Sawyer's 6 month pictures

Once again Abbey, at AK Studio & Design, has worked her magic and given us some amazing pictures of our little miracle!  I wish I could have her take his pictures every month.  She does such an amazing job and I just love how these turned out!  I cannot get over how cute this little guy is and how much he has changed in the month since these pictures were taken!  I hope you like them as much as I do!  Thanks Abbey!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

7 Months!

I can't believe I haven't posted for almost a month! I have been so busy having fun with my little man and my big man that I just haven't had time!  That and work, school, Thanksgiving, etc.  It has kept me pretty busy but I couldn't miss the opportunity to show off our little miracle baby some more.  He brightens our lives so much and we just adore him more and more every day.  His personality is really starting to show and we are constantly marveling at his incredible cuteness and his intelligence.  He even has a great sense of humor!  First I'll start with pictures because they are my favorite!

This cute little boy has survived his first croup and besides the side effects from the steroids, he was a trooper!  It was so hard to see my little man sick and his cough had me freaking out in the middle of the night but after a week at home with mom and dad, his cough cleared up and he was back to his cute and smiley self!  I don't know his exact weight or height but the last time he was weighed a little over a week ago he was 17 pounds 6 ounces.  We are guessing that he is pretty close to 30 inches now because he is quickly outgrowing his car seat (which has a max height of 30 inches).  This makes me sad because we were given the best car seat out there from a friend and he has outgrown it in just 7 months and now we have to buy a new one!!  My dilemma is that for most of the convertible car seats I have researched, the height limit for rear facing is also 30 inches so I am not sure what we are supposed to do.  If anyone out there has had a tall baby and has a solution please, I'd love some advice!

He is in mostly 9 month clothes with a couple of 12 month PJs.  We tried putting shoes on him but his little feet are too fat!  He is still in size 3 diapers.

As you can see from the pictures above, this little man loves to smile.  He has started smiling every time I pull out the camera which I love!!  He has the most adorable, toothless grin I have ever seen but we are thinking that it won't be toothless for much longer.  It looks like we could get a tooth any time now. 

 You can also see from the pictures that he adores his puppy, Callie.  If Callie is in the room, no one else exists.  He laughs at everything she does and I love to see him craning his cute little neck to follow her every move. 

He has the most adorable belly laugh!  He is incredibly ticklish and when you get him going and his belly laugh comes out it almost makes me cry because I love that sound so much! 

Sawyer is sitting up all by himself.  He rarely falls over unless he wants to get on his belly.  I am guessing this means the next step is crawling which I am not ready for AT ALL!  He loves to sit on mom's bed and watch cartoons while chewing on something (he'll chew on anything but I try to make sure it's a baby-friendly toy). 

He loves to see his reflection in the mirror and will grin immediately when you put him in front of one.  He likes to be close enough to hit his reflection too. 

Daddy has introduced Sawyer to running water and although it gets very messy at times, it is so cute.  He will reach and reach toward the running water until you let him put his hands under it. He also loves bath time and splashing.  To him, splashing is very serious business that he has to concentrate very hard on.  I love to watch his face in the tub while he's splashing.. too cute! 

Sawyer has learned to cluck his tongue. He also does the cutest thing with his tongue that I really can't describe but will try to get it on video.  He looks like a little lizard when he does it and it always makes us laugh. 

This boy can eat!!  He will eat just about anything I try to feed him, except his green veggies.  We have tried a ton of new foods with him and his new favorites are butternut squash and corn as well as bananas.  Although, I think he might be allergic to bananas because he all of a sudden developed a rash on his bum. So we will try again later and see if the rash comes back.  I would hate it if he were allergic because he has never reacted to a food the way he did to his bananas.  He has started drinking water out of a sippy cup but most of it still ends up all over his shirt or all over the floor/high chair/mom.  I think he's getting the hang of it though and we are so proud!

He has been doing really well at bedtime.  We had a rough patch there because of the croup but just last night I put him in his crib wide awake and he played with his crib mirror for about 15 minutes then rolled over and went to sleep.  Not one peep... seriously.. how did I get so lucky?  He woke up once to eat too so I was able to get some good sleep!  \

Lastly, he has found his feet and they are now his favorite thing to chew on, which means soggy socks.  Which is a little ironic because his new nickname seems to be Sogger.  Not by my choice at all but my 2 year old niece can't say Sawyer, so she says Sogger.  Now, everyone else calls him Sogger, even his own father.  I can't get them to stop.  I hope it doesn't stick! I can only imagine the teasing he would get at school because of that nickname. 

Well that's it for today. I will do a Thanksgiving post and if you haven't see enough pictures you might want to check back because I will be posting some old pictures that my dad took over the last 7 months!!

Halloween 2011

I have always loved Halloween but I know I am going to love it so much more now that I have a little one to dress up and show off! This year was pretty laid back. We didn't attend any parties like we usually do because Skeet was gone and Sawyer had just had his 6 months shots which included a flu shot and ended up with a fever the next day. I could tell he wasn't feeling well because he wouldn't let me put him down all day and he just wanted to cuddle. I felt really bad for him but at the same time I enjoyed a full day of doing nothing but cuddling the cutest little guy ever! On Halloween I left work a little early to dress him up so that I could bring him to my office and show off our cute little monkey. It was a very warm day and his costume was pretty warm too so I kept taking it off and putting it back on. By the time we got the camera out to take pictures he had had it with the costume so I was surprised to get a smile for the pictures.

Yes that is a banana on his head.  A lot of people couldn't tell that he was a monkey... I guess I can see it now that I see the pictures.  Whatever he was, he was dang cute!! 

Here are some other fun pictures that we've taken lately.

