Addiction to Day-o (aka Elmo)

We think Hallie is officially addicted to Elmo.  He's got Hallie mesmorized!

I realized about a month ago that Seasme Street came on from 7:00 to 8:00 in the morning, so I turned it on for her to watch before daycare.  Elmo's World comes on the last 15-20 minutes of the program.  Now, anytime she looks at the tv she says "Day-o" (which is how she says Elmo).

She also loves peanut butter! She'll even eat it off of a spoon!

We've had a rough two weeks, with Hallie getting hand, foot, mouth disease at the end of April and we had some very tense moments of pain!  Then, Jason got it as well, so we're hopefully going on the uphill instead of the downhill now!

I found this post as a draft that I must have forgotten to actually posted from 1/23/11.

I titled it "What I've learned about parenting"...Here it is..remember it's from when Hallie was about 5 months old!

"Bibs make the best baby fashion accessory!
One must wait at least a few minutes after the last "rumble down under" is heard.
She is determined to fit her whole fist in her mouth one day.
A weekly (if not more) daddy or mommy nap is a must! (That is her napping on our chest)
Enjoy that she thinks we're funny right now; she won't think that forever
It is a bit depressing when they change diaper sizes and clothes sizes.
Thunder thighs and fat rolls are only cute on babies!"

As a follow up, here's what I'd say now!

"Lack of communication is the hardest thing with a toddler!
Parenting can bring out the best and worst in me!
I miss those daddy and mommy naps, but am glad she's in her bed! 
At least we get some daddy and mommy naps when she's sick.
Getting a full night's rest is the best thing ever!
I have no idea what I'm doing with this parenting thing! It's the craziest adventure ever!"

Drivin!

Hallie's new thing is wanting to play in my car! She loves to sit on the seats and walk back and forth from the front to the back of the car! She'll also mess with the buttons, of course!

We've discovered new food items she likes, the most surprising being brocolli and salsa! Not suprisingly, she loves sweet iced tea! Her sweet tooth is going on strong as well!

Daycare sent me this photo on the 12th; they were at Chuck-e-cheese. The bib she's wearing says, "Where a kid can be a kid!"

She appears to be a fearless child as well! Jason and I had nursery duty last Sunday. When we were on the playground, she discovered one of the slides (that was pretty long) and kept wanting to go down it, laughing the whole time! Jason puts her on his shoulders and holds her high up lots of times and she never seems afraid! She still likes being chased around the house too!

Happy Easter!

Hallie in her Easter dress!

She LOVES being outside! She loves to walk on our little path from the driveway to the front porch back and forth! We've let her play in the bird bath this week as a little water table for her! Jason did some yardwork and she grabbed one of the shovels and knew exactly what to do! Hopefully, she'll have his green thumb!

We've had this mop on the carport and she found it a few weeks ago and loves to drag it around! She's also fond of the broom and swiffer as well! Maybe she'll like cleaning!

She's getting a lot smarter! She likes to put her finger together when she wants me to sing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and says "Eeeiii Eeeiii" when she wants me to sing "Old MacDonald Had a Farm". She's learned a lot more animal noises and more body parts, like ears and feet. I'll try to post the videos soon....it gave me errors again!

Jason's Mini Me!

Jason can't accuse me that Hallie isn't his! She also loves being outside (just like daddy!) She'll walk on our path to the front porch area, then turn around and go back. She still isn't too crazy about grass!

Hallie's hair is starting to curl a bit! I love it! She still won't let me put bows in her hair, which is a bit disappointing since they are so cute on her, but maybe later in life she'll appreciate hair accessories!

Daycare took this at the park on Thursday!

I'll try to post some videos soon! The website is being fussy!

Lil' Monkey!

Hallie was very tired when we took this while watching a Baby Mozart video. She puts her arms behind her head when she's really tired, but when she saw the camera, she perked up a bit!

Here's some pics I found of me and Jason when we were around her age. I did another one of me below that was closer!

She's been walking with her hands behind her back recently and I noticed in the pic of me above, I must have done the same thing! LOL!

We think she may have broken our camera, so we got a new one. She is thrilled that we let her play with the "old" camera now!

Loves to press buttons!

She's been getting better with her animal sounds and seems to really like the lion and monkey!

Finishing out February!

We've had some interesting weeks! Last week, we thought Hallie might have gotten pink eye (which I think it was actually just an eye infection), but Jason and I took off to take care of her! It was nice we were able to play with her, since we know that we'll have days where she's going to be throwing up, etc. and she won't feel like playing!

The next two evenings, we noticed she had a fever and just seemed whiny and didn't eat like she normally does. On Saturday & Sunday, she had this flat, rosy rash on her belly. I think she may have had a virus called "sixth disease" and the rash happens a day or so after a fever and means the virus is gone!

She's been herself this week, which has been nice!

She got to ride with daddy on Papa's tracker for the first time on Sunday! She was really good on it!



One of the cutest things she does is we have some books about Noah & the ark and she calls him "Santa"! I can't really argue with her since Noah does look like Santa!

Her favorite foods seem to be bananas (“manas”) and blueberries (“b.b’s)

She knows her feet, ear, nose, belly, hair, teeth and getting better with chin and knee
She seems to want to be quite the helper! She’ll push the Swiffer and broom; close doors and cabinets. She likes to help me pull up the treadmill when I’m done exercising! It's so cute!

Daycare went to Chuck-e-Cheese on Valentine's Day and Hallie ate two pieces of pizza!

Learning Lots!

Our camera is no longer working, so I don't have any new pictures or videos for this post!

It's amazing when toddlers start doing something you've asked them! I asked her today to bring me one of her little puppets and she did!

She's also learned the most important word to a toddler: mine! She hasn't quite said it in context and isn't saying it often, but it has been heard!

She can say each grandparent name now, which is cool! She seems to recogize each one's voices on the phone as well! It was cute today I gave her a calculator and she put it towards her ear and said "Hi." She loves real phones as well!

She can now point to her nose, ears, teeth, and hair when you ask her! She was good about her nose, but this week surprised me when I said, "Where's Hallie's ear?" and she touched her ear!

Something that's also funny about her is that she likes for people to jump out and scare her! She just laughs like it's the best thing! Jason does it alot at the house and yesterday, Paw-Paw did and she just squealed!

Here's another flashback picture from February 2011. Great pic for Valentine's Day!