15 Months

Weight: 23 lbs 2 oz - 30%
Height: 30 3/4 inches - 37%
Head: 46 1/2 cm - 30%

• Words: Dada, Ruru (Ruby), uh-oh, oust (outside), ocks (socks), "Baa" (when you see just about any animal), Mama (FINALLY!), up, please, and you sign "more"
• You fold your hands for prayers now
• One of your favorite things is to go out the doggie door and play in the backyard
• Your current favorite toys are cars. You love to make the sounds that Daddy makes when you play with them. You will play trains with him for a long time.
• You are getting really good at feeding yourself (cottage cheese at this very moment!) and you always want a utensil.
• You love to eat what Mommy and Daddy are eating
• You love to feed Ruby a treat.
• You love to do pretty much anything Ruby is doing, you will push her out of her bed so you can lay down in it
• You have a great love of books already. This makes Mommy very happy
• You love animals, especially dogs, and like to make noises at them
• You love to have talking/screaming matches with Daddy
• When one of us comes home at the end of the day you run to us for a hug
• After we change your dirty diaper I put it in a bag. Then you want to take it "oust" all by yourself. You carry the bag downstairs, to the door and then down the sidewalk to the garbage can. 
• We traded you to a convertible car seat (still rear-facing) for our trip to Yellowstone and you loved it. There was so little fussing the entire trip! You really liked being able to see so much
• Today you have been saying "Up, please" for the first time ever. You want to sit at the table with Mommy. It is so precious
• You sleep about 12 1/2 hours at night. We are currently transitioning from two naps to one. 
• You wear size three diapers still. We just put away your nine month clothes
• You love to sit behind the steering wheel and "drive" the jeeps
• You are very good at having alone playtime. You are starting to show some small interest in playing with others, except Daddy whom you LOVE to play with

One Year!

Weight: 21 lbs 3 oz 24%
Height: 29 1/2 in 39%
Head: 46 cm 37%
Wearing 9-12 month clothes and size 3 diapers (still!)

Took your first steps on your first birthday. Two steps to Daddy. Really figured out the walking on Sunday, July 6th. That morning you went eleven steps which was your record. When we came home from church you had figured it out. You spent all afternoon walking around the front room and kitchen. You learned to push yourself up to a standing position with out anything to help you out. We were so proud of you. 

You learned how to go out the doggie door all the way on July 1st. I laughed pretty hard.  
We have pretty much stopped feeding you baby food and formula. We have just a little bit left to finish up. You really enjoy eating grownup food and using your own fork or spoon.

You call Ruby Dew  "De-yew"
You like peek-a-boo and putting items inside other items like a ball into a cup or bowl 
Love to drink out of my water mug and daddy's sports bottles

Routine

This was a fun little find. It is the list of instructions I left for a babysitter for Sawyer. It's interesting to see which parts of the bedtime routine we have had to change and which parts remain. :)

"Saywer will eat around 4:30 (while I am there) and then again around 7:30. He will probably take up to 5 oz (we warm it up). He is usually good about burping for me. And these days there is always a little spitup, too. Then he can have some playtime. Around 8:00-8:15 we start bedtime (he is flexible so you can take care of your kids first if you want).
Bedtime: We change his diaper and put on the nighttime diaper (it is the blue-ish one). We put on pjs (white thermal with orange and grey foxes and socks if needed). We give nose spray and gas relief (o.3 mL). We read The Bear Snores On then read a couple verses of Scripture. We swaddle him up with one arm out (doesn’t matter which) and then say a prayer. Then we hold him and hum Families Can Be Together Forever and lay him down. He sometimes gets fussy in here so you can give him his binkie whenever he is ready for it. We lay him down with his snuggle buddy but check on him to make sure he hasn’t covered his face with it (he likes to do that) and once he is asleep we move snuggle buddy out of reach.

"It’s about 50/50 if he goes right to sleep quietly or if he needs to cry for a few minutes. Usually if he cries I will go back in after 5-ish minutes and give him his binkie again and then he goes to sleep. He gets pretty warm when he is tired so that is a good sign. :)
He should sleep until I get there to pick him up. If he is excessively crying at bedtime and doesn’t have a burp then you can feed him a little more. Hopefully that won’t be a problem. The game should end around 9:30 and I’m guessing by the time we are back to our car and I’m up there it will be 10:30."

