supper
Lately, Ally wants to sit in the big chairs instead of her booster, so when she gets hungry, she climbs up in one (I think she's getter taller again). Last night, she put Elmo in her booster, and dragged a chair over next to him and climbed up. She wanted Elmo to eat supper with her. I gave her a peanut butter sandwich torn in half and some applesauce for supper. I looked over a minute later, and half the sandwich was sitting in front of Elmo. I told her Elmo wasn't hungry, but she didn't believe me cause she put it back in front of him again. Then she was trying to give him spoonfuls of applesauce. Mostly it ended up sliding off the spoon and landing on the table. I had to wipe a big glob of it off one of Elmo's eyeballs though. A monster's got to eat!

socks
I tried to put sandals on Ally Sunday. She absolutely threw a fit. I got them on, but she was yanking on her foot trying to get them back off. i put socks on first, and she didn't care anymore. She just didn't like her feet to be in shoes without socks. She's awfully opinionated

hoppy toad
This weekend, Rob Ally, and I were out in the yard. There was a little hoppy toad jumping by, so I pointed it out to Ally. She didn't really see it very well, so Rob picked it up and held it for her. She was curious, and stuck out her finder to touch it. As soon as she did, it jumped off Rob's hand. She jumped back a little, then decided it was funny. Rob picked it back up, but she didn't want to touch it again. She just babbled a lot and pointed to it.

sleeping
one word - screaming

Thursday night, Ally rocked to sleep, and woke up at 3 and screamed til around 5.

Friday night, Ally screamed herself to sleep from 9:30 to after 10, but slept til 6.

Saturday night, Ally went to sleep while we weren't there, so I doubt she screamed, but she woke up at 3 and screamed a little over an hour before we gave in and I rocked her back to sleep.

Sunday, she went to sleep in the car on the way home. We got home around 11:30, and put her in the crib and didn't hear from her until 5.

Her sleep schedule is way off from traveling. There was too much excitement for her to want to sleep much.

weekend overview
Short story - We were on the go all weekend.

Long story - Rob left for Robinson Thursday morning, leaving me to ride home with Darra (who was in town for a meeting). When he got to town, he started trying to organize getting ARCH helicopter to land at the Palestine benefit for Darron. He found them a landing site, but wasn't sure it was big enough, so when I got to town at 4 or so, he came back to get my camera to go back to Palestine to take pictures. Darra drove me and Ally into town and dropped us off at the grandparents' to visit for s little bit while she drove with Rob. They came and got us and we went to dinner. Then we had to download the pictures and email them to the helicopter people. Unfortunately, we were in Robinson, so technology failed us. Every technological device we had malfunctioned in some way. The process became overly complicated. We finally got it accomplished, and I went to sleep and Rob went to see Andy. Friday, Rob had to do more helicopter stuff, then came home to work on the deck with Bill. They studied and figured and scratched their heads. Darra and I went to Wal-Mart. Bill took a break and Rob went fishing. They must have figured out the way they wanted it to go, because they started in working. Saturday morning, they started in bright and early (around 9). I didn't do a while lot because Ally would just get in their way. The grandparents came out around 11 though and kept her occupied. I started helping carry boards around. They started Ally swinging, and she fell asleep, so I got to work a while. Rob and I quit around 2 so we could go over to one of Darron's benefits. It was pretty lame, but I think they raised quite a bit of money. Bill and Brad finished the supports for the deck while we were gone, so when we got back, Bill was ready to relax for dinner. We had plans to meet Andy later, and Bob was coming into town for supper. Darra and Bill took Ally and went to supper, leaving us to wait for Bob to get to town. We had almost an hour of quiet (not rushing around everywhere) to ourselves without the baby. Sunday, Rob helped put the decking on the top. We went to visit Bob and Glinda at the grandparents for a little while. That evening, we went to the bowling benefit for a little bit, then to dinner, gave the baby back to Darra and Bill again, went back to the benefit to bowl a game then got the baby and left town. My back hurts from riding in the car all weekend. Rob's legs hurt from driving. But, it was good to see everyone, and we (mostly Rob) helped Bill a lot with the deck - which was the main point.

road trips
Ally did really well on the road this weekend. On Thursday afternoon, we left at naptime for G'ma Darra's house in Robinson. She slept almost the whole way down. She road around in the car quite a bit while we were there (out to lunch, in town to see great-grandparents, back to Dara's, to the store, etc), so she got tired of getting in the car. But, we'd tell her where we were going, and she usually calmed down. We waited to leave until Sunday night so she could sleep all the way back too. For once, that actually went according to plan. Ally fell asleep a little after 9 and when we got home at 11:30 she was still sleeping.

