Habits

A few habits Sawyer used to have that I sadly realized have disappeared:

- Cuddling with me right before it's time to put him in the crib for bed. We've been lucky that bedtime hasn't been a horrible struggle like it sometimes can be for toddlers. We have had rough patches, but for the most part he just goes to sleep. However, Sawyer knows that I'll never turn away a cuddle, so he sometimes hangs on me and nuzzles up to me if he wants a few more minutes of freedom. Well, he used to do that.

- Stuffed animal roll call. When Sawyer's morning singing in his crib turns a little more toward snarling, I peel myself away from my morning email (not perezhilton.com) and go get our day started. He stands up in his crib and hands me his stuffed animals while telling me their names. He has about 15 small animals in his crib at any given time, but his inner circle, the chosen ones, get to come out and play. "Pooh..." Hands me Pooh. "Muuuunny..." Hands me bunny. "Dattay..." Hands me teddy bear. Some mornings, my arms are stuffed because he wants to bring everyone and I can't pick him up out of the crib. The animals still come out, but no roll call anymore.

- Hanging out in the closet. Pile up all toys you can find and then sit ON them in the closet. Sawyer has quite a nesting instinct. It's totally weird.

- Pretending everything bites. This started as a distraction I invented while changing his diaper. Above Sawyer's changing table is a wall hanging and we switch it out with others. Monkey, zebra, elephant... While Sawyer struggles and I try to get a diaper on him or wipe poop, I'd pretend to pet the monkey and then gasp, pulling my hand back horrified that monkey bit me! That would get his attention and we'd have a whole dialoge. "Monkey! No biting! Next time you get a time out. We have to be gentle." Then Sawyer started doing this. His gasps got bigger, and the bites were coming from even more unexpected biters, such as the maintence workers in the building, or a passing truck on the street. He'd hold his arm out and then jerk it back gasping and looking at me surprised. Another weird habit is gone but at least I no longer have to explain what he's doing.

- Stuttering when trying to say, "car." Sawyer used to get really excited about this cheap remote control car we have. He'd say what I thought was "a car" but it would sound like, "Akkaaakaakaaa aa aaa aaakkka." Pat thought I was crazy thinking that it was a stutter. At the 18 month appointment I mentioned it to the pediatrician. I imitated the sound he'd make. Sawyer then started doing it. We figured it would go away and it did. Plus, you usually can't just stutter on command like that if it's really a stutter, right?

- Saying hello in Thai. He's so over it. If a Thai is lucky enough to get a wai out of him, it's more like a hand-clap than the hands together and bowing head. If Sawyer is in the stroller and a Thai approaches (and I mean Thai, with white people it's different), he shakes his head and says "no." He only says thankyou in Thai to taxi drivers (or tries to say thank you).

These probably aren't very entertaining for you, but I felt the need to write these down before I forgot. Also, I could have written about the social unrest here, but it's a little better for the moment and I just don't want to write about it. Check out www.bangkokpost.com for more info on our issues. I'm so thankful Pat got back the day he did from a business trip and not a day later. We know so many people with spouses stuck on business trips or, worse yet, on vacation where there is no free place to stay! Airports are going to be up and running soon and will hopefully stay this way.

Oh yeah, a new habit that cracks me up. I like to call him Sawyer B. He's just started actually saying his name which sounds something like Sawa but lately he's been pointing to himself and saying, "I Sawa B." Since his mommy just might forget his name. It isn't even that clear, but I like that he added the B.