nicely. Thanks everyone for all your well wishes. I still don't really know what happened. I had a huge tear on my cornea, but no idea how it got there. The dr said maybe I did it in my sleep? I just woke up in horrible pain... couldn't even open my eye. The dr. numbed it up, cleaned it up (removed a flap of torn surface), and patched it up giving me painkillers and antibiotic drops for the next few days. It was much better yesterday and today I was actually able to wear my contacts for a few hours to go to bible study and take Savannah to school. It's good to feel normal again. Do you know how hard it is to not be able to see? I only had one eye patched, but really I needed to keep the other one closed as well because your eyes move simultaneously and when I would use my good eye and look around, my injured eye also moved even though it was closed, and the raw cornea rubbing against my eyelid was quite painful. I wasn't quite tired enough to sleep much that day, so I was quite bored not being able to watch tv or read or be on the computer... even talking with Ryan or the kids it was hard to just keep my eyes closed. I was so bored and restless. It's good to have my eyes back.

>>This has been an odd week. It seems to have flown by, like I can't believe tomorrow's already Friday, but at the same time it seemed to drag on sooooo sloooowly. I'm also dreadfully behind on so many things this week. Having basically two days wiped out of a busy week due to "blindness" doesn't help the fact. I'm still trying to get laundry put away from my "laundry day" and my whole house is basically a disaster. We were gone for most of the day today, including the evening and I have to buckle down and get some stuff done tomorrow. We're babysitting the neighbor girls tomorrow morning and then we're getting to work around here!

>>Yucky weather today. We've been in this lovely pattern of a nice warm sunny day and then a yucky rainy stormy day, back and forth, back and forth. Today was warm and muggy... 70 degrees but rainy, windy, haily (I know that's not really a word) and stormy. Sawyer and I spent some time outside in between showers while he wasn't napping today. He was a total boy playing in the mud puddles, splashing up a storm, picking the muddiest spots, digging for worms and squishing up the mud with his fingers...
I have a post coming on this boy and his spring sports obsession. We are going to have a blast outside all spring and summer!

why is he doing this to me?

So about twice a week now, for the past month or so, Sawyer is not napping.
Three times last week actually.
And it scares me to death because this was the exact age that Savannah decided to stop napping. I remember specifically because I was 8 months pregnant and very much needing her to nap every day. And then she just up and quit. And I finished out my pregnancy and went on to juggle a newborn with a cranky stubborn non-napping toddler. Not a happy time in our household...

So now. Sawyer is exactly the same age SJ was when she got this bright idea that she didn't need naps anymore, and what happens? He just randomly decides daytime sleeping is not for him.
How does that happen? Coincidence? Were my kids born with a "no napping after 28 months" program?? Why was I not informed of this?

I was spoiled when I was a nanny for two years. The 5 year old I had would still take three hour naps every day if I let her, and the two year old was a pretty darn good napper too.
And so of course my own not-quite-two-and-a-half-year-olds decide to cut me off... just my luck.

Darn it- Sawyer was always such a good little napper too. And I always said it was a good thing because we needed it. We; me as much as he. He is a child who needs to give a break as well as get one himself. He is just so go, go, go, non-stop all day.
If he's seriously going to no longer nap for me, I may rethink this not putting him in preschool next year...

let's go back to bed

Sawyer for some reason didn't go to sleep last night until almost 9:30. His normal time is 7:30. And then he was up at 6:30 this morning.

It's now 7:30. And he really has done nothing but cry for the hour he's been up.
You see, I can do nothing right...
To start off our lovely morning, he doesn't want to go downstairs, he wants to stay in my bed and watch Sesame Street. I tell him he's more than welcome to stay up in bed, but that I need to go open the gate for SJ to go down and she needs help to get a drink and some breakfast. NOT happy with that choice.
He eventually (two seconds later) decides he wants to join us downstairs, but stops at the top of the stairs and has meltdown #2 because he wants to bring down his "stuff" (his special frog blanket and dog and a bonus frog this morning) but doesn't like to maneuver the stairs with his hands full. NOT happy that I left him up there alone and NEEDS me to come back and get his "stuff".
He comes down and tells me he wants toast. Midway through the toasting, he's decided he's NOT wanting toast and it's just NOT okay that I'm still toasting it. It needs to be OUT NOW! And done away with immediately.
He wants OJ. No, he wants milk. No, he wants OJ. I pour both. Best of both worlds right? WRONG! What was I thinking giving him TWO cups?! The world was ending!
I offer him cereal. Do you want Cheerios? NO. Do you want Kix? NO. I know he really does, so I ask each another time. NO. Put it all away. As soon as I close the pantry door, meltdown #5... I DOOOOO want Cheerios!!
I sit him up at the table with his Cheerios, toast, 2 cups, and a BIG spoon (meltdown #6).
He gobbles it all up (mostly while still crying) and asks for more toast. Eats that too.

