Sweet Spring

Have I mentioned how much we enjoy being outside :) Sawyer stands by the door now and says "out mama" Zach hung his swing up for us again a few nights ago. I put Sawyer in it and he screamed- until I gave him his first push and the whining became huge belly laughs. now he runs straight for his swing every time we step foot outside and he can say something that sounds similar to "swing" and can point to the picture of the swings in a book when I ask him "where are the swings?" How quickly they learn the things they love. He is also a huge fan of wagon rides- we got his wagon out today and he just laughed when he saw it, and ran to it and tried to climb it- he didnt want to stop! Apparently wagon rides are much more fun than stroller rides :)

No more night night

Well, I just packed up all of the bottles to put downstairs in the storage room. I can honestly say I dont think Sawyer will miss them. He hasnt had a bottle since we got home from vacation and I think we are done nursing now too. I havent nursed him since before we left for Mexico- I dont think my milk is completly dried up but if I dont wean now Im not sure I ever will.... it seems to be the easiest way and I dont want to be one of those crazy ladies nursing a 5 year old :) I told Sawyer that "night night" was all gone- it stayed in Cancun. Lucky night night what a great place to live! He has been doing so much better than I thought he would though- he goes to sleep at night all on his own without nursing which is actually really nice for me- we just read a few books and then he lays down and listens to music. It makes me sad though- it seems like he grew up so fast! Now he is running all over the place like a big kid- and big kid who dosent even nurse anymore! I actually think I am going to miss nursing him- we had a great experience with it. Time just seems to fly! The only downside- I havent had a period in 2 years- I can honestly say I havent missed it at all and Im not really looking forward to having it again... I have heard it can take up to three months to return after you stop breast feeding- im really hoping that is the case for me.

La Dolce Vita

Well, we are home from Cancun. It was amazing- it was hard to leave! I think I would have wanted to stay forever except I wanted to get home to see Sawyer- it was the longest I had ever been away from him! Zach and I went with 9 of our friends and it was a blast for all of us to be together in Mexico. I think I could have found plenty more activities to fill up at least another week! We spent a day on Isla Mujares- we went snorkeling off the island and it was awesome- we went to a spot that had tons of fish and they would swim right next to you- so close that you could touch them when you were swimming-they sold fish food you could feed them and then they would swarm all around you- it was intense! AND we saw to baby squids which was neat because I have never seen a squid in the wild before. We rented golf carts on the island and we drove all over- which was fun and touristy.

We spent one morning training for scuba diving- and then took our dive the next day in a cavern. We wanted to go to the reef but the ocean was too rough so no one could dive. It was amazing- I def. want to go diving again. I loved it!

One of the best things was just getting to lounge around- I think I took a nap almost every single day on my beach chair- that was one of my favorite things. It was great just being able to relax. I misses Sawyer SO much, but I was glad that we had a chance to get away. I dont think he would have liked laying out in the sun all day long and going out to dinner every night (but im sure he would have been crazy for the pool!) And it was nice to not have to worry about snacks and nap time besides for myself of course!

We ate the most wonderful food too- I love that about vacation! We ate at a spot called La dolce vita which means "the sweet life" our waiter described it as having a good time, being with good friends, eating good food, taking vacation in cancun! We thought that def. fit our trip! Hopefully we will be able to go again next year- but we are thinking a new tropical destination like Turks and Caicos or Aruba... ect. I LOVE vacation!
It was so awesome to get to see Sawyer though- he looked so grown up and now he walks like a pro- no more crawling for this boy- he RUNS now! We played outside with him today and he ran all over the yard and loved it- I think we are in for a FUN summer with him.

Lets get Creative

Yay for walking!

a work in progress- blank canvas has been transformed to something a bit more fun!

Our masterpeices! A sweet way to remember my one year old boy!

I couldnt believe how big his feet looked!

Smooshy hand prints- but still so cute

Well, spring fever is really starting to set in and I am always looking for new fun projects to pass the winter months. Before Sawyer was born this ussually meant lots of painting and projects around the house- last year it meant snuggling Sawyer on the couch. Ever since we moved the majority of Sawyer's toys to the basement 4 or 5 months ago he and I have been spending lots of time down there together. Before this "big move" I barely spent any time at all down there except in the laundry room and now I spend a large portion of my day pushing trucks, playing "balls" and chasing the cutest one year old boy I know around and around. To say that the area was meagerly decorated would be an understatement. It is the home of hand me down furniture and asscessories but I have slowly been trying to improve the area. I have been trying to decide how to decorate "toy land" and today Sawyer and I created some art together for his favorite place in the house. I bought some blank canvases and we got creative (Sawyer took a nap for part of this creativity session) I added his handprints and footprints because I wanted toyland to be personalized for him because it is his space- I left space on our creations in the hopes that we will have more kids someday and I will be able to add their sweet hand and footprints to our artwork for a very personalized look. I think they turned out pretty cute- it was nearly impossible to get sawyer to make handprints though so they turned out a bit smooshy- but still it is so sweet to have a nice memento of his one year old hands and feet- its amazing how much bigger they are compared to his newborn feet!

