All Things Manly

Our garage was taken over by hoses, fans, bolts, tanks, and tools this weekend. Riley's Mustang engine was finally completed. With 270 hp and "stunt pulling power" this machine could be dangerous. ;) Oh I think I hear them now beating their chests and making Tim the Tool Man Taylor noises from the garage. Bill and Riley are having fun in the man cave today. A frozen man cave. I just stepped outside to ask them how to abbreviate the word horsepower and realized it is freezing out there! Hallie and I are perfectly content inside in the warmth by the tree. She is taking a much needed nap right now. I call it a pea-induced coma. Maybe I can use this to my advantage now. Just load her up on peas when I need to get something important done. Ok, back to the manly business....

The engine took a little longer to complete than Riley had planned so he is in a rush to get everything hooked back up and running before Christmas. Riley and Hallie took a trip to Enid early yesterday morning to go pick up the motor. Riley is so excited to include her in this rebuilding process because he likes the thought of this being her first car. Well, we may want to think twice before making it really nice if she's just going to hit curbs and ding doors with it. Hallie was nice enough to stop in and visit Grammy, Gman  and Aunt Sharon while she was in Enid. I don't even think my mom minded the text message I sent her at 7:30 that morning telling her that her favorite girl was coming over. They played and read books while Riley picked up his "Christmas toy" from Santa. A very expensive Christmas toy. I'm thinking of having Santa return all of his other gifts under the tree now. Only kidding. Santa is much too busy to be returning gifts. This engine will just be next year's birthday, anniversary, Valentine's, and Christmas presents all rolled into one. Hehe ;) Hallie was dressed for a day with dad but of course had a cereal explosion down the front of her so we chose something a little more preppy to wear...

"I can't work in this mom! Get me some overalls!"

I was having a grand ol' time on my own getting my hair did and shopping for more Christmas presents. I'm out of control and I'm making it official. I'm enrolling myself in Christmas shoppers anonymous. "Hi, my name is Ashley and I am a giftaholic." I had some time to finish all of my wrapping before my favorite duo got back home. Man, I miss that girl when she's gone!

Here are a few pictures that might force the women to start snoring and men to start making manly grunting noises....

The engine has arrived

There are some things in life that Riley is organized about....other things, not so much. But his garage is one of them. He had all of his parts laid out and ready for installation when Bill arrived.

Hallie was missing her dad and wanted to go check on their progress. And help of course....

"Dad, hand me the 3/8"

Hallie and I stayed inside and matched the testosterone levels with some estrogen. We sang songs, read her Bible, and tried on some cute clothes that have been hanging in her closet waiting for her to grow. Of course we had to keep the boys fed...after all, Bill was free labor. To thank him, Hallie cooked dinner tonight...

It must have been the extra energy they had from her meal but they finished the installation in record time. I'm not sure if that's the correct term for putting a motor back in a car but installation sounds good to me. They finally tried to fire her up around 7:30. Something wasn't connecting. So they jiggled some parts and wiggled some others and voila!! Unfortunately Hallie wasn't quite as prepared as I was for the horrible loud revving noise. Poor girl has never been so scared. She started with one of those cries that she has to build up silently and then finally let loose. It took me a good five minutes to calm her down inside. I laid her down for bed and went out to find that the guys had started a small fire. Hmmm. Glad I wasn't out there for that part. And glad Bill had an old t-shirt to beat the fire with. ;) Without further ado, here it is...

The next time you see this car it will go from rusty John Deere green to a beautiful sleek black! I have no idea how far down the road that is but I think I may finally warm up to the car once it gets a little cosmetic work done. Way to go boys! Job well done today!

Pajama Party

I am fairly certain that Hallie and I hit the jackpot when it comes to great friends. What better way to celebrate Christmas than with your friends and in your pajamas??! Hallie was thrilled when I reminded her that Saturday night was going to be our annual PT Christmas party and she was going to be reunited with her two boyfriends, Maddox and Kingston. My friend Jamie hosted this year and taco soup was on the menu. YUMMO! For dessert: decorating sugar cookies.

As always I had planned an early start and bathed, fed and dressed Hallie with enough time for me to get my pajamas on and get all of her stuff packed. In the mean time Hallie had decided to have a diaper blowout and throw up half of her peas on her pajamas. Hmmm. We managed to make it work and luckily my friend Natasha lives 1 block away and was able to walk to meet us since I was definitely late picking her up. After all of the road blocks I thought about leaving her at home with Riley but wanted her to see all of the girls and the little boys. We were able to sneak a picture by the tree: this is pre-blowout and peas explosion.

