The Arrival of Marissa

This is a grandparent entry!!! It captures our visit with Travis, Pam and Brenden while awaiting the arrival of Marissa. We arrived in Savannah in time for Thanksgiving. What a great family time. We got to enjoy Travis and Pam, but the best was getting to know Brenden in toddlerhood! Of course, he didn't remember us from this summer, so we had to get reacquainted! We got to take walks, learn a new word ("car"), shop, eat, and visit with our beautiful family:
After a couple of days, Brenden's personality really came out. He LOVES to 'read' books!!! He recognizes a ton of words and can identify most pictures (by pointing) in his First Words book. He also LOVES vehicles. His other favorite book was a fireengine book with wheels on the bottom. We 'talked' about the different emergency vehicles every day. When Pam pulled out some wooden vehicles, the favorite game became "what's this?". He didn't say 'what's this? .... but the intensity of his eyes looking at your mouth when holding up a toy SCREAMED ... 'WHAT'S THIS CALLED?'

This was his favorite floor toy. He loved the balls... to put them down the various holes and to throw them on the tile floor and watch them bounce. He liked to put a variety of things through the holes and often 'Noni' (that's me) had to get square things through the system!

Then finally the big day came... Marissa's birth day! Here's Marissa when only a few hours old being admired by her Mommy and Daddy:

..... and by her 'Grandparents Winslow':

Here she is, 4 days old! This is my favorite picture with her mom. She looks 100% cute with her dad too. (click on them to enlarge)

Such a beautiful little girl she is!! This is Marissa Hazel at one week old, and I'm sure she'll just get more beautiful as she develops facial expressions.