17, almost 18 months

My baby girl is almost a year and a half! I felt the need to do another update post so I remember all of her little milestones (they don't feel little to me though, she seems to be growing so much!)

These last couple of months have been so fun! Savannah is constantly wanting to learn new things. Her favorite thing right now is counting. She counts everything! She only knows a few numbers, and doesn't really get them in order, but she loves to line things up and make you count them for her while she points at them. Like this morning in the bath, she was lining up all the soap, shampoo, and toys on the bath ledge and pointed to each one as I would count "One, two, three, four..." etc. When we counted all of them, she would yell "More!" and we would do it again. She counts everything. Books, toys, fingers, toes and magnets.

 (She can't get enough of the swings!)

Speaking of magnets, she's obsessed with them! Bryant's parents gave her a magnetic chalkboard/whiteboard that came with magnetic letters and numbers. It's hanging in her room and when she's not coloring with chalk all over it (and my walls) she will grab the magnets and move them from the board to the fridge and back again. She especially likes to hand them to me one at a time and say "is it?" and I'll tell her "That's an 'A' it makes the 'Ahhh' sound." and she will repeat "Ayyy!" and she will do that with every letter and number. She likes to figure out what else magnets will stick to besides the fridge. I have found them on the washer and dryer, the metal bar on her crib, on the metal legs of my desk, and I've watched her try to stick them to the cabinets and even her own tummy!

 (Too cool for school)

She likes to go for walks, especially the ones where she gets to walk and not just be in her stroller. She likes to pick up sticks and rocks and put them in her pockets (or down her shirt or in her diaper if she doesn't have pockets...) And she likes to point at everything and yell "Issa wock!" ("It's a rock!"). Especially sidewalks, asphalt, and brick walls. We come home every day with 3 or 4 rocks to add to her collection (AKA, outside in the garden.)

 (pig-tails!)

She's learning so many animal sounds. And she not only knows the sounds, but she knows the animals too. If you show her a picture with a bunch of animals and ask her where the horse, or the wolf, or the kitty is, she can point them out and make the sound that goes with it. Her favorite sound is a monkey, and she walks around acting like one and saying "ooh ooh ah ah!" all day!

 (Eating at Noodles and Co.)

She's learning more and more words everyday. She's a good copy-cat and can repeat almost any word you ask her to say (she won't always remember it or what it means 10 minutes later). She's also learning to put words together. She can say "uh-oh mama!" and "mo peese" (more please) or "baba mama" (baba is our word for bottle) or "Ace, sit!". My favorite word she's learned is "Yay!" and she says it for everything. If I ask her if she wants a treat she yells "yay yay yay!" or if I ask her if she wants to watch a few minutes of Elmo, she responds "Eh-mo! Yay! Yay! Yay! Eh-mo! 

 (She likes to brush her teeth. She will brush them for a good 10 minutes before I make her stop!)

She likes to jump and "gallop" everywhere. Anytime she gets excited she jumps, and if she's running somewhere, she does this little skipping thing where she shruggs her shoulders and gallops away. It cracks me up every time!

She LOVES books. The first thing she says in the morning is "Mama, baba!" so I will change her diaper, and go get her a bottle, and then she points at the windowsill where all her books are and say "Mama, boo!" (mama, book!") So I'll pull one off and she yells "Boo! yay, yay, yay!" We spend a good solid hour a day pulling all of her books of the shelf, sitting in the rocking chair and looking at all the pictures (and usually counting everything in them). By the end of the day, all of her books are on the floor. I can trust her with paper books now, as opposed to just board books, because she is careful with them and wont rip or eat them now. 

(reading books in her chair) 

She's also learned how go down the stairs all by herself! She's been able to go up them since she first started crawling, but she was always way too scared to go down them. (We've never needed to get a baby gate). My mom finally sat down and showed her how to go down, and after a lot of encouragement, she finally got the nerves to do it herself. She still wont go down alone. If she wants to go downstairs, she will come get me and point at them. I'll walk a few steps down and then she will follow me. No complaints here though! I wont have to worry about her sneaking down them without me knowing for a while I hope!

