Savannah turns 20 Months!!!

It's official....Savannah is out of the teen months and is now the big 2-0, as in 20 months!!!  Just 4 short months until she turns 2---yikes!  I thought turning 1 was going to be the difficult one for me but this birthday has me just as anxious.  Oh well, I'll continue to cope with that over the next 4 months.  

My Sweet Savannah Grace at 20 Months

 She's really beginning to look and act like a big girl and not just because of the sudden growth spurt in hair; although, it definitely makes her look less like a baby (something I am less than thrilled about).  At 20 months Savannah's favorite things to do, see, say, eat, and play are as follows:
~She loves pretend play.  She is always carrying or pushing one or all of her baby dolls around the house.  She even has one that she bathes in the shower.  She also loves to pretend to cook.  Her favorite being hotdogs on the grill.  She also loves to dress up with her fancy jewels and lots of her hair bows (so happy she's becoming a girly-girl).

~She loves exploring and getting into any and everything.  Wether she's digging for treasure or going through cabinets, she always needs to know what is in, under, behind, and inside everything.  

~She loves creative arts: drawing, finger painting, coloring, play do, stamps, and stickers.  Since Uncle Michael has been away we now have a good reason to get messy more often.  I sure hope he appreciates all the pictures we mail him.

~No, she's not working on potty-training yet but she likes to "go potty".  At anytime throughout the day she'll want to just sit on the potty with her clothes on or off.  I'm hoping since she already has good feelings about the potty then maybe she'll be easily trained, but I may just have wishful thinking :)

~She has an obsession with shoes--my shoes, her shoes, Oscar's shoes, anyone's shoes.  And she's even able to put her shoes on by herself and sometimes they're even on the right feet.  

~She is now fully able to walk up and down our stairs alone.  She accomplished going up quite a while ago but going down has always been tricky because our stairs are so steep.  She now refuses to have any help going in either direction but we often try to discreetly spot her just in case.  

~I have noticed that her aggressive behaviors towards other children don't occur as often as they did a couple of months ago.  The ladies in the gym nursery say that she hasn't hit or pushed another child in quite a while.  

~She experienced her first ear infection (see prior post) and she handled it better than I ever did when I was little.  In fact, I never even knew she had it until the doctor examined her.  She gets more upset about her skinned up knee, which she got 2 days before she first complained about it.  Now whenever she looks at it, she grabs my hand and wants me to rub it until she forgets about it and moves on to something else.  

Notice the tiny skinned up knee. And yes, she's sitting in her baby's stroller.

~She is becoming quite the little monkey.  Savannah loves to repeat most everything I do.  After our morning shower when I brush my hair, she brushes her hair and then her baby's hair.  I put on lotion, so does Savannah and baby.  I brush my teeth, so does Savannah and baby, etc... Also, she loves to follow me around the house while I'm cleaning and her favorite thing right now is the vacuum.  I can't wait until she can really clean all by herself :)  

She may be copying the face I make while cleaning.

~Her favorite phrase for the month is "no, no, no!" while shaking her index finger at you.  If it wasn't so cute it would be very annoying.  Oscar and I have been wondering where she got that from until I noticed myself repeatedly saying "no, no, no" to her (always 3 times, never just once).  But we're still trying to figure out the finger thing.

And of course, there are always the not so pleasant things going on this month:

~She is becoming more and more difficult with diaper and clothing changing.  It's not uncommon for her to escape from me and run around her room bottomless.

~She's not the best dinner companion.  We have often been "those parents" with "that child" while eating out in restaurants.  I'm starting to think our dinners out as a family will become few and far between.  She's also not an adventurous eater.  Foods she once enjoyed, she rarely touches now and I often can't keep new foods on her plate for more than a second before she puts in back on my plate.  I always feared that I would have a picky eater (that must be Oscar's genes at work).  

when all else fails, the s&p shakers will amuse her for a short amount of time

~She really is becoming much too big for me to hold all the time which is causing way too many tantrums from her.  I had a 90 minute massage last week and the masseuse spent most of that time on just my lower back due to all the spasms it has been having lately.  Just so you know, she now weighs 26 lbs 12 oz.  I only gained 23 lbs while pregnant so I'm now amazed that I was even able to run with all that extra weight.  I get exhausted just walking up the stairs while holding her now.


