Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family! It's been a very fun, relaxing, and eventful week since we last posted. We worked for the first half of the week, and on Wednesday went to Michigan to celebrate the holiday with the Harris's. Before we could get to Michigan though, I needed to hit up the doctor because sadly as I got off the bus on Tuesday I stepped into some sort of hole in the sidewalk and turned my left foot over. When it happened it was quite painful, and though I didn't fall, I felt a pop. I went home and laid down for a bit, but picked Sawyer up at daycare and dropped her off the next day. It was pretty painful to walk and swollen so I decided to get an x-ray. Turns out I broke my foot - the bone that runs along the outside of my foot. So I spent most of Wednesday running to the doctor, getting crutches, and getting a cast. When I finished up we left to make the drive. Mark snapped a quick picture of me when I got home. Thankfully I get walking cast after two weeks.

In Michigan we pretty much alternated between eating and relaxing, which was great. Sawyer spent some quality time with her cousin Charlie, loved playing the piano, and even seemed to get used to the dogs. Grandma and Grandpa pulled out their old toys as well, so she had lots of new distractions and loved the Fisher Price people. I do believe we'll be making a trip to the Fisher Price store when we go to Buffalo at Christmas to let her pick some out. We drove home on Saturday, which I think was a great decision. There were A LOT of cars on the road Saturday, but the weather was good. We all liked having a day back home to relax further, though Sawyer has been testing us quite a bit today. She basically has been walking around the house touching/doing everything we have ever told her not to. You may think she does this unknowingly, but she does it and stares at you, waiting for you to yell at her. She has emptied every drawer in her dresser, unwound the toilet paper in the bathroom, foraged in the fireplace, hit the tv with the remote, thrown EVERY toy she owns on the floor, among other things. Yesterday, I was laughing so hard at the faces she was making I couldn't even correct her. Despite all that, she's been pretty goofy today as well. She has officially found the drapes. She used to go to the edge and play peek-a-boo. Now she uses it to hide if you tell her to stop something, and likes to come out the bottom - laughing pretty hard as she does.

I cleaned out Sawyer's closet and drawers today - because her drawers were all emptied by her - put away the clothes that no longer fit and checked out what we have for bigger sizes. Pulled out the Michigan St cheerleader dress Mark bought for her last winter - it finally fits. I don't think she liked posing for her picture, but she did seem to like her dress.

What Surgery?

Although we weren't sure it was going to happen, Sawyer ended up having her tear duct surgery on Thursday. She did great - you wouldn't even know she had it done. We went in at 7:30 as instructed for our 9am appt. Turns out that we were at the hospital less than two hours total, and they did the surgery a bit earlier than our original appt time. The two worst parts were (1) when Sawyer was crying incontrollably because of the medical bracelet on her foot, and (2) seeing Sawyer in recovery still out from the anesthesia. She looked real peaceful, but laying in the hospital bed with an oxygen mask on made me really sad, but grateful this was a very small problem, and not a big one.

At any rate, once Sawyer was able to get some juice and ate EVERY single snack I brought for her, she was back to normal. We arrived home and she played briefly, and then took a 4 hour nap. When she woke up it was as if she never even had surgery. Her eye seems fine, so we're crossing our fingers this will be it. As for Mark and I, we each took a long nap with Sawyer - seems both of us were a little more wound up about the surgery than we thought originally, and we were just as exhausted as Sawyer when it was over.

As for the rest of the weekend - this has been one of the first that we actually had NOTHING planned...and we intentionally refused to schedule anything because we really needed it. It's been great. We did what errands and laundry we had yesterday, and today have been chilling with the tunes on all day. Sawyer has been introduced to John Mayer, Norah Jones, David Gray, Fountains of Wayne, and now Bruce Springsteen, as I write this. I have this feeling she is going to be very into music like her dad, and she may already have figured out how the iPod works.

Other than that - girl has started to talk up a storm. We still don't know most of what she says, but she surprises us every now and then with a word we had no idea she could say. A few things we currently find funny:

• Sawyer has taken to eating primarily what we eat -and prefers when it comes off my plate. The last few nights she surprised us and took a real liking to salmon & crab and her feta hamburger. We have started to use her love of my food to get her to eat her veggies, and it's working!
• Sawyer knows her head, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, chin...and she blinks like crazy to show you her eyes. No idea where it came from, but it's like she's batting her eyelashes over and over at us.
• Sawyer has started running in place when she is excited about something...and occasionally when she's mad about something.

