Meet Mr. Grizzo

You know you are a sucker when you walk into the pharmacy to buy a book and you walk out with a ginormous teddy bear for your child who doesn't even know what a teddy bear is yet. After my grandma's therapy session this morning, she sent me downtown to the pharmacy to drop off her prescriptions. Normally I would have bought a book or some type of home decor. But we all know who ranks highest around this house. ;) The giant bear was calling my name. The bear rode around all day with me at work and I just couldn't wait to get home to show Hallie. The introduction was just as I'd imagined it....she sat in between his legs, touched his fur, turned to look at me and then got on the ground and crawled away. Someday soon she will appreciate what Mr. Grizzo has to offer (name courtesy of Riley). He will serve a few purposes. A growth marker for our growing girl, a furry companion, and a nice napping place. My plan is to take pictures of Hal next to the furry guy each month from now on to watch how she grows!

Meet Mr. Grizzo.....

The anticipation of meeting his new owner was almost too much to handle...he may have peed in the front seat a bit from all of the excitment

"You mean he's all mine??!!"

"I come in peace."

3 crazy animals

"So this fur is like ridiculously soft mom!"

"Peace out Grizzo...I spotted by purple bear violet...she's more my size."

Every toy has a story. This is Mr. Grizzo's story and someday Hallie will get to read about how his toy life started. Am I being sappy? Duh! But after seeing Toy Story 3 can ya blame me???! Maybe Hallie and Mr. Grizzo will be the next Andy and Woody. ;)

Maiden Trip to the Zoo

Sunday was a day that Hallie has dreamed about for eight months now.

The day that Baby Einstein came to life. ;)

We made our way toward the zoo on Sunday afternoon and met my dad, Aunt B and Spencer there. I think everybody else in Oklahoma had the same idea that we had..."hey, let's go to the zoo." The parking lot was a madhouse but we finally made our way to the entrance with an excited baby strolling along. Hallie was taking in all of the kiddos surrounding her and practicing her big smile for Gman. The weather could not have been more perfect...as my Aunt Lisa put it..."I think an angel ordered it from heaven for Hallie's first trip to the zoo." Yes, yes she did. :)

We met our fellow zoo-goers at the entrance and were off to take in the animals. Hallie enjoyed a pre-animal snack while she was lathered in sun screen....

"If I eat my ticket, will they still let me in?"

We had a difficult time finding animals that were large enough or close enough for Hallie to focus her eyes on. If the animal wasn't moving, then she wasn't seeing it. Lol. The camoflauged animals weren't helping our case any either....

The first animal that she actually locked eyes on was the tortouse. She watched him munch of some lunch and stared in amazement....

The ducks sparked her interest a bit as they bathed in the water....

The flamingos, not so much.

Hallie gave Gman a dose of the best medicine....lots of smiles and silly babbling. He spent part of the time toting the munchkin around until she got a tad bit too heavy and on the verge of getting sunburned.

How do I fight the sun? With a huge sun hat of course!

"I feel like the laughing stock of the zoo...I look like a flying nun"

Silly girl was snoozing through the most exciting exhibit of the day. The brand new elephant habitat showed off two gorgeous big fellas who were snacking on some food from up above and cooling off in the heat by swimming and throwing dirt on their backs.

Awake again but ready for some lunch. She was missing all the animals. Or was she??? I must say that we spent a lot of the day commenting on the lack of animals in the zoo. I can't remember how many times we walked all the way to an exhibit only to find NO animal in it. Poo. Literally, all that was left was poo. No animals to oogle at. We spent most of the day hunting down LARGE animals so that she would be able see them. I guess it was no skin off her back because she spent 75% of the afternoon just relaxin' in her stroller.....

We did pry her out of the stroller long enough to get a family photo with our little elephant on the baby elephant. You can't see it very well but she is giving a big ol' grin through her binky mouth.....

Favorite animal of the day: the orangutans. They put on a show swinging from ropes and using the logs up above as monkey bars. Hallie was transfixed on the older one who hung from the ropes and stared out at the crowd as if to say "you lookin' at me?"

I think she wanted to end on a good note after she enjoyed the swinging creatures so she passed out for a nap and slept through the remainder of the trip. The sun must have zapped her. She missed out on.....

The bears

The beaver

Alligators

Monkeys

See what I mean....zapped.

We finished off the day with dinner at Elephant Bar (which only seemed appropriate) where we drank up all of the water in the place...man, three hours of walking the zoo was exhausting. Hallie enjoyed some baby food all the while trying to reach for food off of Gman's plate. She made sure to flash smiles to everyone walking by...that smile, it's contagious I tell ya.

We are already looking forward to our next trip to the zoo. Hopefully next time she will be able to name the animals, point and actually see what she is supposed to be looking at. Lol. But I think next time it will be in Tulsa or Wichita...and eventually the granddaddy of them all, San Diego.



Week One: Operation Happy

HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY

As if the picture didn't give it away, Operation Happy has been a success. We found time to workout 5 out of 5 days and did fairly well with our diet. Although Daylight Savings Time has had us hitting our snooze button way more often than we would have preferred, it has been a God send this week as the extra sunshine is the perfect little pick-me-up at the end of each day. So we met exercise and diet goals (except for the stupid blueberry donut) but we pretty much bombed when it came to our "work less" goal.