(Going down the stairs like a big kid!)

She is so smart when it comes to using the iPad and our phones. She knows how to turn them on, unlock them, swipe the screen and open her favorite games. She's got a few educational games on there, but she also really likes angry birds and fruit ninja. She also knows how to turn on netflix and watch Sesame Street, Barney or Shaun the Sheep. 

She's such a girly-girl these days. She loves to have her nails painted, and really love shoes! She will constantly yell "Shoe!" and pull out all her shoes and hand them to me to put on her feet. Bryant's boss gave her a whole bag of shoes and she went crazy! She pulled them all out and had me help her try every single one on! She was so proud of them and was showing them off!

She also went to her first week at nursery! HALLELUJAH! I've been looking foreword to that moment for the last 6 months! I dropped her off and the nursery teacher said "you may want to come get her after 5 or 10 minutes to get her used to it". Pffsssh! As soon as I dropped her off, I knew she would be fine for the whole 2 hours. She walked to the middle of the room, did a slow turn with a huge grin on her face, then looked at me and yelled "Bye!" and was off playing. It was like she had just walked into wonderland! I did come check on her after the first hour. They had closed the door and I looked though the little eye hole into the room and she was standing over a boy with a big lego in her hand. I knew just what she was thinking, but I was too late to stop her. She smacked the boy in the head with the lego! He looked up at her confused, then went back to playing. Savannah looked confused at the lego in her hand, then tossed it aside and continued to play with the boy. Oh well, no harm, no foul right? The nursery teacher said she was surprised at how well she did her first time at nursery. I told her I knew she would be fine because we walk past it every Sunday and Savannah knew that there were other kids, snacks and lots of new toys in there. She would cry every time we passed it and I wouldn't let her go in. And can I just say, church is so much nicer when you aren't sitting in the hallway with a wild toddler for the entire 3 hours?

 (My little nature lover at Zion's National Park)

Wow, she's really learned so much in the last few months! She's growing up so stinkin' fast!

My Last Week of Summer Break

Saturday August 18th was my last day working at Barnes and Noble.

It was bittersweet. I was happy to be moving on and only have to worry about school and my family. I was excited to just be a stay-at-home-mom.

I did get a little sad my last day. I did pretty well almost my whole shift until I was helping a school librarian find some children's books. She rattled off a list and I said "ok, follow me!" and she said "You know where they all are? ALL of them?!" I told her that they were titles that get asked for a lot and knew exactly where they would be. She smiled as she turned and followed behind me. "You have such a wonderful job here. You must really love it!" 

I turned and put my hands on my cheeks "I know! I do!" I exclaimed "And it's my last day here if you can believe it!" I said with a few tears peaking around the corners of my eyes.

"Oh honey! Did you find another job or something?" She replied as she patted my arm.

"No, I have a little girl that I just want to be a full-time mommy for" I said. This time, feeling a whole surge of confidence rise up in me. That's all I needed. It was my sign. 

I was doing the right thing. It's what I want for myself and for her.

I was hoping to spend my first week as a stay at home mom and my last week of summer vacation spending lots of time at the park, splash pad, out to eat, museums, etc, with my favorite little girl, but as luck would have it, we all came down with a horrible case of the stomach flu...

Last Sunday, Savannah was laying in her crib at bedtime and Bryant and I were watching TV in the living room. She could see us and was mad that we weren't coming to get her out. All of a sudden, we hear her gag and throw up.

Now, Savannah does this really weird thing where she gags herself with her fingers to make herself throw up when she's not getting the attention she wants. Usually when she's in trouble. We thought that was all it was.

The next morning, I woke up hearing her yelling for me. I got up and started walking to her room to get her out when she threw up again. Again, I thought she was gagging herself. 

Tuesday, once again, I was throwing her in the bathtub, and her sheets and clothes in the wash. This is when I realized that maybe it was more than her trying to get attention, even though she was still acting happy and energetic.

 (Eating crackers... with a bowl... just in case...)