So I know he was probably just starving (that wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that he ate not one bite of dinner last night now would it?).
And I know he's short on sleep.
And I know he needs some extra cuddles.

I also know we have dance class this morning, I HAVE to go grocery shopping, Savannah has preschool immediately after lunch (which means Sawyer's naptime is cut short) and with Sawyer's mood, that's going to make for a stellar day in our world, I can just tell.
And the three inches of gray and gloomy rain we're supposed get today just tops it all off.

I think we probably just all need to go back to bed...

ouchie

As a follow up to our great peaceful evening last night,
of course we would have to spend our evening tonight like this...

(that's a Pooh ice pack
for owies)












We were out running errands tonight and decided to stop in for a quick dinner at Wendy's. We have no Wendy's near us (they apparently are rare in this neck of the woods) and both Ryan and I have been craving it lately, so when we were "conveniently" driving by, we made the stop.
Sawyer finished up his dinner and we were all sitting around waiting for Slow Poke Savannah to finish her nuggets. Sawyer was restless so we let him stroll the restaurant a bit. He ran over and watched the guy refill the ice machine (he's mildly obsessed with ice cubes at the moment, so this was the highlight of his day, I'm sure!). And he ran back to tell us excitedly about it.
Only he never told us because as he came upon our table, he tripped and smacked right into the base of his own chair. These were nice solid wood dining chairs and he hit the leg or the rung at the legs HARD. As soon as he looked up at me, before he had even had a chance to start crying, he already had a blue/green lump popping up on his head. By the time I scooped him up (and by then he was crying at full volume) it looked like a huge vein was going to literally pop out of his forehead. Oh it looked bad. And it was starting to bleed. Luckily it wasn't actually cracked open, just kind of scraped raw in a couple of spots, so it wasn't gushing. But it was swelling by the second. We tried to ice him, but he would have nothing to do with it. So we made our way out to the car, cleaned him up a bit, scrounged a ziplock bag out of the diaper bag and he played with a couple of ice cubes in it all the way home, although I don't think they ever made it up to his head.

Once home, and after wrestling him down to give him Tylenol, he finally let me ice it for a bit with his "boo-boo Pooh" while he watched a couple episodes of Little Bear.








And luckily it didn't phase him for long...





















he did stare at himself quite shocked in the mirror at bathtime...















and I'm sure it'll be pretty in the morning.





















From the time we left the restaurant until we got home, the swelling spread nicely to take up the whole side of his forehead evenly, kind of even pushing his eyebrow down. Before it was sticking out in one confined spot like a huge swollen vein in between the two cuts.
It always amazes me how pictures never seem to do injuries justice.





















I honeslty winced a little everytime I looked at him...
even now... it just makes my stomach hurt!

Uck.

plan b

The frogs worked (somewhat) for three days. As soon as I dared to contemplate their success in writing, Sawyer decided to pay them no mind.
He's been up before six all this week, in and out of his room countless times.
Time for a new plan. One that I'm not happy about.

When he got up this morning, I tucked him back in bed, reminded him one time that I needed him to stay in bed until the froggies woke up, and parked myself in the rocking chair in his bedroom. I sat there in the dark and any time he started getting out of bed, I simply said "In Bed" and he'd crawl right back in the blankets. We did this about five times over the next 45 minutes. Then his frogs clicked on and I jumped out of the chair to meet him in his bed, acting all awake and excited, "Good Morning! It's morning time! The frogs are awake, would you like to wake up now Sawyer? Good Morning!" And we went downstairs all excited it was morning.
Yeah right. I'm a good actress.

Anyway. My plan is to repeat that again tomorrow morning. And then the next morning, if he gets up early at his favorite ungodly hour, I'll be parking myself right outside his bedroom door. Every time (if) he comes out of his room again, I'll be right there waiting for him, wordlessly planting him back in his bed. Repeat probably fifteen times before it's time for the frogs to wake up. We'll see.
I'm hoping eventually he'll get tired of it, learn that he's getting no reaction from us, no reward (like one of us laying with him, which we break down and do some of those especially early mornings) and no fun until the frogs turn on. Hopefully he'll just eventually stop bothering to get up until they do. And hopefully he'll then start actually sleeping until then. Because this kid is having a hard time functioning for a full day when he wakes up at 5 AM. (I'm mean and I won't let him compensate at naps or an earlier bedtime!)

