Dear Sawyer,

Dear Sawyer-

To my beautiful boy on your 2nd birthday...has it really been two years since you were born and turned my life upside down. I thought I had a handle on it…life that is…until you showed up. But I had a thing or two to learn, and life has never been the same since.

Today I watched you maneuver your little airplane around in the air while making swishing sounds. I don't even know where you learned that. Two things occurred to me, the first being that you are most definitely a boy's boy, and the second that you are such a BIG boy. I can't believe how you have matured lately. You say thank you every time I give you anything, and you keep me giggling with all the cute things that come out of your mouth. The other day you brought me my hair dryer and said "off." I said yes it is off. You tried to turn it on and it wouldn't turn on so you said "batteries" and you dropped it to move on to something else. You are getting so smart. You can count to ten without any help, and any day you'll get all the way to twenty. You love to practice counting and your alphabets while we go on walks. We have to take frequent breaks from counting so that you can comment on the dogs or the birds or trucks. You can name ten different shapes. Mom didn't even know what a rhombus was.

Trucks and tractors are still some of your favorite things. You are especially fond of the garbage truck lately. Twice a week you recognize the sound of that truck as it turns on to our street and you run to the window yelling "darbash trut…wowee…onny…onny." Onny means I want to go for a ride. How cute is that! We will often go outside as the garbage truck passes and the garbage man keeps an eye out for you so he can waive at you. You think that is pretty cool.

Speaking of onny, you have this incredibly adorable habit of putting a "y" on the end of your words. I can't bring myself to correct you because it is so cute, and when you start saying everything correctly then it means you are growing up. My favorite was awhile back when you lived for Elmo. You called him "Omie." You would wake up every morning saying "Omie…beddy…Omie…beddy." We would snuggle in bed and watch Elmo to your heart's content, or until your belly started growling. Now you say Elmo, but you haven't let go of the beddy yet.

Here are a few of my favorite Sawyerisms:

bus= bussy

fridge= widgy

triangle= nangle

egg= eggy

octogon = on gone

ranch dressing or ketchup or syrup= dip it

I want that or I want to get on that= onny

love you= woo woo

garbage= darbash

lawn mower= mowlawn

fruit snacks= woot nack

guitar= tar tar

Grayson= ray-race

garage= drosh

You are a mover and a shaker, and with the strength of a little Hercules we can't take our eyes off of you for a second. I knew from the start that I was going to have my hands full. From the time you were born you could lift your head up and stand on your legs with a little help. Then at about 5 months I noticed that you started to lift your upper body with your arms. I told your dad that day that I better take the bassinet off of the playpen or you were going to get strong enough to pull yourself out. I didn't get to it that day, and sure enough the next morning we woke up to a loud plop. You pulled yourself out of the bassinet and landed on the ground. Unfortunately, this is one of many falls so far. There was the time six months ago when you mysteriously climbed out of your crib several times in a row. We were certain that you were not strong enough to pull yourself up. We put a hidden camera in your room to figure it out, and sure enough you hoisted yourself up and onto the ledge of the crib. Only this time you couldn't quite get to the right spot where you could land on the rocking chair, so while dad and I waited down the hall, we suddenly heard a loud thump and then screaming. OOPS! We now usually have the kitchen table chairs bungeed together or else you get on the table and walk to the edge with your toes hanging off and say "hi". The cupboards and drawers are all child proofed or you have proven that you will look for the sharpest item in the drawer and then come show me and start running away for me to chase you. The dvd case is taped shut so you don't break them in half like you did with that new piece of software I bought. Oh my goodness boy, you keep your mama running! But, maybe all this energy means you are meant for great things:)

With all this mischief and spunk comes the laughter. You have had us laughing since the day you were born. You have proven to be quite the little rock star lately, always playing your guitar and dancing like a maniac. You love talking to people at the grocery store, but you can be a little overbearing. You always start by saying hi to the passing stranger. They usually say hi back to you. You then proceed to say hi again. They will usually oblige a second time, but this is where it starts getting a little ugly because you want to keep the game going. You start saying hi louder and louder and they start walking faster down the aisle with a final hi. You smile and move on to the next victim. I try to get you to say hi just once, but you just can't help yourself. You LOVE a little attention:)

One of my favorite things in this world is watching your face light up when you hear the keys in the door that signals daddy is home. You always drop what you are doing and run to the door to tackle dad. You two roll around and giggle, and then dad usually chases you. Chase is one of your favorite things to do. This would be why you are always stealing brother's binki or bottle, or my cell phone, because it is so fun when I have to chase you around the house to get it back. You got daddy's body proportions where your legs are much shorter than your torso, so those little legs often have a hard time keeping up with your enthusiasm. For this reason, you are constantly bouncing off of walls or face planting on the ground. It never seems to phase you much. You usually get up and say "oh, facey" or "oh, chin" and rub it better and take off running again.

When we finish your story and tuck you in each night, you always make sure to get a kiss from mommy, daddy, and of course baby Ray-race. When we walk out of your room you yell "woo woo." We yell love you back. You insist on being the last one so we get to hear you yelling love you all the way downstairs until your voice fades and you zonk out. It doesn't get any better than that!

Who knew it would be this hard, but who knew it could be this great! I bet my mom did! Thanks for making me such a happy mommy little buddy:) Happy Birthday!!!