Its amazing

Sometimes how much I love Ally amazes me. Sometimes, well pretty much all the time Ally amazes me. Being a mom is a lot different than I thought it would be. It is harder in ways I did not expect, and easier in other ways.

I've been wanting to blog for a while about some of the stuff Ally is into lately. I'm learning that as she gets older its harder to capture everything in a picture, and sometimes I just want to enjoy the moment and not try and get a picture of it, I worry the effort to get the photo will ruin the moment itself.

Toy Story - we've said that this is a bit of an obsession. It is. We are very careful about what we let Ally watch on TV - Sesame Street is the only TV show she can watch, at the gym nursury sometimes she watches Dora if its on the TV there (a lot of time the TV is off, which we like). As for movies we've watched Toy Story, Toy Story 2 and Monsters, Inc. We tried Jungle Book but that was a bust.

So Toy Story - Ally has some Buzz Lightyear pajamas we got her at WDW and a pair of Toy Story ones we bought on ebay. She loves to wear the pjs after her bath, which might be because we bribe her to take a bath by promising she can wear them. She has some figurines to play with as well. She talks about the characters all the time. We bought her a Mr Potato Head recently - which she calls "Mistah Ted" She also knows who Barbie dolls are, and always points them out at the store, she thinks they sing, b/c in the movie they sing back-up on the theme song.

Memory - she remembers all kind of things, like the fact that my dad calls his dog Java, Javvie as a nickname. She knows the words to lots of songs - (we sing all the time) - and she is so funny with "No more monkeys jumping on the bed", right now she is in her crib talking about all of this (Barbie dolls, Javvie, monkeys, baby beluga) its a riot.

Bananas - we cannot keep enough bananas around. Tonight she ate 2 while we reading books before bed. I think it was her 3rd of the day. Yes grandmas she is still pretty regular, she just loves bananas.

Food - Ally continues to be a picky eater, but we seem to be winning the battle a little by requiring that she try a bite of what we made for her to eat before she asks for something else. "else to eat" is a common phrase, and we've decided as long as she trys the real meal we won't force the issue, and will feed her something else. It is a battle, but she is 2 and lots of things are a battle right now.

Milk - she still will not drink it. Becky got her to try a few sips of chocolate milk last week, but none since then. I swear she knows how much we want her to drink it. I would feel so much better if she would drink it.

Weight - And I think god is laughing at how he paired us with such a skinny child. It truly is a challenge to try and get her to gain weight when we are trying to watch ours so carefully. Its hard to buy full fat cream cheese and light cc, regular bread and 1 point WW stuff. Becky made no-fat muffins the other day, and we laugh every time we feed Ally some. She could really use extra-fat muffins. But we are determined to raise a healthy active daughter. She knows all about exercise because we go to the gym, Becky has run some 5ks, she has seen Becky do yoga and calls the yoga mat "mama's exercise mat", we go for walks, and make Ally walk. Ally loves fruit, and since I don't like anything but apples, this is one of my greatest mom accomplishments. Ally likes all kinds of fruit, not just bananas. When we go to Whole Foods (or any other other supermarket) she asks for (demands) watermelon. Not cookies or goldfish crackers, but give her a small container of watermelon and she'll sit in the cart and eat it while we get the grocery shopping done.

Potty - I am actually scared of potty training. Ally shows no interest. (just like no interest in milk) I just hope what everyone says about "her time will come..she's not ready yet" is right. Because frankly the time for her to want or like milk from a vessel other than a bottle has not yet come. She has a will/mind/determination of steel. I like to think she gets this from me, and my mom is quick to remind me that paybacks are tough, and Ally's spunk as I like to call it is payback for my childhood. I am so proud of her spunk and attitude, but a little scared of it too. Hopefully chocolate and other bribes will help with potty training.

