pictures
I took Ally to get her pictures taken at Penney's last night. Halfway to the photo center, she tried to take her shirt and pants off. We had to detour to the potty - where she peed around 5 drops in the potty. It almost made us late because Penney's is so huge, and the bathroom is on the opposite end of the store.

When she got done, the photographer gave her a treat - some sort of Sour gummies. She was excited and made me open them for her. I told her she wouldn't like them because they were sour, but gave her one to try. she said "sour" about 50 times and carried it around. She finally tasted it and made a funny face. I saked her if she liked it and she shook her head yes. She said "i yike sour"

progesterone poisoning
I read a book when I was pregnant with Ally. In it, the lady says that "morning sickness" is way too misleading, and makes it sound like it's just a minor inconvenience. She suggested that "progesterone poisoning" was a little more realistic. It gives that dire "I'm not going to live through this" connotation. I agress whole-heartedly. The first trimester absolutely sucks!

That said - I'm realy excited. I didn't think I was very far along, but yesterday found out I'm already at 9 1/2 weeks. That means I'm almost to the part where I feel good again. Also, it means that I'm not as sick as I was with Ally. By this point, I was already on anti-nausea medicine last time. Anyway, I'm due April 29. Yay

news
Well, since I had a fever Wednesday night and had a sore throat, Rob made me go to the dr and make sure I don't have strep throat. The Dr. ordered a strep test and mono test (which were negative). I told him to throw in pregnancy test - which came back positive. I thought so, but the home tests were negative. Don't know why. Anyway, I find out my due date at my sonogram on Monday the 26th. whoo-hoo!!!!!

peace and quiet (sort of)
So, Rob was going to go camping Saturday, but changed his mind after finding that Ally would be gone. So we had some time alone together. Friday, I got the whole night alone though. I didn't do anything. Think slug... happy, happy. Would have been better if I hadn't been sick to my stomach though.

Gama Darra came to visit
Thank God! I have been sick to my stomach for the last week and have a cold and sore throat. Wednesday night Darra came to visit and I zonked out on the couch most of the night. I had a fever and don't know how I would have dealt with Ally by myself. Darra had a meeting in Peoria on Thursday and came back to the house afterwards. She had planned to play with Ally Friday instaed of letting her go to day care, and then was going to leave to go to St. Louis for another relative's football game and parade Saturday. Instead, I convinced her to take Ally with her!!!!!! This will be the first night Ally has ever slept without me in the same house. I'll get her back on Sunday. Until then, I'm (mostly) childless.

day care potty
Ally was so tired this morning that I just grabbed her out of bed and threw her in the car. She slept all the way in town. I had to change her and stuff when we got there. Her diaper was still dry, so I put her on the day care potty to try. It is so cute. It's about 12 inches off the ground. She peed in it. She was pretty excited, cause she could hear it hitting the water. When she got done, I got her dressed. She said "I went potty". They've tried to get her to do it a couple times during the day, but no success so far. Maybe now that she's done it once, she'll not be afraid of it.

sleep
Ally didn't sleep last night. I'm blaming the storm. There was lots of thunder. Plus, I have had an upset stomach and sore throat, so I assume she does too. I got her to go to sleep at about 3:00, but she woke up again 10 minutes later. Rob got up to get her, but all she did was scream "mama" So I asked her what was wrong and she finally said "eat" We all went upstairs to get her some Kix. I was so tired, I just gave her the container I keep them in. She stuck her arm in and started munching. We sat on the couch, she leaned back in to me and got comfy. Before long, she was almost asleep. So, I leaned up against Rob, She leaned up against me, and we sat for a while. She fell asleep with her arm in the cereal container. Of course she woke up when we tired to put it away. So I changed her and told her we needed to go lay under the stars and go to sleep. It worked. She must have gotten enough cereal to settle her tummy, cause she went to sleep.

added entries
I added a couple entries to last weekend below, so check there for more stories, if you've already read that far

hi bug
See below about being outside last night. Ally saw a spider on the sidewalk. She put her hands on her knees and leaned down real close and said "Hi bug" Then I stepped on it. I hate spiders. There was a little black hopping bug on the sidewalk too, so Ally said hi to it instead. After a while she changed it to "hi bug, smash it" though and tried to step on it.

go away clouds
Last evening was gorgeous. Rob, Ally and I went for a walk around the neighborhood. After 2 laps, Ally was getting restless, but didn't want to go inside, so we sat around in the front yard. There was a storm coming, so the sky was pretty cloudy again. We could barely even see the moon. Ally was looking for it though. She kept asking "... moon go?" Rob picked her up and showed her where it's supposed to be but told her it was behind the clouds. He taught her "go away clouds. I want to see the moon" Then the moon came out a little later and she was happy. When the clouds started to cover it again, she kept saying "go way couds. moon"

stars
Ally has stars hanging from her mobile. The other day, she learned that they can come off the mobile. Now, when she wakes up in the morning, she throws a fit if we don't take them off and bring them upstairs with us. They're "tarsh". She also loves it when you draw stars on a piece of paper for her to color. She colors faster than I can draw though (with a blatant disregard for the lines(: )and is very impatient. This has been going on for a couple weeks now, and every time I remember to look at the sky before I take her to bed, the stars are behind clouds. Someday, we'll go outside and lay down to look at them.