Good thing Hallie was armed with a backup pair of pjs because she definitely needed them. Maddox was sure to include Hallie in playtime. His toy of choice: a container of cookie cutters. Hallie graciously accepted the pile of tiny cookie cutters while he kept the big ones. Riley wouldn't have approved of this next activity....

Maddox smooth talking Hallie for a kiss

The natural born mother, Melissa

My sweet girl was on her VERY BEST behavior

The last time we got together for Thanksgiving Hallie was nothing short of being a terror. So we had a talk before we left the house and she kept her word about being a good girl. She spent most of her time sitting in her bumbo watching the big people above eat and ice cookies. She had to share her bumbo chair with the big boys because they were fascinated by it. I am pleased to report she only spit up on two friends this time: down Melissa's shirt and on Natasha's tights. Not bad girl, not bad.

Hallie is hidden in there somewhere.

Now comes the important question. Team Kingston or team Maddox? She chose neither. Her reasoning....Maddox is too mature for her and Kingston turns one year old today and they will be left with nothing in common.

How can Hallie choose? They are both just too cute!

Eating our veggies

Good thing there were no dogs at home for Hallie to sneak her veggies to under the table Tuesday night. But really no dogs were needed....because she LOVED her first REAL meal! In the spirit of Christmas, Hallie decided to give peas a chance. We got the okay from Hallie's boyfriend (Dr. Stecklow) to start solids. YES!!! I had been waiting to hear those words for awhile now! This means I will no longer have to claw up this hill known as breastfeeding and scrape together every last ounce of milk I can produce. First I guess I should give you an update from her 4 1/2 month checkup: she is as healthy as a horse. Here are her stats:

Height: 23.5 in (25th percentile)
Weight: 14lb 5 oz (70th percentile)
Head Circumference: (85th percentile)

So basically, she has gotten taller, thinner, and smarter since her last visit. ;) My girl always turns on the charm when we visit the doc. She was playing around on the scale in her diaper as others walked by and stopped to laugh at her sillyness...she was rolling around and blowing spit everywhere. Daddy's girl definitely! After a little flirting on Hallie's part, the doc checked her over and gave a thumbs up. Here's an interesting fact for ya: it is normal for a breastfed babe to go up to two weeks without pooping. Poor babies. That just sounds like torture. So needless to say, he wasn't worried when I told him that my definition of constipation was "not pooping for 1.5 days." But I didn't have to worry about that anyways because her first meal has definitely cleared up that problem. Trust. Me. After the doc finished his baby talk with Hal he left us to wait for the big, bad nurse. Actually she is quite lovely and pleasant, but not when she is stinging my babe with shots. She was innocently playing around in the treatment room before the nurse came in to stick her with those evil shots. Poor girl, so innocent and sweet....

"This thing is cool mom."

"Why does healthcare involve such a long wait?"

We left with Taz bandaids intact on both legs and having only cried for ten seconds after the last of four shots. The shots may as well have been tranquilizers because she was out like a light. I was able to keep her for awhile longer before I dropped her off at the babysitter and returned to work after lunch.

Boo Boo #1

Boo Boo #2

I have a confession. I made a big mommy mistake. I will blame it on getting off of our routine when we went to the doc's office. I forgot to put a bottle nipple in her bag after I dropped her off for the second time at Mindy's. Later that afternoon at work I hear, "Ashley Fanning, line two" over the intercom. It was Mindy. And Hallie. Hallie screaming bloody murder in the background to be specific. So I was heartbroken to leave work early...NOT! I was thrilled to spend a long afternoon with my Hal gal and she must've been equally as excited because she was being quite the angel. We did some last minute Christmas shopping to finish off our shopping list and picked up some baby food while we were out. I may have gone overboard because I think I bought every flavor they had just to stock up. Greens first, then orange foods. Then fruits. I was dying to feed her the baby yummyness but wanted Riley to share in the moment so we waited patiently for dad to get home. I think it was well worth the wait to get to have her first big meal together as a family. Am I corny or what??!!

Num, num, num

Full belly and obviously ready for bed...but happy nonetheless

We are missing the other half of our little family this week. Lucy has been shipped off to Woodward, while her same sex soulmate, Emmi, has been hiding out in Enid at Grammy and Gmans. Thank goodness we have parents who want to put up with our crazy dogs as we make this transition. Most of you are probably shaking your heads saying "What transition?" Some of you already know. I will definitely spill the beans when I get the go ahead. But for now I am left with this secret that almost has be busting at the seams. Hopefully I can share the details very soon. First things first: shave Lucy. Nanny hates all of the accumulating hair just as much as we do. Lucy was completely traumatized after getting home from the groomer's. Maybe she felt like she was walking around naked?? We got both dogs cleaned up and ready to be shipped out to their vacation destinations. We spent Sunday driving around the state dropping of our canine daughters. First on the list was Woodward to drop off Lucy. Hallie got to spend a short amount of time with Nanny and Papa which I'm sure left them craving more Hallie time. Then it was on to Enid to drop off my best doggie friend in the world. I am kinda lost without her around. Nobody to give me kisses on command. Lol. ;) Emmi is now enrolled in doggie daycare with my dad since he is on vacation this week. So far, she has only chewed up four toys and is sleeping at the foot of the bed instead of hogging it like she does with me. Great! Hallie is now minus one new toy this week though.....

