Five Months!

Five fantastic and fun-filled months have passed by so quickly. At first it seemed that time was on my side and it was moving slower than I had expected. But these past three months have flown by and I know longer have a hold of time...it's slipping away! So of course my trusty camera and I battle the passing time by capturing just about every funny and new moment that we possibly can.



My baby girl,

Accomplishments. There have been a few to say the least. Among these were starting solid foods, holding your bottle, sitting up, and best of all discovering the many uses of your hands. You amaze me with how strong you are already. Our new favorite playtime activity is when I sit you up by pulling your arms up and then you pop right up on your feet. You surprised me the first time you did, and I think you surprised yourself too. You just looked at me as if to say "did that just happen?!" Yes, it did girl. Something is always "just happening." I can't keep up with all of the new things that you do sweetheart. Like just the other day, I turned to grab the towel on the bathroom floor and you had pulled yourself into a sitting position in your tub. With a little help from the ledge in your tub, you were sitting up like a big girl....

And a big girl is exactly what you are becoming. You are eating like a champ. I'm sure it seems to you that I am depriving you of fruits and veggies but the doc said only one jar each day. I think you would eat ten if I let you. Your messiness depends on who is feeding you, but there are days when you just wanna be messy and it doesn't matter how hard we try to stay clean. Plastic bibs are the best invention ever!

Hallie Grace, you love your food and you don't like to wait for it!! And of course I have proof to embarrass you for years to come...

You leave little time for people to actually get food on the spoon before you are leaning forward and grabbing for more. You still love your baths. It is the only place where we can guarantee happiness 100% of the time. And you are pretty spunky after baths too. Today I caught you in a silly moment playing with your new toy in your bath robe....

You love to explore anything within reach. And if it's not in reach you will find a way to let me know that you want it to be in reach. ;) Your vision has definitely changed and you can now see people from across the room. One of my favorite games to play with you is peek-a-boo. You just giggle and give mommy the biggest toothless grins! Oh those smiles, they are worth a million bucks!

You are still healthy as a horse and "well fed" as most people put it. Those chunky legs do not go unnoticed! Sorry girly, you have mommy's thighs. What hasn't been so healthy are your sleeping patterns. Wait, patterns are something that have a rhyme or reason, and your's do not. So we will refer to them as sleeping conundrums. I have no answers. I counted the number of times you woke up last night and to quote the principal on Ferris Bueller's Day Off...."nine times." Nine times? Really girl? That's double what you did when you were one day old. We are kinda going in the opposite direction don't ya think? 90% of the time it can be fixed immediately by popping the binky back in your mouth. Now we just need to find some way to keep that sucker in your mouth and I think we would both get a lot more sleep. I am really developing a hatred for the monitor beside my head...those red lights flashing scare the bejeebies out of me! Your dad and I have been switching off making the sleepy trek to your crib to help you back to sleep. Sometimes it is hard for me to budge him when he is snoring and I let him skip his turn. ;) Whatever you want Hallie, just name it. You want a sleep number mattress? I'll get it for ya. Just let me know and it's yours! But you have to promise me a good night's sleep like the good ol' days in return.

You have been in a funk since Christmas Eve. I thought it was teething...but teething gel, Tylenol and teething rings do not help one bit. You don't have a fever or a runny nose. I thought it may be constipation but you let me know that wasn't the case. Lol. I'm at a loss. I resorted to a nice long car ride today to help you get some peaceful sleep and for me to regain my sanity. The car...we can add that to the list of places where you are 100% happy.

Although the past few days have been somewhat trying, month #5 has not been that way at all. Besides a bit of crankyness in the evenings, you have been too busy to upset. You have learned how to entertain yourself with your toys over the past month. You love your bouncer and you have finally figured out how it works. Not so much the bouncing part, but the spinning of the toys part and pushing of the musical buttons. Shorty, you still can't reach the ground but dad put a pillow under your feet to help you out. I can usually count on at least ten minutes of self-entertainment in your bouncer. That's leaves me just enough time to do...well... nothing. Ha!

As much as you love your toys and chewing on them, you prefer to be held.....

