Ally's New Trick

So, this morning Ally was playing sleep, a pretty normal game for her to play. She gets out all the blankets and pillows, maybe puts a few dolls in bed, and so on. I went to the kitchen to do something for a few minutes, and Ally comes racing in to me and says "come look at this, Mama!" Here's what I saw. Enjoy!

Cat Care

Recently Ally has been really into helping take care of the cats.

Helping mama brush Carl.

Nali gets 2 brushes at a time.

Bryce doesn't need much brushing, but he loves to play with Cat toys. This picture is really for my cousin Kimn who sent Ally the turtle shirt from Hawaii.

Silly Ally!

Mommy's Birthday

Today is my 36th birthday. Wow. I called my mom this morning - early around 615 AM and told her I felt old. She laughed at me. Then we chatted and talked like we usually do. Thanks for being such a great friend mom. It was a nice way to start my birthday.

People kept asking what we were doing special to celebrate my birthday. This year I am pretty happy to just hang out with Becky and Ally. My vacation is over today - I go back to work tomorrow, and it is really hot here. Summer seems to have arrived in full force.

I took a bunch pictures today just to help me remember the day.

It was hot enough I had to set up the fan for the living room. We have decided no air conditioning in there this year! Ally was enthralled with the fan.

Then she started getting goofy and tried to stuff her gorilla in the microwave of her kitchen.

The now not so surprising eye roll - as gorilla topples down from the kitchen.


Becky calls this hair-do "the fountain".

Ally running home from the park this afternoon. She has such joy. And if you look at this post from last year you can see her sporting the same creeper.

Yes apparently a one piece romper-type garment is also called a creeper. I never knew this until Ally's current favorite book mentions babies wearing creepers. Its Everywhere Babies and we highly recommend it.

I requested no money be spent on my gift this year. So Becky made me this purse/bag. I was so surprised and extremely impressed. She used fabric we already had and did the whole this herself. Its even reversible. She gave me an IOU for one with new fabric if I wanted. But I love this one.

Tonight one of the neighborhood moms we swap babysitting with is coming over to stay with Ally while we go see the new Harry Potter movie. I am pretty psyched - for the movie and 3 hours in air conditioning.

We put Ally to bed at 6:15Pm tonight and she was asleep by 6:35. It was her second day in a row with no nap and she was pretty tired.

Thank-you to all my friends and family for the great cards and birthday wishes. I really appreciate it.

Last Day at the Beach

Our last day at the cape was yesterday. Becky and Ally and I went to the beach solo. We were feeling pretty sorry for ourselves hauling the beach chairs, snacks, cooler, extra clothes, towels etc the 3 blocks to the beach. Its amazing how spoiled a beach parking permit makes one! But we did it and we had fun just the three of us. Of course Ally kept asking "What's Grandma Debbie doing?" or "Where's Aunt Beth?" and " Where did Poppy go?" over and over again.

When we got to the beach Ally decided she wanted to stay in her stroller - we couldn't even unbuckle the straps. I think she looks like a little old lady. She asked for a blanket, and mama's shirt was the closest thing. She ate pretzels and goldfish sitting in the stroller for about 20 minutes. We read our books and enjoyed the beach.

Finally Ally was ready to play. But then she insisted on keeping her dress on.

She even wanted to wear her dress in the water, but Becky explained it would be too heavy and so Ally agreed to put on her swimsuit.

But then refused to into the ocean. Becky did though and loved it - the water was very warm this year. Ally laid down with my feet as her pillow and took a rest. If you click on the picture you can see her devilish eyes. She was not sleeping. Just having fun all curled up at the beach.

Summer Vacation 2009

We're at the beach with Becky's parents, Grandma Debbie and Poppy and Becky's sister, Aunt Beth. Lots of fun and tons of giggles. I'll post more when we get back but here is how the week is going so far.

I painted my toe nails red so Ally asked for hers to be red too. She sat perfectly still and let me paint them. It was quick dry so it did not take long. She got a chip on one the first day, and I explained what that was and said I could fix it, so now she examines them to make sure they are perfect. I've touched them up once already!

Making srambled eggs for breakfast.

Ally all decked out in her bikini and sun hat at the beach.

Can you tell she is having fun?

Someone is always willing to play. Poppy did play-dough with her one night.

Aunt Beth, mama and Poppy did "ring around the rosie another night."

We went to a well known beach where you can walk for a mile when the tide is out and explore the tide pools.


And of course she is "Grandma's Sweetie" as her shirt proclaims.

Play Sleep

Sometimes we like to play a game called sleep. We all lie down and pretend we are sleeping. Becky and I really like this game. Fortunately Ally likes it too.

Ally taking a break from sleeping.

Mama sleeping.

Ally waking mommy up with a kiss.

My trip

At the end of June I went on a trip to England, the Isle of Man and Ireland with my mom, her sister, my Aunt Martha and Martha's daughter, my cousin Katy. It was a wonderful trip; lots of family bonding and incredible sites and experiences.

We traveled to the Isle of Man because it is where my Great Grandparents were born and lived until they emigrated to the USA in the 1890s when they were in their early 20s. Philip came over first and settled in the Chicago area and then he sent for Emma. It was an amazing experience to visit the places they lived and worked and worshipped.

I know this is the life of Ally blog, but since I was gone for so long, I wanted to include some information and pictures about my trip here on the blog.

