monster baby
Last night, (and a lot of the past week) Ally was a monster baby. She screamed at the slighest provocation, threw countless fits, and generally was cranky. We sat her down in front to the TV with an Elmo video so we could have a break from it and have supper.

Mostly, I think she was tired and hungry. Her tooth coming in has been bothering her (her first canine) so she hasn't been sleeping or eating well. Of course, once that starts, it kinda dominos until she crashes. She went to bed a little early and slept all night, so hopefully we don't have a repeat performance tonight.

2 days in a row
I hope this is becoming a pattern. Ally was a little more aware of what she was doing today. We put training pants on her yesterday when we got home and let her run around the yard a little. She never has to pee at night though. She's almost always dry form the time we get home til bedtime (or until we fill the tub for bathtime. That usually sets her off)

Success

Ally "tinkled" in the potty!!!

She woke up just a little early today, so we had time for it before leaving the house. I took her diaper off and gave her a toothbrush to occupy her while I brushed my teeth and hair and put my contacts in. She didn't say anything, but when I looked, she had gone. Hooray!! I'm sure that she didn't know what she was doing, but hopefully will catch on if I can get her used to it in the morning.

Potty time
Ally was playing with her pants Saturday. Rob asked her if she needed a new diaper. She walked over to the place I change her and laid down with her feet in the air. We took that as a "Yes" and Rob changed her. The diaper wasn't really wet, so we wondered why she cared, but went on with it anyway. 5 minutes later, she pooped. This means it's time to start potty-training.

I bought her a Potty-Elmo at Walmart. You give him a pretend drink. He tells you he has to go. Whether or not you get him to his potty, he (pretend) goes. Hooray if he makes it and "Maybe next time" if he doesn't. If you put him on the potty without giving him a drink, he sits and hums and says "Nothing's happening"

Ally loves him. She knows how to work him (mostly) and carries him around. She even sat still for a while on the potty with him. Keep your fingers crossed.

bathtime
Ally was in the bath last night filling her hands with water then washing her face. I got her a washrag to do it with instead, and told her to wash her face. After she did, she sat there starring at me. So I told her to wash her toes. When she got done, she just looked at me. We went through other body parts, too. Finally I said. Ally you can wash anything you want to. So she smiled real big at me and made a move to wash me with the washrag. Sometimes the kid is too literal

stuck
Lately Ally has been trying to get out of the car seat on the way home. She struggles and wiggles around. Then she yells stuck! I can't help but laugh. I tell her "You're supposed to be stuck. That's what the seat is for"

Grrrr
The lions say rar and the bears say grr. So yesterday, when Ally found a hidden pack of Teddy Grahams, she started growling. She brought it to me and said "open" (which sounds a lot like "happy". I'm not sure how, but it does) Then stood there grr-ing at me til she got one in her mouth.

night night
For some reason, Ally has abandoned the phrase "night night" she will now only say "bye-bye" at bed time. Very strange - she used to say night-night every night

visiting daddy
Rob had to work an extra shift today (overtime - yay!!). Since that would put him gone both days of the weekend, Ally and I went to visit him. Sundays are usually not too busy at work, so it was ok. He grabbed his partner and they brought the abulance to the park and we met them there. Ally played on all the slides. She did a lot better then I thought climbing some of the ladders. She does okay on regular ladders, but these were just climbing bars and stuff.

Then we grabbed lunch and went back to the apartment (where the ambulance crews stay). She ran around and played . Then she found the phone. We have a cordless at home, and I'm not sure she's ever seen a corded phone that wasn't a toy. She thought it was just great. We unplugged it and let her play. She just kept picking it up and saying "hello" and "bye" over and over. We had a pretty good day.

sleeping & knock-knock
Aly is still sleeping pretty regularly. She goes to bed around 9 and usually doesn't fight it. We've had to adjust the temperature in the house a little, but she usualy sleeps until I wake her up in the morning at 6:30. Yesterday morning, I went ni her room to get a bag of diapers for day care. I was going to put them in the car first and then come back in and wake her up, so I didn't turn on the light. I heard behind me "knot-knot" I turned around, and she was sitting up in her crib pretrending to knock on the door. I don't have any idea why though. Maybe she was telling me I should have knocked?

