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."

Finally....Dream Come True!

For 17 months and 9 days I have been dreaming of the day when Savannah would actually want to go to bed at night.  That dream finally came true last night!  After reading a couple of books, I turned off the lamp and tried to lay Savannah in my lap to rock her for our usual nightly rocking session.  She squirmed around and couldn't seem to get comfortable so then she sat up and started babbling to me and pointed to her bed.  I asked her if she wanted to get in her bed and then she started jumping in my lap.  So I laid her in bed, said good night, and she waved bye-bye to me.  All at once I felt anxious, excited, relieved, and sad.  Anxious because I thought any minute she would start screaming for me to come get her and rock her to sleep.  Excited because I was going to have her in bed in time for me to watch all of Desperate Housewives.  Relieved that she finally went down easily.  And then sad because my baby girl really isn't a baby anymore.  Is there ever a time when these little triumphs don't bring a tear?

My sweet girl getting bigger and bigger every day!

Savannah is 17 Months!

This is been one of the most interesting/challenging months that my sweet Savannah has given me.  I recently read that the Terrible 2s actually starts around the 15th month and can last until almost the 4th year---ugh, this is probably information that I could have lived without knowing.  This past month we experienced our fair share of temper tantrums, outbursts, and aggressive acts.  I realize she is simply "declaring her independence", so say the "experts", but she's also driving me bonkers!  The funny part of this whole situation is that immediately after Savannah has a fit, she gets this funny look on her face and you often can't help but laugh out loud.  Fortunately instead of her getting more mad because we're laughing at her, she usually starts cracking up, too.  I'm not sure how I'm ever going to discipline this girl!

My Sweet Savannah Grace at 17 Months

Now on to the brighter side of the past month.....
~Savannah is able to identify most common and some not so common animals and their corresponding sounds.
~She is finally talking by using some real words (please, ball, more, yes, no, up, step, shoes, socks, Beat (aka Fresh Beat), grapes, shhhhhh (aka be quiet), eyes, nose, teeth, juice, cheese)
~She has a funny gesture that she does every time she says "please".  The story behind it comes from Oscar always begging her to give him a kiss.  He always points to his cheek and says "pleeeeeease" so now whenever Savannah says "please", she always points to her cheek.  And she's definitely not asking for a kiss.
~She has become much more agreeable about having her picture taken and she now will even say "cheese".
~She LOVES going to the Stay-and-Play at my gym.  A couple of weeks ago she was the first child to be left in there one morning and she proudly walked in, sat at the table with the 2 helpers, and pulled out her snack and milk.  I gave her a kiss and told her to be good and she turned towards me, said "okay", and waved bye-bye.  Too funny!  Now she blows me kisses whenever I leave her.  She's getting to be such a big girl much too fast.
~She has 2 incisor teeth currently popping in.  These have been giving her more trouble than any of the other teeth including the molars.
~She got her first black eye and busted lip all in the same weekend.  We obviously had a little too much rough housing on the play set those first few days.  She has since learned to watch where she's running.
~I have come to the conclusion that the skin issue she has been battling off and on is due to a food allergy.  I think Savannah is allergic to strawberries.  Not a severe allergy but one that causes her to break out in a rash if she eats them too much.  Strawberry yogurt and jelly don't seem to cause a reaction but eating too many plain strawberries make the hives appear.  As soon as I cut them out of her diet, she cleared up totally.
~One of our new bath time rituals involves spraying hair detangler on her hair and brushing it in.  She absolutely loves it!  I guess that's a good thing because once the top of head becomes as frizzy as the back, we're going to be going through a lot of  detangler.
~She has learned how to blow bubbles with a bubble wand and it's now our favorite thing to do outside.
~We finally broke down and bought Savannah her toddler bed.  I was hoping we could skip over it but after her incident of climbing out of her crib a couple of months ago, I decided it was better to be safe than sorry.  She's not sleeping overnight in it but she does occasionally take naps in it.  I figured I would slowly let her get used to it before it becomes permanent.

checking out her big girl bed

Here are a few more pictures from the past month:

"What do you mean they don't have Fresh Beat on this tv?!?"

Check out that morning hair!!

"Look at my nice art work."

playing peek-a-boo

Say "cheese!"

My little sous chef assisting with dessert. 

assisting aka eating

She has an obsession with large bags/purses. They are usually bigger than she is.

Riding around town.

Here's hoping for a short case of the Terrible 2s but if not, I still wouldn't trade her for anything in the world.  Until next month.....