The London Eye - as seen from the Barb and Martha's hotel room.

Its actually the Tower Bridge, but I tell Ally its London Bridge.

The 4 of us at Warwick Castle.

My mom and I at Stonehenge

This is on the Isle of Man - its the steam engine that inspired Thomas the Tank Engine

Isle of Man

Isle of Man

Katy and I in Ireland

Present

Last week we thought it would be great if we mimicked Prudence in the potty book. For those of you not familiar with the book Prudence gets a potty as a gift from her grandma, and then after trying it out as a hat, a planter etc she finally sits and sits and sits and goes on the potty. Ally has a little pink potty she likes, but it is small and she seems to be so uncomfortable on it, that we decided to get her a big pink potty and have it wrapped like a present. Becky gave it to Ally in the morning while I was at work.

opening the big present

Very excited

Cat Carl always has to get in on the action

The big pink potty

So happy

But in the end Ally refuses to sit on the big pink potty she only wants the little potty. Becky and I decided a few days later to give potty training a break again. It seems that Ally is just not ready. We double checked with her pre-school and there is no requirement that she be potty trained by the time she starts in September. We'll try again in a few weeks to check and see if Ally is into it then. But for now its back to diapers for us.

The best part about the whole big potty is that when I came home from work I asked Ally (as I do everyday) what she did that day. This time she told me "big present" and then showed me the big potty. She was very proud and excited about her big present.

Language is such a cool thing. The other day I was putting pony tails in Ally's hair and telling Becky I had 1 in. All of a sudden Ally says "Actually, I want 2 ponytails." Becky and I were in stitches. Where did Ally learn that turn of phrase for actually?

Dress from London

Grandma Barbie bought this dress for Ally in London. It is still a little big - but it will be great for this winter. I guess Ally likes it as much as I do. Thanks mom.

Not too cold giraffes

It was finally warm enough to see the giraffes at our zoo! For months when we talk about the zoo Ally says "too cold giraffes".

giraffes and zebras

Ally was so entranced by them.

We thought watching him bend down to eat was pretty cool.

We had to ride the carousel. I'm so impressed Ally knows that word - I grew up calling it a merry go round.

I love this little girl.


And the mother gorilla, Kiki, loves her baby too. So much so she is still nursing him 5 years after he was born. The nice zoo volunteer told us gorillas nurse to age 5! Kiki is trying to wean the baby now, as its time. He went on to say we were lucky to see her nursing, sometimes she refuses and smacks the baby on the head and sends him away. I'm glad we missed that.

Ally was delighted to learn the gorilla's name and keeps talking about Kiki and "the man" who told us her name.




I think this is my new favorite picture of Ally. She looks so mysterious. Its not her usual glee-filled smile, but still so her.

Tired after a long day

Saturday was a great day. Ally and I went to the park for a while in the morning so that Becky could go to the fabric store to buy some fabric for new curtains. Actually she is making new roman shades for our bedroom. There is a picture of the fabric at the end of this post. We had fun at the fabric store on Friday after work and then Saturday Becky went back to buy some additional fabric. Today, she actually did all the machine sewing for the panels, and this week hopes to get them hung up. Yes I am super lucky that she is so crafty. This time I did not even need to iron or assist in the crafting - I just picked out the fabric.

Back to Saturday - Ally and I went to the park. Ally was on the "big girl swings" for 30 minutes. She can pump with her upper body now, but still doesn't have the leg pumping figured out yet. It was so funny - she would say "I need a push" and I would make her say please, then I would push her and get on the swing next to her so I could swing too. Every time she would wail "no, no, no mommy swing" I just kept saying if she could swing then so could mommy. It must have sunk in because today at the park when she was in the little kid swing she asked me to swing too. I laughed and said it was too small for me. Eventually we made it back to the big girl swings today and she was fine with me swinging along side her.

After the park we ate lunch and then Ally took a nap. After nap we went to picnic at our friends Julie & Rosa's house. They hosted our monthly Adoptive Families group for the annual summer picnic. It was lots of fun. Even more fun, for Ally because Rosa has a swing in her yard. Becky and I groaned when we saw it - we were worried about tantrums for having to share the swing and feared spending the entire picnic trapped near the swing. Ally behaved beautifully and was very good about taking turns on the swing and we were worried for nothing.

After the picnic we went to a neighborhood block party. Not our block, but some friends in the neighborhood invited us to their block for the party. There were acrobats and circus performers. Becky put Ally on her shoulders so she could see better and I think Ally's face tells best how tired she was.

After the circus we danced in the street with some friends and then came home. It was a great day.

The fabric for our new roman shades!

New Toys!

Ally really likes the FP Little People toys. We have a bunch of parts for her to play with. Thanks to the Grecos we have the farm, and the school bus, which are big favorites. At Christmas we got the airplane, and we recently scored the garage at the local secondhand store. I'm still not sure who was more excited, Ally or Becky.

Ally is at an age that she can play with toys like this solo for a few minutes at a time. She really likes the elevator, and to put the gas pump in the car and push the button that makes the gas pump noises.

Can you tell she is thrilled?

Yes we are still trying potty training, so Ally is wearing panties in the morning for a few hours. Not much success this weekend. But Becky and I are getting more and more determined. We're pretty tired of diapers, but a bit terrified of no more diapers.