Food Fight

We attempted to try some peach-flavored cereal puffs tonight. I wanted to make sure that Hallie was practicing using her pinchers so I placed them on her Bumbo tray in front of her. She seemed pretty interested in getting the little dudes in her mouth...the only problem is that she had to compete with Emmi. Goal was to pinch them up before the Puggle got her grubby little paws on them. Poor little girl didn't stand a chance...but she sure tried hard!

You've gotta fight for your food around here...

"I'm trappin' these here so that dog can't get em!"

TURTLE....it's what's for dinner.

Goodbye Gerber.

 As you can see, Hallie spent her bathtime expanding her palate by trying some of the finer foods....

"DUCK? Yuck!!!"

"IT'S STILL ALIVE!"

"Mmmmm...tastes like chicken"

"Get me to Reb Lobster ASAP!"

The Puppet Master

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but Hallie loves puppets! The sight of a puppet making some silly noise pretty much guarantees a huge smile and her strange little giggle (I say strange because it almost sounds like she's got some evil plan to carry out when she laughs).  Most of all, she LOVES the Baby Einstein puppets. Her favorite is a blue creature of some sort...we still haven't figured out what animal it is...either a creepy blue cow or a carabou. Which for the life of me I can't understand why they include a carabou as one of the animals on those DVDs. How about a pig or a dog instead? :) Well since her love for these puppets grows exponentially by the day, I decided to find her some of her very own puppets. And wouldn't ya know, there are actual Baby Einstein puppets out there! And they arrived on our doorstep this week. I have been so excited about introducing these new friends to our girl. I was sure that they were going to be smile magnets and induce tons of laughter. This was the reaction I was hoping for....

Happy happy girl

Instead, all us parents got was the look of a very skeptical baby.

"What the heck..."

MEET OUR NEW FRIENDS! (names provided by Riley)

LARRY THE LIZARD

DONNY THE DUCK

CARI THE COW

Gang's all here!!

We gave a very valiant effort to make the puppets seem fun. Larry the Lizard transformed into a scholarly lizard who was courting his maiden and liked to read books. And Donny the Duck became a surfer dude duck who liked chicks. That seemed to spark her curiosity a bit....

"Ok, I'll give it a try"

"Better luck next time dad...this other toy is so much cooler"

If at first you don't succeed.......turn on Baby Einstein.

While Dad's Away The Girls Will Play

Dear Dad,

It turns out that you are an integral part of our daily operation and we are glad to have you back! Riley had a somewhat productive week in Nashville and showed us that we are a somewhat integral part of his daily operation as well. For example, he had a bit of trouble picking out the right tie one morning....

"Which one girls?"

That's the one!

Overall, I must say that this past week was better than the one before...but not by much. Mostly tarnished by babysitting difficulties which I still don't want to speak about. I'm still holding out to win the lottery and stay home with my babe. ;) We survived well with Riley gone thanks to help from Nanny, Papa and Katie helping me with babysitting, meals and entertainment. Thank goodness for Nanny's Daycare open 24/7....

I don't think I would have a paycheck at this point if it weren't that place! Speaking of paycheck, it hasn't come so easy this week. Let's just say that some aspects of the job are starting to drive me a bit nuts. Hopefully this is something that will pass with time. Notice above how well dressed by lil lady was this week since dad was gone. She just happened to be wearing OU gear three out the four days that he was gone. The fourth day was spent in that one color that dad likes! We made sure to brighten his morning with a pic of his girl....

"I miss ya dad!"

We kept him supplied with plenty of shots of Hal so he wouldn't feel so far away...

"You're missing out here dad!"

"My motor skills are developing more by the second...see, now I can lift a whole school bus."

Shoppin' with Nanny

After spending a little too much time waiting around airports this week Riley must've gotten VERY bored because he actually went shopping...in a store...and spent some money....on his favorite girl of course. He had to find the perfect onesie.....

Option #1 & #2

Option #3...BINGO!

I think all of them apply!

A night without the 4 Bs. No baby, binky, burp rag, or bottle. After nearly seven months of early mornings and nighttime feedings, I spent my first night away from Hallie and experienced the joys of sleeping in. 9:00 a.m. has never felt so good! Riley's flight came in late Friday night so we went out for a late bite to eat at BJ's after I picked him up. Alone time. Ahhhh. But we couldn't forget that sweet pea waiting for us back home....

