4th month growth spurt is in full swing. My body just hasn't got the memo yet. Even though we had planned to wait until the 27th for her four month birthday, we had to give in and feed her her first meal. Yesterday morning was a pre-thanksgiving feast for Hal. She was not wanting to nurse. Nope. She wanted the big full bottles that she is used to drinking all day at daycare. Even after I had a nice long talk with her about saving the bottles, she still wasn't on board with the plan. So after we had depleted most of our milk supply for that evening for Grammy to use, I decided it was time to get out the rice cereal. Her very first meal was one Tbsp of Gerber organic rice cereal. Yummo. Mix it with 4 Tbsp of milk and it just looks like a slushy pile of milk. I couldn't wait to get her little rubber spoons out and her colorful bowls. And of course we had to pick a matching spoon, bowl, and bib. Although two bib changes occurred before we even started the meal. She sat it her bumbo with her tray on the front. We never really got the hang of eating from a spoon so she chose to use her hand to shove the remaining cereal on her face into her mouth. Very effective method, let me tell ya! Although it didn't work out well in the end and we ended up putting it in a bottle for her to drink, she still looked pretty darn cute trying though....
(pounding on tray)...."I want food, I want food!"
"Help me tip the bowl up mom"
"So let me get this straight, I don't drink it anymore?"
This picture makes me laugh hysterically everytime I look at it.
"I don't need a spoon...duh!"
Our little milk monster is just a few short days away from hitting the four month mark and I can't believe how much she is already doing at such a young age. For example, she met with her investment broker on Monday to discuss retirement. She has also been volunteering for a local charity and has been training for a 5k. Very dynamic young lady. Well maybe all of those things are a little over her head but she has had a busy week as far as eating goes. Wow, my little heifer (I use this term with all the love in the world) is growing by the day. And I'm not just using that as a figure of speech...she looks like she gains every day. Kinda like her momma. I have been finding zero, nada, zilch, NO time to workout this week and it has left me feeling pretty depressed! It's been way too cold to take her on a walk with me in the evening, so between chores, cooking, and feeding we have been cooped inside after work. Except for our Hobby Lobby trip to pick up some Christmas decor. Ssssshhh! Don't tell Riley. I promised him last year that I would not buy one new thing this year because I may have gone a bit overboard since it was our first year to put up a big tree and really decorate.
This may come back to haunt us later on, but right now Hallie loves to watch T.V. If we are holding her on the couch, she gets pretty cranky if she can't see where the bright colors and noises are coming from. She watched her first Saturday morning cartoons in her bumbo and loves to watch her Baby Einstein after daycare....
"Can I have one of these in MY room?"
That daddy, he sure is funny. One thing I can say for sure, Hallie loves her dad! She is so fascinated by him. Everything he says and does, she is looking at him. Saturday and Sunday mornings are definitely reserved for dad. They have "fun" watching their Saturday morning car shows and Hallie has learned a thing or two about removing an engine while watching from afar in her bumbo on the garage floor. Everytime he makes her smile she gives him this shy little grin and turns her head like she's thinking "daddy, get outta town, you are too silly." I don't think anyone uses the term "get outta town" anymore but I think Hallie would if she could talk. Lol!
She gets pretty silly after her baths
Daddy's Tomboy
The BFFs spent last Sunday afternoon together while I went out to do some shopping. My main mission was to find a jumper for Hal. But I found myself in five other stores as well for some reason....I swear that the Christmas music literally sucks you into the stores like a moth to a flame. I couldn't wait to get home to my girl and let her try out her new toy. It wasn't as fun as I had imagined though. We couldn't find the instructions so we just winged it....safety first is obviously our motto..lol! By winging it I mean that I struggled to put the pieces together while Riley pretended to put everything together the wrong way to make me laugh. So a short hour later, we plopped Hallie in her new Baby Einstein stimulation extravaganza overload jumper activity machine. I swear that is what it said on the box. ;) We found out quickly that she needs to grow out and down before she can be a jumping pro. The opening for her body is too big and since she can't touch the ground she basically just falls forward and eats the front of the seat. Fun stuff. So we tried propping her up with a blanket in front of her but still no luck. I guess jumpers are not fun when your feet can't touch the ground. Who would have thought???!!! ;)
"What on earth is this machine and why is it talking to me in Spanish?"
