Here's what we've been up too...

It has been a little while since our last post. I have been busy with my nanny job, when Raine and I get home we just need to relax and play. Dan has been working crazy overtime again. He has been taking off one night a week and usually Sunday too so that is nice. Hopefully, that will help him from getting run down as much/fast. We have also been in the process of finding a new place to rent because our lease is ending at the end of April. We have found a little house to rent with a fenced in yard for Raine and Mo. It is a small house, but it will be cute. The landlady is nice she has been letting me pick all of the new stuff she is putting in, which is pretty fun and exciting. She just tiled the whole house and she will be painting everything - and we get to choose what ever colors we want. I was pretty surprised at that, I picked some neutral colors for her and then she was saying "whatever you want" and I said, "Even lime green?" :) I am really excited to move in and have our own space, with a room for Raine and a yard for Mo. The landlady is even going to buy us a storage shed for the backyard since there is very little storage inside. I am excited to pick the paint colors, it is almost like having our own house... almost. :) I don't know how we are going to fit our giant couch in there but Dan is good at tetris...

Raine has been pretty funny. She seems to think the kids we watch all week are her siblings. They are nice to each other mostly, but they all have no problem fighting either. The younger boy (who is 6 months older than Raine) has a pacifier and after seeing him with it Raine decided that sometimes she need one. She also will not drink out of her sippy cups because they aren't just like theirs. She is growing up so fast. She is a fast little walker and needs to walk everywhere. We went to Lowe's today to pick out paint colors and she got to ride in her first Race car shopping cart. She loved it so much she cried all the way to the car after I took her out of it.

Well, I hope you enjoy the pictures and I will show you the pictures of our new place as soon as we move in.

Video Clips

Here are some video clips of Raine walking on her birthday. I have a bad habit of turning the camera the wrong way... sorry.

Raine's Birthday Party

Birthday Slide Show

Birthday Girl

Jordan RAINE Hocker
February 1st, 2007

Vocabulary: Mamama, Dadadad, dahdah (mo dog), nehnehneh (no), ba ba (ball), nana (grandma)
New Things Learned: Walking, waving bye, head shake to say "no no no"
Favorite Toys: balls, babies, stuffed animals, electronics, blocks, and mail (boxes, magazines, free samples...)
Favorite Game: "I'm gonna getcha" and tickling with Mommy, video games and tickling with Daddy

Raine's Birthday Party

Raine's birthday party was so much fun. We were so glad that Grammy Tami could share it with us. We made the cutest dragon cake and Raine had so much fun opening presents. She didn't really eat any cake, but she had a blast smashing it all over her high chair. After Raine woke up on party day Grammy Tami and I decorated the cake and Raine sat in her high chair and played with her cloth cake that Nana sent. While Dan wasn't looking Raine got to lick of one of the beaters from the frosting (she doesn't eat much, but she sure liked that beater). Then Raine got to take a bath with her new tub toys from Grammy. I think she had so much fun the morning of her party she almost slept through the party itself. She was really into opening all of the presents she was handing all of the pieces of paper to Dan. I think her favorite part of the party was just walking around and playing with everything.
Trip to the Renassaince Festival

On Sunday Raine, Dan, Grammy Tami and I went to the Renassaince Festival. It was Raine's first time and I think she had fun. She got to walk quite a bit and check everything out. I think her little brain was working so hard to figure everything out and take it all in. She was so good the whole time we were there. She got some cute little fairy wings and her footprint on a pirate ship. She also got to try steak on a steak, which she thought was more fun to feed to me than to eat herself. Her all time favorite part was the little petting zoo. We got some food to feed the sheep, who were ravenous and tried to eat Raine's crackers and licked her all over her head. Raine thought all of this was hilarious. Some babies might be afraid of a strange animal licking their head, but Raine finds it to be great fun. She saw a sleeping puppy she tried to climb in with, more sheep with babies, piggys, and a giant horsey. The only thing she actually got to pet were the sheep, but she was excited about all of the animals. She did however rename them all, they are all dogdogs. She does a very cute high pitched short dah dah sound for dog. She was so giggly in with the animals, it was too cute.

Busy Girl

Raine has been so busy learning all she can. She is such a big helper already. She throws her diaper away herself, wipes my nose, and hands us things. She has also been getting better at feeding herself and is now very steady on her feet. She has been really into trying on our shoes lately and she gets so frustrated that she can't walk in them. It's pretty cute. She has also learned to clap and wave bye. It is so fun how much she is learning. Her new favorite game is to throw all of her toys in the kitchen - not the funnest game for me. Raine is also really into fruit right now - not eating it, hugging it and carrying it around. Every time we go to the store she thinks she needs to get an apple or orange or some kind of fruit or vegetable. Sometimes she does try to taste it, but usually she just wants to hold it. She gave me her pear the other day and I made the mistake of biting some of the peal off so she could eat it. That seemed to take the fun out of it.

Raine and I got Dan a "Rogue" t-shirt and a "Future Horde" onsie for his birthday. I know, I know it is not his birthday yet, but I am terrible about presents. I get too excited and end up either having to give the present or I tell the person what it is. So, to avoid telling Dan what we got him, we let him open it early. I did hold out for like 2 weeks though. I'm getting better. The shirts are from the video game he is glued to so he thought it was pretty neat. Rogue is one of his characters and the Horde is the group to which he belongs, the bad dead guys I think. I don't know, I really try to listen when he is talking about it, but I really have no idea what he is talking about, so not much is retained.

I started babysitting for a new family today. Raine gets to come with me and we will be there 4 hours a day 5 days a week. Today was our trial day and the 2 boys (almost 2 and almost 4) seem to get along with Raine and are pretty well behaved. Raine thought it was pretty neat to follow the "big" kids around all day. The younger boy tried to kiss Raine a couple of times - Raine didn't see a need for more than one kiss. She thought the first kiss was funny and then he grabbed her head to try again (apparently he didn't get the first kiss in the right spot) and Raine tried to give him the toy she had thinking that would get him away from her.

Playing with Mo

It is finally fall in Phoenix ... in some spots. It is so strange how some of the trees are barren of life and the grass is dead, but in other areas the trees and grass are all still green.
Raine had to get 2 shots today. So, to cheer her up we played outside with Mo dog. She loves "walking" the dog. She will hold onto the leash as I carry her. She loves to point at everything now. As we are walking she will point and make little noises. Once we get to the park she likes to walk or crawl around and point at everything there. Today she found some little seed pods that had fallen off of the trees.

Raine is also getting her 4th top tooth in which apparently is very hard because she has been telling us all about her discomfort. She is not shy about telling us what she thinks.

We have a little park behind our apartment complex that we take Mo to everyday. Since Raine is now walking she thinks it's pretty fun too. The other day we were there and one of our neighbors who has 2 little lap dogs was there and Raine kept trying to get the little dogs, who were much faster than her. She thought it was such a funny game.

One of Mo dogs favorite things to do at the park is to roll around in the dead grass.This makes me wish I hadn't just vacuumed.

Now that she has figured out that Mo likes to eat anything I give Raine they have become good friends. That also means that Raine doesn't eat much because she gives it all to Mo. (She is getting better though). She ate a little bit of spaghetti last night.