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.