It's A Zoo In Here

Riley came home yesterday and was greeted by an excited wife, Puggle, Golden Retriever, and cheetah. Yep, a cheetah. No need to take a trip to the zoo when you have the cutest animal right at home...

It's not Halloween yet, mom!

I was reading Nicholas Spark's new book, Safe Haven, yesterday...in it was a part about a mother who had passed away when her children were very young. The father was explaining how he regretted not taking more pictures of the children and their mother together. He mentioned that she was always the one taking the photos. So I told Riley this last night and of course he made fun of me ( well I would have made fun of me too) but he took the pic anyway...

....and then continued to make fun of me a little more. He told me that he needed more pictures with all of his children then...

So our little pink cheetah went on an eating spree and then decided to give Dad a chance to see what projectile vomit looks like. It really is a two person operation to clean up the aftermath. Clean the baby, clean yourself, clean the couch, start a load of laundry. Bye bye cheetah, hello white tiger....

She may have a future with Siegfried and Roy



Hallie Grace, when you smile the whole world smiles with you!

Melts my heart

I finally caught her smiling! This isn't even close to a big smile! She was just getting warmed up here. I think she was having a pretty good dream right here. It made me laugh to myself...if you have seen the greatest movie of all time, The Hangover, then you probably remember Stew's song about finding Doug. Goes a little something like this...."What do tigers dream of, when they take a little tiger snooze? Do they dream of mauling zebras, or Halle Berry in her catwoman suit?"

What I haven't been able to capture is a real "mom, you are so funny" smile! She is finally starting to imitate faces. Now if someone asked me to make her smile I would probably be too embarrassed to do it. It involves a lot of high-pitched baby talk and a huge over-exaggerated smile that hurts my face. If I keep it up I'm gonna need Botox sooner rather than later! But it works almost everytime...she gets so wide-eyed and those little eyebrows raise up and she gives me the biggest toothless grin! I know I'm biased, but she does have the most gorgeous smile! She did a couple more new baby things yesterday but I will let her tell you about them...

Hallie's Corner

My animal jammies must have given me super powers because I was on fire yesterday. First I smiled for mom first thing in the morning when she came to pick me up to feed me. That made her cry. Then I tried to talk to her...just some little cooing noises I came up with. She started crying AGAIN. My goodness, how is this lady going to keep it together when I learn to walk?! For my last trick I held my bottle up...I debated telling you all that it was almost an empty bottle...if I hadn't told you that would you think I was Superbaby? I have been trying to figure out how to get my hands on that bottle and I finally figured out the trick. I had to spread my fingers apart real big and then use both hands...and VOILA! I feel like some kind of magician around here...everything I do gets an applause and a look of amazement. And for my next trick I will be performing...

I have been sleeping very well at night....I do better when I wear my jammies that cover my feet. Those sleepers I was wearing made my feet SO cold because I don't like to be swaddled and I kick my covers off...then I can't get 'em back once they are gone because mom and dad are snoring. "Hey folks, a little help over here would be nice!" And they wonder why I have to wake up?! Geez! Mom bought me a lot more footie jammies and now my feet stay nice and toasty all night long.

I think I am the opposite of a lot of babies out there. Sometimes I just don't want to be held anymore. Mom finally figured this out the other day. I LOVE my swing and it soothes me and puts me right to sleep.

I guess I need to catch everyone up on the last couple days because mom has been slacking off. She told me that she doesn't want to bore everyone when there is nothing to write about so I guess that means I need to start doing new and exciting baby things EVERYDAY! Does upgrading to a new diaper size count? hehe!

So Monday afternoon my Grammy ended up getting to visit me after her doctor appointment. She said that I made her day! My grandparents ended up eating with us because mom is silly and she cooked 2 lbs of beef for the enchiladas instead of 1 lb. We had enough for everyone...where were you all then??? Grammy and G-man reluctantly left me and I spent the rest of the evening being slept deprived. I wanted to go to sleep SOOOOO bad but mom and dad wouldn't let me. I get it, I get it already. Well they got their way and I slept all night long. Those two may have me figured out finally. ;) Mom was whipping around the house like crazy the next morning with lots and lots of energy...Emmi, mom and I were all walked, showered, bathed, dressed and fed by 8 am. Mom made me go to Walmart with her next...I really don't like that place. By the looks on everyone's faces at the store, they don't like it either. I think mom was trying to stock up like it's Y2K or we are going underground in a bomb shelter because she bought enough meat to last a year! I think she wants to fill up her new freezer. She got it to freeze and save my milk, but I don't see any in there yet...step it up mom!!! Step it up.

The detachable tale makes it even cuter!!!

I took a sign language class during PT school and we learned a bit about baby sign language. Riley and I have decided we are going to teach her this because it has shown to increase language skills in babies and on average they speak sooner and are able to communicate for effectively at a younger age. I dug out my old materials from the closet yesterday. I was curious what age is best to start teaching...we still have to wait a few months. Looks like 6 months is a good age to start. I am constantly thinking that we should be doing more to keep her stimulated mentally. Do I buy the Baby Einstein videos? Obviously babies developed perfectly fine and went on to be smarty pants before the Baby Einstein videos existed. I realize I am probably over-thinking this...I wonder what age Hallie will be when she realizes that her mom is a crazy lunatic???