Somehow you are still wearing some of your newborn pajamas. Everytime dad gets you ready for bed you appear in your tiger pjs and each time I am amazed that those chunky legs still fit in there! As far as other clothes you are wearing 3-6 month pants and tops and can still fit into some 0-3 month shirts. Unfortunately we don't get a lot of chances to show off all of your cute outfits as you much prefer to do it up casual for daycare and at home. You love sweatpants just as much as your mom and dad do. I just realized yesterday that your bows have been neglected lately. What kind of mother am I not putting a 10lb bow on your pretty little head everytime we step out of the house???! Practicality wins I guess.

Baby girl, lots of big changes are coming up in your life and I pray that they will be good for our little family. I pray that you will handle the transition well and settle right into our new world. Your dad and I just love our nighttime rituals with you and probably will still be putting you to bed when you are thirteen years old. You are so innocent and pure. Please stay that way forever for mommy, ok? Thank you for keeping me smiling and giving me that warm fuzzy feeling in my heart. I am so proud to call you my daughter. Although I'm still not used to that word..."daughter." I love you more than words little one. Always and forever.

A Very Hallie Christmas

First let me start by saying that I am writing this with a very heavy heart. My cousin's little girl, Eden, has been battling cancer since this summer and passed away Sunday. My heart aches for the family. Please do say a prayer for the Spaeth family as they face this difficult time. It made me stop and realize how much I take for granted, as most tragedies do. This one hit home hard though...I immediately went in to wake my baby girl up from her nap just to wrap her in her blanket and hold her. For once she actually just stayed very still in my arms and let me love on her. Thank you Lord....

We had a very blessed Christmas this year. First of all, we already recevied our best Christmas present in July. ;) Second of all, we were able to somehow do four Christmases in two days which made it possible to see everyone. I'm not sure if we will ever be that crazy again and drive that much with a 5 month old who is teething and cranky. Nonetheless, it is always nice to see so many loved ones in one day!!! Hallie started off the Christmas fun when I picked her up from daycare on Wednesday. Mindy and her daughter had a box of toys and books for Hal and a bowl of goodies for Riley and I. Inside her box of gifts was a baby's first Christmas story book. I had been anxious to teach her about the birth of baby Jesus and Hallie seemed interested that it was about a baby, one of her own kind. ;) My girl and I read it (or tried to read it) that night while waiting on dad to get home. However, by the end Hallie seemed to be much for interested in the white container that the books and toys came in than the actual book....

"Let's get this party started!"

Grammy surprised us by stopping by the house to play. Another doctor's appointment means another day to see her favorite girl which I'm sure makes each one more bareable.

I just had to show my mom how ridiculous Hallie is when she eats. We spent most of the time laughing at Hallie's eating technique. I'll go into details about that in her 5 month update but it makes me wonder if it will always be this difficult to feed her real food. She gets pretty worked up if the feeder isn't shoveling the food in fast enough for her standards. ;) While I'm on the subject of food, let me take this opportunity to demonstrate clean vs messy eating....

Clean

Messy

Yep, dad is the obvious culprit here.

Riley had Wednesday and Thursday off this past week so he was playing the role of Mr. Mom. My proudest moment was when I walked in the door and Riley said "look at the pictures I took today!" What? Riley took photos? Let me tell you, they did not disappoint either. After looking at the first photo, Riley assured me that she would be okay because he used to drink his own bath water too....

Once again, they teamed up to make a huge mess at mealtime and created a very mad baby in the process...

I think he really enjoyed his time off with Hallie. I don't think there was much relaxation going on but they did get a lot accomplished. Most importantly...shopping for mom. Lol. They did very good!

I deserve to be issued a mommy citation. I, Ashley Fanning, did not take my child to see Santa Clause. Why, you ask. Well I would like to say there hasn't been a spare moment but that wouldn't be entirely true. So I will just say that I won't let it happen again. But who needs the real Santa Clause when you can dress like him...

"I'm too excited to sleep!"

Really playing the part well...check out that belly.

Talk about waiting til the last minute, but we finally went to look at Christmas lights on Christmas Eve eve. This involved only one stop. Mainly because Hallie was not a fan of the sparkly prettiness. We went to look at the lights in Yukon at the park off of I-40. Let me tell ya, it wasn't the usual peaceful, relaxing event that it usually is...this year it involved me holding the binky in her mouth as we were trapped in a line of cars winding through the park.