Red Lobster
Rob has been trying to get Ally to eat croutons forever, but she just sakes her head no at him. Last night we went to Red Lobster for supper. When we got our salads, Ally reached over calm as can be and stole a crouton and ate it. We were all shocked.

Part of my meal was popcorn shrimp, and she actually ate some of them when I offered it to her. That's not too shocking, becuase they are breaded, and the only meat she eats is breaded. What was shicking was when she pulled the breading off and ate the shrimp by itself!!! I wonder it we can duplicate that?

pool swimming
We went swimming last night in Gma Darra's ppol at the hotel. It was a little chilly, but Ally had a good time. The Crowne Plaza pool has the hot tub right next to it, so you can sit on the ledge with your feet in the pool, or turn around and your feet are in the hot tub. Ally liked that a lot. She also liked to climb out the steps, walk around to the other side of the railing, and "jump" off the ledge to someone's arms. The only problem we had with that was that she wouldn't climb the stairs right. She'd hold onto our fingers with both hands, put both feet on the stairs, then relax (or even lean back). That meant we had to lift her til she was vertical again, then she'd do it on the next step too.

She loves it when someone goes under water then pops back up.

bathtub swimming
Lately Ally has been sliding down on her belly in the bathtub to "swim". She kicks her legs and grins. I've had to start putting less water in the tub so she doesn't get it in her nose. She slid down one day when there was too much water in, and wasn't all that excited about it. She reminded me of a dog smelling snow for the first time. She slid down, got water on her nose, straightened up a little, blow out her nose a little, slid down again, got water up her nose, and then sat up and gave up on it all. But, I let some water out and she laid right down and "went swimming".

sandbox
Ally thinks it's great fun to pour sand all over me. I always end up just as dirty as she does and I'm not in the sandbox. She gets 2 shovels going at a time. She pours the sand from 1 into the other (and loses half of it) then pours what's left on my leg. She likes to pur it on her own leg too. i always have to be careful when I take her shoes off at home. They almost always go outside to play at day care, so her shoes are always filled with sand. I forgot that yesterday at the Dr office, and pulled her shoe off and sent sand flying everywhere.

sleeping
Ally only woke up once last night, and went back to bed rather easily. I wish that wasn't a cause for celebrating. I wish she'd just give it up and sleep.

18 month checkup
Ally had her 18 month checkup today. I scheduled it so that I could pick her up right after lunch and get her back right around nap time. Usually, I get her back around lunchtime, and she falls asleep on the way. Then we have to coax her awake to eat lunch. When I got to day care, she was mostly finished with lunch, but had 1 fish star left. I told her we were going, so she grabbed it and slid off her chair. We got to the Dr office, and she had little pieces of fish breading everywhere. The Dr says everything is fine. She's 45% weight and height (25 lb and 31 3/4 in) for her age. She got 2 shots given by the nurse I like. Last time she got shots, the nurse was terrible. Ally still has a lump in her thigh from one. (The Dr said it's not standard, but not uncommon. He said it's soap. Basically the fat in her thigh reacted to the vaccine liquid and solidified like soap. Reminded me of Fight Club. It should go away within the next couple years, but might not ever. Strange. That nurse will never come near Ally with a needle again.) This time, Ally started crying, but basically got over it when I opened the door and told her we were leaving. She walked out with me and got mad when I wouldn't let her leave through the fire exit. Then, of course, she didn't fall asleep on the way back to day care for the first time ever. She cried and cried when I left her.

screaming
I feel like screaming. Ally screamed most of the night instead of sleeping. I'm going to lose my mind. She lays down and goes to sleep on her own with no problem whatsoever. Why can't she go back to sleep on her own in the middle of the night when she wakes up???

G'pa Bob and G'ma Glinda
Ally had visitors today. Gma and Gpa came over for lunch and played in the yard. We threw her slide in the little pool and let her play. Ally was asleep when they arrived, and took a long time to wake up. She was acting shy all day until right when they were leaving. the little stinker. She hardly said a word the whole time they were there but talked her head off the rest of the night. She had fruit and 6!!! nuggets for dinner.

