Who Me?

Yes YOU!

You may be wondering why this picture is blurry. That is because as I was trying to get a cute tub picture of Miss Haven, she pooped in the bathtub :( This was her third offense - not cool baby girl, not cool at all!

In other news, the weather for the past week has been uh-mazing! I was signed up to take dinner to a family that lives about 2 miles from our house, so I decided we would walk it to them. I loaded everything up and was trying my best to get there and back in as close to an hour as possible (which meant no sniffing stops for Dutch) so we were hauling. I could tell he was super hot and getting tired, so I thought I'd try to put him in Haven's stroller and see what he did (this is a reenactment ;))...

and they both loved it! Since he was riding I decided to try running to makeup some time. We made it like this a few blocks both there and back and it was Haven's favorite part of the journey - she giggled, squealed, and kicked him (lovingly) the entire time. Dutch bailed off after a dog or I think he would have let me "push" him all the way home.

These beautiful flowers were sent to us by a little baby on it's way. I'm keeping my lips sealed until I know the news is public, but we are excited for the new family! The mama and daddy were so sweet to tell us in such a special way and we are looking forward to meeting their addition in May!

Double Digits

Ten months! This months chair pictures were even harder than the last. At this rate, I will be lucky to get one for October and November. Our fall schedule is in full swing, so Haven and I spend 2-3 mornings a week at the church which means no morning nap 2-3 days a week. After two days in a row of no morning nap, I had a very tired and volatile baby girl. If I looked at her funny she would burst into tears.

One good one:

And the remaining attempts went something like this:

A few ten month updates...

Dropping off and picking her up from the church nursery is pretty stressful for both of us right now because 9 times out of 10, she is hysterical when I drop her off, and not always much better when I pick her up. Some reports are better than others, but the sweet workers and volunteers tell me she doesn't cry the whole time, and that she does better if she is held but is okay if she can sit right next to them and play. I've been hoping and praying that she will get better; I guess it has to because I don't think she can get much worse! She appears to be better at the pick-up if I am the first mom there, so for now I will be racing to the nursery after Sunday School, MOPS, and Ladies Bible Study.

Haven definitely throws fits - arches her back and screams (see picture above) when you take her away from something she isn't done with and HATES, hates, HATES to have her diaper changed. It is a total whip to change it almost every time. The changing pad used to be a happy place where she would coo and giggle, now it is a fish-out-of-water flipping, screaming battle. You can't even hardly distract her with anything anymore.

On a happier note, Haven has become quite the talker. She started with "Buh" in the beginning of August, then moved onto "Guh" for a brief period, next was "Mama" (as my cousin Nick said - it's not a competition but I won :)), and now she's got the "Dada" and "Duh." I'm not sure I would really say any of those were her "first words" yet though because I'm not totally convinced it was intentional rather than babble.

Haven gives sweet (open-mouth) kisses, waves (but usually after the person is already gone), shakes her head no with intention (and yes, but just for laughs), dances anytime she hears music and sometimes by request when prompted with, "Haven, shake your booty." Is that terrible? Maybe, but it's darn cute at this age. I realize it won't be cute for long, so probably shouldn't encourage it but I can't help myself!

Colossians 1:9

"For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding."

This is the verse we dedicated to Haven on Sunday and it could not be more fitting. We started on March 8, 2009 and continue to pray nonstop for Haven. My prayer, which is also my biggest source of worry and fear, is that Haven will know and love the Lord with all of her heart and that she will constantly seek Him. Only by the grace of God will we get that right.

You never know what you are going to get with a 10 month old in front of a crowd, but she did great. As my mom said, she was up in front of the contemporary service so happy that everyone had come to see her on Sunday morning.

After church, we all went to brunch at the Grape and it was fabulous!

Family photo - Dutch wasn't about to let us leave him out.

After brunch, we came back to the house and Haven performed for everyone.

On Sunday morning during breakfast, she started 'saying' "Dutchy." I use the term saying loosely because she screams it in this very high pitched squeal and she is more matching my pitch than actually saying Dutch. Either way, it is (of course) adorable :)

Thank you Grammy, Grandpa, Aunt Amy, Aunt Kim, Uncle Brandon, Emily, and Aunt B for coming to church and brunch with us to celebrate a special day. It would not have been the same without you there!

Double OUCH!