Christmas Eve, oh Christmas Eve, why'd you start so early?? (sang to the tune of Christmas Tree, oh Christmas tree) Twas the night before the night before Christmas, and all through the house, there was one creature stirring, and she was squealing like a mouse. The baby had been nestled all snug in her bed, with visions of sweet potatoes dancing in her head. Off in her crib there arose such a clatter, I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter. When what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a wide awake baby, my biggest fear. I had planned to get a jump on the day because I was pushing to get off work by noon. But 4:30 wasn't really what I had in mind. I couldn't get back to sleep so I was dressed and out the door in ten minutes. When I walked in to work, the night crew just stared at me as if they were thinking "who the heck is going to do therapy at 5 am?" Not sure, but I was sure going to try. Four new evaluations and four grumpy men later, I was a free woman. A free exhausted woman with blood shot eyes and a bad hair day. Sixty minutes later I was showered, dressed and recharged. Riley had been busy all morning finishing his Christmas shopping which starts and ends on the same day every year...Christmas eve. I don't know how they did it, but somehow a bunch of beautifully wrapped gifts appeared under the tree for mommy. He couldn't wait any longer to open gifts so we went ahead and passed the babe back and forth as we traded off opening gifts. Emmi and Lucy had even had there gifts shipped to the house for us. How sweet. Hallie had also saved up her allowance to get some nice stuff for her loving parents. ;)

Once we had demolished the living room with piles of gifts and wrapping paper, we were off to Grammy's house. Hallie was so excited to be greeted by everyone in the driveway. I think they look out the window and come running out the second they see our car pull up. Then begins the argueing over who is going to get her out of the car. Dara won this day. And Hallie was super excited to see her.....

Up to something here

More of Hallie's favorite people surrounded her for some smiles...Grammy, G-man and Aunt B. Hallie was on her best behavior for at least part of the night. I was greeted by my best friend Emmi who squealed like a wild animal for a few minutes until she had shown me lots of love, then she moved on to Riley. We went through our usual Christmas eve tradition....dinner, presents, and a movie. Well we didn't actually fulfill all of the traditions this year but I will get to that. Hallie focused her energy elsewhere...she spent a good deal of time chewing on various objects as you will see....

"How much wood can a woodchuck chuck?"

"That stuff looks good but not as good as this feels on my gums."

Hallie was still in good girl mode for the beginning of present opening....then it all went downhill from there....

"See I'm a good girl"

And still chewing...

Grammy and I helped her with the gift opening and realized that she was much more interested in trying to eat the paper.

Her favorite gift of the evening was her very first Cabbage Patch doll. Grammy and G-man gave this to her for a special reason. My very first Cabbage Patch doll was one of my favorite toys when I was growing up and to this day I still have that baby doll. As some of you probably know, Cabbage Patch dolls come with a birth certificate and a full name. Well, mine was named Faith Marla. Instead I called her Faith Marlow. I still can't decide if we will call Hallie's doll Faith or her birth given name, Deborah. When I opened up the doll's birth certificate, that name made me laugh. Not your average babydoll name...

And even more chewing....

Ok, it's official. We are teething.

Once she made it very clear what was causing her problems, we tried lots of different things to ease her pain since I didn't have any orajel with me. Poor, sweet baby. She was tired also so I put her to bed and joined the happy people back in the living room. It wasn't too long before we found G-man entertaining an awake Hallie. We are still all convinced that he couldn't stand not being able to play with her and he woke her up on purpose. He claims that it is not the case but the jury is still out. We found them in Bailey's room smiling and giggling. It's what they do best....

Don't let the smiles fool you though, she still was not happy at all. As Bailey searched for the movie we had chosen to watch, Hallie continued to let her anger be known, so Riley and I surrendered and decided it was time to get on the road. A nice long car ride always puts her right to sleep. And it did. And she stayed asleep once we got home and transitioned right to her crib. Ah, silence. Time for bed.

