Arggggg!! Another ear infection this weekend. Friday night, she screamed all night, so Saturday morning, we had to go to the doc for an antibiotic. They have Saturday hours between 10 and 12. Unfortunately, our neighborhood easter egg hunt was at 11:00. So, we didn't get to go. I was so disappointed. Then later I found out that there was one at Knights ActionPark we could have gone to. Oh well, I'm sure Ally didn't really notice. I was worried how it would affect her surgery, but they say it won't. So, Friday moring sometime, we're getting tubes. I hope so much that this will stop the ear infections!! I also hope it'll help her to start talking more. The doc was getting on me today about how she doesn't say 5 words yet. Keep you fingers crossed.

Ally absolutely loves her sandbox. The other day, I put it together and threw some sand in. She was in it before I even got finished. I had to take her out 3-4 times just to be able to fill it up without duping it on her. She always has a good time when they go outside to play at day care. Their playground is sand everywhere. They have little cars to drive and lots of slides and swings. She's never in as much of a hurry to leave when she's outside when I get there. If they are inside, she runs for her coat and pulls me to the door.

She loves to read. Lately, she's been obsessed with a oversize book "the night the toys came to life". I'm so tired of it. For any of you that know gold-bug, it's kind of like that, except it's a board book. It's really busy. There are stuffed animals everywhere doing all kinds of things. On every page, she has to show us the pigs and the dogs. She has really liked pigs lately for some reason. Maybe it's from her piggy bank. She really likes to put money in it. If she sees any on the table, she tries to get it and runs over to the entertainment center where the pig is. Anyway, she brings books to us constantly. Sometimes we read to her, and sometimes she "reads" to us.

She's getting really good at communicating without words. She tries to put her shoes and coat on if she wants to go outside. She tries to put the faucet pad cover things on if she wants to take a bath. If she wants cheese, she brings you to the fridge and pulls on the door. If she wants a refill for her drink, she bangs it on the fridge door. If she wants to color, she goes to the cabinet I keep the crayons in and tries to get it open. She nods yes or no to most of our questions.

She's even getting a little better about eating. Not meat of course, but other stuff. The other day she ate a half container of yogurt out of a bowl using a spoon all by herself . She also used a spoon for a bowl of oatmeal, but had a little more trouble loading the spoon up since it is thicker. I think maybe the trick is to get her spoonable food to eat. She won't let me near her with a spoon though. She's got to do it herself.

At her 15 month checkup, the doc said something about ezema, but I think he's full of crap. She has a little dry skin because it's winter. We switched to adult lotion, and it's getting better. It's mostly on her sides around her belly and it's not too bad, but she loves it when we run lotion on. She's got to have some on her hands to she can smear it on her belly too. She doesn't rub it in very well, but it's pretty funny watching her try. She doesn't quite understand when we've had enough and it's time to quit though.

Ally found another use for her couch. She discovered that it's fun to "fall" over the back of the couch and land on the folded out bed part of it. Then she gets up and runs around to do it again. After a while though she gets lazy and starts "falling" too soon. Then she lands all folded up. She gets herself loose by kicking and pushing and sliding along the couch on her face. It doesn't even slow her down. Then she's circling back to the back of the couch so fast that she gets dizzy and runs off course into Rob or I. We catch her long enough for her head to clear, then she's off again.

I guess that's it for now. You can tell from how much I write whether I have soemthing to do at work or not. The past 2 weeks, I've been involved in a project that's taken up most of my time. I just have a couple little things to do, then start a new one. I love having something to do at work. It's so boring to sit here with nothing to do but twiddle my thumbs.

