The Ham

I think it has been a while since I updated on Hallie. She is alive and well, very well. She is getting funnier/louder/more out of control with each passing day. I have never known a child to be so full of personality from the day she was born. I don't know where she comes from. However, I have identified recently that she definitely has my eyebrows, so I guess she wasn't switched at the hospital after all. I think she also has Devin's eyelashes, so something identifiable from him too. Whew. Hals is getting smart. Today she picked up the cell phone charger from the floor, crawled to the nearest plug in, and repeatedly tried to plug it in. She must have seen us do that before. She also follows commands when she feels like it. She carries objects around in her mouth when she is crawling and has this stuffed kitty (a webkinz if you know what that is) that my grandma got her for Christmas last year. It is her FAVORITE toy. She carries it around with the tail in her mouth and then will randomly leave it places. The other morning, she left it in the bathroom and was crawling out, so I told her "go get your kitty." She stopped, gave me a glare, and then turned back around and went back in to get it. Disgruntled but obedient? I'll take it.

Hallie is terrible at keeping her hair in place. I do it every morning and more often than not (especially when Devin brings her to me at work on his way to class) her hair is out of control. She knows that in my presence she is not to pull it out, but apparently Devin is not that strict. With me, she will put her hand next to her ponytail, bow, or whatever it is, and just look at me like, "should I?" When I say, "no!" she will put her hand down until I look away. Then it is usually a swift grab and rip. Who knows why she feels the need to do that?

She still loves swimming, as you can see. We took her to a hotel pool to swim with Jen and Sadie while my mom was here last weekend. She is such a daredevil! She would sit on the edge of the pool and before you could even get ready, she would launch in. I have a video of it, but the blogger is being way slow, so we might have to go without. It was crazy though. She has no fear.

Here are the girls getting ready to swim. Hallie's favorite word is still "dada", although she uses different inflections to mean different things. For example, when we pray and say "amen", she will say "dada" but in a solemn, final type tone like amen sounds. She also says "daddy" and chants "dada" like she is cheering him on (even if he is not present). She also says "yeah", "yay", "baby" and "mama" (though still VERY rarely). Her vocab is increasing. It is fun to watch.

Hallie is getting ready to walk, although I think she would walk sooner if she wasn't so lazy. For the past week or so, she has been taking steps. But I think it will be a while still before she actually walks. She quickly gets sick of trying to walk and will just pull her feet up when we are holding her hands to show her refusal. She also has learned that when we want her to walk back and forth between us, it is much easier if she just leans forward, she'll still get to the destination, but without all the work.

I am uploading some videos of her. You can hear her scream, which is by far her favorite way to communicate. She screams ALL THE TIME. It is super unnerving, especially when we are driving, but hey, I guess she is trying to communicate? I don't know.

Life with Hallie is definitely fun. We love our girl. I can't believe she is almost one! Daddy's birthday is first though, on October 4th and then Hallie's on November 4th. Too bad I missed the memo that the 4th is the day to be born. Oh, well.

These videos clearly show her using her favorite word, "dada" despite me trying to get her to say other things. She really thinks it is funny when I ask her to "say mama." 100% of the time, she will reply, "Dada".