This past week was spent in Wears Valley, TN with the Ware side of our family. My parents, siblings, and nephews stayed in a spacious cabin in the mountains for the week to enjoy some quality time while also enjoying what all the Tennessee mountains have to offer. Susannah is in love with both her cousins and has a special affection for her Aunt Katie. She often thought Katie was me until she got close enough to detect whatever it is that tells a baby that her mommy is a different 5'4, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, however-many-pounds-that-will-remain-a-mystery-to-you lady. Pete and Brian dubbed Katie with the nickname "Fake Mom" for the week because of Susannah's love for her. It was real cute. Susannah had some major milestones this week, too. Her cousin Holland, who is two months older than her, crawls, pulls up on stuff, eats solid foods with his own hands, waves, and many other things that Susannah had not mastered and/or attempted yet. She watched him so carefully all week long and came home with several new tricks: crawling, pulling up, eating solids with her own hands, and waving. Regardless, this is way too many new things for me to handle. She's growing up too fast! And this just in: Susannah has another tooth coming in! One of her top middle teeth has broken through as of yesterday evening! I didn't take many pictures during our vacation, so here are the ones I snapped or that a family member sent me:
Playing with her cousin Holland our first night in TN. Holland wanted to pet Susannah's head the whole week!
Communicating
Holland relaxing on Aunt KK
Susannah got photo-bombed!
Susannah was SO entertained by Hudson all week! He knew dancing got her giggling the most, so he often busted a move just for her entertainment.
We went to the aquarium one day and somebody got really sleepy...
...and this happened. (Which of course I loved every second of...)
Hudson "inside" one of the tanks at the aquarium
These two were such fast friends!
Susannah got to sit in PopPop's lap while we drove through Cade's Cove.
Susannah and her fake mom
And lastly, here's our babe crawling (this video was taken on Sunday, and she's already faster):
We had some great family time this week, as we got to spend the night in Mechanicsville with Mike, Brae, and their 4 kids on Wednesday and the headed to Harrisonburg for a long weekend on Thursday. Pete and Pops were in a fishing tournament on Saturday, and Susannah and I were very happy to tag along and hang out with Figgy for the weekend! We also got to spend a little time cousin Chip and see a handful of Pete's old buddies. It was a great time! Other notables:
Susannah is officially saying her first word, "Dadda," and she actually knows who Dadda is! She talks about him ALL day long, so one might think it's just babble; but if I say, "Dadda" or "Daddy," she immediately looks toward the door to whatever room we're in, expecting her daddy to walk in any second. She knows and loves her Dadda very much!
Susannah has been in cloth diapers for just over a week now, and I haven't given up yet. Once I got over the fact that occasionally I'd get poop on my hands and/or have to touch toilet water, it's been a relatively easy transition.
I'm also figuring out that the cure for fussiness is a good, old-fashioned Stevie Wonder dance party. Like mother, like daughter! (Finally SOMEthing similar to me!)
We went skating with the Gilberts! Susannah LOVED the music and lights.
Little Nathanael is getting so handsome.
Susannah is so entertained by these 3 girlies, but even more so, she is entertained by Bogey!
Checking each other out.
Hanging out with Aunt Chip!
Skinny dipping, fishing with Daddy, and touching crawdads at Blue Hole!
Maybe we shouldn't put the high chair so close to the tree? There are definitely carrot remnants on some leaves...
We are looking forward to heading to Wears Valley, TN for the Ware Family Vacation on Saturday! It's quite a haul for us, so please pray that Susannah is a trooper, and if she does, in fact, meltdown (likely), her mama and daddy don't absolutely go nuts.
Susannah is so close to crawling, which, to me, is both exciting and terrifying. Exciting, in that every milestone is such fun to watch. Terrifying, in that one second she could be right behind me ripping a magazine to shreds (a current favorite activity) and the next second, in the other room trying to give herself a tattoo with a needle that Mommy didn't know fell out of her sewing basket. Just kidding, but I needed to type out a worst-case-scenario so I would remember to start baby-proofing the house. Time to put away Pete's bows and arrows and my ninja stars.
Susannah also turned 8 months last week. She'll be a year before we know it. And now I'm going to cry for the rest of the day about that fact.
You're in for a treat with this sweet video. Sometimes as it nears nighttime bedtime, Susannah gets delirious. She will laugh hysterically at the most random things. This is the tail end of one such event (so you're unfortunately not able to see her in the absolute hysterics when I first started flipping that thing), but you can see that she's already been laughing at it so much that she has the hiccups.
A few pics!
For all who have bathed Susannah lately and she's gotten fussy, here is the reason! While you're washing her with a washcloth, she desperately wants one of her own to chew on. It drives her bonkers if you have one and she doesn't! I've never seen her want something so bad. What a weird little babe.
Holding herself up in the laundry basket.
Toybox = Quicksand
"You can strap me in, but that doesn't mean I'm staying put."
Susannah's recently taken an interest in Pete's kettlebell. I'm not surprised -- she's just like her Daddy with everything else, so she might as well fall in love with a kettlebell at a young age!
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