Playing by herself

One after noon this week Ally played by herself in her room for a long time (at least an hour). She was very busy.
It was fascinating to see the groupings around her room she made. This is all the little people all lined up with their bus and airplane. Behind them are 4 small rubber duckies.

On her rug were letters

The Toy Story figures were in a line

All the trucks and cars (motor vehicles) were piled in the corner next to baby Lucy's crib.

There was even 1 large fish and 3 small fish gathered together.

Sesame Street characters all together.

A giraffe family

Monster's Inc Sully and Mike were at one leg of the rocking chair.

And a solo elephant was at the other side of the chair.

2 small penguins and a larger wind up one.

on the left is a dog and a prarie dog and then the play patio things were together, the gazebo, the fence, and cafe set for the little people.

I did not get the opportunity to talk with Ally about her motivation and reasoning behind it. She was not even home when I took all the pictures. Becky took the first one of Ally while she was working on all of this and I was at work. Then I came home, they went to our local pool to swim and I saw this in Ally's room. I just had to grab the camera and document it.

My Birthday

It was my birthday this week. Ally and Becky decorated with balloons, a banner and I received some very pretty flowers from Michelle (thank-you).
We had fajitas (my favorite) for dinner and then it was time to open gifts. Becky made me a beautiful purse.

And Ally was very excited about her gift for me.

She helped me open it.

I gave her a kiss after I saw it.

After gifts it was time for dessert - yummy a Becky-made lemon meringue pie. Ally helped me blow out the candles.

And she even ate a few bites of pie.

Here is the gift from Ally. Its perfect. I love it. I brought it to work and keep it on my desk so as Ally says "you can look at it every day mommy".

New Addition to Our Family

Why is Ally smiling in this picture?
Because of our new addition. Meet Spotted our new fish. He is a blue male betta fish. The guy at the pet store said a betta fish was low maintenance, and hard to kill. Sold is what I said. Ally chose his name. She kept asking me what I thought but I refused to give any ideas. One idea she had was Jupi Fish. Jupiter was her classroom fish who died over winter break last year, they called him Jupi. I said Jupi fish was another fish and I thought it would be good if she chose a new name for this one. I said Jupi Fish would be alright if that is what she really wanted. We let the conversation go and then a while later I asked again about his name and she declared "Spotted" with a huge grin on her face. So Spotted it is.



After we got his fish bowl ready and were waiting for the water to get to room temperature Ally made pictures to decorate the bowl.

A flower with her name on it.

Then she asked if she could show him her room. (Since he is going to live in her room - note the purple and pink rocks!)

hanging with Spotted in her room

She asked to eat lunch with him as well.

After nap time the water was ready and Ally asked if she could get him out and put him in the bowl.

There he is!

And Ally is so happy!

Ever since I got back from Ireland she has been commenting on how she would like a fish. Becky said it started while I was gone. I figured why not? 3 cats, a little girl and 2 moms, why not add a fish in the mix!

BBQ

Yesterday Ally and I attended the annual Guatemalan Adoptive Families BBQ. One of the families in our monthly group hosts the party every year (this is the 6th year they have done it, and our 3rd year of attending).

This picture is so much more than a happy Ally in the pool.

Ally and I have been talking all week about the BBQ - last year there was a kiddie pool and a big pool. Ally played in the kiddie pool a lot. I thought there would be sprinklers too. But I was wrong, and as it turns out there was just one big pool. Big is relative. It was about 30" deep.

It was SUPER hot again today - mid 90s and sunny and humid. Ally was melting. But Ally was also scared of the big pool. She told me she was scared. She pouted about being scared. She was frustrated about being scared. I ignored her when she pouted, I cuddled her to talk softly about how I knew she could do it. I carried her to edge a couple times to dip out hands in the pool. I offered to hold her hand. I showed her how all of her friends were in the pool. How her friend Roxie who the same size as Ally could touch the bottom. Nothing I did or said seemed to work.

I felt so bad.

When Ally is scared of something it is so hard to talk her in to doing or trying it.

But she was so hot.

Finally she was ready.

We went over to the pool, I asked an older girl to get us a noodle that no one was using.

I put Ally in the pool.

She clung so tight to the edge.

I placed the noodle around her.

She did it. She was in the pool.

She conquered her fear!

It really was beautiful to see.

She stayed close to the edge and kept the noodle around her. Eventually she borrowed some goggles and dipped her face in, and she got her whole head wet. She had fun.

Here she is with Rosa and Alice.

Later Ally played on the see saw with Roxie

And she went back in the pool again after dinner and a long session of gymnastics with the older girls. I just can't seem to get her to stop doing tricks; cart wheels, bridges, etc. Our hosts even brought out their practice balance beam to work on. Ally was in her glory. But she wanted to go in the pool again.

I was so very proud of her. I am very proud of her.

Here is the gang from left to right:

Roxie, Rosa, Gabi, Ally & Alice

It was a wonderful party.

Hottest Day in 85 Years

Friday July 22 was officially the hottest day in 85 years. It was 103 degrees. As you can see our thermometer read 103.5 outside and 79.9 inside the house. It is our "Ally and Mommy weekend" since Becky is on Nantucket, lovely, cool, beachy, refreshing Nantucket visiting her sister for a long weekend. So Ally and I were left to deal with the heat.Ally's babysitter Lauren brought her to school and picked her up and brought her home and played with her all afternoon so I could work. When I came home at 330 I took the picture above.

Ally and I agreed it was too hot to even go to the movie theater. So we watched a movie at home in our cool house.

We had dinner and then it was only 99 degrees so we decided to go to the park so Ally could cool off in the fountain.

Now is when I got picture happy. Ally was so happy and loved playing in the water, I just could not stop taking pictures. It was AWESOME to watch.

Then she started putting her head directly in the spray of the water.

then going over to the drain and shaking the water off her soaking wet hair into the drain. Odd if you ask me, but she loved it.

The water gets so big.

There were 2 other girls there for a while but eventually she had the whole fountain to herself.

She took a break to swing, do the monkey bars and hang on everything conceivable at the park. Gosh she is so grown up.

Then it was back in the fountain - her she was trying to jump up and touch the water with her head!

This was really a grimace of glee.

Eventually it was time to get home for bed. But Ally was in such a good mood she did not even complain.