"Oh, I get it...I'm supposed to chew on this yellow thing here."
"Why did I get the short gene?"
Kyra gave good reports from daycare on Monday and Tuesday. She wasn't there on Wednesday to tell me about Hallie's shenanigans, BUT Mindy let me know that Miss Hallie was not a happy girl that day. Despite that difficult day, it has been going wonderfully and I can't tell you how nice it is to be able to just walk across the street and pick up my girl. It saves so much time it the morning and we are lacking in the time department!
Blessed, blessed, blessed. So many things to be thankful for. I am having fun keeping up with my
30 days of thankful and reading everyone else's on Facebook. I find it hard each day to pick just one thing. As Thanksgiving nears it's always a busy time yet it's nice to stop and focus on what matters most and everything God has blessed us with. Riley and I were talking today about how Thanksgiving seems to be getting the short end of the stick this year....everything has already moved on to Christmas. Hold up people, let's have turkey first! Although I am itching to get down my Christmas boxes, start shopping and wrapping, and introduce Hallie to her first Christmas traditions, I will hold off and give Thanksgiving some attention. Gobble gobble.
I was thrilled on Thursday night when my hubs invited me out on a date. Nanny and baby spent the evening together while Riley and I went for a very rare shopping trip together and ate dinner. Is that sad that I felt like we were on vacation?....when a two hour date feels like vacation, I guess that means it's time for an actual vacation. ;) I think we paid the price later that night though....Hallie never seems to do well when she gets away from routine and that night was no exception. She randomly woke up around 2:45 in the morning and we didn't get a whole lot of sleep from then on. Friday morning zombies for sure.
Riley tried out a different approach to parenting on Saturday afternoon as he watched the OSU v KU game. Here's the scene: I'm in the study and he is in the living room in his chair about 20 feet away. I hear my phone beeping and Riley tells me I got a text. So I get up to find my phone in the kitchen and see that it's from Riley. RILEY??! "Seriously babe?" The text reads: your child is awake. Great. We just struggled for an hour to go down for a whole 30 minute nap. So I went in to my sweet girl and popped the binky in and turned the mobile on and returned to the study. I get another text message saying "Your child is still awake." He's just laughing this whole time by the way. So I went to get her out of bed and delivered her to her dad who is in a football trance and I went to take a shower. Five minutes later as I'm taking a quick shower, I hear the sound of crying creeping closer and closer. I open the shower door to find Hallie sitting in the middle of the bathroom floor looking at me from her bumbo. That poor pouty lip just gets me everytime. Since Riley was nowhere in sight I figured he was around the corner laughing at my reaction. Nope. He had returned to watch his game. He assured me that he was planning on getting her after he saw my reaction but when my horrible shower singing calmed her down, he decided to let her be. Paybacks are in order Riley!!! Lol!
We are so very lucky to have parents who are oh so eager to spend as much time as possible with our girl....it makes it a lot easier to get a babysitter that way. I just call up my parents and there is no hesitation. The answer is always yes. On this occasion we needed a babysitter so that we could go to the annual Opeco holiday party as Remington Park. We are definitely no experts at betting on horse races but it's fun to try. We had a great time this year and I love any excuse to dress up. Riley actually left his Wranglers and boots behind last night....
Grammy and G-man arrived just in time to entertain the youngster while I got ready for the party. Let me start by saying that I was exhausted by that time because Hallie had been a non-stop cranky basket case all day long. From the moment we got out of bed, she was on a roll. When she wasn't being held in front of the TV while standing, bouncing outside, or being taken on a pretend spaceship ride on dad's lap, she was screaming. It sounds like things didn't change that evening after we left either. She had her cute moments of course, but I guess it took a nice big poop to calm down our sweet girl. So by the time she felt relief, it was time to go to bed.
