Where does the time go?

Yes, I am a negligent mother.

Scratch that. I am a negligent blogger.

I warned you that I would not be posting as much because of taking two classes this semester, and I’ve kept true to my word.

But I figured I’d try to bang out something about the little bugger … I mean, sweetheart … when I had some downtime.

I never actually wrote it, but Sawyer is a full-fledged toddler now. I think I blinked one day, and it just happened.

It’s almost hard to describe all the ways he seems like such a big boy now.

Walking

Watching him walk all over the house continues to crack us up. He’s not so wobbly anymore, but he has his moments of looking drunk and just keeling over. After getting knocked down too many times to count, he has learned to hold onto to something and stand clear when Hank runs by. He can tromp through the yard and the park, over rocks and sticks, pretty well, too.



Standing on the porch and watching him walk down the sidewalk holding his daddy’s hand was such a sweet moment. He might as well have been going off to kindergarten. He’s definitely lost that baby look.



Teeth

Holy cow, does he have a mouth full of them! He had eight teeth at his 1st birthday. Sometime in early February, the bottom two molars came in. (Why they don’t all come in order is a mystery to me? But supposedly, the canines are the last ones to poke through.) We could tell the molars were more painful for him, but we kept the ibuprofen coming in steady supply and he handled it pretty well. (Which leads me to a side note: Why can’t they make a decent-size bottle of infants’ pain reliever? There are like 6 doses a bottle. That’s like a week’s worth at best.)



We have learned to read his teething pain a little better. He had one particularly rough night, after waking up from a very late nap for dinner, where he threw a monster fit. Bucked and kicked in the high chair, swatted his milk across the table, and just screamed. I finally took him out and let him down. He promptly slumped to the dining room floor, face down, and just boo-hooed.

I was going to just let him tantrum-it-out, until I realized maybe it was the teeth. I got a popsicle and asked if he wanted it. The crying ended immediately. He stood up, walked to the high chair and waited to be picked up. As he sat there while I was opening it, he just shook his head yes, like “Oh, yes, yes, yes. Relief!” It was adorable and pitiful all at once.

He is currently cutting six teeth: the top molars and all four canines. Yes, we’re having some rough days, but I’m hoping it will be easier to get them in one fell swoop and then he’ll be done for awhile.

I keep telling Ray that it just ain’t fair. You go through all this turmoil to get these teeth in, and they just fall out in six or seven years.

Talking

Sawyer, so far, is not the little chatterbox that his mother and father probably both were at his age. He does talk, but it is mostly another language. German, maybe. We’re just not sure. Lots of Ls. (I feel sure my niece Peyton babbles Chinese.) I understand what he means a lot of the time, and occasionally, he’ll repeat something you say and the inflection and intonation sound almost identical.

He does know a couple sign language signs, which he uses a lot.

We’re still waiting on the elusive “mama” and “daddy” though. Sometimes I am sad that he doesn’t say our names. Then I hear a kid in a store saying, “Mama. Mama. Mama. Mama,” and I feel a little better.

His favorite word though, his truly mastered word is “hey.” The kid is Southern through and through. He says “hey” about a dozen times a day. Three dozen if we are out somewhere with strangers around. He says “hey” to everyone. He says “hey” riding in the back seat. He says “hey” to himself in the mirror. When I put sunglasses on him, he says “heeeeyyyyy” like the Fonz. When he’s being really silly, he drops the “h” and turns on his British charm. Often, he accompanies the "hey" with a wave. If you're really special, you get a two-handed wave. (He's very talented!)



Sometimes when we’re in the car, he’ll start with “hey” and I’ll “hey” back, and we get more animated with each one. After about five crazy heys, he just cracks up. It’s so darn cute, I wish I could bottle it.

Food





As Ray says, “Sawyer eats about anything you put in front of him.” We really have not found foods he doesn’t like (or at least doesn’t eat). He is pretty good about trying new things. And the kid would truly graze all day, I believe. (Luckily, he’s slimmed down a little now that he’s walking. I was starting to worry we’d never find pants for his belly!) He probably drinks a gallon of milk a week by himself. He practically dances in his seat when we eat Japanese and he gets carrots. (Of course, I love those too!) And if we’re eating, he wants a bite. He ate his first ice cream cone a few weeks ago. And unfortunately, he got food poisoning along with the entire family from eating barbecue at a gathering a few weeks ago.

He gets it



The most amazing thing, to me, is how suddenly it seems like he understands everything we say. He responds to what you ask him or tell him to do. He remembers things he did a few days before. He's starting to make connections about how things work. He knows how to work the system to get what he wants. I guess it's all part of growing up.