Visit with grandparents

Last weekend Ally and I went to my parents for a short visit. She is always so excited to go anywhere and do anything. Ally is also such a joy to travel with. 3 hours in the car on the way there - no stops no complaints and she slept about half of the time. On the way home it was about 3 1/2 hours and she slept for only 1 hour. Still no complaints - and no DVDs either way. It was an easy drive with my fantastic daughter! Becky stayed home to spend some time with her sister and do some school work.

Reading books is always a favorite activity.

My dad and I took Ally to a park I heard great things about. It was a great park, but we had a little incident. Ally climbed all the way to the top of the ladder - all by herself and was so excited and proud.

Then she slid down - and came out all twisted, backwards and bumped her head. She was pretty inconsolable for a while and we had to leave - she refused to play on anything after that, or to leave my lap. I felt pretty bad for her.

On the way to the park we went for a drive to look for animals. I grew up in a area with lots of farms - horses, cows etc. Seeing animals was an everyday occurrence. On the way to my parents' house we drove by some horse and Ally was so thrilled. She yelled out in the car "I see horses...I'm going to tell Grandma Barbie I saw 2 horses!"

It made me remember that while I grew up in farm country with things like taxi cabs and city parks and zoos as uncommon occurrences. (I did not ride in a taxi until college). For Ally these city things are normal (we took a taxi to school on Friday b/c the weather was crummy). Its interesting to raise a child in such a different environment than the one I grew up in. Different is not better or worse, its just different.

Easter Bunny

Some of you may recall the infamous Easter Bunny visit in 2008. You can see it here http://thelifeofally.blogspot.com/2008/03/hippity-hoppity.html We skipped the Easter Bunny in 2009. This year we've been talking about it and Ally was pretty excited to go see him. Its at the same place we saw Santa and so she was familiar with the location and the podium/stage.

She was so proud of herself. She got cold feet and that is why I am holding her in the top picture. She kept saying in quiet voice to me "mommy you come with me" when it was our turn I put her down and held her hand and walked with her up to his bench. She was doing ok and sat next to him. We were so proud of her. Her first smiling picture with a costumed character!
Next stop Disney World!

Artwork

Ally likes to paint, so we paint a lot at our house. Its hard to know what to do with all the pictures. I finally cleared our a drawer in our scrapbook supplies to keep her masterpieces but today I got the great idea to photograph them and post them on the blog. Now you can all see what a creative and talented child Ally is.

No, these were not done by Ally. The top one is Becky's and the one below is mine. I think its obvious which one of us is the artist. Can I just say a lion- how on earth did she use watercolors to paint a lion, on the Savannah? I can barely get by with my simplistic flowers.

One day Ally asked to do hand prints.

finger paints

acrylic/poster paint

watercolor masterpieces - watercolor is her current favorite medium

At school they have a writing center and Ally tries so hard to color in an entire paper. The sheets are about 4X6 but she is so thrilled to show me her completed paper when I pick her up in the afternoon.

Reading

Ally loves to read. This is a good thing since Becky and I both like to read and Ally has so many books. Her favorites right now are I Feel Silly, Olivia, Harold and the Purple Crayon, Allie's Adventure and Umbrella. It seems that every few weeks some of these change but the desire to read has not. One day recently she decided to read to Kitty (and Bunny).

Sometimes she likes to look away and smile when I try and take pictures. Oh well - at least you can see her smile in profile!

Happy Spring!

Saturday was beautiful here - 70 degrees and sunny. We had a picnic with friends at the park and after nap went back to enjoy some more fun. Its amazing how much Ally and her friends have changed since the fall. They are all so big, and now are the 3rd level of kids at the park. It was pretty neat to watch all the stuff Ally could do this year that last year she was afraid of or needed help at. The swings are still favorite, and her pumping skills are a bit rusty, but pumping a swing is like riding a bike - it will come back!

These stepping stools are a challenge. Her first time back on them she got a bit stuck

and asked for help

But the next time she figured out she could climb up the short one

And crawl

up each one to the top

She was so proud of herself - she beamed

One of the cutest things for me was that there a a little girl there - probably almost 2 and she kept watching Ally. (the way all kids watch kids bigger than them) Ally as you know loves to swing on bars, and she likes to hang from the bar above the slide before sliding down. Of course she kept doing this, and after a while the little girl did it to. She was so thrilled to accomplish a new skill and her dad was so cute clapping for her and encouraging her. Ally had no idea what happened, but she taught some one by example. I was the one beaming then.

After climbing it was some time for ball playing.

Ally is getting so big!

