Happy Birthday Squirrel!

How is it that Savannah is three years old today?  Actually, she's been three for almost 15 hours already, since she was born at 11:01 am in Tokyo.  We should have been celebrating at 6:01 pm last night--darn!  I'll have to remember that in the future when she's old enough to understand the concept.

I can't believe that the tiny baby who came out in scary shades of blue and purple is now the tall crazy blonde that has learned to like snuggling and still prefers Japanese food to anything else.

 

 

Happy Birthday Squirrel!  We love you!!!

"It's Savvy's turn now."

Yeah, I know, you probably think that I had forgotten about this blog.  Things have been so busy (I  know, excuses, excuses)!  So let's do a little catch up!

Halloween (FINALLY!)

This year Savannah dressed up as a pumpkin. She still loves pumpkins as much as she did last year and her pumpkin costume still fits, so we figured not to let a good thing go to waste and dressed her up as a pumpkin again.

Ella dressed up as a ladybug (she had to be some sort of bug, right?).

We all went out trick-or-treating to about 5 houses and then Nate went back to our house with Ella so that someone would be there to hand out candy, and Savvy and I continued down the street.  The first house we came to Savvy proudly said, "Trick or treating!" Not bad!  The next house she managed to say "Trick or treat!", but it was before the door opened.  After a few houses she got it down and she proudly told a father that was accompanying some kids, "Look! I got trick or treat!"  After we finished our side of the street, I switched with Nate and he took her out to go down the other side of the street.  He told me that she would get up and ring the doorbell and when other kids would start coming up behind her, she would turn around and tell them, "It's Savvy's turn now."  She came home with an Elmo head full of candy and set up camp at the kitchen table to sort through her booty.

The first thing she ate was a Dum Dum and the second thing was a pack of Smarties.  Luckily she had a few things like a pack of fishy crackers (bless the house that handed those out) that weren't so sugar laden that she chose to eat.

I love you Grandma.

My Grandmother Kenison (my mom's mom) passed away this morning.  I've been meaning to post our Halloween post (I know...it's taking long enough, I'm sorry!), but I think that will have to wait another day.  Nate took the following series of photos this past July during one of our visits with Grandma.  Grandma was having a lively discussion with Savannah about how big she had gotten.

 

 

 

 

Then Grandma wanted to know how many teeth Savannah had.  Savannah didn't respond, so then Grandma said, "Show me your teeth!" When Savannah didn't show her teeth, Grandma said, "Look at Grandma's teeth!"  Such a funny moment.

These are the moments I love and cherish.  We will miss her spunk and the love that she had for all of her family.  I love you Grandma!

My other post about Grandma: http://www.lafujimama.com/2009/11/grandma-raiding-larder-of-my-memory.html

The Great Annual Pumpkin Patch Visit

I seem to be using the same line over and over again on here, but wow, "TIME FLIES!"  I can't believe that another Halloween has come and gone.  The weekend before Halloween we went out to Redlands for our annual trip to The Pumpkin Patch. 

I can't believe how much Savannah has grown and changed since our last visit!  She was even more into the experience than the last time. 

Ella was an angel during the visit, enjoying being held.  She is such a snuggler.

 

 

 

 

Savannah thoroughly enjoyed all of the animals,

 

enjoyed searching for the perfect pumpkin,

and was a little dare devil on the big blow up obstacle course and slides.

 

 

My dad managed to make a new friend during our visit.  Sadly, my mom wouldn't let him bring his new friend home.

A perfect day!

Growing Up

Both of the girls seem to have put the pedal to the metal in the growing arena.  Not physical growth, because both Ella and Savannah seem to have hit temporary plateaus, but mental growth.  Ella changes by the minute, adding new tricks to her repertoire and becoming more and more her own little person.  Her new favorite trick is climbing (something that Savannah never really did).  She scares me.  It's strange to have her starting to feed herself fingers foods,

and wearing some of the clothes that we loved to dress Savvy in, like this dress my parents bought for Savannah in Thailand back in 2007.