Hair - We all got our haircut recently, yes we all go to the same salon and Feri cuts all of our hair every 5-6 weeks. I hope someday she won't hate me for the fact that she has short hair. (I had short hair as a toddler and always vowed my daughter would have ponytails and braids and bows and such. I think I look weird in my toddler pictures with short hair, my mom finally let me grow it out when I was in kindergarten, I remember it took forever.) But to be honest I think Ally's short hair is cute and easy and seems to suit her. Then there is the fact that she won't wear clippies or bows, she pulls them out. Compound this with the screaming about getting her hair washed and I say it stays short until she asks for long hair and can help take care of it.

Being 2 - "She's 2...well almost 2 1/2" we find ourselves saying this all the time, to each other, to our parents, to our friends. Its like saying it out loud helps us deal with the two-ness. Sometimes 2 is not fun. But now I realize that this 2 shall pass and soon we'll be on to another phase, another developmental stage. Sometimes 2 seems like the best age.

Masterpiece

I came home from work one day to find this masterpiece:

It even had a tunnel for the train to go through!

Ally was in such a good mood and so excited about it.

Afternoon at the park

One way to get to the top of the playground structure at our park is to climb the ladder. Ally has mastered that already. Now she is on to a new method.

The tire ramp

Just checking to make sure I'm still taking pictures


Almost to the top

last step

its a tough one, good thing mama is there for moral support

Ally did it!

Now the reward is to ride down the bendy slide on mama's lap.

Such fun, but wait - its not over yet now Ally also wants to sit in the "big girl" swing

all by herself

Can you tell she enjoyed it?

Charlo's Garden

On Saturday we had breakfast at our dear friends Paul and Charlo's house. Paul had a soccer game and we were sorry not to see him, Ally kept saying the rest of the day "no Paul today". But we managed to enjoy the beautiful spring day in Charlo's garden.

Ally liked playing in the fountain, and I just could not believe how spectacular the flowers looked with Ally's dress. It was very special because Paul and Charlo brought Ally this dress from Mexico.

I just love how Ally and Becky have the same expression. They were playing "roll the ball" which was a giant balance ball.

Running!

So, if you have never lived with a two-year-old, this is a little window into something called "bedtime". The video is only 2 minutes long, but the reality was more like 15 minutes of this before we were able to wrangle her towards bed.

A couple action photos:

Potty Training?

Right now, this is as close as Ally wants to be to the potty. Ally is very entertained by her toys peeing on the potty, but when the toys are all done and it's her turn, she wants nothing to do with it. Oh well, Julie and I may be ready to start potty training, but that doesn't mean Ally is!

The orangutan needing to go potty was Ally's idea. The poor thing sat there all day...

Happy Easter

We had a great weekend at Grandma Barbie and Grandpa Franks' house for Easter. Ally got to spend some good quality time with both grandparents.

Grandpa read Ally her favorite story.

He also took us with his dog Java to let her go swimming!

Grandpa Frank, Ally and Julie all posed for a photo at the pond.
Mommy, Grandma and Ally anticipate egg dying.Grandma Barbie colored Easter eggs with Ally!

Note Ally's new cowboy boots - a real find at the secondhand store! She is very much into Toy Story, and now can dress up in "cowboy boots and cowboy hat".

On Easter, Ally found a basket left by the Easter Bunny!

There were even scented bubbles - mint and strawberry!

And a BIG treat - Gummy Bears!
Here Ally is dropping an egg into the collection basket for the egg hunt. She is sucking on a gummy bear - they were hard to chew, so she sucked on them until they were soft.
"Oh, I found a plastic egg full of Cheerios! Time for a break!"
"Oh, I got distracted by Ernie and my doll, how about another egg hunt break?"

We took a lot of egg hunt breaks and needed to help Ally with some egg hunting motivation. Once she found some eggs with goodies, the motivation to continue seemed to drop!

Grandma Barbie gave Ally some new pajamas!

After Easter morning, we went on our way home to visit our friends Jay and Michelle. Ally got to spend some time with their girls, Julia and Karina. Karina first told Ally the story in the books, then Julia read to them both! It was very cute to see them all sitting together.

