From Baby to Boy

Voila! The after shot...

From baby boy to little boy, he's growing up before our eyes!

The before shot...

Look at his adorable smile while in the arms of his great Nana Norma this afternoon...

and later he got his very FIRST haircut given to him by his daddy. No more curls around his ears, or hair in his eyes. It was really fun to watch and I think Willie did a great job...and now they look even more like each other :)

We like this picture because Willie's shirt looks like crazy hair on Sawyer...

and Sawyer was such a champ...he only cried once when Willie accidentally poked him with the scissors...

Such a good little guy!

The Growing Boy

About 2 weeks (just days after his 6 month update) Sawyer started saying "dada." I didn't know if I should count it as his first word or not since he wasn't really associating it with Willie yet, and it was more like, "dadadada (tooting sound) dadadada (tooting sound)." But that night he gave us 1 clear "dada" and has been doing it ever since. Willie is very pleased :)

Then a week ago a little tooth popped up on the bottom, and a few days ago another broke free! Needless to say, he's been sucking vigorously on anything he can get a hold of...he especially likes his sucker turned sideways...I guess it feels good on his gums. He also likes to attack my face when his gums hurt and clamp his mouth down on my jaw or cheek bone while he simultaneously rips my hair out or pulls an earring off. He's a strong little boy...we call those "rough kisses." They're a little too rough :)

So far the whole tooth thing hasn't thrown him off too much in the sleeping department...I mean, he does get a little crabby at times until he gets donkey's arm to suck on or something else, but as far as nights go, he's been an all night sleeper for about a month now. As long as he has his sucker and Don Quixote, he's happy to be set in his crib, where he then immediately rolls to his side, pushes his music box button and drifts away for 9-10 hours. I am very pleased and thankful! :)

Latest stats...19 pounds, 75th percentile for height and weight.

Sawyer Lincoln

"I'm a cowboy baby"

Cute & Easy

We had a birthday party over the weekend at our cabana for Willie's mom's birthday. Willie helped me make these yummy cupcakes that look like flowers...they were super easy and so cute! Just roll the icing in ground up grasshopper cookies (like Thin Mints) to make it look like dirt, then put a flower on top and some chocolate rocks in the "dirt." Willie got the job of putting rocks on the cupcakes--he said it was Sawyer's job :)

I baked this one in a terra cotta pot and it was the cutest!

Happy Birthday Ciria!

My Weekend Job

This is what I do on the weekends...

I organize all the milk by date that I pumped from the week and put it in gallon sized zip lock bags. I currently have about 8 gallon bags each filled with about 12 mini milk bags, which is about a 2 months supply for him. I've also been making all his baby food which has actually been really fun. I have tons of baby cubes to freeze his food in, and I just steam his goodies and puree it in the Magic Bullet. He now eats yams, spaghetti squash, zuchini, peas, pears, and bananas. There's something very satisfying about making his baby food...I have to say, it actually tastes pretty good too.

Our freezer is pretty much filled with all baby stuff...milkshake anyone?

Happy 6 Month Birthday Sawyer!

Today is Sawyer's 1/2 birthday! I think this has been the best month so far. He's grown so much physically but also started doing so much as well. He sits up, eats yams, peas, pears, and rice cereal, and he just has such a happy personality.

He had been sick for most of my 2 weeks off with him so I was a little worried about how he would do when I went back to work last week. His daycare was still closed so I had someone different watching him every day. It definitely takes a village...I had 3 kindergarten parents from last year each watch him a day, then our friend Dawn did Tuesday, and my parents watched him on Friday as usual. Every person said he was absolutely amazing, how much they loved having him, and what a happy and fun little boy he is. That makes my heart so happy. Thank you so much to Kim, Dawn, Diane, Jen, and my parents for rallying this week and taking care of our little muffin!

Diane watched him on Wednesday and e-mailed me some photos throughout the day of what they were doing. Here he is above going on a tour of her neighborhood in his stroller and giving her a cute smile.

And here he is zonked out with Don Quixote...so cute!

Practically Edible...

I was telling Willie that I'm a carb junkie...it's true. This little muffin is so amazing and I LOVE these rolls...and his buns are to die for! I'll spare him that picture though :)

Somebody's in the Doghouse...

...and his name is Giacomo.

This lucky little dog gets to go to my parent's house every Friday and spend all day there since they don't work on Fridays and volunteered to take care of Sawyer. Yesterday, in his first 5 minutes there, he dug an enormous hole...you can't really tell the depth of it from the picture, but it's at least 2 feet deep. He's lucky he's cute.

