More festive winter holiday detail:

Unsurprisingly, Sawyer was a big hit. She spent the week crawling around Grandma Marlo and Grandpa Bob's house, presumably thinking Hm. Why don't I have this much space in my no-longer-as-spacious-as-once-I-believed Manhattan apartment?? And in typical Sawyer fashion, she picked up a skill and practiced it 24-7: this time, the letter B. Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba. The really funny part was that her mouth kept forming the "ba ba ba" shape even when she was inhaling -- so half of the bas were silent and half were voiced. Grandma and Grandpa were suitably enraptured. As were a variety of other Niehaus/Stieferman types.

I am under strict instructions from my husband to add more Christmas pictures to satisfy the Sawyer fanatics at his office, so here goes:







I now appear to have run out of image storage space on my blogspot account. Hm. This will have to be resolved. But not tonight.

We just got back from St. Louis. Two comments:

First, we had a wonderful time introducing Sawyer to the Niehaus ancestral homeland. Second, it's really good to be home!

More detail on Sawyer's first Christmas sometime over the next couple of days, but for the moment, this picture tells you pretty much everything you need to know.

So Long, Screwy . . .

Tomorrow we hit the road (or the airways) for Sawyer's first trip to the Niehaus ancestral homeland of St. Louis.

Somewhere along the line, her stuff has expanded. I don't seem to be able to pack everything for her in one little bag the way I could back when she was six weeks old and heading off to Richmond for her first weekend getaway. We're going to look pretty dopey in the airport tomorrow, what with the 6 or 7 bags I think we'll finally end up toting along plus stroller, carseat, and whatever else strikes my fancy as we make our way out of the apartment.

Last weekend Sawyer celebrated her first Chanukah at her bucolic Bucks County country home (tm) with Bubbie, Popsie, Aunt Carly, and the few relatives who were brave enough (and sufficiently consumed with desire to see Sawyer) to drive out to said bucolic country home through a snowstorm -- Uncle Harvey, Aunt Claudia, and cousin Becky. It was a lovely day, complete with not-unanticipated orgy of gifts for Sawyer from Bubbie and Popsie, and would have been even nicer if anyone had gotten any sleep the night before.

This was the first time that we'd spent the night away from home since Sawyer figured out how to sleep through the night. The night was an exercise in nostalgia for those fun months when Sawyer couldn't sleep for more than 20 minutes or so at a time between 1 and 5 in the morning. She was up most of the night wondering where the hell she was, why this wasn't her own crib, and why her pacifiers kept vanishing. (The last question is easy: the cribs at bucolic country don't have bumpers on them, so every time Sawyer squirmed, which was about every 45 seconds, whichever pacifiers weren't in her mouth dove out of the crib.) We're hoping that she'll get used to Grandma and Grandpa's home quickly, or else it's going to be a looong week in the Niehaus ancestral homeland.

Sawyer in festive Chanukah garb:



Meanwhile, non-Aunt Aunt Marsha came for a visit today and did the impossible. Sawyer's Chanukah gifts from Bubbie had included what I thought must be every babies' Chanukah product in the history of the universe, but Marsha found one that I'm sure my mother didn't see. How can I be so sure, you ask? Because there is NO WAY IN HELL that Bubbie wouldn't have bought it if she'd seen it: take a look here. How great is that??

Since we're leaving for St. Louis tomorrow, here's an extra bonus picture to tide you over until our return:

I've been crazy busy at work for a few days, so haven't had a chance to post in a while.

Sawyer is mended! Hallelujah!

And she's more or less crawling up a storm! Sort of an army-crawl, really, but it's gradually morphing into some real crawling. Amusingly, the two things that really get her moving are (a) the telephone, which she will happily chase all around the apartment, and (b) any piece of lint or thread on the floor, which she attacks with great vigor.

Mommy calling out "Sawyer, come here! Come to Mommy!" has no effect whatsoever, nor do any of the 5 billion toys scattered all over the place. Phone and lint. That's it.

