He's becoming a real boy

So, I asked my friends to nag me to keep up with this blog better, and my friend who writes an awesome blog about her boy did so the other day. I will never keep up with her great posts, but an update on Sawyer is well overdue ...

Sawyer turned 11 months old Sunday. It's so amazing to look at this boy who is still so much a baby but is becoming a real boy. Sawyer is learning all kinds of new things, and he continually cracks us up with his personality.



The kid has absolutely never met a stranger. We were in a store recently and four people had to talk, smile, coo and giggle at him. One woman played peekaboo for about 10 minutes with him, running around the ends of the aisles to get him to lean around me to see her. He was having a good time, but it's a little strange for someone who is as non-social as I am. He definitely doesn't get his social butterfly-ness from his mother.

Practicing the walk



Sawyer's still not walking yet, but that doesn't stop him from cruising around any and every piece of furniture in the house or crawling at warp speed. The funniest is when I'm trying to get dressed ... I TRY to leave Sawyer playing in his room, but he doesn't like to me to be out of his sight. So after a minute of playing, I hear clomp-clomp-clomping down the hall on the hardwoods. Sawyer is galloping toward me with a block in each hand. You'd think he was a real horse.

He loves learning how to do new things. Any time we enter or leave the kitchen, he has to turn the light switch on or off. And he loves me saying, "Push! Push!" as his little hand opens the big swinging door into the kitchen. He has started sharing things. He'll find the tiniest crumb or a strand of hair on the floor and bring it to me. Or he'll hand me sunglasses and want me to put them on so he can yank them off. And while he's still not hooked on sippy cups like most kids his age, he will guzzle drinks through a straw.

I think he's on the verge of talking, too. He says lots of things that sound like the beginnings of real words. When I pull out a juice box (his favorite) he says, "Ju. Ju." He says, "hey na" or "hey da" to the animals and family members (and sometimes to outside people). Sometimes, when we're talking to Zeke the cat, he makes a long Zzzzz sound. With Hank and other dogs, it's a Duh sound. My mom has a clock that plays songs on the hour, so when we're at my parents' house, he'll point to the clock and say something that sounds like "Gin, gin" because we're always asking if he wants to play it "again?"

He has learned what the word kiss means and will gladly give them, but you'd better be prepared to get wet. They are wide-open-mouth, slobbery as a dog kisses.

My favorite sights are of him dancing, which can involve just the head bobbing or his entire body, and clapping, a new trick the babysitter helped him master. Sometimes when the music is really good, he does both.

He sounds pretty darn adorable and perfect, huh?

Well, he is a happy, sweet baby most of the time, but he definitely has his moments. He fights naps pretty hard most days. He is scared of the vacuum, so I have to clean while holding a 25-pound chunk with one arm. He flips and rolls so much when getting dressed that I call it alligator wrestling. And most nights, he's still waking up about 4 or 5 a.m. just to make sure Mama is home from work and will come visit him.

Mama tricked me into a nap by going for a walk



Anyway, that's the best and worst of our Sawbones right now. We're eagerly awaiting Thanksgiving (since he loves food), his birthday party (since he loves people) and Christmas (since he really didn't get the full experience at only 11 days old last year)! We'll try to post some between now and then!

SOME OTHER RECENT PICS (Will try to get videos to work later)


First haircut


Mohawks at bathtime