And here are just a few random pictures from the past month that make me smile:

If you only knew how many of her dolls and animals she is sitting on inside her car--sooo funny!

say "cheese"

silly face

check out those tan lines

I sure do love my sassy, sweet, and spunky Savannah!!!  If only I could keep you this age forever.

Savannah's 1st Illness

Yes, she's had a few colds but nothing serious.  In fact, teething has been the worst thing she's had to go through until now.  We arrived home from our beach vacation on Monday and the next day Savannah started oozing yellowish-green gunk out of her eyes.  It continued to get more and more frequent as the day progressed but she never once complained.  I decided that night that I was taking her to the doctor in the morning for a possible eye infection.  On Wednesday morning, she woke up with her eyes stuck together because of all the icky dried gunk (excuse my technical terms).  So we went to the pediatrition which led to several meltdowns and finally a diagnosis of an ear infection.  I'm still a little confused on how an ear infection presents itself as an eye infection but the doctor says the eyes, nose, and ears are all connected so it's definitely possible.  Apparently she's had this infection for several days so it's amazing that she has never pulled on her ears and she hasn't had a fever or any other cold-like symptoms.  It's also amazing that she didn't freak out more on the flight home considering the altitude and the pressure on her ears.  She's now 2 days into her medicine and totally back to normal.  And even at the worst, she was still the cutest little patient ever :)

My sweet girl after visiting the doctor

Sea Island 2011

This year we spent the July 4th holiday in Sea Island, GA---my favorite place in the US.  It's been about 9 years since I last spent a summer there and even though physically it's a totally different place, it feels as if nothing has changed.  The resort got a complete makeover several years ago but they have done an amazing job of maintaining the old Spanish feel of the original buildings.  It seemed that a lot of the staff have stayed on board during all of the changes so there is a great sense of family throughout the place.  They really have the southern hospitality concept down to a science here.  That's probably one of the main reasons I love this place so much.  I look forward to spending many more summers visiting this tiny island.

We took quite a few pictures, like always, so I'll let them give you a rundown of our vacation.  Sorry there are so few pictures with Oscar but he loves to pretend to be the paparazzi.  

our amazing room with high lofted ceilings

exploring the resort after our rainy arrival

"I think I see fish down there!"

"Yep, there's definitely fish in this water."

the back side of the Cloister

meeting the locals

She loves this place already!

all dressed up for our first dinner at The Lodge (the main golf club)

room service breakfast on the balcony every morning.....so nice!

first day at the pool. All the kids love the spitting lion heads

Me and my little diva

walking through one of the many courtyards

We always have to stop and walk around the fountains.

Our daily stop to see the birds in the solarium.

out by the yacht club

Savannah always has business to conduct while on vacations.

I love this sketchy look she's giving Oscar, the paparazzi man.

She leads such a hard life!

The sprayground was a favorite spot for the kids, too. 

She's such a water girl.

And yet some things you can't get away from even while on vacation (notice the background). 

Savannah loves any and all slides.

family pic #1

just admiring the view

So happy she actually enjoyed the beach while on this trip.

I think she just liked being able to get wet with her dress on. 

"There's a phone in the bathroom! This is the coolest!" 

"Wait!! There's a tv in the bathroom, too!! Now this is the coolest!!"

Getting her hair ready for dinner.

She loves putting all the bows in her hair.

all dressed up for another dinner

family pic #2

running wild on the golf course

the backside of The Lodge

fun times on the playground

Seriously, one of my favorite swim suits ever!!!!

"No Mom, I got this! You stand on that one!"

other kids pool toys are always better than ours especially someone else's noodle

family pic #3 with Osc and Savannah looking very Americana for the 4th

she would love to hang out on the playground all day every day

front of the beach club

view of beach club from the playground

the front of The Cloister

one of the beautiful sunsets from our balcony

This was definitely my favorite family vacation yet and not just because I got two spa treatments (although it definitely helps).  In fact, I think Oscar's already planning for next years trip :)