G'ma Jan
We went for dinner at my Mom's house. Ally sat all by herself at a little folding table and chairs (that we just learned have been recalled) for her lunch. She played and ran around with the girls for a while and just generally visited. She discovered the guinea pig and loved to pet him/her(?). The day was pretty laid-back. She took a long nap when we got home. After, we took a walk. She loves stroller rides, and Rob and I need to walk our butts off. literally.

Haircut
I took Ally to get her first professional haircut today. She quit letting me put in ponytails a little over a month ago for some reason. I could fight with her to make her let me, but then, as soon as I'm looking the other way, she pulls them out. So, I gave up. Without being able to pull it up, I can't keep it out of her eyes when the wind blows. The sides were too long. So I had them cut her bangs and taper the sides a little, so they won't blow in her eyes. Seemed to work. The wind didn't bother her at the park. I wasn't sure how she would react to the haircut, but she did pretty well. I tried to get her to sit by herself, but she wouldn't even think about it, so she stood on my lap (she wouldn't sit down at all). She was not thrilled about the bib they put on to catch the hair either, but she got distracted from whining about it when she hairdresser sprayed her head with water. Then, she just held real still. About halfway through it, she started to relax and slid down and sat for the rest of it. She didn't cry at all. I was so proud.

outside
We spent most of today outside. This morning, we went garage sale-ing and found a little bigger slide for Ally to play with. The only problem was that we sold our truck long ago. Luckily, one of my friends wasn't too terribly busy, and came to my rescue. So, we took it to the backyard and had some fun with the hose. Ally loves the sprayer on the garden hose. She sees Rob water the grass seed and tries to mimic him. She waves it around and is quite serious about it. First, we watered the grass again. Then I went in and got a bucket of warm soapy water and a rag to clean the new slide peices bfore reassembling. Ally thought that bucket looked like fun. She played a while in the bubbles, then for some reason went and got two shovels out of her sandbox. She used one to pour water into the other then carried them over and poured the water on the piece I was washing. I kept her entertained. Then she played on the slide for a while before nap. Later, we went to Lincoln Park to play. She ran around for over an hour and generally tired herself out. She's sleeping now. Hope it keeps up through the night!!

"Melmo"
Last Sunday was the day of no sleeping - no naps either. So I was desperate for something to keep her occupied. I popped in the Elmo in Grouchland DVD, and she loved it. She sat still for a whole 20 minutes. She especially likes it when Bert and Ernie "stop" the movie. Bert is worried for Elmo, and Ernie reassures him that he'll be ok. She danced along to the songs too. When Rob got home Monday or Tuesday, I made the mistake of showing him the DVD case. She saw it and we had to watch it again. Tonight, Rob moved it or something, and she insisted on watching it again. She wandered around the room with the remote trying to get it to work and chanting "Melmo", so we turned it on. She got bored after a while, so we flipped it off and went to take a bath. Afterwards, I put Elmo pajamas on her, and renewed her interest. She was bound and determined to use the remote to find "Melmo". She didn't believe us when we told her Elmo went night-night.

arguing with an 18 month old...
... is like talking to a brick wall. Rob was eating banana slices dipped in peanut butter tonight. Ally was eating a blueberry muffin. She decided his looked better. He gave her a piece of banana with a little bit of PB on it, and she promptly sucked it off. Then she offered him the banana to put some more on. Rob tried to convince her that she had to eat the banana first then, he'd give her another one. She understands this logic. She follows directions when we tell her to do something she wants to do. She acted like Rob just didn't understand what she was saying, so she had better explain it again. If she could talk, the conversation would have went something like this:

Rob: Ally eat your banana first then you can have some more.
Ally: Yeah, "more" that's what I was just telling you - I want some more.
Rob: Ally, you can't have more peanut butter until you eat what you've got.
Ally: But here, I'll give this one back. I really wanted the one with peanut butter on it anyway.
Rob: Take a bite
Ally: Well, maybe if I put it near my mouth, I can fool him.

and so on. I couldn't help but laugh. She was so earnest in her protesting.

Cookout
The annual family cookout is looming... We were thinking of July 16th or 17th. Does anyone have any conflicts for that weekend? Would Saturday or Sunday be best? Let me know... I'd like to get some respomses, so I know if the date would work out or if we should pick another one.