Wednesday was horrible. Savannah threw up at 6am, and by 8:30am, I was throwing up, and by 10:00am, Bryant was sick as well. We all crawled into bed and slept most of the day, and watched LOTS of Sesame Street, Barney and Shaun The Sheep. (If you ever want a catchy theme song stuck in your head all day, watch Shaun the Sheep.) None of us could keep anything down. Not even water or Gatorade.

Thursday was worse. Savannah was starting to keep pedialyte down for a little while and would eat crackers even though she was pretty lethargic and wanted no one but her daddy. But I still couldn't get anything in me. I was feeling weak and dehydrated. I called my doctor and he said that If I went another hour without any fluids, to go to the ER and get an IV. I really didn't want to do that, so I waited about 4 hours, and by then, I was keeping Gatorade down for about an hour at a time.

(Bryant was getting cabin fever and was talking like Bane from Batman, adding "in the dark!" to the end of every sentence)

Friday was about the same, but Saturday I was feeling a little better. I had lost 8lbs and I felt terribly weak. Getting up and walking to the kitchen and back made me exhausted. I was getting headaches and dizziness. We had people coming to take a look at our apartment that day and I needed to clean it. I just couldn't do it. I was constantly worried I would pass out and had to sit down every few minutes. I finally took Savy to my sister to watch and asked my mom to come help me. She was superwoman. Both her and my dad had had the stomach flu too and she was still not feeling too great, and yet she still came and scrubbed my kitchen while I was laying on the floor whining.

Thanks mom, I really owe you!

We are all feeling so much better now, but we are all still pretty tired. Eating nothing for days takes a huge toll on your body. I calculated it all up and I probably only ate around 700 calories in 4 days. And most of that didn't stay down.

(Laying there feeling miserable)

On the bright side, my pants fit a little looser! (Not really sure it was worth it though...)

I'm still having a hard time eating, but it's because I think my stomach just can't fit that much anymore. I had 4 bites of Mac N Cheese today and was full. I DID get 2 slices of pizza down this evening, but now I feel overstuffed!

Not really the "Stay-at-home" part of being a stay-at-home-mom I was hoping for this week. And not really how I wanted to spend my last week of summer break before school starts. 

But it was really great cuddle time with the 2 people I love most in this world!

So tomorrow I start school! I've got my bag packed with a new notebook, fresh pencils and pens, and I have my outfit all picked out a ready to go (at least I didn't lay it all out like I would in grade school haha!).

I'm excited!

Just Some photos (and a few words)

 

Being clingy

Post-nap hair and big eyes.

 

A pretty window at the place Bryant and I had our reception 3 years ago!

Payson Salmon Supper!

Summer weddings!

 

 Watching Olympic beach volleyball. If you can't tell, she's thrilled...

She would swing 24 hours a day if we let her.

It's always nice having cousins around to keep Savy entertained at parties.

My new Bonlook glasses came!

Waiting for daddy to get off work! (and my dark hair! woo!)

We've been soaking up the last few weeks of summer before I start classes again. Lots of playing in the yard, camping, family reunion/parties, and movies with Sav. We have yet to make it to a baseball game (how did that happen?) maybe we can sneak one in this week. 

Also, It's my last week of work! And I have a cold.... *I think I can, I think I can...*

How are you enjoying your last few days of summer before you or your kiddos go back to school?

A New Adventure

I'm quitting my job.

Every time I think or say that sentence, it feels foreign to me.

"I'm quitting my job".

But I tell you what, it feels awesome (and a little scary) to say.

The decision to do so has been lurking around the back of my mind since Savy was born. Bryant and I had discussed me just staying home, and even though I loved the idea, I just didn't feel good about it at the time. It just didn't feel right.

I've been working at the bookstore for the last 4 years and I love it. I actually had another job offer from a place that paid a little more, and I turned it down when I got offered this one, because I knew I would like it more. I've worked there through getting married, school, and having a baby. I've made a lot of good friends. I've met some interesting customers (some a little too interesting, if you catch my drift...) and I've come away with a lot of good stories.

But I'm still quitting my job.

If you haven't heard, Bryant recently got a job promotion. A big one that he has been working hard to get for about 6 months now. He loves it. He works hard, and he is doing an amazing job! And to be honest, the money is nice too.

