Bath Time!

Bath time at the Birkhead's...lots of smiles, lots of bubbles and really BIG hair!!!

All things go according to plan...until it is time to get out. Everyone loves the bath and exiting the tub is always a challenge. Of course, so is surviving with dry clothes if you are the adult in charge! ~C

Say Cheese

Sawyer making his "camera face".

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Garden Harvest

Michael helped me pick peppers with his new wheelbarrow.

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First day of preschool!

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Breakfast

Michael helping to cook eggs. He is really quite good at it and very respectful of the hot stove.
The other good points are that we have PLENTY of eggs and it is a garuntee that he will sit at the table and eat if he helps make it.

-R

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World's ugliest ear of corn!

Picked from the garden today. Too homely to not share...

- R

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Sawyer the Standup Guy

Sawyer is at the fun mobile stage crawling and pulling up to a stand and playing with stuff. Lots of babbling and coo's too. He is always smiling!



He can also be shy and ducks into your shoulder with a giggle when someone new comes around or daddy goes in for a tickle. He has started on finger foods and loves chasing after puffs on his tray.

We are still working on getting him weened from our bed though and he is such a little snuggle bunny he wants to be held all the time and wakes up from a dead sleep and starts crying as soon as he senses a downward decent into his crib. We have be letting him cry it out at night now and since the first 53 minute crying session (trust me it is much harder on mom and dad than it is on him) the bouts are getting significantly shorter.

-R

No more pacifier for Michael!

A major milestone with Michael this weekend. We finally ditched the pacifier! I really thought it was going to be awful and traumatic for him [AND by extention mom and dad], but "fier" (what he called it) was looking really bad lately as he had started biting it and it was full of holes. Chelsea and I were seriously worried that it would fall apart some night and he would choke on it. Anyway we have talked with him about "fier" needing to go away soon. Well on Saturday after our nap we brought "fier" outside and daddy dug a hole in one of the flower beds and Michael put "fier" in. We covered it up and then he ran and got his watering can and gave the spot a good soak.

That night he had a short fit about "fier" being gone but I reminded him that we had "planted" "fier" and that in the morning there would be a surprise in the garden for him. That afternoon I had gone and found a small shapely Vaccinium bush and cut it down and brought it back to the house. That night we stripped the emerging leaves off of most of the little branches and stuck gumdrops and tiny marshmallows on them. In the morning before he got up I "planted" the bush where we had buried "fier". After breakfast we went outside to discover our gumdrop bush that grew out of "fier". I pulled up the "bush" and he happily ate the marshmallows and gumdrops while carrying it around the yard.


Here we are finding the "gumdrop bush"


Here it looks like he is trying to figure out how this grew out of "fier"

He has asked for "fier" a couple more times at nap and bedtime (the only times he was still allowed to have "fier"), but seems OK with "fier's" absence when I remind him that we planted it and about the gumdrop tree. Now we probably just have to keep an eye on Sawyer's pacifier in case it ends up out in the garden too!

-R

Michaelisms and Sawyer milestone

Sawyer started cutting his first tooth (bottom left) this weekend he is also scooting around really well, not technically crawling because he is not alternating his arms and legs, but it is awfully close.

I also though I would share some "Michaelisms" and record them for the sake of posterity. His vocabulary seems to double every week now but he still does not have words for some things he encounters so he makes up some pretty interesting word combinations:

"chocolate circles"= M&Ms

"baby phone"=the baby monitor

"turtle box"=aquarium...this one is awfully telling about our household huh?

"boo-boo stickers"=band-aids...he got into a box of bandids in the bathroom a few nights ago and put about 12 all on one spot on his cheek...why?, he never said.

I'm sure there are more that I am forgetting but I will try to add to the list as I remember or he comes up with new ones.

-R

Sawyer mouthing off

OK...not in that way. He loves his feet and judging by how he wants to gum everything he can't be too far from cutting some teeth.

Here we are enjoying our toes.



Here he is giving mom's knuckle a good gnaw.



He also recently had his 10 month checkup and is now 16 lbs 13oz and 27 inches long.

-R

CA Christmas 2010

First and most importantly Santa came to visit the Birkhead/Ward children and their family and friends while we visited Grandma ("Gra") and Grandpa ("PePaw") out in California!

Here is Santa making his big entrance.

This is what the other side of the room looked like.

From CA Christmas 2010

Michael was pretty excited as you can see...

From CA Christmas 2010

Everybody got to sit and talk to Santa and he brought each of them a special present.

Sawyer looks a little starstruck

From CA Christmas 2010

Aiden Bennet was a bit shy...so much so that he forgot to ask what flying reindeer eat (Santa was ready with an answer though!)

From CA Christmas 2010

Here is Kelsey getting a good laugh with Santa

From CA Christmas 2010

Drew Bennet took a bit to warm up to the idea, but got in some lap time.

From CA Christmas 2010

Cousins Jack and Sam Rosen were a bit more suspicious of Santa...that voice seemed a bit familiar. Here is Sam giving Santa the "sideways-eye".

From CA Christmas 2010

Finally Michael got to visit with Santa and get his present... a stuffed baby jaguar. He was more interested than any of the other kids in having a conversation with Santa too. He probably wanted to give some hints on how to improve his "Ho, Ho, Ho" laugh.

From CA Christmas 2010

At last Santa had to head back to the North Pole to finish getting ready for Christmas (and a well deserved glass of wine!). Thank you "Santa"!!!

From CA Christmas 2010

For the rest of the visit, Michael would just get up and run to the front door, open it, then say, "No...no Santa here" and close the door.

The next morning Michael helped everyone open all their presents.

From CA Christmas 2010

Of course the biggest "score" was PePaw who got a new iPad! Just look at the surprise on that face!

From CA Christmas 2010

-R

Puddle play

Michael certainly enjoys playing in puddles...even when it is cold. Who am I to deny him such fun?



I mean really, who could say "no" to this face?

From Michael Year Two+

-R