Other than Savannah turning one and having a birthday party, here’s what we’ve been up to since mid-April:
Savannah enjoys being outside just like Brooklyn. She likes to swing and always wants to get down and play in the grass. She will crawl across the yard if I let her! :)
Brooklyn loves to have “picnics” for lunch (a.ka. eat outside on the patio). I think Savannah enjoys it too! We’ve had some nice weather this spring so far!
I looked down one day (several weeks ago), and Savannah had “borrowed” Brooklyn’s apple and was eating it…right off the core! What a big girl!
One weeknight back in April (I think it was a Tuesday night), Carter came over to play and eat supper with us. Travis was cutting the grass that night, so I had all 3 kids by myself. It went great, and they had fun!
When it was time for supper, I let Carter sit in Brooklyn’s chair, and she sat at her kitchen. The biggest eaters went in reverse order of age: Savannah ate the most, followed by Carter, and then Brooklyn ate like a bird. She was too excited with her newfound freedom to get up from the table!
She kept walking back and forth from Carter to Savannah, asking: “How is it, Carter boo?” and “How is it, Savannah boo?” A little mommy in the making!
Carter and Brooklyn like to ride on the tire swing together and spin in a circle!
We played outside most of the evening…
…but came inside for a few minutes when it started to get dark. Then it was time for Carter to go home! We’ll have to do that again soon! :)
It’s a pretty regular occurrence in our house to not be able to walk through the kitchen. Why is that the most fun place the play?? ;)
It’s also fun to point out all the dead worms on the patio! :)
It hasn’t really been warm enough to swim much this spring, but it’s safe to say that Savannah will be ready to “dive in” this summer! Haha!
On Friday, April 22nd, we took a short trip to Bowling Green, KY, to see Daniel Tiger LIVE! The tickets were Brooklyn’s birthday present from us. She wasn’t excited about those slips of paper when she opened her card a few months ago, but she was definitely excited the day of when it was time to go!
Travis worked half a day, and then we left after lunch to head to Bowling Green. It’s about a 2 hour and 45 minute drive, so it’s really not too far. The girls took naps on the way there!
We got slowed down by traffic in Nashville, but we still got to Bowling Green in enough time to burn off some energy at the park for a few minutes. This playground was at Basil Griffin Park, and it was right near the water. It was a small playground, but Brooklyn enjoyed running around for a few minutes.
Wheeeee!
Savannah enjoyed stretching her legs too!
After leaving the playground, we headed to Smokey Pig BBQ for supper. It was really good!
Then, it was time to head to the show! It was at the SKyPAC. We got there with a few minutes to spare and found our seats!
Brooklyn was being a silly goose while waiting for the show to start…
Love her!
My sweet big girl!
My other sweet girl was getting sleepy by the time the show got started…
This was the view from our seats! It was perfect! I didn’t take any pictures during the show (trying to follow the rules…haha), but Brooklyn really enjoyed it! She paid attention the whole time and loved seeing the characters in person from her favorite TV show!
After the show…posing with Trolley!
We never could get Brooklyn to look at the camera…I think she was too distracted by all the other people :)
Overall, the trip went great! Savannah and Brooklyn both did great in the car both ways! Savannah didn’t care too much about the actual show, although she did pipe up and say “cat!” one time when she saw Katarina Kittycat on stage…haha. Savannah fell asleep immediately in the car when we left and slept the whole way home. Brooklyn stayed awake for about the first hour and then slept the rest of the way. We made a pit stop at Sonic after the girls were asleep (sneaky parents!), and we finally got home around 11:30 PM. It was a long but fun day!!
Korah’s birthday party was the next day, so we went to it that afternoon. I’d already had a retirement breakfast that morning for a co-worker from the hospital, and the Dvorak family birthday party was that evening. It was another full day!
Hard to believe these girls are getting so big!
Korah got a pink cozy coupe for her birthday, and Brooklyn was obsessed with it! She tried to ride in it even though she was obviously too big. Savannah even took a turn! It was a fun party and perfect weather too!
The party was during the girls’ usual afternoon naptime, so Brooklyn fell asleep in the car on the way home. She must have been tired to sleep with her legs up in the air like that!
Brooklyn has been working really hard over the last month or so to stop sucking her thumb. I made her a sticker chart (since that seemed to help with potty training), and I also took her to Target to pick out ANY TOY SHE WANTED to use as incentive. She picked out a Mickey Mouse tool set with about 20 different “tools” in it…haha. This was her chart for the first week after we started the process!
I was amazed at how quickly and easily Brooklyn stopped sucking her thumb while she was awake. Before we started the chart, she would suck her thumb while watching TV, reading books, riding in the car, and pretty much any time she was sitting still and not moving. But, after we started the chart, we hardly had to get on to her for sucking her thumb while awake! It was like she just set her mind to it and dropped it. It was the first time that I’ve seen her “stubbornness” actually be used for a good thing ;) As a reward for her effort, she got a new Buzz toy (as sort of a halfway prize, since she was still sucking her thumb when she was sleeping).
We are still working on “no thumb” during naps and at night. We haven’t been too hard on her about it so far. We tried getting her to sleep with a mitten on her left hand, but she always takes it off (even when we wrap her wrist with tape). Getting the tool set hasn’t proven to be motivating enough to stop sucking it to go to sleep, so it’s still sitting on top of our fridge. I’m at a loss on where to go from here, but hopefully we will figure something out soon! I’m proud of her progress so far!
