Where'd my sweet girl go?

That was my question I kept repeating in my head all week long. Thankfully we have had our regular daughter returned to us and things seem to be inching back toward normal. The crazy part is I never did actually figure out what was going on to make our baby girl turn into a monster.

Let's show this week's result in diagram form:

:( ----> {}

The sad face is me. The other thing beside me is my whit's end. I was right at it.

Unfortunately I did not make it through this week with near as much grace as I would've hoped. Grace would be the very last word on the last to describe how I handled this week. Inside I felt like a raging lunatic at times. These times were usually between 11p.m. and 3 a.m. when Hallie would be up partying in her crib, screaming with her eyes closed and holding out her cup shouting "ju! JU!!!!!" The main stresser of the week was the fact that we didn't sleep. Four out of five nights we got about five hours of shut eye. No big deal if you have a newborn....five hours might even seem like a gift in that case. BUT I have grown very accustomed to having my thirteen hour sleeper who lets me get plenty of mommy rest. Along with being exhausted and frustrated I also felt helpless because I didn't know how to help her. It could've been a multitude of things....ears, teeth, belly, etc. I wondered if it wasn't her belly at first since I knew that a few kids at daycare were sick and she had had some incredible diapers for Miss Paula this week. The crazy part was that she was an angel for Paula everyday. The moment I would pick her up things would go downhill very quickly. Let's just say that we were ready to get her fed, bathed and down for bed because she was not happy with life in general. Tylenol seemed to help a bit. It became my trusty sidekick and go-to tool. She was my mystery that could not be solved all week. Work was not my friend this week either. In fact, we were bitter enemies. My schedule seemed to multiply like a stupid Gremlin. Looking around the house left me feeling overwhelmed with all of the things we need to do and buy and there never seems to be time to do that. My car was giving me fits yet again. Laundry was piling up, the cupboards and refrigerator shelves were bare, the internet was being freaky and I was dreading calling AT&T. After ending Friday with a very heart breaking and stressful case at work I came home to make the dreaded phone call to AT&T. After attempting to reach an actual person for thirty minutes I gave up and tried again about an hour later. Finally a real person! One hour later we had become great friends (not) and he informed me that his efforts had not been successful in helping me. Really, ya think?!?! By the end of the night I had obviously let my frustrations be known to the cyber world through my posts on Facebook. It caught the attention on my hero, Aunt Lisa. Why is she my hero? Because I got this text from her on Friday evening......

"It seems that Mr and Mrs Fanning need some mommy and daddy time!!! Do you want me to babysit tomorrow so you can spend some time together?"

......YES!!!! YES WE DO!!!! Let me start by saying that I didn't immediately respond with an ecstatic yes! I pondered it and thought it through. Part of me felt like if I said yes then I'd be accepting defeat. The week kicked my butt. But I still had some fight left in me. After talking with Riley I let go of my mommy pride and told Lisa that we would be so thankful for a day to get some much needed home shopping done. I could immediately feel a weight lifted off of my shoulders. We got busy planning how we would spend our alone time.......

Before I get too far ahead of myself I feel like I ought to share with you the GREAT moments from our week. They weren't all bad of course. ;) For starters, Hallie was quite the entertainer on Wednesday night as we ate a "family dinner" (Taco Factory to go) while standing at the counter. Fancy, huh? She stole my cup and went to town....

Excited much?

She had a towel handy in case anyone needed their mouth wiped off....

"You've got a lil something right here"

"Want some??"

"I'm catching on to this...you are trying to trick me into having fun, aren't you?"

"OK!! It worked!!"

She did some light reading while I cleaned up the kitchen.....

Might wanna flip that around there, sweetie.

Riley was getting ready to head out the door for basketball practice and Hallie graciously shared her water to help with the hydration process....

"H2O is the only way to go dad"

Before I got home that night her and dad had spent some playtime together while I caught up on work Wednesday evening. I was thoroughly entertained by these texts from the two of them....

Dad's version of gloves

"I think it's time to upgrade mom"

On Thursday after I picked up Hal from daycare we hopped on over to church to have some breakfast for dinner at the pancake supper. We were both very ready for some syrupy goodness. Ok, maybe one of us was more ready than the other.....

"Patience is so not appropriate in a situation such as this...."

I agree baby girl, I agree.

She had snatched a sausage patty off of the plate before I even finished taking it from one of the servers. I'm not sure what had her scarfing down those cakes faster than I could cut them up because she usually turns her cheek when she sees a pancake. Quite a shame considering what she's been missing out on! She finally understands now.....syrupy delight.

"Are these all you can eat pancakes or what??"

Pancakes with mommy and Papa were followed by a nice little swinging sesh.....

.....followed by a nice little play visit with Aunt Katie and cousin Carmen followed by a not so nice experience at my friend Heather's jewelry party. I really should've totally saw it coming from a mile away but I fooled myself into thinking it would be ok to take Hal along with me (Riley was busy with work and Hal and I were trying to stay busy ourselves). This being after she had been extra aggressive toward baby Carmen and had thrown a huge fit as I strapped her into the carseat. She was content on the way to Heather's but once we sat down inside amongst all of the other ladies she started to squirm. Stupid mom of the year award goes to me!!!! Taking my grumpy daughter to a party at her bedtime = STUPID. I was so embarrassed as we had to step out of the party after only ten minutes. Sweet Heather offered Hal some snacks that she tore through very quickly and ran out of things to do and set her sights on getting down and running around. That wasn't gonna work so once the whining and squirming began we said goodbye. Home. Baby to bed. Run on treadmill. Commence collapse on couch.

