We're Back!

We got back from Cleveland today. We spent Thanksgiving with my family, and had lots of fun. There will be more posts on this later but I wanted friends and other family to see how much fun we had.

Above is Ally on Thanksgiving, yes she is actually eating turkey, the roasted one, not the fried one (we had 2 turkeys!!!)

On Friday we went to Uncle Kurt's mall. Yes he has his very own mall, at least I think of it as that, since he is the General Manager of the mall. Its an outdoor mall with a lake and sidewalks. Ally had a blast running around.

The mall had a small parade and tree lighting ceremony. Santa was even there, and no Ally does not like him any better this year than last year.

Family Pictures

Its a tradition in my family to take family photos when we are all gathered together. Sometimes the pictures are great sometimes not so great, but at least we documented the occasion!

I love how Ally and Debbie are goofing off in the picture above.

Ally looks so somber here - I think she was tired of the picture taking.

Fuzz Mama, Fuzz! Crumbs Mommy, crumbs!

Little Ally has found a new tactic to use when bored. It all started with her slippers. Now that it is cold (...brrr... verycold here in New England), she's wearing slippers around the house. When the slippers come off, there always is a little bit of fuzz stuck in her toes. When getting ready for the bath, she'll point to it. I'll say, "Oh, do you have some fuzz? I'll help get rid of it." If we don't get it out of her toes before the bath, as soon as she gets in it floats away and she'll see it and point to it, and I'll say, "Yep, there is some fuzz."

All this to say that, this week, Ally's quest to keep her toes fuzz-free has become an obsession. Any time we are slightly bored, it seems appropriate to remove shoes and socks to see if any fuzz has attached itself to her feet. Even if there is nothing there, the requested parent (and only the requested parent - very difficult when driving) is required to rub the toes clean of fuzz.

Also this week, when at her doctor's appointment, Ally was eating cheerios. At one point she had crumbs all over her and Julie said "Ally, you've got some crumbs, let me brush you off." From that little episode, if the fuzz tactic fails, a request for decrumbing her feet is sure to follow.

So, at any rate, Ally's feet are now rubbed to a shine.

Speaking of going to the doctor's office, Ally's back on the weight chart again, gaining over a full pound in the last month! Way to go Ally! She's even over the 5th percentile! We're pretty excited as the countdown to no more bottles is rapidly approaching. Maybe I should get one of those ticker clocks for the sidebar...

If anyone has any wonderful advise to keep us sane for the first few weeks after we throw out all the bottles on the morning of December 1st, please let us know. (December 1st is right after all of our Thanksgiving stuff is over - we don't want to make Thanksgiving miserable for all.) Ally won't drink milk out of a cup (yet). Unfortunately, while I am in total agreement that bottles need to end, especially as she is 2, and as she is back on the weight charts...it's really hard to think about losing that cuddle time in her chair together before naps and bedtime.

Anyhow - thanks for reading my ramble. As a reward, here's a cute picture off of the camera!

Opening Presents

It was lots of fun to open presents. Ally actually got into opening them up and playing with them. She would open a gift and play with it for a while and then want to open a new one. It made the gift opening take a long time, but all of us were so entertained I don't think we cared.

She received some clothes for her baby doll.

Grandma Debbie and Poppy gave Ally a stuffed gorilla. She immediately went to her chair to read him Goodnight Gorilla.

But then the new gorilla put his arm on her.

So she threw him off the chair "Good bye gorilla"

A new red warm-up suit.

And $2.00 from Aunt Suzie and Gruncle.

Ally knew just what to do with her money - put it on her doll bed mattress. That way it will be there for a rainy day - oh wait that should be under her mattress.

Grandma Barbie helped open up the new pajamas she and Grandpa Frank gave Ally.

Thank-you to everyone who sent gifts and cards. Ally is very fortunate to have so many people who love her.

More Birthday

This will be the second of several posts this week about Ally's birthday. It was really a lot of fun, and Becky and I were so happy to share with our parents and Beth. Thanks for coming.

The party decorations - we gave away the animal beach balls to every family who came, along with rubber ducks dressed like animals.

Grandpa Frank was a trooper. He read countless books to Ally. Personally, I did not know it was possible to read every page of the My First Words Big Book, but he managed to do so and I think he and Ally talked about every single picture, every time he read her the book.

Grandmas got some book reading in as well, what else, Beauty and the Gorilla!

As you read previously the cupcakes during the party were not such a big hit. Being the prepared moms that we are, we had planned for that and made a small birthday cake to have with dinner. Ally refused to eat any of it.

