ABCs, phrases, a bunny with a jacket, and two frustrated parents

Savannah sings!  Last week she started singing the alphabet song!  She misses some letters, but she's got the gist of it.  She can recognize all her uppercase letters and she loves to pick them out of sentences.  It's very cute.  She can also count to 10 (even though she usually skips 5 for some reason...) and recognizes her numbers one through 9 (she thinks a ten is a 1 and an O.  Which it is I suppose).  I think she may be bored in preschool...  She's starting to recognize some colors.  Mostly just orange because she knows we have an orange car and I think it's such a distinctive color that's it's easier to grasp what it is.  She knows oranges and basketballs are orange too.

She's starting to speak in phrases a lot.  She says "Hi!  How are you?"  If we say "Good, how are you?" she usually says "good".  If she decides she looks nice she'll say, "Oh Savannah, you are so pretty!".  She loves playing with Emry (the little girl I nanny for) and refers to her as her best friend.  When we say prayers and say "Thank you for..." she usually fills in "Emry!"  She loves Jesus and reads our book with pictures of him all the time.  She says please, thank you, and you're welcome pretty regularly.

Our family has a fourth member.  It's a tan build-a-bear bunny with glittery shamrocks on her ears.  Bunny is Savannah's favorite EVER.  We can't go anywhere without bunny.  Savannah shares her candy with bunny.  She also has this cute striped jacket that she LOVES.  She insisted on wearing it 24/7.  And then I thought of a clever solution.  At bed time, meal time, when it's hot out (which is super rare at this point), and bath time bunny wears the jacket.  Bunny is so beloved that this is an acceptable compromise.  Sometimes I'm jealous of bunny.  She never gets mad at bunny or scratches bunny's face.  She kisses bunny all the time and never wants her space from bunny.  When she's saddest, bunny's the one she wants to comfort her.  Bunny's got it made :).

The past few days, she has been SO CRANKY!  We're not sure what's going on.  Teething maybe?  All I know is she asks for things in a whiny voice and then when we give them to her she throws them and she just cries and cries.  We love her and try to be patient.  I'm sure this will pass, but I had to vent, just a little.

Savannah will be 18-months-old on Thursday!  I can't believe how time flies!

Les Mis!!!

Jessie and I went and saw Les Mis on Saturday.  It was so amazing!!!  Valjean was fantastic and so was Eponine.  Every character was very talented.  The power behind their voices and the live music allowed me to experience the play in a way I never have before.  It was really quite thrilling.  I cried a lot.  The barricade scene was SO fantastic.  And Javert's suicide was really awesome too.  Gavroche's death was heartbreaking.  I loved all the little touches the actors added to their characters.  They seemed so real.  And it changed my life perspective, at least for a few minutes.  I gave money to a guy on the street corner who needed money for a wheelchair.  It seemed pointless to watch a 3 hour play about poor people struggling and not do something small about it.

Prayers

A couple of weeks ago we started saying prayers right before Savannah goes to bed.  It's adorable how much she loves it!  When it's time to pray she always says "Daddy's turn!" and she goes over to kneel in the spot we always pray in.  While we pray she kneels and folds her arms on and off and she kind of squints part of the time. She always smiles and she loves saying "Amen ".  If you ask her what we're doing she says "Payer" and if you ask her who we're talking to she says "Jesus".  Sometimes she just starts praying to herself.  It goes like this "Heav Father, tanks day, Jesus, Amen!".  It's so fun :).  I'm excited for her to go to nursery!

Easter

We had a very fun Easter.  We went ot Spanish Fork.  Savannah maybe got spoiled rotten...  The basket on teh right is from us, the one on the left is from Rachael.

Beginning her hunt.  She picked it up right away.  She just kept saying "eggs, eggs, eggs".

Putting them in the basket

She was happy, I swear.  Just not so smily...

She's clapping and saying "Yay Bunny!"

Funny story.  We went on a walk after our hunt.  We walked by a yard that had half of a hard boiled egg right by the side walk.  She saw it and started saying "Egg!  Egg! Egg!".  We told her the egg was uckies and I threw it across the yard.  Then she cried and cried and called for the egg.  She was so confused, poor girl.  She also officially knows all of her alphbet.  Rachael got her some wooden letters and she can name them all!  It's her new favorite game.