"Aww, a new toy."

"Oooo, so soft."

"It's about time you got my hair did!"

"Can you remind me why I have to leave again?"

One thing about parenthood, there is NEVER a dull moment. Hallie keeps us constantly laughing! Her hands need to touch everything. So of course there was no better tiny person to ask for help on our Christmas cards. She read the address to me while I wrote since my handwriting is neater than her's is.

"Remember mom, that person moved this year so you need to get their new address!"

"Here, let me help you with the stamps."

She has spent a lot more time entertaining herself as of late. I know the second that I type this it will change so I realized I may be jinxing this but oh well. The other day I left her on her quilt in the living room while I started a load of laundry and fully expected her to start screaming any moment, but surprisingly enough found her playing with her hands and feet while staring in a trance at the tv. She has started putting herself to sleep at night. We have been spoiling her for four and a half months and letting her eat herself to sleep (that sounds weird) but recently since we started eating solids she has been falling asleep on her own. The calmer side of Hallie has been captured in photos believe it or not....

Ok, so I think I have seen my new favorite picture of all time. All Hallie Time that is. I guess you could technically say that she sat up by herself for the first time last Sunday. It may have been very uncomfortable and soon made her scream, but for three whole seconds she looked like a 6 month old. ;) Ok, maybe she cheated a little and propped up on her hands but it was pretty dang cute either way. What a precious little bean...I just wanna squeeze her sweet cheeks in this picture...

Sittin' pretty

Her new favorite activity: making farting noises. She gets it from her daddy...

I think I mentioned last blog about Hallie's new found love for books. Well Gman took advantage of a stack of my old books and entertained his little grandlady with some reading time on his lap while Bailey and I reminisced over our favorite pile of Berenstain Bear books. Hallie just inherited quite the book collection. Now all she needs is a HUGE bookcase!

"Next page."

"I've got to at least be at a 3rd grade reading level by now."

Just loungin' around and sporting her onesie from Aunt Bailey

Everything her hands come in contact with interests her to no end. For example, this musical manger at my parent's house left her mesmerized....

Or something as simple as a plastic cup. A cup? Alright folks, you can return you Christmas gifts for this child. We have it covered....

 As I mentioned above, she constantly keeps us laughing with her antics. We always seem to find her in the most awkward positions....

And falling asleep at the dinner table wasn't just a one time thing after all....

But man is she a great helper though. Not only Christmas cards, but wrapping gifts. She did give me attitude the other night when I told her she was behind on wrapping and had a whole stack for her to wrap....

"I'm gonna need some help mom. I will wrap the presents that are for me and that's it."

The sound of a baby crying at 2 a.m. = exhaustion. The sound of a baby blowing spit and making farting noises at 2 a.m. = priceless. I actually find myself giggling in the middle of the night after already having gotten out of bed for two prior feedings. That girl has me wrapped around her finger so bad. I think Riley has the trick for convincing her that she wants to go back to sleep. I want a quick fix so I usually just go snatch her and feed her and put her back to bed. Riley has the patience of Job and can stand for thirty minutes holding her binky in while she decides if she wants to go back to dreamland or not. She has reverted back to her younger days and has been waking up every 2-3 hours. And for the life of me, I cannot figure out why. No teeth. She has a full belly of peas and milk. Clean diaper. WHAT IS GOING ON LITTLE LADY??? This lack of sleep has not paired well with lots of other events going on. I have never realized just now busy Christmas time really is until this year. Yawns are more frequent, naps are non-existent, but love is still overflowing.