Our parents day out consisted of a haircut for mom, a shopping trip for dad, and lunch and a movie for both!We highly recommend Just Go With It! It's gonna be a classic I'm tellin' ya! After making a stop in Mustang to turn off our energy-sucking, money-wasting heater we were on our way to pick up our girl. The drive home was thrilling with our choice of four different high school basketball game broadcasts...it was so hard to choose one so we settled for a CD. ;) We found our tired girl playing with Aunt Katie and Uncle Luke in the nude...her favorite outfit! In true Hallie fashion, she had covered her other clothes in spit up or food from dinner. That girl! She was SO excited when Riley picked her up...he got a big smile and what appeared to be a hug! She even stayed up extra late to spent some catching up time with him. After baby went to bed it was movie and pizza night for the parents. Paranormal Activity 2 which I would not recommend. The first Paranormal Activity sent me to bed scared out of my mind and unable to walk through a dark house for awhile...the sequel on the other hand was weak in comparison. Or it could be that I made it through the first one believing that it was real up until the end.

Sunday. The day that the Lord made. For cleaning. ;) Hallie spent her morning in the church nursery wreaking havoc I'm sure (jk). I thought about asking them if Riley could stay but I didn't bring his food or diapers so I figured they would have said no. Bummer. After church we celebrated Aunt Kylie's birthday with a lovely lunch and some cake! Hallie actually managed to self-entertain for most of lunch. Happy Birthday Aunt Kylie! Hallie got you a present.....

"I'm sure my parents wouldn't mind"

What else do we do on Sunday afternoons you ask? Usually we take naps or just sit around, be lazy and watch some tv. But today was different. We did things that other families only dream of doing. Get ready to be jealous.....

• We ate sticks.....

"My favorite pastime..."

• Remember that $6 that Emmi had for a snack about a couple weeks ago. Well Riley had saved it for a rainy day and decided to tape it back together....

And this, ladies and gentleman, is why I shop in secret.

• We also chewed on plastic circles and played with the creepy new baby doll....

Ok, I'll stop. I don't want to make everyone too envious.

But all joking aside, I love my quirky little family. Even if taping money back together, chewing on wood, and teething on everything in reach is what they enjoy doing, well that's fine by me. :)

Hallie's Corner

FREEDOM!! My parents finally took a hike and let me do my own thing for a night. They left me in good hands. Several different hands in fact. I started out at Nanny's on Friday night. Mom was slow to leave me and gave me way too many kisses...it was only one night momma. It's not like I'm gonna learn to crawl or grow hair overnight or anything. Nanny and Papa had a grown up party to go to that night so my Aunt Kylie spent some time with me. We ate, and then played, and then we continued to play, and we topped it off by playing some more. Then it was bed time for me. Since my crib is in Aunt Kylie's room she was the lucky person who got to feed me at night. I took it pretty easy on her until 4:00 am rolled around. I was just so excited when I opened my eyes and saw her across the room...play time was ON! She was so cool and had fun with me for an hour and then I think she started to get sleepy again. But not me! Now I was ready to play with Nanny. I still wasn't even missing my parents at this point. But I know they missed me. I mean, how could they not??? I ended my day at Aunt Katie and Uncle Luke's house...I went for a walk, ate, and played like you wouldn't believe. And I still didn't even miss my parents. But boy was I excited to see my daddy when he finally picked me up! My first night away from both parents...a piece of cake. But let's not try two nights just yet.....

****Please say a few extra prayers...or feel free to say a billion...for Hallie's Grammy Karen. She is back in the hospital at Integris in OKC once again. Same problems, but still no answer. Please pray specifically for an answer to her medical issues, knowledge for her physicians, and peace of mind for Grammy. I know she is all too familiar with this and hasn't been able to work in a month which has left her going stir crazy. Thank you for praying!****

A Visit to McDreamy

"IT'S Dr. McDREAMY TIME AGAIN!!!!

It's that time again. Checkup time with Dr. McDreamy. As always we are two weeks behind schedule so we will call this her 6 1/2 month checkup. We had debated just cancelling her checkup with him and going to her doc here. But oh how we like him so......

Tuesday's are my day off so therefore every doctor's appointment, meeting, or any other task will be scheduled on a Tuesday from now on. Hallie's two appointements in OKC today just happened to fall on a Tuesday thankfully. It couldn't have worked out more perfect because Riley needed a ride to the airport to catch his flight to Nashville. He is off to the national practice manager convention this week to learn a thing or two about his career. All I wanted to do was jump on the plane with him but work and home called. So I answered. I can't deny that relaxing in a hotel all day and enjoying what the country capital has to offer every night sounded like absolute perfection....but alas, I just started my job....and not to mention I really doubt I could handle leaving Hallie for longer than one night. I'll test that out on Friday night when I go pick up Riley and leave Hallie with Nanny and Papa.