Hallie has started her own Operation Happy. I didn't share her goals with you because she had yet to decide on them. She set some pretty big goals and met all of them this week. They are as follows... 1) be cute  2) stand like a big girl  3) be a diva.

Hallie had an entire week with Nanny. As usual, we are having babysitter issues but that seems to be a fixture in our lives right now (sigh). Nanny to the rescue! Oh yeah, and Miss Mary and Miss Cary. Miss Mary is Nanny's coworker and Miss Cary works in the church nursery. They were Nanny's relief during the afternoon while she went off to work. She has changed so much in one week. I stand amazed at her development each day. Like this picture text I got the other day from Nanny....

TOO BIG, STOP GROWING!!

She had a fun day of traveling and shopping with Nanny, Aunt Kylie and Uncle Bret on Thursday. First order of business...pick out a cute outfit for shopping...and duh, a big bow to top it off!

"I'm ready to go!"

Hallie's shopping list: organic baby food, a sun hat and a more bottles. She checked all of these items off of her list and added a few more thanks to Nanny!

"I'm ready to garden..."

The highlight of her week came on Thursday afternoon when she found out some exciting news. Hallie is going to be a COUSIN!!!! Well technically she already knew this...but what we didn't know is that Aunt Katie and Uncle Luke are having a baby GIRL!!!!!! Riley and I are thrilled to be an aunt and uncle to their sweetie! Hallie and her future BFF will be almost exactly one year apart. I can already picture many fun times being had with these little girls. :) Of course Hallie couldn't wait to give Aunt Katie a hug and say hi to her girl cousin......

"YAY for a girl!"

(I might add that our silly husbands who are hoping for a boy in the future should probably just prepare for a PINK life...girls run in both families...like big time.)

We capped off a good week with a relaxing Friday night. I was treated to a mani/pedi with Nanny and Katie and then made Riley take me out for pizza. No diet on Friday night. ;) Hallie even slept in til near 8 a.m. on Saturday morning! Wondering what I did to deserve that...but it was WONDERFUL!!! After sleeping in and fitting in a short workout, I was off to see one patient that I needed to see. Might I add that I don't normally work on the weekend nor do I even plan on doing it again. Simply because I showed up and said patient decided she didn't feel like getting out of bed. WELL NEITHER DID I!!!! Lol. At the time it took all of my patience to smile and say goodbye after nearly begging her to do some therapy with me. No such luck so I returned to my little family. We loaded up the munchkin and she and I were off to Enid. Riley stayed behind for some male bonding time with his dad at an outdoors show and some quality time with his other baby...the Mustang. As for Hallie and I, we packed in playing, shopping, and celebrating. First order of business was to fit in some playtime with Gman.....

Gettin' some sun 

As Hallie was all smiles for Cousin Dara, I caught a glimpse of something white in Hallie's mouth. Could it be????!!!! A TOOTH!! Yes, her very first itty bitty sweet baby tooth is coming through on the bottom. I had no idea that I would be that darn excited about a tooth. But I was, so Bailey and I proceeded to clap and cheer while Hallie looked at us like we were crazy lunatics. Part of my happiness could be based on a dream that I had the night before....I dreamed that my sweet girl had grown four giant molars as her front teeth. Talk about Hillbilly Baby!! I think I was so happy just to see a normal tiny tooth that I got a little worked up. It's the little things in life. Or maybe I was so excited about the fact that the tooth was about to arrive and she hadn't done much protesting about it. Either way, I can no longer say she has a toothless grin.

Measuring cups= perfect teething toy

"Get off the phone!!"

Hallie put her party hat on for some fun tonight at Aunt Lisa and Uncle David's. We celebrated Uncle David's birthday with some more "non-diet" food and some "non-diet" dessert.  But you see, these calories were balanced out by lots of shopping and strolling this afternoon. I'd say Hallie benefited the most from this trip. And I'd say cousin Dara walked away traumatized by this trip....mostly due to the blowout Hallie had in the middle of a store in which we had to push a screaming dirty baby through the store while I held up the back of her shirt to avoid making a bigger mess. Let's just say that my new watch will never be the same. :( Yuck! Along the way we met up with Aunt B and Aunt Heather. Yay for girl time!!! Aunt B enjoyed pushing an empty stroller and made numerous comments about how smooth the stroller glided...whatever floats your boat Aunt B. :) Hallie came away with some purty new summer duds. Just a couple months and Hallie will be toddling around in a bikini!

Here's a few pics from this evening's family fun....

Hallie talkin' with the big girls about the latest T Swift and Justin Beiber news;)

"We seem to have quite a few similarities Mr. Bulldog...I slobber a lot and get around on all 4s too"

Birthday Boy and Aunt Lisa getting in some Hallie time

Here's to an even better week #2 of Operation Happy!!!