Walks and horses

This week it was finally warm enough to go outside!  Savannah LOVES going for walks.  We give her free reign of the sidewalk and she goes all over.  She's pretty good about not going in the street.  When she gets close, she stops and tells herself "no no no".  Very cute.  In Farmington where I work there are horses very nearby.  So, on Tuesday, I put Emry in the stroller and the three of us walked to go see the horses.  Savannah loved them.  She just kept saying "horse horse neigh!".  But, to get to them we had to go down a very steep hill and getting back up it pushing a stroller and holding Savannah who was struggling to get back to the horses (she wanted to crawl under the fence...) was not fun.  I was not planning on doing this again.  But, Savannah is too smart for that.  Yesterday she walked up to me after lunch and said "Walk, walk, Emry, horse, horse, neigh, please?"  How could I say no to that?  So, we went back.  Looks like we've started a tradition.  I can't wait to take her to Wheeler Farm!

Savannah has finally made an attempt at her own name.  She calls herself "Vannahs".

In other news, I think I want to count how many words she can say.  Feel free to skip to the end of the list for the grand total :).

1. Mommy
2. Daddy
3. Savannah
4. Emry
5. Abby
6. Jessie
7. Grandma
8. Buzz (Buzz Lightyear)
9. Woody
10. Minion (from Despicable Me, her favorite movie)
11. Elmo
12. Bubbles
13. Water
14. Juice
15. Milk
16. Book
17. Story
18. Read
19. Eat
20. More
21. All done
22. All gone
23. Please
24. Thank you
25. Night night
26. Hi
27. Hello
28. Bye bye
29. Phone
30. Geez
31. Bear
32. Rawr
33. Ducky
34. Quack
35. Cow
36. Moo
37. Kitty
38. Meow
39. Doggy
40. Ruff
41. Big
42. Ayum (elephant sound, what she calls elephants)
43. Girraffe
44. Monkey
45. Horse
46. Neigh
47. Piggy
48. Lamb
49. Hop (what she calls bunnies)
50. Cookie
51. Cracker 
52. Cheese
53. Pie
54. Bread
55. Mac cheese
56. The End
57. Princess
58. Show
59. ABC's
60. Popcorn
61. Pattycake
62. Ronald (book character)
63. Dragon
64. Cave
65. Hike
66. Boat
67. Train
68. Choo Choo
69. Cars
70. Vroom Vroom
71. Truck
72. Tree
73. Grass
74. Mountain
75. Mail
76. Bird
77. Fish
78. Teacher
79. Eyes
80. Nose 
81. Mouth 
82. Teeth
83. Cheeks
84. Hair
85. Toes
86. Arm 
87. Leg
88. Pretty
89. Nice
90. Hug 
91. Kiss
92. Chair
93. Walk
94. Uh oh
95. Oh no
96. Bite
97. Yes
98. Oh no
99. Hat
100. Pants
101. Shirt
102. Shoes 
103. Socks
104. Dress
105. Toys
106. Eeyore
107. Blocks
108. Ball
109. Go
110. Flower
111. Ice
112. Apple
113. Blanky
114. Binky
115. Rock
116. Rhino
117. BYU
118. Humpty Dumpty
119. Go Dog Go
120. One
121. Two 
122. Three
123. Ten
124. Count
125. A
126. B
127. C
128. D
129. E
130. F
131. G
132. H
133. I
134. K
135. L
136. P
137. Q
138. R
139. S
140. T
141. U
142. V
143. X
144. Y
145. Z
146. Whee
147. Fun
148. Pop
149. Brain
150. Heart
151. Uckies
152. Door
153. House
154. Temple
155. Jesus
156. Turtle
157. Baby
158. Down
159. Keys
160. Girl
161. Boy
162. I love you
163. Owie
164. Ouch
165. Hey
166. Eggs
167. Cheerios
168. Bug
169. Help please
170. Jacket
171. Stars
172. Dance
173. Spoon

So, that's all I can think of for right now.  There are probably a few more.  I only counted the letters she recognizes in sign language so there are only 20 so far, but I bet she'll get the rest soon.  I'm so proud of her!

