October Part 3

The day after her birthday, Savannah took her first steps. Now she always wants me to walk around with her. Always. It's fun, but she won't move anywhere without me! Savannah is in love with her muslin blankets and will lay down on the floor with her blanket if she's tired. She's such a snuggle bug.

October Part 2

Savannah's birthday was a fun day. My parents came into town, and we went to the airport where we saw a B-24, B-17 and P-51 Mustang. They were really fun to see! I tried to upload a picture of Clara shooting the gun at the bad guys, but it wasn't working. Clara loved climbing around in the planes and Savannah loved watching the other planes take off and land. Can't you tell how excited was about the planes?


Savannah enjoyed her banana muffin with cream cheese. Yum. I have a picture of me at my first birthday party, wearing this same bib. My mom brought it for Savannah. So cute.

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Clara always refuses to be in pictures, but I got one picture of her in a dress-up: her new ballerina dress-up. Savannah was a bear, courtesy of her brown coat with bear ears on the hood. What a cutie. I tried to take pictures of her just sitting in front of me, but she kept crawling onto my lap. So finally I stood her up in her bed, where she couldn't reach me and where the light is really good. Bonus!

October...so far

Today we went to get pumpkins during the football game, so we wouldn't get caught up in the crazy football traffic. It was roasting hot, too; maybe 75 degrees. And I thought it was October... :)




Savannah turns one next week, which I cannot believe! This year has gone by so fast. She has been such a joy.

This is a classic pose of Savannah's. She wants to drag her blanket along with her everywhere and snuggle it up to her face. She'll suck on her bottom lip and just snuggles. It's so sweet. I love it. She tries to make "woofing" sounds when she sees dogs, and she waves at everything: dogs, people, cars, birds, you name it.

September

Here's a quick update of what we've been up to:

Clara started preschool in September with some kids from church. She likes it, and it gives me some one-on-time with Savannah. They have fun in the bath together, and Savannah is always trying to crawl in the bathroom to stand up next to the tub. She lifts up her leg and tries to climb in. She has started to cruise along the furniture, too.

Both the girls love to go outside and the baby always finds birds up in the sky and points to them. Savannah also loves to stand at the window and look out.

Savannah has started to smile with her nose scrunched up, which is so funny. She will only do it for the camera in reaction to the flash.


I love all the smiles in this picture. :)

Angela's birthday was in September, which is always a bittersweet day. Allison took some flowers to Angela's grave for us. Clara decide we should get her blue, purple and pink flowers. Lots of people brought flowers to her grave, which Angela would have liked.

When I walk out of the room, Savannah always wants to follow me. Clara used to pick her up and come after me, until I persuaded her to just encourage the baby to crawl after me. So now Clara will crawl along with Savannah, saying, "Come here girl! Come here!" It's so funny to me.

Clara likes us to push her around in the laundry basket, so we introduced Savannah to this favorite past time. She liked it, especially since she got to chew on Clara's toothpaste bottle at the same time. Whenever I put Savannah's "Little sister" shirt on her, Clara always wants to put on her matching shirt. So cute.

My New Favorite Book

Cute Girls

Clara almost always refuses to be in pictures, so I thought I'd share these of both of the girls. I got Clara to get in the pictures by the crib by asking which one of them was taller. Clara definitely thought she was taller. In the past couple of weeks Savannah has started to pull herself up on things, including in her crib. Clara is so delighted to see her standing in her crib and says, "Good job, Savannah!" It's so funny.



I got Clara in this picture because she wanted to play baby (she's the baby, obviously). I told her to lay by the other baby so I could take their picture.


Savannah is always pulling up and standing up by things. If someone is holding her and puts her down, she immediately crawls or army crawls over to me and pulls herself up by clutching onto my calves or pant legs. She is very much a mama's girl.


She is barely 10 months and got her first teeth this week! Her first one was her top, left front tooth. And a couple days later we could feel some bottom teeth. She's already chipped paint off her crib rails and even had paint on her cheeks. So here is one of her last toothless smile pictures! In this picture she had dumped out all of Clara's crayons out of a gallon-size ziploc bag and was very pleased with herself.

