Halle 15 months

Feb 20, 2005
Happy New Year! Halle is now 15 months old and WALKING everywhere!  She was a late walker, just taking her first steps at the beginning of this month.  Of course, she did it at Grandma and Grandpa’s house while Mom and Dad were on a recruiting trip to Boulder.  She is still so small, and doesn’t bend her knees, so it’s pretty darn adorable to watch her walk.  She is also getting more hair, and has darling little curls in the back and on the side of her head. 
To back track a little bit, we had a great Christmas!  It was so fun to see Halle on Christmas morning.  We were at the Cornell’s and when we came up the stairs she saw her pooh bear and care bear chair that Santa had left.  Her little eyes just lit up and she jumped out of Rusty’s arms, crawled over to her chair, climbed in and gave pooh a hug. 
Then it was on to the Banks.  Halle got a musical Elmo stand up toy and she did not stop playing with it for about a month straight.  She loves to bounce to the music and push the buttons over and over again.  Her and Bridger had a great time playing on his new Harley big wheel and eating messy candy canes.  Brett, Kami and Brynn came out a few days later and it was fun to let the cousins spend some time with each other.  Kami and Lindsey are pregnant again, Kami is due at the end of this month and Lindsey is due in July.  Our little family is growing so much and we feel so blessed to be a part of it. 

This is an exciting time in our lives, as Rusty has been applying for jobs.  In January we went on a recruiting trip to Austin, TX at National Instruments.  It was a fun, all expenses paid trip and we met a lot of fun people. National instruments wined and dined us—taking us to dinner twice, and to an arcade for a little fun after a long day of interviewing. Rusty was impressed with the company and was given a job offer a few days after we returned home.  Halle and I are so proud of him and all the hard work he does for our family. 

In Feb we also went on a recruiting trip to Boulder, CO.  We absolutely loved the area!  This trip was more relaxing, and we had time to house hunt and explore the area.  Rusty interviewed with Ball Aerospace and felt like the interview went great!  We are still waiting to hear back from them, but things are looking good!  This is probably the job we will take, but we have to get all offers on the table before we make a decision. 
I have a neat story to tell about our CO trip.  The night before we were to leave I was getting all packed, and looked in my purse to make sure my driver’s license was there, but I couldn’t find it anywhere.  I searched the house and my purse two or three times.  I came back into my bedroom and said a prayer that I would be able to find my drivers license so I could go on the trip the next day.  Immediately the thought came to my mind to look in the garbage can.  I thought, “why in the world would my driver’s license be in the garbage can?” But, I took a quick glance in and didn’t see it, so I continued searching elsewhere.  The thought came into my mind again, so this time I totally emptied the garbage can, and at the very bottom was my license!  I am so glad that I listened to the prompting from the Spirit to help me find my license.

 

Ok—back to Halle.  Since she was about 1 year old she has been learning baby sign language.  It is so fun to see her learn and make connections.  She can sign, dog, ball, fish, bird, mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, socks, more, shoes, please, milk, water, flower, yes, no, food, sleep, go, bath, wash hands, train, baby, and many others. 
She is also learning words at a rapid rate. Right now her favorite, of course is NO.  I ask her if I can have a kiss and she firmly says, “No.”  It’s kinda funny, but I can see where it has the potential to be frustrating.  Other new words include, Mama (finally) bubbles, bampa, wash hands, mouse, kitty, eat, book and the old favorites are duck, dada, ball, dog, fishie, bird, bye bye, baba, and I’m sure there are a few I’m not thinking of.  She can also make monkey noises, and loves the rhyme “3 little monkeys swinging in a tree.”
Both Mom and Dad are still in school, so Halle gets to come visit Mom at her office on Tuesdays for an hour while Dad has class.  She knows that she gets a sucker when she comes to see me, so the first thing she does when she gets to my office is point at the sucker bucket and say “uh, uh, uh.”   Rusty is still enjoying being a stay at home dad two days a week.  They love to wrestle, play hide and seek, and read stories.  On the other days of the week Halle and I run errands, watch Signing Time and Baby Einstein, take baths and read stories.  Last week I took her to a puppet show at the North Logan Library called “quackers.”  At first she was kinda scared of the giant duck, but by the end she was dancing and clapping to the music.  Brooke and Haley Pulsipher went with us. 
Halle loves pizza.  When Rusty walks in the door with a pizza box she goes crazy!  She runs to the kitchen and says, “ummm, ummmm.”  You know your child eats too much pizza when, at 15 months, she recognizes a pizza box.  Halle also loves fruit smoothies.  Grandpa Banks always makes them when we are down visiting, and we have brought the tradition to Logan.  I swear she could eat a whole blender full. 
Another funny thing she is doing lately is telling us goodbye when we put her down for a nap or bedtime.  She grabs her blanket and waves at us, then promptly goes to sleep.  We laugh every time. 
Rusty taught Halle to eat snow, so now whenever we go outside she has to dip her finger in the snow and lick it off.  It’s ok when the snow is fresh, but she wants to dip even when the snow is brown and gross. 
Well, that’s it for now.  We’ll do another update soon!