Hallie had an extra special day today. She got to spend a girl's day with Aunt Kylie who stayed the night with us last night after finishing her last final. She had her car packed up and ready to head home for break but was sweet enough to come and babysit Hallie for the day. Hallie had to show off all of her new tricks and also decided to spit her food for Aunt Kylie too. I was wondering when she would discover that she could do that. Hallie was sporting her "I'm as cute as my aunt" shirt again in preparation for Aunt Kylie and her Great Aunt Sharon. The last time Sharon had seen Hallie girl, she was a mere two weeks old and was sleeping constantly. Hmmm, sleeping constantly...that sounds good right about now. ;) The twins stopped by after a doctor's appointment this morning with the surgeon who will perform Grammy's kidney transplant when the time is right. And who better to donate a kidney than her loving twin sister. Pretty cool, huh? Well I think from what I've heard, they came up for a pointless visit with the doctor because her kidneys are not functioning badly enough to even begin running Sharon through the battery of pre-op tests....but they didn't come to OKC for nothing because they got to play with Hallie. They did the unthinkable when they arrived.....they woke the sleeping monster. One milk snack later and she was all set for showing off her four month skills for Aunt Sharon.

"Is this my Grammy? She sure looks like her."

Still trying to figure out if she has two Grammys

T minus one week until we celebrate Christmas with our first child. I can't even describe how exciting this is for us. We have lots planned for this special time but of course I will let you in on every detail. Some that have stopped by the house have commented that my tree has too many presents underneath it. Not possible...there is no such thing as too many presents. I overheard Riley telling Hallie that "apparently we were on Santa's pre-Christmas delivery list" to explain why all of her presents were already under the tree. The more important question: who gets to eat the cookies that we leave out for Santa?

Long Time, No Blog

If life were a tornado, ours would be an F5. I can't recall having a spare second to blog over the past week and a half. Lots going on, lots going on. Having not blogged about my girl for awhile made me sad, so here I sit on a Saturday morning with about ten thousand other things to accomplish...but I must blog...it's like food to my soul. Our girl has been super busy learning and growing...learning more than growing as a matter of fact. For time's sake (since it takes her little fingers sooo long to type Hallie's Corner) I will just give you an update on her accomplishments. I feel like something new happens everyday...she always has something up her sleeve to amaze us with. A tired mom and dad need these daily displays of development to keep us chugging along on the train called parenthood. Choo, choo!!!



First things first:

Food. She is getting better with the cereal. We took a short hiatus from the starchy stuff as we had a couple days with a mad, red-faced, constipated baby. All is well after doing some googling of course....I gave her a few ounces of water and some belly massage and she was back to dirtying diapers in no time. Poor sweet girl, I felt so sorry for her. I can't imagine how we will feel when she is sick (knocking on wood). She is only spitting out half of her cereal each bite which is quite an improvement. ;) I will take her to see her boyfriend (the pediatrician) on Tuesday and hopefully get the green light to start some fruits!

Toy discovery. She has finally taken a real interest in her toys. And the giraffe that has been hanging peacefully above on her car seat handle is now wishing she hadn't figured out how to eat him. She zones in on the giraffe, grabs it, and munches on it. Her squishy blocks that make a scrunchy paper sound have become a favorite. She is able to grab them and hold on with both hands. I still have to make the sound for her but she is content with me doing all the work. Lol.

Everything goes in our mouth. I say "our" but I guess I just mean her. Her mouth. I think that is a universal phrase that comes along with parenthood. You start saying "we" and "our" when referring to your child. Unless you put it in these terms....."we" are not getting enough sleep to get through "our" day. That applies to both of us. She has been doing great at Miss Mindy's during the day. She is still entertained constantly by the other kids. Most of the time when I arrive I can either find her on Mindy's lap or in her jumper being chatted at by Kyra. And speaking of her BFF Kyra...she colors a picture for Hallie almost daily. This week's best drawing: a picture of Kyra singing to a Christmas tree. Hallie hung it on her bulletin board for sure. She seems to be having less and less meltdowns on the morning car ride to pick up the older kids from school. She only screams for five minutes instead of ten. ;)

Reading. She loves to look at books. Story to follow down below. Here she is reading with her daddy by the Christmas tree...this just melts my heart...

Riley reading her one of her Christmas presents...no more peeking!

Yummy, nummy toes. Well, not yet. But she is getting close to getting those little feet in her mouth. She discovered her feet on Wednesday. Oh and what a discovery it was...she had found a new toy connected to her body. A built-in toy, if you will. One that doesn't have to be picked back up and cleaned after she throws it to the floor covered in slobber only to be wrapped in dog hair. Yummy.

Eureka!!

The dream team. Emmi, Lucy and Hallie are the best of friends. Emmi and Hallie already had quite a bond, but suddenly our less than smart dog, Lucy, has joined in on the fun and discovered a new creature in our house. It only took her a short four months to figure out we had a new person in the house.

"So this is the baby you speak so highly of..." - Lucy

Hallie has taken an interest in Emmi and her soft fur this past week. Last night I held her as she reached out to pet her canine friend.