A few weeks ago, I started the process of registering for classes for the fall semester. I started to get stressed about trying to do school AND work AND be a mom. I started to get depressed with the thought of rarely seeing Savannah, of rarely spending time with Bryant. Of never being home with both of them at the same time.

Then a light turned on in the back of my mind.

"You could quit your job..." a little voice said.

I began to weigh the pros and cons. The Pros FAR outweighed the cons. We are finally in a position where I don't have to work. My paychecks were really only covering the cost of my car payment each month anyway, and I just made the last payment a couple of weeks ago (yay!).

And how nice would it be just to concentrate on school?

So nice.

So, so very nice.

I got a really good feeling about it. It felt right this time. 

I needed to cut something out of my life. School has always been important to me, and even though I love my job, I want to be a college graduate more.

Last year was so hard trying to balance everything. I did terribly in school and I missed being home so much. 

It's funny because growing up, I never wanted to be a stay at home mom. In my mind, that was an infringement on my independence. But since having become a mother, it is my ultimate goal. I realize now how badly I want to be a nurturer and a teacher to my children. I am their ultimate support.  I want to be there to get them up in the morning, to feed them all their meals and play with them all day. Be there when they need a hug and cuddle them during nap time. And read them books and sing to them at bedtime. All of it. 

It's going to be an adjustment. It's going to be so much easier to concentrate on school, on being a mom, on being a wife, on myself.

So, I'm quitting my job.

And I am so excited!

My Grandpa

Earlier this week, my grandpa Bushell peacefully passed away.

We knew it would happen sometime soon, and we were prepared for it, but It's always hard to let a loved one go. 

His funeral was beautiful. Simple, and respectful, jut how he would have wanted it.

As my family members spoke about their memories of him, I thought of my own favorite memories, and 3 came to mind that I will always cherish.

The first, is one time when we went camping. He had a 4-wheeler and often took us grandkids for a quick ride. Usually packing 2 or 3 of us on. But on this particular day, he asked if I would like to go for a ride, just the 2 of us. I remember that as soon as I hopped on the 4-wheeler, he said "You might want to keep your mouth closed. Otherwise, you will get bugs in your teeth!".  Needless to say, I was terrified I'd be spitting out horseflies and beetles into the next week! We rode around the mountains for what seemed like forever.

The 2nd, was only a few years ago. I think it was just before my grandma passed away. We were over at their home for some sort of family party or BBQ, and out on the table in the back yard, he had a small scale, working engine that he had built. My grandpa loved to take things apart and put them back together. He never threw anything away because he could just fix it himself. He sat me down and pointed out every aspect of that engine, explaining to me how it worked, what part did what, and how gasoline in converted into energy for the engine to run. I like that memory because it defines just how my grandpa was: always curious of how things worked, and he enjoyed passing on that knowledge.

The third was the day he asked if I wanted to see his photos. He enjoyed taking photos and had faithfully cataloged them. He showed me an album or two of some nature photography, and then said "would you like to see my photos from Germany when I was in the army? I think you would appreciate them." He then pulled out an old album with his photos from when he served in Germany during the Korean war. He spent a good hour going through each photo, recalling all of the men's names in every photo. I remember that near the end of the album, his voice cracked and he had to excuse himself. He left for a moment and returned with a tissue and a couple of tears in his eyes. "I'm sorry" he said "but you know, those were all good men..."

My grandpa was never an expressive man. He never hugged you, or showed much emotion, so that moment was significant to me. He wanted my family to see those photos because they had meant a lot to him, and they now mean a lot to me.

I guess, now that I think of it, there is one more memory that I will always pull up when I think of him. A week or so before he passed away, he came to stay at my parents house for the weekend. He was so thin and his body moved slowly and his mind was moving slowly as well. It really hurt me to see him like that because I was so used to my strong and healthy grandpa. I didn't know how I should act. I almost felt uncomfortable. He sat down on the couch and after I walked in from getting his bags from the car he said "Now Brooke, you know those hats you make?"