Since I was pregnant, I've been a member of BabyCenter.com. Most of the stuff in there is the same fluff you read in every magazine and article about babies, but some is actually useful, and some is just fun to read. Like the journals they have. There is one journal written by a mother of a boy and a girl a little over three years apart in age. She started the journal soon after she got pregnant with the little girl. Catherine, the author of the journal, is much more focused on the day-to-day life of raising kids than the "right" way to do things and does a good job of pointing out how you can feel like you're so full to bursting with love for your kid, but a second later be praying for someone to offer you a month long vacation somoewhere - anywhere- away from it all. I've been reading past entries most of the day (since they haven't found any work for me to do yet) and it just keeps cracking me up. Kids do the funniest things. It makes me feel good that I'm writing all this stuff down to remember later. You guys just all get the added benefit of being able to read along too.

We're going through an repetitive phase right now. Like the fascination Ally has with "a spoon and a jar of cherries". This contraption is supposed to "feed" a baby doll I imagine (I got it at a garage sale with a bunch of kitchen stuff). You stick the spoon into the jar and, magically, when you take it off, there are cherries on it!!!! (If you spent time with Ally and the spoon, you would see why that warrants four exclamation points) then, when you touch the cherries, they slide back into the spoon handle and disappear real fast. We had to take the spoon away from her and hide it a few months ago, because she always wanted to run with it in her mouth. Well, she found it the other day, and we sat for at least 20 minutes, just pushing the spoon in, pushing on the cherries, watching them disappear, and doing it all over again. We went through just about every different way possible of "eating" the cherries - from pushing on them with her finger, to using my finger to push on them, to feeding them to the bear, to stepping on them - and so on (and on... and on... and...) She had such a good time with them that she took them to bed with her that first night. She was so cute. She had her little fist curled around the jar, arm thrown out above her head, with the rest of her body sprawled out.. I thought that maybe, she'd wake up in the morning and play a little in her crib and let me sleep. Ha

Ally can now identify her mouth (which she thinks means her tongue. You ask her where her mouth is and she'll stick out her tongue and point down her throat.), eyes, ears, nose, head, hair, belly, fingers, toes and feet. You have to be careful asking about her eyes or ears though. With the eyes, it's pretty obvious - what isn't is how fast she goes from poking herself in the eye to finding mine. One second I'm clapping and praising her on how big she is and the next, I'm trying to get my contact to come back from where ever it disappeared to. The ears, though, are a different story. I never realized what a problem it would be. She usually can't see your other ear when she's got her finger in one. So, instead of walking around, or stepping back a bit, she grabs your head and pulls on it til you're turned enough that she can prove that Yes, you do have two ears. But, once she loses hold of the first ear, all bets are off. she'll go back and forth all day -or until or point out that Dad is right behing her and -surprise- he has ears too! Or sometimes, she'll get positioned just right so that she has both ears within grasp. Then she pinches. The other day at Famous Dave's (restauant in Bloomington) she was eating corn-miffins which are delicious there. Yummy We always order lots extra. She was chowing down. After almost eating 2 whole ones, Rob told her she didn't have any more room in her belly. In answer, she lifted up her shirt and showed him just how big her belly was and how silly was he to think she'd eaten too much already. Then she smiled and went on shoveling in the last of the muffin.

We bought her a little fold-out couch from Wal-mart the other day. At first, she got mad (otherwise known as furious) if we folded it out, but now she enjoys it. She's found that if she tries to walk on it, she falls down. so, she steps up onto it and walks around until she falls down, or somehow makes it to the other side and off then runs around me and does it all over again. of cuorse, I have to be involved in this. I'm not sure why, but it seems to be integral to her enjoyment. Maybe she likes knowing that when she falls, she'll have a big fistfull of my hair to slow her down. Maybe it's because she likes to dig her toes into my leg and watch me make funny faces in pain as she walks across me to get to the unfolded couch. Maybe it's something simple. Maybe she just likes to share her happiness with me, and make sure that we're both having a good time.

If you ask her dad, she gets it from me. He is always asking me to please put the camera down and just enjoy the time together. I haven't managed to explain to him just how much more enjoyment I get looking at the pictures later, and sharing them too. Which is just a lead-in to the easter bunny story...

