My 2nd Mother's Day

Eighteen months ago my life was forever changed.  My sweet Savannah Grace came into this world and everyday since I have felt honored and blessed to be her mom.  As we celebrated my second Mother's Day today, I realized how quickly the past year has gone by.  It really seems like just yesterday we were having brunch at the country club and Savannah was a chunky, bald and happy 6 month old.  Today we had the same brunch but my happy baby is now a happy toddler sitting by herself, feeding herself, walking around, and "chatting" with us.  I never take for granted the precious gift that she is and I strive to be a better mom every day.  Thank you to my own mother for showing me what is means to be the greatest mom.

Savannah helping me open my gifts

Now she's modeling one of the gifts.

Thank you to my wonderful hubby and precious daughter for such a special Mother's Day Sunday.

A normal afternoon outside

Every day after nap time Savannah, Lilly, Max, and I go outside and play in the front yard.  You may think "why the front yard instead of the back especially when all the toys are in the back?".  Well, in the front yard we get to use sidewalk chalk and we get to look for our favorite new neighbor.  No, it's not another little kid.  It's our adopted bunny.  There is an open lot next to our house where we often spot a little brown bunny.  Savannah absolutely LOVES to watch the bunny.  It's impossible to run by, walk by, or drive by without having to do a thorough search of the area for our little friend.  It's the cutest thing to watch Savannah stand still for so long and make bunny sounds calling for the bunny.  We've also got horses at the end of the street that we walk to every day.  Some of them are so friendly that they actually come up to us and let us pet them.  So far Savannah isn't a big fan of them up close but she loves to look at them and wave to them from afar.  So much so that whenever we are coming into or out of the subdivision, we have to drive by and wave to the horseys.

Waving and talking to the horses until....

they get too close and then Savannah stops being friendly.

Working on her masterpiece

Ferocious guard dog #1 (aka Maxwell)

searching for the bunny

Can you spy the bunny?

How about now?

This one is more tricky especially for the visually impaired like myself.

ferocious guard dog #2 (aka Lilly Belle)

Waving bye-bye to the bunny

What a change a year makes.  Just over 12 months ago the only animals we saw outside were rats and killer squirrels.  We're definitely not in Brooklyn anymore :)

A funny thing happened.....

Yesterday during our morning run, Savannah found an old pacifier in the pocket of the jogger and decided to put it in her mouth and fall asleep.  The funny part of this is that Savannah has NEVER taken a paci even when I tried to force it on her when she was a newborn.  The poor baby never used anything to soothe herself except for me---that's probably why she nursed for so long and why it took her sooooooo long to finally sleep through the night.  She just never took an interest in pacifiers and thankfully she never became a thumb sucker either.
She looked so peaceful that I couldn't help but take her picture.  Of course she woke up as soon as the camera went off but for that brief moment she looked like my sweet innocent baby again :)

Savannah's 1st strawberry picking

It is so nice to finally live in an area where we don't have to drive for an hour+ to find fresh produce.  I guess we could go to the farmers market but I really enjoy visiting the actual farms and picking the fruit myself.  Now that Savannah is big enough to walk on her own we decided to visit a local strawberry farm and pick a few baskets.  The weather was perfect yesterday--bright sun shiny day but not too hot.  And the berries were gorgeous!  This was the first weekend for picking so we had plenty to choose from.  Savannah loved carrying the baskets and even picking the berries herself....until she realized that if she squished them, they would squirt all over her.  Thankfully by then we had pretty much filled up our 2 baskets.  We picked just over 7 pounds and it only cost us $11.  We'll definitely go back again if not again this season then next year for sure.

Me and my helper

She definitely got the hang of it pretty quickly 

"Hold up, Mom. I'm coming, too."

I love how she tries to put the bucket over her shoulder like a purse.

"So that's what happens when you squish it." 

"Yucky!"

Easter a little late

We didn't get home from our beach trip until Sunday afternoon so all of our Easter festivities occurred a little late.  The Easter Bunny stopped our house that morning so Savannah got to check out all her goodies before going down for a nap.  After she woke up from her nap, we went out to dinner then came home and dyed Easter eggs.  She loved dropping the eggs into the cups!  We managed to not break any of the eggs and to not spill any of the dye.  I would say that made it a very successful experience.

"You say the Bunny brought all this for me?!"

"Let me check out what else is in here."

"Woohoo! My own lawn mower and it even blows bubbles!"

"Let me help you out with that, Mom."

She wasn't a big fan of all the waiting involved for the eggs to change colors.

She's ready with her stirrer.

Say "cheese" for the camera.

We had to wait a few days before we could have our egg hunt due to the rainy weather.  Then once it finally cleared up, we had to wait for Dad to cut the lawn so we didn't have to hunt in a jungle.  Savannah absolutely LOVED finding the eggs.  I helped her find the first one so she could understand what we were doing, but after that she had no problem finding the rest.  She was so proud of all her eggs that she had to empty her basket to show them all to Lilly Belle.  

"I don't know where the eggs are." 

"Found one!!"

"I think I see another one over there."

"This is so much fun!"

"Let me show you what I found, Lilly Belle."

Amelia Island

Last weekend our little family took a much needed vacation down to Amelia Island, Florida.  It was so nice to get away and relax on the beach.  The resort was recently bought by Omni so you could tell they were working on updating and improving things.  Regardless of all that, the grounds are absolutely beautiful and I would definitely go back in a minute.  Savannah was still so little last year when we visited the ocean so it was so much fun to take her this year and watch her run around and get excited to go in the water.  She is definitely a water girl.  She LOVES being in the pool and she thought the beach was the coolest thing ever.  She would just stand there watching the waves come up over her feet and she kept waving to the ocean.  I think she got a little confused when we talked about the waves.  We would have loved to stay longer but all good things must come to an end.  If only vacations didn't end with a toddler and a stressful flight back home....ugh.
We took so many great pictures that it's hard to narrow it down to a select few but I've tried my best. Here is a quick run through our time there:

Vacations are GREAT!

the Spanish moss was everywhere---so pretty!

getting ready for our morning run. "These shoes okay, Mom?"

post run. even my trainer looks exhausted

can't start the day off without Fresh Beat Band

trying to walk in Mommy's flip flops

"Hey there ocean!"

"This is sooo much fun!"

"Hey Mom, you coming in?" 

the kiddie pool was great!

Savannah doing her "business" on the balcony

"I'd like to place an order for room service."

running to the ocean

Check out that bikini body. Just a few less rolls than last year--we've been working out.

"phew, a person could get dehydrated around here!"

running down the boardwalk

once again, waving to the ocean

Daddy and his girl 

I love my sweet girl!

"So long ocean! We'll see you next time."