This time of year is hard for me.  I miss Avery so much more in the Fall. I think it's because of all the family togetherness that happens this time of year.  Also, something about the Fall air just takes me back to the week she was born.  At four years old she would have loved Halloween this year.  I know that she would have loved her baby brother and would be wanting to help mom with him all the time.  I just think of how much Sawyer would have loved her.  I watch him stare at Callie and laugh at her and I think that he probably would have liked his sister a lot more because she wouldn't ignore him like Callie does.  I wish my little girl was still with us... so much.. but I wonder if I would appreciate my children as much if she were. I like to think that I would but I will never know. 

I am also driving myself crazy.  Maybe I shouldn't say this out loud but I think my heart is still afraid that Sawyer is going to be taken away from me.  I will be watching him sleep and just become sick with fear that something is going to happen.  When I was pregnant I used to pray every night that God wouldn't take this baby away from me.  I still pray that, every night, every morning, all day long.  I don't know if this fear is what is keeping me from accepting that I am a mom and I have this amazing little boy?  I love him so much that I can't even describe it but I still can't believe he is mine.  Seriously, can someone tell me if that feeling ever goes away?  Will I ever get used to the idea?  I honestly feel like I am going crazy!  Ugh!  I just want to stop worrying but I have a feeling that I will worry about this little boy forever!

Cute Boy!

I just can't get over how incredibly adorable this little face is!  I keep  thinking that the shock of being a mom and loving this little guy so much will go away or I'll get used to it... well it's not going away. I am still in awe of him every day and my heart feels like it is going to burst sometimes because of the immense love I feel for this little boy!  These are just pictures from my phone, which explains the terrible quality but they are still too cute to not share!

6 Months!! A Half A Year Already??

Little man is a half a year old!  I cannot believe it!!  We are honestly loving every second with this sweet little boy!  I always thought he was an easy baby but I had nothing to really compare him to so when I hear from his sitters that he is such a good, laid back baby, it makes a momma very happy and very proud! 

At six months Sawyer is 16 pounds 14 ounces (39th percentile) and 27.5 inches (85th percentile). 

He is wearing mostly 6-9 month clothes.  Depending on the brand.  In some brands it looks like he is getting close to moving up to 12 month because of how tall he is.  He is still in size 3 diapers and will hopefully stay that way for a while. 

Sawyer has been sitting up and is doing better every day!  He loves to sit up like a big boy and see what is going on around him.  He especially loves his high chair.  That way he can keep a good eye on Callie, who he loves.  He thinks that Callie dog is pretty funny and laughs at her more than anything else lately.

When you put him on his back to play he is usually on his stomach within seconds.  He hated tummy time from day one, but now that is his preferred position.  I think because he can look around a lot better.  He's even been sleeping on his stomach.  And of course I am hating that.  It makes me so nervous and I do roll him to his back multiple times a night but he always ends up back on his tummy.  He has discovered that it's easier to wait for mom to roll him back over to his back so he doesn't try too hard to do it himself.  I have seen him do it before though, so I know he can.  He does sleep so much better on his stomach and looks so cute and comfy that sometimes I leave him but then 5 minutes later I freak myself out and go turn him over.

He has started giving hugs and kisses and as his mom, I am loving this!  I get the majority of his loves and don't mind having my face covered in baby slime (aka drool).  His favorite thing to do these days is grab my face (or hair) and chew on my chin.  Those of you that know my profile know that I don't have much of a chin (therefore making my nose look even bigger than it is) but my chin seems to be the perfect size for Sawyer to chew on so I am loving my scrawny chiny chin chin these days!

Sawyer is loving his solids.  So far he has eaten
rice cereal
oatmeal
carrots
sweet potatoes
squash
apples
pears
peaches
and prunes

He will eat all of them but doesn't like his rice cereal or apples very much.  I think we will probably try green beans next.  The doctor has even told us to start feeding him solids in the morning as well as at night so he'll be getting solids twice a day now.  I am not too sure how I feel about that.  I wish he would slow down a little bit and stay my baby longer!

Sawyer's smile and his laugh are so adorable and everyone that meets him just instantly loves him.  He adores his Papa Chad and of course his Daddy and always has smiles for them.  Everyone else has to work a little bit harder but it's getting easier and easier to get a big grin out of him. 

He's still not sleeping through the night.  Some nights (most nights) he only wakes up once or twice but then there's the nights that I feel like he's waking me up every hour.  I told myself that I wouldn't use the cry it out method with him if I didn't have to but unfortunately we haven't tried very hard to do it any other way and now I think we are to that point where we need to give it a try.  I don't like the idea of giving up my cuddles at night, I actually hate the thought, but I know it will be better for everyone in the long run.  I am just going to wait until Skeet is back so we can work on it together.  I am too weak and too  much of a pushover to do it alone.  Although, he usually goes down for his naps pretty easily without too much crying so hopefully bedtime won't be too much different. 

As you can tell from most of my posts, I fall more and more in love with this little boy every day.  I can't seem to get enough of him.  His Daddy feels the same way too.  Sawyer is very loved and VERY spoiled.  I am so lucky to have such a beautiful and special family and I thank my Heavenly Father every day for them.  I do sometimes think back to the first few days, weeks and even months of Sawyer's life and it makes me sad to think of how fast it has all gone.  I thought I had been cherishing every moment but I feel like I can barely remember it because it was such a whirlwind.  I try, every day, to make a mental note of how I am feeling and the experiences we have but within a week it is something new and something equally amazing and I just can't keep up. That is why I am so grateful I have this blog.  I have finally printed out the first 3 years in book form and will work on getting the last year as well.  I am so glad that I will have these posts to read and remember. 

Here are some cute current pics... Isn't he handsome?



Such a sweet face (you may have to look at it sideways to get the full effect)

Not sure why it is uploading them like this...

Sitting up all by himself in the bath... he's getting too big too fast!