I'm at least thankful he always goes to bed so easily. And he doesn't get up during the night. Savannah went through a phase of that at about this same age. She'd been sleeping in a big bed great for a few months and then all of a sudden she'd be awake in the middle of the night and want to be playing or roaming the house. We tried everything we could think of and then we had to break down and camp (well, Ryan did it... I was pregnant at the time so he let me stay asleep in our bed) out in the hallway in front of her bedroom door from about 1-3am every night for about a week. Ryan would have made up a bed of pillows and blankets and every time he heard her open her door, or hear the light click on under the crack of her door, he'd silently get up, put her back in her bed, not saying a word, not getting mad, not threatening, not anything... just plopped her back in bed and went straight back to his bed in the hall. Repeat, repeat, repeat. And repeat, repeat, repeat. And repeat, repeat, repeat. And you get the picture. I don't remember how long it took, maybe four or five nights of that? And then she only got up once or twice, and then she never got up again.
So I'm hoping that same thing will work in these early mornings with Sawyer. I don't know that he'll actually go back to sleep most of these mornings, but I'm hoping with no reaction/attention from us at all, except to silently plop him back in his bed, he'll eventually stay put until it's really morning and as long as he's staying there, I'm thinking he'll eventually get more sleep.
I'm hoping.

just call me betty crocker

I pretty much fell into bed last night. I think I was on my feet the whole entire day. I spent a chunk of the morning walking at the mall, spent the afternoon cleaning, packing, unpacking and organizing the basement, and then spent the evening in the kitchen slicing, dicing and cooking away. I made this for dinner, this for dessert (and for our new neighbors) and this for just pure yumminess.
(We had a new Aldi store open up just down the road from us this weekend and we hit them up hard on their 19 cents/pound apples!!)

AND.
I made these yummy Apple Carrot Muffins, recommended by Kim right here, which my kids wolfed down just a week ago. Seriously. I made them, I got to eat one, and then Ryan missed out because the kids had them all completely gone in about 12 hours.
So I made up some more this weekend, since they're a nice healthy snack and obviously, the kids loved 'em.
And guess what? This time neither of my kids will eat them. Savannah will *gag* it down if I make her, but Sawyer just crumbles them up or sneaks them into the garbage. What the heck?? They taste exactly the same as last time...
just goes to show I can't count on them liking anything consistently!!

child number two

Well, since I'm up bright and early on a Saturday morning, I figured I might as well get back to that post I was promising. All about my baby boy...

I don't even know where to begin. Thinking about what I wanted to document here, I kept finding myself thinking of all the troublemaking things. The frustrations and the hidden chuckles and the pulling my hair out that go along with the mischief and ornerinesss and plain old two-year-old-ness that is Sawyer, kept overshadowing the normal milestones like talking and learning things like colors and abc's and the all the fun things he's loving right now. But then I realized (duh) that it's not like I'm trying to brag here on all the good things that make up my boy. I don't have to put on a filter and stick to the positives... this is about writing down memories. Those things that he gets into and the bad habits he has, that's part of who he is too and I will want to look back at that someday. So here's Sawyer.... the good, the bad, and the rest of it.

I'd start with the early mornings, but I've already gone over that and there's really not much left to say on that topic. Except, man, I'd like to sleep past 6 someday.

