wild child

Why would you sit in a swing like this?

When you could do it like this?

Or like this?

Note to self: Be sure to buckle her in from now on.

baby's 1st Easter

It should come as no surprise to you that I can't pick just a few. ;-) So here are lots of pictures of one very adorable baby. And, yes, my mom made her dress. She may have set a record for herself this year - she made four Easter outfits!

How sweet is this bunny? I saw him at a children's shop a few weeks ago and had to get him for Easter pictures.

It was nearly impossible to get her to look up because she was so interested in her Easter basket and bunny.




I got some good shots, but, most of the time, Halle was doing this . . .

Or this . . .

And, every few minutes, we had to stop to do this. Fortunately, Mom was there to assist me. I didn't have enough hands for all the picture-taking and nose-wiping that needed to be done (not to mention pulling grass out of her hands and objects out of her mouth). It was a team effort. Thanks, Mom!

Confession: I took these "Easter" pictures this past Monday. Whatev. It was cold and wet on Easter! And we haven't had a warm, dry day (during which I've been home or had time during the daylight hours) since then. Anyway, this was how she looked on Easter, only with a little less sunshine.

an Avery day

As previously mentioned, yesterday we had an Avery day. My 4-year-old niece Avery came to spend the day in Memphis. She tagged along with her dad, who came to play in a golf tournament for Agape. Fortunately, I had the day off work and got to hang out with her, my mom (aka "Granna"), and Halle. After Mom, Halle, and I picked Ave up at the golf course, we went to lunch at a restaurant of Avery's choosing, which turned out to be Cracker Barrel. Apparently she LOVES Cracker Barrel. She also LOVES Halle, and probably would've been just as happy if we'd stayed home and let her play with the baby all day. Here she is reading to Halle while we waited for our food.

She ordered pancakes and then bummed some biscuits and bacon off Aunt Callie and Granna.

After lunch and some shopping (of course, which took a really long time . . . very hard for a 4-year-old to pick out just one less-than-$10 toy), we had to do some rocking and checkers-playing on the front porch.

Our next stop was Grandmother and Paw Paw's house, where Avery got to visit with her great-grandparents and play with their new kitty, Dollie, and pick some of Grandmother's flowers.

Grandmother gave her one daisy, and then Avery asked if she could have one more so she could take it home for her mom. So sweet. :-) Oh, but they're both still on our kitchen table.

She was really interested in the clothes hanging on the clothes line.

We finally came home and Avery spent the rest of the afternoon playing outside with Tekia and her best friend Rumi. They played with American Girl dolls, got muddy while playing in the puddles in the backyard (notice Ave's wardrobe change), and looked for four-leaf clovers. I LOVE this picture!

Soon our day with Avery came to end, and I had to return her to her father. Our day ended with some Michael W. Smith and her prizes from Cracker Barrel - a giant lollipop (which, she told me, was "beautiful on the inside") and some plastic necklaces.

What more could a girl want?

"I think she loves me." -Avery

Those words were spoken by Avery when she first met Halle a little over 6 months ago.

Now, I think she may be right. :-)

Avery spent the day in Memphis . . . more to come on that.

bugsy

Halle's big, beautiful eyes are her trademark (at least they took over after she finally grew into her extra-long newborn fingers, ha). Everyone comments on them and everyone loves them. A couple weeks ago when I was feeding Halle after church, I had the following conversation with a little boy named Houston, who loves Halle.

Houston: Sometimes her eyes get REALLY big.

me: Yes, they do. She has really big eyes.

Houston (after a few seconds of deep thought): Maybe you should call her "Bugsy." 'Cause she looks a little bit like a bug.

May I present to you our beautiful, bright-eyed Bugsy.

(and please excuse the long line of drool on her shirt)

The bean bag is there as a safety net in case her newfound sitting up abilities fail her.

Meet Norah Grace.

I've known her for a few weeks, but I couldn't post pictures of her earlier because I first knew her as a patient, when she weighed all of 3 pounds, 12 ounces. Now I know her as our friends Charles & Gail's (Jamier's family) new foster baby. And now she weighs over 4.5 pounds (it actually wouldn't surprise me if she's hit 5 pounds by now)! Norah is four weeks old and spent her first couple of weeks in the NICU with us. Today I finally made it over to Mama Gail's house to take some pictures and was happy to see that she'd fattened up a bit. ;-) Anyway, I think these are my favorites . . . so far.