We went to the mall Saturday and had her picture taken with the easter bunny. The highway bandits posing as photographers will only let you use your own camera if you buy one of their packages (which start at $12.99 for 1 5X7). She couldn't wait. She ran up to him and gave him a big hug and then sat on his lap studying him so much she barely would smile. So, we bought a picture and I took 3 or 4. Once I get around to getting them off the camera, I'll stick them out here. Of course, I'll probably be too busy getting my eyes poked out.

another note: She actually ate Mcdonalds chicken nuggets this weekends. 2 of them! For those of you thinking "Why is this a good thing?" that just shows how far I've fallen in the struggle to get her to eat some protein.

So Ally's teeth are still working their way in. The top right one is about halfway and the left has just barely broken through. she loves to hold cereal between them and crunch them.

At her 15 month checkup a couple weeks ago, she couldn't get her shots because she had an ear infection (again). She's had enough of them now that we had to go see an ear, nose, and throat doc. So, we called up Rob's and went to see her yesterday. She says that it's likely that when her ear infections clear up, her ears aren't clearing all the fluid. This means that she may be hearing a little muffled and may be why she doesn't say much yet. I guess we're going to get tubes put in for her. Rob's pretty hesitant because of all the trouble he had with his. They say it makes a huge difference in most kids. God, I hope so. It's about a 15 minute outpatient surgery. They say there are no water restrictions with this age group (It's not like they are going to be diving under water anyway). So I can't see it doing anything but good for her. Plus, it will stop her from having to constantly take antibiotics.

Ally is getting really good at going down the stairs. We tried for a long time to teach her to turn around and go backwards, but she always thought that we were trying to get her to go up instead and threw a fit. So what she does is sits down about a foot from the first step and scoots her way to the stairs. She drops her feet to the first step and scoots off the step basically unto her feet. Then she pulls them out from under her and drops them to the next step. She thinks she's big stuff. She loves going downstairs now. She drags us to the stairs all the time. She doesn't trust Rob anymore though. He's told her "Go ahead, I'm right behind you" and not followed through, too many times. She now makes sure he goes first. She pushes him forward in front of her before she'll start scooting.

She had a blast this weekend went it was so nice Sunday. We went out to our playground at our subdivision. The slide is surrounded by little gravel that she had a good time with. Well, we (mainly I) decided that she needed a bucket, so off we went to Toys 'R Us. We got a couple shovels and buckets, and found a cute little wheelbarrow. Got to checkout and found out it was only $0.05!! But that was a long time later... We got sucked in by the ride-on toys. Long story short - we also brought home a power - trike for her to ride. The battery had to charge 18 hours and it got cold again, so she hasn't gotten to use it yet, though. I hope she likes it.

One thing I know she'll like is the sand box we also got for her. They have a sandbox at day care that she had a great time with last week. We didn't get the sand yet, because we knew it was going to get cold again. She loves playing outside. She'd wander around the neighborhood all the time if we let her. I can't wait until garage sale season again!

Well, that's it for now...later

They love me!! I finally got a copy of my evaluation. I just thought I'd share with you all how much they love me at my new job (any typos are mine!):

"Katie has learned how to use Websphere Studio Application Developer (WSAD) and successfully demonstrated proficiency with WSAD by completeing programming exercises and development assignments using WSAD.

Katie has demonstrated her knowledge of application analysis, design and programming using Java, JavaScripts, and HTML to complete several programming exercises. In addition, Katie has shown exceptional ability to absorb technical information thru on-line tutorials and reference materials and successfully applied the knowledge gained in completion of programming activities. Katie has also shown impressive initiative by reading, studying, and practicing to inprove her knowledge and programming skills.

Katie has become familiar with IID section practices and consistently paterns her work to adhere to established program models.

Katie has learned how to use Rational Clear Case and has successfully participated in team development projects using WSAD and Clear Case.

Katie has successfully participated in the development and testing of applications, and has exhibited a positive and enthusiastic attitude when interactiving with coworkers while working on individual and team-based development activities.

Katie has become familiar with the IID section application portfolio and has successfully participated on development projects involving several applications.

