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She is getting more and more crazy….

We noticed tonight that we recently had some traffic to the site from the google search ‘missy moo’. This peaked our curiosity. What other missy moos are out there?

Well, it’s a popular name for a cat. Missy moo is Oober Yuckems ‘ not so secret admirer. Somewhere along the lines we ended up buying a bib from Australia (fyi-delivery by sea takes 2-3 months! we opted for air). We found some cute onesies (Link Removed on Remote Site) for identical twins, and the true meaning of missy moo.

gotta love the net

I love kids in hats. From day one I’ve had Illianna in a hat. Unfortunately she’s figured out how to take her hat off, and thinks it’s a trick. Now I’m having to wear hats as well because if she sees me in a hat then she’ll leave hers on.

Yesterday it wasn’t too hot, there was a slight breeze, and a few clouds remained in the sky from a storm that passed through the night before, so we decided to go on a walk. I got us all loaded up, which was a feat of it’s own because once the dogs see their collars come out they start going crazy, and we were just about to head off, when Missy Moo looked up at me with an evil smirk and pulled her hat right off. I only have one hat, which after recently falling into the pool I found out was made of paper (I didn’t know you could make a *real* hat from paper.), so I was in a bit of a predicament. Fortunately I saw one of Ryan’s baseball caps in the entry. It did the trick, and she kept her hat on most of the walk. Of course she wanted to try on Dada’s hat at well.

Well, we took our first family vacation to New Mexico. Illianna did great on the airplane. Here she is checking out the view from the overhead.

We did a lot of hiking.

See that hole on the right. I climbed through there with Missy Moo along for the ride. That was darn difficult. I couldn’t just get down on my hands and knees because just the day before we were hiking around in the snow and I fell and bruised my knees.. bad.

We didn’t do any intense hikes this time because it was the first time I’ve worn a pack since I was a teenager at summer camp . I’m glad we stuck to the easy stuff because that’s all Illianna could do anyway. She is at the age now where she’s too interested in everything to fall asleep anywhere other than her bed. Towards the end of the trip she was doing better to sleep in the car, but that was out of total exhaustion and desperation. I’m not sure how long it will take her to catch up on missed sleep. Nor am I sure how long it will take us to catch up. She woke us up everyday at 5AM, which is 6AM her regular time. Usually when she wakes up early at home, I let her hang out in her crib until time to wake up, 7AM, but you can’t really do that when you’re in a hotel room.

Maybe if I have a little more time or energy I’ll blog a bit further about the whole thing, but right now I’m not that into it. more pics

It’s tradition to take photos in the blue bonnets. For some odd reason they only seem to grow on the side of busy highways, except for the crazy guy who plants them in his front yard in Southlake, only to spend all his time on the front porch chasing people away.

We were on the side of a highway, actually where two meet, but it was off the road quite a bit.

Illianna was far too interested in the flowers and grass to actually look at the camera, but I figure I’ll have many years of blue bonnet photos where she’s looking at the camera. Only one where she’s actually fascinated by the flowers.

We’ve been busy with lots of firsts lately. This weekend we managed to make it to the zoo. It was Illianna’s first time. I wasn’t sure she’d enjoy it just yet, but she sure did. There was a lion who was not in the best of moods and kept pacing back and forth and roaring. She *loved* that. Here’s this big intimidating lion giving it his all and she’s giggling at him. It was so cute. I now know a new noise to make to get her to giggle.

There was also this cool avery that had tons of birds flying around. You could go in and feed them. Ryan took Illianna in while I stayed with our stuff. When the birds would get spooked they’d all fly from one end to the other and the wave of ooooh’s and ahhhh’s from all the kids watching was adorable. Here’s a photo of Illianna checking out the birds.

Today was our second week of swim class. Illianna loves it. With her love of bath time, I thought she’d enjoy swim class. Illianna was chatting with another little girl, Sophie, during class. They were cooing back and forth. Sophie started splashing and giggling and then Illianna started kicking and giggling back. I wish I had a video camera. I did manage to get a pic of us after class.

We ran to Target just a little while ago and she successfully sat in the basket. I don’t have a shopping cart cover just yet. I actually went there to get one, but I’m not sure if it’s truely needed. I understand it’s supposed to help keep germs at bay, but kid are going to get germs and get sick. I don’t know if the hassle of having a cart cover is worth it. I think it would be easier for me to carry wipes and just disinfect.

For Grandpa

She hasn’t mastered making the Longhorns sign yet.

Illianna took her first big girl bath this evening. I’m probably going to go back to using the tub in the sink for a bit longer. It’s much easier to clean her while standing at the sink, and she’s still a little wobbly at sitting up, but man oh man did she have fun in the tub. While I’d love to share photos of her naked in the tub, it’s probably best I keep those for family and future boyfriends. I think she is just the prettiest naked baby ever. I cannot believe she’s already going to be 6 months old tomorrow! She got her first tooth too! It just broke though yesterday. She’s been a little fussy today because it’s been making more progress cutting through. My little baby is turning into a little girl.

Today was such a fun day! The weather was great… sunny and 70’s. We started out the day doing some gardening that was long overdue. You can tell I didn’t get out there much last year. Illianna wore a cute little outfit with flowers on it and a sun hat while sitting in her swing watching Mommy and Daddy play in the dirt and the doggies run around. Missy Moo’s time was cut short due to her morning nap, but we got the front yard done.

We then cleaned up and headed out for some toy shopping. I’m all about quality over quantity for toys. I think toys should be educational and developmental, not just brightly colored noise makers. We hit up a couple of the boutique stores in Ft. Worth and scored big time.

We found a hand puppet. OMG Illianna LOVES this puppet. She was laughing so hard and so long in the store. It was adorable! One husband went to go get his wife so she could see how much Illianna was laughing and how much fun she was having. We also got some little stacking pond pals by Lamaze. We have quite a few of their toys. I’m really impressed by them. Ryan and I don’t just go buy any toy, we spend hours ‘literally’ playing with everything at the toy store before we buy anything. Illianna liked the play table set up with Brio trains. She was holding herself up ‘albeit a short period’ and playing with the trains.

Today actually marks a milestone for Illianna. She can now sit up by herself. She’s been working on it for a while now, but today I plopped her down next to Tiki and she sat there all on her own for at least 5 minutes. While I didn’t take a photo of her sitting with Tiki (I thought about it) we do have photos of a proud mama holding the growing baby girl.