Hallie's Senior Moment

Apparently 8 months old is the new 75. Hallie spent part of the afternoon with me at her great-grandparent's house to help me with Great MeMe's therapy session. I had planned to bring her along with me but today's schedule went a little haywire and I headed off without her. I called to let them know that she wouldn't be joining me today and I could hear grandpa's heart break over the phone. He also told me that grandma was sitting on the porch waiting for Hallie to arrive. So after I quickly put the tiny pieces of my heart back together, I turned the car around and went to pick her up from Nanny's house. This time today spent with her "greats" was so precious to watch. I have a feeling after today that she is going to follow in Grammy and I's footsteps and be a therapist. After all, she has all of the qualities it takes...fascination with oxygen and assistive devices and a strong desire to help. And help she sure did. ;) That is if you count chewing on cords and eating walkers. She arrived a near 8 month old baby and left as an old soul ready for retirement. I am not sure what sparked her intruige but it could have been her selection of reading once we arrived....

"I have to wait 64 more years??!!"

As usual she took in all of her surroundings and just so happened to stumble upon the best toy in the world. My grandma kept saying "well I should get her some toys to keep here." Hallie made it obvious that she didn't need toys...to heck with them....because oxygen cords are where it's at..... 

"Can we get some of these for home?"

Great Papa and MeMe got a good laugh out of watching her munch and slobber and jabber and play. She made sure to show off her babbling and her new love for doing pushups. And of course continued to eat cords....

"So this cord is like 20 feet long momma..the fun never ends!"

"See, I told you."

This is where her therapy skills shined....she wanted to help MeMe do some walking......

"Ok, let's go MeMe..."

But someone (not mentioning any names) got selfish and wanted to chew on the walker instead.....

"Hold on one second, this feels good on my gums"

I'm proud of my little mini therapist even though she didn't end up being much help. BUT I can guarantee she was her own type of therapy...baby therapy. I just love seeing grandma and grandpa's faces light up when she comes through the door. I could tell that grandma is making great strides when I found her waiting at the door and hollering to Hallie as I got her out of the car. Good news: MeMe is almost back to normal. And I will keep doing physical therapy and baby therapy until she ditch the oxygen and walker....in that case I'm sure Hallie would love to inherit them to play with. It's a win-win for everyone!

Bad Habits

I had no idea that 7 month olds had such a darn good memory. Part of me (the parent who wants to laugh and take pictures) is thinking "oh how cool, she remembers where the dog food bowl is, what a smarty pants." The other part of me (the prudent parent) is thinking "so this is what people mean when they say that mobile babies get into everything, and I should probably not encourage this." Well you can see which part of me overpowered the other. I couldn't help but catch a video of our cruiser making her third trip to the dog bowl this evening (if you listen really closely you will hear our polite lady fart and then grunt the whole way as she's crawling). I even tried to trick her with strawberry flavored freeze-dried treats but she wasn't having it. All she wanted was dog food tonight. And it turns out Emmi didn't mind finishing off the pile of unwanted treats I offered to Hallie. Note: Of course I did not let her eat the dog food. You would think the nasty smell of it would deter her but it's obviously gonna take more than that. Poor girl makes it the whole way to the kitchen (which I'm sure it seems like a mile to her) and I let her hold victory (aka, science diet lamb meal and rice) in her grubby lil hand and then snatch it away.

I had a talk with her about her bad habit. You can see that it worked very well because this is where I found her five minutes later....

Hallie's Dog Gone Day

What a pretty day. Perfect for a walk with Nanny and the dogs. Hallie thought she would take over and handle the pups this afternoon. The walk didn't last long according to Nanny for a few reasons. The main reason being that Hallie inherited her daddy's skin which basically means she would bake in the sun and end up the color of a tomato if she stayed out too long. Nanny is great about keeping me updated on their doings throughout the day...pictures and all!! It usually is the highlight of my day to see what the silly girl is up to. Today's update definitely gave me a good laugh. And a happy heart.

Hallie took out to walk the dogs but first had to gather all of her essentials. Hair bow....check. Two socks....check. Binky and clip....check. Two dogs....check. And we're off.....

Nanny says they made it to the end of the driveway and had to take an inventory. Two socks turned to one sock. Two dogs turned to no dogs.

Shortly after, it was time for another inventory of essentials. Hair bow..."check out my pretty necklace." Two socks...."oh, you mean those things I'm eating??"  Binky...."if it were a snake it would have bitten me." Two dogs...."what dogs??"

Hallie Grace wanted to continue her dog day by trying a bit of canine cuisine. I might also mention that the journey to the dog bowl was the longest she has ever ventured out. I think she just realized a whole new world when she crawled off of the carpeted area tonight.

"Emmi, how many calories is in this stuff? I'm on an all organic diet ya know."

"I think I might need teeth for these pellets..."

"Ah, what the heck?! I'll give it a try."

No, I did not let my pint sized munchkin try out this yummy treat. (But I might add that her mother used to enjoy munching on soft dog food when she was little. Maybe it is genetic. YUCK!!!!!) And after all of her dog gone activities today, she even resembled a dog before heading to bed...the girl was covered in dog hair thanks to our shedding furry friend. I think I know why Emmi and Hallie are BFFs....they share the exact same interests.....eat, sleep, poop, and make messes. A match made in heaven. :)