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!

birthday/Thanksgiving
I'm planning a birthday party on November 24. Our house is much too small for everyone to gather there, so we're going to go to a Ryan's near our house. It's a great buffet place that Ally loves because there's always lots of people to watch. I'm thinking supper time around 6 would be good, but I wanted to see if that would cause any major problems with anyone, so please let me know. Also, please help me pass the word to anyone who isn't on this list.

Thanksgiving will be kinda like last year at our house. Darra and Jenn and Rob's grantparents came last year, but anyone can feel free to stop by (Let me know so we'll plan the right amount of food). If you prefer to celebrate her birthday then, (or not at all, after all she's not going to remember it!) that's fine too.

More details to follow as they are decided

I put Ally's 10 month pics up. She looks so grown up! She's with Christy's youngest in some (for those of you on Rob's side). He's 3 weeks younger, and a little shorter. This month we'll get Halloween ones done. She's going to be a dragon ans we'll stay home to pass out candy. I just hope all the costumes don't scare her.

Around her 10 month mark, two bottom teeth pushed through a little. They're still coming in and not very high out yet. She's chewing on everything. Now, she has fun biting off pieces of her food. She doesn't eat very much table food. I just can't interest her in anything not crunchy. If you try to hide a carrot in her baby food, for example, she'll suck the baby food off it and spit the carrot out. I tried to give her some milkshake out of my straw the other day, just to see if she could figure it out. She loved it and I couldn't get it away from her. She had no problem with the straw.

She's been standing alone for almost 2 months now, and not very interested in walking, but that's starting to change. She would take a step or 3 or 4 toward something - remember that she wasn't holding anything - then sit down and crawl. She even got to where if you would try to stand her up and she didn't want to, she would lift one foot high in the air. This girl is definitely opinionated. Anyway... these last couple of days, she's been taking more and more steps. She got up to 15 the other day. And more often, she's sitting instead of falling when she gets where she wanted to go.

We got her a (yet another) Little Tykes slide at a garage sale. This one has a platform and castle walls and a tunnel to crawl through. She has learned how to climb up to the platform and sit at the top of the slide. If she has socks on, we sometimes let her slide down by herself (standing nearby...It scares her a little if she gets going fast). If she's not wearing socks, though, she sticks her feet to the slide and stumbles down, so we have to watch her close.

Rob is halfway through this semester (and very glad it's mostly over). I got a new job! I start Monday in Informatino Services. I'm not really sure yet what I'll be doing, but I know it has to do with the internet and intranet development here at IDOR. Most importantly, it's a great pay raise! This is the job I've been trying to get for the last two years. The stupid governor wouldn't let anyone hire though. Now, everyone is desperate because they have needed people forever, and they're getting me. They're going to have to train me from the very beginning, so I hope they aren't too bothered by that. I think it'll be pretty interesting to do. If not, I can some back to this job (fat chance!!)

Well, lunch is over, so I'll talk at you all later.

Yesterday we spent the whole day being industrious. We've been hitting the garage sales hard and have filled our garage with Little Tykes toys for Ally. So yesterday we decided to rearrange the house and give her the extra bedroom for her toys.In order to do that, first the toys had to be washed, and the room emptied out. The latter was a lot easier said than done, by the way. Rob spent the day inside rearranging, and Ally and I went outside with the hose and a bucket.

First thing she did was stick both hands in the bucket of suds and spend the next five minutes trying to get the bubbles off her arms. Then she crawled over to the new Ally-size picnic table and climbed on top of it. (She's quick too. I didn't even see her climbing, just caught her sitting on top about to climb down the other side, which she did remarkably well.) She helped me clean a couple of things and wandered around a while. Made her socks soaked and filthy dirty. Then I got to cleaning a little bassinet for dolls. I soaked a scratcher pad in soapy water and wrung it out in the bassinet and here comes Ally. She started slapping the water and having a great time. Well her hands were covered in grass and dirt, so she made the clean water not so clean anymore. So I dumped it and ran fresh, not soapy, water and let her play. She climbed in!! She just hiked her leg over the side and sat down, clothes and all. She kicked her legs slaphing and sloshed water over the edge. And I was outside all by myself with no camera. Boo-hoo.

Maybe I'll let her play in it again some day and be prepared for pictures. Oh well, she had a good time. Rob got almost everything where it belongs now inside, and we're now trying to figure out new places for some of the stuff. Now Ally has some toys in the living room, the bathroom, has a toy room, and a bedroom. I think she's on her way to being spoiled.

Thursday morning we had 5!! steps in a row before she realized it was too slow and crawled. I think the only obstacle to her walking right now is that she can go faster crawling. She can go even faster standing up walking holding onto someone's fingers. She loves doing that. She runs with a big smile on her face! Especially if we're chasing the cat. (which we were doing last night when she got a second wind at 9:10). Isis just hates that game!

This week she "graduated" to the toddler room. None of the kids are quite toddlers yet, so it's a transtion. It's mostly still an infant room, with a lot of stuff they put away until the kids get older. Anyway, it's new teachers too. There are three of them now instead of two and a couple new kids. I don't like it. We just had the last teachers trained. The new ones are nice and all, they just don't know the kids yet. It looks like they'll learn a lot there. oh well, Ally doesn't care.

Last weeke she weighed 21 lb 3 oz. She's slowing down. She's starting to look so big!!

Ally learned lots of new things this weekend. Friday, she learned how to blow raspberries on other people's bellies (and arms and legs). Anytime I lay on the floor now with any stomach at all exposed, she detours over and blows. The strange thing is that she doesn't laugh about it. She must think it's fun because she keeps doing it, but she doesn't act like it.
What she does think is funny is knocking blocks over. She has finally learned to destroy block towers. And she doesn't just giggle about it either. She has deep belly laughs. She usually gives herself hiccups. She gets so excited about it she knocks them over even if they aren't stacked up.
Sunday night she even took a step. just one, but she didn't fall. She also started standing up with heavy toys in hand. Last night she picked up her panda bear and stood up. I think it helps counter balance her weight. god help us...she'll be walking soon