Random Park Pictures

Sometimes I snap a picture at the park and then can't seem to fit it in to a blog post or I don't take enough of the instance to merit a subject. But here are a couple of those.

This year we got Ally a small bat and ball and so we play baseball. To me it looks like balletball with the way she is posed.

Ally and Becky eating the first ripe peaches of the season.

Ally loving the monkey bars.

New Pajamas & Month in Review

This week Ally had a quick trip to the doctor - she is fine but we had a small concern we wanted checked out. While she was there Becky asked for a weight check and we are thrilled to say Ally is 29.5 pounds! This is WONDERFUL - and we checked her height at home and she is 36.5 inches tall!! Go Ally! She is getting so big (and grown up). We decided it was time to haul out some of her bigger clothes and see how they fit. Ally got these Princess PJ's from her Uncle Frank for Christmas. They are still big, but not too big, and Ally really likes princesses right now so they were a big hit. Thanks Uncle Frank!

I also wanted to mention a few funny things to remember about Ally from July:

• "I see 2 mamas now" or "I see 3 mommies now". It was bizarre but we'd be eating dinner or reading books or anything and Ally would all of a sudden, with a huge grin and sly smile start saying this. At first we did wonder about double vision, but we soon realized it was her way of getting attention and being silly. It got kind of annoying for a while, but we started responding with "I see 5 Allys" or "I see 13 Allys now". And it seems that as with all things, this too has passed.
• Bryce(y) - Ally has become obsessed with our small black Cat Bryce. He has long hair and it so matted that we had to have him shaved. He looks kind of like a lion. And since the haircut Ally will not leave him alone. She is always hugging him or petting him. She even puts jewelry and ribbons on him. He is super patient with her, but every once in a while he scratches her. One day he swatted her face. Of course she cried, but about 2 hours later she was bugging him again. I reminded her about how he scratched her and she said, "yeah but it did not hurt too much, so that is OK". ARGH Becky and I are starting to lose our minds telling Ally "to be gentle" and "to give him some space" we talk about how Bryce can't talk so when he squirms or backs/runs away that means stop.
• Target moment - Ally had a new T.oy Story thermos cup to keep water cold and she chewed the straw so much that the cup no longer closes and water leaks out. So Becky stalked our Target and found a new pink cup. We brought Ally to the store, showed it to her and Becky was very firm and explained to Ally that she had to stop chewing the straw or this one would break too. Becky asked if Ally could do that, be a big girl and not chew the straw. Ally was sure she could. And while they are having this intense conversation another woman starts giggling and she says her son chewed his too and basically was like"good luck with the reasoning...hahaha" well I am happy to report that was 2 weeks ago and Ally has not gnawed on her straw. She is very proud of the fact that she has kept the straw intact. I say...take that random Target woman!
• Gymnastics - Ally started gymnastics this month. It is going very well. Who knows how long we'll stick with it, but she really likes it and pays very close attention to her teacher and tries very hard.
  

Flip Flops

Guess what Ally is so excited about?

She got a pair of flip flops! Purple sparkly Tinkerbelle flip flops!

When we were at the beach recently Ally had a hard time with her crocs on the sand (she doesn't really like to go barefoot) and so Alice let Ally wear her flip flops and Ally was so happy. So we decided to get her some for her own. Ally's feet are so super skinny that they barely stay on, but she was pretty excited about them. We talked about they are only for the beach. She already knows that crocs are only for the pool or beach.

Now we just need to get to the beach again so she can wear them outside.

Camping 2nd Attempt

Last weekend we went on our second camping trip. This time Alice and her parents joined us. It was a lot of fun. We left Saturday morning and after we set up our tents we headed to the beach. Ally was hamming it up with her new sunglasses - they have princesses on them!

I love that we have similar expressions on our faces in the 1st 2 shots and we could not even see each other. That is Tom (Alice's dad) sporting the "urban hipster" look while camping to the right of us.

Turns out the girls both have hot pink rash guard shirts!

Ally was very into playing with the sand.

One of the highlights of swimming in the lake was seeing a rather large fish. I did not go swimming, but everyone else saw it and I was told it was about 6-8"! Ally has been telling everyone about how she swam with a fish!

She even went down to water and got her own buckets of water. Becky and I were so proud of her - this was a huge first.

Yes - Ally actually walked into the water herself.

Cheryl said this picture told the future - the attitude in these 2 faces is priceless. They were getting impatient waiting for the popcorn to pop.

But once they got popcorn, they were all smiles.

Cheryl had fun popping the corn over an open fire.

Toasting marshmallows was a huge hit as always, for everyone but Ally. She was a sport and tried, but then all she ate was a couple of raw marshmallows, no chocolate or graham crackers.

Some marshmallows caught on fire, so Becky used her amazing lung strength to put out the flames. The fire was a labor of diligence and effort by Tom and Becky.

Alice eating her first smore. She was so cute - she saw the chocolate bars in the cooler earlier in the evening and kept whispering in to Becky's ears "chocolate". It brought new meaning to the phrase "sweet nothings in your ear"! Alice also set out the smore prep station pictured on the cooler behind her, and she managed to eat 2 all by herself. I love that Tom is pictured eating his smore too.

