Adventures in Toyland

I realize I'm very behind (compared to usual) but I have no shame playing catch up with the blogging world. So here goes.....

Last weekend I took Hallie on an afternoon trip to Shattuck with me. Of course we couldn't make the trip without some yummy snackies courtesy of Nanny. Her Christmas cookies are THE BEST!!!

"How come I didn't know about these last Christmas?"

Our main objective was to do some therapy with Meme. Meme's main objective was to get a Christmas surprise for Hallie. Since she is still unable to get out of the house she sent us out on a mission to ALCO to find a wagon that Aunt Lana had spotted the day before. Hal and I went to pick up Aunt Deedee and the three of us hit up the toy aisle. This wasn't Hal's first trip down a toy aisle but it was her first to be set free on foot. What a difference that made!! She is usually being held captive in the confines of the shopping cart. But not that night!! It was the happiest I'd ever seen my baby girl and she put on a show for everyone looking. Mostly just Deedee and I, but she did catch the attention of several people who noticed her squealing and running!

Here are a few pictures I couldn't help but snap of her awe and wonder while in toyland. If this is how she reacts at ALCO, I can't imagine her excitement when she sees FAO Schwartz someday......

"I'll take one of those ...and one of those...."

She had us cracking up when she'd spot something she wanted to get a closer look at because she'd sit down on the ground and scoot on her butt and inch her way up underneath the shelf. Silly girl...

Then we spotted the bears. Oh, the bears! There were about fifteen of these huge plush bears that caught her attention. She wanted them all on the bottom shelf too. ALL of them. So I obliged (a bit) and we pulled some down for her and lined them up. She was feeling friendly and wanted in on some bear action....

"I fit in quite nicely, dontcha think?"

This picture gets me everytime.....

Hallie G Bear

We let her explore for about thirty minutes. She ran up and down the aisles touching every button that made noise and pointing to every book. Everytime she'd make her way around to the ball rack she'd scream "baaahhhh" while she ran to grab one. Her and Deedee bounced the balls back and forth while I just watched loving every minute of it. It may have been the Christmas bug that had bitten me last weekend or just the fact that she was having so much fun with her aunt, but I could not wipe the smile from my face. Moral of the story...next time she's in a bad mood we are getting ourselves to the toy aisle ASAP! And the great thing about her age is that she doesn't throw a fit yet about not taking the toys home with her. Except of course the big blue wagon we loaded up. ;) Sssssh. Don't tell her yet.

We drove back out to Deedee's to drop her off and found out that Uncle Lonnie was on his way to feed a new baby calf from a bottle. I knew Hal would be interested in such a thing so we took the short drive down the road to see the little baby. Hallie wouldn't get very near but was clearly mesmerized by his drinking such a huge bottle. I was surprised she didn't try to steal it from him for a quick drink. I figured Meme was getting antsy waiting for her grandbaby to get back to her house so we made our way to feed Hallie some dinner. I set up a little towel on the floor and made her a plate of food and she got to eating....

Peek-a-boo seemed to be more interesting than eating so we did a little of both...

"Peek-a-boo"

As the nomad made her way from room to room she must've dropped part of her cracker on the floor. When she spotted this problem she knew just what to do. I was doing some of grandma's dishes in the kitchen when she got my attention to watch what my daugther was doing. The little stinker had grabbed a roll of paper towels out of a package on the kitchen floor and started to dab at the broken up cracker. I'm hoping this is a sign that she won't take after me in the slob department.

"I think that'll do it...you can barely see it anymore"

Of course she did need some help actually picking up the million little pieces of cracker but she's got the right idea. She never stops amazing me with the things she picks up on. Meme and Papa were thoroughly entertained by her silly ways. She made her way over to Papa's chair for a game of keep away with her binky. She would offer it to him and when he'd grab for it she'd pull it away as fast as she could with a big sneaky grin on her face. She reached up for Meme to pick her up and it just about broke Meme's heart when she tried but couldn't lift her. I assured Meme not to worry and that Hal was just a stout baby girl. ;) If you are wondering, the answer is YES. We did actually fit in plenty of exercise into our visit. It was just intermingled with playing chase with Hal and making sure she had a full belly. Meme and Papa had permanent smiles on their faces and so did I as we loaded up in the car. It still feels like home to me....and I hope it does someday soon for Hallie too.

Stay tuned for our next adventures in toyland. As she gets older I'm sure you will soon be reading about a toy display toppling to the ground or a handful of hissy fits. Oh the joys!!!!!!!!