sleeping
Today was mainly about sleeping. I wanted her to, and she did not. I needed a nap. Ally needed a nap. She got 45 minutes at 9 am. She cried through naptime at 1 and came out on the other side happy. I did not. Anyway, she went to bed easily. She just didn't stay asleep through the night - as expected. I don't know what we're going to do with her.

swimming pools
We tried to go swimming today in Ally's pool. However, Last time we did it, we decided that her little pool is too short for the slide. The slide takes up too much space. (Not that she cared too much. Rob just thinks she needs a better one, so she has more room) So instead of putting her in the pool, we went to Wal-Mart to get a better one. They have blow-up pools with slides attached, so I picked one out and we went home to blow it up. After getting it all aired up, and mostly water filled, we discovered that Ally didn't really like it. It's hard to slide down a blow-up slide unless there is water running down with you. However, she didn't like the sprinkler thingy that came with it. So, we spent another half hour deflating and emptying it. Then we returned it. Mostly Ally had more fun playing with the water hose. Oh well.

Before all this, Rob discovered that our solar cover was partly under water instead of floating. That's bad. That means that the little bubbles were no longer full of air, with means the solar cover is trash. So we went to the pool store for another one (that we really didn't have in our budget) They have these little solar fish things. They are fish shaped and have liquid in them that seeps out slowly. It's supposed to reduce evaporation and trap heat in the water. The guy seemed to think pretty highly of them. So we're going to try it out and see what happens. I'll be happy not to have the cover to deal with anymore. It was huge and bulky. And if you took it off, you had to store it out of the sun. That meant finding a place for it in the shed. Which meant dragging it wet across the dirt and grass in the yard. Then when you put it back in the pool, the pool gets dirty. And you couldn't dry it, cause you'd kill the grass (and get it dirtier) so it would get stinky if it sat for long. I'm really hoping these fish things work!! The solar cover lasted 2 seasons, and costs around $100. The fish things are $25 for 2 (our pool is big enough it needs 2) and last about a month. We'll see.

Posted by ktjrdn at 00:01 CDT

Post Comment | Permalink
Commenters' email address will be kept private

lunch
The daycare took pictures of Ally at lunch last week. She was a little tired.

stars
I gathered up all the things that needed returned to Wal-Mart, brushed the dust off them, and took Ally to Wal-Mart yesterday. I was wearing a shirt with the flag on it. Ally was so excited that she found a star on the little blue flap of the child seat in the cart and matched it to my shirt. She kept pointing at it and then poking me in the chest. She tries to say star, but hasn't quite worked it out yet. She got over it for a while, and then later she noticed my shirt again. This time she was sitting on the seat. She stood up and folded herself in half and just about fell over trying to see under her butt and point at the star.

healthy
Ok, I'm mostly healthy now. I feel like I have returned to the normal functinoing world. I no longer feel like Ally is a screaming monster out to get me. Instead, she's just a screaming monster. See... much more rational.

Actually, Ally is slowing returning to the real world too, I hope. last night, she went to bed at close to her normal time with little help from me. She did wake up in the middle of the night and fight going back to sleep, but we're working past that again. She's still got a runny nose and a little cough, but is no longer cranky.

update on Darron
I got an update on Darron's recovery:

He had surgery this last week. They removed his eye and pieced back together his cheekbone and put a plate in to hold the pieces together. They were missing a few pieces of bone, so they took bone chips from the back of his skull. They accidently removed too much and revealed the covering of the brain, but no damage was done (they had a neural surgeon come in to check it out) so they had to put a plate there as well to cover the small hole in his skull. But he is recovering well. They removed some of the dry skin on his face to see how well the burns were healing and Dea said there is little to no his face. YEAH!!! Also, they have had him walk around his room and they removed his trach tube and he talked for the first time since the accident. But all is doing well.

Tantrums
Ally and I spent most of the night sleeping on the couch. I use the word "sleeping" in it's loosest form. She woke up around 5 and starting rolling around and arching her back crying. She wanted me to hold her. But not sitting down. And not with a blanket anywhere near us even though I was cold. And not actually touching her or anything. She calmed down a little and let me change her diaper, but then it was time for me to shower and get ready for work. Rob says she didn't want him anywhere near her. She laid down on the floor and rolled around throwing a giant fit. She'd stop every once in a while to watch tv then pick up again. When I got done with the shower, I went back upstairs, and she crawled toward me a couple feet screaming, then collapsed before she got to me. There was absolutely nothing wrong with her that either of us could see, so we let her throw a fit. Then, suddenly she stood up and ran to me, let me pick her up, and pointed to the food on her table. By that time, I was ready for work, so we grabbed some to go and she was fine. She tried to throw another fit at daycare too. I hate this time of year. This is the same time last year that all our problems with sleep started.

Teeth
I can feel a tooth coming in. I'm pretty sure more than one is trying, though. The one I can feel is on the upper right side. It has just barely broken through her gums. She's been walking around soaking everyone she touches in drool. I even thought about putting a bib on her the other day to catch it all, but she threw a fit, so she had to wear a wet shirt for a while.

sleepless
Ally and I have both been sick, so I have no idea what the exact reason is, but she won't sleep anymore. It could be the temperature (since the @!@@!%$@!#$ weather sucks) It could be the cold we have. It could be her ears. It could be her teeth. It could be that all these things bothered her last week, and she got used to Mommy comforting her. I don't know, but it's driving me crazy. I can't get better, cause I never get any sleep.

itsy-bitsy spider
Ally has learned this song at day care. She puts her first finger and thumb together on both hands and then puts her hands together and wiggles them in opposite directions. Then she crosses her arms in front of her when the rain comes and waskhes the spider out. Hands over her head for the sun (all the while with her fingers together) and back in front of her for the end. As soon as you sing the last word she's saying "yay" and clapping her hands and starting over again.

catch-up
Last week was pretty boring. We didn't do much of anything interesting. Thursday night though, Ally barely slept at all. She's been teething and I think that was it, however, I started feeling a cold coming on at the same time, so maybe it was that. I stayed home from work Friday and got a little sleep. But and full-blown sick by now. Ally is teething, has a sore throat/cold, and possibly an ear infection (Rob and I have differing opinions on this.) Currently, I'm sitting at work wondering whether I have enough strength to make it through the day. Yuck!

terrible 2's set in early
Last night we had to go to Walmart grocery shopping. Ally was in a great mood when we left, but she wouldn't hold still when we got there. She didn't want to sit in the cart seat, she didn't want to be carried, she didn't want to ride in the cart, she didn't want to push the cart, she didn't want to walk. She wanted to do all of them at once. She got mad if we tried to help her steer when she finally decided to push. She yelled constantly and basically tried her best to impede us. Then we got home and she was fine. She ate supper at her table while we put groceries away, and only got mad when Rob didn't want to sit at her table with her. She got over it and sat at the big table with us. She just didn't want to be at Walmart and made sure we knew it.

p.s. She went to bed with no trouble last night. I checked on her before we went to bed and she was laying on top of a mound of stuffed animals. She had about 5 of them and her blanket laying under her. She's never in the same place that I put her to start.

Sleeplessness solved
I think she was just hot. We didn't have the a/c on because it wasn't too hot out, but Last night when we went to bed, Ally didn't just lay down and go to sleep like she usually does (lately). We kicked the a/c on and let her stay up an extra 20 minutes until the house was cool. Then she went right to bed. Hope that was it. I need sleep

movies
I don't have all that much storage space, so I can't put the longer movie out here. But... I did figure out how to add a short one of her sliding. It's on the main web site (Link on the right titled Ally's Home Page) under Short Movies. Check it out

water slide
I think that we had more fun today than we've had all year. I put Ally's swim suit on her and let her play in her little plastic pool for a while this afternoon, but she wasn't all that excited about it. Later, after Grandpa Bob left (he just missed it) we took her back out. Rob suggested putting the slide in her pool. oh my god!!! she was so thrilled. She climbed up and slid down about 50 times. She loved the splash she made. I loved that Rob sat down directly opposite her so he could catch her. He got soaked. We were laughing so hard. She was in such a hurry to slide again that she just kinda fell out of the pool. She'd get close to the side and put one foot into the grass and lurch out. Then she'd stand up, brush her hands off and run back to the slide to climb up again. All the while she'd be saying "diddle, doodle, tiddle, diddle". She didn't even stop at the top of the slide long enough to sit stright sometimes. She didn't car if she went down sideways. We even had to refill the pool in the middle, she splashed out so much water.

I tried just to watch and enjoy, but couldn't help myself. I had to get the camera. There's more photos added to Candid shots of Ally. I'm working on putting the quicktime movies out on the main site too. I'll let you know when that works.

Sleepless
Ally didn't sleep last night for some reason. I don't know if it was all the excitement yesterday, or her teeth or what. She'd wake up, I'd get her back to sleep and 20 minutes later she'd wake up again. She had a grumpy morning.We kept trying to get her to take a nap, but she wasn't going for it. Finally Rob took her for a car ride and she fell asleep around noon. She only slept an hour and a half for nap though. This sucks.

Zoo
Today, I decided that it was a gorgeous day outside, and it would be a good day to introduce Ally to the zoo. I got there and was confused. The road was blocked off, and people were parking in a grass field nearby. There were concession stands set up outside and people everywhere. I just happened to go on Dr. Doolittle Day. This didn't really mean a lot for Ally, since she's so young. It did mean that I didn't have to pay to get it though. They had face painting and turtle races and fun stuff like that for older kids.

Ally had a really good time. She stared and pointed at the emu and all the birds that were flying around in the trees. Then we walked around and saw the monkeys. She tried to chase after a couple geese with 5-6 goslings. She got a little too close and they started hissing at her, so we had to step back and leave them alone for a while. She didn't really care about most of the animals like the bears and foxes and alligators. Mostly she liked the noes she recognized. She giggled at the chickens and ducks. Loved the horses. She waled right up to one and yelled at him. I got her to pet them and she squealed and neighed. We pet the goats, and fed them a little. I put a piece of the food on Ally's hand and she held it out for them to eat. We even got int the goat fence and ran around for a little while. Then she spent the next couple minutes throwing a fit because we couldn't play in the water washing our hands forever. Volunteers were walking around with snakes to show off. Ally pet every one of them once. The only thing that scared her were the peacocks. When they yelled, she got wide-eyed. the second time, she screamed and burrowed into my shoulder. We had to steer clear of them. Otherwise, she had a great time.

Fingerpainting
I made presents for Ally's grandparents for mother's day that involved fingerpaints. Some grandparents probably haven't gotten them yet, because I can never mail them on time, so that's all I will say about that. I found out how much she liked it though, so after her nap I let her have fun. I taped a big paper to her picnic table, stripped her down to her diaper, and gave her a couple little bowls with paint in them. She had a blast. She was so serious about it, but when she'd look up, she smiled real big. When she ran out, and was scraping the bottom of the bowls, I asked her if she was all done. She looked up at me and signed "more". So I gave hersome more. Crayola washable fingerpaints is what we used, and it cleaned up really easily. It also dries pretty quickly, so I just let her dry a couple seconds, then picked her up and carried her to the tub. She also liked playing in the water. I didn't stop the drain, so she just to play in the spout while I rinsed her off. All in all I think she had a good day.

Darron
For those of you who know Darron and Dea, I thought I'd let you know how he's doing. The rest of you (everyone, for that matter), say a prayer or something for him.

Darron was in Iraq, and got injured by a roadside bomb. He took most of the force on one side and face. He lost one eye, but still has the eyelid, so they will probably be able to do something cosmetically for him. They will have to put plates in his face to reconstruct his cheekbones. He has burns over a lot of his body, but they have started skin grafts, and have high hopes for him. They say he is healing pretty well, but will still be in ICU a couple months most likely. Right now, he and Dea are in San Antonio, while their boys are staying with family in Robinson. June 5th, at the bowling alley, there will be a benefit to raise money for any expenses the Army won't cover.

dandelions
Last night it warmed up a little, so we played in the back yard. Ally ran around smacking all the dandelions so the fluff would fall off. Like we didn't have enough dandelions already! Oh well. it was cute.