Here she is, healthy, happy, and raring to go!



Evening Addendum: When Paul got home tonight, he wanted to see Sawyer crawl. Nothing doing -- at least not until I put the phone on the floor 10 feet away from her, at which point she zoomed across the room to caress the phone. Ah, first love.

Baby It's Cold Inside

Day 9 -- believe it or not, still sick. Cold is mostly gone, ear is improving, tummy is fair-to-middling, but the fever continues to hang about. We paid a visit to the pediatrician yesterday and if the fever doesn't go away, will be back there on Thursday.

I reiterate my "trooper" declaration -- Sawyer has been quite a brave little bunny throughout her now-extended welcome to the world of winter illnesses! This photo was taken on Sunday: note her happy demeanor in the face of fever, sniffles, and ear weirdness!



Meanwhile, in the midst of this cold snap, we have discovered that our new air conditioners apparently function as air conditioners even in the middle of winter. They just don't fit in the slot as snugly as one would like, thus welcoming much of the cold weather of the last couple days into the apartment for milk and cookies. So until Vaunted Fix-It Husband manages to gerry rig some sort of insulation for the air conditioners, there's a mighty wind blowing through Sawyer's bedroom (as well as most of the rest of the apartment). Fortunately, the crib bumper keeps her actual sleeping area at what is apparently the optimal baby temperature of 70-ish, even while the rest of her room shivers through the night at a toasty 61 degrees. Brrr.

Oh the Weather Outside Is Frightful

Day 6 -- still sick. Fever's gone, cold remains, ear still infected, tummy not dealing with antibiotics terribly well. Appetite? Not so much.

We did zip outside for a two minute introduction of Sawyer to the concept of snow. She wasn't terribly impressed. Yeah, yeah, guys, it's cold out here, and everything's just kinda white. Not colorful at all. Can I go back upstairs now for some hot chocolate?



Here's hoping for a healthy little Sawyer sometime very soon! Keep those no-snot thoughts and wishes coming our way . . . .

Fever in the Morning, Fever All Through the Night

Day 4 of Sawyer's first cold, and now we've added a fever to go along with it.

Up until today, she was a cheerful little stuffed-up snotful girl. Now she's pretty cranky, and her eyes are a little glassy and teary, and she's crying a lot, and, well, she has a 102 fever. So, after getting up at 4:15 a.m. today (!!) for a morning meeting in Boston, tomorrow I'll be staying home to take The Fever to The Doctor. Welcome to the life of the working mommy!

I haven't had the heart to snap a picture of Sawyer in her time of woe, but suffice to say that these haven't been her prettiest days. Of course, she's still the cutest bunny in the entire world, but (a) she just really doesn't like having her nose wiped, (b) her cheeks and nose and chin are all red and scratchy, and (c) she generally looks miserable. Poor little thing.

It just occurred to me that tomorrow is her seven-month birthday, which normally is a day for ceremonial photography (as opposed to every other day, which is a day for abundant casual photography) and updating of the growth chart. Perhaps we'll put that on hiatus until the weekend, and we'll have her official seven-months-and-three-days photo.

That's it for now -- feel free to leave sympathetic comments for an unhappy little girl with a cold.

December 4 update: And now it's been deemed an ear infection. I have to say, she's really been a trooper! She's hanging in there as well as could be hoped for given that she's got a cold and an ear infection.

Snot Funny

Sawyer has decided that she definitely prefers certain foods over others. She's a little mercurial about it: whereas a month ago she was a big fan of carrots, carrots provoked this reaction yesterday:



On the other hand, the new plums/bananas/rice combo prompted what Sawyer's Aunt Carly referred to as the "baby bird face":



We all had a lovely time on Thanksgiving -- the food turned out well, everyone was in good spirits, and Sawyer was in fine form. And spitting up only required one outfit change. (These pictures aren't from Thanksgiving, by the way -- they're just cute.)

