A Haircut for our Redhead

One other happening over the holiday's in Red Deer was Sawyer's first haircut. We figured that the tub was one of his favorite places to sit and play so into the tub he went. He sat very well for his grandma, as she trimmed his long curly locks.

First Christmas!

-Sawyer showing off his sock monkey toque from Auntie Becki and Uncle Mark.-

Sawyer's first Christmas was a whirlwind of family, food, presents, a minor bit of kid chaos (which he loved) and unfortunately sickness.

-Dawson's best smile... the one he impresses the ladies with ;)-

When Trev finished his exams in mid-December we stayed around Edmonton for a few get togethers with friends and then promptly headed for Red Deer, the first stop of our Christmas travels. In Red Deer we enjoyed a few visits with friends, a delicious birthday party for Trev, Christmas and all the trimmings, as well as sledding and playing in the mild weather.

-Sawyer loved ripping the paper off his gifts and his cousins were there to keep an eye on quality, ensuring all the paper was removed.-

-Cooper, Sawyer's other (and slightly older)half.-

-Sawyer was pretty pleased with his gifts.-

-Nixon slept through Christmas but watch out next year... he's going to love all the action.-

-Who's who? We spent a considerable amount of time this holiday season marveling at the resemblance between these two.-

-Precious Nixon.-

Eleven Months!

Newest trick: Climbing stairs. Sawyer loves to climb the stairs at the Andrus household. And why not, all the good stuff is upstairs. Who needs baby toys when there is a kitchen full of people and food!

Little explorer: Toys almost seem irrelevant as Sawyer has discovered that he is efficient at exploring new places. Doesn't take long for him to get from point A to point B with a few pit stops along the  way.


Favourite food: Sawyer still loves his baby food although we are starting to make a small break through with table food. Much to our delight Sawyer actually joined us for turkey dinner on Christmas Day!

First: First Christmas. I'm not sure which he enjoyed the most, of the hustle and bustle of his busy cousins or the crinkling of the tissue paper.

Favorite moment: Big, fat slobbery kisses from Sawyer. They leave you feeling like you need to squeegee your face but they are so sweet.

Trying to learn: He's not walking yet but he's letting us all know that he's going to be a bi-ped in no time. Crawling doesn't cut it anymore, walking (with assistance) is the only way to go!

Ten Months!

Words: Sawyer talks all the time now and we love it. We have yet to decide if he understand what it means when he says Mom and Dad...

Little explorer: Officially crawling in a forward manner, which means... he's into Dad's electronics and Mom's candles, he loves to slobber all over our wedding pictures AND he's found the bells on the Christmas tree! It's officially a great start to an INTERACTIVE Christmas! Also he's taken his crawling into the bath tub as well and now spends most of his bath time chasing his toys around the tub.

 
Favourite food: Bread, anything bread.

Likes: His new fascination is standing up holding onto the couch. He can't pull himself up yet but he tries. When he makes it to standing he loves to dance to show his excitement.

Trying to learn: How to get Kimchi to play with him. He takes Kimchi's toys and waves them around try to get the little puppy's attention. When he does manage to get Kimchi to come over to him he roars with laughter. Which is usually followed by Sawyer trying to grab Kimchi and Kimchi making a bolt for it. I see a great future for these two.

Yum, yum: Sawyer is having a hard time getting mashed potatoes to stay down. HOWEVER, he LOVES pickled asparagus of all things! Who would have thought!

Invasion

His world invaded!

First Halloween

Despite the last hour and the fact that he couldn't even have any of the candy that he work so hard at being cute for, Sawyer was all smiles. He didn't mind his monkey costume. In fact I might even go as far as to say that he liked it. But the thing that he loved above all about his first Halloween was watching his big cousins. Dinosaur Cooper and Ironman Dawson were, to Sawyer, the most entertaining part of a great Fall evening.

-Sawyer learning how to take what is not his...-

-A cuddly monkey and a proud father.-

-Uncle Mark and the most precious Nixon-bear.-

-Ironman Dawson.-

-A ferocious Coop-o-saur.-

-Trev imparting the secrets of charming candy to Sawyer before the night began. Sawyer was a good student.-

Nine Months!

Weight: 19 lbs 7 oz

Height: 27 1/4 inches

 
Little explorer: He is becoming a little more mobile everyday. He scoots, he rolls, he sort of crawls in a forwards fashion and he's mastered cruising in reverse.   
 

Words: Sawyer is finding his voice! He now says momma and dadda (but not yet with recognition) and a whole host of other sounds.

 
Newest trick: This month has been a steep learning curve for Sawyer. Among his many new tricks comes the infamous raspberry. This new spitting trick makes for messy, messy dinner times!