We had just enough time to stop by our Mustang house to check on things...and it's a good thing we did. The entire dining room was covered in leaves and a realtor had placed a paper that was hanging on our door inside on the counter. So not only did our house look ridiculous with leaves everywhere, but there was now a creepy piece of paper on the counter talking about the end of the world and warning of a deadly earthquake. GREAT! That'll sell a house fast! More like send potential buyers running fast! After cleaning up the unwanted foliage in the dining room we dropped Riley off and kissed him goodbye for the week. Hallie wasn't able to give him a proper goodbye because she was too busy screaming at the top of her lungs throwing a fit about being in her carseat for so long. I think it's almost time for a big girl carseat...she just needs to gain a few more lbs. I think she has got that covered! Lol! ;0

Once I reminded Hallie where we were headed next, she wiped her tears and shaped up quickly. I just mentioned the part about her boyfriend/doctor...I left out the part about getting shots though. Hallie made sure to wear her pretty new outfit and put on extra lotion this morning to look good and smell good for him. ;) As always she gave him some of her best grins when he walked in. And she continued to bat her eyelashes even after he called her a "chunker and a "roly poly." She is staying pretty steady on her growth curve with her height in the 20th percentile, weight in the 70th percentile and head circumference in the 90th percentile.

Height: 24.5 "
Weight: 17lb 2oz

"That's so nice of him to give me free food, huh mom?"

"But he could have included the water too...this stuff is hard to eat."

It's time to start her Gerber 2nd foods and she can start eating cereal puffs when she is able to crawl...which may be awhile because I'm convinced that she can't get the hang of crawling because her head is so big and heavy. In other words, she's top heavy. :) Heart and lungs checked out good. She was a champ when it came to taking her shots. And in the end, even though I didn't plan on making a 9th month appointment with McDreamy, I went ahead and did it. Per Hallie's request of course! First appointment was a success and we were off to the next. We realized that we had an hour to waste and the mall was conveniently nearby so we took a quick stroll inside to our favorite store...Pottery Barn Kids! Oh the magical-ness of that store just excites us (me) everytime we (I) walk in! She of course came away with a couple goodies....

"Princess Baby on the Go" and "Little Bunny Finger Puppet Book" & her easter bunny came a little early

"Mom, you might wanna bust out that can of food the doc sent home with us."

She worked up an appetite from the shopping which reminded me that my tummy was rumbling so we stopped for a bite to eat...

"Why do people keep staring at me? Do you think it's the 10 lb bow?"

Dr. Clements is my hero. She let Hal stay asleep in her carrier for her exam instead of disturbing her. She slept right through everything. We will go back in eight weeks to check for growth of the hemangioma on her nose. So considering it took her thirty seconds to check her over it was painful to fork over $85 for her to tell me what we already knew...the dot on her nose hasn't grown. Good news nonetheless!

I'm not sure if it was the nice weather or if Hallie had developed a complex after being called chunky by McDreamy, but Hallie really wanted to go for a walk when we got home. We suited her up in her best workout gear and met Aunt Katie out at the walking trails. In the words of Fergie, Hallie was walkin' through the trees just workin' on her fitness! And what better time to try out her newest pair of kicks....

Aunt Katie getitng an arm workout as well

<3

Someone may have overdone it with the fitness so we headed home for a breathing treatment....

"I'll have to pace myself next time..."



Stay healthy baby girl!! We love our little "chunker"!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My FuNnY VaLeNtInE

Hearts. Candy. Love. Hugs. Kisses. Red. Pink. Cards. Just your typical Vday words. Except this year I get to add Baby. Baby's first Valentines Day! I wanted to get Hallie a special gift that she could use for awhile...something pink. And girly. Thank you Pottery Barn for being quick with your service. I was afraid her gift wouldn't arrive by Vday and I had begun to lose hope at 6:30 pm until the doorbell rang. Thank you hard working UPS man for delivering my girl's gift on time!

I thought we could just pull it out of the box and use it but it took some manpower to put together. Well, about ten seconds of man power....

Finally something we don't need dad to put together for us

Ta-Dah!!!! Happy Valentine's Day big girl!