Haven smacked her head good on Thursday afternoon. I felt so bad for her...I still do when I think about that hit. We were in her room, she was standing holding onto my leg and was going for the bars of her crib but fell short and smacked her forehead on the bed which also knocked her neck back. I try not to suck all the air out of the room when she falls, but I definitely did that time because I knew that had to hurt. Poor baby! She cried hard, but not for too long - she is tough and I let her play in the freezer (it's an odd favorite)!

Ouch #2 was the Tech loss on Saturday. We had some friends over for dinner that night, so I actually didn't get to really watch the game, but I think that was a good thing. While they had the cutest cheerleader, it sounds like the football was pretty ugly.

A bonus picture of Haven caught hiding her flower in the cabinet :)

Miss Em

Emily is 9! Her birthday is September 16, so Haven, Grammy, Amy, and I met Brandon, Kim, and Emily for dinner to celebrate (Grandpa was out of town and Benton was in class). It was late and definitely not Haven's finest hour, but we couldn't miss such a special day!

"Yea! I'm out WAY past my bedtime"

Grammy and Haven with the birthday girl!

Eating a lemon kept her quiet and occupied for a few minutes.

Happy Birthday to Emily!

Do you think Haven wanted some of that ice cream? I don't think she can open her mouth any wider.

There are 8 years between me and Brandon, and 8 years between Emily and Haven. Emily has been such a sweet cousin to Haven and we've been fortunate to get to spend lots of time with her lately. Happy Birthday Miss Em - we love you and hope you loved your day!

Random Updates

I guess I did this backwards because the most recent changes are at the top...oh well.

Haven finally started crawling consistently in a normal crawl on Friday. She started out in May pulling with her fingers and pushing with her toes. That gradually transitioned to an army crawl, then she would occasionally get up on her hands and knees but she didn't really know what to do once she was up on all fours. I guess she finally figured it out. She'd rather scale a wall to get what she wants, but she will crawl if she must.

Haven has three teeth now. Her top left tooth started coming through last week. Amy saw it on Monday and the gum swelling finally went down enough so I could feel it on Thursday.

While we were at the beach, Haven started really protesting her third nap and missed it all together a few days. It is officially gone now, which means bedtime is even earlier - 6 o'clock on the dot most nights. As all the books tell you, this earlier bedtime has brought a later wake time - it is the strangest thing. Haven slept until after 8:00AM three times last week. She hasn't done that since she was five months old. It has been great, but at the same time it throws our whole day off, so it's not something I want to happen all the time. I can't imagine how awesome it must feel to get 14 hours of sleep?!

While waiting at the airport in Fort Walton on Friday morning, I got this text message from Benton, "My car was broke into. The cops just left..." (He did try to call me first but I didn't hear my phone and it was longer, but I'll spare the remainder.) This is what we saw when we got home:

I was really surprised that the window was so intact. Benton was at an attorney's office at 10AM parked on 75. Talk about bold. I asked Benton if it was sad that when I saw his text I immediately assumed he was at home when it happened. He told me that was scary. Thankfully, everything that we lost (including the window) is replaceable and only with minor headaches.

A couple of months ago, I bought the Groupon for a Brazilian Blowout at a salon in Frisco. I finally had my appointment the day before Haven and I left for Destin and it was worth every penny! The stuff is AMAZING! I can be ready so fast with dry straight hair - I almost forgot what that looked like. I am totally hooked and will be doing it again every 12ish weeks.

My Grandma came in town for a week and I managed to not get one picture with her and Haven. I did however, take this picture for her because she wanted a full body shot in Haven's rain boots.

Thankfully, this has only happened once so far, but after throwing a tantrum in her bed at nap time, Haven fell asleep like this:

I was so worried she was going to wake up sore, but she slept exactly like that with no movement at all for 45 minutes and woke up as happy as could be.

Haven and I went to try out the Little Gym and she came home with the little germs. We thought she might have pink eye, but it was just a little cold and she got over it pretty quickly. She really is pretty tough and doesn't slow down much ever, but she can definitely look pathetic.
I think I've mentioned this before, but Haven LOVES to be outside. She thinks she is such a big girl now because she can "walk" out on the balcony by herself if I have the door cracked for Dutch. Then she throws a nice little fit when I make her come back in. Such a mean mom - so much to look forward to :)
We had to drop Haven's crib twice within a span of two weeks. We are at the lowest level now and have been since the beginning of August. We used to always come in to her like this on her knees, but now she's almost always standing.

