Ally Loves Watermelon

Can you tell?

Sporting a hand-me-down from mommy

When we last went to NY to visit my parents my mom had me go thru my room and clean out all my stuff from my childhood. I persuaded her to keep the C.abbage Patch kids and my B.arbie dolls at her house for Ally to play with as she got older, but I had to take everything else. One of the treasures I found was a box of old baby clothes of mine that I used to play dress up with my dolls. I could not bear to get rid of them after saving them for 35 years so I brought most of the home. So here Ally is at the park on a crisp cool autumn day sporting a pink knit sweater from 1973! I guess classic pieces never do go out of style!

Ally looks so serious - what do you think she's thinking?

Oh not so serious - just biting her tongue, probably to keep from asking me to stop taking pictures of her!

One of the things Ally likes lately is to open up bags - here she is trying to get into my backpack.

Yes she can climb the ladder all by herself.

Do you remember the post from this summer when I accidentally turned the water on Ally? The water is off now and she knows its safe to run around. But she still points at the holes where the water comes up.

This Girl Rocks

Ally has been figuring out just how the camera works. Like many kids, she demands to see the pictures on the digital camera any time she sees it. She hadn't quite figured out that to take a picture she needs to go away from the camera and wait while we took a shot. Last night she really got it and came into my lap for a photo.

This morning she did the same thing even without a lap to sit in. When I asked her to say "cheese", she obliged, and we got this photo!

Putting clothes on in her crib

A while back we posted about Ally taking her clothes OFF in her crib. Recently she put her shoes on while in her crib. No she does not sleep in her shoes, but its common knowledge now that Ally likes her crib. After her nap she plays in her crib while Becky gets her lunch ready. One day she asked for her shoes and would not get out until she put them on. She even got the feet correct!

First Football Game

I forgot to post this on September 7, 2008, and since Ally and I are home and Becky is at the Patriots game today, I thought now was a good time to finally post. It was opening day for regular season football. Becky and I LOVE to watch NFL football on TV. Last year we had Ally's naps timed so she would nap during the game, and truth be told we were a little unsure how things would be this fall. But on opening day, the first game of the season (yes when Brady was injured and now who knows how the Pats will fare) Ally napped for the first half and then we kept the TV on so we could watch the game.

Very intrigued

Ally is so engrossed in the game that she won't even look at her mama for a hug - she just can't tear her eyes away from the football game. Ahhh a girl after my own heart.

Ally is so enthralled she is ignoring her favorite cat. I thought it was so cute to see him trying to get her to pay attention to him.

See even with Brady out for the season the Patriots are still going to be #1.

Fun with Mama

Its been a really rough week. Ally is a great kid. She is usually very good natured and happy. She sleeps well, for the most part, and usually the hardest thing we deal with is getting her to eat. But this week has been pretty exhausting. I honestly don't know how parents with kids who don't sleep do it. Every night this week and for every nap we put her down Ally starts to sob and wail. Today Ally even "cried wolf" at naptime and yelled "elp elp elp" (help) and Becky had to go in to make sure Ally hadn't gotten stuck in her crib bars. And now Ally knows our names so she cries out for us... Mama, Mama, Mama or Mommy Mommy Mama Mommy... you get the idea. Its awful. We are so exhausted - she does this for almost 2 hours, we go in about every 30-45 minutes to make she she is ok and then we put her back down. I know she is ok, and I am pretty sure its just toddlerhood. Once she finally gets to sleep she stays asleep all night long.
Ally turned 22 months old this week. That means in 2 months she will be 2. How is that possible? It seems like yesterday she almost 1 year old. Where does the time go?
I must admit though that we feel Ally has been at "terrible 2" behavior for a while now. I'm hoping since it came early that means it will end early too.
Tonight after a trying trip to Tar-zhey for diet coke and some cheap toys to keep Ally happy when we fly to San Diego next week we came home ate dinner and played. Here are shots that remind us of why its all worth it. The pure joy and excitement in Ally was priceless. I wish I was able to capture her squeal of delight when she would knock the tower she built over. Just thinking about it now makes me smile.
We have a busy weekend, wish us well as we brave the zoo again to check out the gorillas. I hope to have time to post again tomorrow.

The first thing Ally did was take all the nesting buckets out and "re-nest" them upside down. It was adorable to watch her pick up each bucket from smallest to largest and stack them one over the over so there was no tower. I did not get any pictures of that - it was so neat to watch her do it, she was so serious about it all. Then mama decided to help Ally make a tower of buckets!


Then they knocked the tower down - it was so silly.