I'm not sure if you know this but...... it rained on Thursday night. And Friday. All day. A lot of rain. Rain is good. Thunder is not. Lightening isn't either. Beggers can't be choosers though. But I'd like it better if the thunder could come and console my scared sweetie everytime it decides to boom down right outside our window. All the noise aside, it was a beautiful rain that fell early Thursday night. So pretty that I had to go snap a picture of my mom's cross by the front walkway. It's been so long since we'd seen rain I guess I felt like I ought to capture it in case it took that long to come back around again.....

This brings us back to Friday as we were sitting on the couch having a pow wow to decide what we were going to do and where we were going to go during our alone time. Just the thought of being free to go here and there without having to plan around naptimes and mealtimes....a huge relief considering we had a lot to cram into one afternoon. We woke up on Saturday morning, whipped up some breakfast and hurried around to get ready to leave for Enid. After some extra hide and go seek and peek-a-boo as well as Riley having his keys locked in his truck by the people while getting his oil changed, we were running about an hour behind. One certain little person didn't seem to mind hanging around a lil longer in her diaper munching on her breakfast leftovers....

"What's the rush ma?"

My blue-eyed, leopard clad sweetheart was all fixed up for our trip.....

What a mommy fashion faux-pas...I just realized you can see through her jeggings! EEEk!

Chubby bunny needed some snacks for the road. I handed her some of my breakfast that I'd started eating in the car. I think she just needed to have the reassurance that there were in fact snacks available because all she did was hold the spoonful of scrambled eggs in her hand.....

"Just savin' these for later"

The car ride over was every bit as pleasant as the morning had been. Oh and did I mention that she was back to sleeping all night again. Praise the Lord!!!

"Yay for sleep!!!"

David, Lisa and Dara were all waiting for Hallie in the living room when we showed up. It took her a moment to figure out her surroundings but she quickly knew exactly where she was and was ready to play and more than willing to say 'adios' to her parents. We snuck out while she was in the middle of searching for the dogs. And so began our afternoon alone.......

......by that time we had decided to just stay in Enid instead of driving to OKC or Stillwater. After all, Enid had everything we needed anyways. I must say that I felt like I needed to pinch myself all day long. I couldn't believe I had Riley all to myself to shop all day. When does that ever happen?!?! First we made a quick drive down the road to Marquis Furniture. In and out quick with a decision to come back later to pick up some end tables and a coffee table that we loved. We picked up a rug we'd been eyeing at Lowes and then headed downtown to pick up my matron of honor dress that had come in earlier in the week. I fell in love all over again as I tried it on. Or maybe my love for it stemmed from the fact that I could actually still fit in the size that I'd ordered a few months back! Now hangs a huge incentive staring at me in my closet saying "don't eat those donuts Ashley! You have to wear me in three months! Oh and it wouldn't hurt if you toned up your arms a bit please!" Thanks dress, thanks a lot. ;) I insisted on trying on the dress prior to inhaling Chili's skillet queso and chips...makes perfect sense to a girl, right? We went back downtown to see if the old antique mall was still around (bummed to see that it was closed down) and hit up the other furniture store in town. We stuck with our original decision and went back to pick up the tables we loved. A quick trip through Hobby Lobby and we were ready to pick up our girl. Riley had decided mid-afternoon that since we were doing everything so quickly that we might as well just hurry to make it back in time for his basketball game. It was a good thing he did because they only had six guys show up and let's just say that the game wasn't pretty. :0 

Hallie got an A+ report from Lisa, David and Dara. Gman was there when we showed up getting in some Hallie time. They raved and raved about how perfect she was all day. David even said "Ashley, I don't know what you are talking about because she is the perfect baby." Cue the crying, whining and throwing herself on the floor. The moment we walked through the door she turned into monster Hal before our very eyes. This time I was thankful to have witnesses so that I didn't look like the mommy who cried cry baby. You would be shocked to know that I didn't take a single picture while in Enid. I KNOW!!! I did steal some from Dara though......

"This is the life"

She bummed plenty of snacks and now has a new found love for Nilla Wafers. Played peek-a-boo. Ate some lunch. Took a nap. Played some more. She was an angel baby according to all who spent the day with her. We loaded up our angel baby and she continued her streak of perfect behavior all the way home and up until bedtime. I stood amazed at the transformation. I had my girl back! We unloaded a truck full of goodies once we got home and got to playing! Here's a quick recap of our evening.....

This is what happens when you ask Hallie to go get a diaper.....

"You think that'll do mom?"

I'm really not sure what's going on in this picture.....

Thankful to be diaper-free it appears ;)

Where's the best place to put your snack bowl??

"Right here, just like this"

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck??

Goofball!

After a fun evening of mommy/Hal time she was so exhausted. She gave it a valiant effort and kept going strong until Riley got home from his basketball game.....

"Is he home yet??"

Before long Hallie was in dreamland....and we were in a shopper's nightmare. While rotating the rug and setting up our new coffee table I smelled something bad. As I was flipping over the rug Riley noticed a big stain and immediately looked over at Emmi. I instinctively held it up to me nose to realize that it was dog pee. A lovely huge stain of dried, old dog pee. We flipped the rug over to find more spots like this...even bigger spots that had been there I'm not sure how long. The rug that we had purchased was a returned item but had been packaged back up again and the manager had assured us that there were no defects in the rug. Hmmmmm. I'd call this a significant defect. One call to the manager later and we were none too pleased with how it turned out. The verdict is still out. Riley says I was a little too nice and polite on the phone so I think he plans on giving them a piece of his mind. Despite a stinky (literally) ending to the day it was in fact just the thing we needed to recharge. Hallie seemed to fair well from the day away as well. I'm incredibly thankful to have family to lend a hand...especially when I'm too proud to ask for help. But not too proud to accept help.

Here's to a week ahead full of smiles.... fingers crossed. :)