Katie's positive attitude, willingness to take direction, and desire to improve have enabled her to make valuable contributions to IID development projects."

Whoo-hoo! I got 2 out of 8 exceeds expectations(which is very abnormal for a 1st certification review) and was told that since he didn't expect me to meet his expectations, the other 6 "meets" were outstanding. It's nice not to hate your job for once!

yay! Ally is finally getting more teeth. I can't see them yet, but I can fell something coming in at the top. I was beginning to think she was never going to have moee than 2 teeth!! Now it will probably take another month for them to be visible, but they're on their way.

Well, -knock on wood - Ally is still pretty healthy. Her nose is still running and stuff, but she's sleeping better (except one night that teething kept her awake). She slept from 8:45pm to 6:45am last night. Of course, Rob was at work. She doesn't sleep that well while he's home. She doesn't like for him to sleep or something.

Yesterday was a big milestone for her at day care. Since she turns 15 months this week, they moved her over to a cot at naptime. The cot is a foot off the ground at most, so it doesn't worry me much. They said she didn't try to get out or anything. Also this week, daycare starts costing $10 less per week! It's not much, but I can definitely find something else to do with that $520 a year! Let's see, what else is new...

Last night Ally was trying to say night-night. It was real quit, but definitely distinct from the usual nan-nan-nan. She also tried to say either cheese or please the other day. She wanted cheese, but the day care has been working with her on "please", so I'm not sure which it was.

I was reading a book last night on the couch when she grabbed my finger and dragged me over to her shelf. She decided that if I was going to read, I was going to read to her and gave me some books and sat down on me.

Whenever she wants something or wants us to go somewhere, she grabs hold of a finger and drags you where she wants to go. At G'pa Bob's this weekend, she kept taking everyone on tours of the house. I think she was exploring, but wanted someone with her. She just kept getting different people and walking through different rooms over and over again.

She's been playing a lot more with her LeapPad. One book has animals around the world. When you push on the picture, the animal barks, roars, etc... I don't know if she thinks she can't do it or what, but if she wants to hear them, she takes Rob's or my finger and makes us point at them. She just sits and steers our hand around. Then with the other hand, she'll turn the page. Last night reading to her, I asked her where the baby's nose in the book was. She took my finger and pointed it instead of doing it herself.

She knows where her head is. I think she knows most the parts of her face, but she doesn't always point to them when you ask her. If you ask about her nose, half the time she'll grab mine. And once she grabs

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Scratch the comment last week about Ally being heathly. She got a horrible racking cough right after that. It's gone now though and I hope she actually is healthy now (Even though I'm not). They sent her home early from daycare Thursday, so plans for my day off Friday got drastically changed. She was in a pretty good mood though and the day went better. Saturday Rob went to work. About 9:30 or so, Ally went to sleep and I went downstairs to lay her in her crib. I fell off the almost bottom step and seriously twisted my ankle. Luckily Ally didn't get hurt - she barely even noticed. But she did wake up which made it hard to take care of my foot. I could hardly walk and definitely couldn;t carry Ally, so Rob had to come home from work to help me with her. My ankle got all swollen and I had to keep it up and iced. Sunday morning it looked a little better, and Monday morning, I could walk almost normally. It doesn't hurt much now. Now if I could just get over Ally's cold...

Ally learned how to ride her little ride-on bus this weekend. She gets so excited!

I guess uh-oh if officially her first word. She says it regularly and knows what it means.

She loves to line her Beanie Baby Bears up around her and talk loudly at them. Don't know what she says, but you can tell she means it!

She also has started playing a little more with the Little People instead of just chewing them. She puts them in their chairs at the table and "feeds" them.

