Be still my heart!

If you read the last post you know that I think this is worthy of its own post. A box arrived yesterday from TX for our girls and I think I may have been just as excited over its contents as Matney! Check this out!!!

Matney's new puppy dog arrived all dressed in a tutu and giant flower headband. Oh, I can hardly stand it! The poor dog hadn't been out of the box 2 minutes before I had taken pics for the blog and called TX.
I have a serious love of tutus. All tutus, all lengths, all colors, all of them! And big bows and flowers for little girl hair. Oh, love it!

So this morning after M found the puppy I took the tutu and headband trying to figure out how I could get her to wear it without flipping out. Why should I worry? She's my daughter! She WANTED the headband and actually wore it for a while holding her puppy on her Elmo bed. Oh so cute. We went and looked in the mirror at her cuteness and she smiled!

Here is my beautiful daughter in her pjs, with her paci and her tutu and flower headband. Be still my heart!!!




Next time I will make sure to switch the flower to the other side of her head so that she isn't lopsided with the way her hair goes.
And, poor baby, all the screaming and not sleeping was due to ear infections again. This morning she was just too pitiful, even with her tutu on, and I called the dr. She is sick and now on medicine. Hopefully in a couple days we'll have our fun, happy Matney back. And can't you just imagine then how cute she'll be rolling around in her tutu?!?!? No worries, I will take plenty of pictures!

what could do this???

See this paci on the floor? What in the world could make Matney spit out her paci first thing in the morning? Nothing that I've ever seen!



But today we came downstairs just before 7am and as soon as we hit the living room I heard the paci hit the ground and "pu pu pu". I thought that was "paci" so I bent down and picked it up and she shook her head no and kept saying "pu pu" and flailing her arms. Oh...I looked up where she was pointing and look what was on the table...A PUPPY DOG! A BIG FLUFFY PUPPY! It was like Christmas all over for Miss M!
Yesterday Matney (and baby Halle) got a package from the Matneys in TX. I might have opened it after she was in bed and could hardly stand it. Inside was the best dressed puppy ever. So much so that it deserves its own post. I meant to put it back in the box for M to open it but forgot (because I had it in the middle of the table when Jared came home). So this morning, with sleep still in her eyes, Matney spied that puppy on the table and went nuts.



So cute. She cuddled new puppy all morning. So so sweet!

Whee!

We took Matney outside for just a couple minutes Monday morning so that she could see her play set and try out the slide. There are tons of shadows on the pictures but I think you can still tell that it was a hit! She laughed and laughed. Now if we could just have pretty weather I bet we spend lots of time outside!

Some things just take time

I don't know what changed to make the ball pit less scary. Time probably. Matney now loves crawling in and out and throwing the balls everywhere. Just thought you'd want to know. And, in case you wondered, the best part is throwing the puppy dog in first and then going after him. Apparently that is just too hilarious!

Go Daddy Go!

What has Matney found? She is looking into the backyard at something. I wonder what it could be???



"Look Mom!"

Matney found Daddy! What's he doing???

This is why I am glad to be a girl sometimes. Had we had a thermometer in the yard I would have taken a picture of the temperature as Jared put together the swing set this weekend. It was 44 degrees, WINDY and cloudy all day long. Did I mention he was outside from 9:30am until 6:15pm??? No lunch, no breaks...just a cold, determined Daddy!
Several of the steps called for two people. Does that deter my husband? Nope! I didn't see him for a while until I went to the kitchen window. He was in the mud with part of the set proped against the fence so that he could keep working without another person. I call it stubborn, he says determined!

And, 16 hours later (some of the work had been done the week before in the garage), HERE IT IS! It has a fort top, a slide and will have swings and a glider. There is a bench and table under the fort and several cool kid things inside the fort itself. We know our girls won't be playing on all of it just yet but this should last us years. And it will be great when our friends are over with their older kiddos. We're excited!

We knew we wanted to get Matney a swing set for her birthday and had been watching them at several prices. About 2 weeks ago this one went on sale at Toys R Us and we snagged it! It holds 3 swings but came with "big kid" swings so until the baby swings are here it isn't totally finished. The cheapest I could find baby swings was $25 each but Mom found (and argued with the lady) at Toys R Us on Sunday on sale for $22 and BUY ONE GET ONE! So, we have 2 baby swings on the way for only $22! Way to go Mom!