Sandestin 2010 - The Final Chapter

We took what will likely be our last trip to Florida for the year over Labor Day weekend. Grammy, Haven, and I were there for eight days and we finally had a trip with the gorgeous weather that we had taken for granted prior to this year.

Grandpa, Grammy, Haven and I left the Thursday afternoon before Labor Day. Haven did pretty well on the flight - no fits or screaming, but definitely no sleeping either. Grammy and I did everything we could to entertain for two hours, and it is stressful and exhausting.

The iPhone is a great toy and Haven's got it all figured out. She moves and deletes apps, updates facebook, sends text messages, changes contacts...you never know what you will find after she's had her hands on your phone. I should add that she does it all with her pointer finger. It never ceases to amaze me how observant little ones are.

Benton flew in on the first flight Friday morning, so I picked him up and we headed straight out to the beach. Foolishly, we forgot to bring toys that Haven could gum on, so my phone cover was the best we could do. She wasn't a huge fan of the sand, but loved the water. While the weather was great this trip, unfortunately, the water was nasty so we didn't really want to spend much time in it.

Benton and I thought these were tarballs, but they are snails. SO GROSS - both looking and smelling! We heard that they feed on the algae and they have been moving along the beaches of Northwest Florida. They did finally leave our beach after a couple of days, but it wasn't soon enough.

Brandon, Kim, and Emily came in on Friday night - this was Emily's first trip ever to Destin and Brandon and Kim's first trip since I was in 8th grade. Brandon and Kim didn't tell Emily that they were going on a trip until Friday morning and never told her where they were going, so she was totally surprised when she saw Grandpa and Grammy at the airport. Such a fun surprise for her!

We stayed at the condo Friday night, but went out to dinner on Saturday. Haven was definitely exhausted after another day of fun in the sun coupled with entertaining Emily. She was goofy tired by the time we were done eating and screamed most of the way back to the condo. Fun times in the car :)

Cool chic headed to the pool. Haven LOVED the pool more than ever this trip. She would walk along the ledge (and definitely didn't want any help), watch all the kids (even made friends with Ann Margaret), chill in her float (not for too long though), and bounce around with Daddy. We probably spent over an hour a day swimming with her which is a lot for someone who's only awake for about two-ish hours at a time.

Sunday night, we of course went to Elmo's for the crab, shrimp, and one-man band. Haven was a little over tired from swimming and entertaining Emily all day (once again), so she wasn't having any part of her high chair, but did great once she was out of it. She was very entertained by me doing the chicken dance :)

Grammy and her granddaughters. Sorry Mom that your eyes are closed, but both of the girls look unhappy in the picture with your eyes open.

Sooo tired! This girl doesn't stop like this very often, but Grammy seems to have the magic touch to make her do it. And I should add here that Haven slept MUCH better this trip. We did not have one 5AM morning and she even slept until 7:15 one day.

The car trip back on Sunday was a lot quieter. Haven was too tired to even be mad; poor thing just looked so pathetic that I had to take her picture.

Brandon, Kim, and Emily left at the crack of dawn on Monday, but Benton and my dad didn't leave until the first flight out on Tuesday. So, Grammy and Grandpa graciously offered to stay with Haven while Benton and I had a date night on Monday. We went to Bud and Alley's in Seaside. Benton had not been to Seaside and it had been years since I had been out there. It has definitely changed a lot!

Miss Haven (with two goldfish in her mouth) in her fancy swim suit.

Swimming with Grammy. If you don't have kids in school, this is definitely the time to go on vacation. It's never been too crowded since my parents made the move to the non-renters building, but it was seriously like a private beach and pool Tuesday thru Friday.

Our last day, the beach was absolutely gorgeous and the water looked like glass. There were no waves, only the tiniest little movement as the water would hit the shore.

Sun kissed and ready to head to the airport. Haven has tan lines - not so much where her swimsuit lines were, but in her chub rolls :)

The flight home started out pretty rough. Haven was throwing a fit before they had even closed the plane doors, but thankfully that didn't set the tone for the entire flight. Once again, Grammy had the magic touch (with the help from a bottle) to get Haven to sleep. There is nothing better than a sleeping baby on a plane!