In other news, you may notice that I'm posting earlier than I normally do these days -- that's because Mademoiselle has her first cold and Paul and I just spent an invigorating half hour trying to do all those things that substitute for nose-blowing among the baby set. Yippee. Her mood has been good despite the cold, though, as shown here:

Happy Thanksgiving!

Paul and I obviously have a lot to be thankful for this year. Every day we're grateful to have been blessed with a such wonderful and beautiful and entertaining little person in our lives, but, tomorrow being the official day to reflect on such things, I'm feeling reflective.

We will be hosting Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow for our little family of three plus my parents and sister (aka Bubbie, Popsie, and Aunt Carly). Among the dishes to be served is brussels sprouts -- Sawyer is already a big fan.



Enjoy your turkeys!

How Many Popes Fit Under a Baby's Neck?

So it used to be the case that if you looked funny at Sawyer while she was sleeping, she'd wake up and start howling inconsolably. Not so anymore. In fact, we've discovered that she can sleep through pretty much anything.

A couple of nights ago, Paul and I went into her room around 11 pm to check on her, and noticed that she had a pacifier wedged under her neck. We figured this was probably kinda uncomfortable for her, so we wiggled it away. This caused her to roll over slightly, showing another pacifier tucked away under her neck. So we pulled that one out as well. She rolled a little more, only to reveal two more pacifiers hidden away beneath the ample little folds of Sawyer's neck! This made two things apparent: (1) a great many pacifiers make their snuggly home in the warmth of Sawyer's cuddle, and (2) Sawyer, the former Princess-and-the-Pea sleeper, now has no problem whatsoever sleeping on top of a bunch of lumpy bumpy items.

On Saturday, we joined Sawyer's buddy Benjamin and his parents for a parents and babies brunch at La Belle Epoque. It's a great idea: a yummy buffet brunch (with perhaps the best french toast I've ever tasted, by the way) and a big carpet in the middle of the room loaded with playpens, toys, books, exersaucers, the works! It was all extremely cute. Lots of babies running around. (Or crawling or rolling, as the case may be.) Mid-brunch, Sawyer got so wiped out from all the goings-on that she fell asleep in my arms, which she hasn't done in ages. Actually, she fell asleep totally upright, which I've never seen her do, then snuggled in for a mommyshoulder nap. Paul was deeply jealous that it was my arms she fell asleep in -- so much so that later in the day, he pulled her out of her crib during her late-afternoon nap to snuggle up on the couch with her. Hee hee. This is the bummer side effect of a supremely successful Ferberization: no more couch naps! But in this case, she was so exhausted from the baby brunch that we could have laid her down on the sidewalk of Third Avenue and she would've snoozed away happily. Daddy got a good snuggly nap out of the whole thing.

Sawyer also did something totally new at the brunch. She was trying really really hard to munch on one of the books provided by the good hosts, but I didn't think that eating a random book of unknown origin was the most hygienic thing in the world. So I took the book away, and Sawyer started howling with annoyance that I was taking this yummy-looking book away from her. This was the first time that she's ever gotten mad when we've taken something away. Fortunately, Benjamin's mommy had some books with her whose chain of custody was not in question, so disaster was averted and Sawyer got in some good chomps on Hug. Tantrum avoided thanks to the quick wits of Benjamin's mommy!

More on books: Paul and my mother have each expressed some concern that Sawyer doesn't seem terribly interested in books, other than eating them. Not that anyone (except perhaps my father!) expects her to be reading just yet, but they feel that she should be showing more interest in listening to people read to her. So I saw a sidebar in What to Expect talking about eight-month-old babies not being interested in books. Setting aside the fact that Sawyer won't be eight months old for another six weeks -- oh my God, she'll be eight months old in six weeks?? -- the book made the point that babies initially show their interest in books by eating them. So now, we have a regular bookworm on our hands! The sidebar also made the point that one should read in front of one's baby when possible to show that Reading Is Good. So I saw Paul hanging out reading Band of Brothers for the umpteenth time on the floor next to Sawyer while she was rolling around -- he confirmed that his burst of near-Sawyer reading was indeed prompted by the blurb in What to Expect. We're apparently very impressionable young parents.

