The CEO

So as you no doubt saw from Mark's previous post we are expecting Harris Baby #2 around Thanksgiving.  We've kept it to ourselves for awhile and are actually 16 weeks along already. It's kind of nice telling people when you're almost halfway done because then it doesn't feel like it takes as long.  We'll find out in a month what we're having.  Nope no waiting for us - we want to know!  Sawyer has been in on our secret since the beginning and has started to talk to my stomach, hit/rub it, and also lifts my shirt and tells me to "open it" so she can see.  She continues to crack us up.  So the rest of the post I actually started writing last week, but I changed/updated it a bit since I am so behind in posting...

My Little CEO

My mom likes to call Sawyer "the CEO". She saw her in action while we were in Buffalo, and let's face it, our girl is a little bossy and likes to get her own way. Now this may be partially attributed to the age, but I do think in part we have a strong-willed girl on our hands. All I can think of is back to my early consulting days when I took this DISC profile test (my friends will know this well) and it categorizes you into one of four primary character profiles (a D, an I, a S, or a C). Everytime I think of my little CEO, I think she is someday going to rate very high in the "D" category (coincidentally in reality as most CEO's do). I've copied the D profile for you below, for those not totally in the know. Who knows if this is actually her, but I had to take this test so many times it's ingrained in my head.

Dominance: People who score high in the intensity of the "D" styles factor are very active in dealing with problems and challenges, while low "D" scores are people who want to do more research before committing to a decision. High "D" people are described as demanding, forceful, egocentric, strong willed, driving, determined, ambitious, aggressive, and pioneering. Low D scores describe those who are conservative, low keyed, cooperative, calculating, undemanding, cautious, mild, agreeable, modest and peaceful.

A few examples:

• Mark and I spend much of our time following Sawyer around...because she tells us to. Her new favorite phrase is "Come on" which is an improvement on her constantly just coming to grab our finger and drag us where she wants to go. Sadly, I think I have to take credit for teaching her this phrase because I say it to her all the time.

• Sawyer does not take kindly to the word "NO". Yesterday she got caught taking dirt from our plant inside and throwing it on the floor. She got warnings (actually probably three), two timeouts, and eventually ended up in her crib for 5-10 minutes to think about how she doesn't listen to her mom. After each of the warnings and timeouts she would go right back to the plant, and stare at me while first tapping the side of the planter, and then slowly inching her fingers up to the dirt. Those eyes are haunting and understand exactly what is going on. We ended crib time with yet ANOTHER talking to by me and when I finally sat down with her specifically to try and find something else she'd be interested in that seemed to do the trick...but if anyone has suggestions on how to make "NO" a more respected term, I'm open to them...

• In the morning Sawyer wakes up (this is no surprise) but within seconds is screaming "Mommy" and "Daddy" over and over. She is not one of those kids who will lay there for a bit chatting to herself or singing or whatever those other calm kids do, she wants out, and she wants out right away. On occasion I will allow myself a trip to the bathroom before getting her, and by the time I get there she is yelling pretty loud because she thinks I can't hear her. When we do get her out of bed, she used to want to come hang with us and watch the news. Now if we even try to sit her in our bed she will grab one of our hands, drag us out of bed, and to the refrigerator. I've learned that she wants you to open it so she can peruse - however since she has picked olives, hummus, and other generally non-breakfast foods to eat, and will throw an absolute fit if she doesn't get them, I've started to just get her milk out and prepare her and I some cereal to eat...not her Apple Jacks either, she prefers my Kashi Crunch, and now Rice Chex, as that's what the big kids eat.

While we make fun, Mark and I are pretty sure we've contributed to these quirky personality traits, especially because we give in to her so frequently. Besides she surprises us all the time because she'll go from being bossy to coming over and giving hugs/kisses and saying "I love you", or saying please/thank you/you're welcome/excuse me quite unexpectedly or before requested.  Sure will be interesting to see how she deals with someone else taking away some of her attention come Thanksgiving.

So it's been awhile since we really posted - trying to keep a long story short, while last weekend was full of errands and trips to the park, this weekend was full of activity.  Last week Sawyer got her first face painting (a heart) while we were at Oz Park.  She spent a ton of time just running across the fields, and it happily resulted in a 4 hour nap!  This weekend, I went out with friends Friday night and we had an all day wedding on Saturday.  I don't go out very much anymore it seems and I think I forget how nice it is to just get out - had a great time both nights, but it left me pretty tired on Sunday. 
Have spent a good amount of time cooking this week.  Did a monster shopping trip at Whole Foods last weekend and prepared my plan for a week's worth of dinners - all pretty much new recipes from the family cookbook or magazines.  I love that store, and while I don't normally do all my shopping here, I treated myself (and Mark and Sawyer).  Besides our little CEO loves her food and gets an upgrade to organic berries when I go there.  That's right - blueberry, raspberry, strawberry, and blackberries. We buy them all. She also seriously enjoys the olive bar. She even tried tapenade on fresh bread and was LOVING it.  Our big hiccup was when she reached outside the cart to grab an extra pint of blueberries and threw it in the cart behind her, opening the carton and spilling it all over the floor.  So embarrassing.  She then proceeded to eat half of the blueberries and raspberries while I did the rest of the shopping.  This is our goob trying plums for the first time (non baby food anyway).  I had a bunch in the fruit bowl and unbeknownst to me she took two out and was switching back and forth. She gives plums a thumbs up, but peaches not so much.

Rocking her new t-shirt from Lauren - it's from Aspen and says "I'm Difficult" with two black diamonds.  The caption couldn't be more appropriate and her day care teachers liked it as well.

Sawyer continues to be obsessed with "upside down" as she says.  She made Mark carry her up the three flights of stairs upside down yesterday and requests it multiple times a day otherwise.  Tiring on the arms to say the least, so Mark came up with this alternative.  Since our monkey immitates Mark in almost every way this took but a second to orchestrate.