First Real Haircut

As most of you will agree, Savannah's hair was long overdue a major trim up. So, I finally made an appointment for last Friday to get it cut. Then I started thinking that my mom's feelings might be hurt, so I called her to make sure it was okay. She said it was fine, but would really like to do it herself . . . well it worked out as she ended up having today off of work. I cancelled the appointment on Friday and she drove up from Burlington to do the haircut herself!

I was quite nervous as I really didn't even know what I wanted her to do, and I really didn't want to lose those curls in the back. However, mom had a plan and it turned out beautiful! Even with her hair cut short, it still curls in the back! Yeah! Savannah was quite wiggly, but her hair is adorable. I LOVE IT!!! We had a great morning with granny. I got to go to aerobics ALONE and Savannah had a blast being spoiled here at home. AAHH . . . if only we had family in town.

The finished product!

Commercial for Oxi Clean

Well, after a very restless night Savannah woke up this morning with quite a surprise for us . . . a bed full of thrown up blueberries. That's right, blueberries smashed in the sheets, rubbed in the bumper guards, smeared on the spindles and headboard, dabbed on every stuffed animal in the crib, and lets not forget the pajamas that were also stained a nice purpley color. All of Savannah's bedding is white so I just knew it would be permanently stained. It was such a big area that I couldn't even soak the stuff in the sink so I just filled up the washer, put all of the stained pieces in, threw in several scoops of Oxi Clean, and prayed for the best. After quite some time of collecting the pieces of food and cloroxing the bed I went to check on the load in the washer. To my surprise, a lot of the purple had come out, but there was still quite a big stain of blue on the bumper guard. So, I threw in a few more scoops of Oxi Clean and also used our favorite Stain Stick over the area and let it soak another hour or two. Finally after 3 hours of soaking I pulled it out and could barely find the place where the stain had been. Whew. There is still a small discoloration, but nothing like it was originally. This stuff works wonders!!!

I'm not sure what happened during the night and can only guess that maybe the blueberries that she ate were just bad because she only had them in her lunch yesterday at WEE school and none since then. Plus, everything else she ate stayed down. Very interesting. Anyway, she seems fine now and is driving us both crazy with hiding things, her new favorite activity. She hid her bib this morning and then, an hour later, is crying for "B". We search the house over and Dave finally finds it hidden in the oven of her play kitchen!!! She's going to make me crazy!

Productive Weekend

It is SO cold here in Charlotte!! Due to the freezing temperates we decided to stay in most of the weekend. Yesterday was a much needed day of getting things done around the house. We slept in and then got right to work. Dave played with Savannah while I kept busy cooking a few meals for the upcoming week, cleaning out the refrigerator, cleaning out a few drawers, doing some house cleaning, working on selling junk on eBay, giving Dave a haircut, and starting to gather our information for the accountant. Today we did make it out to church, but have stayed in most of the afternoon.

Savannah is quite fussy today as I think she's ready to get out of the house again, but it's just too cold to take her out. We finally resorted to letting her watch Sesame Street on the "T" AGAIN today. What a relief it was to have some time without a whiny baby! Tonight at dinner she started saying "happy, happy" to the tune of the R.E.M. song. . . that's right, her first song learned right off of Sesame Street. Very cute! She just sang away as she fed Elmo some cooking spray (see the picture). This should be a pretty slow week as I don't have any tutoring or mystery shops scheduled! I hope everyone is staying warm and enjoying time inside.

A Day of Play

Savannah has had a swell time so far today! One of my friends, Jill, volunteered her home to have a play date this morning. All the way there Savannah kept saying "Jack, Jack" and boy was I excited when Jack showed up! The kids all played hard and enjoyed a snack before heading home for nap time. Thanks Jill for organizing this today!!

When we got home I thought Savannah would go right down for a nap, but instead she decided that she wanted to help mommy with the laundry. She absolutely loves my laundry baskets and I just let her play in them whenever she wants. Today was no exception. As soon as I said let's do laundry, she headed straight for our closet and waited for me to get the basket out. Her favorite task is to unload the dirty clothes and then climb in the basket. She was too cute today. After climbing in she managed to get her doll, play bottle, bib, sippy cup, and purse in there with her and then managed to keep busy for over 10 minutes!!! This is a record for her staying with one task . . . long enough for me to fold and put away an entire load of laundry and get the camera for a picture.

Loving a Good Bargin

After reading my friend Donna's blog yesterday I was just itching to get to Old Navy to find some good deals. I went to one store last night and took Dave to a different Old Navy this morning and here's what we ended up with: Savannah got 8 pairs of PJs, a winter coat, 4 shirts, a pair of pants and shoes (all for next year), Dave got a pair of jeans and 4 shirts, and I ended up with a pair of sweat pants and jeans and 3 shirts all for . . . $90.14!!!!!!!! That's right at $3.60 an item, including tax!! YIPPEE!! Savannah was so tired on the way home she kept saying "home", another new word for her.

Workouts with Daddy

Due to our overflow of toys, we recently converted our bonus room into a half playroom and half workout room. I never imagined how perfect this arrangement could be until Dave started a routine of taking Savannah to work out with him. Several times a week while Dave is doing his workout, he takes Savannah up with him and she has some quality daddy time. The results are quite funny as she is into mimicking everything we do . . . lately I've caught her doing little push ups (really head bobbing), lifting her own weights that daddy bought for her, and also trying to use daddy's weight bench.