Today's photo comes from a high school friend of mine, who is a free-lance photographer here in the city. She took some pictures of the three of us in Central Park a few weeks ago, and I couldn't be happier with the results. This isn't my absolute favorite one, but it's close (I'm saving my favorites for Xmas/Chanukah gifts, so don't want to spoil the surprise):

La Fille Boheme

At some point this summer, I commented that Sawyer was much like the Princess of "Princess and the Pea" fame in that the least little change sent her off into throes of wahs. But lately, we've noticed that she seems to have chilled out quite a bit. No longer does she wail inconsolably when we take the bottle out of her mouth before she's quite finished, or when no one comes to rescue her within 15 seconds of her awakening. Instead, she seems to have realized that the bottle will come back at some point and that a crib is a perfectly lovely place to hang out alone with one's thoughts. She's content to hang out by herself and play with her toys (though she does usually prefer to have someone else in the room). Most interestingly, she no longer goes from smiles to a Level III Howl Alert in 0.9 seconds: instead, she has developed a little whimpering system to let us know when something's not quite right. Paul is concerned that this is the immediate precursor to whining, but I take a slightly more optimistic approach -- I think she's just learned that Levels I and II exist between smiles and the Level III Howl.

I am curious, though, as to which route her personality will ultimately follow. It seems odd to me that I could end up with a calm and placid daughter, but Paul keeps insisting that he was a small serious boy (can anyone confirm this for me, please?), so I guess it's a possibility! She's generally rather contemplative and doles out her giggles sparingly. In that respect, she's quite the showman: always leave 'em wanting more! But Sawyer is definitely a sunshiney little smiler -- strangers tend to be very proud of themselves when they meet her, because they've managed to make her smile. I don't have the heart to reveal that she's just extremely generous with her smiles. (No harm in that, right?)



One last note: Sawyer's eye color appears to be migrating toward more of a grey-green, particularly when viewed against her little bohemian black turtleneck. (Mommy, when can I get an apartment in the Village?) Not terribly surprising, all things considered!

Baby on the Move

Sawyer is a girl on the move. In the last five days, she's progressed from the backwards scoot to getting up on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth -- or "revving," as her friend Benjamin's mommy calls it.

Here she is! (Insert your own "vroooom" sound effects.)



We've also taken care of the transition from the 3-6 month clothes to the 6-12 month clothes -- they look so big! (Sneeeeeefle.) Susan-the-Wondernanny's eyes got a little wide as we walked through Sawyer's new wardrobe this morning. Suffice to say that Bubbie's been busy these last six months ensuring that Sawyer would not lack for suitably adorable clothing this winter.

Princess Sawyer's Court

I've been a little remiss in noting the various visitors Sawyer has had over the last couple of weeks. First, she met William and Katie Foster (and, of course, their parents!). William was born exactly seven hours after Sawyer -- and he's the happiest, giggliest baby I have ever met.



Next up, Sawyer's Uncle Jamie, in from Atlanta for Marathon weekend. Sawyer had a lot of fun whacking Jamie's face around:




Sydney and Aunt Wendy made an appearance on Sunday. Although Sawyer couldn't bring herself to relinquish the number zero, she had a lovely time hanging out with Sydney while Sydney test-drove her toys.



And finally, Susan-the-Wondernanny has learned how to work the digital camera, and so I now get to see things like the cute little outfits that Sawyer manages to poop all over before I get home, as well as the friends Sawyer is making while Mommy and Daddy are off working! Her closest buddy is Ariel, who lives a few blocks away. Here's Sawyer demanding that Ariel stop looking at the camera and pay attention to her instead:

Sawyer Is Ert!

