Visitors, New Games, and Fermented Chicken Feed

Pete's best friend Matt came in town last week and brought his wife and baby girl with him.  Pete and Matt went to VA Beach for a night to do some stuff for work, so the girls got some girl time; and we were so grateful to have company!  It took some time for Sus to warm up to Hannah, but it took zero time for Hannah to warm up to Susannah.  She is so sweet and wanted to hug on Susannah all the time; Susannah finally let her by the end of their time with us.

Showing Hannah all her toys

Bath time is so much more fun with friends!

Our big girl entertaining herself with coloring at a restaurant!  

Susannah's new favorite game is Hide-n-Seek.  It is so fun and hilarious to play with her.  She's obviously the one who does the seeking, and Pete or I do the hiding.  Here's how it goes down:
Me: "Susannah, do you want to play Hide-n-Seek?"
Sus: "Hid-Tee!"
Me: "Okay, I'm gonna go hide, and you come find me!"
(I go hide behind a door or something and call her name a few times.)
Sus: (walking toward my voice) "Maaaaamaaaa....  Maaaaammmmaaa...."
And when she finally finds me,
Me: "Boo!"
Sus: (erupts in giggles) "Maamaaaa!"
And we hug and laugh.  It's real cute.

Making friends at the library.

A "wow-weh" for each hand.

Sweet smirk.

This morning I found Susannah elbow-deep in an unidentifiable substance (that looks quite like the inside of her dirty diapers) that was inside a 5-gallon bucket, laughing and flailing and having a grand ole time.  After tossing her in the sink (which she also loved) and flipping out a little, I called Pete, demanding to know the name of that substance and whether or not I needed to call poison control.  He began laughing, of course, and told me he was just fermenting chicken feed and had forgotten to tell me.  Oh, my life...  :)

Some fun, recent Daddy-daughter time:

A little morning play time.

Those cloth diapers sure give this girl a ghetto booty!  (Playing on Daddy's keyboard is a fav activity.)

Coming back from getting the "mmmeh" (mail).  One of my all-time favorite pictures to date.

"Mama is the only one who will do!"

I'm pretty sure the title here is what runs through Susannah's mind 98% of the day.  The other 2% is for when someone else gets her out of her crib (she generally calls for her Daddy to come get her) and if food or a bottle is being offered.  (Note to self: teach Susannah that it is not wise to take candy from strangers.)  Suffice it to say, she has become even more attached to me since I returned from my 5-day vacay last month -- not the reaction we were going for.  I know I'll long for these days when she's a teenager and wants nothing to do with me, but for now, let's all pray that she learns to play happily with others when I'm not present from time to time.  (Seriously, that's a for-real prayer request--please help a sista out!)

Baby Boy's name is going to be John Garrison Acker.  We had this name picked out a looooong time ago, back when Susannah was supposed to be a boy.  So needless to say, we are thrilled to actually get to use it this time around.  John is the name of my late granddad on my dad's side, who was, well, an absolutely amazing man.  He lived off the land, worked harder than anyone you've ever seen his entire life, led and loved his family well, and diligently served the Lord.  Garrison is the name of Pete's late uncle "Gary" (Pops' brother), who died in a hunting accident at 24. much too soon for a someone who so greatly benefited his family and community; he was a 6th grade teacher, a devoted husband, a loyal brother and son -- a man of integrity.  We hope that the legacy of the character these two men wore will carry on in the life of our son!  We are taking suggestions on nicknames, but we've already grown fond of "John Boy" and "Johnny G"... We'll see what others arise!

And here's the fun stuff (video at the bottom!):

Girlfriend LOVES Big Bear!  She crawls into his lap on a daily basis.

"I'll trade you these weeds for those car keys, whadya say?"

She prefers showing off those tight abs.

Hard at work with the boyz at the library.

Caught her absolutely cracking up the other day!  I love that little scrunched face!

John Boy is sitting so low!

One of our favorite new sources of entertainment.

And Baby Acker #2 is a............

....BOY!!!!

We are obviously thrilled!  We would have been excited for another girl, as well, but we definitely did not hide the fact that we both were crossing our fingers for a boy.  Someone to carry on the Acker name!

As for Susannah, unless your name is Mommy, Daddy, Elmo, Angie, Baby, Bottle, Bath Time, or Birdie, you shall be called "Ba-Buh."  Everything is "ba-buh;" Any noise, any object, any room, any person, any thing.  And if you try to tell her what it's actually called, she looks at you like you're insane and continues to call it by its rightful name, Ba-buh.

I think I wrote about this a couple weeks ago, but Susannah got one of her first-year molars about 3 weeks ago, and sometime last week, one of her K-9s came in, too.  Poor girl is drooling and gnawing and snotting like crazy, so it's just a matter of time before the next one pops through.  She's a trooper, though.  Other than being extra attached to me (which is problematic when other people want to play with her... She wants nothing to do with them), her disposition is still sweet and happy.

No pics this week, just our fun announcement!  Happy New Year!