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This weekend was long! Friday, Ally had a Dr appt to recheck her after her first UTI. It was too much for me to handle for some reason (Have you ever had to try to collect urine from a 14 month old? It's not real easy, or fun. 'Specially the first time, when she was in horrible pain every time she peed.), so I left work early and had a nice relaxing afternoon nap with Rob and let Ally go back to daycare. That night we just kinda hung around the house. Saturday we cleaned up the house a little (very little). Rob took Ally for a walk because it was gorgeous outside. I should have gotten to take a long hot shower at that time, but someone-who-will-remain-nameless used all the hot water before he left. (But he has a sixth sense about it. He never runs out while he's in the shower. Oh no - that would make him cold. Somehow, he knows to get done when it's almost out. There's just enough water for me to turn it on and test it while it's still hot, and then 5 seconds after I'm soaking wet it gets really cold.) We went to BestBuy and spent an hour looking around before buying the exact thing that we had decided to buy before entering the store. We made a trip to Walmart. Then we drove around buying dinner from various places, mainly for the purpose of keeping Ally asleep a while. Sunday, Ally went stir crazy. She started seriously teething. It was not a wonderful day. We finally went shopping just to leave the house.

She has learned some neat new things lately.

She can say uh-oh occasionally. I think the daycare has been working on that one a lot. I'm still mostly working on "Mom". She just laughs at me.

She's also started rolling her hands around in front of her. I don't know if she's finally learned the roll-em-up part of Patty-cake, or if it's "the wheels on the bus go round and round". They have also been singing that at daycare lately.

She suddenly decided that she loves cheese. She kept going to the fridge this weekend and standing there until I'd open the door. Then she'd try to get a peice of cheese out of the package herself.

We have a clear plasic drawer that has been holding her books for a while. I rearranged a little and it was empty on the floor. She stole it. All weekend long, she sat in the drawer playing with the beanie bears. She's a very stange kid.

My friend made her a blanket and pillow for her birthday. The pillow has a little handle on it for her to carry it. She's started sleeping on the pillow a lot. Last night, she wandered around the living room collecting her pillow and her blanket, and her lamb. She took them all to the gate and grunted for me to take her to bed. When I put her in the crib, she's so cute. She lays her little head down on the pillow and scrunches her lamb under her right arm and wiggles around to get comfy. She's doing pretty good about sleeping lately. Now that she's healthy, it's a lot easier. I've institued the 5-o'clock rule. She stays in her room alone from the time she goes to bed to at least 5 am. Usually she wakes up before that, and I used to get her up if I thought she was done sleeping. We'd go upstairs and she'd eat breakfast and play. I've noticed though that if I don't get her she'll usually go back to sleep. She's usually sleeping for around 8-10 hours now with a couple short wake-ups in the middle.

She's completely switched off the bottle to a cup. The last bottle was Jan 25th. Daycare was having a problem getting her to drink from a cup. We tried everything. Their cups are almost exactly the same as my cups. The lids are exact. She just wouldn't drink from them. One day, she didn't finish her milk at home, so I brought in her cup from home to finish at daycare. They used it for the rest of the day, and she drank. I left it there and we've had no problems since. She doesn't think about getting a drink went she's thirsty though. I'll notice she hasn't taken a drink in a while and will say "Ally do you want a drink?" It's like a light goes off in her head - Oh yeah, I am thirsty! Then she drinks so long, she's out of breath and panting.

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Last night I gave Ally grapes again. She loved them! We went to the grocery store and got all kinds of snacks. She is also enjoying the KIX. I put some in a little cup for her. She eats some, dumps it out, picks them all up, eats some and dumps them again.

I don't know how, but Ally always knows when Rob doesn't feel good. That's when she chooses to maul him. Yesterday she wouldn't leave him alone for a second. It was kinda nice though, cause it shows she misses him.

Ally has kinda learned uh-oh now. She says it sometimes, but it's not full-blown yet. I can't believe the number of things she understands me say. I hardly have to point things out to her anymore at all. I can ask where her puppies are and she'll go find them without any further help. She's getting so big!