She said yes to a lion cupcake and we got our hopes up...but all she wanted was the cheerios off it. Then she asked for more cheerios. Yes a toddler who prefers watermelon and cheerios to cake. Who knew?

But see how happy she is!

Poppy Dave spent quality time with Ally this weekend as well. They colored together (turns out Dave is a pretty good artist) and played with the great cutting fruit Ally got for her birthday.

Ally is TWO!

Today Ally is officially two years old! Because of travel schedules and such, we celebrated with a big party yesterday. Mama and Mommy were very busy getting ready for our party with Grandma Barbie, Grandma Debbie and Aunt Beth all helping us prepare. (The Grandpas helped out too - they read many, many stories to Ally to keep her occupied and out of the kitchen Friday night.)
We had a lot to prepare, as there were (I can't believe it) 41 guests in our house for Ally's party! Yes, that's right, forty-one guests. We were really touched by how many of our friends and family came to wish Ally a happy birthday. It's such a blessing to have such a great community of mom-group friends here in our neighborhood.

Ally's party was, of course, a ZOO THEME! Mama and Mommy had a lot of fun being creative in the decorations and food. And yes, of course, we served animal crackers. We made the animal cupcakes (yes, Mommy did the baking and Mama lead the decorating.)

It was really fun to have so many people sing happy birthday to Ally. She did really well for the first 15 seconds or so, when this shot was taken, but I think between the candles on the high chair and 40+ people in the room staring at her, she was also happy when the song was finished! She was a very good host, however, and we were both proud of how well she did with all the commotion.

After a lot of her neighborhood friends were on their way off to nap time, Ally and Alice got a little bit of time to play together, and completely on their own chose to sit together to color. It was so very sweet!

Then and Now

The top picture was taken then, November 16, 2007 it was Ally's 1st birthday and she was wearing her party dress!

The next photo was taken now, on November 10, 2008. The dress still fits, but look how much she has grown and how much she has changed.

I love this dress, and so of course I've saved it, and I hope one day we can pass it along to someone who will treasure it and enjoy it as much as we have. But these pictures are more than the dress.
I've struggled with whether or not to post this, but since this is supposed to be about Ally's life and our way or documenting it, I think this is important. Ally is small, tiny, petite, little - you pick the word, they all fit. As she gets older and all of her friends continue to get bigger I've been noticing more and more how small she is in comparison. We go to the park and I see all the younger children and they are so much bigger than her - but it is amazing to see her so competent on equipment and see bigger kids unable to do so much. They are bigger, but younger. She is small. But only her size, her voice is big, her personality is huge and her smile and laughter are contagious. But the thing is I am not small, no one in my family is small, and so I worry (even though the doctor says not to worry, I still do). I have no experience with being a small person. My entire teenage and adult life I've been large, larger than I should be, and its frankly a bit scary to be raising a small person. I know that I need to not worry and not fret and not focus on size, but despite my efforts I still do. I worry she needs to eat more, I worry she'll get picked on. I think you get the idea...I worry.
So the pictures above are great comfort to me, they show me in picture (full color) how much Ally has grown physically in the past year. Yes she is still petite, but the dress is now a tunic and what was long sleeves are now 3/4 length and the pictures help me remember that Ally is the perfect size for Ally. I'm her mommy and I need to accept that.

She's a cutie

Just Hanging Out

On Friday Becky and Ally went to a baby shower for one of Becky's co-teachers so Ally was all dressed up in a party dress. When they got home we pulled out a book my mom (aka Grandma Barbie) bought Ally at the San Diego Zoo - its title is Little Beauty and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes gorillas. The first three pictures are Ally holding her stuffed gorilla listening to Becky read her the book (again and again and again, right now Ally fixates on a book for several days and only wants that one book read over and over and over again).

When she woke up the morning Ally wanted the same book again

She took a break to get Big Bird.

Yes that is a giraffe and a lion and an alligator on her tights. I bid on a collection of jungle themed clothes at eBay and scored a bunch of items really cheap!

I think its so cute the way her eyes are just peering over Big Bird in the picture above. She was kissing him.

Monsters

Ally has been really, really into her monster book lately. It's a lift-the-page type book that reveals a monster with textured fur hiding in a bathtub or behind a chair or something like that. The last page has a mirror hidden, and Ally always gets a big grin when it flips open. She then proceeds to kiss herself in the mirror. (Though, I will admit we encourage that a bit...)

Here are some shots of Ally with her "monsta" book.