Sweet Sunday

"I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted

me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the Lord.

For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord." 

1 Samuel 1:27 & 28

Just as Hannah dedicated Samuel to the Lord when he was just a baby, Cory and I dedicated Savannah yesterday morning during a special ceremony at church.  Pastor Brandon prayed for her and us, as her parents, and reminded us that she always has been and always will be God's child.  He has merely entrusted her to us while on this earth.  We commit to train her in the way she should go so when she is old, she will not turn from it (Prov. 22:6).

Since it was a special day, I thought there was no better outfit for her to wear than the fancy dress her Grrdad bought before she was born.  He painstakingly picked it out all by himself to carry on a tradition started by my grandpa when I was born.  I have been anxious for her to be able to wear it, and little did I know that this occasion would work out perfectly. 

This little beauty is the most amazing blessing I have ever received. 

Witnessing history

We couldn't help ourselves.  When the Rangers won the pennant, we just had to see them play in the World Series.  We secured tickets to Game 5 and kept our fingers crossed that there would in fact be a Game 5.  And that there was.  The Rangers came into it down 3 games to 1 against the San Francisco Giants.  Of course we wanted a win, but mostly we were just excited about the experience.

We got to the ballpark before the gates even opened (which was unintentional).  There was already a huge crowd in line and I'm guessing they were all aware of when the gates opened and chose to stand there and wait.

As if she wasn't already cute enough, I had to get her some antlers to wear.  It's a shame they didn't have a more positive impact on our base running.  Wait...what am I saying.  We couldn't even get on base in the first place!  Man, that was a bummer.  In any event, my kid looks ADORABLE in antlers!

We chilled in the outfield for a bit while Daddy tried to catch a ball during batting practice and picked up a couple of souvenirs.  In a miraculous twist of fate, a dear high school friend and her family found us sitting at a picnic table and came to say hi.  If not for Meagan, I don't think Savannah would have smiled for a single picture!  Thank you Meagan!  I knew they were going to be there, but with over 50,000 in attendance, I figured there was no chance we'd run into them.  So glad we did though!

Getting ready for the game to start.  Can you see the excitement in her face?  No...?  Hmm...weird.

Ah, more excitement!  I tell ya, this kid is outta control!

She won't remember it, but we sure will.  And I plan to tell her all about it some day.  She was perfect the entire time.  We left our house at 1:30 and got home after 11:00 and she didn't fuss once.  She'd eat.  She'd snooze.  She'd flirt with the people around us.  She'd pose for a picture.  She'd repeat the whole process.

Tough loss Rangers.  Let's shake it off and have another stellar season next year!

Halloween fun

I love hand-me-downs.  Talk about money saver!  Especially when it comes to one-time-wear items like a baby's Halloween costume.  Savannah's Halloween outfit was a hand-me-down from a friend's friend.  Isn't she the sweetest little ladybug you've ever seen?!

That was just about the only smile we got out of her that evening.  Mostly, she didn't want to look at the camera and preferred to frown...as you can see...

Cory and I enjoy dressing up for Halloween, and being our first as a family of three, we wanted to coordinate somehow.  The easiest idea we came up with was for me to be a bug along with Savannah and Cory would be a bug catcher.  [I almost just put exterminator instead of bug catcher, but it really made the whole idea sound much more grim.]  So I made myself an inexpensive ... oh nevermind, I'll just say it ... CHEAP bumblebee outfit - complete with spray painted t-shirt, pipe cleanenr antennae, styrofoam cone stinger, and wire hanger/cellophane wings.

Mr. Pest Control donned khaki pants, military boots, polo with magic-markered logo, desert hat with netting hot glued to it, and a bamboo shoot/wire hanger/netting bug-catching apparatus.

I don't think we spent more than 10 dollars on all three costumes combined (which, as stated on Facebook, is painfully obvious from looking at mine).  When it comes to things like this, we are the ultimate do-it-yourself-ers...and the cheaper the better.

While we waited for the sun to start setting and trick-or-treaters to appear, Savannah and her Daddy had a little heart-to-heart about this, that, and the other.

And there's not a picture of it, but we put the little 13" TV from my craft room outside so we could watch the Rangers play while we handed out candy.  Just about every parent asked us the score as they walked by.

All-in-all, we had a pretty spooktacular first Halloween as a family.  A pumpkin was carved for each of us...a big one for Daddy, a medium sized one for Mommy, and a little baby one for Savvy.

It's just too bad that she had to go and spit up all over her ladybug outfit before the end of the night, but luckily one of her three other Halloween related onesies was close at hand.  :o)


We hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween this year!

Five months

Everyone is sleeping.  My house is quiet except for the tapping of my fingers on the keyboard.  I'm going to catch up on my blog.  Lucky for you, my friends!

So today, Savannah is one short month away from being a whole half of a year old. *bittersweet sigh*  She weighed in at 15.2 lbs and measured 25 1/2 inches long today.  Isn't she getting so big?!?!  Mercy!

Here's what's new with her since last month:

I've determined that the source of her otherwise unexplainable crabbiness of late is teething.  She's not sleeping as well at night and really struggles going down for naps during the day.  She's chewing on everything and loves for me to massage her gums with infant tooth/gum cleanser.  There's no swelling that I can see, but Orajel stops her screaming instantly, so I can only guess that she's hurting.  We've been so fortunate in all the other typically difficult areas, but I suppose it was time for her to be a challenge with something and it looks like teething is the winner.  Hooray.

She's been eating solids for several weeks now and is getting really good at the whole "open mouth, swallow food" concept.  Hardly any gets pushed out by her tongue anymore.  In addition to baby rice and oatmeal, she's tried squash, sweet potatoes, and apples.  The veggies were a big hit.  Yesterday was her first taste of apples.  She ate 'em, but I wouldn't say she loved 'em.  She made the bitter-beer face a few times, so I guess it was a little tart.  I hadn't planned to introduce any fruits this early...I wanted to get her through the main veggies first so she wouldn't be put off by them after tasting the sweet stuff, but her little tummy seemed to be having trouble adjusting, so I thought a little fiber boost would be good.  Plus, she hasn't refused anything yet, so with any luck she won't be the picky eater that her Momma is. 

On the subject of baby food, I've tried my hand at making some of her food...so far just sweet potatoes and applesauce...and it's super easy, so I'm hereby publicly devoting myself to making all of her baby food from scratch for a while.  It's not so much a "I wanna be a super-mom" thing as it is a "I wanna save money" thing. 

As of October 19th, she's officially a one-way roller-over-er.  She can flip from tummy to back like nobody's business.  Going the other way, though...eh, she's not really interested.  She just goes from side to side.  We'll keep practicing though and she'll do it when she's ready.  She spins herself around when she's on her tummy...if she could get her knees under her I swear she'd be scooting all over the place.  Lord help me when that day comes.  I like that I can lay her on the floor and walk out of the room briefly and come back to find her in the same place. 

Goodness.  She got active over the past month.  Seemed like there for a while I had nothing much new to report, and now suddenly I'm able to write a short novel about my sweet baby.  So there you have it.  On with the sixth month of life we go!