This update has taken awhile, 'cause I don't have enough energy left to do anything lately. The short story is - Ally has been sick and draining my energy. For the long story read on. But those of you who don't care for the sickness details might want to skip it. More interesting - fun stuff:

Ally will stop whatever she's doing to yell at any puppies or horses that happen to come on the tv screen

Everytime she takes her socks off, the first thing she does is too stick them in my face, so I can tell her how stinky they are. When I started that game, she never wore shoes, so they never actually stank. Now, occasionally, they aren't exactly rosy smelling. Rob is not thrilled with the game.

Ally knows where all her snacks are stored and will go to the correct spot in the kitchen and beg for food. If you give her what she doesn't want, she either ignores it, or knocks it onto the floor.

We never know exactly where to look for our condiments in the fridge now. Ally likes to sort and rearrange the bottom 2 shelves in the door. She gets them all out and stands them up, then moves them around the kitchen and back on and off the shelves.

Stop now if you're satisfied with the short story. This website kinda serves as a journal for me, since I'm too lazy to really keep one up for myself. I can't imagine I'll forget this crappy week, but you never know. Now I can reference it to embarrass her later.

Ally has been sick a couple times this year already. The first time was after just new years. It wasn't too bad, but she puked a little and mainly had diarrhea and got better soon after. The second was not so easy. She threw up Tuesday evening (1/12) but acted like she felt fine, so we went to daycare the next morning. While eating breakfast there, she threw up again. I had to go home with her. No fever or any other signs, and she played all day with me. Then, it seemed like everytime she'd eat, she'd puke. So we took her off milk and barely gave her anything but water. Well, then she started to get very clingy. She was hungry but couldn't eat, so she wouldn't leave my side. Rob stayed home with her Friday so I could go back to work. He dealt with the crankiness by loading her in the car everytime she woke up and taking her shopping somewhere. She didn't wake up that much though. She slept better while she was sick than she ever does normally. Too make a long story a little less long, she's finally feeling better and we're ready to introduce milk again tonight. Cross your fingers.

In the midst of all this, Wednesday night, I dropped some change on the floor. I think there was a missing dime. Ally looked like she might have had something in her mouth - I told her no - she jumped and screamed for the next 5 minutes. I thought she found the dime and swallowed it. Either I was wrong, or I missed it in her diaper. Sunday morning, we got x-rays, cause she was screaming everytime she pooped. Must have just been gas, because there was no dime on the x-ray.

Poor kid is also teething - looks like.

Yay...Christmas is over and we can go back to normal. Don't get me wrong...I like the holidays, it's just such a hectic time. And trying to do it all with a minimum of disruption to Ally's schedule is maddening. But, we survived. And thanks to all for everything. I'm glad we did manage to see everyone. And Ally is too.

Ally was interested in opening presents until as she got enough toys to play with. Then, if you opened the edge of the present, so she could see there was a toy inside, she would open it. Otherwise, she didn't want to be bothered. But, after a while, she would get interested again and want to open more. Bob and Glinda got to see her a week after Christmas, so she hadn't had any for a while and was excited all over again.

Bam-Bam came over for a visit on Friday. He was with us for about 5 hours and I think it did Ally some good. She let him play with some toys. Not a whole lot, but she did better as the day went on. I can't believe the differences in the two. I don't know if it's just different personalities, or a boy/girl difference, but it's amazing. When Ally plays with her balls (foam soccerball and basketball), she usually goes to it, picks it up and brings it to one of us so we can roll it and she can chase it. Bamaco(sp?) picks it up and throws it and crawls after it. Then he throws it all over again. Also, I put some dry cereal snack on Ally's picnic table for the two of them. This works just fine for Ally. Bam-Bam immediately smashed them to bits. It was fun, but taught me how lucky I was that we didn't have twins!

Christmas is coming fast, and Ally won't let me wrap all the presents. We got the tree up last weekend, and she didn't interfere too much with that. She was too busy unwrapping and unboxing the ornaments for me. But last night, I got 2 presents wrapped and she immediately grabbed them and ripped the paper. She doesn't bother any of the ones under the tree, so if I can get them under there, they are safe for now. She loves to look at the lights on the tree and especially out the window. If we don't take her outside to see them occasionally, she throws a fit.