Baby body guard...Emmi may have to lay the smack down if that Octopus gets any closer...

She has found her voice. If she keeps it up at this rate she will be the town gossip for sure. The girl is constantly jabbering and making noises with her lips. Blowing bubbles has become a favorite. She just cracks me up with the new sounds that she makes everyday. One that gets me everytime is this big long sigh that she makes. Oh and of course her little baby giggle. She even tests out those vocal cords at night. Last night for example: around 2:30 in the a.m. she was just carrying on about something to me and would flash big ol' smiles in between jabbering. It almost, and I mean almost, made me want to stay up and play with her. But alas, we went back to bed to rest those hyperactive vocal chords. She gets more entertaining by the hour!

Hallie was a good little grandbaby for Nanny on Thursday and Friday. The two shopping divas! Hallie helped Nanny with some Christmas shopping on Friday. Nanny's greatest shopping discovery of the week: Baby Gap clothes at Wall's in Woodward! She brought Hallie a big bag full of cute stuff all for 66% off. Now that is a bargain let me tell ya! We went to dinner with Nanny and Papa last night and Papa had a great time catching up with his grandbaby. She had a lot of information to tell him in a short time so she didn't waste a second and got to chatting....and the chatting never ended. Hallie met eyes with another one of her species across the room at dinner and had to go say "HI" to the 15 month old girl. They didn't talk long as Hallie was self conscious about being bald and having not worn a hair bow to dinner. ;) Hallie got her first boo boo on Thursday. Those darn nail clippers...when I came home Hallie had a bandaid wrapped around her tiny little finger. Nanny said she bled like a stuck hog. Serves me right for not finishing my mommy duties on Tuesday. The mission was to file her nails...but instead I cleaned up three piles of dog vomit on the carpet and a big pile of poop left by a rebellious preteen dog who was dying to go for a walk when I get home. Let me just say, walks don't happen anymore. And they probably won't until the weather warms up in the spring. Although I haven't been able to walk, the weight loss hasn't been too shabby. So far in our Biggest Loser competition at work, I have lost five lbs. It's coming off soooooo slow, but lbs are lbs and I will take a loss any day.

"Oh no, there's that camera again"

Last weekend I was on a campaign to raise the level of Christmas spirit in the Fanning house. As they say in the movie Elf, "The best way to spread Christmas cheer, is singing loud for all to hear." Nobody sings good enough in this house so instead we dressed up our Santa Baby....

"Ho, Ho, Ho! Merry Christmas!"

It was that time of year again...time to make Christmas cards. Riley loves the fact that for the next 18 years he doesn't have to be on the Christmas card picture. In the words of Lee Corso, "not so fast my friend." Hallie was the star of our card this year. But she didn't seem to understand what she was supposed to do. I had this grand idea in my head of how the picture would look, and needless to say it turned out nothing like I had planned. She spent most of the time hanging her head in shame....

Last weekend Hallie went shopping with Grammy, Gman and I to get in the Christmas spirit. She was mesmerized by the winter wonderland that was North Pole City. So many fun things to look at and she just sat back on Gman's lap to take it all in. Gman covered her little eyes while Grammy and I put presents in the basket at Toys R Us. While my mom and I were picking out gifts for Hallie, Gman was reading to her in the book section. And to our surprise Hallie was actually very tuned in and following along on the pages as he read to her. Top ten cutest things I've seen her do. She would scan from left to right and then look up at him as if to say "ok, turn the page now." My dad definitely did not want to share Hallie as we went from store to store...I offered to hold her but he was not having it. He was a pretty good baby entertainer. She didn't even make a peep the entire afternoon as she loved people watching with Gman.

Not enjoying her Santa outfit at this point

Life is a little crazy right at the moment and sometimes seems unmanageable, but we somehow make it through each day to tackle the next. My mother once told me that "mothers don't have time to be sick." Well, she was 100% correct. I was fighting a cold/upper respiratory junk since last Wednesday. I stayed home from work on Monday for several reasons. I felt like poo, Hallie had been up all night, and I needed a day to rest, gather my thoughts and get to feeling better. It did the trick. I didn't necessarily feel better, but I did feel like a human again. Sleep patterns are like the stock market around here lately. She is all over the map. One night will be nine straight hours, then the next her and I are up at 1:45 and then again at 4:30. My favorite night was the night when she decided to revert back to being two weeks old...she woke up four times that night. Oh the memories. Lol. Last night wasn't anything to be desired either. Hence the bags and dark circles under our eyes this morning. But right now that matters not...because my sweet baby is sitting on my lap and smiling up at me as I type one-handed...and I wouldn't have it any other way.