peanut butter computer
Last night I went downstairs while Ally was eating a peanut butter sandwich to do some things on the internet. After a little while I heard her yell "Mamom" So I hurried and finished what I was doing. i caught her most of the way down the stairs coming looking for me. I was afraid that she would get peanut butter all over the computer because she loves the hit the keyboard if I'm trying to do something. Rob had washed her hands though so it was safe. I wasn't however, because he forgot to wash her face.

eat now
Grandma Darra was in town last night with Matt and Nic and 2 of their friends. She has a meeting this morning, so came up to play at knights action park and stay at a hotel. Rob was working, so I picked Ally up and met them all there so swim after work. I put Ally in the water but it wasn't long before she started yelling. She wasn't happy about it. I thought maybe it was too cold for her but don't know for sure what the problem was. We wandered around for a while. We wandered past a table and chairs. Darra sat down, so Ally climbed up in a chair and sat down and said eat. I told her it wasn't time to eat yet because it was only 4:30. She said eat eat. I told her we'd get something a little later for her to eat. She said eat eat eat. After about 5 minutes of this, I decided to go ahead and get her some chicken poppers. She ate almost all of them. That's about twice as much as she normally eats for a meal. Them she had some Teddy grahams and about 2 hours later at Olive Garden she had a bowl of fruit and some croutons and ice cream. I found out that they had roast beef at day care for lunch and she had hardly eaten anything. She definitely knew she was hungry though

phone book
I was looking in the phone book tonight when Darra called. While, I talked to her, Ally got the phone book and gave it to Rob to read. When I got off the phone, she was playing with something else. I resumed my search of the phone book. When she saw me, she ran over and took it from me, said "No Mama. Book Daddy.", and ran over to his lap to read some more.

mad
Ally woke up from her nap MAD today. I don' tknow what got into her, but it wasn't pretty. I couldn't figure out what it was she wanted. She may have been hungry, but wouldn't eat anything I gave her. She calmed downa little, so I took her outside for a change of scenery. When I started watering the flowers though, she freaked out. She kept telling me no and trying to take the hose away from me. Then she went around the yard yelling "Dad-dee". I don't know if she was tekking on me, or just thought it was his job and I shouldn't be doing it... I hope that mood doesn't show it's face again for a while

play date
Well, we did it. I invited all the day care kids over, and 3 of them said they were coming. It was kind of a relief, since we weren't sure how Ally would react to having them play with her stuff (She's learned the word "mine"). Anyway, Ellie showed up first, and when Ally saw her, she got so excited!They ran around the backyard playing for a while together before anyone else got there. It was nice to see her running around. She doesn't really do that with us. Then Alec got here. He played in the sandbox with her while Ellie explored the stairs. Ellie had to leave early, and left right as Olivia showed up. It was probably a good thing. 2 might have been enough. It was really hot out, Ally had about had enough, so she drug Rob inside for a drink and snack. Everyone was a little hot, so we all went in and played a little. All in all, it went pretty good. It made us feel a little better about her social skills. She did a great job of sharing.

hitting
Ally's teachers told me she had to leave circle time today, because she hit someone for being too close to her. She has issues with her personal space. She doesn't like for anyone to get too close. Like, sonetimes, if she's sliding, and someone gets behind her in line, she freaks out. It makes me a little leary, since we're having kids from day care over tomorrow. But, that's why we're doing it. She never has time to interact with other kids at home. I thought a play date would be good for her.

rocks
Ally currently has an obsession with rocks. She can't walk past one without picking it up. I made the mistake of taking a walk with her the other day, and letting her walk instead of using the stroller or wagon. It took forever to get down the block. She had both hands ful of rocks, so she made me hold them for her. Then she picked up more. I love hearing her say "rocks" too. It's so cute. It sounds an awful lot like "walk" though, so sometimes it's hard to know which she's saying.

party
The cookout was great! Thanks to everyone who came. I love geting everyone together at least once a year. We'll do it again next year.

grilled cheese
I actually got Ally to eat a whole grilled cheese sandwich the other day. I could never convince her it was cheese before. She loves cheese, but didn't trust me or something. She always looked at me like I was crazy when I told her it was cheese.

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