Yo, Baby!

Hallie is a very busy baby these days; she is obviously feeling much better (even though she is teething, has a cold, a runny nose, was running a fever and has the runs....sorry if this is too much information, but the thing that I am wondering is what in the world she'd be like if she were a hundred percent well).

Anyway, yesterday we started our day off with Hallie showing me her lovely new teeth (bottom front and center). They are doubling in size every day, going from tiny but sharp nubbins to cute little baby sized mounds (that she hones to a razor edge on diet coke and iced tea cans and bottles):



After playing for a while with her toys in the living room, we relocated to Hallie's bedroom where she gave us a very good lesson in why babyproofing needs to happen NOW:





Hallie can now get anywhere and do most everything. In addition to having access to the stuff we store on her soon-to-be-former changing table, she loves to try to pull herself up on burp cloths, plastic liners of diaper pails, and her flexible elephant hamper. I think she'll figure out pretty soon that the couch is a better option, but I hate to think about the bumps and bruises she's going to get learning those lessons.

Happily, there were no bumps and bruises yesterday; just one smiling baby.

In the afternoon, she went out to play in the waterpark the commune set up in front of our house and Mark, Vanessa, and Karina's:



And in the evening, we all went over to Mark and Vanessa's to have dinner (more on this later). Hallie had a ton of fun playing with Benjamin and Adam (two of our neighbors', Barbara and Chris', three boys) and Karina and all of Karina's toys. She especially enjoyed walking behind Karina's Little Tykes ride on:




And if all of that wasn't enough, here's the really important news: Hallie had a banner eating day. For the first time in a long time, she took in something approximating her caloric requirements (around 700 calories a day, at least). But significantly, less of it was administered in the form of 'dream fed' (essentially feeding her in her sleep) bottles and more of it happened in the daytime hours when she was awake and actively seeking her bottle. And, even more significant, not all of those calories were pediasure, either. She ate, drum roll please, a WHOLE container of Yo Baby! yogurt (frozen, and supercharged with added Carnation Instant Breakfast) and she did so happily. We froze the yogurt because Hallie loves frozen food and she kept going after it like a champ and demonstrated none of her typical gag reflex action. We are hoping that this starts a trend around here, but even if it doesn't, we had a very good eating day (and unsurprisingly, the mommies' stress level was far reduced) yesterday.

So, for your viewing pleasure, I present the final moments of Hallie's second frozen yogurt meal last night:

Yo Baby/Food, Glorious Food!

And, for the record, she did keep it all down! Sharon was right about this one and I was being too overly cautious when I thought that she needed to stop feeding Hallie before the container was absolutely empty.