One Year in Pictures

Sawyer Growing Up!

This little bitty boy is growing up so quickly. Here is proof:

Sawyer on his first horsie ride.

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Laughing at Daddy during lunch.

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Trying to sit up...but that darn wall won't get out of his way!

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Playing with the doggie door is lots of fun for you. As long as you don't crawl out there...

Spring 2014 151 from Ryvrstyx on Vimeo.

Trying to climb the stairs for the first time. Yikes. Time for the kiddie gate!

VID 20140404 181251 613 from Ryvrstyx on Vimeo.

Laughing at Mommy during breakfast. His giggle is so precious to me!

Spring 2014 055 from Ryvrstyx on Vimeo.

The first time he climbed the stairs he did two in a row! It was April 15th. Obviously I had forgotten to put up the gate. We now have foam pads on the tile just in case...

On April 10th, 2014 our beloved Grandma Riordan (Chris's grandma, Alan's mom) passed away in Las Vegas. We went down for the funeral. It was very nice and sweet. Small, but that was because she did most of her living out East. I sang Each Life That Touches Ours For Good and Chris read the eulogy. Afterwards we went to Mom and Dad's house and took some pictures. Here is Sawyer with both grandparents.

I realized that I didn't have any pictures with just Grandma and Sawyer so we took a few of those too.

A "cousin" was watching us and decided he needed to be in some too. This is Travis. He's a sweet boy and he sure enjoyed playing with Sawyer, the only other person under 35. :) He was a good little buddy.

For Easter we went to Wellsville. It was a wonderful time with the family. We took some (beginning to be) traditional pictures in the flower bed. Sawy-boy is just so cute.

At least most of the time he is cute.... :)

While we were in Wellsville we went to the Baby Animal Days at the historical farm. Right after we got there I fed Sawyer then put him SAFELY on the backseat and shut the door so he couldn't fall out while I got the stroller. Well, that didn't work because as soon as I opened the door again he fell out and landed on his head/face. He cried and so did I. My poor little guy had a small bruise high on his forehead but his nose got the worst of it. I felt so bad. I think he was investigating the door handle area and when I opened the door I basically yanked him out of the car. Poor little guy! But he was a trooper and after the initial cry he hasn't been fussy about it at all.

On April 7th our sweet baby was officially outside of me as long as he was inside of me.

I can't believe how the time has flown. He is learning and growing so much these days and really isn't a baby anymore. He is a toddler and has started crawling a little bit more each day. He still prefers to scoot places but I know that will soon be changing. I just love him so much and am happy and sad that he is turning into a little boy. But as long as he's MY little boy I guess it will be ok.

9 Months

At nine months your stats are

Weight: 20lbs 0oz  42%

Height: 28 Inches 42%

Head: 44 1/2 cm  25%

You didn't even gain a full pound in 3 months which is why I can feel your ribs sometimes now and I no longer have to clean lint out of your wrist rolls. I hope that you will gain some of that chub back just because it is so cute but we will have to see.

Darling Sawyer, you are nine months old. It is crazy to think that you have now been outside of me for as long as you were inside of me. What a joy you are to us. You make us laugh all day long. Even when we are upset with you (when you bite mommy or wake up several times at night) it is impossible to stay mad at you longer then 3 seconds because you give your little smirky smile and we have to smile back. You have so much personality now and are accomplishing so much these days. It seems that every day you are doing something new. Here are some of the things you are up to at nine months...