Then Ally stacked them up again all by herself. I think she must be brilliant to be able to stack them that high without help. She was up on her tippy toes to reach the top blue one.

Oh they all fell down!

She repeated stacking them and tipping the tower over several times. Each time before she would stack again she gave Becky (mama) a big hug and would sit in her lap for about 5 seconds, then she would collect all the cups and start again.

After the cups it was bath time. Becky usually gives Ally her bath and get the bottle and Ally's room ready for night time. After bath tonight Becky calls to me to ask for help. I came in the room and I saw a very happy Ally stretching her legs while a scantily clad Becky was putting lotion on Ally. Becky said Ally peed all over her so she stripped down in the bathroom and went about the night time routine in her scivvies. It was too funny not to blog about. I even took pictures and blocked out all the sensitive areas but Becky would not let me post them.

Then it was time for bed. I swear in all the world there is nothing better than cuddling a freshly bathed child in her cozy pajamas. Another plus about fall starting is that its fleece pj time!

A visit to Aunt Bess

This weekend we went to visit Becky's sister Beth, now known as Bess, or Aunt Bess. Ally made a breakthrough with names this weekend and started calling herself Ally and she identified Beth as Bess. It was really adorable and exciting for us!

It was an action packed weekend filled with drama; we almost missed our ferry boat, we were there with only minutes to spare and I literally jogged to the boat from the car, I was having flashbacks to my teenage years, Aunt Martha, but we made it. Dreams were fulfilled; Becky got to drive a bright yellow jeep that we rented to explore the island in. Lots of laughs, and fun with family. Thanks for being a great host Beth.

Is a caption really necessary?



Aunt Bess got out her balance ball and Ally was so thrilled. She thought it was so much fun to play with the big ball, but it was too big for her to pick up so she would roll it around the room.

Saturday morning we drove to Sankaty Lighthouse. In 2007 the lighthouse was moved away from the shoreline to avoid the beach erosion. The circular path of stones is where it used to be. They still have the lighthouse fenced off so you can only see it from a distance.




Walking away from the lighthouse.

Walking along the beach road.

Then we went to the beach. We saw 2 seals swimming in the ocean about 10 yards out. It was so cool to see them in the wild so close. They were too quick to get a picture of, though Becky did run down the beach aways to try and get a shot.

As usual Ally was not a huge fan of the water. In this picture she is hiding behind my back trying to hide from the ocean. She learned the word ocean on this trip. The whole car ride back to Beth's place she kept pointing to the water and saying "ocean" it was too cute. Tonight in the bath she was reading her bath book about things in the ocean and it was really neat to see her "get it".

After the beach it was nap time. The next set of pictures are from the Nantucket Farm Fair.

There was a pumpkin contest. The winner was 575 pounds!

They had tractors to sit on. Since Ally would not sit by herself Beth was good sport to sit with her.

Another first - they had bouncy machines and Becky went in it with Ally! Ally loved it with her mama but was pretty scared of it and refused to go on by herself. I can't say that I blame her. Becky said bouncing holding a 21 pound weight was a good work out and lots of fun!

I was so excited to see they had pony rides. But Ally would have nothing to do with it. I put her on the horse and she started frantically saying Bye bye bye bye and grabbing for me so I picked her up and she pet the horse instead of riding on it.

After the fair we went to a local brewery (Cisco Brewers) where they make Whales Tail Pale Ale and a few other kinds. Actually they place makes wine, vodka and brews beer. It was my idea to go and I don;t even drink alcohol. It is a BYOF (bring your own food) establishment so we stopped on the way for chips dip and pretzels. Above are the sisters toasting a fun day!

I love Ally's expression in the photo above, but it really is embarrassing - she is holding a piece of glass she picked up and the background is a huge stack of beer kegs! Once I realized she had glass I replaced it with a stone (she is at that age where you can't just take it from her or reason it must be replaced). Beth and Becky did a beer tasting that took a while so Ally and I played around the kegs and trucks and back-hoe for quite a while. I had so much fun just playing with Ally.

I feel like she grew up so much in 36 hours - she discovered pockets!

This morning we spent time in the Discovery Center at the Whaling Museum where Beth works. Ally enjoyed rocking in the boat. She would demand help to get in and then would rock and chant "rocking" as she did it.

They even have dress up stuff in the children's area and Ally of course loved the hats!

It was a long trip home on the packed ferry boat and then we hit traffic. Ally was not very pleasant in the car ride, but she finally slept for an hour and then was her usual happy self for the rest of the evening. It really was a fun time.