When we finally come downstairs each morning, he heads straight for the pantry asking for a "nack". He is all about the snacks. He's not a big breakfast fan, but he does want something little in his belly first thing. And his "gilk".
Note: throughout this post I'll most likely be using Sawyer-speak and most likely you'll find to translate most of it, you simply swap out the first letter. This is how we spend much of our days... conversation with Sawyer quite often ends up in a rhyming guessing game. He says the ends of words perfectly... every syllable and sound is in there... except for the first letter. So if he says "gock" he may be trying to say sock, lock, walk, hock (which is his "nickname" for hockey), or clock, If you hear "guck" it might be truck, stuck, duck, puck, etc. The funny thing is, he can say all the right sounds... if he asks for "gilk, gleeze!" and I remind him that it sounds like "meh-meh-meh-milk", he'll say "meh-meh-meh-gilk", and I'll say "puh-puh-puh-please" and he'll say "puh-puh-puh-gleeeeeeeeeeeze!!". Other examples are gunk (skunk), goggie (doggie), gope (nope), groggy (froggy), and gunkin (pumpkin). His all time favorite phrases are "me too!" and "myself!!"(as in I'll do it myself!!).
He doesn't have a ton of words (that the average person can understand, anyway) and he is most definitely not a mimicker like many kids this age, but he can always get his point across and between his words and his signs and his body language, he's usually communicating what he needs to and I seldom find him frustrated with his still somewhat limited language. He does say a little more every day and though he's far from spewing out sentences like Savannah did at this age, I'm not worried about it. In typical boy fashion, he's much more about the physical activity than the small motor or language skills.

This kid is all about the sports. Something I thought was so interesting while Porter was here, was how different those boys are when it comes to what they like to do. I mean, I know all kids are different, but it has never been so glaringly obvious to me as when Porter and Sawyer play (or don't play) together. Sawyer is always bringing in a golf club or a ball or wanting to play catch or wrestle or chase or something at least physically active, if not directly involving a ball or a stick of some sort. Porter on the other hand just carries around cars and will sit and vroom them back and forth or line them up all day. Anything with four wheels, that's all P was interested in. And Sawyer could care less about that... I mean he'll play cars for a minute, even for maybe 15 minutes if they're going "SO FAST!" around a track. But then he's off to find a golf ball to hit across the track instead. While P was here, the guys took the boys outside plenty of times to run around and play and it never failed, Sawyer would stick to playing hockey or golf or basket ball and you could always find P on the driveway driving or pushing around the big red cozy coupe car. Porter had no interest in the sports and Sawyer could care less about being driving buddies. So interesting.

So yeah, we have a little jock on our hands I'm afraid. And he's only just turned two!!
He likes it all... he'll hit the softball off of the tee, he'll play catch with a football for hours, he'd swing a golf club all day (and he's got great follow through!), loves to get a soccer ball in the net, and he'll slap a hockey puck around for an hour straight, even pool and bowling! We got him a little bowling set for Christmas and he loves it! And the thing is, he's really good at whatever it is he's playing and I tend to forget I'm watching a toddler play. It is hilarious to watch a two year old line up a golf swing or tap the "ice" (the garage floor) with his hockey stick to let his dad know he's open! The "Hock" has got to be his favorite by far. He wants to play all day long. And I get bored out there sliding the puck around with him long before he does. And he watches all of this on tv with his dad. He loves to watch football, but if Sawyer's ever having a random meltdown, Ryan just flips on the tv, turns it to the hockey channel (yes, they really do have a channel for everything!) and instantly Sawyer's distracted from his woes. True story.
I kind of hope his true passion changes to something a little cheaper to play than hockey...
*note* I'm stealing this photo from Nicole (don't sue me Nic! haha!) because I have yet to take my camera out for hockey shots and it's too cold to actually go out and play today. So this'll have to do for now.



The Potty thing.
I think I've mentioned before that Sawyer may possibly be more ready for this whole potty training thing than I am. I'm lazy. That's no secret. And diapers are easier. Especially since we like to be out and about. But I also like money, and diapers do add up, so I might be persuaded to actually bite the bullet and work on this a bit.
I've done no prodding or pressuring on the potty thing. We've had the potty chair out since we moved here and for the past two months Sawyer uses is regularly. Each morning, before nap, before bed and almost anytime we change him, we'll ask him if he needs to go and he'll think about it and tell us yes or no. Usually yes. And he goes everytime. Last week he even pooped in the potty every day for five days straight. Now the problem is, is that he never tells us that he needs to go. He responds easily to my asking, but he never initiates. And when I do put him in underwear, he'll be wet and not even notice. And the frustrating thing is, is that I'll keep him in a diaper or a pull-up all day, and he'll go potty all day and keep his diaper dry, but then if I put him in underwear, it never fails he has an accident. And I have to watch him like a hawk or else he'll walk around with wet pants for half an hour.
Anyway, all that to say, I'm thinking if I sucked it up and took a few days to "train" him, I think he would get it pretty well. I just don't know if I'm ready to commit, as I'm fine with just going with how it is, letting him get used to going and doing with no pressure and no set pace. So we'll see what happens in the next couple of weeks.






