Adapting to the Splint

So, I took a video of Savannah crawling now that she has her arm wrapped in her splint. We're going tomorrow to get the hard cast put on. She's doing so well! She doesn't even seem to notice that she has anything wrong with her arm. It's really pretty cute watching her adapt. I also took this video of Savannah taking care of her baby. I'm not sure how well you can hear what's going on in the video, but Savannah will comb her baby's "hair" and feed her milk. She'll give the baby hugs and kisses, but she wouldn't do it in this video because she was so focused on feeding the baby. She says "baby" now, like I mentioned in my last post and points them out everywhere we go. I was working on our own blog today and she saw pictures of herself and said "baby!"
She has also started saying "car" and knows that dogs say "woof woof", but it sounds more like "boof boof". When she sees Wags from the Wiggles she starts making her dog sound. She saw the horse behind our house the other day and started saying "boof boof", too, so we haven't quite perfected it yet! Cole and I were eating chips and salsa with lunch today and Savannah picked up a chip, dipped it in the salsa, and ate it. So cute! She did it over and over again feeding Cole the chip after she dipped it. She was so proud of herself. It's so much fun watching her learn new things!

It's Broken!! :(

So, I hate to follow up Savannah's birthday photos with this next post. I was supposed to spend this weekend in Charleston for a girls' weekend. My fist weekend leaving Savannah. But we ended up spending the day very differently. Yesterday, Savannah was sitting in her little chair- only about 12in. off the ground- and leaned forward like she was going to pick up something off the floor and fell. Cole and I were both sitting at her feet, but we both thought the other was going to catch her and so neither of us did :( It was the smallest fall. More like a roll, but she cried for longer than usual and seemed to hold her hand kind of funny. She didn't cry when we moved her arm at all, but when she tried to crawl her right arm would kind of collapse and she would bury her face in the carpet and cry- so sad! So we took her to her doctor, hoping that by the time we got there, she would be fine and we would be told that we were being paranoid and to go home, but no such luck. She played with the trains in the waiting room, held toys, and seemed fine during the doctors examination. She made a small flinch when the doctor pushed her hand backward, but no sound. So, the doctor put her up on the table and had her crawl for a toy and as soon as she put weight on it, she screamed! So we were sent to the ED at the hospital and had x-rays done. These sound painless, but they were miserable! Probably worse for me and Cole than for Savannah, but the whole room scared her. And, of course, the first x-rays weren't good enough, so we had to go back to the room and do more. And after calming her down from the second round, they wanted a third set done! So frustrating for all three of us! We were still thinking at this point that they would say "it's a sprain, keep her off of it for a few days" but, again, that's not the news we got. She has a "subtle fracture" in her wrist. Very small, but will still need to be immobilized and put in a cast :( By this point, she was way overdue for her nap and sick of everyone messing with her wrist. We were put in a room with a TV and a bed so she could lay on my chest and watch cartoons in a dimly lit room. This was exactly what we needed! She calmed down enough so that when she was fitted for her temporary cast she didn't make a peep and let the doctor do his job, which was a great relief for her mommy and daddy's nerves! The nurse gave her an orange popsicle when everything was over, so we left with an orange-face little cutie with an arm like Popeye's. We'll go see an Orthopedist early next week to get the hard cast put on. Here are a few things I am thankful for in this whole situations. First of all, it was after her first birthday. If she had a cast for the birthday, she wouldn't have been able to "dig in" to her cake. Something that would have been very sad for me! Second, we have her forward facing in her new carseat now that she's a year old. We just got the car seat this past weekend. If we still had the old one, it would have been miserable, and probably painful, trying to get her arm in and out of the tight straps. In the new carseat, we can make the straps stretch really long to get her in and out. Third, it's spring. The cast will be hot, so I'm glad it's not July or August. And her spring wardrobe is much more acommodating for wearing with a cast on. I had to cut the arm off of her pajamas so she could get into them. If it were winter, I guess I'd have to do a lot more altering to figure out a way to get her cast through a sleeve. Now we have an excuse to wear all of her sleevless summer dresses! Fourth, it happened about 15 minutes before Cole was going to leave for work, so he was able to call in and go with me. I do not know if I could have done that alone. He has the best boss in the world, who even told him to stay home after we got back from the ED, which was such a gift, because I was emotionally drained and did not want to be dropped off at home alone for the night. Thank you, Pam!! And the whole experience has made me so thankful that we were only in the hospital for an afternoon and got to leave with a happy baby. Watching your child go through something like that is torture! It has convicted me to pray more for parents who have to see their children go through surgeries and hospital stays. Yesterday was hard enough.
She has been crawling around and playing with toys as if nothing ever happened. Yesterday on the ride home, she tried to rip the cast (ace bandage) off with her teeth! But since the, she has paid very little attention to it, thankfully. Here are some photos of her that I took this morning in her high chair. She still holds her cup the same and uses it like normal.
Smiling at her funny daddy...And, on a lighter note, Savannah learned to say "Baby" yesterday morning before the fall. She says it very clearly and points out babies on TV or in books and says "Bay-Bee". Here she is giving her baby some milk. She is such a good little mommy.

