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!
Figgy and Aunt Sarah came to spend a couple days with us last week after Mom and Dad left, and we had a great time! Susannah got to show them all her new tricks (sitting, scooting, babbling, blowing raspberries, etc.), and we're beginning to discover how much of a little ham she is when new people are around. Our guests brought a delicious wild-caught salmon to share, which we, of course, enjoyed thoroughly. Unfortunately, they could only stay two nights, so we are very much looking forward to seeing them again in a couple weeks when we head to Harrisonburg for Pops and Pete's fishing tournament!
We've also figured out that Susannah loves all things red. She has especially shown interest in the red puppet himself, Elmo, lately. She hardly watches any TV at all, but occasionally in the evening, I'll pull up some Elmo episodes for her to watch, and she is immediately entranced. She even laughs when Elmo does silly things! What is it about Elmo that ALL kids love so much?
Anywho -- here's a video (courtesy of Figgy) before we get to some pics!
"I WANT THE SUGAR!"
Susannah loves watching Daddy work out (or do anything, for that matter).
My parents got in town on Wednesday and will be heading back to TN tomorrow; Susannah has LOVED having her PopPop and SuSu around to play with! Pete and I have also enjoyed their company and conversation. Mom and I took on another sewing project this week and made my window treatments for the kitchen (pictured below). They turned out great, and I can honestly say that I did 100% of the sewing! Mom is an amazing teacher, and we even had a good time making them -- unlike the last time we sewed together and I had an emotional breakdown over belt loops... Praise the Lord for straight stitches and the absence of pleats, cuffs, zippers, belt loops, buttons, and the like!
LOVE this fabric!
Now that Susannah can sit up and see the world on her own, she has decided she doesn't really love being held. I mean, if you're walking around, she likes it alright, but if everyone is just sitting around, she'd much rather be sitting on her own, amidst her toy selection -- with someone sitting or laying down there with her, of course! I think she wants to be like the big kids! So needless to say, PopPop and SuSu have spent most of their time here kneeling, laying, squatting, or sitting on the floor with that little diva. But she sure is cute, so who's to blame them?
Her feet can touch now!
Sleepy baby = cuddles with Daddy
"Okay, Mom, get me outta here!"
"PopPop, I'll hold my paci and sunglasses if you'll hold Mommy's watch in front of me so I can at least look at it."
Showing SuSu her favorite toy
Just look at those sweet eyes!
Inspecting the tree at the park with SuSu
We love swinging!
One of these zucchinis was hiding for a few extra days...any guesses?
The Sophie Giraffe is the best teether in the world.
One happy babe!
We will be sad to see my parents go tomorrow, but we are so excited for the arrival of Figgy and Aunt Sarah on Wednesday!!
We have had such a fun-filled weekend! To celebrate the amazing daddy Pete is, we went on a Father's Day-Eve family fishing adventure. Turns out, Susannah loves fish. She loved talking to those things and grabbing them and watching them flop around... We were only getting the little guys, so they were the perfect size for our Susie Girl to inspect.
Then on Sunday, Uncle Charlie, Aunt Phyllis, and their granddaughter Cassidy came to visit and meet Susannah! And Beverly, Uncle Charlie's daughter who lives an hour and a half from us, drove over for dinner, too. What a fun time we had visiting with them! It's no surprise that Susannah was entertained by those crazies -- I've told her all the stories of the antics I used to get into with Aunt Phyllis when I was little, so she was pretty excited to meet this lady and her clan. :) They hit the road this morning to head back to easy-living in Florida; we were so thankful that they took the time to stop by our house on their roadtrip!
Showing Aunt Fi-Fi all her toys
Inspecting Uncle Charlie's eyebrows
Cassidy, Aunt Phyllis, and Susie Girl
Other random pictures:
Makeshift baby pool
We were terrified of our giraffe for one day last week.
Self-timer shot #1
Self-timer shot #2. THOSE CHEEKS!
We are looking forward to having PopPop and SuSu here on Wednesday and then Figgy and Aunt Sarah here the following Wednesday! Susannah loves having her family visit, and I love having people who can talk back to me visit. What fun!
Susannah turned 7 months old this week! In celebration of her 7 months, Susannah bit me whilst nursing for the first time and I took her swaddle away for good. We show our affection and appreciation a little differently around here. Seriously though, Susannah is officially swaddle-free, and we are all loving it! She had a rough night the first night she slept without it, but after that, she was back to sleeping 11 hours-ish straight. She's such a big girl now.
We had fun this week making a hilarious video of our little girl that I'm sure you've seen already, as it has been emailed out and posted on Facebook; but here it is again for documentation purposes (and because I have yet to get tired of watching it):
This week in pictures:
Her eyes get prettier every single day, no lie.
Storytime with Daddy
LOVES her bathtub so much she doesn't even need water.
Her new favorite place to sit in the living room
She'll sit down and chat with you if you're sweet enough
7 months!
Playing with her chicken siblings. One of the hens let her touch her!
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