Savannah 16 months

Savannah is 16 months old now and is turning out to be quite a handful! She has sortof a split personality. One side is super sweet and charming and wants to sit in your lap while you "ree-ree-ree" a book, and the other side is a little trouble maker. That sounds terrible to say...but it is so true! And of course I mean that in the most loving way:) She is in to Everything around the house. She loves to open and shut the trash can and throw things away. If the fridge or pantry door are open for more than 10 seconds- she is right underneath you trying to crawl in and get into something. She has a favorite little spot now between the couch and the end table that she likes to escape to with all of her treasures she finds and isn't supposed to have. She likes to come to the same spot to escape me and wherever I am trying to take her.

She loves to be picked up on her terms and says "UPppp!" (with a 3 second p), but is a defiant little devil when she doesn't want to be picked up. She thrashes her little body around and tries to twist out of your arms. She has perfected the 'throw your arms up straight into the air to the point where they look dislocated' move and can make it as hard as she can to be picked up. She loves to just hurl herself around too- if you are sitting or lying on the floor- she will just come tackle you and laugh and laugh. I had two random bruises lately that I am sure came from a bony little elbow or knee. Her sweet side is just so cute and so "classic baby"- she talks jibberish all the time and points her tiny little 2 inch longer finger at everything. I'll be glad when she is saying more words, but I'm not trying to make any time go by faster...I know she will be there soon enough and I will be missing this funny little phase.

Snuggling with Minnie

My favorite- a dirty trash can!

Here is a few days worth of pictures from her favorite hiding spot...

A remote and a Kleenex box..

Kleenex and a really fun find..a to-go coffee cup

Just hiding with a snotty face...

Savannah loves this little horse and drags it around the house. She has recently learned to do some trick riding...

Tackling Skylar...

Just sitting in a shoe box to play with my doll..

Wild One

This is just a 30 second example of Savannah being a wild woman. She is dancing, which to her means...jumping and spinning and in this case..spiraling out of control. She does hilarious stuff like this all the time and loves to be the center of attention.

This particular episode doesn't end well for Savannah:(...

Muslce Biopsy

We were in Atlanta last week for Skylar's muscle biopsy. It was a really fast/busy trip and Skylar was such a trooper. She got up at 4:30 in the morning and made it to three appointments the first day and then we had to be back at the hospital at 6:20am the next morning for the biopsy. The Children's Hospital there was great and we were really happy with all of the doctors and nurses. Even with a few sad pitiful moments after the procedure, she recovered really well. She was back to playing and being hyper like 6 hours after surgery. We were all exhausted and she had some great anesthesia sleep and was ready to play:) We had to stick around for a day just in case of emergency and we headed home early the next morning. (We will find out results in 6-8 weeks.) Thanks to Gigi for staying home and keeping our other little peanut and to Mimi for helping us in ATL!
How cute is this picture?! We would not have made it through the trip without the iPad. Thank you God for iPads! It is barely 7 am and she hasn't eaten, is in a strange place in a weird bed, and people have already been poking and prodding her...but she doesn't care because she has Wonder Pets and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse:)

Skylar's Intensive Therapy

Here are a few pictures from Skylar's intensive therapy session. It was such hard work and she was pretty much sick the whole time, but she did a great job all things considering. She got lots of practice walking in her walker and lots of balance and strength training. It was a big time/effort commitment and we had lots of great family come and help out- thanks everybody!
Here is Skylar walking in her walker on the treadmill with her Therasuit compression suit on. Fancy stuff!

This was a really cool bike she got to warm up on every morning. It has rear steering and is tall enough to not break your back pushing it. Her feet strapped in to the pedals, so she got some "free laps" and then she had to actually push down and do the work to make it go.

She didn't always love being there, but she loved all her therapists. They were so fun and energetic and were always trying to distract and entertain her into having a good time and not thinking about the hard task she didn't want to do. Skylar's favorite distraction was her therapist Kristen singing two new verses of the Itsy Bitsy Spider that we didn't know before. Skylar loves singing!
Of course Savannah wants to be just like her sister and loves to play in/on/under both of her walkers....

Amanda's Wedding

Last weekend I headed down to Gulf Shores for Amanda's wedding. It was so fun!! Tyler and Mimi stayed at home with the sick little girls all weekend. I am so glad that Mimi could help out. I sitll felt bad leaving sick kiddos at home, but it made it easier to go knowing there were two people to wipe noses and clean up throw up.
Katie met me at the beach and was my date for the weekend. We all went out to the Flora-Bama bar one night and had a great time. We also got to do lots of relaxing and having no agenda- which I love to do since we are always so scheduled at home. Tyler called one morning while KT and I were at breakfast and he was like- "Yeh, having breakfast at 9:40- that's awesome." And that same night we didn't eat dinner until 9:00 because we were trying to find a place that Katie didn't think looked like Shoney's. (Haha- threw you under the bus again!)
The day of the wedding I was so worried for Amanda about the weather. She had everything planned for a beautiful beachfront wedding and come wedding time it was raining and pretty cold:(
It could not have turned out better though! The wedding took place inside and Amanda looked beautiful and had such a great attitude. The house where they got married was insanely awesome and looked like it should be on MTV cribs. I think it had like 15 bedrooms or something and it had a couple different living areas and loft areas. It was by far the prettiest beach house I have ever seen. They had a band and lots of great food and drinks- everyone had a blast!
So happy for Amanda and Win!

Hanging out at the FloraBama

Lauren and Ellie came over to visit for a little while..

Paul and Ellie

How cool is this light on the dance floor with their names?!

View from the loft..

Hanging out with Ben

Ryan, Jenny, and Ben got to come over for the weekend to help celebrate a late birthday with Gigi. We had a fun weekend with little toddlers everywhere. Savannah and Ben together was definitely like having twins. Cute little girl and boy twins. They wanted the same toys and the same persons attention pretty much all the time. Skylar sort of stayed cleared of the drama and did her own thing. We actually had a babysitter one night after the kiddos went to bed and got to all go out together baby free for Gigi's birthday dinner. We were supposed to go to her favorite restaurant on the lake by our house, but there ended up being an almost two hour wait. So, we ended up going to a Mexican restaurant and got to enjoy some giant beers and margaritas. And finished with Gigi's favorite part of the meal....frozen yogurt from Sweet Frogs. Not as good as Pinkberry yogurt, but pretty good.
Jenny and Ben were sweet enough to stay a few extra days and help with Savannah while Skylar was at her intensive therapy program. She ended up having to miss two days because she caught the stomach bug. Sweet Jenny was a trooper with emergency bath/clothes/sheets changes. I was so lucky to have her there while Tyler was out of town and Skylar was sick! We had a great time without any sickness one night and got to drink wine, eat pizza, and watch Eclipse. (All of which I would love to do every night!)

Wagon ride with Gigi

Ben loved to get right in Savannah's face and check her out. We think he was thinking....what is this tiny person that is only half my size?

Pushing Savannah in the car...and then taking off for the stairs..

Art time

(aka: lets find something for everyone to do that will keep them contained and not fighting, opening cabinets doors, or pulling knives off the counter)