She's sleeoping a lot better now. I wonder if it has something to do with being weaned. I think maybe the milk is staying with her longer, so she doesn't wake up hungry as much. In the last weeks, we've had 2 nights she's slept all night. The other nights haven't been as bad though. She goes back to sleep pretty easily after she wakes up. She started sleeping with a little stuffed lamb. She tucks it under her arm and cuddles up. Then, when she wakes up, sometimes she throws it over the side of the crib, cause she's done with it. no more sleeping!

We went Christmas shopping at the mall the other day. She absolutely loved it!!! She would not stop babbling. She talked at everything and pointed and lunged. We got the idea to take her to the pet shop (which I personally HATE on a deep level!!) to see the puppy dogs. She was so excited. She kept pointing and saying "ooooh!". She didn't want to leave. We even thought about the carousel, but it looked like it went a little too fast for her still.

Everything else is going pretty much the same. School is out for the semester. Rob and both are in classes next semester. I'm just trying to get more training for my job with some on-line classes. This last semester didn't kill Rob, so he's going back for more.

Lunch is over, so I'm going back to work. ttfn!

I can't believe it's December already!! And Ally turned 2!! Oops, I guess she's only one still. Freudian slip! She's discovered that screaming is fun. When she wants anything and can't have it imediately, she screams. When she wakes up at 1:00 am and wants held, she screams. When another kid at daycare is playing with a toy she wants, she screams (and then tries to take it away. sometimes she succeeds). When she has to sit still in her high chair to eat instead of wandering around the living room... you guessed it, she screams. Where did our little angel go?

But then she does so many non-screaming related things, it's like amnesia wipes it all away for a while. Like, her new favorite thing to do is to climb up on the couch and get chased from arm to arm. She can't really run very well on the cushions, so she trips and laughs cause you're "gonna get her". And when she make it to the other side, she turns around and leans back against the corner with a smug look on her face that says, haha I made it.

And she takes her little poeple and trys to put them in our mouths so we can have as much fun as she is chewing on them. We got her some Noah's ark animals and some others for her birthday. She searches through the pile of animals until she finds 2 that match and carries them around in each hand. Her favorites are the dogs. I think because she knows what they are (We only have one kitty, so she doesn't like it as much) She likes the aligators too, though so maybe not.

She loves chairs and wagons. We can't put away her boster seat because she thinks it's her easy chair. And we got out some Little Tyes trucks to play with the other day. One is a dump truck. We had to wire it up so that it wouldn't dump anymore because it kept dumping her. She kept sitting in it to play with her toys and falling out. And then, if anyone sits on the floor, it's likely she'll come sit on you to play. People are the comfiest reclainers!

We didn't have such a great birthday supper Wednesday. Ally's nap got interrupted at day care so she was kinda tired at supper. and of course we had the 5 inches of snow fall, so not too many people came - which was perfectly understandable. It took us a very long time just to get home from daycare which is usually a 15 minute trip. She fell asleep on the way home from Ryan's. I had to give her medicine though and that woke her up once we got home. After that 15 minute nap she was ready to play for another 3 hours. She didn't go tto bed until after 10. And we had a good Thanksgiving with most of Rob's family over for dinner. They were staying at a hotel in town, so we went swimming that night (and back Friday cause she liked it so much). Of course all her summer swim suits were two small... Aunt Ruth to the rescue. We had a suit Marley had outgrown (or maybe it was garage sale?) that was a little too big this summer so it fits her now. She had a blast splashing and chasing everyone in the water. Friday when we tried to get her out, she kept trying to squirm away and get back in on her own...which leads us back to the screaming...but it wasn't bad. She was just getting tired. So, we have had a busy couple weeks. It was good to see everyone, and those of you we didn't cathc for Thanksgiving and birthday, hopefully we can see for Christmas!

