Sawyer is Seven Months Old!

Seven months!  Already I can't remember what it was like to hold him as a newborn!  Sometimes when I hang out with my friends who have older kids (like 2 years old), I suddenly realize that Sawyer will be there so soon, and it will be hard for me to remember my chubby, cuddly baby boy.  Sawyer is an especially sweet and especially fat baby.  So, whenever I get annoyed because he's needy or would rather sleep in my arms than in his crib, I tell myself to savor these times because soon the little boy will be too busy running around and destroying things to cuddle with me.

Sawyer is fully integrated into the family now, which means that my constant anxiety about his care and well-being is beginning to wane.  Having him around feels normal.  It's like he's always been here.  He's on a schedule and it's mostly predictable!  It's obvious that he loves us,  and we are sure he knows that we love him.  We've become quite the happy little family...except when we are tired and cranky.  Unfortunately, crankiness when tired is a family trait for the Barden-Stradling's. And these days we are tired a lot.

Sawyer is quite changed in the last few months, let me tell you about it:

• The biggest change is that Sawyer is eating real food and he loves it!  He loves eating so much that he's taken the chunky baby shtick to a whole new level.  His favorite foods are prunes, sweet potatoes, hummus, greek yogurt, apples...In fact, now that I think about it, the only food he has ever protested are string beans.  And I have even gotten him to eat those, when I mixed them with sun-dried tomatoes.   Thanks to Clara who gave me a baby food maker (the BabyBullet), I make all of Sawyer's food at home.  I love making his food.  Everyday I experiment with mixing all kinds of weird things together to see if he will eat it.  One of his favorite combos is corn, squash, and sun-dried tomato.   Here's a video of him eating prunes:

 Yes, I know.  I can't get enough of my baby laughing.  Only Aunt Katie can make him laugh like this.

• Sawyer is also becoming mobile.  He has mastered the art of sitting, well, almost mastered.  Occasionally he will face plant if he reaches too far for a toy.  He's also begun to do quite a bit of scooting, it looks exhausting to see him drag and kick his obese baby body across the carpet, but hey, it's all in the name of development.  Just today he learned a new skill: The Consecutive Roll.  Today he discovered that if a toy is across the room, it is more efficient to roll over to it.  It looks pretty funny, especially when he rolls and ends up facing the wrong direction.  But at least he's finally trying to move.  For a while he would just whine and grunt until we handed him what he wanted.  

• Sawyer has developed a chronic rash that we are afraid is excema.  It started on his 6 month birthday and has stuck around ever since.  Right now he has a rash on his face, chest, and back.  There is no indication that it's uncomfortable for him, and I've taken him to the doctor about it several times and she has always said not to worry.  So, I suppose he'll just grow out of it eventually.  For now, I cover him in Lubriderm morning and night.

•  Sawyer's smile has recently evolved to be half-crazed clown meets Tyrannosaurus Rex.  He squints his eyes and wrinkles his nose and bares his teeth.  It's very cute, but it also reminds me of the murderous doll, Chuckie.
• Sawyer currently has seven teeth.  The seventh has just broken through.
• Sawyer weighs around 23+ pounds and is 30+ inches long.  It's hard for me to carry him around for more than a couple of minutes these days. He currently wears size 12 months, and is growing at an exponential rate.  At our last check up Sawyer was off the chart (above the 99th percentile) for height and weight (and cuteness).
• Sawyer sleeps!  After several grueling months of unrest, Sawyer has found his sleep groove.  He goes to bed at around 6pm and wakes up for the day between 5:30 and 7:30 every morning. He only gets up once a night for a little snack (although the pediatrician forbade me to feed him in the night.  He's too fat. I do it anyway.).  Jonathan wakes up with Sawyer in the morning so I can sleep more.  Sawyer is unbelievably cuddly in the morning, so he and daddy chill out and listen to music on the couch together.  It's Jonathan's favorite time of day, and I think it might be Sawyer's favorite too.  Naps are still a work in progress, but he is napping.

Speaking of napping, this is how Sawyer napped the other day.  We were out for a walk when it started to rain.  So we pulled out our rain gear and hurried home.  However, when we got home, Sawyer had fallen asleep, and he's not the kind of baby who can be easily moved while asleep.  If he wakes up, even if only asleep for minutes, he won't go back to sleep.  So, I parked him outside the house, covered him with the umbrella and let him sleep for an hour outside on the street!

We love Sawyer.  SO, much.  He's our favorite person in the world.  When he smiles, the world stops and we soak in his radiance.   Jonathan and I often congratulate each other on our perfect baby boy. We hope the next six months won't go by as quickly as these first ones!

Catching Up: Sometimes A Trip to Paradise Should Just be a Trip Home

I hate to admit this, but Jonathan and I spent basically the whole summer fighting over spending the last two weeks before school in Hawaii.  We bought tickets for the trip in early June.  Like, we had some wicked fights.  Granted, when the fights were the worst, I was also sleep deprived, but the fact remained there was nothing I wanted to do less than traveling over 6 time zones AGAIN with an infant, even if it was to a tropical paradise.  I begged him to cancel.  I came up with deals, negotiations, even threats, but Jonathan would not budge.  He fought back with equal passion, assuring me that once we were there, we would have a fabulous time...

