She's growing up!

There are two remarkable things for me about this photo. The first thing is that Ally is wearing 2 pairs of pants...because she pulled on a pair herself! There was a teeny teeny bit of help from Mommy, but really she did it on her own! She was very determined. Her first attempt at putting on pants had both legs in one pant leg, which led to a fall and some tears. But a few minutes later she did it!

The second remarkable thing is that, at the time of the photo, Ally was desperate to see "more pictures" on the camera. I told her "there are no more pictures, would you stand by the tree so I can take a picture of you and then you can see it?" She understood, stood by the tree, smiled and said cheese! I think my jaw dropped to the floor when an overtired little girl did all that.

The age of two can be very frustrating as a parent sometimes, but it also is really really amazing.

Christmas and Climbing

We spent yesterday morning Christmas shopping. Well actually it was returning some things and purchasing others. We got a super steal on the sweater Ally is wearing in the pictures below. But the best deal was that Ally was a happy shopper - 2 malls and a trip to K.ohls and she was well behaved and in good spirits every where!

Ally has discovered that she likes to climb. Today she went up...

Over the chair

Turned around

Down and then back up again.

On a different note, the Ernie doll she is holding in the first climbing picture is her new best friend. Ally does not have a "lovey" and we're wondering if Ernie will be it. Today he ate, when she did, he sat next to her in her high chair and her car seat, if Ally washed her hands so did Ernie. Gosh 2 is such a cute age. Its days like this that make me completely forget that there is any terrible part of 2!

Ally received an early gift from some friends. After she opened it she kept asking for more gifts.
That is our cat Nali under the tree. Inevitably one of our 3 is always under the tree. It was a difficult decision last year to make the switch to artificial, but it is so much easier.

Tunnel

We were visiting friends a while back and they had a tunnel. Ally liked it a lot, and we thought with all the cold weather here in Boston, that the tunnel might make a nice indoor active play thing.

Of course the cats try out all of Ally's toys before she does. I sometimes think the only reason she goes in the tunnel is because one of them does it first.

She did it!

Then we got it out another time:

And of course the bus has to go thru the tunnel too!

Gotta run around and do it again.

Oh wait

Carl is here and so I can pull on his tail and have fun that way too.

Friends & Adventure

We try and get together with Alice and her family once a week. With sick toddlers and crazy schedules its more like twice a month, but the girls are getting to be friends, and so are the 4 parents! These pictures are from a couple weeks ago - we went to Alice's local park and played together there. Alice is about 6 weeks older than Ally and she was born in Guatemala as well. Alice is sporting the green coat, and Ally is wearing pink.

I think the angle here is neat - and its like they are talking and challenging each other to a race up the slides, the way they are looking at each other.

Then Ally discovered a new pirce of equipment. Our local parks don't have this contraption on the jungle gym. I was worried she would slip and fall.

But she did not, she made it up to the top!

It was a cold evening - but the girls had fun.

We took the photo above when Alice came over to play.

One of many

In case you did not know I am a bit of a shopaholic. I'll shop for anything at any time and pretty much with anyone, or with no one (yes I shop alone). You'll see in the next few weeks that Ally has a variety of Christmas outfits; dresses, pajamas, etc. Several of which we purchased before she was even officially our daughter. I stalked the after Christmas sales in 2007 and bought what I thought her size would be. Turns out she is so petite nothing I bought fit her last year, but Grandma Debbie and my NC relatives came thru with cute Christmas outfits. But this year it all fits! Below is the most special outfit of all, its another dress my mom saved from when I was a child. It is marked 18 months on the tag, so I must have worn it for Christmas 1974. Add a pair of black velour leggings and I think Ally is styling in another hand me down from her mommy!

Thanks Aunt Beth

This adorable green hat was knit by Aunt Beth. She did a beautiful job! Unfortunately, the hat was supposed to fit Aunt Beth's head. She brought it to us because, well, I have a freakishly small head. I can wear the hat, but it fits Ally much better!

We're okay here - battling a strange virus that Ally had, but otherwise okay. We threw out all the bottles, and are still alive and well. Ally screams and cries most nights, but does fall asleep (eventually). If you don't remember, she usually plays in her crib for 30-90 minutes before falling asleep. Now it's a little less jolly, but it's the same sort of routine. She isn't drinking milk since the bottles went bye-bye. Yogurt consumption, however, is way up. And, of course, cereal with milk is a staple. It's so cute...she asks for cheeeer-ee-ohs and then requests "foouut" (That's Fruity Cheerios) and gets so excited to eat them in a bowl with milk and a spoon.

Garden Floor Pillow

So...I like to have creative outlets. While we were waiting for Ally to come home, I did a lot of work on things for her room - pillows, slipcovers... but since she has been home I've had a hard time finding motivation for projects. Then I came across a website with online crafting contests, and I got inspired. Here's my project entry:

It is a floor pillow that is a play garden! There are four rows of fruits and veggies: strawberries, lettuce, pumpkins and carrots. All the veggies can be "harvested" either by digging them out of their pocket or unfastening their button.

The pillow itself is about 30 inches square and 4 inches tall. It's made of courdoroy to mimic garden rows. And it's really soft!

Here are all the veggies fresh out of the field. They are made of felt, and took a lot of hand sewing - more than I imagined before I began. I made all the patterns for the pieces myself - I used a lot of image searches to look at the real thing and do my best to mimic it in felt. The lettuce has a leaf with a button hole, the strawberries and pumpkins have some yarn tied off to make a button hole, and the carrots slide into pockets on the pillow.

Here is what the garden pillow looks like when all the veggies are gone:


And because it's so big, and we're travelling for the holidays, Ally got to enjoy her present early - and proceeded to jump on the garden and pull some carrots (and lettuce).


I hope that Ally will harvest her own pretend veggies and cook with them in her own pretend kitchen. Then we can lounge together on the big cozy pillow and read some good books.