This is time that I cherish ~ not just because I get a break long enough to squeeze in an hour of tutoring, clean up the dinner dishes, or catch up on e-mail, but mainly because Savannah is having some fun, quality time with her daddy. It wasn't until tonight that I thought of an even more significant benefit, the fact that Savannah is learning how important it is to exercise and keep her body in shape.

Missing Lovey

We decided to let Savannah stay up a little later tonight because she wasn't fussy and seemed to be enjoying the Clemson basketball game with her daddy. However, by 8:20 I decided that she had to go to bed. I took her upstairs and brushed her teeth, put on the teething gel, and started reading her newest favorite Sesame Street book. As we were nearing the end of the book, I yelled down for Dave to bring up her bib - the bib that is the calm in the midst of a storm, the bib that she has never slept without, the bib that we would go back in for if our house was burning down. After a few minutes he came up with a worried look and said he couldn't find the bib. Long story short, we lost it. Somewhere between Harris Teeter and Wal-Mart at the Arboretum we had lost Savannah's lovey bib!!! So, after digging the only other one out of the dirty laundry (I can't even describe the smell it had), I headed out to the Arboretum with my flashlight in hand to search for the bib.

I prayed the entire way there that God would help me find the bib and tried to have faith that it would turn up. So, I got to the Arboretum, searched up and down the parking lot in my car and didn't see a thing. I tried to remember where we had parked, the last time we had seen the bib, etc. but it just wasn't helping. By this point I was almost in tears and decided to call my precious friend Beth who I used to teach with. She would sometimes lose her keys at school and would always come to my room so we could pray that she would find her keys, and they always turned up!! After getting her on the phone I quickly explained the situation and she having a grandson only a month older than Savannah knew how urgent this was. She began to pray with me on the phone and as soon as she started her third sentence, I found the bib!!! I was crying so hard that I told her I'd call her later this week to catch up.

Thank you Lord for being faithful in even the smallest details of our life. Lord, I thank you for Beth and I thank You for an answered prayer tonight.

"More Juice"

Today Savannah has continued with increasing her vocabulary and has just started putting two words together. "No mommy" was her first phrase and "More juice" was her second. She calls water "juice" because that's what I call it and she doesn't know any different. So, today when she figured out that "juice" comes out from the front of the fridge and she doesn't have to wait for mommy to get it, she took full advantage of helping herself to some "more juice" with her own big girl cup. It was a quick process with her first discovering that water comes out when you press the lever on the refrigerator, then getting a cup, trying it out for herself, and finally drinking it (or rather dumping the water all over the floor). I never thought I'd be able to handle the mess, but it was too cute to stop. She kept doing it over and over and couldn't figure out why the "juice" would dump out of the cup when she turned it upside down since her normal cups don't do that. On the last try, she even got the towel, stood on it, and mopped up her own mess. Amazing how quickly they can imitate exactly what we do!!

Fun with Pawpaw!!

Earlier this week Deborah e-mailed to say that she, Pawpaw, and Great Grandmaw were coming for a visit today. So, for several days Savannah has stood at the front door saying "pawpaw" over and over. Yesterday we even had some friends visit us from Raleigh and Savannah looked at the guy and kept calling him Pawpaw . . . wishful thinking, but I kept reminding her that Pawpaw would soon be here. They arrived this morning and we all had lots of fun just watching and playing with Savannah. There was even some time to play outside!! Here are some pictures from our day with Pawpaw, Deborah, and Grandmaw.

She was completely exhausted this afternoon and slept for just over 3 hours!! During this time I got the house back in order, tutored for an hour, and worked on some baby shower invitations. I have to vent about our "new and improved" computer. I HATE IT!!! I have done several sets of invitations and have never had any trouble until today when this stupid computer would not cooperate. I was about to throw it out the window when Dave came in and took over to try to help. So much for improved . . . I miss our old hunk of junk.

Anyway, Savannah started saying a few new words today including what I make out to be blueberries, paper, hey, and outside. It's so much fun watching her develop each and every day. We are also dealing with teething again as her last four teeth have started coming through. It made for a long night last night, but now that I'm aware of the problem she'll have a dose of Motrin and hurricane gel tonight before bedtime!!

We're All Healthy

What a feeling to finally have a family that is all well!! Thankfully Savannah is still healthy and doing better all around. Yesterday was such a wonderful day. I just know that people were lifting us up in prayer because I felt it . . . so thank you all a ton! This is Dave's busy time of the month and I have 100% of the responsibility of taking care of Savannah and keeping her entertained. It's a little harder when the weather is so cold and windy, but yesterday just seemed easy for some reason. WOW! It was the first day since Savannah started talking that she didn't ask (or scream) to have the "T" turned on. Finally last night as we were winding down I asked her if she wanted to watch the T and she started dancing in the floor saying T, T, T and pointing to the television. Too cute. I never thought that the day would come where I could keep her busy and the TV wouldn't be a battle throughout the day, but it did!!