It appears most of my stories of Sawyer all revolve around pretty stereotypical male topics... sleeping (in his case, the lack of it), eating, sports, and the john.
Here's one that doesn't fit those stereotypes... cleaning. Well, I guess it's not so much cleaning actually, as it is helping. He loves more than anything else to be a helper. Anything from unloading the dishwasher, to folding laundry, to taking out the garbage, to cooking, vacuuming, sweeping, packing, or working on the car... Sawyer is right there wanting to be in the middle of it. In fact, if I don't want his help I have to actually avoid certain chores when he's awake and around. If he hears the sink going, he appears right next to you ready to help load/unload the dishwasher. If he hears the dryer buzz, he runs in there to pull it all out into the basket. It's pretty stinkin' cute, even if it can get annoying sometimes (a two year old in many cases can be quite a hindrance rather than a help!), and I just pray he holds on to this servanthood attitude as he grow older!

I feel like I could go on and on about the funny things Sawyer does and the things he's learning and so in to and the trouble he causes... toddlers are just chock-full of all of that stuff aren't they? I'll spare you anymore rambling for now though and just say he's my most favorite boy in the world.
And I'll leave you with my favorite pictures of Sawyer, where he looks so sweet and innocent...



...and just so you're not fooled, here he is in reality when I've left the room and come back to owe him a talking-to about ransacking the fridge on his own for a little "nack".

stick a fork in me

I'm done.

So far this morning we have:
been awake since 6am, made breakfast, went out to play in the snow (not much snow... just a dusting. but I wanted the kids out of the house! before 8AM!!), stood in the side yard for 20 minutes waving and watching the garbage man go all the way up and down the street as well as the school bus picking up the kids all along our road, had a snack with hot chocolate, ran to the grocery store for makings of lasagna for neighborhood progressive dinner tonight, went to a second grocery store (honestly, what kind of grocery store doesn't carry ricotta cheese?),and plugged Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer into the dvd player (Savannah's been begging for it for the past three weeks!) so I can have a break.

all before 9AM.

And what I left out of that list was the constant cutting Sawyer off at the pass. Or trying to anyway. He has honestly turned into a full-fledged tear-the-house-apart-boy over the last few weeks. I've been meaning to ask... is this what having a little boy is like?
He is a terror. He is constantly throwing things, ripping things, breaking things, opening things, taking things apart, pulling drawers out, dumping things, climbing things, shoving things, stepping on things (and these things are not always things; they are quite often his sister), need I go on? I'm going crazy. I seriously have to be on top of him all the time. He just walks around looking for trouble.
And when I'm trying to be proactive and keep him involved in toys or appropriate activities, he's still just all about the obnoxious stuff... he can't just play cars, he has to careen them off the table. He can't just build blocks or play kitchen, he has to knock everything down or clear everything off in one fell swoop. He can't just dance to the music, he has to run around flying onto the furniture or body slamming his sister. After he's finished his 30 seconds of drawing, he of course has to roll each crayon or colored pencil one at a time off the table. He's not allowed to play upstairs anymore because whatever he gets his hands on up there ends up over the second story railing onto the floor of our entryway. He dropped a whole apple from the top the other day. That made a nice messy splat on the hardwood floors.
Every evening this week I have been thoroughly exhausted by the time he goes to bed.
Please tell me this is just a phase?....

I feel like I have a ton to get done today, and it's overwhelming with this kid running around.
Here's to Sawyer taking a three hour nap today...

what? a girl can hope can't she??

daddy's boy

Sawyer acquired a new attachment today; to his Daddy's hat. He grabbed it on our way out the door to dance class this morning, wore it in the car, wore it the whole time we were at the dance school, and pretty much the whole rest of the day. He even napped with it. I kept catching him patting his head and half-whispering to himself, "Dad" throughout the day. It was pretty stinkin' cute.
Also cute; just him in the hat itself. Too big on his head, he was usually just barely peeking out, but thought he was such hot stuff for wearing his Daddy's hat. Just made me smile every time I looked at him...








And proof that it's too early to completely be submerged in the Christmas decorations... doesn't this look like it's still Fall?!















Ryan got home a bit early today and even though we've had a bit of rain, we decided to all get out there and get some leaves off the ground before the rain comes back. Sawyer was right there with Ryan the whole time, raking away.

















Still crackin' me up with the hat...
(click on these to get the full bucket-head effect)























doesn't this kid look so old?!
This cannot be my two year old.
What happened to my baby boy?