The Joy of Grace

Isn't she lovely? Apr 27

If you have read my blog at all, especially in the past month, you know that I do not live in la-la land regarding my child, thinking she is perfect. But I want to dedicate this post to letting myself write all the ways our Savannah really is lovely, for as much as her personality is coming out in ways that can be a bit overwhelming to me, she is also tons of fun and laughter and cuteness...she is lovely in more ways that I can recount, but I'll give you just a few.

I'll start with her body parts (no, I'm not going to show you another naked picture of her). She loves to tell me where her head, eyes, ears, mouth, tummy, belly button, feet, and buttie are, but her most favorite body part is her nose and she is not afraid to let you know where your nose is and watch out because, best of all, she loves to stick her finger up your nose. As far as her size goes, I love what the doctor said on her one-year visit: "She's long and lean" being in the 20th percentile in weight but in the 75th percentile in height. Next, I'll go to her hand motions or what I like to refer to that I'm so eloquently teaching her: sign language. Though she has not picked it up like BabyWise told me she would, she's got down "All done", "Please", and today she started doing "Help". The other day one of my students at school saw that I was looking at a sign language sheet and thought that I was teaching Savannah signs because she was hard of hearing. So I'm sure people think we are a bit strange when I'm walking around with Savannah acting like I'm putting on a mustache as we "talk" about cat or when Savannah is trying to pick up something to no avail and she starts to frantically move her right hand in circles in her effort to say: Please. Please. Please. Now, her favorite things to do. I think she could stay outside for hours at a time and we really probably spend about 3-4 hours a day outside between our walk around the neighborhood, her walking around outside, blowing bubbles, playing in the dirt (she could care less about getting dirty), picking up leaves and acorns and putting them in her bucket, and trying to climb the stairs leading up to our front door. She loves the zoo and though it's not tried and true and we've only been once (shame on me), I think she's going to be a big fan of the library not so much for sitting down and listening to me read books but because it is oh so much fun to peer behind the shelves and find mommy looking at her on the other side. Her favorite book? Goodnight, Moon. When we get to the cow jumping over the moom, she loves to say "MMMM" for moo and when we get to the old lady who was wispering hush, she puts her finger on her mouth and says "shhh..." She does love most any book though and will flip through it and "read" to occupy herself for quite a long time. Okay, I know this is getting long...I'll try to hurry. While her favorite word is still "Daa" and she assigns most objects that word when she cannot think and/or does not know the right word to say, she is saying Daa (for Aaron); Mama; Charley; thank you; yes; bye; uh-oh; hey; hot; dog; cat; Papa (for our dads...still have yet to assign my dad a name); night-night; baby; and duck. My biggest hope was that she could go fetch diapers for me when the time comes for changing her little sister. And she loves to do that (her diapers), along with getting lots of other things for me...baby doll, bag, hat, Charley (that one is a little heavy), Daddy (too heavy too), book...she's quite the fetcher. Her favorite spot in the house just so happens to be Charley's favorite spot: on the couch doing the same thing Charley does: looking out the window for dogs, cats, squirrels and people. Her best friend is in fact Charley and they have recently been found running around the house in circles...or should I say that Charley runs, Savannah trots. Speaking of moving, I really think Savannah has a new bruise or bump daily. Yesterday she scratched her knee all up outside and today she ran smack into the back of a chair quickly making a knot and bruise in the middle of her forehead. She loves big kids.

The most milk she has ever drank out of a sippy cup was when she saw our friends Maggie and Marianna drinking milk out of theirs. Today at church she was trying to climb on some folded-down tables with some 5 & 6 year olds. I did stop that one. She's not much on T.V. although she will watch Sesame Street and American Idol for a few minutes straight. Definitely do not think she has grasped the concept of me being pregnant but she did look at me with curious eyes the other day when she was playing with my tummy...it was as if she were asking: "Mom, why is yours so big?" And the first connection between the two sisters occured on Friday when S patted my tummy pretty hard and the baby jumped. One thing definitely going for Savannah (and for her parents too) is that she loves sleep and her schedule as of late has gotten a lot more conducive to ours as far as being out during the day and at night. I think she may be ready to do just one (hopefully, really long) nap a day versus her two; and although she's fine going to bed between 7:30-8, she does not mind staying up if we're out at least until 9/9:30ish. And if you are kind and patient enough to still be reading this post...she loves animals and loves to make their sounds. She's got down the sounds of cow, duck, dog, cat, pig (or at least scrunching her nose and blowing out of it), horse, maybe mouse (I'm still trying to figure that one out), and for monkey she even adds the hand motion of scratching underneath her armpits. Now that is lovely.