You know...Dasher & Dancer & Prancer...

I have probably mentioned that each week of our Advent we have had to be a little flexible this year. Well, the blame can fall on me. Yes, it's the whole preggo thing still getting in the way of life as I would normally live it. (SOON, though, it will all be a distant memory and we will have our tiny baby girl in our arms!) So...I got a tip from a friend about this Nursery (Swanson's Nursery, in Ballard/Crown Hill) that is actually super close to our home, I just never knew about it. It is a beautiful nursery, and at this time of year they happen to have a couple of Santa's Reindeer visiting, along with a Camel and Donkey. Oh, can't forget the Koi Fish Pond in the cafe (yes, this nursery has a garden cafe - how cool is that?) and Sawyer will not let us forget the Holiday Trains they have set up in one of the nice, warm, greenhouses. So, that's what we decided to do instead of the Teddy Bear Suite this week. Of course, there was also some nice equipment for boys to play around...

Seeing the camel was fun for me, and reminded me of (again) my mission, where on my 23rd birthday, I got to ride in a camel caravan. It felt like a time warp, it was super cool. Also, in Spain, they celebrate "Three Kings" on Jan. 6th (they also have a small visit from Santa...but the Kings stopping by on their way to visit baby Jesus is the big deal. Kids leave out there shoes with some hay or straw for the camels to snack on, and the Kings leave them a gift...a very fun tradition). I remember going to a big parade, where the Kings made their way through the warm, busy, streets of the island of Lanzarote on camelback. It was awesome - really painted a picture of how it must've been...way back then. Strangely, it was on my mission in a warm, sub-tropical climate that I tried Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire. Go figure...

We had another good, busy week. Jacob and I had our date last night and went to Mint Design's Christmas Dinner at the amazing Canlis. We felt truly spoiled. (And a little bit like fish out of water, it is that nice - they don't even let you park your own car :) Sawyer had the time of his life with his little buddy, Max. He didn't even want to come home (a good thing, right?) Well, it's our turn tonight, and Max gets to come over here. We decided against another visit with Santa, since Sawyer was so scared of him last week, and instead, the boys will get to help make some Spritz cookies tonight. Well...I'm not sure how much they'll help make them...but I'm pretty sure they will be very helpful in eating them ;) Christmas is coming...quick!

Our Little Wild Thing: 18 Months Old!

Here is Sawyer wearing his new t-shirt. We went into the Gap looking for a Christmas-y shirt and came out with this. It was on sale, or else I wouldn't have got it. He's never been so excited about a t-shirt! He says "Max" and "grrr". He loves those Wild Things! (and luckily we found the Christmas shirt at Target on sale for $4 - can't beat that!)

*warning: another long post about our boy.

It's pretty amazing that Sawyer is now 18 months old...and even more amazing that in a few short weeks he will be a BIG BROTHER! When I got pregnant, Sawyer was 10 months old. We found out 3 weeks later. It was planned, but at the same time, I kept looking at him and thinking "but he's still a baby..." Now that I've started pulling out his old newborn-sized little onesies and t-shirts, for his sister to wear, I realize he has grown a lot! But he is still my baby, and (like it or not) he always will be. And, he's still little (good thing we kept him rear-facing in the car seat until he was 15 months old!). I think he will be one of those awesome forwards in soccer - the small but quick ones. And cute, to boot!

Stats:
Weight: 21 lbs. 12 oz. (5th percentile)
Height: 31 inches (10th percentile)

According to our pediatrician, Sawyer is extremely verbal for a boy of his age (as if we didn't already know that!) He has just barely started putting a couple of words together and our favorites are: "Oh no!" and "Here you go". She also encouraged us to begin potty training him. I guess he meets the 4 "readiness" criteria that they look for, and most kids around the world are potty trained at this age - or before. I am not quite sure how well it will work since we'll have a big transition coming with the new baby...but we've been talking about it and we got him some "big boy" underwear that he proudly carries to the toilet. He understands much more than I thought he would. We are just waiting for the "big boy" potties to arrive and after Christmas I think we'll give it a go! Who knows? If it works, great, and if not, we can try again later. Apparently (and it makes sense) kids at this age are more likely to get excited about trying something you introduce...but if you wait too long (ie 2-3 years old) they might be more defiant about it. I'll probably have a whole post about this theory in January. (Anyone who has potty trained a child this age...feel free to offer some advice!) I figure it's a good time to try, when we'll be indoors because of the weather and me being hugely pregnant, waiting for the Little Miss to make her grand appearance. Okay...