Matney's new words

These pics are a couple weeks old but I know not to post without pictures! Matney and Daddy on a weekend morning when I came downstairs. Who is surprised they are on the Elmo chair? Pretty soon I bet they'll be sitting eating pancakes together. How sweet.

Matney's woke up this morning and came downstairs, ate breakfast and as I got her out of her chair she pointed to my eye and said "eye". SHOCK! Jared and I both turned and asked her to do it again...and she did, clear as a bell. We asked her to find her nose, head, ear, etc to distract her from eye and see if she could do it when asked later...and she did! Then this afternoon she was pointing to the cabinet where we keep her things, food, bottles, etc and I couldn't figure out what she wanted. I eventually grabbed a bag of baby cookies and said, "cookie?". And she smiled and said, "cookie" and reached for the bag. I did the same thing as this morning, pulling different things out of cabinets and drawer, until coming back to the bag of cookies. When I asked her what it was she said, "cookie" and smiled. Oh, it is never going to be quiet in this house again! What a big girl.

Her clearly spoken words are dada, baba (bottle), cheese, keys, kitty, ball...um, I don't remember what else. There are several that we know what she is trying to say, like baby, but they aren't clear to anyone but us. She is trying very hard to say "puppy" and "paci". She gets the "pu" sound out but can't quite get the rest. She is also working on "sissy" (sister). She's done it good a couple times but not always. Maybe that will be easier when there is a sissy here to relate the word to. She is growing up so fast!

Its a ...leech???

No, it isn't really a leech...its a GIRL STILL! Thank goodness! We went for an ultrasound today and confirmed that we are still growing a little girl. There was some concern about her size at my last dr. visit since I haven't gained any weight so we went for some kind of growth check ultrasound. Baby Halle Kate is definatly related to her sister because she is in the 87th percentile for size and measuring closer to 34 weeks than the 32 weeks that she is. Looks like we may have another chunky monkey on our hands! We didn't tell anyone about the dr's concern because we didn't want anyone to worry if there was no reason to worry. Now we know that everything they can see right now checks out perfectly.

I talked to my dr for a while after the ultrasound and he said that unless he sees a reason that he isn't going to worry about her weight or my weight again and I should just keep eating. So, baby HK must be like a leech on the inside sucking up everything I eat. And Matney is certainly like a leech on the outside as I haul her around and she eats everything in the house. Dreamland BBQ and I already have a date in a week in a half and I can't wait. Slab o' Ribs here I come!!!

Jared took the ultrasound pics to his office to scan. As soon as he emails them to me I'll add them to this post. I do have to tell you that when they started the ultrasound he said, "If you look and tell us its actually a boy that would be ok." HA! Sorry honey. You and estrogen are about to get real close. I bet it won't be that long before there are pictures of Jared with bows in his hair and pink toenails on this blog! Now we (ok, I) can move forward with another girly nursery and not worry she is going to be a he....just a leech!

Cheese Pictures

In one of the rare moments that Matney hasn't been screaming this week I managed to snap a couple pictures of her cheese raid. Look at those chunky legs! Do you really think she needs all that cheese?!?! So cute! Now that she knows she can do it once the fridge door opens she races in the room and tries to get to the cheese before I shut the door.

She really has been hard this week. She screams and cries and doesn't want to be anywhere except my lap. By Tuesday night I was feeling really sorry for her and just knew that she was either really hurting from a tooth or getting sick. Then Wednesday Jared took the day off. He got her up and played with her while I got ready for Bible Study and you know what? She was fine. Laughing and playing with her Daddy. We, she and I, headed to church and Jared spent a couple hours working on the playset. And at church? She was fine. We came home she ate outside with Daddy...and she, of course, was all smiles. Then we went to the eye dr (more details below), came home and headed back to church for dinner and our marriage class and, you guessed it, she was great. She even ate a baby size nutrigrain bar, an adult nutrigrain bar, 4 chicken nuggets, peas, a slice of cheese, countless strawberries and cheerios for dinner. We came home and put her to bed and I was so glad that she seemed better.

