Savannah Lately

I know my mother will look at this post and say "What about Selby?!" She is adorable and worthy of a page full of photos.  But, first Savannah. These are all photos of Savannah from a particularly photo-worthy day. Monday August 4th. Trust me, Selby is totally delicious and adorable and I'll be posting plenty of photos of her in the very near future. Savannah definitely has a shoe fetish. She gets that from my sister.

Wings Over the Rockies

Savannah is freaking hilarious these days. The things that come out of her mouth have us all cracking up. For starters, she's very into talking about her boyfriend Audrich. He plays soccer. She calls him on the phone. He's often at the zoo. Audrich, on the other hand, doesn't find it that funny. But he's 8. He'll be more excited about her devotion in a few years. Several years. Also, a few of her Savannahisms:

Jamamas: for pajamas
Sananah: for Savannah
Jelell: for Joelle
Milk is still nuk. Blankets are still mimis and chapstick/lipstick is caucis. She loves to put on creams and lotions and, especially, lipstick (i.e. caucis). And she LOVES shoes, especially my high heels.

Here's a few photos from our trip to Wings Over the Rockies today with our neighbors. The girls had a great time and didn't want to leave.

Pool Time

Summer is here and it is hot! Selby has declared that she wants to swim as much as possible, which makes me happy. THe more confident of a swimmer she is the more I can enjoy my time by water. The first time I took Selby and Savannah to Skyline on my own was quite stressful. Savannah was pretty squirmy, confident that she didn't need me to hang on to her in the pool. I swore I wouldn't return to a body of water with her without a floaty that I could stick her in. I ran to Target the next day to get the perfect flotation device for the slippery little thing, complete with shade. I thought I had figured out the solution to a relaxing afternoon at the pool with both girls, one daughter who could swim on her own and one who just thought she could.

When we next visited Skyline, I happily plunked Savannah in her new floaty and jumped with her and Selby. She was happy as a crab -- for a about 60 seconds. Then she tried to climb out. So now I was back to holding her again. We quickly moved to the baby pool. We tried another floating donated by my mother in law. She was happy in that one for a about 15 minutes. It's going to be a long summer. Tom and I are on the market for a flotation device that has a 5-point harness. But, both girls do look absolutely adorable in their new bathing suits that Grandma bought.

Camping

I'm not sure why we signed up for a camping trip with our 16 month old but Tom said something to the effect of "We'll never have a chance to camp when they're this age again..." I should've said, "That's a good thing!" But in the end, it was a pretty fun, if sleepless trip. Savannah tricked us and fell right asleep in her pack n play, only to wake up a few hours later and then not sleep for the next four. Selby was a champ and had a great time. After dosing Savannah with a little Benedryl the next night, and dosing us with a little scotch and red wine, everyone slept much better. Or at least as best as you could hope for while camping, which is not saying much. Our veteran camper friends thought it was no big deal, but our more "normal" friends, and family, were quite impressed (or thought we were crazy. Probably a little of both). I'm ready to do it again ... next year.

Savannah, Selby and Summer!

Too many fun and funny things to write about re: my two amazing (and very different) daughters. First, Selby finished first grade! I was definitely more emotional about this graduation than I was about kindergarten for some reason. I think that just knowing she's going into 2nd grade sounds so old and it's really hitting me how fast it's all going. She's reading and writing and telling time and adding and subtracting. She's still not riding a bike yet but we hope to remedy that this summer. She told me several times that she's very sad that school is over, but that she's not nervous (at all) for second grade like she was for first.

She's still in that huggy, "i love you" affectionate stage that I love and dread when it will eventually end.

And Savannah is just hysterical. First up, she goes CRAZY when she sees a dog. She just yells and points "DOG!" Same goes for "DUCK!" She basically calls all furry animals, like cats, cows, and sheep dogs and all fowl, ducks. And everything goes "Mooooooooo!" We have tried to correct her, even though it's extremely entertaining for all of us. "Savannah, how does a cat go?" "Moooooooooo!" "Savannah, how does a car go?" "Moooooooo!" Although she now does admit that a duck goes "Ack, ack, ack!"

She is babbling and pronouncing some words, constantly. She knows "more", "ball" and "baby" and the aforementioned duck and dog, in addition to the standard mama, dada and belby (selby). She's getting lots of teeth and a few curls.

We took our first major trip in April to the Sand Dunes and we all survived. Then we hit Crested Butte in May. Both over five hours in the car. It was challenging at times but nothing that would prevent us from going on other excursions. Next up: camping. I'll let you know how that goes. I have medium hopes.

Savannah is a Smarty

I know this sounds trivial but, as a mom, I thought it was borderline genius. Selby, Savannah and I were sitting down to breakfast. I served Selby mini-waffles with syrup and a sliced banana and a blueberry on top of each waffle. I gave Savannah two mini-waffles with a handful of blueberries (I try to give her a little of what Selby's having as much as possible). She started nibble on the waffles immediately and pushing the blueberries around her placement. Then she looked over at Selby's meal and realized she was missing something. She started pointing at Selby and looking at me, and said, "Belby (her name for Selby) nana." So I sliced her a few bananas and she shoved them in her face immediately. She had a huge smile on her face, obviously satisfied that she was successfully able to communicate to me what she wanted. Was it rocket science? Maybe not. But Selby and I bragged about Savannah all day.

Staycation

We just finished Selby's spring break and for the first time in a long time we did a staycation. I have to say, I was SO happy not to be getting on a plane with Savannah and Selby (well, mostly Savannah).  It was really fun to hang locally. And Selby LOVED it, but then again she's happy doing pretty much anything. "Mommy, I'm having too much fun!" was a common refrain this week. Playdates and movies and more playdates and rice crispie treats and lazy relaxed mornings. We did take a two day trip to the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs but other than that we just stayed put. The Broadmoor, btw, was pretty spectacular. We watched the movie "Parental Guidance" while Savannah slept soundly in the closet. I don't want to ruin the movie for you in case you plan to watch it, but there was a certain song that Selby and I have been singing pretty frequently every since I looked up the words on the Internet. It starts like this: "Come out, come out Mr. Doody!" I think that's pretty much all you need to know.

Tom took off for a boys backpack adventure in southern Utah so it was just me and the girls for the last four days. I'm always anxious when I know he's going to be away for a few days but everything turned out pretty great. Savannah was giggly and good natured, even as we explored some Boulder playgrounds on only a 30 minute nap. Selby was her usual easy going happy self. Even though I'm happy that Tom is coming home tonight, I'm a little sad that our girl time is coming to an end. Just a little. I know everyone does it -- raises two kids -- but I'm always so happy when things are relatively easy with them. And it's just going to get easier, right? (Please say yes).

Here's Selby and Savannah brushing their teeth this morning. Selby counted 29 teeth in her mouth yesterday. Savannah has 8.