the favorite toy

When Zach was little, his favorite toy was a duck. I've included a picture for your viewing pleasure.

When I was little, I'm sure I loved some normal toy. Halle likes normal toys too, but her favorite favorite "toy" is a bit abnormal. Here is a picture of her complaining that I took her favorite toy away. Her favorite toy? Zach's socks (she's holding them in the picture - I finally just gave them back).
She LOVES to carry around his socks. Sometimes the socks are new, but mostly they are used. It can't just be one. She must have a sock in each of her hands. If one is taken away, she will throw a fit (let me remind you of the above picture). Halle sucks on the socks occasionally, but mostly she just holds them. I, personally, don't see the draw.

Yesterday as we were getting ready for church, Halle was holding a pair of socks. We packed her in the car with the socks. We walked in church with the socks. And during Sacrament Meeting Halle still had the socks. I couldn't help but think what was going through the heads of the couple in back of us. Here was this little girl grinning at them with one sock in her mouth and another in her hand. They were probably imagining handing Halle a ten dollar bill and saying, "Here, Sweetheart. Give this money to your mom and dad and tell them to buy you some real toys."

I guess it could be worse - she could carry around shoes and suck on them. Wait... she does that too...

Halle's surgery

So today was the big day for Halle's surgery at Primary Children's. My sweet mom stayed with Zach at our house and the rest of us headed off to the hospital.

Halle did so well. Even with getting up two hours early and not eating, she was a chipper little girl. She smiled at all the other kids, reached out for the nurses/doctors to hold her, and practiced singing in the high tones of her register in the waiting room. Below is a picture of 90% of Brandon and Halle in the waiting room. It felt like we were waiting to get dinner at Chili's - we had a little beeper that we just waited to go off.
Dr. Downey ended up fixing her umbicial hernia and also doing an umbilicoplasty. He said it went very well. After Halle came out of surgery, Brandon went back to be with her (only one person could go back immediately following surgery). The nurse asked why the mother didn't come (as that's more typically) and Brandon informed her I was a wuss. True statement. The first time I saw Halle after the surgery, I started crying. She was moaning because of all the pain and it made me so sad. Brandon told me Halle was doing much better than he first saw her. The picture below is Halle coming out of anesthesia.

Anyways... we're home. Halle's doing well. When Brandon put her in her crib, she crawled over to her favorite corner, face-planted, and went immediately to sleep. We have to keep her tummy bandage on for 5 days, but other than that, she should be feeling better in the next couple days. New belly button - here we come!

I turned on my laptop this afternoon and found that the screen was cracked. Unless we had a meteor shower hit last night I wasn't aware of, I'm pretty sure it's from little feet using it as a step stool. Wherever there is a crack, the light from the screen doesn't show through. So now I have a black hole at the top of my screen as seen below. The only positive is that now, when I look at my desktop, Brandon is wearing a shiny black fez.