"I do NOT want to nap right now!"
"I missed you guys. Where ya been all week?"
"How does LSU always pull out a win??!"
"G-man, you are learning. I want to stand and watch TV. It gives me the best view. Thanks."
Hallie's Corner
Hi guys. Sorry it's been so long since my last update. I beg mom to let me blog during the week but she always gives me some lame excuse about being busy. I have been dying to let everyone know about my new skills that I've picked up this week. Lots to report. First of all, I am now a
semi-self-sufficient bottle drinker. I can hold my bottle up for about a minute, but then my little arms get tired and mom or dad has to take over.
"Dad, are you ready with the camera? Ok mom, let go of the bottle on the count of 3"
"Did you get the pic??? It's getting heavy!"
(so much focus on her face)
I amaze myself everyday with all the stuff I can do with these hands of mine. They let me pull womens' hair, yank on necklaces, put my binky in, pinch mom and dad, hold mom's hand, pray before dinner, and smear spit up on my bumbo seat. All very useful activities. So I thought mom was pretty darn excited when I smiled for the first time, but I hadn't seen anything yet.....until I
laughed. I had the giggles on Thursday and I couldn't control myself.
Everything was funny. I laughed and talked all day for Nanny and had some left over for mom and dad when they got home.
My plan to get real food worked. All I had to do was whine and fuss for about four solid hours and I got some big girl food. Score! But like most things that one greedily desires, it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. It was very runny and basically looked just like my milk that I drink everyday, all day. Maybe they could at least flavor it or something. I had fun making a mess though....
Ok, so just a quick recap for the sake of my memory (I want to make sure I didn't forget anything), I can now hold my bottle, pull hair, put my binky in, eat cereal, laugh, and walk. Haha, gotcha! Just had to make sure you were paying attention! Oh, and I have to set the record straight. The red dot on my nose does in fact match the big red dot on my leg. My doctor calls it a hemangioma. Ok, don't freak out people. This word sounds big and scary but all it really means is a benign growth of endothelial cells in infants that usually is gradually diminished and disappears by the age of 2. So, I may only have to look like Rudolph for two Christmas seasons. Just kidding, mom and dad tell me it's cute and makes me unique but why on earth does it have to be on my stinkin' nose?? Tell me that. It seems to be growing by the day, BUT hopefully it won't be as big as the one on my leg...that sucker is huge!
My beauty mark
We went on a family walk Saturday morning. I have been trying out my winter coat on walks with Nanny during the week and it keeps me pretty toasty on long walks. They thought I was cute before....but it was extreme cuteness central when they saw me all bundled up. So. Stinkin'. Cute. At that point, mom didn't want to go on a walk anymore, she just wanted to squeeze my little cheeks and hug my pudgy little body!
"Great idea guys....I think I'm blind now."
Naps are so overrated. I decided not to take any this week. But I think by Friday night my new schedule had caught up with me...I slept for 11 hours!!! Mom and dad have never seemed so cheerful on a Saturday morning. They both strolled into my room and surprised me by turning on the lights and giving me a wonderful morning greeting. Wow, they are kind of annoying when they have lots of rest.
This week could get nasty. It's bedlam week. Talk about a family divided. Oh no. It's my first time to experience it but I remember last year when I was in mommy's tummy. Mom was decorating the Christmas tree watching her team win while dad watched about the first ten minutes and decided to make a trip to Lowes because he didn't want to watch anymore. Last year seemed pretty uneventful but from what I've heard, mom and dad don't usually get along so well on this day. History has been on mom's side for the last five years but this could be dad's year to rub in mom's face. Time will tell. I have a feeling they will both want to get their hands on me first to dress me appropriately on Saturday! Wish me luck that I have two happy parents after Saturday's matchup. I have to be impartial so I guess I should say, "Go Tulsa?"