Summertime

We've tried to find new places to see and things to do this summer. We found a little gem called Decker's Creek. It looks like we're in the middle of a wooded wonderland, but the car is just behind us, and we can hear the rumbling sounds of semi-trucks zooming by. But it was fabulous. Cool, clear water, smooth rocks and a little 4-year old who looks like she just climbed out of a pool. She was so soaked on the car ride home. She loved it. :)

(This is the only picture that would upload...so more to come later.)

Helen, Georgia

When we visited my family, we took a little side trip to Helen, GA, with my sister and her family. We went tubing on the Chattahoochee River, went down water slides and hiked to the beautiful Ana Ruby Falls.



Savannah and I sat by the river and waited for the others to finish coming down the river. She just sat happily on the picnic table and watched the river and the cars going by.


We rented a cabin out of town, which had a hot tub on the deck. It wasn't very hot, and Clara and her cousins Sarah and Tate had a good time playing in it. At night we could see lots of stars and fire flies. We had two close-calls: Jason was on a rope swing and almost really injured his leg; and when Jason was taking down the baby's pack-and-play crib he found a little black scorpion that had either been under the crib or somewhere in it. Yikes. We were so grateful it didn't get anywhere near the baby. It was a good trip.

May

Well, summertime is here! We've been spending more and more time outside in the backyard, playing in our pool and running through the sprinkler. Savannah has enjoyed relaxing in the neighbor's baby swing, sucking on the straps to her heart's content. I love Savannah's little bare toes.



One of Clara's favorite things to do is go into my closet, dump the dirty clothes out of the laundry basket and turn it into a turtle shell or take her animals for rides. If she's really lucky Jason will push her around the house in it.


I've been trying to find out things to do locally this summer. We made it to the university's arboretum, which was an adventure. Savannah needed a nap and it was the hottest day of the spring so far, but we did see some nice bugs.



Clara can't get enough of books. If she could, she would have us read to her for hours. She's learning to read and can recognize lots of words.


I'm tired, too. Adios.

Clara's birthday!

Clara's birthday party was Saturday: her first party with friends, which she was so excited about! She wanted to bob for apples, but ended up just playing with the apples. She didn't want to stick her face in the water, but ome of her friends, and Jason, bobbed for them and had fun getting all wet. We played some other games and had a pinata. She had such a fun time! I can't believe she's four!




My parents got Clara these dress-ups, which she and her friends loved playing with.

Six Months!

This was back in April, but she's so cute I wanted to share! She is sitting up so well now, has found her feet, and has started playing with her tongue, which is so amusing to watch. She loves Clara and always laughs for her. It's so fun to have a baby in our family. Sometimes she looks just like her big sister.


Clara around 6 months

March

Here's a taste of what we've been up to this March. I can't believe it's April! It might start to feel like spring if it would stop snowing. My big girl is almost 4 and we've started dreaming up her first birthday party with friends. She can't stop talking about it.

Clara has started to "trap" her sister's arms...and apparently Savannah doesn't mind.
This is what I get to see when I get her out of bed. I can't get enough of her smile.

Savannah and Clara's baby (Sarah) during some not-so-productive tummy time.

During Jason's spring break I took Clara and Savannah, along with some friends, up to the Children's Museum in Pittsburgh. There was a wind room, a garage room, and a water room that Clara liked best. We had a lot of fun and it gave Jason a whole day of uninterrupted studying.

Later in the week we went to Washington D.C. to visit our friends Steve and Bekah and also visit the Natural History Museum. The museum was a bit old for Clara, but she especially liked the bugs exhibit. Jason touched a cockroach and held a centipede (or a millipede, I can't remember)...eek. It was fun to be in a big city again. We also went to the Washington D.C. Temple, which was wonderful. We all "slept" in the same room, and didn't get much sleep, so when we got home we needed a vacation from our vacation.


Jason is nearing the end of his second year of medical school (YAHOO!) and received what Clara calls his "big white coat," along with the rest of his class. (Doesn't he look handsome?) After the ceremony when the med students were all walking around in their white coats Clara said, "Look at all the doctors everywhere!" It was a fun milestone along this long road. Jason will be done with classes at the end of April and will have tests in May. In June he will take the first part of his boards, which will determine what kind of residency he'll be able to do. So, although the semester is almost over, there are many many weeks of studying left. Sigh...