To commemorate her momentous six-month birthday, Sawyer has been doing some serious baby stuff over the last few days. She roars like a little lion cub -- loudly and with feeling! She rolls around back to tummy and tummy to back. Here she is attacking the number "8" from her activity mat thingy -- these pictures were taken in rapid succession.











She rotates like a helicopter propeller in her crib, usually doing a complete 360 over the course of a night. And most amazingly? She can zoom! She lifts herself up on her hands and feet like she's doing a pushup (a pushup with excellent form, I should add), and moves herself backward. All the way across the room, and quite zippily. Susan can no longer leave her in a room alone, as she discovered when she went to get a glass of water and Sawyer nearly performed the Great Escape from her room.

Zoooooom! Here she is in perfect pushup position:



The scooting around backwards thing has been going on for a few days, and it's really pretty impressive. It's pretty much crawling, only without the crawling. Time for babyproofing!

This being Manhattan, we will be calling the babyproofing consultants to come transform our apartment into Sawyerskittering paradise. Freestanding full-length mirror? Ugh. Hutch with assorted handmade pottery? Forget it. Pedestal holding weighty crystal vase? Ha! I guess our bedroom is about to be transformed into a closet for fragile items. What we're going to do with the granite topped steel coffee table, I have no idea. Can you pad and upholster a coffee table? (And more importantly, is "upholster" a word when it doesn't have the prefix "re-" attached to it? I'm sensitive to this issue, having spent a substantial amount of time around the age of seven discussing with my father why the opposite of "inert" is not "ert." I've also often wondered whether "dulating" is synonymous with "not moving.")

Six months of Sawyer, and the world is a very different place. Paul and I promised each other a long time ago that we would remain the same people even after we were a family of three instead of two. I think we have -- we're still us. We're just us plus an incredible little six-month-old person.

Happy Half Birthday, Dear Sawyer . . .

Today Sawyer is six months old! It's unbelievable.

More ruminations later, but for the time being, click here to see the updated growth chart.

And now! The Event you've all been waiting for!

Ladies and Gentlemen, we proudly present to you, all the way from New York City:

She Who Quacks!



Bubbie and Popsie came up from Sawyer's bucolic Bucks County country home (yes, I will always refer to her grandparents' home that way, solely because it amuses me -- how often does a girl get to use the word bucolic??), and a lovely time was had by all. We basically spent the afternoon strolling around Central Park and Fifth Avenue letting the world coo admiringly at our little ducklet. Which is a lovely way to spend Halloween, don't you think?

And what would Halloween be without the baby swings? Here she is, swinging away in Central Park, along with other similarly situated swinging babies dressed as frogs, tigers, mermaids, and leopards:

While you all wait for tomorrow's duckography, here, in the meantime, is Sawyer coming in for an attack on the telephone:





And the inevitable outcome:

All of a sudden, Sawyer's got herself a schedule! I'm not sure how it happened, but along with the Ferberization came an honest-to-God schedule:

Up at 5:30 am to eat, then back to sleep until 7:30ish. Bottle at 9:30. Half hour nap 10:30-11ish. Bottle at 1. Nap from 1:30-2:45ish. Bottle at 4:30. Nap 4:30-5ish. Bottle at 7:30. Sleep 7:30 pm-5:30 am. Lather, rinse, repeat.

It's like she's a normal baby!

Meanwhile, Susan the Wondernanny reports that Sawyer has become a gleeful aficionado of the baby swings. She apparently has taken to doing that "so big she could eat the world" smile as she swings back and forth. We're looking forward to swinging her tomorrow in her duck costume.

That's right -- tomorrow she's a duck.

Quack.

Add to the list of accomplishments for the weekend Sawyer's first foray into the world of baby swings!

Paul and I took her to one of the playgrounds around our apartment this afternoon and plopped her into a baby swing. (You know, the kind that's basically a bucket with leg holes.) And off she went! There actually wasn't much of a reaction in either direction -- she wasn't whooping with delight, but she didn't look terrified, either. She pretty much just took it in stride. (To the other parents hanging out at the playground, Paul and I must have looked pretty dorky, what with the camcorder AND the still camera. But that's another matter entirely.)