• you have two bottom teeth which we brush with a real toothbrush every night (and some mornings)
• you love to "dance" with Daddy. He holds you up to do Puffy Cheek time and then you do the Tango (sort of). It makes you smile so big
• you can get into a sitting up position all by yourself and now when I look in on you, you are almost always sitting up in your crib
• you really crawled for the first time on April 6th at Grandma Lila and Papa's house. We were so proud and we all clapped for you
• Daddy says that you actually crawled a couple days earlier when you two were on the bed together but I didn't see it so it doesn't count  :)
• you enjoy sucking on the pack-n-play where the mesh meets the fabric. It gives you the silliest squishy nose
• you like when I read you stories. You help turn the pages and push the books off the stack
• you did not want to sit still for your nine month pictures
• you learned how to crawl over pillows on the bed while we were in Las Vegas. It hurt and you cried for a while, poor little guy
• you got to meet Great Grandma Pennington (Paul's Mom) and four of your cousins for the first time
• you have really been enjoying blowing raspberries lately including during mealtimes
• you had your first major sickness. We finally figured it out and took you to instacare. I was oblivious for several days because you were so happy. It took a lot of throwing up to clue me in. Sorry. But it was a stomach virus
• you wear 6-9 month clothes and size 3 diapers
• you eat finger foods now. At your 9 month appt I still wasn't giving them to you because you would gag on them. But the very next week you figured it out. 
• you especially like Aunt Kathy's rolls (which is just as it should be)
• you still love bath time. You like to lay on your back and splash with your feet. You like to lay on your stomach and splash with your hands. You like to sit up and splash with whatever you are holding. I'm sensing a pattern.  :)
• you enjoy scooting over to Ruby Dew's doggie door and pushing it open
• you also like to look out the sliding door at Ruby when she is laying in the sun in the mornings
• you ate some of Ruby's food for the first time, and apparently enjoyed it. I got one piece out of your mouth but a couple minutes later you were still drooling like crazy and I found a second piece in your cheek. Yum!
• you like to play with the alphabet magnets on the fridge
• you have started to play with Mommy's hair while you are nursing. You will tickle your face or try to eat it
• you have tried to give Ruby her Green Snake (her very favorite toy in the world) and she will gently take it from you now
• you really love to munch on any of Ruby's toys. Blah!
• you will look for Ruby when you get up in the morning or especially when you are in your highchair
• you wake up when you hear her so I have started taking off her collar at night so she doesn't disturb you
• you still play in your Johnny Jumper but your favorite way to play with it is when it is sitting in a pile on the ground and you drag it around
• you always want to roll over during diaper changes but about halfway through you realize that you won't win that fight so you give up
• you go down pretty easy at nap times in general and we still take most of our morning naps together. It is a special time for us
• when you are really tired Daddy will sometimes hold you down/snuggle you in bed. You will be pretty upset about it but then you'll fall asleep mid-cry
• you like to touch the plants in your room whenever we open or close the blinds
• you like to suck on the Vaseline jar at night. It calms you down
• you have pulled yourself up on the bottom stair a couple of times now. It makes us nervous because it is on the tile and we worry that you will slip and crack your sweet head. And you even got one knee up there the last time. Yikes!
• you pulled yourself to a standing position for the first time on April 2nd. You were in your crib and you were so proud! You stayed standing for about five minutes
• you are a bit of a Mommy's boy right now and I LOVE it! But Daddy is the one who calms you down at night
• We have started a new bedtime ritual because our old one wasn't working anymore. Now we give you a bath and then do the pj's thing. Then we nurse and then I read you a story. It takes a while right now but I don't mind

Like I said, you have become a busy little bee. We are so proud of you and all the things you are learning. We love you so very much!

8 Months

I am very far behind so I am not going to do much of an 8 month post. But Sawyer, we love you to pieces. A couple of these pictures show off your fantastic hair. That is still the number one thing people comment on when they see you, and then they talk about your cute chubbiness!

Three things about you at eight months is that you put your arms into the sleeves of your shirts, you try to roll over when I'm changing your diaper and you are eating so much food.

Zoo

Chris and I took Sawyer to the zoo to see the Zoo Lights. We enjoyed it. It was the least crowded I have ever seen it which was a treat for us. We watched the Sea Lions for a really long time. And the Grinch stopped by while we were there. What fun.

Christmas 2013

Christmas was so special this year. Having Sawyer made it more fun although he wasn't too impressed with it. He slept through us opening his two presents (and one that was really for me). What a darling little elf we have. After Christmas we went to Temple Square with Robyn and Gordon to see the lights and that was fun too. And Shian had her sweet little girl Sarah! We are so happy that more cousins are coming into our family.