"The knitted ones I make on the loom?" I asked

"Yeah, those knitted ones. If you aren't too busy this weekend, will you show me how to make one? I'd really like to learn because Roberta liked to make them." (Roberta is my Grandma)

This request really warmed my heart. Years ago, he had made me the loom I used to make knitted hats on. He made it out of wood and even carved his radio call name from when he was in the military on it "Lobo" (which means 'Wolf' I think...) I still have it, and I still make hats on it.

But I never did get around to show him.

And I will regret that for a long time. It probably would have been the last one-on-one time I would ever have with him.

I'm so grateful for the knowledge I have of eternal families. It's comforting to know that he is reunited with my grandma now, and they are waiting until the day that we will all be together again.

Disneyland!

Ok, so back in March, we went on a family trip to Disneyland with Bryant's parents, his brother Tyler, his sister Chantel, his Uncle Steve, and his aunt Sandy! It was like a mini-Stoke's family reunion! It was so fun to have the whole family there, and It was even more fun that we were there for Savannah's first birthday, which she shares with her Grandpa! 

'

Savannah was a lucky duck because this was actually her 2nd trip to Disneyland! Two trips in her first year of life! One with her Peacock side and one with her Stokes side. Yup, she's lucky!

Ok, so I have a TON of photos from the trip, and I wanted to post ALL of them because I consider this blog my personal journal/scrapbook. So I apologize for soooo many photos, but I just couldn't help it. I wanted them all here for myself. They are not in order, and they are all collaged into groups for time and space purposes. I'll comment on a few, but this post will be mostly photos. Enjoy!

Savannah isn't crying in that first photo, she's actually pulling a face. She's such a ham in front of a camera. Also, Chantel won that horse for her at the California Adventure boardwalk and Savannah won't go to bed unless it's in her crib!

We caught Mickey just as he was walking across the front of the park. He was being followed by a million kids, but stopped long enough to give Savannah a hug (and I was trying to navigate around a lot of people so I didn't get a great shot.)

Bryant wore that Elmo hat everywhere. And he hates that I usually beat him at Buzz Lightyear... And I finally got a good picture of Savy with Mickey and her Aunt Channy!

It was really cold in the morning and at night, but she looks darling in her Mickey hat! (can you spot her birthday pin on the ear?) Sandy and Steve are in the bottom left. Steve lives in California and Sandy lives in Hawaii, it was so great having them there and getting to know them better! I miss them so much!

The fountain is from St. George on our way home. And that picture on the bottom right is a duck that was following Steve and I while we were buying hot chocolate!

These are from our hotel. The sign on the right says "for your safety, shoes must be worn in the atrium". The bottom left is our view. We were in a different room, but it wasn't clean when we got there, so they upgraded us to this room, which faced Disneyland and we could see the matterhorn and lights from the World of Color show!

Our first night in Anaheim, we all went out to celebrate Ed and Savannah's birthday at the olive garden! I was super car sick and couldn't keep anything down so I didn't really get to eat my dinner, but it was fun just being there with the whole family!

(I was sick the whole trip, which sucked, but I still had an amazing time! Just FYI, don't go on captain E.O. if you are recovering from car sickness. It just makes it worse...)

Our first day in the parks, we stopped at Town Hall to get Ed and Savannah birthday buttons! And we had to head to Bryant's favorite ride first: The Jungle Cruise!

Savannah fell asleep on every single boat ride, without fail! Pirates of the Carribean, It's a Small World, the Storybook Canal, all of them!

Savannah wasn't quite walking at the time, but she enjoyed hanging onto the ropes in line and making everybody smile!

I ate my first Dole Whip! A-MA-ZING!

Playing games on the boardwalk!

We had so much fun and Savannah loved all of the attention she got from having so many family members around her (and lots of strangers who thought she was the most adorable Princess Belle they had ever seen!) And she did really well the whole trip (Except for the car ride there, she just wanted to play with Chantel's ipod the whole time and got really upset whenever I took it away.)

We can't wait to go again! Chantel just got a job at Disneyworld in Florida, so we are planning a trip there hopefully sometime in January or February. We are so excited!!!

