Then and Now

The top picture was taken then, November 16, 2007 it was Ally's 1st birthday and she was wearing her party dress!

The next photo was taken now, on November 10, 2008. The dress still fits, but look how much she has grown and how much she has changed.

I love this dress, and so of course I've saved it, and I hope one day we can pass it along to someone who will treasure it and enjoy it as much as we have. But these pictures are more than the dress.
I've struggled with whether or not to post this, but since this is supposed to be about Ally's life and our way or documenting it, I think this is important. Ally is small, tiny, petite, little - you pick the word, they all fit. As she gets older and all of her friends continue to get bigger I've been noticing more and more how small she is in comparison. We go to the park and I see all the younger children and they are so much bigger than her - but it is amazing to see her so competent on equipment and see bigger kids unable to do so much. They are bigger, but younger. She is small. But only her size, her voice is big, her personality is huge and her smile and laughter are contagious. But the thing is I am not small, no one in my family is small, and so I worry (even though the doctor says not to worry, I still do). I have no experience with being a small person. My entire teenage and adult life I've been large, larger than I should be, and its frankly a bit scary to be raising a small person. I know that I need to not worry and not fret and not focus on size, but despite my efforts I still do. I worry she needs to eat more, I worry she'll get picked on. I think you get the idea...I worry.
So the pictures above are great comfort to me, they show me in picture (full color) how much Ally has grown physically in the past year. Yes she is still petite, but the dress is now a tunic and what was long sleeves are now 3/4 length and the pictures help me remember that Ally is the perfect size for Ally. I'm her mommy and I need to accept that.

She's a cutie

Just Hanging Out

On Friday Becky and Ally went to a baby shower for one of Becky's co-teachers so Ally was all dressed up in a party dress. When they got home we pulled out a book my mom (aka Grandma Barbie) bought Ally at the San Diego Zoo - its title is Little Beauty and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes gorillas. The first three pictures are Ally holding her stuffed gorilla listening to Becky read her the book (again and again and again, right now Ally fixates on a book for several days and only wants that one book read over and over and over again).

When she woke up the morning Ally wanted the same book again

She took a break to get Big Bird.

Yes that is a giraffe and a lion and an alligator on her tights. I bid on a collection of jungle themed clothes at eBay and scored a bunch of items really cheap!

I think its so cute the way her eyes are just peering over Big Bird in the picture above. She was kissing him.

Monsters

Ally has been really, really into her monster book lately. It's a lift-the-page type book that reveals a monster with textured fur hiding in a bathtub or behind a chair or something like that. The last page has a mirror hidden, and Ally always gets a big grin when it flips open. She then proceeds to kiss herself in the mirror. (Though, I will admit we encourage that a bit...)

Here are some shots of Ally with her "monsta" book.

Fast Asleep

So...Ally had a hard time falling asleep tonight. She cried out "all done, all done" a lot. We were thinking, "what, you're all done sleeping? No way, kiddo - it's bedtime!" When she finally conked out I decided I had to go in to check on her. This is what I found:
Yes, we know she enjoys trying to get out of her sleeper, but until tonight she hadn't gotten her foot out. And yes, she often sleeps "the wrong way" in the crib, with arms or legs sticking out of the bars.

And no, OF COURSE we didn't wake her up to put the pajamas back on!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!

Ally has been sporting her sweater a lot this week - G'ma Debbie - she got to wear it 3 times this week! It was awesome. Below is a picture of the rear - I told you it was super cute! Thanks again.

Now comes the costume saga. Yes saga, drama, fiasco, whatever you want to call it. We though Ally could wear her costume from last year. She was a fish last year and the costume still fits, so hey, why not? right?

Wrong...Ally had other ideas

When we showed her how she looked in the mirror she freaked out. Screaming, crying it was a bad seen. She ripped the head down it was awful.

Being the prepared moms that we are we had a back-up costume ready to go. Ally would be a panda bear.

Isn't she the cutest panda bear ever?

Oh wait not so much the cutest, maybe the saddest?

Make that most pitiful panda bear.

Or maybe the most tortured panda bear

angry panda bear?

ticked off and refusing to wear this costume ever again toddler girl is what she was.

The costume trying on was Monday night. It was a disaster. After we put Ally to bed we scoured the Internet for an alternative costume. I even persuaded Becky to get our her sewing machine and make a pumpkin costume out of some old orange pajama pants. It was not a good scene in our house.

On Tuesday Becky went to the second hand children's store and spent the best $5.99 we've spent in a long time. On a costume that did not feel like a costume to Ally.

So for Halloween 2008 Ally was a ladybug.

She was such a good girl trick or treating - she even carried her own pumpkin. We went out with Charlie and Gwei Gwei and had lots of fun visiting a few neighbors and clients. The cutest thing was that every time we went up to the door of a house Ally would walk right on inside! Then we'd tell her to come out and put some candy in her pumpkin. She didn't really get the idea of trick or treating until we got home.

We were home early in time to hand out candy at our house. Ally was so excited; every time trick or treaters came up the front walk and steps she would yell "kids, kids" and point at the door. Then she would run to the door to see them. Here she is below watching her dvd of herself smiling b/c some kids were coming!

And just for my mom - our jack-o-lantern!

New Toys

Saturday morning Ally woke up early - very early for her 5:11 AM. Since Becky officially came down with Ally's cold I let her sleep and I got up with Ally around 6AM. Its dark here at 6AM, and so I thought hmmm what do you do when its too dark to go outside and you have a recovering toddler? Answer- you pull out "new toys". We have been saving this huge bin of toddler sized legos from the Grecos until we thought Ally was old enough to enjoy them. Can you tell they were a big hit?

Thank-you Julia and Karina for passing on your toys to Ally.

It is Wednesday now, and everyday Ally plays with the legos. One of her current favorite things is to build towers. So we build lots of lego towers everyday.