The girls actually went to sleep and everyone but me got a good nights sleep. (I never sleep well in a tent.) But I had a great time and hope next year our family hopes to go camping 3 times, and maybe the Mc2 family will join us again.

Mommy's Birthday

I turned 37 on July 26. Somehow it seems much older than 36 did. I had to work and after work we went and picked up my special desert at the ice cream shop, opened up my gifts and then Becky and I went out for dinner and Ally stayed home with a babysitter. After dinner we had ice cream pie. It was a good birthday.

Ally was very excited to give me her gift - and yes she wrote her name herself! Inside the package was a bag handmade in Guatemala and the proceeds go towards FEED - which will provide nutrition supplements to 3 children in Guatemala for 1 year. And the bag itself was made by women in a fair trade craft center.

Ally and I with my special dessert. Ally declared it "yummy" and I have to agree, it was peanut butter frozen yogurt ice cream pie with fat free fudge and an Oreo crust. Delicious and about as guilt free for dessert as I could get.

We tried to take a family pictures. I think this one is hilarious!

Dress Up

You'd think we were having a cold spell by the way Ally got all bundled up one night.

Trying to decide what went with what.

The stripes just did not match the orange and pink floral so Ally went digging in her dresser for something else.

The apple shirt and solid turquoise ones did the trick. I was most impressed with how she got her body in the neck of one shirt and her legs in the arms of a 2nd one. She refused to pose in her finished combination so here she is hiding from the camera.

finally she turned over with a pouty look

and a smile at the end for mama

Flashbacks

Ally September 7, 2008

Ally July 11, 2010

How many 3 1/2 year olds can wear the same clothes they wore at 22 months? Well ours can - and I think she looks as good in them now as she did in 2008! The 3-6 month capri pants are well loved and comfortable shorts and the 12-18 month tanktop is nice and cool during this heat spell. She can also wear her pink ruffly bikini that she has worn the past 2 years. But since its for babies the bottom is kind of stiff and waterproof so its not as comfortable as her new ones.
It is clear though that Ally has grown and changed. Its almost like with the same clothes I can see the differences more clearly.


But one thing that has not changed is Ally's love for the cats. The pictures above and below were taken in September 2008. Gosh Carl put up with a lot from toddler Ally.

Now he looks at her warily when she kisses him.

I still don't know where she got this idea of rubbing heads with the cats - but she still does it.

And then she sits on him And he loves it. He stretches out and starts purring.

The garden

This year our garden has herbs and lettuce. Becky has Ally help pick the lettuce and I just had to capture it. The garden is really Becky's thing - and last year with all the rain it was not very fruitful. But check out all the lettuce this year!

Snails

When it rains here the snails come out. It is the strangest thing to me - we have snails. And Ally loves them. She likes anything kind of creepy crawly - worms, bugs, and snails. It has to be preschool, because as my mother knows, I am not a big bug person. But Ally is fascinated with this stuff. After it rains she looks for all the snails she can find. One day she and her babysitter found 37 on the way to store (its about 3 blocks away). Ally knows where they hide and where some live and is always on the look out for them. One day Becky found a bunch in the yard for Ally to observe and interact with. She is so gentle with them.

They are kind of cute

Especially when they try to escape the red bucket Ally put them in. She did let them all free when we were done playing.

Vacation wrap-up

This post wraps up our vacation. It was really nice to have some time off, away from work and together as a family.

Grandma Debbie made pancakes one morning for breakfast and of course she dies them pink for Ally. She even had special Princess dishes for Ally to use!

As is typical Becky and her parents played Ally's new game.

Poppy found the sprinkler and hooked it up. It was so hot while we were there. Ally had lots of fun playing with her pool, the sprinkler, buckets and all. I think her favorite thing was splashing mama and Grandma Debbie.

It was hot when we got home too - so we went to a local lake and Becky and Ally went swimming.

I bought Popsicles!

Becky and I made a cake I had seen on a blog. On the outside it looks like a normal "no big deal" kind of cake.

But on the inside it was an American Flag. Pretty cool! It did not taste that great (white cake and cream cheese frosting is not our favorite combination) but it was fun to make and cut.

Vacation ended with us watching the finals of the World Cup Soccer.

I love these two people!

A different zoo

While in Philly we were able to meet up with our dear friends Catherine and Miro (baby brother Zax came too, but he stayed in his stroller the whole time) we had a great time catching up and exploring a new zoo.

Polar bears

Giraffes - Ally kept asking to see them - it was an extremely hot day so she knew they would be out.

I thought the rhino was pretty neat.

Of course Miro & Ally wanted to ride the train.

Ally insisted that Becky ride too - but then made Becky ride in her own car, so Ally and Miro rode together and Becky was solo.

After the train was the carousel. Miro chose the Alligator -which was great to get a picture of him on.

Ally is on the armadillo - (maybe because its in Good Night Gorilla?) but it was a bit hidden. I tried to get her to change and ride something else, but she would not.

It was so hot the tiger was in the water. I have never seen that before!

Ally thought holding "mama's tail" was hilarious.

Catherine & Miro - we miss you

Can you tell how tired and hot Ally was? She was asleep in the car before we left the zoo parking lot. It was a great day spent with great friends.