We had a great Easter with Julie's parents. It was great to watch Ally's anticipation ("go see Grandma Barb and Grandpa Frank, and Java!") and to let Grandma and Grandpa have an excuse to ply Ally with extreme amounts of treats. Good news is that it she did actually sleep - the large amount of exciting activities seemed to counteract all the sugar!

An Ouchie and An Obsession

In the last post, Julie alluded to the fact that Ally had a little bike/trike accident. I was pushing her and saw her looking straight down. I thought she was just watching the pavement go by. Next thing I know she is screaming and I look at her face and there is blood everywhere. I think she had been biting the handlebars and when we went over a bump in the sidewalk, she bit her lip - on both sides - very hard. I picked her up and pushed the bike home. We cleaned her up and she was just fine. It was our first boo-boo that really bled! I don't even think it hurt her all that much because she was quite calm about it very soon afterwards. We could only get photos of it while she was brushing her teeth.

In the last photo, you can catch a glimpse of her latest obsession: Ally's Buzz "jammas".

Bike, really a trike

We finally put Ally's tricycle together this weekend. Actually Becky put it together and I just harassed her to do it.

Ally was so excited I could not get her to look at the camera.

We tried it out in the house first. I think this captures the excitement pretty well as she crashed into our bed.

Look it has a bell!

Fashion plate toddler on her way outside to try "Ally's bike" outside. She was very excited to find out it had a bar so that mama could push her.

All serious and ready for a ride.

Isn't my family cute?

No the helmet is not too big but Ally kept looking down at her feet.

We kept asking her to make the bell ring so she would look up for a picture.

I stayed home to get dinner started while Becky took Ally for an inaugural spin around the block. We'll report on the outcome in another post.

Too cold giraffes

Ally and Alice are becoming good friends, much to our parental delight. This weekend we had a play date at the zoo with Alice and her mom. We like to talk about our day with Ally and let her know what is going to happen the next day or a few days in advance. So on Thursday we asked if she wanted to go to the zoo over the weekend. She said yes (you all know her bus and little people have been going to the zoo regularly). We asked if she wanted Alice to come too.

That got a resounding YES.

So we ask what will see at the zoo, and Ally says gorillas, giraffes, elephants. Hmmm - here in Boston there is a fantastic gorilla exhibit, but no elephants, and the giraffes only come out in warm weather. So we talked about the lions and tigers and zebras and kangaroos and snakes we would see. Then Ally would get excited about the animals and say penguins. So we would explain penguins are at the Aquarium not the zoo. "Zoo", she would say "gorillas, giraffes, elephants." so then we told her we might not see giraffes it might be too cold for giraffes. All day Saturday she would repeat "see Alice go to zoo...see gorillas too cold giraffes" Becky and I would chuckle each time, yes even the 25th time we still laughed. Here are pictures from our zoo trip.

The lion was pretty cool.

Ally got tired and did not want to walk anymore. Her moms got tired of carrying her, she did not want to be carried in the ergo, so Alice was nice enough to let Ally ride in her stroller. Then Alice pushed her around. Can't we all have friends like that?

After a quick snack break Alice wanted to ride in the stroller and Ally wanted to push.

Turns out Alice is heavier and and taller than Ally. What was fun and relatively easy for Alice was pretty hard for Ally. She tired of that really quick!

But soon we entered the gorilla habitat. Ally was so enthralled by them. She was very brave and not scared at all. Alice was kind of afraid. We adults were overheard asking Alice if "the gorillas were scary...yes gorillas are scary" so now Ally says Alice is scary of gorillas. Toddler speak is so cute sometimes. We're working hard on the concept of scared of instead of scary but she is only 2!

mommy and Ally

Cheryl carrying Ally

Becky ergo-ing Alice

It was pretty neat at the end with the girls being carried by the other's mamas. In the past this might have sparked some jealously or frustration, but not this day. They actually seemed to think it was neat to share their moms and stuff with each other.