Hallie was up bright and early of course on Christmas morning. She was the star of the show as Riley and I had already exchanged gifts. Lots of pink polka dotted presents piled up for her. If only she knew what to do with all of them. I snapped a photo of her before she got out of bed. She was all smiles in her crib when I went in and greeted her with a big "MERRY CHRISTMAS!" The camere however captured a baby with a sour mood....

Riley entertained Hal while I cooked breakfast. It ended up being much more entertaining for me though. As you can see below, Riley was playing airplane and Hallie should've requested a barf bag. Instead she just threw up in dad's mouth....

Pre-incident

Emmi was loving her time at home with her normal surroundings and our comfy bed. I had to force her to get out of bed to open her present. Bribery works best with her....

Hallie was a much sweeter child than the night before and opened presents with a little help from me. Her new bongo drums seemed to be her favorite, although she has plenty of new books to keep her occupied now.

"Those look like good chew toys...."

"I wonder if mom realizes I can't read yet...."

After breakfast, presents and packing the car, we were off to Woodward for a busy day of "Christmassing." Emmi was in tow and ready to be reunited with her sister Lucy. She was thrilled to see her friend again but I can definitely say that Lucy was less than thrilled to see Emmi come through the door and immediately begin chewing on her tail. Hallie was greeted by Nanny, PaPa, Aunt Katie and Uncle Luke,  & Aunt Kylie and her boyfriend Bret. Oh wait, boyfdriend no longer...HALLIE HAS BIG NEWS!!!!!!!! Her Aunt Kylie is ENGAGED! Her now fiance Bret surprise Kylie with a proposal and a gorgeous ring on the 23rd. He's got good taste just by looking at that rock on her finger.

The happy couple

Hallie was continuing her teething fest from the night before and just couldn't decide whether she wanted to be happy or sad. It ended up being about 75% sad, 25% happy. We had a wonderful lunch followed by taking a family picture outside...burrrr. Eight adults, six dogs and one baby made for a very quick photo session!

Although this was the only photo of just us three that was taken on Christmas, it was one I had originally planned on deleting. But I thought it was a good way to portray our first Christmas with Hallie. Two sets of blood shot eyes and two exhausted parents...oh and I can't forget one dang cute baby....

After opening presents and hanging out for a little while, it was time to head off to our next family Christmas. After we packed up our car for the second time that day, we were on the road for a short 30 minute drive to Shattuck. Hallie spent that time collecting her thoughts and reflecting on the true meaning of Christmas...aka, she had a very serious look on her face the whole drive there which either meant she was pooping or she was incredibly tired of being put in her carseat. Luckily she was cheered up right when we arrived with some familiar faces and more fun gifts. One of which was her favorite of the day. A vibrating John Deere ear of corn. Too cute....

"Mom, can I trade peas for corn from now on?"

This was Hallie's second trip to Shattuck but her first stop by great aunt Sharon and great uncle Johnny's house. Hallie Grace did let some of her spunky personality shine through that day long enough for me to capture a few precious moments of her with her great grandparents....

"Hi great grandma Donna. Long time, no see."

"How's it been going great grandpa Paul?"

After a short spurt on peaceful naked baby time, she decided that the best place to be calm was either outside or with her tootsies stuck up against the cold glass window.

The two new babies in the fam were introduced that day. My cousin Matt and his wife Amy have a brand new 6 week only boy named Aaron. I had only got to hug on him briefly the day after he was born but wanted to get the two new kids together. This next picture makes me laugh for two reasons: #1 Hallie is being held up beside Aaron in her carseat because that was the only place she wouldn't scream and #2 Aaron looks like he is saying "this chic must be high maintenance."

We had to leave quicker than I wanted to but our third Christmas of the day was calling our names. This gathering was in May, Ok at Riley's uncle Tom's house. Good ol' May...the place where I met the man I now call my husband. I was praying on the way that Hallie would suddenly come out of her funk...but no such luck. She spent 75% of the night screaming and fussing until Nanny found some room in the inn for her and she was wrapped in swaddling clothes and....oh wait. I have a feeling baby Jesus was not screaming as much as my child was on the night he was born. Food, family and a very confusing game of Dirty Santa left us wiped out.