THEN, he did the unthinkable. I arrived about 4:30 and stayed for awhile. Sawyer was getting tired so I started rocking him with his pacifier and I asked where his donkey was. Donkey is his new ultra soft stuffed animal that Danika gave him for Christmas. He likes to snuggle it up to his face when he goes to sleep and he's become quite attached to him already. We've named him Don Quixote and last night he was no where to be found. We looked ALL over the house. Then my dad got in the car and drove down the street and back looking for him, thinking he fell out of the stroller when they went walking. Nope. Nothin. It was dark, and Don Quixote was missing. My dad became search and rescue and got his industrial strength flash light and went searching the 1/2 acre yard. Low and behold, Don Quixote was left in the dirt to fend for himself all night by none other than the little brown bomber (that's what my dad calls Giacomo). We also found 2 other toys out there and my mom's dog never takes his toys outside. At least Giac doesn't rip his toys up...he just hides them. That Giacomo...

Reunited and it feels so good...

Here's Don Quixote back with Harry Elefante once again. Sawyer also has a rocking horse named Hoof Hearted. We like to name his animals for him :)

Come to think of it, this week Giacomo also stole my breakfast on Wednesday and played tag inside the car when I had to leave for work (I was it). Once again, he's lucky he's so stinkin cute but he's still in the doghouse.

Sawyer & Anderson

Erin & her family came down from Santa Cruz so Sawyer and Anderson were reunited a few more times over the past couple of weeks. They are only 3 1/2 weeks apart and we hope they grow up loving their time together!

The cuties..

Sawyer's 1st Christmas

I had 2 weeks off of work and it has literally flown by. We had family portraits done with Willie's side of the family, and with mine as well (hence his adorable sweater vest above). I utilized every second of his nap time the first week to make a bunch of these little pouches and fill them with hand made cards to give away as gifts...

and I made 17 little reindeer as tags for each gift. If you didn't think they were cute before, how about now...they are made out of Sawyer's hand prints and his shoe print. I was going to stamp the eyes as his thumb prints but he wasn't having it. Everyone loved it...I just might do this every year...thanks to Willie for helping me cut out the eyes and to Danika for helping with the hands! It was a long process!

and while I was at it I also sewed Sawyer an "Ouch Pouch." I saw this online and figured I could make one...I think it turned out pretty cute!

We had an amazing Christmas filled with family and lots of love, but our little muffin got his first real sickness. He had a slight cough over Thanksgiving but this time was much worse. We ended up taking him to urgent care on the 27th and it turned out he had a fever and a double ear infection. He's been on amoxicilin for a week now and he HATES it! He still can't kick that cough but he's feeling much better now.

We were in L.A. for most of my second week off, going back and forth between Danika's house and the hospital...Sawyer adorned his auntie shirt in honor of Willie's sister, Sonia. She underwent a 10 hour surgery on Wednesday to remove a 75 pound cancerous mass (lypocarcinoma) along with a kidney and her large intestines. She'll be in the hospital for at least another week. Danika babysat for us on Thursday so I could go to the hospital and Willie has been there the majority of the time since Tuesday night. Sonia is one tough cookie and we are so thankful to still have her with us.

When I bought this onesie I didn't realize how true it would actually become. The doctor wasn't able to remove all of the cancer but at least the large mass is gone now. One hurdle down, and Sawyer is giving his tia Sonia a big thumbs up for making it through that.

There was a really neat moment in the hospital the day after her surgery...I was in the room with Sonia, her mom, and the nurse, and we had just helped her get back in bed. I was looking out the window praying for her while the nurse was checking everything and I could hear pain in Sonia's voice. She said, "God's teaching me a lot of lessons" and then a second later her phone went off to the ring tone of Michael Jackson singing "You are not alone." I couldn't help but cry.

We love you Sonia...stay strong...you're not alone :)

Happy 2nd Birthday Giacomo!

Giacomo turned 2 on December 18th so we had a little party for him with our family and a few friends. We approprietly had hot dogs since he's a dachshund, and I made cupcakes that looked like him. Giacomo is a wonderful dog and we love him so much...it was a fun evening!

Giacomo cupcakes...

One thing that Giac LOVES is "his baby." He and Sawyer are good buddies and Giacomo loves to plant kisses on him as often as possible. He's also very protective of Sawyer :) Such a good dog...

and one thing Sawyer LOVES is watching Giacomo yawn. Maybe because his mouth is so big or his teeth look so interesting, but Sawyer just laughs at him and that makes Giacomo happy.

The Pals...

This is currently Giacomo's favorite spot...right in front of the heater! It's really cute to see him stretched out in front of it :)

Happy Birthday Giacomo...we love you!!