Walk This Way!

My sweet girl has finally picked back up on the walking and is just walking walking walking everywhere! She has been home from daycare since last Tuesday with all the sickness and so she's been home, inside, and barefoot a lot which I think has helped her. She has the Frankenstein walk down with her arms out front.  I'm so proud of her, but sad  that it makes her seem like a little girl instead of a baby. :(

Bedtime Friends

Since our weekend was anything but note-worthy, I'm skipping a recap and jumping right into our short (!!) week! We've been through so many ways trying to get Savannah to sleep since she's been here.  Background: when she was first here, she would sleep through feedings if I didn't wake her up.  Then she had the UTI which led us to find the Hydronephrosis, which led her straight into colic (really I am sure they are unrelated to the colic but it all blended together in my opinion) and she started to HATE sleeping and would only do so if we would face her outward and bounce her on a yoga exercise ball for hours and finally be able to transfer her to her swing.  Then for a while we had to sleep in her room with her so she could hear us and I guess didn't feel lonely.  Then she slept in her carseat in our room for about 2 months.  Then we had to push the stroller around the house with her in it for about a month before transfering her to the crib.  [All of the previous had to happen while we sang our favorite song, Wheels On The Bus. See post here.]The most recent thing is us driving her around our 10 minute "loop" as we call it to get her to sleep in the carseat then carrying her to her crib.  Well the past three nights that has not worked and we have tried something new! Since Birc and I were suffering severly from the stomach virus we knew we might not physically be able to get to her in the night as quickly as normal, since she wakes up still at night, and we did not want her to feel abandoned or lonely. (If you know me, you know where she gets this "lonely" feeling from) I decided to put some of her stuffed friends in her crib with her for when she woke up.  Well it has been a total hit! She loves them being in there and she cuddles with different ones all night! It is really helping her go back to sleep on her own without one of us going in there to soothe her back to sleep.  She has always slept with Flopsy, but apparently the more the merrier!

 The way we get her to sleep is, after she nurses, I put her in the crib and then Birc sits in there and says "shh" for a few minutes and she goes right to sleep with basically no crying at all! In the past if we would put her in the crib while she was still awake (and we either left the room or stayed in there) she SCREAMED at the top of her lungs until we would take her out.  I am so happy with this progression! It has been a slow process getting this girl to sleep and we are not through the woods yet but this is such an improvement. 

[Obviously these aren't from bedtime but after her bath I popped her in to snap some pics!]

 

Throwback Thursday: What I Miss

Since we're all recovering from the effects of Miss Savannah catching her first stomach virus from daycare, I thought it was best to do a throwback pic post as no one wants to see a picture of what's been happening in our house! Hah!

This throwback Thursday is a little sentimental so if you're feeling teary (Mama) then you shouldn't read! These are all pictures of things I miss right now.  I was looking through old pictures to find one to post, and these all just jumped in here.  I guess I was missing these people/pets/things!

Belle :) My parents cat who was really my cat too.  Sweet girl ran up the tree to see what she could see.

And posing on the bridge.  We all miss Belle :(

My Bravada! It was my first car and I just absolutely loved it! I am so happy my parents decided I could handle an SUV when I turned 16 :)

 

Grandmother.  I miss Grandmother just about every day. She was my special person and I think I was hers too.  There is so much I would tell her if she was here.  I wish she could have known Birc-she would have been so impressed with his personality and brain and great looks and wonderful family. She got to meet him, but she wasn't really aware anymore.  I know she would just LOVE Savannah and spoil her more than she spoiled me (if that's possible).

 

Here we are at Disneyworld! Waiting on a ride :)

Cheerleading! I miss cheerleading and doing stunts and feeling fit and limber and in shape :)

 

 Now that I'm all teary too, I'll stop! See you guys later!

 

Picture time with CC

CC came to hang out with Savannah last Friday and here are some precious pictures!

sleepy girl at breakfast, Flopsy still in hand. :)

Her chewing kissy face! :)

talking to the birds and chipmunks :)

Yay for outside play with CC!

I love these acorns CC. I won't eat them I promise.  Mama already told me how bad they tasted.

First Taco

I mean, I might as well document this since I know when it was, right? We went to Moe's for some tacos and burritos and got Savannah a little vegetarian taco with rice, black beans, and cheese and the flour tortilla.  She loved it needless to say!

(yes we sanitized the table and high chair before she got in.  Antibacterial wet wipes are my best friend right now)

Snapshot of Savannah Cate at 11 months!

I'm really behind on the blog but want to get Savannah's 11 month post up before she's one! She is just busy busy busy these days and we are having so much fun with her these days!