She still seems to enjoy screaming (screeching) when she doesn't get her way, or when she is told "no". I would love to hear when she will grow out of that because our girl can kick on the drama at the drop of a hat. Only two pics for you this week. As of late Sawyer is constantly testing her boundaries. One of her faves is standing on her chair...here she happy to be breaking the rules:

And...after she got yelled at...not happy, but definitely not about to sit down.

Strange Days

As the sun retreats from us in Chicagoland, we find ourselves indoors more and more. Since we have limited spaces, we have to find different ways to enjoy dinner and play time. The other day Erin made some yummy chicken with a sauce on top. Sawyer really liked the topping and slowly stripped Erin's bird of it. But, that wasn't enough. She then proceeded to gnaw on the breast for maximum satisfaction...

Another thing she has taken to doing is dangling upside down. Whenever we pick her up, and she knows it's playtime, she back dives with the blind expectation that we will catch her. It's a good thing I have quick hands! I've captured the process for posterity.

That is all. Harrises out.

Little Rascal

Back from New Orleans so I guess it's time to get back to normal life. Should be easy to do except we have a little girl who has become quite the little rugrat. She is all over the place - Sawyer doesn't just walk, she runs. She has taken a big interest in toilet water, and while we try to keep the tops down, and the doors shut, I have caught her dipping her fingers in and taking a sip more times than I care to admit. A few of her other common exploits include: getting her pacifier and silky out of the crib...she knows they're supposed to stay in there, and when i caught her today, she just stared at me, and then ran around me quickly.

She pulls the towels off the oven constantly...I think she may be OCD because something about the towels hanging REALLY bothers her.

And she has just figured out she can not only reach, but also turn the knobs on the stove. I do not especially like this, as she kept changing the heat while I was cooking dinner the other night. I'm a bit scared for when she can reach the flame - she doesn't like to let either Mark or I cook - and insists on being held when we try.

Other than that, she just bangs on everything...the tv, the table, the wall, the floor, Mark, me... So that's Sawyer - while these things can be annoying, we usually can't help laughing at her. As for us, I had my eye surgery this week. While the first two days were not fun, days 3 and 4 were good and I go back to the doctor tomorrow to see how i'm healing. Mark was great because I couldn't do a thing for two full days, and am pretty sure I scared Sawyer because every time I layed down and shut the door to our room, she would come to the door crying, but when i picked her up she just looked scared. Thankfully this ended for the weekend, and Mark was able to hit up the Michigan St game in Purdue and we got up to Loyola for a visit with Caroline and Kristan. Next up we have Sawyer's eye surgery to open her tear ducts this week - provided they still want to do it. She has a bit of a cold so they could postpone it. Keep you posted....

Where N.O. Means Yes

Julie & Jeff (Mr. & Mrs. Budzynski) pulled off a fantastic destination wedding this weekend in New Orleans. Erin and I had never been so we took the opportunity to spend 3 days in the Big Easy. We extensively toured the French Quarter and the highlights included: Various interesting shops Beautiful architecture And other assorted street scenes

The overall theme of the long weekend was excess of food and drink. Every place we went was outstanding and by the end of the weekend we had to make a major purchase. The best part was the buy-one-get-one-free option...

On one of our strolls I caught this fantastic street band - enjoy some of New Orleans best.

Hamilton Halloween

Happy post Halloween! We moved the festivities to a rural venue this year and made it a family affair. Charlie and Sawyer finally got some extended playtime together and both sets of parents and Harris grandparents got a kick out of it all. It was about 40 degrees so the two monkeys only made one trip to the neighbors as a trial run for next year. Charlie being his usual stoic self...

Sawyer going as herself...

Ted and Ann procured 3 nice pumpkins for carving and we all sliced and diced for a spell. My favorite was Ted's cause it really did scare me a little...

It was a good thing it was cold because Sawyer really didn't want this thing on very long.

Two Under Two

Charlie wondering what we are doing in his house

A couple videos....