Tricks of the Trade

Hallie's trade: being a growing and learning silly girl

Hallie's tricks: endless


We have our very own variety show here in the Fanning house with a cast of one.....Miss Hallie Grace Fanning. As they say on American Idol, "she's had no formal training"...just a natural born performer. I swear you provides never-ending laughs and keeps me saying "babe, get in here and see what you daughter is doing now!" Here's just a peek into your silly show:

*We got home this evening and I put you on our bed to wait while I changed into some comfy cooking clothes. You wiggled your way down to come and see what I was up to and stood patiently beside me but something made me think you were waiting for something. I checked my watch and realized it was already dinner time. I casually asked "are you ready for dinner?" Before I could even blink you were making a beeline for the door after dropping binky and cup in one millisecond. I followed to find you standing at her highchair with your hands in the air. You know the routine well enough and started to lift one leg up for me to take your shoes off. You know the drill. De-clothe before dinner! You got to business chowing down on the meal and like clockwork let out a big "mama!!!" when you ran out of food on the tray. Mama to the rescue!

*Bathtime always brings big laughs. You continue to spread out your wash rag meticulously to make a nice comfy place to lay your weary head. Now you've started to ask me to lay my head down too. You spread it out and lay it on the side of the tub and proceed to gesture your head as if to tell me to lay my head down. You love to get your wash rag soaking wet then put the whole thing in your mouth and squeeze down and scrunch up your face and grunt. It looks like tough work!! Your dad asked you to "take a bath" and you grabbed your wash rag and started to scrub your legs. Bahahahaha!!

*It's a challenge to keep you still long enough to dry off after a bath. You often slip away, literally, and run straight for your cup. I guess all that bathing is pretty exhausting! Tonight I asked you to go to your room and get a diaper. Sure enough, without so much as a pause, you waddled to your room, grabbed a diaper, shouted "mama" and placed the diaper up against your backside. Thanks for showing me how it's done baby girl!!

*Much to my delight you have taken a liking to your DVD player in the car. It's been a long time coming to find something to keep you satisfied in the mom wagon. Alas, we've found the answer. In fact you do something that makes me laugh everytime I strap you in lately. I wait for the moment that you spot the screen and wait for you to start clapping, grunting loudly in anticipation or pointing to it adimately. It's like you are saying "let's get this party started!!"

*This next trick is not such a welcome one. You enjoy picking your nose. Yippee!!! And your nose must enjoy you picking it because you can be found with your finger in your nose quite often. You must be watching your dad too much. Lol!

*Not only have you been trained to look at the camera and give me the the perfect shot, but you also let your dad take pictures of you with your own plastic camera. He holds it up and you say "sheeeeee." That's "cheeeeeeese" in Hallie talk. You don't let him keep it long though....you like to turn the tables on him and make him say "sheeeeeee!"

*I am convinced that you set out with the goal each morning to remove everything in the house from it's drawer...every dish, pan, plastic container, piece of clothing, etc. The moment your tiny feet hit the ground you dart toward the bathroom, open my drawer, toss at least five objects on the ground in your endeavor to locate your toothbrush and toothpaste. Once you find it you then take off toward the kitchen for some breakfast. Like clockwork. You then make your way to dad's night stand and throw his wallet, keys, papers and anything else within reach to the floor and leave a mess in your wake as you then prance back into the bathroom to dig for my makeup bag. You are no fool and know when it's makeup time. We must get blush on those pretty cheeks ASAP before we can continue with anything else. Diva in the making for sure. The thought of that kind of terrifies me....;)

*You are a graham cracker maniac. We have recently reintroduced you to this yummy snack. I now remember why we got rid of this snack....you are OBSESSED with them. Once I give you a half, you then want a whole. And then when you have a whole you want another whole one in your other hand. And don't get me started on when dad is eating one. Just tonight you ran to him with your two huge crackers and screamed bloody murder until he gave you his cracker. You then sat one whole cracker down ever so gently on the floor and waited for Emmi to come and snatch it up. The dog had a cracker, you had two crackers and dad had none. How fair is that baby girl?! We have to be stealth when hiding this box of goodies. If you see where we put them you will stand in that place and scream a scream that makes my ear drums cry until I give you another bite. See a trend here?? Yep, I'm a pushover. Oh I've got to work on this....

*You know exactly where we keep your teething gel and medicine. You will sometimes stand and whine at the counter where we keep your Tylenol. I sit her shaking my head because I still can't figure out how you know have associated that already with feeling bad or having a fever. Smarty pants. Same goes for your gel....you will go and dig it out of your bin under your changing table and come and hand it to me. Only when you are doing some major teething and slobbering do you tote this tube of feel good gel to me. You know where to find the milk of course and have about given up on trying to open the refridgerator. But I'm sure you aren't far away from getting the hang of it though.

*I'm not sure if you would call this a trick but you do this incredibly adorable thing where you peek around the corner at me and ask "mama?" as if you are checking to make sure I'm around the corner. I always answer with "yes baby?" and you seem satisfied and go about your merry way. Like I said, you can say "mama" all you want and my ears will keep dancing with delight. ;)

Keep up your tricks and we'll keep watching.


Forever your audience,

Mom & Dad