Here she is at the beginning of her swinging adventure:



And after she got rolling:



And here she is, passed out in her stroller on the way home from the exciting afternoon at the playground! (Just look at that sweet little face. Just look at it!)

It's very busy tonight over here in Sawyer's World, so not much time to write.

But I did want to note that there's been a flurry of activity here for the last couple of days -- a sudden surgence of rolling over in both directions, spontaneously napping on her tummy, sitting up (quite straight!) unsupported, and my favorite, out-of-the-blue giggling!

She's a hoot. A deeply adorable mercurial smiley little hoot of a girl.

In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the bunny sleeps tonight

I've been going back and forth over whether writing about our adventures in trying to improve Sawyer's sleep habits would somehow jinx the entire process. Though I may regret the decision, I have decided to brave it.

If you google "ferberization" or "ferberizing," you'll get all sorts of manifestos decrying the Evil of letting a baby cry for any amount of time. Basically, the theory seems to be that any sort of parentally sanctioned crying will result in a deeply troubled child who will be unable to free herself from the shackles of this parental cruelty for the rest of her days. Our pediatrician, not sharing this view, gave us the go-ahead to "let her cry" when Sawyer turned four months old -- feeling that was a little premature, we decided to wait until now, when we felt that she was ready for some self-comforting.

And guess what? This might actually work!

(As soon as I finished typing that sentence, she woke up! See? I'm jinxed already.)

The basic idea is that, rather than zooming to Sawyer's side the minute she starts crying in her crib, we give her a predetermined period of time to settle herself before we go into the room. If she's still crying by the end of that time, we go into her room and pat her and smile at her for a couple of minutes, then leave again. If she's still crying by the time the next predetermined interval elapses, we go back in again. And so on.

Everyone seems to handle this process a little differently. I have one friend who basically adopted the "put the baby in the crib and go take a long shower" approach, which strikes me as a little, well, excessive. Some people cut all nighttime feedings before starting the process, others don't; some people cut out use of the pacifier beforehand, others don't. The variations are unlimited.

Us? If you think we were going to make this kid go cold turkey on her pacifier -- her favorite item in the universe -- and make her cry herself to sleep, you clearly don't know Sawyer's parents terribly well. We decided to find every pacifier in the apartment (about 10 of them) and strew them throughout her crib, so that when she wakes up, she won't be able to avoid finding a pacifier to pop into her mouth. Of course, the problem with this approach has been that half the time, the thing causing her to wake up has been a pacifier lodged under her armpit or something, but we can live with that.

As for the feedings, we're using the Ferber sanctioned approach of gradually cutting down the amount of milk in her late-night bottle. Last night was 2 1/2 ounces, and tonight will be 2. So far, we've alternated between good nights and mediocre nights. Last night was pretty darned fabulous: she went to sleep around 7:30, didn't wake up once until 2:30 am, when she had her dinky little bottle, and went back to sleep until 5:30, when she woke briefly but went right back to sleep until 6:45. This from the baby who the prior week woke up every 45 minutes or so all night!

We did decrease the intervals that the Ferber book suggests: we started out waiting three minutes before going into her room, then upped it to five, then seven, rather than the five/ten/fifteen that the book recommends. But even the book says that the length of the wait doesn't really matter, so long as you continually increase it. Tonight, we're starting with twelve minutes. (And, by the way, twelve minutes have elapsed since Sawyer started crying -- I haven't heard a peep in about eight minutes.)

And while it's not terribly fun to listen to one's baby cry, we feel pretty comfortable that she'll end up sleeping better ultimately as a result. Besides, how miserable could she possibly be, given that she was doing this the next morning?



I think it'll take a little while to get all the kinks out, but I'm feeling good about where this is all going.