Norah was less than thrilled when I put her homecoming dress on her for some pictures, so I'll have to go back and try again for those. I did get her sweet little pink feet peeking out, though. I love baby feet.

lots of pics from months five and six

(It's my blog and I'll rhyme if I want to. )

I mean, really, what do you even do with something this cute? Do you try to take a bite out of her? Do you save a lock of her hair so you can try to clone her? I don't even know. What I do know is that this is one of the most wonderful babies I've ever met, and I'm jealous of whomever gets to spend the next 18+ (if they're lucky, there'll be a "+") years of their lives with her.

Seriously, I don't know if you can tell from all the pictures, but she is really, really wonderful. I asked my mom the other day if all babies were this wonderful, because Halle is just amazing. She just laughed, but I work with babies every day and I know not all babies are this wonderful. Sure, all babies are miracles (I don't say that nonchalantly . . . NICU nurses know that all babies are miracles) and they're all cute in their own way, but they can't all be this great. At least I don't think so. I'm sure yours is pretty great, too, though. ;-)

By the way, I took that picture this afternoon with our favorite social worker Claire in mind, because she needs horizontal pictures to use for the wallpaper on her computer. Happy Friday, Claire.

Anyway, on to months 5 & 6. We took Halle for her 6-month check-up today, and our petite little bit is getting even more petite! She is now down to the 25th percentile for weight and height, but her doctor didn't seem the least bit concerned about that. Her head's still in the 50th percentile, though, because she's quite smart. She weighs 14 lb, 13 oz, and is 25 1/4 inches long. Perfect.

If you look closely at the above picture, you might be able to see that she has two tiny teeth peeking through on the bottom! She's just gotten those in the last two weeks. I'm going to miss her big toothless grin, but I can only imagine how cute it will be with two teeth on the bottom of it!

Halle is getting more and more vocal (she has to to be heard in this house!). Mama Gail swears she said "hi" and "bye" when she kept her for us a couple weeks ago, but we mostly hear "dadadada" over and over again, along with some senseless yelling and squealing thrown in there.

And here are some other things that have happened over the past 2 months . . .

Halle has learned to wear clothes that match her accessories, like her Bumbo seat.

She has perfected her morning hair, or her "morning mohawk."

She made her 2nd trip to the zoo, where she made lots of cute faces like this one.

She was pretty excited when she first tried cereal . . .

. . . but quickly decided that she hated it, and she still feels this way a month and a half later. We keep trucking along, trying to make it tastier by adding fruit. So far, she hasn't fallen for it.

She makes a very concentrated effort to grab anything within 5 feet of her, including my computer (still matching her Bumbo seat, of course . . . why even sit in a Bumbo seat if you don't have an outfit to match?).

But she eventually gets tired and gives up.
Her absolute favorite song is "You Are My Sunshine" and, when you sing it, she makes this face.
When you sing any other song, she makes this face--interested, but not quite as impressed.
She has recently begun to enjoy her Johnny Jump-up, and I enjoy when she makes funny faces like this one (that is a happy face, by the way).
She experienced her 3rd snow and her 1st BIG snow.

She has pretty much mastered the art of sitting unassisted, thanks to some help from Rumi and Tekia.

She has turned into a little scooter. The other night I laid her on her mat like this.

Five mintues later, she looked like this.

She learned (one night while in her boy-ish, but favorite, pajamas) how to hold her own bottle, though she'd much rather have someone hold it for her.

Perhaps my favorite part of this month was that she was finally able to attend big girl Bible class for the first time on her 6th month birthday! We've tried to keep her out of the nursery because it seems she always has a runny nose, but she was finally well that week.

I don't know how parents don't sit and watch their babies in this class every Sunday. They are so cute! Halle loved it and was particularly interested in her little friend sitting beside her.

And her most recent milestone has been the move to the big bathtub. She can do lots more splashing in this tub, so she's quite pleased.

To answer your questions about how much longer Halle will be with us, we're not exactly sure, but we don't think it will be for much longer. I'll be surprised (but--selfishly--pleasantly surprised :-) if I get to do a 7-month post. Please pray for Halle and everyone involved in her life as she will probably be meeting her new family soon (they still don't know about her) and beginning the transition to her new home. We've had Halle longer than we've had most of our foster babies, so letting her go will be difficult, to say the least. But I know all of this is happening in God's time, not ours, and he has his reasons for her extended stay with us. He has been up to something these past six months. I'm confident that he has been using this extra time to prepare just the right family for Halle, and also to prepare her for them. I can't wait to see what he has in store for her in the future!