Peeling an Orange

These pictures are actually from December 18, 2008. I took them and planned on blogging about this, but then one of our cats got really sick before Christmas (Carl - the orange one that is super good with Ally, but he is better now) and then we went away and well I never got it posted. But in my opinion its still blog worthy.

I came home from work one day and Becky told me Ally peeled an orange, its a clementine actually, but all by herself. She just sat and did it during her co-op. (For those of you who don't know, Becky and Ally are part of a neighborhood babysitting co-op with 6 other families, so Ally has co-op three days a week, Becky works 1 or 2 of the days and has the other time(s) off. )

I was, as usual, bummed I missed something so cool as that, so I gave her another clementine and she proceeded to peel it and of course I grabbed the camera and started taking pictures!

Ally started standing up at her kitchen sink.

Then she sat down so she could concentrate better.

She even put all the peels in the sink. (Too bad the play kitchen does not have a real disposal!)

When she was done she started eating it. She looks mad here, but her cheeks are just full of orange!

Snowstorm

During the last snow storm that hit Boston, Ally had lots of fun watching mama (Becky) outside shoveling off the sidewalk.

If you click to make this picture bigger you can see Becky thru the window smiling at Ally.


She was so intent and fascinated by the snow falling and the shoveling Becky was doing.

But I still got a big smile!

The next morning we went up to my office parking lot to shovel out my work vehicles. Ally wasn't so sure she liked riding her "bike" on the snow.

But we brought the sand shovel and pail.

Which make great snow castles, not just sand ones.

Ally had as much fun stomping out the snow castles as she does those made out of sand.

But gosh it was getting cold.

So Ally decided it was time to head back to our car.

Chex Mix

Do you call it Chex Mix or Party Mix?

Whatever its called, Ally likes it!

I think she learned this from Poppy Dave - how to dig thru the bowl and pick out the good stuff. In her case it was the pretzels. I know for Dave its the "mixed nuts" out of a can mixed nuts.

She was looking really carefully.

And so happy!

The final Christmas celebration

After visiting with Great Grandma we drove over to great Aunt Cindy's house to celebrate Christmas with the rest of Becky's extended family.

Ally was very excited to try a different kind of cracker and dip it in the traditional family cheese ball.

We thought the funniest thing was how cousin Jake was amazed that Ally could feed herself and eat without assistance. We wish we had a picture of his face, but as usual we focus the camera on Ally.

Ally received many very nice presents. Above she is reading the Napping House. Thanks Great Aunt Polly and family.

Cousin Mandy made Ally a fishing pole and magnetic fish. The line was not attached to the pole at first so Ally had lots of fun trying to spear (or beat) the fish, instead of catching them.

Ally really got into opening all of the presents. Becky and I were really touched to receive so many nice, thoughtful gifts for Ally. Thank-you to everyone.

Great Aunt Cindy gave Ally a new baby doll, and of course the dolly had to have a stroller. Since there was no stroller available, Ally improvised with her new princess carriage she received from Great Aunt Pam.

Just in case you are getting tired of seeing pictures of Ally - this is Poppy Dave, G. Uncle Jim (Polly's husband), G. Uncle Denny (Cindy's husband) and Becky crashed the picture. We looked and the 3 men were standing there, un-posed in identical positions, so Becky hopped in to imitate them and I snapped the picture.

Becky, Ally, Beth and I were lucky enough to spend the night at Cindy's house with Cousin Mandy. Mandy and Cindy put on a puppet show for Ally. I wish I had taped it, because the sound effects (laughter) were amazing. Ally loved the show.

After the show she got to go backstage and try on one of the puppets.

We had a wonderful fun filled week. It was a lot of traveling and by the time we got home we were really happy to be home. Ally was great, and we think she is an exceptional traveler. Except for the last night at Cindy's and the first night at my parents' house she slept thru the night all night every night. The road trips, which we were dreading were calm and uneventful. Ally actually slept in the car for a large portion of each trip. But in the end we were all ecstatic to get home, and agreed that next year we'd like to spend Christmas at our house, and invite everyone to come see us.

On a different note, I want to say that I love love love the dress Ally wore for the final Christmas celebration. I've had this dress for almost 2 years. Last year it was way too big, and I hoped all year she could wear it this year. It fit perfectly and as silly as it sounds it made me feel so good to have her wear that dress. I bought it before she was officially our daughter, and its one of the last things for her that I have that I "pre-bought". So its good to get past that, and it reminds me of the hope and faith I had that she would become our daughter, and as always I remember how lucky we are to be her mommy and mama.

Great Grandma Visit

I have one my Christmas week post after this one and then we'll finally be into 2009! It was a busy Christmas week. This post is about our visit to Becky's (mama's) grandmother's place. She is currently living in a nursing home, but we had a very nice visit with her. We even got this great shot of the whole family!

Julie, Becky, Ally, Poppy Dave, Grandma Debbie, Aunt Beth, Great Aunt Louise, and of course Great Grandma Florence is in the middle! She is 92 years old and it is very special to us to have her be a part a Ally's life.

The nice staff at the facility gave Ally a piece of chocolate - I still can't believe she ate chocolate during the week. (Thanks not so much Debbie!) but since we don't have candy at our house it will remain a special occasion food.

Ally may eat chocolate, but Ritz crackers remain her favorite snack.


Ally was so good thru-out our visit, and she received a really cute Christmas cat and teddy bear!

Longwood Gardens

One of Grandma Debbie's wishes was to make a family trip to Longwood Gardens. It is always very beautiful there at Christmastime.

Here is Ally and Mommy - you can see how big the indoor space is behind them - that is just one room of many.


Grandma Debbie was very excited to show Ally the Childrens' Garden, which has a lot of really cool fountains to watch and touch. Ally was a bit overwhelmed by some of the more active fountains but here she had a blast with Poppy playing in a relatively calm pool.

Mama and Aunt Beth showed Ally the cool little geyser fountains...

These fountains were really cool- Julie caught them shooting right over Beth and Poppy's heads - they shoot out a quick blast of water across the cool tile mural.

This was Mama's FAVORITE thing at the display this year. This giant long pool with several fountains is completely covered with beautiful floating cranberries - apparently there are about 500,000 cranberries....

And we got a great picture of Poppy and Grandma Debbie together in front of a pretty tree outside!

Dave's Wish

The day after Christmas we went to Strasburg PA and rode the railroad to Paradise. This was one of Poppy Dave's wishes for Christmas. The railroad is an actual restored steam engine powered train that travels about 15 minutes to Paradise, PA, then it changes direction and returns to Strasburg. It was really neat, and the cars were heated with actual coal burning pot belly stoves!

Ally, Aunt Beth and Mama checking out the real train.

I thought the water tower with the Christmas tree on top was a riot.

Ally was enthralled with the view.

When she got bored of looking out the window Grandma Debbie was thrilled to entertain her.

And just for my mom - the stove, to prove the car was not open air!