I'm frankly thankful we only have one more month to do these photo sessions because they are a challenge! She is just so busy and on the move that it seems impossible to catch her not moving and smiling and looking at the camera all at one time!

Savannah has not grown very much at all in the past month.  She's still fitting in all the same clothes, 6-12 month, 9 month, and some 12 month things.  She is gonna be a little girl :) She's wearing size 3 diapers still.  She has 3 bottles a day that are 6 ounces each and is still on only breastmilk.  She always nurses when we are together but takes a bottle at daycare.  She is eating a ton right now and has a newfound love for BANANAS. We have to hide them from her to get her to eat anything else! She knows where the fruit basket is and will go stand in front of the cabinet below the fruit basket and bang on the door and scream B...nana!!  She hasn't quite gotten "Banana" all together but says the B and then Nana.  :) she loves mangoes, apples, pears, all her fruit pouches, multi-grain cheerios, strawberries, blueberries, sweet potatoes, bread, puffs, Mum-Mums, and everything we are eating.  She also starting eating turkey and cheese for lunch this month.  I almost got sad packing her lunch the first day she ate it because I felt like I was packing her a sandwich! I swear she is too young to eat a sandwich! :)

 

Savannah Cate is still NOT sleeping through the night but all I can say is "oh well". Big deal.  Sleep is overrated.  :)  She wakes up anywhere from 1 to 5 times every night.  And every night varies and we can never predict how the nights will go.  I will say that accepting the fact that we have a child who is a bad sleeper makes the night a lot easier.  When I go to bed, I know I will be woken up by her crying.  I don't have to hope and pray and worry that "maybe this will be the night she decides to sleep through the night".  That doesn't happen and I have accepted it :)  One day she will sleep and I will be happy when that day comes but it is ok that she doesn't.

Sweet girl finally got two teeth! She has her bottom two teeth that came in at the exact same time and it was terrible for all of us! She woke up like 6 times the night before they showed through the gums and she was pretty fussy for two days after.  But now she loves to use them to mash up her cheerios and food.  When she does that she makes this kissy face with her lips as she mashes up the food.  :)

 

Savannah starting walking this month and it was on my birthday! She takes a few steps here and there but I wouldn't call her a "walker" yet because she still prefers to crawl as she is faster at that.  We work on it every day though and I know any day she'll just take off.  She stands forever and has great balance, so I think it is just a fear thing that she'll get over any day now.  We walk all around the house with her holding one finger. She's also babbling constantly.  She can say mama, dada, bye bye, ba (for 'boys', what I call the kitties), bow, hi, hey, woo (woo pig sooie! she puts her arms up and everything!), da (what she says when she points to stuff a lot), nana, banana (sort of), anna (similar to nana :)), and probably other stuff I can't think of.

Sweet baby is still a mama's girl but isn't clinging to me as much as she used to.  I can actually pass her around for a second but not too long.  She is understanding so much more these days too. I can ask her a question and she can respond.  She is also a little parrot and loves to repeat sounds Birc and I make.  She can tell me where her belly is too! We are starting to work on identifying her nose and belly and head and she knows her belly! It is so cute, she pats her belly with both hands when I say "Where is your belly?" and she gets so proud of herself!

 

It is hard to believe I am planning her first birthday party! It seems like Savannah has been with us forever, but it seems just yesterday was her birthday all at the same time. 

We love you so much baby girl and I am so happy to have you in our family! You are such a special gift to us. :)

 

Our Weekend

We had a great weekend and it was spent putting in an awesome swing set for Savannah in our backyard! We had Anna and Aaron and my parents over for the morning day and had lots of yummy food, visiting, and the guys had a good time (I think, anyway!) working in the backyard.  The finished product is just wonderful and Savannah loves it! The box said to allot 1 to 2 hours for the project.  I figured if we doubled that we'd be good.  Well. Multiply it times 5.  It took about 10ish hours to complete! The swing set is really for her birthday but we wanted to get it built and in the ground now before it turns really cold and the ground gets frozen.  I am so proud of Birc for building the whole thing with my dad and Aaron! Our friends Ben and Nicole and baby Caroline also came over for a while to lend a helping hand and visit! As for the rest of our weekend, we had lots of church activities going on on Sunday and spent a lot of time with Nana and Gran catching up with them as well. The bonus was we went on a little afternoon date to the movies! We love our weekends. :)

I think it's safe to say she loves it.

 

Anna prepped the whole area and got everything ready for the boys!

YAY!
 

Somehow CC got away without getting her picture taken! Boo!  Anyway, it was an exciting project and something I've been so excited about for weeks now.  Very thankful to my family for helping! Love you guys!