Yesterday I got her up and by the time she got downstairs she was fussing and crying again. I fed her, went through the normal routine and she was still awful. So, what does that lead a mama to think? She is BORED in this house with the same old mama and the same old toys. When Daddy is here or she is out of the house then things are different and she's back to happy Matney. Is that annoying or what? We had some tough mother/daughter moments yesterday but I am pretty convinced that she isn't sick or hurting. We've been stuck inside for days with the rain so we're headed to hang out with some other kiddos for an hour or two this afternoon. THANK GOODNESS!!!

And about the eye dr... Matney definitely still has a clogged tear duct and will be having surgery on April 23rd to correct it. This is not something that Jared or I want to have to do. They had originally recommended we do the surgery when she was 7 months old but we waited until she was a year just to make sure it wouldn't open on its own. It hasn't so we're praying that she has no reactions to the anesthesia and that the surgery is successful. The dr said that kids are ready for 6 Flags by the afternoon but that parents often need the mental ward. Jared and I at least hope we get to share a room there that morning!

So, that's been the week at the Heald house. I couldn't sleep last night and have been up since 2am. ugh. What a yucky, rainy day to be so tired. I hope she behaves and plays nice with her friends today. I will let her take a piece of cheese for a snack and she will be fine!

I'm still here....

From Matney: I am still here and sitting in my Elmo chair. I LOVE Elmo. Every morning I come downstairs and climb in my chair and give Elmo lots of kisses. Elmo is my boyfriend but don't tell Daddy!

Back to Mama: Yep, that is the routine in the morning after M's awake. She hangs out on her Elmo chair until her breakfast is ready and most of the time I hear her kissing Elmo from across the room. Nice. Matney loves to kiss. We took her to the eye dr. this week to have her tear duct looked at again and she was kissing the giraffe that sits on the office desk. Cute, but full of germs I'm sure. Yuck. I snapped these the other day while she had a snack and watched her Baby Can Read DVD. She was a happy girl!

Also, you may have noticed in some of the last posts (see picture below) that Miss M is sporting a cute pair of pink tennis shoes. Jared and I took her to Stride Rite about 2 weeks ago and finally found a pair of shoes that she will wear. Before these trying to put shoes on her feet was AWFUL. She's scream and kick and fail around. With these pink beauties there is no fight. Since she's pulling up and cruising around everything taking her out without shoes is no longer an option so we were excited to find these.

What's a dad to do?

A couple of weeks ago Grandma showed up with a bag of 100 balls. Matney has had a blast playing with them. I have not had a blast bending over each day to pick them all up (I am pregnant!). Matney also got a Target gift card from Mom's friends Kathy and Darla for her birthday. Sunday, while Jared was staining the fence M and I headed to Target and bought a baby pool for $5 with her gift card. I just knew she'd enjoy her new ball pit.

Tuesday night Jared blew up the pool after dinner. Matney was interested...

...thinking this is pretty neat...

...um, NOPE. GET ME OUT!

So, what's a dad to do? Get in the ball pit and play, of course!

Matney eventually decided to come back and play but wasn't interested in getting in. She did enjoy throwing balls at her Daddy!

A dog's gotta eat too!

You have seen me say before that I really try hard not to let Dog come out of the crib. Some days...that just doesn't work! For the past week and half Matney has been extra fussy and has shed lots of tears. We thought at first it was her shots from the week before, then I wondered if she was getting sick because she ran a fever but nothing has come of any of that. Yesterday I got a good look in her mouth and just a tiny tip of her second top 12 month molar is sticking through so I am hoping that the fussiness is due to that tooth coming in and we'll be over it soon!

That said yesterday Dog staying in the crib was not an option. Nor was it an option not to have Dog eat dinner with Miss M. I finally gave up and let her hold him with one arm and eat with the other. Some times you just have to be flexible!


Yummy dinner with my puppy.

Such a sweetie even when she is cranky.



When M finishes something she looks at you, puts her hands like the picture above and says "done". Smart girl!

A typical day

I thought I would take a couple pictures of my typical view of Matney during any given day. Only the clothes and bow change!

"I'm coming to find you, Mama!"

"I got you! Now PICK ME UP!!!"

"Ugh. You're kind of old and boring, Mama. I think I'll go find something better to play with."