She is reaching so many stages and milestones that I remember Savvy hitting.  With Savvy I remember thinking it took forever to reach them, but with Ella they seem to rush at us in spades. 

Savannah continues to grow as well.  We enjoy the funny things that she says. 

Her favorite foods are currently vanilla yogurt (which she calls "flower yogurt" because of the flower that sits next to a vanilla bean on the container of the yogurt we buy), edamame, and mushrooms (raw AND cooked).  Yesterday when I picked her up from Nursery, her Nursery leader told me that Savannah had gone up to her at one point and said, "I have to give you a hug!" and then threw her arms around the Nursery leader's legs. 

She has started saying the blessing on the food sometimes at dinner time all by herself.  Last night when she said the blessing, she proceeded to list out every item on the table, including the plates and silverware, before actually blessing the meal.  It was too funny!  I wonder what thought process prompted that list?

Lately I've blinked and a month is gone.  I'm glad that I chose "Live" as my theme word this year.  It helps me remember to live in the moment and appreciate those moments.  I'm not perfect, but I'm definitely trying to worry about things less and enjoy my moments with my family more. 

New Heights

Ella is feeling much better.

It turned out that she didn't have a bladder infection, so who knows what was really going on! She either had a doozey of a viral infection, or an undiagnosed bacterial infection.  She did seem to respond to antibiotic shot, so who knows!  She is obviously feeling better, because she has decided to go to new heights. 

On Sunday she started pulling herself up on the couch, and now is using anything she can get her hands on to boost her up.

Savannah is also working on attaining new heights, but mostly in the block arena.

Poor Ella!

If you'll recall, Ella got sick a few weeks back (starting with an ear infection, nasal congestion and teething).  Well, 2.5 weeks later and she is STILL sick.  I ended up taking her back in to see her pediatrician yesterday.  We thought she was getting better, but then this past Wednesday things started to flare up again.  Ella started running a fever again and throwing up. Finally, after she basically didn't sleep Wednesday or Thursday night (ok, she slept, but no longer than 20 minutes at a time), I took her back in yesterday. They ended up putting a urine bag on her and we had to sit there and wait for her to pee. TWO AND A HALF HOURS LATER she finally did.  They've sent it in to be cultured, but they're thinking she has a bladder infection because there was blood in her urine.  They ended up giving her an antibiotic shot and started her on a THIRD COURSE of antibiotics.

Bitter or Better

I just happened to turn on the TV to catch some news and the NBC morning show was on. They were interviewing a couple and honoring the wife. She has some sort of debilitating disease and they were honoring her remarkable attitude and approach towards life and her husbands support of her. At the end of the program they had Broadway singer Max Von Essen come on to perform a song written by David Friedman and Dave Bellochio called Bitter or Better. I just loved the words and had to share them.

Bitter or Better

Some say there is no future,
Some say that's just a lie.
Some say that life's worth living,
Some say they'd rather die.

Some see the glass half empty,
Some see the glass half full.
Some see the ordinary,
Some see the miracle.

Bitter or better,
Donor or debtor,
It's all in the choice we make.
Bitter or better,
Forgive or forgettor,
It's all down the road we take.

Some think they're getting better,
Some think they'll never heal.
Some think that faith is folly,
Some think that God is real.

Some try to make a difference,
Some try to just make do.
Yes there are two kinds of people,
Which one of them are you?

Are you bitter or better?
Donor or debtor?
It's all in the choice we make.
Bitter or better?
Forgive or forgettor?
It's all down the road we take.

Why do some people keep smiling,
While others never do?
If there are two kinds of people
Which one of them, which one of them,
Which one of them are you?

Are you bitter or better?
Donor or debtor?
It's all in the choice we make.
Bitter or better?
Forgive or forgettor?
It's all down the road we take.
It's all in the choice we make.
Which road are you gonna take?

Look at those baby blues!