Some favorites:
Lately, he has been so excited about Santa and Snowmen. I even caved in and let him watch a couple of the classic Christmas shows (I am normally a stickler for NO screen time for kids under 2...but, hey, it's Christmas, right?)
He LOVES reading. Amazingly, he looks through full picture books (not just board books) and is careful with the pages. He will sit with a stack of books on the floor and look through each one (of course he knows all the stories because we read to him a LOT). He says a few words or makes noises about the stories, sitting there totally content sometimes for a good 30 minutes. It's wonderful. Some favorites lately (they change about every 2-3 weeks) are: Where the Wild Things Are (hence his new t-shirt - he was STOKED to put it on), The Polar Express, Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel (yes, the whole book! Thanks Aunt Erin!), oh, and funny enough, he loves to sit and look through the National Geographic Magazines Jacob receives each month. Seriously? (I think it's because there are usually lots of photos of animals...?) He seems to be a pretty visually-oriented kid (understandable with who his parents are). He also seems to favor his left hand.

He continues to LOVE Lego Duplos. It has been really fun to see him start with them at a year (we got them for his birthday) and develop the coordination to put them together and take them apart...and now that he's got that down, it's amazing to see what he "creates" and builds with his own little imagination. He tends to build cars, trains, and tractors.
He also LOVES anything outdoors. He actually doesn't have very many toys (on purpose) so we are always looking for ways to interact and be creative. He likes to dance. He is pretty proud of his somersaults (and he's got them perfected, nonetheless!) He loves outings to the Zoo, the Park - where he especially enjoys riding his little bike. On rainy days, sometimes we pull the car out of our tiny garage and let him ride around to his little heart's content. (Next Birthday or Christmas he'll get one with actual pedals!) He, of course, loves the library (and taking plenty of books off the shelves to dig through - I'm sure the librarians love us :)
He also loves taking showers lately (though he still loves bath time, too!). It used to be, I'd try to set him up with some toys while I took a shower - but he kept playing peek-a-boo with me through the curtains and getting water everywhere...so one day, I asked him if he'd like to join me. He loved it! He sits in the back and plays with his alphabet letters or water toys, and then stands under the water. It enables me to take a longer and more relaxing shower.
He likes to be a "helper" He loves to vacuum, sweep, and swiffer. He likes to watch when we are cooking. It won't be much longer until he can "help" even more.

Every night at bedtime, after we have read books, said prayers, and had a drink of water, we turn off the lights and he requests a song. For a long few weeks it was the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" (he says spider in such a cute way) and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" among others...but this month, he always says "Anta, Anta" and so we say goodnight with "So...you better watch out, you better not cry..." and he LOVES it. It is SO cute how excited he is about Christmas this year. We just have to keep reminding him that among all the fun activities we do, the real reason we celebrate is the birth of Baby Jesus. He loves our Nativity set. But it's pretty hard to really "get" Christmas when there are so many different messages and different traditions and fun things about it that also have nothing to do with Christ (where'd the snowflakes come in?) All in time.

Well, this is long enough. I just wanted to take a minute to jot a few of these things down. Time is flying by. Sometimes, too quickly.

Gingerbread Houses and more...

We've had a great time with our advent activities this past week. We've had to be flexible with a few, but they have been accomplished nonetheless. My favorite activities this past week were 1) picking two tags off the "Giving Tree" (I can never just pick one). We picked one that is for a little boy Sawyer's age, and one that is for a newborn baby girl, like our Aspen will soon be. The hardest part is shopping for the toy trucks the boy is hoping for with Sawyer (although Sawyer also makes it easy to pick out the winning toys!) and 2) Seeing the Christmas Ships and Carkeek Beach on Friday night. Our friends, the Parkers, joined us and we all huddled together on the beach, our babes so bundled they could hardly move (it was cold). The boys loved the Seattle Children's Chorus songs, with Forrest signing "more, more" and Sawyer staring at the big star on the ship "star". Sawyer also has not forgotten that trains go by this beach, so every 5 minutes or so he would turn and say "choo choo" - he really had high hopes of seeing a train. Jacob and I just loved snuggling together and taking it all in. It was a clear, cold night. The lights on the ships were bright and welcoming, and all of us on the beach got to join in song for the last Christmas Carol "silent night" which is one of my favorites. The air was actually colder than the water, so their was this cool steamy-mist floating on the water, and the tide was out so we could walk out quite a ways. I just love this tradition: it's so magical. Saturday, instead of walking around Greenlake, we went to a Christmas Party at our new church building. We got to meet some of the people and Santa even stopped by. Sawyer clung to our legs like his life depended on it and wouldn't get near the bearded man in the red suit. We are re-thinking our trip to Nordstrom (since there is usually a minimum 1-2 hour wait to see Santa - and what if Sawyer just wants to get away from him after all that waiting in line?) Although, honestly, who can blame kids? Sitting on a strange man's lap - I think I'd feel a bit nervous, too.