Favourite toy: Sawyer loves his singing teddy. He dances, claps and squeals in time with the different songs. It's so cute!

Yum, yum: We have discovered that Sawyer loves pumpkin pie. And, if you're not careful, he'll finish off an entire piece in no time!


First: Our personal favorite memory from this month has been when our little man wakes himself in the morning singing. There is no better way to awaken than to the singing of an adorable little baby.

Finger Foods

Sawyer had recently really started to enjoy finger foods and as the pictures attest more than one member of our family are stoked about this new progress. Needless to say this is the beginning of a beautiful journey for Sawyer and his puppy! :)

Eight Months!

Words: Sawyer loves to make himself known especially in situations that call for peace and quiet. Take for example our visit to church on Sunday. While sitting in amongst 2000 fellow attendees the Pastor asks for everyone to take a quiet moment to reflect and connect with God. It was at the moment when the congregation was at its quietest when Sawyer bursts out in the loudest holler we've heard yet and not just one holler but a whole sentence of hollers!

Walking: No crawling or walking but he does stand very well.

Newest trick: Waving 'hello' and 'good bye'. And we almost think that he's starting to understand what a 'kiss' is. We've had a few slobbery cheeks to attest.

Favourite toy: Anything that he can bang together to make noise. He even loves to rub things back and forth across his soother making a clattering sound.

Little explorer: Our little man is getting frustrated with not being able to get where it is that he wants to go. He lays on his tummy and flaps like a seal trying to crawl... so far he's made it to mom's candelabra once and had a wonderful time tipping all of the candles on to the floor.

First: Sitting in the bathtub. Trevor says that we are now officially a family... we have toys and an alligator mat in the bathtub!

Likes: Sawyer loves to entertain! He already has his dad's charming ways.

Favorite moment: When he laughs so hard he snorts! There is nothing more adorable!

Seven Months!

Weight: 17 lbs

Height: 27 inches

Newest tricks: He's been going through phases.

First week - Shaking his head back and forth, back and forth and laughing. I couldn't figure out why he was doing this until Trev came home that night. Trev came in the door from work, walked across the living room bent over Sawyer and Trevor wiggled his head from side to side as he lowered his head to give Sawyer a big raspberry on his belly... It was then that I realized that the son is just copying his dad!

Second week - Scrunching up his nose and snorting.

Third week - Making a popping sound with his lips.

Fourth week - Gurgling and grunting.

During the week of the phase this action is all that Sawyer will do to get your attention. It seems that he LOVES to entertain but come to the end of that week and the beginning of a new phase and you won't catch so much a glimpse of the last action. What a funny little man!

Little explorer: What we affectionately call turtling... Sawyer would flip over from his tummy to his back and couldn't for the longest time figure out how to reverse this action. He would get stuck on his back and would lay flailing until someone would flip him back onto his frontside. Thank goodness he's figured out both rolling from his front and from his back now! It makes for a much less frustrated baby.

Little boy: Standing. He now supports all of his weight on his legs. Now to work on the stability...

New Smile: Two teeth are better than one. Sawyer now boasts two precious teeth, which he is very proud to show off!

Favourite food: It took a while to find a food he loves but we've finally found it... bananas.

Dislikes: Carrots! Prunes! Apples! Pears! Add Peas to that list! Plain old cereal or bananas for this boy.

Favourite moment: Ice Cream with Grandpa Olson!! He LOVED his first taste of Grandpa's frozen dairy treat! Sawyer is such a lucky little boy to have such wonderful grandparents that feed him sugar. He's going to grow up wishing that they lived a whole lot closer! :)

Dedication Day!

 -Father and son during the dedication.-

We believe that it is an awesome privilege to be raising Sawyer to be a devoted child of our awesome God and that we can't do this alone, we need a community of believers and a lifetime of prayers.

-Sawyer enjoying the day with his Grandma Olson.-

Sawyer's dedication was an important step in our parenthood and in our faith. We were overwhelmed and blessed as many came and stood by us as we took on this challenge of parenthood. Sawyer's dedication day was yet another example of how God has blessed us not only with a beautiful baby boy but also with each other and a community that stands behind us as a family.

-Trev safety testing the food.-

Thank you all for coming out! We were blessed that Sawyer could be surrounded that day by people that love the Lord and that love him.

-Sawyer showing Grandma and Grandpa Olson how we spend summer in Edmonton.-

-Great Grandma Andrus holding the newest addition, Nixon Peter Yates Andrus.-

-Auntie Becki showing Coop a thing or two about the art of face-making.-

-Trev and Dawson on a much needed break from tickle-wars.-

-Grandma Andrus enjoying her time with Cooper.-

-Kimchi's Mark... Becki beware.-