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A Long Overdue Update

It is amazing just how busy life can get when you have a mobile infant, an energetic dog and a new kitten cooped up in an 1100 square foot apartment. Not to mention two full grown adults who are still somewhat living out of boxes because said apartment doesn't have near the storage space that our last apartment did. Still, it is better than when we were living in Ocala and had half our things in storage, then some things stored across town at Brad's grandmother's house and the few things we kept available at the Martins. That is why it is so thrilling to finally say- we have a closing date!!! YAY! We have a final walk through/New Home Orientation on March 6 and then we close on March 16th. There is an end in sight! Only 3 more months of apartment life, of boxes stacked in our living room, on our patio. 3 more months of plain white walls and all our pictures under the dresser because we don't want to hang more than is necessary (basically the only room with things hanging on the walls is Savannah's room) We took Savannah to Sears for a portrait session the week of Thanksgiving and when we got back I ended up having to pack a few things away to make room for the new frames I wanted to display with Savannah's pictures. It is so nice to know exactly when we will be moving.

Of course, we have a lease on our apartment through the end of May so either we are going to have to pay out our lease on our apartment or pray that they can get it rented out at the beginning of April. I am not going to hold my breath, though, because there is an apartment across from us that has been sitting empty for almost 2 months now.

Savannah is.... well, what can I say about Savannah? She is beautiful. She is so smart. She has a very serious side- she will study new objects and people for hours. I can never win a staring contest with her. She is tiny- I swear she is going to be a ballerina or a gymnast because- at nine months old- she is wearing 3-6 month clothes and can still fit into a lot of her 0-3 month clothes. She is the same size as her cousin Caleb who is just now 3 months old. She is into everything. Brad and I broke down and bought baby gates because she wants to play in Peyton's water dish all the time. She has the cutest laugh and she lights up each night when her daddy walks through the door. She likes to wrinkle her nose and smiles when you laugh at her. She has an absolute love for her dog and is somewhat interested in the kitten. She takes after her dad and is obsessed with cords of all kinds. She has recently discovered the blinds over the slider and loves to bat at them. She loves to stare at the lights on the Christmas tree. She pulls herself into a standing position on anything that is in her path- including Peyton, as long as he sits still long enough. She just started cruising along the couch and adamantly refuses to take a step without something to hold onto. She used to try to walk (before she could crawl) and now she has discovered that she can get there so much faster by crawling. She might be the most vain child in the world- she absolutely LOVES to look at herself. Whether it be in the mirror or just looking at pictures of herself- even on the computer- it never fails to get a smile out of her. In fact, when we were at Sears we tried everything to get her to smile at the photographer and finally I got out a picture of her and she hammed it up the rest of the session. She is the light of my life, the best part of my day every day. She absolutely HATES her crib. You have never heard a child scream like Savannah does when you go near her crib. I had never planned on co-sleeping with her but when you are in an apartment with paper thin walls and neighbors who have to ask, "What is wrong with that baby?!" it is easier to let her sleep with me than deal with the fall out from our neighbors. I know that once we are in the house I will have some long nights ahead of me but at least there is a good 10 feet between her room and the neighbors. She loves to be held, almost to a fault. I would like nothing more than to sit and hold her all day but there are some days when we have to get things donw around the house and she does not like to be told no. She loves looking at babies. She even loves the word 'baby'. She has said it once or twice, very quietly, but when I repeat it over and over she sits and watches my mouth and you can see her thinking it over in her head. She is an absolute blessing and a gift from God. She is stubborn, even at 9 months. She is so stinking cute. She has discovered the DVD racks and loves to pull them off their shelves. We saw that one coming. She loves food. My sweet girl, the toothless wonder, has a sweet tooth already. I try not to indulge it except for a small sampling from time to time. She loves to watch people eat and I wish so badly for her sake that she had teeth so that I could give her more than the soft fooods she has been sampling. She is so sweet it breaks my heart. She loves to pull my hair. Every time I tell her that one day she, too, will have hair and will realize how bad it hurts when it is pulled. She pulls it again.

I could go on and on and on about her. She is my favorite thing to think about and talk about and write about. I wish I could take every moment of every day and package it up and tie it with a bow and store it for later but instead o have to settle for trying to remember everything for blogland.

In other news, my sister is engaged!! Shawn proposed last Saturday and so now I have a soon-to-be new brother. I am so excited. Shawn is everything I ever hoped that Jaime would find in a man and he is going to be a wonderful addition to our family.

Brad and I went to Atlanta two weekends ago for the SEC Championship game- and left Savannah at home with my mom and sister. For an overnight. It was the first time that I have been away from Savannah for more than just a few hours and it was horrible to leave her behind but so wonderful when I got home- and then held Savannah for the next 12 hours because she did not want to be put down. She screamed when I passed her to Brad so that I could go to the bathroom. It is nice to be missed. But it was a nice break for Brad and I, and a really fun trip with Larry and Janice and Kevin and of course it was wonderful to see the Gators beat Arkansas!

We got home on Sunday night and watched full of anticipation to see them announce that the Gators are going to play Ohio State for the National Championship- and then spent the next few hours looking or affordable flights to Arizona. I am so excited about our trip out West. We fly out on Saturday early morning and get to Arizona at 2:30 local time and get back to Tampa at midnight our time Tuesday night. So we have a few days out there which should be a lot of fun. And Savannah is coming with us this time. So she is going on her first plane trip- lets pray it is a good one!

I will upload some pictures later on today. Somebody is starting to get fussy because Mama has been blogging for a long time. I need to figure out how to upload a slideshow from Flickr because it seems so much easier than even putting together the slideshow like I did last time. Maybe while Savannah is sleeping....