Our dinner with our old neighbors was fantastic last night. We really need to have people over more often. It was great to catch up with them and their two cute little boys. It is the best thing in the world to have great neighbors :) Anyway, because their boys are on an earlier bedtime schedule than ours, they weren't able to make Gingerbread Houses with us...so we made them tonight, instead. Our Family Home Evening was focussed tonight around Norwegian Christmas Traditions. I couldn't help but think of my dear friend, Karoline, who spent Christmas with our family a few years back, but is now back in Oslo. We even had some glog and some gingerbread toffee (thanks to Ikea). It is so much fun to learn about how people in different parts of the world celebrate Christmas.

Sawyer didn't get to help with the Gingerbread Houses this year (it was too late once we got started). Jacob and I turned on a great Christmas mix and went to work. Mine ended up being more of a lavish home, while his was a little more modest this year. We always have a wonderful time creating. I think Aspen was kicking away because of sugar overload (I don't even really like candy, but if it's right in front of me, I just keep eating it!)

The countdown to Christmas is going fast! We still have a lot of fun to look forward to. Oh! Sawyer also, as of this weekend, is 18 months old! (more on that later!)

Asleep...

I am quite accustomed to photographing sleeping babies (since I do it frequently in my photography business)...although, usually, the babes are newborns. Sawyer is no longer a newborn - he's now 17 months old, in fact - but today I couldn't help but capture a few images to remember of my sleeping "baby"...

You see, the past couple of days, he has been sick. This morning, he was so miserable, I said "you either need a snack or a nap" and to my surprise, he said "nap, nap". But he didn't want his usual nap, he just wanted to be held, and rocked, and sung to. So I held him, snuggled him all up close to me in the rocking chair, cuddled him, kissed his sweet forehead, and sang to him. When I quit singing, he looked up and me and made the sign for "more". When I started to hum the words instead of sing them, he signed "more" because no doubt he loves the words to "My Heavenly Father Loves Me" just as much as the tune. As I sat rocking and singing to my little boy, my heart softened and began to melt. So often at church, I feel I do not "get" what I "want" out of the meetings because I am too busy chasing my active son down the hallways, etc. etc. etc. But today as I sat and sang to him, all of a sudden I felt something I haven't for quite some time: the words were just as much for him as they were for me: I know I have a Heavenly Father who loves me, and has blessed me with the greatest desires of my heart - I have always wanted to be a wife and a mother, and my wish was granted. I am grateful for all I have been given and hope I can more fully show gratitude for my blessings in word and in deed as the days go by.

PS- Thankfully, when Sawyer woke up (I actually ended up napping with him - how often does that happen? or, how much longer will I be able to do that?), there were smiles and good times. He's still not 100%, but I think this boy is on the mend!

Of Helmets, Geese, & Black Standard Poodles

Sawyer recently got a new bike helmet. He's super proud of it (he says "helmet!" -- he used to call it a "hat"...) We are trying to get in the habit of him wearing a helmet while he thinks it's cool - instead of having to force him to wear one later.

[side note: you wouldn't think he'd have much of a chance of getting hurt on a bike with no pedals...but you'd be amazed how on rough pavement or gravel he can tip the thing over headfirst with his body weight - we learned that by accident one day and he had a big green bruise to show for it]

The other day, we were at one of our favorite parks taking advantage of the morning sunshine, and doing some riding...

...when we spotted these geese. They let us get really close to them (they probably thought we had food - much to their dismay we do not feed birds at public parks).

Anyway, we were surprised when, suddenly, they all started to run away from us...

...this is why...

It made for some excitement...but then...back to the bike. At dinner that night (and the 2 nights since), Sawyer will suddenly shout out "Helmet! Geese! Dog!" Yep...Sawyer now reports about his day at the dinner table...which makes for some fun conversation!