Auntie and Mimi

on the road less than 5 min!

tractor

Hiding and talking

Ornaments

kitchen time

more "what's that face" aka silly face

apple drummer

legos this morning

Childrens Expo at St Julien

Music

Come here Mr Moo Moo

Silly face while Xmas shopping

What's that face

Full cowbaby

More hat

Loves his puzzle

Mommy and baby burrito

Post thanksgiving meal story-time

Love-a-my-pasta

Daily exercise

Music man

Lil cowboy

pee pee in the potty!

I took him in this morning and took off his diaper, not expecting
anything, and he peed in the potty!!!!! Beginners luck?

Sent from my iPhone

First Potty

He loves it! No action yet, just having fun sitting on it :)

sweet sunshine

Texas Family

Sayan and I met Papa and Mimi in Austin for a few days last week to visit our Texas family. We didn't get to see everyone but had a wonderful time with Grandpapa and Doris, Aunt Virginia, cousin James and Uncle Michael.

The only trip hiccup was that Sayan got ahold of my camera and changed all the settings for both the video and camera. I did not know this until I got home and downloaded everything and discovered all the video was in fast-forward 4 second clips and most of the photos were out of focus! So frustrating! Oh well. I was able to salvage these few pics though one is still pretty fuzzy.

Learning to say NO

Dancing!

Book time with Grandma

happy halloween

granma made sayan's pjs into a "max" costume from where the wild things are. we were going to have him wear it all day but he was exceedingly nervous about it and cried the first time we tried to put it on him in the morning. we talked with him about it all day and when he started seeing the other kids in costume trick or treating he finally allowed us to put him in it because he understood why.

words words words

sayan has gone through a phase transition in the last week or so. he is learning and making up signs right and left and trying out new words and combining words and signs to express himself. i will teach him a sign and sometimes he mimics it fairly accurately, other times he modifies it significantly or he will just make up a sign like for "music" he touches his throat (someone singing??), or "airplane" he points up to the sky and "water" he makes a "W" with his hands, "flower" he sniffs his nose like he is smelling the flower, "bunny" he wrinkles his nose and makes the sign for food because the bunnies are always eating in the grass, "fan" he makes his hands go around in a circle like the fan.

AND he understands soooo much! he was playing in the corner by himself and i was talking to gail about his halloween costume, saying that he didn't like wearing it the first time but i would try to put it on him later in the day to take some photos-- at that point he stands up and rushes over shaking his head "no". i asked him "no what"? he walks into the other room where his costume was and points at it shaking "no no". i was pretty blown away. i mean i know he listens and understands when i talk to him but that he was listening as gail and i talked and was following our conversation... wow and yikes!?

music with dada

Mama dada

Rice milk steamer

more running and screaming

storytime with nana

Run run run

Up and "Nana"

More hiding

Naked hiding spot

Daddy's gonna get you!

more piano

unloading, loading, unloading

train and bus

sayan gets soooo excited when he sees school buses these days. well most big trucks are cause for excitement but especially school buses. he will just stand in front of the window watching and waiting to see one...

spaghetti

back porch

yogurt

sayan is wanting to feed himself (with utensils) more and more these days. we really just need to surrender to the MESSY learning curve... as you will see!

Self sufficient

Little drummer boy

Baby Mozart

at the park

Play time with grandma

Lunch

Oldie but goodie from Jackson

hi!

snow day

yesterday we had our first snow-- we'd been expecting a light dusting overnight but ended up with 6 inches! jai took sayan out to get a snowsuit and boots and then "out" he went! well, sort of ... :)

hide n' seek

sayan loves to play hide n seek these days-- or rather hide and pop out. he will go behind the curtains or in the closet and burrow back behind the clothes then pop out very satisfied with himself.

first beaters :)

Cutest snowsuit ever!!

morning crazy and quiet

More time with Nani

"out"

stories with mommy

lil' gardner

sayan's first sesame street

he loves it!! especially the songs, he dances along to them.

playtime with 'da'

sink tubby with mimi (finally downloaded the camera)

sayan watching sayan

Sink tubby with Nani

More water on pearl st

mini update

now that sayan is fully fully mobile he is happy as a clam, loving his independence. his favorite activities these days include:

"DA" who is now in his vocabulary and something of a celebrity these days. anytime sayan hears jai's voice he drops what he is doing and runs over to him or the phone saying "da! da! da!" it's so sweet.

