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

jackson fun

we have had the most wonderful time here in jackson, celebrated papa's birthday and enjoyed lots of playtime, hikes and good food with family and close friends. we'll be back soon!

Happy traveler

broccoli haiku

skipping stones

fam up top

from a week or so ago :)

walking!!!

sayan did his first real walking today! he hasn't been doing really any steps or anything this last week but this morning he stood for 30 seconds then took two steps to papa. then mimi came into the room and he walked 2 feet to her and then auntie c came in and he walked 4 feet to her!

i wasn't there to see any of this and they ran down to get me but by the time i got up there he was so excited he would try to run and collapse after just a few steps. i did get this little bit on camera and he walked 5-6 steps to me a few times.