Crawling, doctors, and teeth.

The past week or so has been an interesting one at our house. Savannah, Ella, and I all got sick after a visit from Nate's sisters and our nephew. Savannah had the lightest case--just a bit of a mild cold. Ella and I, on the other hand, have had a rougher go of it. I've had swollen tonsils and a sinus infection, but poor little Ella has had an ear infection, sinus infection, and has been teething, all at the same time. She cut her first tooth on Sunday, August 16th, and has three more that are right there under the skin. We went into the doc on Wednesday of last week for her six month well-check, but it ended up being a "sick"-check because she was running a fever and generally miserable. She was put on a 10-day course of Amoxicillin and her well-check was rescheduled for today. Unfortunately she didn't take a liking to her Amoxicillin and exercised her gag reflux with every drop. The problem increased with each day to the point where she was just throwing it up about 5 minutes after we gave her a dose. She has been getting a bit better, but is still generally feeling lousy. So today when we went back in for her rescheduled well-check, it became yet another sick-check, and the pediatrician changed her meds, starting her on a new ten day course of a different antibiotic. Poor baby!
In other news, Ella has decided to become fully mobile. She's been travelling by rolling around everywhere for about a month now. About a week ago she figured out how to get up on her knees, and then a couple of nights ago, things clicked and she started to crawl. She's not a very efficient crawler yet, but efficient enough to crawl into the nook where we have our DVD player and pull out the power strip. The nook is a big hole that is a weird size that we need to have shelves and doors custom built for, but just haven't gotten around to. After the aforementioned incident, I installed a baby gate to cover the hole until we can get something built. It's amazing how quickly you forget about baby proofing. Ugh.
So for now we're keeping our fingers crossed that this time the antibiotics will do their job and we'll spend our time waiting by trying to keep track of our little crawling Bug.

A girl's gotta have some shoes.

Hangin' out.

When life happens, eat Chicken Tikka Masala

Sigh. Another trip to Utah, lots going on, life happens to me again, Chickenscratch gets neglected. It is what it is. This is just a quick post to say 1) I'm going to try to get back on the wagon again and 2) to share a picture. Kristen (Nathan's youngest sister) is here visiting and his other sister Misha and her little boy Caleb were here (but left this morning). We've been having SO MUCH FUN with our company. Tonight Nathan picked up Indian food on his way home from work. Savannah ate a whole bowl of Chicken Tikka Masala, MEDIUM spicy, over basmati rice. Hmmmm...can you guess what I ate A LOT of while I was pregnant with her in Japan (though mine was as spicy as they would make it)?
My kid rocks.

Repentance, Part I

According to my mother, I have been derelict in my duties in keeping you up to date with the goings on of the Hutchings family.  Who me?  So I guess this is the beginning of my repentance process.  I'm going to do some massive "catching up," so if you don't want to see massive loads of pictures, either go visit someone else's blog, or run, very fast, away from your computer.  We recently got back from a trip to Utah.  We timed it so that we could be in town at the same time as Nathan's sister Misha and her cute family.  They just moved to Washington (state) from Ohio, and so were in town for a few days on their way to their new place.  We only had 2 days with them, but it was a lot of fun.  We hung out,

 

played games, celebrated Misha's birthday,

 

 

and attempted to get a family picture where everyone was actually looking at the camera.

 

One of the best parts of visiting family is watching the girls interact with and get to know everyone better.  Savvy always adores being with Grandpa and Grandma,

and (Great) Grandpa George

 But this time she also enjoyed being with Aunt Misha, Uncle John, and Cousin Caleb.

 

 

If she could talk, I'm sure Ella would tell you that she loved her visit too.

 

  

  

Uncle John did his best to teach her his tricks, though his attempted lesson in walking hasn't taken as of yet...(thank goodness)!

Though he did seem to have the magic touch in other ways.

Cousin Caleb even took some time to teach her about belly buttons.

 

 It was so fun to be together--we just wish we could do it more often!