Tickling the Ivory

Last week was the drums, before that it was any guitar he could get his hand on, this week Sawyer introduced himself to the piano, and loved it! We're all thrilled that he's encapsulated by music. Or maybe it's noise. Or maybe just forcing everyone to pay attention to him. Whatever the reason, we enjoyed watching him enjoy the piano.

Faces

Look at these... and you'll start imitating it. Really. You can't help it.

A Floridian Christmas

For Christmas this year, we escaped the shivering cold of KY and went to Florida, where we spent a week with both of our families. We had a wonderful time, and came home with a small truckload of stuff for our little boy. Our week consisted of some visiting, some golf (complete with alligator encounters and laughing at a guy who fell backwards in the mud), some swimming and grilling, lots of parties, and lots of eating.

Sawyer definitely loved the gifting part of Christmas. He learned very quickly how to tear wrapping paper off of gifts, and was involved in the opening of every one of his. He seemed personally offended when someone else opened a gift without his help.
Sawyer's 11 months old now, but since we won't see our family next month, we decided to have a birthday party while we were all together. Since his aunt Jenni is a master baker, we had some of the coolest cakes around. Yes cakes, every 1 year-old needs multiple cakes, right?
Turns out he adopted some traits of his dad, at least one or two. One in particular came to light during his birthday celebration. Anyone who's ever eaten wings with me will understand this one...

His cakes were musically themed, a guitar, a drum, and a xylophone. We popped a candle in the drum cake and sang to him, then spit on it together to blow it out, then we pushed him toward the cake with instructions to dive in! He tentatively looked the cake over, then raised his hand in the proper attack position for a good drum strike, and then the hammer fell. When his hand hit the cake he was not rewarded with a hearty thump of musicality, but rather a hand full of icing. Like a hand that just found itself in the danger zone of a rattle snake, he recoiled it back and turned to high tail it away from that wretched thing. Straight to daddy he crawled, screaming the whole way until his hand was properly cleaned off. And he wasn't really a big fan of eating the icing either. Strike up another 'like father' moment :).


























Sawyer exploring his new tent:

An Early Christmas Present

Yesterday, a phone call notified us that our visas for France are completed and waiting for us in Lexington. Waaaay ahead of schedule (which means about 5 days ahead), we're now able to plan our departure with more than a 24 hour notice. A month ago we feared we wouldn't be able to make it to France in time for the start of language school on Jan 4, now there's a cushion! We don't have a leave date yet, but we're looking at flying out right around new years day. After enjoying some important and what will be cherished last family time, we'll pack furiously and prepare our hearts to go. We pray that you, too, will be able to cherish your time with whoever you have tomorrow.

Merry Christmas!!
Joyeux Noel!!