"OUT" is also a new word and is used all the time to go outside. he will stand by the door and demand "out!" he also discovered how to open the screen door and let himself onto the porch without my knowledge one day. thank goodness the gates were up on the porch steps! sayan loves anything outside but especially rock collecting/ throwing and "gardening"-- watering, picking and smelling flowers.

BOOKS both by himself and with anyone he can get to read to him. he will spend forever flipping through the pages and studying a book or if with someone he likes to point to something and have us identify it or have us ask him "where is the..." and he shows us.

it's amazing how much he understands even if he can't always communicate back, though he is very good at that too. we are still loving every second of our time with him. it's so much fun!!!

nextdoor neighbors

while in jackson we got up close and personal with the local fauna. we came home one day to find a huge herd of elk-- at least 50-- in the "backyard" (my parent's house juts up against a wildlife preserve). there was a big buck with his harem and then two other adolescent bucks. unfortunately i couldn't find my camera for that but then a few hours later we came upstairs after program and there was this mommy moose with her two babies eating dinner in the neighbor's yard. so cool!

oxbow bend in jackson

Happy nook baby

Fun on pearl st

more basket

basket hat

backyard fun

RMNP

truck

Reading

Sayan loves to read his stories when he wakes up, it's a nice
transition from sleep to play :)

morning eyes

hose

kisses for axle

fun with uncle j and auntie lu

Book nook

Sayan loves to crawl into this little nook in the mornings and
recently he will take a book in to read.

drinking juice

woof woof and woodpecker

uncle jonny, auntie lu and cousin axle are visiting for a few days. yay! sayan is especially enamored with axle-- he follows him around and around and around and around and around the house :)

spoon

sayan is doing much better using a spoon-- though we really need to let him practice more than we do. it's just such a messy process!! but i guess we need to go through that to get to the other side.

happy nights

i don't want to jinx anything but our nights have been EXCELLENT recently. we night weaned sayan a couple of weeks ago but he would still wake up every couple of hours and we would rock him back to sleep. then the wakings got less and less frequent and for the last few nights he has SLEPT THRU THE NIGHT! he wakes up around 6a but it is light out then so we do milkies and he falls back to sleep for a half hour to an hour. happy happy mommy :)

"more" slide and other fun in the park

more food ... or just "more"

sayan is quite proficient with his "more" sign-- though we are thinking that a lot of the times that he signs for "more" or "milkies" its because he likes that he can sign and communicate rather than him actually wanting anything. time for "more" signs!

alligators and oatmeal

caboose

books and a walk with a cane

for uncle matthew :)

in the park

sayan has started waving and saying "hi" to most dogs we see. it's pretty cute.



snacks and sunscreen:



sayan was so funny, jai went to put the bikes together and sayan decided to stand and just call after him (to try to get him back?) this went on for a few minutes so i finally decided to get some video:






dogs and balloons-- pretty cool! (you can kind of hear him say "bbbnnn" in the videos)

bike adventure- BEAR!

we've been using a baby bike seat for sayan here in boulder which has been fine, he enjoys for the most part though he can't nap while we're out. while in aspen we decided to rent a chariot for him so we could take a longer ride and have him be more comfortable. he was so much more comfortable and we are official converts! it's apparently way way safer too.



















so we are riding along the trail, gabbing away, i'm looking back at jai and then i look forward and surprise!!! right in front of us on the trail, maybe 10 yards ahead is a huge black bear staring at us. we screech on the brakes and prepare to turn and ride back but the bear takes a long look at us then meanders across the trail and up the mountain. i creep back and wait to make sure there are no babies (no sense getting between mama and baby) then i bike quickly on ahead while jai plays national geographic. sadly sayan was sleeping during our encounter and missed the whole thing.













































we stopped to play in the beautiful river on our way back...

