Loves babies

Halle loves babies. She got her first doll for Christmas and I didn't know if she would be old enough to like it or to play with it but she has loved it. She has a stroller and a little high chair and crib she puts "baby" in.

She has also become facinated with babies lately. Lately whenever we see babies anywhere we go both Halle and Luke zero in on them and say, "look at that baby!" Sometimes the "baby" is just as old as Halle and she is saying "baby! baby!" and pointing. The other day Luke said, "Daddy, Mommy has a baby in her tummy!" I had to tell him that I don't yet, but maybe someday!

"Watch!"

Halle is really into telling us to "watch" whatever she is doing right now. Whether its making a funny face, jumping on the bed, eating a bite of food, coloring, or whatever, its "Watch! Watch! Watch!" And she says it LOUD! She is such a funny girl. Not a bit timid!

Our Halle girl at 18 months

Halle is such a cute, fun, silly, sweet girl. We love her to bits. She is at the most darling age. I think I say that about every age, but she really is so fun right now. She is very, very busy and I am constantly chasing her around and keeping her from getting into the things, but it is only because she is super curious. Well, maybe 70 percent curious, 30 percent mischief, because she does have a little mischievous side to her :).

She is not shy one bit and waves to people as we're going down aisles in stores and says "Hi!" to everyone. We have a little singing time class for toddlers I take the kids to at Riverton City Hall once and week and she is so not shy at it. She is the littlest one in the class and she bops around like nobody's business and gets right into the older kids faces and just stares at them. This is pretty opposite of Luke because he still gets a little shy at singing time and to strangers at stores and things.

But while Halle is very friendly, she doesn't really like anyone to hold or pick her up other than Mommy (and Daddy or Grandma or Grandpa if they are around). She is still very clingy to me and says my name perfectly loud and clear "mommy, mommy mommy!" Sometimes I hear her say that so many times a day I start to not even hear it anymore, it is constant!

She is a very smart little thing. She talks a ton and says pretty much any word there is. We can't always tell what she is saying right away but I can usually pick it up pretty quick. But there are some words she says as clear as day. She is even starting to put two and even three words together sometimes, it blows me away she is talking so young. If you ask her what her name is sometimes she will say "Hayee" or sometimes she even get the "L"and says "Halle", but her most common response is, "Ya Ya!" We still call her by her nickname Ya Ya and it has seemed to stick, and she obviously considers that her name as much as anything else.

She is a really pretty little girl. She has these beautiful, big eyes and naturally curly golden-brown hair that is really cute, olive skin, and the cutest smile. I know I am her mom so I'm probably biast, but everywhere we go people are commenting how cute she is. The other day we were at Cafe Rio waiting in line for our food and the lady behind me said, "she is such a beautiful baby! I have grandkids of my own but I have to say she is just about the cutest baby I have ever seen!' I thought that was really cute.

Halle can be a bit feisty, which can be a good thing. But she is a little into hitting right now and we're trying to work on that. She does it for attention, mainly to Luke. We try not to laugh because it isn't usually very hard, unless she has something in her hand like a hard toy or something that makes it hurt. But usually they are just little swats and it's more funny than anything and doesn't' even hurt Luke. But we're trying to correct it now so she doesn't think it's okay and start doing it to other kids and things. So we give her time outs when she hits. She doesn't' like time outs so it seems to give her the punishment, but she isn't' one to have one or two timeouts and give up the behavior. In face sometimes she will hold her hand up to Luke like she is going to hit him and say "time ou" (time out). At least it is getting through to her. Hopefully we can get past this one too. She is also into coloring on the walls and cabinets, but I have a story about that I will share in another entry.

She is such a sweet, fun girl and we love her so much!

"Come on!"

Halle is already starting to know how to get what she wants and how to say what she wants. One of the ways she does this is by saying "come on!" and taking my hand or motioning me to follow where she wants to go or what she wants to show me. She's been saying this for a couple months now. She will say "Come on!" It actually started with "Come Mama!" She would say this mainly just to me. But then it changed to one big word "Come-on-ma!" And she would say this to other people too. Now it's turned into "Come on Mama!" to me or "Come on!" to me or anyone else. She will say it really loud and over and over until she gets me or whoever else it is to go where she wants you to go.

Grandma Lori says...

Halle never stops, she just goes and goes and goes. She likes Thomas a lot now and “Blues Clues” – I think we’ve talked about Blues Clues before. She still likes playing with balls a ton and climbs like crazy and ALWAYS wants me to make tunnels (out of a blanket) that she can crawl through. She also still likes me to play hid and seek with her.

Halle continues to be a Bpa Bpa fan. She just loves Grandpa so much. She has also learned to say “yes” very clearly and if you ask her something she loves to say “yes.” Actually she says almost any word not and can name almost any object. We can’t always understand her, but she knows exactly what she is saying and it is close most of the time. She is smart. Her only problem is that she trips on things a lot. Lindsay wonders if she needs to get Halle’s eyes checked, or is she just too busy to look around. She is a goer and it seems that if she couldn’t see she would be more timid.

February pictures

Halle thinks it's really neat that Luke is wearing underwear and keeps wanting to put it on!

Halle loves rides in this basket from Grandpa Sheldon

Cute girl walking

Playing on the stairs

Mommy's birthday

 Messy Halle hair and Luke with his marker Rudolph nose. He's still doing this and we're two months past Christmas!

Meet Rudolph and Nemo

Our first pets. Luke is very excited about them. He earned them for doing something that's a very big deal. To do with the toilet. It starts with a P and ends in a OOP.

So now we have two fish. The kids love to watch them and feed them. Halle loves them just as much if not more than Luke. She gets so excited each time we have to feed them and says "fish!" which sounds more like "feesh!" She is such a climber and climbs up from Luke's train table onto the dresser the tank sits on to get a closer look at the fish. I've even caught her dropping things into the tank through the little feeding door. One day I went into the room and her toothbrush was floating on top of the water.

So we officially have our first pets!