First Birthday Party!

Where did the year go? I can't believe my little newborn baby is now an active little girl! We had a big party planned and invited family and friends to come celebrate with us. Katie (my precious sister-in-law) designed a little pink octopus that she used on the invitations, cupcake toppers, birthday signs and several other things to make the cutest decorations. She did a great job and was so patient dealing with me as I second guessed every decision I made on what I wanted from her. Thank you Katie for all your work and talent! Joelle drove up with my sweet nieces and my mom for the whole week to help me get everything ready, and I'm so glad they did, because, not only did I love their company, but I also ended up getting a stomach bug and was completely useless for a few days. Joelle picked up the slack and ended up caring for 3 one-year-olds, queasy me, and our mom (who is in a wheel chair recovering from foot surgery), all while trying to get things ready for the party by cooking and grocery shopping for me. I am so blessed to have the best sister in the world! Here's the spread Katie and Joelle created for me:
The night before the party, David and my dad arrived with a surprise- my brother who flew in from Ohio! What a great surprise! We don't get to see him nearly enough. It really made the weekend!So, we finally got everything ready for the big party and woke up the day of to babies who were sharing a fever (Sav caught it early in the week and passed it to both of her cousins). So, we had to call the small group of friends who were coming and warn them of the germs and the Jennings were the only one's who decided to brave the germs and come anyways! We ended up with a party of mostly family, but it was still great! Savi was there and that's all that mattered! She looked so sweet in her dress, even though she hated wearing it! She just couldn't crawl without getting tangled up in it, so it didn't last long, but we got a few pictures before we had to change wardrobe. My pictures aren't great, there are much better ones out there- I need to get copies from all of you! After we changed Savannah into her "smash cake onsie" we put her in her high chair, brought in the cake, and let her dig in! My mom sewed this flag banner around the high chair together for the party and an even bigger one that drapped across the top of the windows- Thanks Mom!Here's a picture of Savannah after the party enjoying a "Wiggles" video with her Uncle David, Aunt Joelle, Lyla, and Pressley. I love the photo. I hope she always feels this at home and secure in the middle of their family!Here's a few more of the girls the morning they left (Savannah's actual birthday). They all ate breakfast next to each other in their chairs. I just love these little faces! (Sorry about the Christmas bib, Lyla!)

Family, Beach, and Cake!

The picture above made me smile. We spent the weekend in Myrtle Beach with Cole's family and this is the best photo I got of all three kids. They're quite a wiggly bunch. We had such a great time with everyone! Cole's parents rented a great 3-bedroom condo on the beach with an indoor pool for the kids to play. We got to walk down on the beach on Saturday, even though it was a little cool and spent some time in the pool with Addie and Yeats. Savannah is still not crazy about the pool (even though she LOVES the bath!), but clung to my neck the whole time (which I didn't mind at all!). On Sunday, we met Cole's Uncle Ron and Aunt Barbara for an amazing brunch at their country club. It was delicious- we got completely spoiled!Here's Savannah with her Great-aunt Barbara...And here's the whole gang (minus Ron who's taking the picture)... And one of our little bug with the sun in her eyes...After brunch we went back to Barbara and Ron's for a little birthday celebration for Savannah. They had balloons and cake waiting for her so we let Savannah dig in to her very first taste of cake (or any kind of sweets, for that matter). I think she liked it...Savi got to spend some quality time with her Meme and Papa and loved every minute of it!
We headed home on Monday morning and our little birthday girl was exhausted. We took this picture about 15 minutes down the road. She fell asleep holding her milk in one hand and her balloon in the other. She loves that balloon! And thankfully, it's still going strong! Thank you Meme, Papa, Toby, Valerie, Barbara, and Ron for a GREAT weekend! Can't wait to see you all again!

We're Ready for Spring!!

Just a couple pictures from the few gorgeous spring-like days we've had. I love being able to get outside with Savannah and enjoy the weather for the first time really since she's been born. She was so little last summer, we couldn't really get out and play in the sun. But this year, we're ready for it!

First Hair Cut!

So on February 25, we decided to give the hair cut thing another try and this time were successful. Sav did so well and sat nice and still. She was easily distracted by Cole and me waving different Sesame Street characters in the direction she was supposed to be looking. I really like the cut- we just had them trim up the back to tidy up the ends so it will grow in evenly now. Here she is all ready for the cut to begin...Sitting so still during the haircut...And here are her "after" shots...

Birthday Lunch

For my birthday this year, we were going to take Savannah to get her first haircut! ...but we got there and apparently the kid's hair place is closed on Mondays. We were so disappointed, but we headed out to lunch before Cole had to leave for work instead and had a great time. I had to share these pictures because it shows that Savannah is both mine and Cole's child. The above picture show's "mommy's girl" and below you'll see "daddy's girl"...Savannah has also been practicing with a fork lately and doing really well! She has a hard time getting the food onto the fork (but occasionally gets lucky) but is doing really well getting it from the fork to her mouth. Here are some photos of her practicing... (and usually it's a baby fork, I promise!)The one above is fork wrestling with daddy, not so much practicing her table manners. And below are a couple of our silly Savi that I couldn't leave out :)