Shoes

Which shoes should I get Savannah? These ones or these ones? 

Uh-oh, da apples?

The other day Savannah learned the word "apple".  When I sliced a banana for her snack today, she wasn't sure what to think about it.  I left her eating them to go feed baby Emry in the adjoining room on the couch.  As I'm feeding her, I hear Savannah attempt to say "banana" but not really succeeding at all.  Then I heard "Uh-oh, da apples?"  which of course means she dropped them all over the floor.  It was just cute how she decided to call them apples.  

In the car on the way home I handed her a toy camera that sings.  As we pulled out of the drive way I heard a little "help please, help please".  I turned around and realized her camera was turned off and asked her to hand it to me.  She did and as soon as I took it from her she said "thank you!" and gave me the biggest smile.  It melted me.  She's been saying thank you for cookies and cheese for the last week or so, but this was her first genuine, out of the blue one.  it was adorable.  And I'm so proud that she's gone from screaming when she wants help to being my little polite girl.  And it's nice for a mom to hear thank you every once in a while...  Makes it all worth it :).

Going to the Doctor

Yesterday was Savannah's 15 month check up.  Not so much fun.  She has gained 1.5 pounds and grown 1/2 an inch since her last appointment 2 months ago.  She is in the 3rd percentile for height and weight and the 79th for head size!  I don't think her head looks disproportionately huge or anything though.  She's getting way too smart for her own good though.  She was terrified of being weighed and having her head measured.  We got her to calm down for the stethoscope but once the doctor started to shine the light on her she freaked out.  And of course shots were no fun.  It's very sad to hear "No No No No!" and have to hold her down...  I'm not sure what's worse actually, having a sweet little newborn who doesn't know what's coming and then cries and breaks your heart, or a toddler who's terrified and begs you to make it stop and you don't...  Oh, and the Dr. had this theory.  Since she was 11 months, whenever Savannah has wanted something, she has said "Na".  Like "Na cookie please".  The doctor thinks that she says that as a shortened version of her name.  I'm not sure if that's the case, but if it is I think that's hilarious that we've had no idea!


In other news, I sang at the Relief Society birthday party last night.  I messed up at the end, but it was okay.  Savannah learned where her heart is and the words "splashing", "egg" and "apple".

Back in Utah!

In December we moved back to Utah! It's been really nice. Right now we're actually house sitting for Corey's grandparents in Bountiful while they stay in their house in St. George which has been a good way to save a little money.


Corey is doing well at his job in Park City. It's a long drive, but he is is close to getting a good bonus and he will probably be getting a promotion soon.


I'm working as a nanny for a 7-month-old baby. Her name is Emry. She's adorable and very sweet. I get to bring Savannah along to work with me which is awesome. She's slowly learning to share and be nice. Sometimes she goes over to Emry and pinches her and says, "Ouch! No no". So, we've been discovering the joys of time out together... She's getting better at being nice though. She goes over to Emry and gives her kisses and hugs, pats her head, gives her toys, and says "nice".


Savannah is growing so much! Well, at least she's getting smarter :). She's still tiny. She's barely 20 pounds which means she can finally be forward facing in her car seat! We have her 15 month check up today and I'm excited to hear what the doctor has to say about her. She says SO many words. When we counted about a month ago she said 50, but she says way more now. She learns new words every few days. It's so much fun. And she LOVES to read. She sits for 10 minute periods (sometimes longer) "reading" out loud to herself every day. She gets really into it and it's hilarious. She learned to walk on 2/13 and has gotten to the point where she walks probably 85% of the time. She loves walking and is so proud of herself.


Last week we made an offer on a house! It's beautiful and big enough to fit us forever. It's in West Jordan and it's a really good deal. It has 6 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. It's a short sale so it might take a while to find out if we got it, but it's definitely worth the wait. We're so excited! http://viewutahproperties.com/fine/real/estate/home_view/1012522/mlsname/WFRMLS


So, that's us in a nutshell.  I"ll try to get better about posting things as they actually happen, but no guarantees... :P