Halle's New Toys

Last weekend I asked Jason to take Halle out for a few hours so I could get some work done. He dressed her, took her to Toys R Us, and she came back with this cute new Dora chair. She was so excited she even climbed in and let me take some pictures of her (without going for the camera instead of smiling, which is what we usually get these days). The pics came out so cute, I wanted to share them. She looked like such a big girl sitting there, we couldn't resist asking her, "How big is Halle?" :)

In other Halle news, my mom bought her a colors and shapes puzzle two weeks ago. She mastered it almost immediately and I've been trying to get it on video ever since. As I mentioned above, when she sees the camera, she stops whatever cute thing she's doing and just goes straight for the camera, so getting her to do the puzzle and capture it on video has been a challenge. Today at lunch Jason was able to capture a little bit before she noticed the camera and stopped. You get the idea though. Click here to see the video. :)

Reel Big Fun

Last night Jason and I went to our first concert since Halle's been born. We saw Reel Big Fish and Less Than Jake with our friends Kyle and Chelsi. It was so much fun.

We started the night with some tasty caribbean food and a pitcher of mojitos. Then we headed over to Hard Rock for the show. I was so full from the latin food that I didn't think I'd be able to drink much, but it turns out if you pee four times during the show, you can make room for more beer! :)

Reel Big Fish came out first (well, after the two opening bands, but before LTJ). They were so entertaining and we knew almost all of their songs. I really felt like I was in college again. :) Less Than Jake wasn't quite as fun, but that's because they only played one or two songs from the one album that I know, and their sound guy didn't do such a great job because you could hardly understand them. Still, it was a fun show and, despite the constant ringing in my ears all morning, I'm still glad we went.

Halle had her first sleep over away from us last night. She stayed at Grandma and Grandpa's overnight. Except for the fact that she wouldn't eat any dinner, they said she was excellent and didn't want to give her back in the morning. :) She gave me the biggest hug when I came to pick her up though. Man, I love that kid!

My Lil' Firecracker

Halle finally had a little break through at Tumbleweeds today. She figured out how to climb up the steps of a slide, adjust herself to sitting, and slide down by herself. Up til now, she's tried to climb up the slide (instead of the steps), or when she's gotten to the top, she's needed assistance positioning herself and needed to hold on to us to go down. I was so proud to see her doing it all by herself! She still sometimes pushes down on her feet and doesn't slide down smoothly, but she did it right several times. She'll be a pro in no time! :) She's also started running (or at least walking fast) on the trampoline tracks, keeping her balance very well. And for the first time today I got her to do a complete circuit of activities in a row. Some of the activities she can't really do yet, but we still tried them all. And I even got her to walk on a beam for the first time (she usually wants nothing to do with it). My lil' firecracker is making some great progress!! :)

I was looking at Annabelle's pictures from Tuscaloosa today and thought it was funny that she was wearing a red "Lil' Sparkler" shirt with white shorts, which was so close to what Halle happened to be wearing today. So I took this picture of Halle. Too bad Bellee is all the way in Alabama or we could try to get them posed together in their 4th of July attire. Oh well. They probably wouldn't both smile anyway. :)