I got some pics of the crib play. She had a blast with it. Too bad she gets stuck in it, and I had to put it up

I haven't gotten any pics I took set up here yet, but I got the JCPenney's ones back. I've got a couple with Bamaco and Ally in her wagon from Halloween that are cute that I need to copy here. The wagon is a story unto itself:

I got Ally a baby doll crib the 30th. She started palying with it right away. First she took the baby doll out, then the "mattress". Then she climbed in. The only problem with that was that she is too big to even sit comfortably. She kicked her legs over the sides and got one stuck in the slats. Then she turned and got her hips lodged in it because she is too wide. So I took it away for a while and gave her the plastic doll bassinett we already had. She sat in it off and on most of the day. When Rob came home the next day, she started sitting in it again. I laughed at her and told him that she was doing it all day before too. He tried to tell me she wanted a wagon. She's only 11 months old, I didn't really think she knew what a wagon was much less decided she needed one. He pushed her around the room in her bassinett and she got excited and smiled real big. So, we went out and bought her a wagon. She's well on her way to being spoiled! Now she just treates the bassinett as her own personal chair. We've thought about getting her on of those little kid plush chairs, but aren't relly sure what she'd do with it, so we haven't done it yet. She loves to sit on the couch with us.

Also, she's learned that she actually can walk with shoes on. She just looks like Frankenstein's monster.

Ally goes to sleep all by herself now. When it's bedtime, she starts to get cranky and will usually lay her head down for a second or towo in the midst of playing. We can put her in her crib and she lays down, gets comfy and closes her eyes. It's so nice. She still wakes up around 3 or 4 am, but we're working on that.

She walks lots, and since it's almost winter now, I've started trying shoes sometimes. She loves to play with them. She's outgrown all the shoes we had, so I went to Payless and got her some more the other day. She had a blast. But when I try to put them on her...let's just say she's less than happy. We got her a few pair anyway. I try to put them on for a couple minutes before the car ride in to daycare in the morning and let the day care take them off when she's had enough. As soon as you put shoes on she holds still, though. She won't pick up her feet! She's just starting to realize she can still crawl in them, but she won't walk. When you take them off, she picks them up and walks around the room playing. She plays with her socks too, for that matter...

She had a great time for halloween. If I can ever remember, I'll get some pictures off disk and post them here. Nothing scared her this year. I expect that to be a little different next year, though.

Her hair is getting really long. I don't want to cut it, but I think I might have to soon. It makes me sad. We use clips sometimes to keep it out of her eyes, but they don't stay in so well. We'll see... maybe for her birthday pictures. Hope to see you all soon!

birthday/Thanksgiving
Okay, 6:00 it is on Wed Nov 24. Ryan's is on Dirkson Parkway right in front of the Super WalMart. If you can't make it, It's not a big deal, but we'd love to see you. If you have any questions, drop me a line

Now Ally is walking pretty regularly. She's gone 7 or 8 feet at once a couple times. She knows she's hot stuff too. She always has a big grin on her face especially when she's chasing the cats.

One of her new games is to put toys in the cat food. I think the logic goes like this: If I put toys in the food dish, I can't get in trouble for playing with the food, because after all, there are toys there! It doesn't work though. And when I tell her no, she smiles and tries it again. The next time, though, she knows I'm serious and it breaks her heart. If Dad says no...she knows everything is okay, becuase he never really can bring himself to discipline her. He just moves her away. It's going to be a long time before "Just wait til your Dad gets home!" has any effect.

She still is not sleeping through the night. This is a very bad thing because soon, she'll figure out how to crawl out of her bed. She climbs everything. So we have to break down and let her cry. It breaks my heart. I started Sat afternoon nap and it took a little over a half hour of crying before she went to sleep. She'd cry then give in a sit down, then cry and stand up some more, then stop and sit, then cry sitting, and lay down screaming, then stand up again. For a couple days, we only did it when she first went to sleep, but she'd still wake up quite a few times during the night, so we finally bit the bullet and stayed consistant. Last night it only took her 15 minutes to go to sleep and she only woke up once, so I hop and pray the we're on the right track and it'll be over soon. Keep your fingers crossed!