Hallie Update

Well this is more of a "I just realized I haven't posted the pics Brit took post." I have had these pics for about a month now I have printed them and have them hanging around the house but for some reason I overlooked posting them on the blog. Hallie is such a fun loving kid. She is very into pretending, loves to play in the water(no matter where it is), she is an awesome big sister and loves to help take care of Gracie(I don't think they come much better). We are getting excited for summer she is going to be doing swim lessons and some preschool "playdates" mostly because she just needs more social practice(sharing, playing well with others, ect) not really anything educational wise. She love spaghettios and regularly asks for them for breakfast(we don't eat them for breakfast). She says tons of funny things...last night after being tucked in for about 30 minutes she came and said she needed to go potty so I went in to take her potty I had Gracie with me and she just kept talking to her. I said pretty sternly "it is bedtime go potty so you can go back to bed. She looked at me and growled(this is new) I said what was that for and she replied well Im not allowed to yell and you are making me angry so I growled. I had to leave before I laughed. After that she went back to bed. She loves to be outside and I love that she likes to play in the dirt(minus trying to get her clothes clean). I really just want my kids to be well rounded...I feel that girls can do anything boys can do. My neighbors often stop when Hallie and I are out mowing the lawn and say, "why doesn't Matt do that?" I have 2 answers to that he works all day why can't I do that? and I have dozens of other things I want him to do once he gets home, including just spending time with us if there is something I can do to make his day easier I will. Also who ever said mowing the lawn was a guys job? Anyways so I just want Hallie to be able to experience life from all angles. Her favorite thing to do is probably still to read stories, I frequently find her down in her room reading stories and at this point we have read enough that she can pretty much tell all the stories that she is reading...its quite impressive. She likes when I will ask her questions about what her favorites are(they change daily), how she is doing, what she wants to do for the day, ect. She will say ask me some more questions mommy. She also loves to sing and loves to make up songs, my favorite is when she sings to Gracie and their faces both light up when Gracie smiles. At this point she still naps once a day for 2-3 hours and somedays I think that time is my saving grace. She is at this point, dare I say, completely potty trained!!!! I really don't even ask her anymore she will just jump up and say she needs to go, then asks for help getting wiped and clothes back on. She can completely dress herself which helps me a lot and she thinks it is so cool. When I first started having her dress/undress herself she got quite frustrated so I started breaking it down into simple steps I knew she could do. As she would accomplish one at a time she would get so excited and her confidence that she could do it would grow. I never realized how many steps it can take to take off a shirt for someone that has never done it before. I love to see her so happy once she has accomplished something that only days earlier was so frustrating to her.  I can never thank Brit enough for capturing my girls and their personality through pictures...to me they are priceless. Here are some of my favorites.