Oh, and one quick other note: I haven't seen a raspberry in days. The speed with which she picks up and then drops new quirks is mindboggling. It's like she has a mental checklist: "Raspberries? Check. Ok, enough of that. Rolling from tummy to back? Check. No more of that. Grabbing the diaper wipes container, which is as big as I am, while Mommy is trying to change my diaper? Ok, let's work on that one for the next 48-72 hours, then move on." The attention span of a gnat, that baby. Actually, that's not true -- she has a very impressive attention span on a moment-by-moment basis. It's like an infatuation: all-encompassing for a while, then entirely forgotten.

Out of curiosity . . .

How much cuter does this baby need to be for you people out there to comment?

We've got pouts. We've got bananas. We've got raspberries. We've got froggy towels. How cynical and jaded have you all become??

Hmph.

(10/17 clarification -- I don't need reassurance that she's cute, but just that people are out there reading!)

To Pout the Impossible Pout

Quite some time ago (see June 10, 2003), I promised to continue the quest for the Perfect Pout.

We are no longer tilting at windmills. We have achieved pouting perfection! Voila!



Just look at that lip! Those cheeks! Those big grey eyes filled with tears!

Because I am a rotten person, I sent that picture to Paul at work last night with the subject line: "Daddy come home to meeeeeeeee!" Daddy was not pleased with Mommy. Hee hee.

Oh -- and by the way -- bananas? Wow. Sawyer digs the bananas in a big way. In a spoon-grabbing, lip-licking, mouth-opening-wide-like-a-baby-bird kind of way. I don't know what kind of bananas Earth's Best uses (other than, apparently, the best ones on Earth), but even by my own standards, these are some seriously delicious bananas.



Way yummilicious.

On Raspberries and Bubbles

So the raspberry blowing continues, and boy is it hilarious.

About half the time, she sticks her tongue out the right side of her mouth when she blows, which is just the cutest, dopiest looking thing ever. The rest of the time, there's no tongue involved -- just a lot of bubble blowing. She's started doing it as a crying predecessor, also. She starts getting squirmy and fussy, and then starts blowing bubbles. Which is rather counterproductive, because we all start laughing rather than attending to her fussiness.

We haven't managed to get a picture of her with the tongue going, but here's a general raspberry picture:



She also had some rice cereal yesterday for the first time in a week, and did much better with it than she had been. We'll see if that sticks. I think we'll take a crack at some bananas or something this week.

And Sawyer has been having a magnificent time with her Grandma and Grandpa this weekend. Here she is right after her bath last night:

Signs of the Apocalypse?

This is strange.

After a series of weird crying fits over the course of the evening, Sawyer slept uninterrupted from 11:30 pm to 5:30 am. Not a squirm. Not a sob. Just sleep -- like the proverbial baby who doesn't actually exist -- for six straight hours. Go figure.

Not to detract from the niftyness (when you create nouns of your own, you don't need to abide by spelling rules that change "y"s to "i"s) of the whole thing, but boy, was she nuts during the evening prior to the Six Hours of Sleep! She had zero desire to go to sleep at her normal bedtime -- all she wanted to do was sit on my lap and blow raspberries in my face. For an hour. It was pretty cute. She finally went to sleep around 8, and after a bunch of random awakenings, woke up screaming around 10:50. I gave her a toy to munch on, and went to go warm her bottle. Paul went to check on her a few minutes later and discovered that she'd rolled onto her tummy and was hanging out there. She rolls over pretty frequently these days (although only for Susan, as best I can tell), but this was the first time she'd done it unsolicitedly in her crib. We were amused. She was amused, too, for a couple of minutes, then decided that she'd had enough of all this amusement and it was now time to scream for her bottle. Loudly. And with gusto.

And then she slept for six straight hours!

Grandma Marlo and Grandpa Bob arrive this afternoon for their first visit since early August -- although they've obviously been following Sawyer's progress here on Sawyer's World, I think they're going to be blown out of the water by the changes in her over the last couple of months! (The addition of five pounds being the most obvious one.) It should be an entertaining weekend.