aspen!!

friday morning daddy woke up and decided we should go to aspen! so we grabbed a few (hundred) things and took off. we stopped for lunch in vail, had a picnic in a park there and got to snowmass (where we'd found a nice, inexpensive hotel-- love recession travel!) by late afternoon.

we had a wonderful weekend just the three of us. we realized this was the first time we had spent several days just the three of us all day together. it was soooooo great! we had lots of park time, lounging and watching dogs and meeting friends, and we strolled around and ate yummy food (at kid-friendly establishments, kind of a different reality but oh well) and took long bike rides. a pretty perfect weekend.

at pirate ship park in vail...















checking into the hotel... i put him on the cart and he flopped onto the pillows and snuggled in for the ride!
































breakfast on the hotel patio...



in the park-- mommy is not as good as daddy with the one handed camera shots!


































playing in the aspen fountain...



biking the beautiful trails...





























little family...

signing

well i guess sayan has decided to sign after all! we've been doing a few basic signs with him since he was 6 months old but he never really showed that he even knew what we were doing and i've gotten pretty lazy about doing them in the last couple of months thinking he was just going to pass on signing but then about a week ago, out of the blue, he pulled on my shirt (which usually means he wants to nurse) and then did the sign for "milkies"!! (what we call nursing) it was sooo astonishing! he has been signing for milkies now a few times a day and then a couple of days ago he did the sign for "more". so i am redoubling my signing efforts :)

evening story time

we've started feeding sayan oatios when he has his stories before bed. this fills him up so he sleeps longer and will hopefully also serve as a transition for weaning (though no plans to wean for several more months at least).

it's amazing how much he is learning these days. we have a big picture book-- each page has nine little squares of images and we always ask him if he can point out the dog, butterfly, apple etc. a couple of weeks ago he started consistently pointing to the dog and now he can identify most of the objects on the pages we do the most. jai just did it with him in the car yesterday and i was astounded at how much he knew!

here they are reading "hand hand fingers thumb" one of sayan's favorites.

sayan's house

sayan loves playing in his house that granma made. he'll go in and out and use the window like a drive thru for me to feed him. we also discovered yesterday that he knows who sophie is (his giraffe).

Rocky Mountain National Park

we went up to RMNP again today with gabe and geri who are visiting. we had such a fantastic time! we hiked up to emerald lake (via nymph and dream lakes) and right at the end as we sat down to eat we heard thunder rolling in and the first fat drops fell. jai went to find shelter for us behind a boulder and under a pine tree and just as we got situated it started hailing and then sleeting for about 10-15 minutes. it was such a cool experience!! then it abruptly stopped, the sun came out and we had bright blue skies for the rest of the day. love the summer rainstorms!


starting out...



at nymph lake...





























at dream lake...



















in the hailstorm...





















playtime in estes park...

fun in the sun

breakfast

at the park

we had such sweet family time at the park on sunday-- swings, dogs and water. sayan's three favorite things!! he also met a 12 month old little boy who was already walking around. they had fun trading spoons and other toys. definitely need to set up some playdates for him.

marathon man

so after a ten days without taking really even a step after his big break out last week, today sayan decided to try walking again. lots of long-distance walking all day!

snippets

puppets

auntie gen, uncle avery and lillybug gave sayan some very cool puppets for his birthday. here he is getting to know them-- he was a little shy at first but is gradually warming up to them :)

snack?

hat!

so it seems sayan's vocabulary now includes the word "hat". he also says "boom", "daw" (dog), "bbbnn" (balloon), "ba" (ball) and "hi".

Balloon Boy

lunchtime

piano and play

got back to boulder last night, fun reuniting with daddy and granma and granpa and nana :)

photo shoot