Hallie's Fun Filled Weekend

Hallie had a wonderfully jam-packed weekend. It started with Grammy's arrival for a visit on Friday. Hallie had tons of fun playing with her Grammy and showing off all of her new tricks. Her current favorite activity is "pulling to sit." Sometimes, when she's lying on our laps taking a bottle, she starts beating us furiously and pushing herself up into a sitting position. She can't quite do it on her own just yet, but her mommies comply with her requests (it's either that or risk showing up at work bruised and having to explain that our preemie was responsible for the damage). Here's a great shot of Hallie doing her sitting up routine:



Saturday was gorgeous here in Philly. It was an unseasonable, global-warming induced 72 degrees and sunny. We just had to take the munchkin out for a stroll to the park. We got Hallie dressed and into her underused stroller (unless you count the 40,000 miles we've put on it taking her to various doctors' visits) and went out the front door. A nice wind came by just as we got outside and you could just see the neural pathways establishing themselves in Hallie's brain as she felt her first wind.

Our block is filled with others who have little kids, and so we went and hung out in front of a neighbor's rowhome and introduced Hallie to some of her future playmates. Then we all headed down the block to the neighborhood park where the big kids swung on swings and engaged in general big-kid merriment. Hallie, meanwhile, used the opportunity for a nice nap in the sun:



All of that was very fun. But her best day had to be Sunday. Not only did she start out by breaking her all-time record by taking a FIVE ounce bottle for the very first time (and did it in a record half-hour; to put this into some perspective, let's just say that there have been those days when it's been impossible to get one ounce into her in one-and-a-half hours). But she also experienced an exersaucer for the very first time. It would be an understatement to say that she enjoyed it:



And, finally, of course there is football. Hallie was extremely excited about the Eagles being in the Wildcard Playoffs and thrilled that they got to take on their arch-rivals, the NY Giants. She enjoyed the cliffhanger ending of the Seahawks/Dallas matchup last night and was glad that T.O. (Terrell Owens, for those of you out of the football universe) has been stripped of further opportunities to gloat about how he's going to beat the Birds. But today's game was her real focus. So much so that she and her best friend Karina had to go out and get new outfits for the occasion:



What's remarkable here is that the sweatshirt that Hallie is wearing is size 18 months. We thought it would be swimming on her, but it was not. I am not sure whether this is due to the fact that sizing in baby's clothing is kind of random and inexplicable, or if it's because she really does have a linebacker's build.

Anyway, there were a few rough moments when our girls were pretty upset at the play and when it really did look like our underdog team might not be able to pull it off...



...but David Akers (Philly's field goal kicker) and Mommy saved the day...



Well, this mama is certainly glad that Hallie and Karina were pulling for the home team because it means that her girls will get at least one more chance to wear their Eagles' gear. Who knows, by next year Hallie might be wearing a 2T!

Have a lovely start to the week and tune in later for more Hallie adventures---we have a Feeding and Swallowing Clinic appointment in a few short hours and that is bound to be loads of fun!