Juice boxes, toilet paper and more

The past few weeks have brought lots of excitement at the Shear household. This wouldn't be a big deal to most people, but the fact that Savena had her first juice box on our way to the ranch for Thanksgiving was a big deal to us. Until now, she's been relegated to drinking out of bottles and sippy cups. But a whole new world has opened up now that she's figured out what straws are for - and how to use them. It was so exciting to see her face quite literally light up with pure joy when a small twinge of apple juice hit her tongue - it's a whole new world, baby!

Much to our chagrin, another of Savena's favorite playthings is toilet paper. She has more blocks, noisemakers, dolls and stacking blocks than Mark or I ever did as a child (she has many of our old toys, plus some of her own), but one of her favorite things to do is to grab the toilet paper and pull. For example: I was washing the dishes earlier this week when I heard some giggling in the hall. I turned the water off and found Savena practically knee-deep in toilet paper and she was still pulling. Yikes! She was quickly redirected to the kitchen cabinets, where we have plenty of plastic tupperware and canned foods that she loves to pull out and leave in various places around the house. Luckily for us, she usually remembers where she put something. All we have to do is ask "Where did you put the can of soup? Or where did you leave your milk? and she races off in the direction of whatever happens to the missing at the time. The only real problem with this is that sometimes we don't realize her sippy cups of milk are missing until she comes careening into the kitchen drinking from one that has been missing for a few days. Yuck! Needless to say, Savena has very little patience when she wants her milk -- it's a mad dash to replace the spoiled stuff with a fresh cup of it before she knows better.

One more quick note: We finally found a hat that Savena will keep on her head. She absolutely adores the hat and won't leave home without it. Half the time we find her wearing it inside, so stay tuned for adorable pics of the little princess. Thanks, Bass Pro!

A biter in our midst.

The past week has been a veritable madhouse as we've literally rushed from one thing to another in order to get ready for Thanksgiving. Savena has taken it all in stride - she's a real trooper. The only slighly disturbing thing that happened is that she bit me -- twice. I'm not talking about cute little love bites, either. She really chomped down on my shoulder and actually left little teeth marks once! This coincided with her decision to stop sleeping through the night and instead wake up and demand to be fed/nursed. There is no wrath like that of a hungry child. What finally did the trick -- stopped the biting and 2 a.m. feedings -- was giving her lots and LOTS of meat for dinner. No carbs for this girl. Give her meat and she's good to go!

We're headed to the ranch in a few hours, so we'll be off the proverbial grid for a few days. I can't wait to see how Savena reacts now that she can walk.

For the past 16 1/2 months, I've been talking about getting back to this blog. Well, today's the day. Though life is extremely hectic with work, grad school, the Junior League and everything else life throws my way, I'm determined to update this blog a few times a week with short, possibly humorous, glimpses into Savena's life. Feel free to submit your own anecdotes about the little princess/squid as they come to you. I'd love to have a collection of stories to share with her as she grows up.

1st cute story of the week: Since Savena's now old enough to understand what you're telling her, she gets stars at our sitter's house for things like eating with her fork, walking to the front door by herself (so Dad doesn't have to carry her), drinking all her milk, etc. Yesterday she finished her row of stars and got to pick something out of the treat basket. The first time she got to do this, she brought home a purple bouncy ball with the words "I'm special" or something like that in bright pink letters. This time? A plastic brontosaurus the size of my hand! All I can is that it made her day...she dragged that thing around the house all night long!

Savena had a lot more fun at this year's State Fair of Texas than the last time she graced the historic Fair Park fairgrounds. Here she is getting a lift from her daddy in one of the pavilions. Supposedly, they had prancing dogs in there right before we arrived. We got to pet the dogs, but missed the show searching for cowboy boots for the little princess.

Savena's 1!

On Jun 26, 2008, at 8:52 AM, Mark Shear wrote:

She is on the verge of walking
She has 8 teeth.
She was introduced to Braum's 1% milk fat cow's milk with mom's mixed in with vitamins.
She had Grandpa's Crappie and cream corn gumbo/goulash for the first time last night. She really liked the fish. This caused her to sleep nearly 9 hours straight!