camping: johnson shut in's

Alex and I have been wanting to get away for a while, but Margo makes that a bit trickier than we'd like to admit. So instead of going somewhere exotic, we decided to go camping (April 6-9th)! We borrowed my parents pop up camper and headed south to the Johnson Shut In's. 

We had a wonderful time and while Margo ate a few more acorns and twigs than I'd like, she was a happy camper! We set up camp in a jiffy (after we figured out how to get the camper off the trailer hitch) and then made a tasty dinner of hot dogs. We made a fire every night because it was quite windy and cold, Margo slept in 3+ layers!

We went on a couple of hikes, a lot of walks around the camp ground and relaxed and unplugged with no cell signal or wifi. We'd go back in a heartbeat and are looking forward to our next camping trip in June.

eating lunch in the sun

She pushed her toy all over the camp ground

margo and the 143 year old dress

My family, like all good families, has several long standing traditions. Including, but not limited to, birthday gifts under our bed, sausage twirls on Christmas and babies wearing super old dresses. There are two old dresses that Squibb children are photographed in and Margo has gotten to wear her first dress!

My mom's grandpa E.H. Squibb, Sr. was born July 12, 1874 and wore this christening dress at about 6 weeks old. Apparently he was a large little fella, because his dress was plenty roomy on Margo at twelve months.

and because Margo is so cute, you should also know that I wasn't too shabby myself

margo: thirteen months

I don't know how long I'm supposed to keep up with these monthly Margo posts, but here we are and now we have a 13 month old! It's crazy to think that at this time last year we had a one month old baby and everything was new and overwhelming. Not that much has changed except the tiny babe is now a big, crawling, chatting, curious, almost toddler. We love her to pieces and cannot imagine life without her.

Margo has been teething up a storm lately and has both maxillary and mandibular central incisors and partially erupted mandibular lateral incisors. She's a slobbery mess, but still pretty content to play and explore. She is getting more and more proficient at climbing and pushing her walker. She has also discovered that the cabinets open and she can crawl inside to play and "hide".

Her routine is mostly the same with the exception of nursing, I dropped her last morning feeding on March 5th and neither of us has looked back. Sometimes I miss the extra cuddles and goofy milk drunk smiles, but now I have a little more freedom to sleep in (hallelujah!) and let Alex get up with her. She is also not taking as long of a morning nap, her day usually consists of waking up between 7:30-8, breakfast & play, nap from 9:45ish or 10-11am, lunch at noon, nap from 1-3 or 3:30pm, dinner at 5pm and straight to bed at 7pm.

Margo is so fun right now and we are loving (almost) every minute of her in this stage. As excited as we are for her to learn to walk, it seems a little scary so we're not rushing it 😬

Snuggling with Grandma after her nap and she found my old bitty baby to snuggle

She loves her baby doll so much!

Playing some Catch Phrase before dinner

She loves her baby doll

agreeing and disagreeing with mama

Learning to stand is hard work 

margo's birthday party

On Saturday, March 4th we got to celebrate Margo's birthday with all of the people we love! Since our house would burst if we tried to cram all of our favorite people in it, we decided to have her party at the Cleveland Heath party room- basically, just a large room that we filled up with food and people.

Every good party has a theme and Margo's was no exception, her theme: donuts! The menu was pretty simple, we ordered donuts from Little Taste of Heaven, had fruit out the wazoo, muffins, yogurt, coffee and juice. Since the birthday girl didn't have strong opinions about her party, we mostly just chatted and enjoyed being with friends and family. After a while, she we opened presents and then she ate her cupcake.

We are so thankful for everyone that has walked with us for the past year. I cannot imagine this year without the support, encouragement and love our family and friends have freely and so graciously given us. It really does take a village and we have the best village imaginable.