A happy girl with Michelle

Playing with Nanny

Finally meeting great grandpa Delbert and chatting with her little cousin Bowen

We said our goodbyes and loaded up the car for the final time that day. Riley and I caught our second wind somewhere between Geary and home so we were wide awake when we finally finished unloading the car. And so was Hallie. She was caught being up way past her bedtime. She just wanted to play with her new toys soooooo bad....

"Please mom! Please let me stay up a little bit longer."

I do realize that the majority of what I just wrote was about Hallie's crankyness. Although it seemed to be the theme of the day, we did have a wonderful Christmas with our baby girl with lots of memories we won't forget! We will lovingly refer to this year as the "cranky Christmas."

As for this lady, I'm going to go put my present from Santa to good use.....

All Things Manly

Our garage was taken over by hoses, fans, bolts, tanks, and tools this weekend. Riley's Mustang engine was finally completed. With 270 hp and "stunt pulling power" this machine could be dangerous. ;) Oh I think I hear them now beating their chests and making Tim the Tool Man Taylor noises from the garage. Bill and Riley are having fun in the man cave today. A frozen man cave. I just stepped outside to ask them how to abbreviate the word horsepower and realized it is freezing out there! Hallie and I are perfectly content inside in the warmth by the tree. She is taking a much needed nap right now. I call it a pea-induced coma. Maybe I can use this to my advantage now. Just load her up on peas when I need to get something important done. Ok, back to the manly business....

The engine took a little longer to complete than Riley had planned so he is in a rush to get everything hooked back up and running before Christmas. Riley and Hallie took a trip to Enid early yesterday morning to go pick up the motor. Riley is so excited to include her in this rebuilding process because he likes the thought of this being her first car. Well, we may want to think twice before making it really nice if she's just going to hit curbs and ding doors with it. Hallie was nice enough to stop in and visit Grammy, Gman  and Aunt Sharon while she was in Enid. I don't even think my mom minded the text message I sent her at 7:30 that morning telling her that her favorite girl was coming over. They played and read books while Riley picked up his "Christmas toy" from Santa. A very expensive Christmas toy. I'm thinking of having Santa return all of his other gifts under the tree now. Only kidding. Santa is much too busy to be returning gifts. This engine will just be next year's birthday, anniversary, Valentine's, and Christmas presents all rolled into one. Hehe ;) Hallie was dressed for a day with dad but of course had a cereal explosion down the front of her so we chose something a little more preppy to wear...

"I can't work in this mom! Get me some overalls!"

I was having a grand ol' time on my own getting my hair did and shopping for more Christmas presents. I'm out of control and I'm making it official. I'm enrolling myself in Christmas shoppers anonymous. "Hi, my name is Ashley and I am a giftaholic." I had some time to finish all of my wrapping before my favorite duo got back home. Man, I miss that girl when she's gone!

Here are a few pictures that might force the women to start snoring and men to start making manly grunting noises....

The engine has arrived

There are some things in life that Riley is organized about....other things, not so much. But his garage is one of them. He had all of his parts laid out and ready for installation when Bill arrived.

Hallie was missing her dad and wanted to go check on their progress. And help of course....

"Dad, hand me the 3/8"

Hallie and I stayed inside and matched the testosterone levels with some estrogen. We sang songs, read her Bible, and tried on some cute clothes that have been hanging in her closet waiting for her to grow. Of course we had to keep the boys fed...after all, Bill was free labor. To thank him, Hallie cooked dinner tonight...

It must have been the extra energy they had from her meal but they finished the installation in record time. I'm not sure if that's the correct term for putting a motor back in a car but installation sounds good to me. They finally tried to fire her up around 7:30. Something wasn't connecting. So they jiggled some parts and wiggled some others and voila!! Unfortunately Hallie wasn't quite as prepared as I was for the horrible loud revving noise. Poor girl has never been so scared. She started with one of those cries that she has to build up silently and then finally let loose. It took me a good five minutes to calm her down inside. I laid her down for bed and went out to find that the guys had started a small fire. Hmmm. Glad I wasn't out there for that part. And glad Bill had an old t-shirt to beat the fire with. ;) Without further ado, here it is...

The next time you see this car it will go from rusty John Deere green to a beautiful sleek black! I have no idea how far down the road that is but I think I may finally warm up to the car once it gets a little cosmetic work done. Way to go boys! Job well done today!