Its Official- HE CAN WALK!

Well, I think it is finally safe to say that the boy can officially walk! Zach taught him today while I was at work- I havent even gotten to see him do it yet which is totally sad, but at the same time Im so happy for Zach that he finally go to be the one to be there for a "first" because every other time it has been me! The past few weeks he had been doing short "walks" on his own but would always then slowly crouch down and then crawl but looks like today he finally decided to just go for it! He can even already turn all the way around (or do a 180 as daddy says). It is just too cute to see him toddling about! Im sure he will be an old pro in no time.

Oh, and I guess Sawyer and Daddy were rocking out while I was at work- if you watch the video you will see what I mean.

Splish Splash Sawyer

We had our very first baby swimming lesson tonight and Sawyer loved it! He splashed, floated on his back, and blew bubbles- not bad for his first day. He was so excited when he saw the water, and pointed at the pool like- get me in there NOW! It was fun for the mommies too! Lots of the other people in our class work at the hospital with me!

Sawyer also had his one year check up today- 25lb 3oz! Wow! What a huge guy! He had to get two shots but he stopped crying right away when I picked him up- he didnt even care! Then he was laughing and acting all silly! He had to get his finger because they check a lead level at age one and he didnt even cry at all! The lab girl told him he was very brave and I thought so too! He fell asleep right away when we got in the car and took a nice nap.

The big ONE!

Well, its true. My sweet baby boy is no longer a baby. Sawyer turned one on Monday. It is still hard for me to believe that it has already been an entire year since I first held tiny brand new baby Sawyer. In a way it makes me sad- that year went way too fast and he will never ever be tiny and new again, but at the same time he is so much more fun now! He has a huge personality and he loves to play- I think his favorite game right now is the modified version of hide and go seek that he and I play in the basement toy land. He pushes one of his push walkers and I run away from him and "hide" ussually in the same few obvious spots (in the ball tent, behind the door to the stairs, behind a chair, around the corners of the "loop" ect. He walks around looking for me- and he knows where to look since it is ussually not much different from time to time, and when he finds me he goes crazy laughing ,and then he gets a big kiss from mommy and we do it all over again in a new hiding spot. The kid loves it! He is so close to walking on his own, he just still dosent quite have the confidence- he has taken two steps on his own, twice. He is saying more words every day now- and uses his signs correctly for drink, eat, and more. He can say more also and sometimes does the sign and says more along with it. He can shake his head yes and no now also which is nice.

Im trying to think of all the words he can say and so far I have come up with more (mo) , night night (nye nye), bye bye (bah bah), momma, dada, dog, ball, bath, brush, block, papa, bubble (buba), bad, no (snow),good, balloon (ball-oo), that (dat- this is probably the word he says most often, he points at EVERYTHING and says, dat, dat DAT!) and sometimes what sounds like "I like it" some of them he says a lot, and some I have only heard a few times.

And other people have heard him say juice, grandpa, and "I like dogs" a few times but I wasnt there..

We go for his well baby check on monday- Im guessing weight wise he is between 24 and 25 pounds. He is pretty tall too. He is wearing 18 month clothing and it is fitting pretty well.

We celebrated his birthday with a "Winter ONEderland" Birthday party at our house on the day before his birthday. He LOVED it. He must have remembered what presents were from Christmas because he pointed at them, said "dat" and then dove right in ripping the paper off. And man was he ever excited about getting new toys. Zach and I got him a bookshelf for all of his books and a push ball popper that he picked out. I forgot that we had gotten him the ball popper and when zach brought it out for him he went nuts! He was so excited, he was yelling and giving it hugs and kissing it. It was hilarious! He pushed it at the dog and laughed and laughed. He loved getting to eat his cake, he dug right in and made a pretty good dent in his "snowball".

Now that Sawyer is one, I am attempting, somewhat, to start weaning him- I wouldnt even try at all but we are leaving for Cancun in 5 weeks and I would love it if I didnt have to worry about pumping while I am there. He is nursing three times a day, when he wakes up, nap time, and bed time, so I have started giving him a cup of milk in the mornings now instead. The first day he did great, and the next day I worked so he did fine again, but the day after that he looked at the cup, looked at my chest and said, night night- which is what he calls nursing... he drank half the cup of milk and then I let him nurse.... not sure how things are going to go with this but I am glad that I made it to my original one year breastfeeding goal I set when he was born. Not that I thought it wouldn't happen but it is nice to accomplish something I had hoped to do.

On Sawyer's actual birthday we went to see my grandma and papa- and my oh my Sawyer loves his papa- he says papaapapappapa!!!! the whole time we are there and loves to show off for them. We were supposed to have our first class of swimming lessons that night but they were cancelled due to poor weather (almost the exact same weather we had a year ago on his birthday too, how strange!) We took Sawyer to happy joes instead- he loved when everyone sang to him but the horn freaked him out- I think he would have cried if ice cream hadnt been involved...