puzzles
Igot Ally a bunch of puzzles on ebay pretty cheap recently. She is doing great! Some of them have knobs on the, and some don't. She has trouble with the ones that fit tightly and are the same height as the rest of the board, but only because she can't get them out. The others, she is mastering. Especially the ones with pictures underneath. She does have a little trouble with the ABCs and the numbers puzzles. I think they are a little too abstract concepts for her. The animals and shapes, she can relate to. She says "puzz" and "peeces".

potty
Ally is still working on the potty thing. Sometimes she gets it and sometimes she doesn't. We're not really pushing, since it's still early. I switched her to Feel-and-Learn pullups diapers to help her learn (except at night. I don't want her to notice she's wet at night. I want her to sleep). I always sit her down in the morning when she gets up, and flip the tv on. She just sits there until I'm ready to get her ready. When she pees, sometimes she stands up and claps and says YAY. Sometimes she just goes on watching tv, and I don't even know she's gone until I stand her up.

Occasionally, if it's been a while since I changed her and she's still dry I'll ask her if she needs to go. She usually says potty and sits down pretty good for me. Or, I'll see her playing with her diaper. That usually means she's about to go.

Saturday night, I noticed she had been dry for a while, so I asked her to go potty for me, and she pooped!! I was so ... disgusted. (I bet you all expected me to say excited didn't you? well, maybe the ones who have done this before didn't because they've been there.) I can't wait until she decides to sit on the real toilet. Anyway, I am proud of her, and maybe there's an end to dirty diapers in sight.

sleeping again
Ally started sleeping again. I'm partially recovered after this weekend. I don't know what her problem was. Or how it got fixed. Sometimes kids have a radar though. It tells them when they've gone far enough that they are about to be disowned. When the radar goes off, they switch back to sweetness mode.

dishes
Rob started to wash some dishes today. Ally ran over to him and tried to climb up and started whining. She wanted to help. So, he told her to get a chair and she could. She ran right over and pushed a chair right up to the sink and climbed up. She knew just what she was doing too. She grabbed the scrubby wand and stuck it in the cups and pulled it in and out. She took a long time on each cup before she decided she was done and Rob could have it to rinse it off (and properly wash it). She had a lot of fun. Of course, when she was done she ran over to tell me about it and got me soaking wet.

birds
Ally climbed up on Rob's lap and gave him a crayon and some paper to draw with. So, he drew her a sun and some clouds and some little v shaped birds flying. She loved the birds. She's now obsessed with making him draw them. She puts the crayon in his hand and tries to move his arm while saying "buds". He's tried to teach her to draw them, but she would rather he do it.

gold-bug
Rob tells Ally to get a book before bed so he can read it to her. Lately, she brings him the biggest ones she can find. She brought the gold-bug book (Otherwise known and Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks and Things that Go") to him tonight. He didn't know it was the gold-bug book though. She kept saying bug and he didn't know why. I told him that there is a little gold-bug hiding on every page, so he started looking for them with her. She found quite a few without help. Some of them, she even found before he did. The book was too long for one sitting, but she was pretty interested in finding that bug.

rain
Ally started singing in the car tonight for no apparant reason. She said "rain, rain, go, go" a couple times. I guess they must have taught her "Rain, Rain, Go Away" at day care at some point. First I ever heard of it.

Newspaper ad I'm going to place
Nearly new little girl. Almost 2 years old. Blond hair, blue eyes, chubby little cheeks. Starting to speak well. Likes to play games. Gets lots of sleep. Almost potty-trained. Loves the bath. Free to loving home. No exchanges

Favorite words are no and stop. Favorite game is dumping her food on the floor. Sleeps in 2-3 hours naps only. Sticks her hands in her diaper after she's pooped. Occasionally poops in the bath. Someone save me!

UM....
Monday, Ally was sitting my stomach while I was laying down, just before her bedtime. I asked her if she wanted to sing some songs. She said "roun an roun" So, we sang the wheels on the bus. I got to the mommies on the bus part, and she said "stop" I sang a little more and she said "no stop stop" so I said "ok what do you want to sing then?" she looked up a little and said "UM... wah, wah wah" (which is the babies on the bus) It was just the cutest thing though. I've never heard her say um, while she was thinking of an answer before. She did it again last night. I asked her what she wanted to sing and she said um then ran to the book cabinet to get the book with songs in it.