Our Little Artist

Like most 3 year olds, Audrey is an early riser. We are lucky however because we trained her that if our door is closed then she needs to go back to her room and read books, allowing us to sleep until 7:30 or 8:00 on the weekends instead of getting up at her preferred time of 7:00. Ben was out of town this week and I didn't sleep good at all. This morning I heard Audrey up going to the bathroom at 6:30 but then it was quiet so I figured she went back to bed so I fell back asleep. Little did I know she was creating her masterpiece on the bathtub. Luckily she used crayons that are meant for that purpose. It is a picture of her, Abby and Tyler, not sure who the other ones are, neither was she. It cracks me up to picture her sitting there at 6:30 in the morning just drawing a picture on the tub. She has always been an extremely focused child!

The teacher in me is very pleased with the way she draws people. It may not look like much but they are actually very good for a kid who is only 3 years and 3 months! She surely inherited the artistic talent for Ben!

Zoo Trip

Sawyer still loves to be in the sack, much prefers it to the the stroller. He's getting too heavy though!


Sawyer trying to play like the big kids!

Here are some cute pictures of the kids from the zoo. We have a membership and try to go as much as we can but it is a little drive from our house. Ben works near the zoo though so sometimes we meet him there after work. Audrey had a close encounter with a chimp today. They were nose to nose against the glass. We took a picture but it reflected too much in the glass.

Sawyer doesn't notice too much, except for the butterfly house and the birds. Audrey likes all the animals but I think she still likes the playground the best!

Sawyer's New Tricks

Pushing his favorite Little Mermaid chair around the house.
Crawling under the kitchen table probably in search of dog food or Audrey's leftovers.
Standing and waving to Daddy.

Sawyer went to the doctor yesterday for his 9 month check up. He's 29 1/2 in. and 21.2 lbs. Dr. said that puts him at about 75% for height and 55% for weight. His enormous head is still in the 75%. With the genetics in our families, he's doomed to have a massive head. Sawyer is still measuring smaller then Audrey at this age. He is much more physically active than she was so I think he's worked off some of his rolls, Audrey's still working on hers.

He is now walking around furniture a lot. He can climb our stairs, huge pain in my butt. Our stairs are wider than the standard baby gate so I am either going to have to be very watchful or get a super expensive baby gate. He's quick so I have a feeling there will be a gate purchase in the near future. He can stand on his own, sometimes. He likes to push chairs, step stools, or any other item that will scratch the wood floor, around the house to help him with his walking. He also enjoys climbing over everything, people and dogs included.

He is waving and clapping now. He eats anything we give him. I haven't found anything he won't eat yet, although he doesn't love bananas. He is still very noisy and vocal. Enjoy the picture of him doing some of his new tricks.

Many Updates

I have been a bad blogger lately. As all Michiganders know, in our few short months of summer we all try to cram as many outdoor activities in as possible. It makes for a busy few months. In the first picture you can see some progress is being made on the deck. Actually, the whole floor is in now and this weekend the railings will be started. We didn't use Trex for those so I had the fun job of painting them all this week so they would match the floor. In the second picture you can see our new perennial garden, now we have two! Next year I'll start a vegetable garden. I have one puny tomato plant now with one puny tomato, very pathetic. It was really hard work for Ben to dig up all of the sod around the air conditioner and move it to our patio area. We couldn't believe how rooted the sod was after one year. I'd recommend hiring some cheap labor for moving sod.

Sawyer turned 9 months this week. I think he weighs 20 or 21 lbs. He doesn't go to the doc for a couple weeks. His new tricks include - walking around the furniture, clapping, doing SO BIG (a cheesy baby trick seen in the video), growing more hair that is getting redder by the day, popping out new teeth left and right, crawling around the house and trying to pull out my heat vents (pictured above), and throwing things out of his crib. This really upsets him since we wants to get them back but doesn't understand that once he throws them out of his crib they are gone for good.

Also, for your viewing pleasure, is a video of Audrey singing one of her new favorite songs, "Cat Scratch Fever". She also loves "Dance, Too Much Booty in the Pants". Next time we will get her singing that one. In the video, notice how she says airplane, "hairplane". For some reason she says airport the correct way but not airplane. We think it's cute.

Finally, today is our 5 year anniversary! We are shipping the kids off to grandma's for the night and we are going to Ann Arbor. I am looking forward to a dinner where I only have to cut my food, don't have to bribe anyone to eat their veggies (well, that's questionable with Ben), and won't get any baby squash spit at me! It's been a fast and fun 5 years and it will be exciting to see what the next 5 bring!