14 Months

The problem with a 14 month old is that I'm constantly chasing her, cleaning up after her and stopping her from escaping outside. When I get a break (like during nap time) I'm usually catching up on laundry, or taking a breather and relaxing. Which leaves very little room for blogging. I have soooo much to catch up on. I haven't even blogged about our Disneyland trip back in March yet! Yikes! But, I figured I had better do a "Savannah Update" before another month slips by me and I miss something. 

In my last update, (nearly 2 months ago!) I wrote that Savannah was starting to walk, mostly hanging onto things and taking shorts steps between the couch/coffee table/chairs. Well within a day or two of posting that, she just randomly decided "hey, I'm just going to walk like a pro now!" and so she did! She's been cruising ever since! Its been interesting and fun and terrifying to say the least. My favorite thing about it is that she's created a game I like to call "where did this come from?".  I constantly find things where they shouldn't be. Like finding all of my herbs and spices in the laundry room, or her books in the bathroom. If I can't find a necklace/watch/bracelet Its almost guaranteed to be hiding under the couch cushions. Just the other day I was fishing out a headlamp in my parents garbage can that I don't think they threw away...

She's been starting to figure out words. She's been able to say "mom" "dad" and "baby" for a while, and now she tries her hardest to copy almost any word you ask her to say. Like "cracker" (crack-a!) or "toes" (toe) or "nose" (nawo),  eye, or "Sage" (tage!) And she's been saying "Naw Naw" for the last few days, usually when she's showing me something or wants something, but I can't figure out exactly what she's trying to say.

She also likes to make animal sounds. My favorite is her "elephant" sound!

She's gotten a lot more clingy, and not in a "all I want is my mom and no one else" sense, because she is just fine being around and going to other people, and doesn't get upset if I leave or anything. She just enjoys my attention more. If she feels I'm not giving her the attention she wants, she will come and sit in my lap, give me a hug or kiss, hang onto my legs, or grab my cheeks and move my head so that I'm looking directly at her. It really helps me re-focus my attention on her and reassure her that I love her and like to be with her. Usually after a quick hug or kiss on the cheek, she is back to being her curious, independent self. She just likes the comfort of knowing that I'm there.

 (She has just barely enough hair to do piggy-tails!)

She is very observant. She loves to do the things that she has seen me do, like pull a dishcloth out of the drawer and wipe her face, and the counter, floor, chairs, walls, etc. She likes to pretend to do laundry and will pull her clothes out of her drawer and take them into the laundry room and put them in the basket. A couple of days ago, I had just finished folding a load of laundry and she picked up the stack, walked over to the dryer, threw them all back in and closed the door. Apparently, they weren't done yet! She even has tried to plug the charger into my phone! 

She loves her stuffed animals and constantly has one in her arms. She will usually pick a different one ever day and carry it around, hug it and kiss it, and makes sure mommy gives it hugs and kisses too. 

She really loves to be outside. It's her favorite place to be and she constantly runs to the door or looks out the window and cries if I don't take her out.

 

(Her favorite food, marshmallows) 

 

She has a new found love for dogs. When we first introduced her to Ace, she was a little wary of him and he didn't bother to acknowledge her. And she stayed a little afraid of all dogs until a couple of months ago and now she absolutely LOVES them. She cuddles them and hugs them, and gives them big kisses right on the nose!

 (Her favorite activity at the park, throwing wood chips on the slide)

She has 3 teeth coming in at the same time. 2 molars and another front tooth. Three teeth at the same time makes for one ornery baby...

She loves to tease people. She likes to tickle, pinch, wrestle, play peekaboo, etc. She also loves to BE teased. She will walk up to you, then run away screaming, expecting you to chase her. If you don't she will walk past you several times until you do.

(She's a little water bug!)

She loves to read her books, and will bring one to you to read to her. (It's more like just turning pages. She doesn't give you enough time to read haha!). Yesterday, she grabbed a cookbook and wanted me to read it to her. It doesn't matter what kind of book it is, so long as you let her turn the pages, she's happy.

She's also a little dancer. If any kind of music comes on, she shimmys and shakes her booty to the beat! (even church music!)

She is such a sweetheart, and she's growing up way too fast!