Oh Baby Please Give a Little Respect to Me

Yaaaaaawn. I am very very tired, so will post in list format instead of crafting finely executed transitions.

1. Sawyer's growth chart has been updated with new photo and stats for her five-month birthday -- take a look! (I know, it's not the greatest picture of her ever taken, but give me a break -- it was early in the morning before we trundled off to Sawyer's bucolic Bucks County country home -- read on.)

2. We spent our second weekend in a row in Philadelphia -- this time for my cousin's commitment ceremony. Definitely the best wedding I've attended in a long time. (And the wedding cake was made of Tastykake Peanut Butter Kandy Kakes -- what could be better?) Sawyer was extremely popular with the Philadelphia lesbian population. Although, now that I think about it: who doesn't love a pink ruffled baby in a Bjorn bopping around to Erasure's Respect?

3. No more travelling on the weekends for a while. It's hard to spend the week getting up at 5:30 in the morning for work and then to spend the weekend schlepping a baby and her ancillary paraphernalia off to someone else's house, trying to get the schlepped baby to conform to some skeletal form of her normal schedule (such as it is), all while trying to work in a little quality time with baby and husband. We are just wiped out.

4. I think we may also put the food thing on hold for a while. After a fantastic start, Sawyer's become far more interested in blowing bubbles in the sweet potatoes/oatmeal/rice cereal than in actually eating any of it. Of course, she's also been blowing raspberries on her pacifier, my thumb, and anything else she can get her mouth on -- this seems to be a standard five-month-old-baby kind of thing to do. (By the way, when she blows raspberries on the pacifier, she tends to accidentally launch it across the room. Frustrating for her -- not to mention for her poor hapless parents who need to chase down the pacifier and reload it into the catapault that is her mouth -- but funny as hell to watch.) Anyway, we may put solid food into a holding pattern for a week or two and then give it another shot. Or maybe I'll just give her some bananas tomorrow and see if they manage to capture her imagination sufficiently to warrant some actual munching rather than bubble blowing.

5. We here at Sawyer's World have gotten a lot of hits this weekend courtesy of a very nice shoutout from a fellow U of C Law School blogger, JCA of Sua Sponte. It's always nice to know that people who aren't related to us occasionally get a kick out of reading my ruminations.

6. And finally, here's this weekend's photo -- posted partially because I know that you all like to see pictures and partially because I know it'll send Paul through the roof . . .

For the last couple of days, Sawyer has been underwhelmed with her cereal. Whereas she had been slurping it down like mad, she's been nibbling a couple of spoonfuls and then turning her head away -- that classic "get that spoon out of my face" gesture. So we called the pediatrician just to check in, and she suggested that perhaps Sawyer was bored with the cereal.

Gee, you think that my daughter might be easily bored?

So she suggested that we try something in the fruit/veggies family. And Susan-the-nanny suggested that we try out her highchair, as she's been increasingly dissatisfied with her bouncy seat lately.

Thus we proudly present to the world Miss Sawyer "Sweet Potato Face" Niehaus!

Bomp!

The world is now a better place. Why? Because Alias is back.

There's really only one person who's a more skillful master of disguise than Sydney Bristow. And we all know who that is: Sawyer Niehaus.

Don't Know What You've Got Until It's Done . . . I Had No Idea How Much I Cared

Our internet is back! Our internet is back! Nothing much to say tonight except that our internet is back! To reward you all for reading a whole lot of text with no pictures over the last several days, here's a Sawyer montage:

We lead off with Sawyer in her Phillies hat -- remember, the battle for her soul continues:



Then, of course, we turn to her first experience with the previously discussed gummy liquified rice cereal:



And the requisite Exersaucer shot, complete with flag munching:



And thumbsucking. Have I mentioned the advent of thumb sucking?



And ultimately, Paul and I just have a really scrumptious daughter: