running fast and playing catch
For quite some time, I've noticed that Ally really doesn't run much. She's actually been a pretty quiet child. She loved to color and read books.
She still likes those things, but she's also entered a new stage. An active stage.

She likes to run around the house at full speed shouting "I'm running fast!" This usually ends with a crash, but she thinks it's funny most of the time and picks herself up and takes off again.

She also has rediscovered her balls. (Haha, get your mind out of the gutter) She thinks they all are basketballs for playing catch. This is not especially a good thing when she picks up the soccer ball andthrows it "to" you when you're not looking. But, she loves to play catch. She actually catches the ball, if you hit her arms with it. She's never been interested before now. It's kinda neat. (for one thing, it encourages Rob to play with her more. He plays catch a lot better than he can draw pictures)

jumping
Ally has learned how to jump sort of. She's been trying to hop for a very long time, with no success. Now, occasionally, her feet actually leave the ground. Dubious milestone, I know, but she is mighty proud of it. Now, if I could just figure out why she will only jump on a book or puzzle or ...

school buses and fire trucks
Ally has a wonderful game that we play to keep her occupied in the backseat on the way home from daycare/work. It's called "I found it"

It works like this. Ally leaves daycare and usually sees the preschool bus dropping off some kids at daycare on the way out. She yells I found it or school bus or both and then we get in the car. She asks me where the school bus went and I tell her I don't know, maybe we'll see some more. She asks me to find them, and I tell her I'll try. She then looks out the windows absently until she sees another one. Then she shouts "there it is" and asks me if there are kids on it. She's endlessly fascinated by this game, and I encourage it. It keeps her happy enough that I don't have to turn on one of her CD's.

The variation to this is looking for fire trucks. Backstory: a fire truck came to her daycare a couple months ago, and I assume that they ran the lights and siren for the kids. She was thrilled. Now, however, she is absolutely, irrevocably, convinced that everything with a light and siren is a fire truck. Ambulances, police cars, whatever... basically the game is played the same, but with a lot less successful sightings.

beating away
Had my dr appt yesterday. The baby's heart is just beating away. Funny thing happened though. Just after the doc found the heartbeat, my cell phone interferred, so what we heard was kinda like this:

da-thump, da-thump, da-thump, da-, dee-dee-dee-dee-dee, da-thump, da-thump

I had to throw my phone across the room to Rob. It was kinda funny. the doc didn't have a clue what he was hearing. I had to explain it to him. He says the doppler has occasionaly picked up a radio signal also. That'd be a shock: "well, let's take a listen to what that baby's doing in there..." -turn on the doppler- "the temperature for today will be.."

emotions
Ally is learning emotions. Unfortunately, Scary and Sad are the ones she's picking up on. When she's crying, and I have no idea why (I think she's teething again - my god, why won't they all just come in already) I ask her to tell me. When I finally convince her to use words instead of whining, she tells me a couple different things.

1. Ally's sad.
Why are you sad, Ally?
Ally's sad. whaaaaaaa.
Do you need a hug when we get home?
I see it. School bus!!!! (This conversation happens often on the way home from daycare/work)

2. Ally's scary. lvkjsdf lkjsdoif oisudfje scary

3. Ally's crying whaaaa

We have a couple psychotic books that we heavily edit when we read them to her. One is about a fat frog that almost gets eaten by a big fish, because he's too fat to run very fast. One is about a donkey that talks constatnly and then loses his voice because he never shuts up. She can tell you that the animals in books are sad or happy based on whether they are smiling. She nevers says happy though. just smiling. When she's happy and luaghing, she tells us "Ally's funny"

bunny rabbit
They had little baby bunnies at the pet store in the mall this weekend. Mom had one and Ally wanted to hold it. I held Ally and Mom gave her the bunny. She held it so close and laid her cheek down on it's back. It was absolutely adorable. She loved it!

Mom
Rob, Ally and I went to the mall and met my mom on Saturday. We wandered around shopping with her and Naomi and Marisa, and Ally had a blast. Once, I was walking around carrying Ally, and askd Rob "Where'd Mom go?" Ally answered me. She smacked my chest and said "right here!"

bribery
ok, I admit it. I bribed my child with a sucker to get her to smile for her Christmas pictures. Lately, she's not been thrilled to stand on the podium at Penneys and smile for the camera. This time I planned ahead. I carefully hid a sucker from Ally (and Rob - he didn't approve) in my pocket and pulled it out at the portrait studio. I promised her she could have it if she smiled and stood stil for us. Does that make me a horrible mom? No? I thought that's what you'd say. (If you didn't, I don't care. I'd do it again, too. It worked like a charm.)

She smiled real big and anytime she started figeting, I reminded her of the sucker waiting for her. She even laid down on her belly for me. They'll be up whn I get them back in about a week in a half, and you can see for yourself. In on eof them, we had some props - a plate of cookies and a fake glass of milk. The photographer was trying to get her to fake eating a cookie. She wasn't really faking though. She really wanted to eat it and was confused. Then she put it down and tried to take a drink out of the cup. She's so cute.

tonight, we're going to Walmart to get her picture with all of Christy's kids for Christmas - Mom's idea. Then Wednesday, we go back to Penney's for birthday pictures. Poor kid. Oh well, I see lots of suckers in her future...

pure cuteness
Even though she exasperates the crap out of me, I can't help but love how cute she can be. When I tried to get her to sleep last night, I told her to lay down. She very deliberately said No. I convinced her, and the second her head hit the pillow, she pointed at it and told me to lay down too. She even had to same tone in her voice that I used on her. I patted her back for a minute, and she laid there looking at me. I whispered "close your eyes" a couple times, and she did, but she'd open them back up before long. When I quit patting her back, she smiled at me and said 'close you eyes". That's when I decided I needed to leave the room. She's too cute for her own good.

sleeping
New wrinkle in the whole sleeping fiasco. Now, Ally doesn't like the door to her room to be shut. It's not like I latched it closed or anything, I just pulled it most of the way because she used to sleep better in the dark. It helped her know it was still time to be in bed because it was still dark. I think that because she's in the toddler bed now, she's a little less secure (and a lot more imaginative). If she wakes up in the night with the door closed, she cries. However, if she wakes up with it about halfway open, she puts herself back to sleep. Great.

The only problem with that is actually laying to down to sleep in the first place. She doesn't believe that she has to lay down, if the door is open. But, if she's not asleep when the mobile turns off - it has a light - (Yes, she's 2 and still has a mobile. She loves it) she sits up and cries because it's dark.

Last night, I finally figured out something that seemed to work. I hope it will continue. I left her in bed with her mobile on and left the room. I closed the door almost all the way. She wandered around the room, til the mobile turns off. then she cried. I stayed in the hall and told her she could climb in bed and push the button on her stars (what we call her mobile) and the light would turn on. She climbed down from the rocking chair, said "ok" and did it. then she laid down and went to sleep.
After she was out for sure, I went in and covered her up and left the door open to where she wants it. Maybe if I just let it be her idea to lay down, and give her some control over the situation, she'll be happier. I know I will be. I got a full night's sleep last night!

the universe
It has been pointed out to me that the title to this blog is not accurate. I talk about life, and everything, but have yet to mention the universe. I have resolved to correct that oversight. Here are my thoughts:

Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us. - Calvin

Ok, so they aren't my thoughts: they are Bill Watterson's, but they are still worth repeating

"flying like a dinosaur"
How many dinosaurs do you know of that fly around in tiny circles flapping their forearms holding both ends of a yellow scarf wrapped around their shoulders? None? Maybe you just didn't recognize it. I didn't. I had to ask my dinosaur what she was doing. Still think you haven't seen one? Well, you've got to come over to my house then. I probably have the only one in existence. How lucky I am!

I ride
We went to the circus on Friday night. I wasn't sure whether Ally would like it, or be bored. It turns out that she was pretty tired when we went, and a little cranky. It started out just fine. Ally couldn't really see the tigers, since they were in the ring farthest away from us, but she tired to watch them. She watched the trapeeze (sp?) people "swing" a little. Most of te time she was crawling back and forth over my lap to get to Rob and vice-versa.

Then came out a clown horse. The cowboy clown would try to ride him, and slid off. He tried to get back up, and the horse pulled the saddle off, He tried to climb on a chair, and the horse threw the chair - That kind of stuff. Ally watched it for a short while, then slithered down off my lap, turned around and patted her chest, nodded at us and said "I ride" then she tried to take off running.

I took her out in the hallway for a while and let her run. I bribed her with a cookie and got her back to our seats for a while. Then it was intermission.

They set up a ring for pony rides, and had elephant rides. Ally was kinda scared on the pony, but didn't want off or anything. She just leaned on me and I mostly held her up. Then we went on the elephant. She was so excited to see them. Rob stood up close watching with her while I stood in line. I had to ride with her. I hadn't planned for that. My pants are getting too tight as it is, I could barely stretch my legs that far to sit on his back. Ally had a great time! the whole time (30 seconds or so) she said "I ride elephant, Mommy ride, Ally ride, Ally ride elephant..."

After intermission, we didn't get to stay very long. It was past Ally's bedtime, and she started to throw a fit.

All in all, the circus was pretty much a flop, but intermission was very much enjoyed.

p.s. I didn't even bring my camera! I wish we had a picture of Ally on the elephant though.

kangaroo
I guess Ally noticed the "kangaroos" (wallabies) more than I realized at the zoo last weekend. The last couple days, she has been running across the room saying "boing, boing, boing" then she stops and points at her chest and says "kangoo" and off she goes again. She really likes it if she can get me to go along with her

puppy
We went to Mom's last night, and Ally absolutely loves her (not-a) dog! She held him a couple times, and cried when someone else was holding him. She said "my puppy". She did get tired of him jumping on her and barking a couple times. Also she didn't want to throw his toy when he wanted to play fetch. But mostly she just laughed ansd laughed at him. She said "Duke" (his name) quite a few times. I wish we hadn't had to give up the cats. She absolutely loves animals

Daddy sleeping
Saturday, after Ally woke up from her nap, I took her upstairs and she sat down to have a snack. She was eating peacefully for a little bit, but then she stopped and asked me "where's daddy". I told her he was still sleeping. She started climbing down from her chair while nodding her head at me and smiling really big. She said "gethimup?" (all one word)It took me a while to convince her to let him sleep. About an hour later when she asked again, I let her do it.

eggs
I'm having eggs over easy for breakfast. YAY!!! I'm liking this baby more every day

zoo
We went to the zoo Saturday. It started out as a beautiful day. We took Ally to get her flu shot, and she didn't even wimper. We had to spend more time getting her to leave the bandaid "sticker" alone than actually getting the shot. We walked outside, and it started to rain. Crap.

We went home and played for a while instead of going to the zoo. After a little bit, the sky cleared up. We checked the weather channel and the radar looked clear, so off we went again. Rob forgot his watch, so we did a u-ey and back to the house to get it. Whle he was inside, Ally sat in her seat asking me "go zoo?" I guess she was confused because we'd already told her we were going a couple times and failed to actually go. Well, we went.

We got to East Lake Drive and it started raining again. Just sprinkling this time, so we went on. Just before we got there, we left the rain clouds behind. The air was nice and clear, and the temp was just great. All the animals were up and about. They seemed to have enjoyed the rain.

Ally liked to watch the emu and wallabies. She just called them big bird and kangaroos. She recognized the peacocks, and wasn't afraid of them, like she has been before. Of course, they didn't call out this time either. They're loud.

We went to the spider monkeys, and watched for a long time. She loves them. there are 5 or 6, and one had a little tiny baby hanging on. a couple of them were running around climbing, and swinging, and having a good time. There was a towel the staff had put in the cage with them for them to sniff. One put it on his head. Ally liked that a lot. When one would swing on the ropes, she'd say "Whee"

She was sure that ring-tailed lemurs are raccoons.

We fed the goats and pet the horses. I pet the horse first and said "good boy", so every time Ally pet them, she said it too.

Then we got to our final destination. The duck pond. I brought a bunch of bread to feed them. We had a great time. Rob and I gave Ally half slices and let her break it up and throw it in, while we threw some farther out to the ducks she couldn't reach. After a while, Rob told me that Ally was done feeding the ducks. He was laughing at her, so I turned to look. She had taken the last piece of bread that we had given her and shoved it in her mouth. I looked at my watch and saw that it was 12:40. We forgot to feed her. Oops. So we packed up, gave her the lsat of the bread to eat, and got some food from the concession stand. On the way home, Ally asked for some orange juice. We told her to wait til we got home. She asked again; we repeated ourselves. I looked at her 5 seconds later, and she was asleep - out cold. She had walked the whole way around the zoo, and had tired herself out.

feeling better
Ally is recovering. This morning, I actually had to wake her up at 7:15 so we could leave the house. She's catching up on her sleep now. I didn't even have to give her any cough syrup last night. Yay

yahtzee
I had to fix it. It was driving me crazy. I originally only set it up to roll twice. Not only was that wrong, it was about impossible to get a good score. Try this. It's better

http://home.insightbb.com/~ktjrdn/