Princess Throne

"Correction momma, I'm the queen in this house"

I guess she didn't trust my construction skills because she just had to take a second look at the assembly directions.....

"Let's just take a quick looksy here..."

"Gah mom, a monkey could put this chair together."

She worked up quite an appetite after all of her assisting.....

The lucky lady got lots of goodies from the other kiddos at daycare and an extra special card and gift from Grammy and Gman to add to her savings account.....

 Gman says "this is the holiday where all the little girls flirt with the little boys..."

Daycare valentines

She also scored a cute outfit and hat from Nanny, Papa and Aunt Kylie...

Holy Cuteness!

We spent a quiet, not-so-romantic evening full of cleaning, packing, giving breathing treatments, entertaining Hallie, and cooking Riley's favorite meal. Although somewhat hectic, having two Valentines is awesome!!!

DOUBLE THE LOVE!!

The May Zoo

What a gorgeous day we had this Sunday. An even better part of the day...it was plain ol' normal. Just how we like it. Here is evidence. We actually ate four consecutive home-cooked meals this weekend....that hasn't happened in quite a while (and mooching off of Nanny's home-cooked meals doesn't count). I am fairly sure Riley didn't know what to do with a domestic lady in the house. We'll see how long this lasts. ;)

Hallie woke up in a spectacular mood and I knew she was back to 100% once I opened her door to see her bright shiny blue eyes sparkling with excitement for the day. We started off the day just like we begin every day....saying good morning to Hallie in the mirror. Each and every morning she is thrilled to see herself and give herself kisses. I'm gonna have to stock up on more Windex! She spends a lot of time touching the mirror and adoring her reflection. In the words of Carly Simon...."Hallie, you're so vain."

"I may be vain, but I sure am fun to look at"

Since we've had the mindset of keeping our babe isolated and indoors to keep her healthy, we stayed cooped up inside for the first half of the day. After noticing all of the comments on Facebook about what a gorgeous day it was we decided it was not a day to be wasted. So we loaded up and headed off to the farm at May. It doesn't take much to get me excited and I immediately was telling Hallie about meeting moo cows. I guess if we can't have the zoo, we've got the farm. On the way to May we made a loop around Ft Supply lake...or should I say Ft Supply ice skating rink? The entire lake looked like a huge skating rink with geese just hanging out on top of the ice. I couldn't help but snap a photo of it. It was gorgeous and looked like it went on for miles and miles.....

Hello moo cows. Hallie the baby piglet comes in peace. Hallie was sporting her pig hat to fit in on the farm Too bad her overalls won't fit for a few more months. Oh and boots, we need boots too! Those cow pies aren't friendly on tennis shoes. The May Zoo features the black cow exhibit as well as the newly added brown cow exhibit. I have a feeling Riley and Hallie will be spending many a day out on the farm now that we are so close. I think I should probably spend some extra time with them to drag out some of the country in me....ask Riley, I spent  most of our time amongst the cows yelling, "babe, get away from the bull" and "babe, that big one is eyeing you guys!" Apparently cows are friendly creatures...who would have thought. ;)

This was Hallie's first trip to May. Where is all started. Just a short jog away at the May Coop was the very spot that I laid eyes on my future husband. She's too young to know now but she will understand someday how cute farm boys are. ;) Of course armed with my camera I enjoyed simply watching my two loves walking around in the beautiful sunshine in the wide open space breathing in the fresh air. Ahhhhhh, relaxation. It's almost as if I was at the spa getting a pedi and a massage. Ok, maybe now that relaxing but the clear blue skies were a blessing from God. It's been awhile since we've seen them. Or maybe it's just been awhile since we noticed. Either way Hallie seemed to have a good time meeting her new friends.... 

<3

"This little piggy...."

".....cried wee wee wee all the way home"

We aren't completely sure but it appears that the May Zoo lion made as escape from his exhibit and had some fun with the cows....

"I need a zookeeper STAT!"

"They eat almost as much as I do dad!"

Just call us Britney Spears because we did something bad enough to have our safe parent cards revoked today. Alright maybe not that bad, but we did let Hallie ride the 1/2 mile from the farm house to the cow exhibit sitting next to dad minus her carseat. The look on her face lets me know that she is just like her momma....a safety first paranoid freakazoid...... 

"Excuse me?!?!? Where is my three point harness?"

After a very rollercoaster-ish week, the three of us were happy to be able to take advantage of a blue sky, fresh air kinda day. Thank you Lord for all of your blessings big and small....