After the park Ally and I went to the mall - I've been craving a mall trip, and Ally is always game for a trip to the "big mall". I'm not sure if I've commented on this or not, but Ally has some purple shoes she absolutely loves. They are not the shoes in this post - but in just about every other picture of her she is wearing them. She insists on wearing them to school everyday and Becky and I basically have to beg and bribe to get her to wear anything but her purple shoes. Her feet got bigger a few months ago and we went and bought the same exact shoes in a bigger size. When we did that she saw the same shoe in "big girl size" and for a few months now she's been talking about how when she gets big she can wear the "big purple shoes". So we went and looked at them at the mall, and had Ally's feet measured - she still wears a toddler 7 so not big enough for the bigger ones - maybe in a few months. If you need kids shoes, we highly recommend Clarks for kids great shoes, and very knowledgeable sales people.

Ordinary Fun

I love my family! They look so happy in this picture.

Ally asked to sidewalk chalk.

She was super excited that we covered the entire section of the front walk. Our neighbors - I'm not so sure they were as thrilled. This was done during a dry spell and for about a week we were all tracking chalk up the steps into our building.

Tricycle

Thank-you Great Aunt Martha. Ally is finally tall enough to easily ride her tricycle. We got this trike last year from my Aunt Martha. Ally has been practicing using the trikes at school - they have a large basement play area they use when it rains or is too cold. She really likes to ride the bikes. Becky brought Ally to a play date at the park and Ally got to ride her bike. She was pretty psyched about it.

Climbing on the equipment. Basically is there is a bar Ally will find a way to climb and hang.

She even biked all the way home!

Yesterday we went to a birthday party for one of her school friends, Sembete and it was a "bring your own bike" party. Ally had so much fun.

Somersaults

I have to preface this post by saying Becky is a very good sport. Not only does she actually do the tricks with Ally but she lets me take pictures of her and post them on this blog.

Ally is into doing "tricks". Sometimes its jumping or dancing moves, one night it was somersaults. She asked us to do them with her - I declined and said my ears hurt too much (one benefit of being sick) to do them with her. Ally demanded that Becky do one with the blanket on.

I demanded one without the blanket so I could get better pictures.

I'm always amazed at how flexible children are. Was I ever able to do this?

Ally in the blanket

so much fun

And such a cutie pie

Yummy Fruit Bouquet

The day after my ear procedure (trust me you don't want to know more than that) my parents sent us an edible arrangement. It was so much fun to get, eat and share with friends. Thanks mom and dad.

Yes I actually ate some - the delicious chocolate covered pineapple. Ally's favorite was the melon balls - you can see she has one in her cheek.

Even Ally's Special Kitty wanted to taste some of the fruit.

Random Fun

Lots of random fun stuff I want to mention.

We tried out a new babysitter tonight. AWESOME. we left and Ally did not fuss at all, and when we came home she had fed Ally dinner, got her into her pajamas and was reading books. After she left Ally said "I did not cry" she was very proud of herself for that. She has a great time and the babysitter built the above Lego dog. I was quite impressed and we are thrilled to have a new sitter for nights and weekends.

Last week there was a Dance Party at school - after school from 300-530PM. This is the longest Ally has ever been at school and she had a blast. The teachers hosted the Dance Party as a fundraiser for the school - they decorated the auditorium and did face painting and suggested that the children bring clothes to dress up. Ally brought one of her Pinkalicious skirts that mama made for her birthday party. She was so hyped up and excited when she came home, and I think it has taken 4 days for her to recover!

I told you I had been sick. I still don't feel 100% but last week I was about 40%. This is a shot of ally using me as her bed as I was trying to rest.

This is Ally eating the main staple of her diet - shredded wheat (really frosted mini wheat) sometimes she eats them 3 times a day.

Swimming with Mama

One of the great things about having grandparents come visit is that they always stay in a hotel with a pool and so Ally gets to go swimming. She was super excited about this time. Especially when we told her about the "floaty vest" that would help her stay up in the water. It was way to big around her chest so Becky never let go, but it gave Ally some additional confidence and it made it easier for Becky to hold her up the whole time. My ears are still bad and I can't get water in them so I did not swim, and Dave and Debbie forgot their swimsuits, but Becky and Ally were in the pool for over an hour.

First they started off by practicing swimming.

Then it was time to jump.

ready

ready

yes that is correct. Every single time Becky would tell Ally - now don't jump until I say jump. So Becky would say "ready...set...jump" But Ally would ALWAYS jump on ready. It was especially funny to me, since I was not in the water, and since Ally really does know the order and all about ready set go. She was just so excited to jump she could not contain herself.

expressions are priceless

airborne view

Can you tell they had a lot of fun?