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!!