Is there anything cuter than a baby wearing Crocs? I don’t think so! She loves the water table…
As I mentioned in my last post, Savannah started getting sick on the day of her birthday party. I knew she felt hot that morning, but assumed it was just teething. But after the way she acted at her party, it was apparent that she really must have been sick. She ran a fever all afternoon and evening, and it got up almost to 103 degrees. I called the on-call pediatrician, and she said to give her Tylenol and give her a lukewarm bath for 30 minutes, and to take her to the pediatric ER if her temp was still above 102. So, unfortunately…that’s where Savannah and I spent that Saturday night! We got there at about 9:30 PM and were there for a couple of hours. Her throat and ears looked fine, and they put in a catheter to check for a UTI (poor girl!), and her urine was fine too. Must have been some kind of virus! She felt crummy for a couple of days, but finally got to feeling better. It’s no fun to be sick!
She was feeling better by that Tuesday, just in time for her 12 month check up and shots! (Of course, her fever shot back up to 102.9 that evening after the shots!). The appointment went well. Dr. Dudley confirmed that she has an umbilical hernia (like I was suspecting). Her belly button pokes out when she stands up, and I’d noticed it in the bath tub before. Dr. Dudley said that she will recheck it at 2 years old, but that a lot times the hernia will resolve on its own. We will see!
Cici gave Brooklyn a flower pot “kit” for growing her own flowers. It came with the seeds and soil in it! Brooklyn has really enjoyed watering the pot and checking on it every day. Some leaves have sprouted up, but we are still waiting on flowers :) That will be an exciting day, for sure!
We took family pictures on the evening of Savannah’s party (yes, she was sick!) with Paw, Rae Rae, Uncle Chandler, and Aunt Jenn. It had been scheduled for a long time, and it was a good time to do it since they were all here for the party. Anyway, Brooklyn got this sprinkler from Paw and Rae Rae as a present for smiling and cooperating for the pictures. We tried it out a couple of weeks ago, and Brooklyn had lots of fun with it! I think it will be even more fun when it gets hot outside!
Brooklyn enjoyed eating leftover cupcakes from the party :)
See what I mean about playing in the kitchen?
This girl loves food!
We went to Paw and Rae Rae’s for Mother’s Day weekend, and Savannah had to practice climbing the stairs. She is a pro already! Now she just needs to figure out how to climb down ;)
That Saturday, Travis and I went to Tuscaloosa for Emily’s college graduation. It was fun to be back in t-town for an afternoon!
Emily’s fan club—we were missing Alisha, who is on modified bed rest and can’t travel very far from home. Congratulations, Emily! We are proud of you!! :) *Also notice–no kids!!
They stayed at Paw and Rae Rae’s for the afternoon!
They had much more fun there than they probably would have at graduation ;) Thank you, Paw and Rae Rae, for letting them stay!
I was a slacker and didn’t get any pictures for Mother’s Day with the girls or with Rae Rae. Whoops! But, I did take a picture of my fabulous Mother’s Day gift…a new trashcan!! It’s amazing, and we should have gotten one like this years ago! :)
Brooklyn made this for me in Bible class at Argo on Mother’s Day! It’s a typical Brooklyn answer: anytime you ask her why she did something, she replies, “Because I did!” So, of course, she loves Mommy because she does! ;)
Brooklyn still loves to build roads and walls with her blocks! We have definitely gotten our money (all $5 of it) out of those blocks!
“This car ain’t big enough for the both of us!” (It’s really meant for one kid at a time, but they squeezed in…haha)
We went over to Alisha’s to help with Carter on Tuesday, and it went well! The girls even napped while we were there, so I consider it a success. It was only later that we figured out Carter was getting sick…with hand, foot, and mouth disease! I knew he felt warm, but figured I was just paranoid about fevers after Savannah had been sick. Then, Wednesday morning he started getting blisters everywhere :( Thankfully, the girls haven’t gotten it yet…knock on wood. Hopefully Carter will be back to 100% soon!
First time eating corn on the cob :)
One day last week, Brooklyn helped water all the bushes and flowers in the front flower beds. She had so much fun! About half of the water ended up on her clothes, but that’s okay ;)
She also dug a house for Buzz Lightyear in the mulch!
Sidewalk chalk is still a favorite outdoor activity at our house!
That afternoon (after we watered all the plants), we got a big monsoon. I asked Brooklyn if she wanted to play in the rain, and of course she said “yes!” Running around in the rain in your underwear—doesn’t get much better than that!
Finally moved Savannah’s “1” to her door–I love having these picture collages on their doors where we can see so many of their pictures at one time :)
Snack time at the coffee table :)
Other Notables:
- Savannah loves to clap, wave, give high fives, and play peek-a-boo these days! Anytime we say “yay!”, she knows it’s time to clap. She loves to clap for herself especially. It’s so much fun watching her become more interactive.
- 4/19/16 – Brooklyn: “Are there still two babies in your belly, Aunt Alisha? Will they crawl out through your pants?”
- 4/28/16 – (Brooklyn, while swinging in the backyard) – “I love my house.” Would you be sad if we moved to another house one day? “I choose Paw and Rae Rae’s house!” Apparently, it wouldn’t be sad as long as we just moved in with Paw and Rae Rae :)
- 5/14/16 – Brooklyn was acting scared of the leaf blower and weed eater yesterday when we were outside while Travis was doing yard work. I asked her if she wanted to help use the leaf blower, and she replied, “I’m scared it will blow away my parts!”
Whew…caught up (for now!) Hope you have a great week!
