Oh, the Places She Will Go....

It's been another fun, adventure-filled weekend of firsts, seconds, and thirds for Hallie.

Let's take things in reverse order, because that's how they happened:

On Friday, Hallie had her third indoor preemie playdate with her friend Maya. This time, another ICN-mate, Benjamin, who was born right after Hallie, but who is four weeks older than she is in gestational age terms (in other words, he's a 28 weeker), was able to make it, too.

The three kids had a grand time hanging out, comparing notes on their toys, and even playing interactively with one another.

Maya showed off her advanced rolling techniques to Hallie. Our living room became the site of some major preemie acrobatics:

Hallie responded by playing a game of "I'm gonna get you" with Maya:

A grand time was had by all and we're going to try to do this again soon.

Later that evening, Hallie went out to dinner for the second time in a week. The first time (on Thursday), she hung out at the Blarney Stone and watched her friend Josh jam with his Irish band. Hallie, Karina, and Ethan (Josh's one and a half year old son, who also doubles as the harmonica player) really got into the groove. Alas, we have no pictures of this event.

Friday was Aunt Renee's birthday, and Hallie celebrated by sleeping through some excellent fondue at The Melting Pot:

It is too bad but Renee took this picture; the only other one we have (which does contain the birthday girl) features Renee with her eyes closed. We didn't want Hallie to seem like she had any competition in the sleeping department at dinner, so I've decided to upload this image instead.

Then, on Saturday, we packed up the car (OK; SUV, but it does have a car chassis) and headed off to NJ for Hallie's first-ever sleepover at Aunt Laura's and Uncle Bryan's. This weekend was cousin Hannah's fourth birthday party (her actual birthday was about two weeks ago). Even though Hallie wasn't going to be able to attend the party (even in post RSV season, we're eager to avoid unnecessary exposure to germy kids), we did want to celebrate the event with Hannah.

It's amazing how much stuff we "need" on an overnight trip:

I guess we're going to have to rent a U-Haul for Hallie when we bring her down to Aunt Laura's and Grammy's for a week in May!

Anyway, Hallie brought lots of toys and her cousins really enjoyed playing together:

The little cousins (Hannah and Adam) are totally in love with Hallie, and I must say that it seems like the feeling is quite mutual. Not only did they get to play with Hallie all weekend, but they even got to hold her:

Speaking of holding her, Grandma Sandy got to hold the little princess for a while, too. (The birthday hat is courtesy of Cousin Megan, who decided to make Hallie a hat when she was fashioning one for Hannah to wear):

Hallie has continued to sport her haberdashery since returning home. This is Hallie at dinner tonight. Notice that she rejected her turkey dinner and vanilla pudding in favor of the green star from her Fisher Price musical stacker....yum!


But even more delicious than a green star, of course, are Hallie's toes:

Here's the motto from the onesie she's wearing: "If I'm not Happy, Nobody's Happy." Yup...that about sums things up!