Aquarium

We took Ally to the Aquarium for the first time. She always likes to look at fish when we see them at a restaurant or the pet store, so we hoped she'd like the actual aquarium. She did for about 45 minutes and then she played in the toddler area for 15 minutes and then we left.

Where are we and what is this place?

Ohh those are Penguins?

Ally and mommy at the huge 3 story fish tank!

She was enthralled with the fish for about 2 minutes, until we saw a shark in the tank! Then Ally kept saying Bye so we would move on.

The interactive tide pool was a hit - above Ally is touching the hermit crab.

She even touched the starfish!

Just for Grandma Barbie

Grandma Barbie, I thought you might like to see that my cats are no longer using the doll bed you brought me as a bed, I am using it as a chair now! Thanks again for bringing it. I really like it.

I hope everyone likes the new blog look. I was excited to wake up this morning log in and see that everything looks different. Mama loves the new picture of me, and mommy thinks the flowers suit my personality. I especially like the colors. I can say and identify blue now so my moms were excited I noticed the change!

Make Way for Ducklings

Becky and Ally went on a field trip recently with their neighborhood mom group to the Boston Common. They rode the legendary swan boats and visited the bronze "Make way for Ducklings" statues.

A bit melancholy

In August of 2007 we had Ally evaluated by our local Early Intervention program. At 8 months old Ally could not sit on her own and she did not eat solid foods. She was accepted into the program and Ally began weekly visits with her Development Specialist, Sara. Every week for the past year Sara has come to our house and spent an hour playing with Ally all with the sole purpose of getting Ally caught up to her age group. 3 weeks ago Ally had her revaluation, and as we suspected she is now at or above age level for all developmental areas. This is the goal of the EI program and Ally is basically a poster child for their services.

Today was the first week in a year that Sara did not come. So Becky and I are feeling a bit melancholy tonight. We're so proud of Ally, her progress is truly amazing, but it is odd to have something end. In July, Ally was accepted into an EI playgroup that meets once a week and Sara is the facilitator for it, and we were thrilled that Ally can continue in the playgroup even though she is no longer receiving EI services. It has been really incredible to have received this assistance and attention. Sara is a special person and we are really grateful that she will continue to see Ally every week, even if its not one on one.

Sara is who brought the bubbles that Ally has played with for the past week. It has a monkey handle and in case you haven't heard Ally loves Gorillas so she also brought the book Goodnight Gorilla as a good-bye gift.

Sara always has fun things to play with and Ally was always excited to see what more there was in Sara's bag.

Doing the hand motions to a song.

The tubes that stretch. One of Ally's favorite toys from months ago.

Saying good-bye to a good friend, mentor and teacher.

Sweaty Girl

I can't believe I'm posting this...sorry Ally! She plays hard, and when it's just a little warm, with all that hair, she gets super sweaty. I've been documenting it over the past several months.

June 7, 2008

May 27, 2008

July 26, 2008

July 28, 2008

August 7, 2008

Bubbles!

Ally has gained a new skill and obsession: blowing bubbles!

Careful bubble wand insertion into bubble solution

Precise alignment of lips, wand, and exhale

And repeat for about 30 minutes a day, every day for the last week!

Ally loves her bubbles now so much that this morning as soon as she woke up, she pointed her finger as a pretend bubble wand and started blowing it! It is really cool to see her figure out how this works.

5K

Today- well this morning actually (since its still only 1115 AM) - was a BIG day for mama and Aunt Beth. They ran in their very first 5k race! Ally and I hung out at the park and entertained ourselves while they warmed up and ran. WAY to GO Beth finished in 35 minutes and Becky was complete in 38 minutes 49 seconds. Very impressive times and Becky actually ran the entire thing. Of course I documented it and am now blogging it. I know this is the Life of Ally so I hope you don't mind reading a post about the life of Ally's mama.

Beth and Becky in their strength pose pre-race.

Registering for the race.


Check out their numbers! Becky was #1 and Beth was #2. They were pretty proud of themselves for their numbers!

Stretching before the race. Don't they look so elegant?

Waving good-bye to Ally and I before the run started.

Beth during the 1st mile. She is even waving for the camera!

Check out Becky's superb form during her 1st mile!

Ally getting ready to go down the tunnel slide. We explored a new park while the runners ran.

Mid-Slide

End of slide!

It's the end of the race!!!! Go Beth!

Beth with her watch to show her time. She did much better than she had hoped her official time was 35:55.

Becky coming down the home stretch to cheers of Go #1!!!

Action shot of crossing the finish line.

Happy woman her completed her first 5k. I am super proud of her for this accomplishment.

Sisters, sisters. there were never 2 such devoted sisters.

One takes a plane to run a race

So the other runs and gets not so red in the face

Sisters, sisters there were never 2 such devoted sisters

(You have to sing it to the White Christmas song)

Visitors!

This past Thursday and Friday we had some company - my Aunt Cindy, cousin Mandy, and Grandma Debbie! We had a good time, and we have a selection of photos from the weekend. Sorry we've been slow to update - we are all rather sick. Poor Julie has strep throat, and I won't even get into how sick Ally has been. Enough about that... here are the pictures!

Hanging out on the balcony of the hotel

Swingin' at the park

Feeding Mandy some imaginary food on an imaginary fork

An "action" shot of us walking around Harvard Square

Grandma, Ally and Aunt Cindy

A serious discussion of Carl the cat between Ally and Aunt Cindy

Catching Up

Last weekend we went to visit my parents, Grandma Barbie & Grandpa Frank, because my mom's sister, Ally's Great Aunt Martha was visiting. Barbie & Martha got a lot of work done on my parent's house and lots of fun and new experiences were had by everyone. You've all seen the singing video, well this is the first in a series of posts about the fun we had. Scroll down to see all the fun things we did!

The older generation shucking corn! Can you believe this was Martha's first time EVER shucking corn? She has lived in Illinois her entire life and had never shucked an ear of corn. Of course I documented it and promised it would be on the blog. Don't they all look so thrilled?

On our last morning there I wanted to get a picture of us. Ally was not very cooperative, my mom looks great, Martha looks shockingly like Mimi (my gandmother) to me in this picture and I am astonished by my smile - I guess I was trying really hard.