About five hours before our plane was to leave, Jonathan finally gave in.  I was particularly impassioned at this point. He admitted he was exhausted too.  And although he still wanted to go, he also thought that rescheduling our trip wouldn't be horrible.  We decided that we could spend our last two weeks of summer in Boston hanging out as a family AT HOME (finally).  So, Jonathan called and canceled our plane tickets.  I felt relieved and also a bit sad.  I do love Hawaii, of course, but getting Sawyer back on a schedule that allowed me to sleep seemed like just the vacation I needed.  AND, there was the promise of still being on vacation, but at home, a stay-cation, if you will.

As soon as Jonathan was off the phone with the airline he heaved a sigh of relief.  He sat back in our big arm chair, and that's when I saw it happen. His brow furrowed slightly.  The whites of his eyes became veiny and bloodshot.  And I actually saw a little part of his soul float sadly away from his body.  In the matter of seconds, Jonathan went into school mode.  It was like a switch was flipped.  He said, "This is great actually, I'll have an opportunity over the next two weeks to do some getting ready for school."  I immediately panicked!  I am so stupid.  I should have known that it would be impossible for Jonathan to relax being in such close proximity to school.  When I was giving up Hawaii, I was really giving up Jonathan's undivided attention, and I realized I wasn't ready for that.

I went nuts.  I demanded that he call the airline and get our tickets back.  Jonathan looked at me with true concern.  "You are unstable, Amanda," he declared.  Hello, I know that!  I didn't care.  I melted into a ball of pity on the floor.  Jonathan was amused and dialed the airline.  When he explained the situation the representative said that she would check to see if our tickets were still available.  They weren't...In just five minutes they were gone.  Horror!  Devastation!  He hung up and I called back instantly.  I demanded to talk to a manager.  I was on hold for about 15 seconds when the representative came back on and said, "Oh! I found your tickets." mmmm.....

So we packed.  And headed to Hawaii.  Sure we had three layovers.  Sure we dropped Sawyer on his head and had to call the paramedics at the airport.  Sure Sawyer didn't sleep for most of the trip.  But we were still determined to have a good time.

And we mostly did enjoy ourselves.  But the truth that we had refused to believe is that the beach life is not congruous with an infant's needs.  We could only go to the beach for an hour or two before Sawyer had enough.  Of course, this was exacerbated by his and our jetlag.  Sawyer didn't sleep for our whole trip.  I didn't feel like I was on vacation.  I felt like I was barely hanging on to my sanity.  And so did Jonathan.  So, we called once again, and changed our tickets to come home early. Happily.

Another lesson in parenting:  Kids change the meaning of vacations.

Sawyer:  Nap?  Surf's up and so am I!

This is one of the rare times that we got Sawyer to sleep on the beach.  We arrived at 7 am!  Jonathan devised this awesome beach set up.

This is Toni and Richard.  We rent a room in their condo when we go to Hawaii.

Catching Up: Grandpa Dave and Grandma Clara's House

One of the things I remember most about my childhood is how child-like (in a good way--most of the time) my dad is.  My dad is the kind of dad who actually played for hours on end with his kids.  He didn't just take us to swim at the pool, he jumped in and swam and played as hard as we did.  I was known as the kid with the fun dad.  It was a good way to grow up.

Now that he's a grandpa, I can't say that he's changed a whole lot.  Sure, he may be a tiny bit slower than he used to be, but he remains a kid at heart.  How does this translate into real life?  Here are some examples:  While Clara was doing her Grandmotherly duty of rocking the baby to sleep, my dad was complaining about how frequently we were putting Sawyer down for naps.  While Clara was teaching Sawyer how to play with toys in his exersaucer, Dad was teaching Sawyer to drive the lawn mower.   While Clara was constantly making sure that Sawyer was clean and sanitized, Dad was letting Bella, the shih tzu, lick Sawyer's face!  :)

Like always, we had an amazing time visiting Dad and Clara.  It always feels like a vacation when we go to their house.  It's so comfortable.  It's so pretty.  They live in the country so the air is fresh.  There's a hammock.  A tree swing (which Sawyer LOVED).  A fig tree.  A peach tree.  Chickens.  Puppies.  It's really a paradise.  And of course, there's Clara who is constantly trying to help us relax by doing all the cooking and the cleaning.  Ahh...it's lovely.

Another highlight of our visit was the earthquake.  We were in a restaurant when it began to shake and I said, "Hey!  This is exactly what an earthquake feels like in case you were curious."  I never considered that it could actually be a real earthquake, but then we found out that it was! Also we went on a shopping spree at the Book Fair.  Jonathan bought $800 worth of Japanese literature for $200.  I would usually be annoyed at such a purchase, but he was just SO excited about it, I couldn't ruin it by giving him a hard time. 

So here is Sawyer swinging with Grandpa:

And here is Sawyer a few minutes afterward recovering in the hammock. The swing was so exciting he puked everywhere, but he's happy!

Driving the tractor.

Sawyer loves his grandparents!

More swinging shots.